Democracy Rising

Democracy Rising was an organization founded in 2001 to oppose corporate corruption and later morphed into an organization opposed to the military actions of the United States against Iraq and, after the Iraq War, to promote an exit strategy to end the occupation of Iraq.

Originally consisting of three volunteers, Jason Kafoury (National Coordinator), Matthew Zawisky (National Organizer), and Richard Martin (National Operations Manager and Web Administrator), it collaboratively organized stadium and smaller sized manifestations called "Super Rallies" across the Eastern United States (Tampa, Florida, Wall Street, New York, Buffalo, New York, Trenton, New Jersey, and others) under the umbrella of a 501 (c)(4) non-profit organization (US Federal EIN # 54-2043043) originally founded by Ralph Nader. Focusing on corporate corruption during the run up and aftershock of the Enron debacle, it eventually merged into an anti-war group led by Kevin Zeese following the 2004 elections. At that time, it changed its website domain from a "democracyrising.org" to "democracyrising.us".

It was then that it became a member of United for Peace and Justice. Its web site contained Ralph Nader's interactive blog as well as one by Kevin Zeese, director of the organization and a 2006 U.S. Senate candidate in Maryland. The organization folded in late 2007.

External links

• November 2002 democracyrising.org web site from Archive.org
• October 2007 DemocracyRising.US web site from Archive.org
• Protesting Capitalism on Wall Street- October 7th, 2002 from TheNation.com
• Failed re-election candidate may seek Green Party presidential nomination September 12th, 2002 from OnlineAthens.com
• Greens to Run Presidential Candidate in 2004, But Who? July, 2002 from baltimorechronicle.com
• How Nader made me an anarchist August 7th, 2001 from Indymedia.org
• Ralph Nader Democracy Rising Rallies 2001-2003 from GWU.edu