In the face of economic, social, and ecological breakdown, the inevitable transition is comming. And what it requires from us is beyond the realms of 'activism'.

https://youtu.be/ffNtydjlgZY

The Rules collective takes you on a journey through ten years of crisis and ten years of resistances featuring leading voices in the global justice movement including Ladonna Bravebull (Standing Rock), Eve Ensler (One Billion Rising), Tiokasin Ghosthorse (First Voices Indigenous Radio), Rajagopal P.V. (Ekta Parishad), Helena Norberg-Hodge (Local Futures), Anuradha Mittal (Oakland Institute), Firoze Manji (activist scholar), Astra Tayler (Debt Collective), Ashish Khotari (Global Tapestry of Alternatives), Carne Ross, (Independent Diplomats), Sabine Lichtnefels (Tamera), Gail Bradbrook (Extinction Rebellion), Kumi Naidoo (Amnesty International), Reverend Billy & Savitri D (The Church of Stop Shopping) and others.

The Rules is no more. When The Rules (TR) was formed in 2011, we knew we wanted to focus on a specific challenge, and not to have an organisation that exists for its own sake. In 2015 this instinct solidified into a firm close down date of December, 2019. We hoped that living for a time-bound period would free us from preconceived structures of how we work, play and make trouble together; that it would enable us to develop creative and nimble configurations, and empower us to respond in fresh and relevant ways to the troubles of our time.

If you’re reading this, it means that you have stuck with us through to the end. Thank you!

It’s been an incredible journey. In 2011 we knew everything we didn’t want to do and very little about what we did. With this community’s help, input and feedback, we say goodbye to this organisational structure, confident and grateful that we contributed to the struggle in important ways. The narrative campaigning model we have developed together has been, and will continue to be used in social justice movements around the world.

For a brief flavour of all the ways the world has changed in this time, we are leaving this documentary behind.

We are also publishing a set of tools and case studies that we will continue to use as individual narrative practitioners, and we encourage others to explore, use and make their own.

• A method and practical toolkit for narrative campaigning.
• A number of case studies on how TR campaigns were designed and run.
• A media archive of many articles and videos we published over the years.
• An FAQ explaining everything from why we were originally formed to why we chose to die as and when we did.

The discussions on our Facebook page will continue as a forum to discuss the inevitable transition to new systems and ways of life on this planet.

And finally, one of the hopes for our decision to let TR die in this way was that new constellations and forms would emerge to carry the work forward in fresh, innovative ways. This, to our great joy, is happening already. The first of these new forms is Culture Hack Labs, a cooperatively run consultancy supporting social movements in creating new narrative spaces.

As we value privacy and transparency, please know that this email data will be destroyed. If you want to keep updated on what some of the TR collective are doing next, please sign up to the Culture Hack Labs newsletter.

Thank you again, for staying with us on this journey, and for the incredible work being done all around the world to help usher in post-capitalist realities for a world in crisis.

With deep love, gratitude and solidarity,

Alnoor, Anastasia, Anasuya, Ashima, Blessol, Fede, Felipe, Jason, Liz, Lucy, Martin, Mehul, Paloma, Sarah, and Valentina.