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INTERFOR·5TO� LUbulNb s RC :::TWORK GREAT [ORST FOREST Given the conversations and camouflage throughout the com pound, a stranger wandering through these Montana woods might think she had wandered into a survivalist training camp. All around, folks are talking tactics and civil rights and railing against the evil of the federal government. But a quick survey reveals a handful of young people with dreadlocks, nose rings and tattoos learning to climb trees with modified rock-climbing equip ment. Meanwhile fleece-clad yuppie types and older, tie-dyed idealists sit on the forest floor discussing ways to convince the media that environmentalists-from animal rights defenders to urban toxic activists-mean serious business. Welcome to the Ruckus Society's Action Camp, a six-day program that trains budding activists in tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience. Founded in 1995 by Mike Roselle, who helped launch Earth First!, and for mer Greenpeace direct action coordinator Howard "Twilly" Cannon, Ruckus has set out to revive a dying breed. "The old dogs didn't want to get in the road and get arrested any more," Cannon says, "and the young people just didn't have the skills." Providing those skills, which range from hanging banners on buildings to speaking intelligently with reporters about the issues at hand, has been the Ruckus Society's raison d'etre since the beginning. Putting on the camps takes most of the group's energy. Raising funds (to the tune of $100,000 in 1997) takes the rest. The camps are wildly popular, with up to five activists applying for each of the 200 or so available spots. Program director Donna Parker estimates that Ruckus has trained nearly 600 activists. As word about Ruckus spreads nationally, catching the attention of celebrities such as Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch and actor Woody Harrelson (who was arrest ed on the Golden Gate Bridge in 1996 at a demonstration partly orga nized by Ruckus) the organization is shedding light on various cam paigns. Case in point: National Action Camp '97 was staged in North Carolina to call attention to the increased chipmilling of American timber. These tactics are part of Ruckus's effort to be heard in today's sound-bite laden world of spot news. "A lot of modern, non-violent direct action is like performance art," Cannon says, explaining that much of Ruckus' training focuses on packaging the message for the media. As for the future, Cannon is looking forward to taking the train ing program global, beginning with the Philippines where grassroots activists have asked the society to teach them how to raise a ruckus. -Dan Oko INl Ruckus helped the Nuxalk Indians battle logging in 1995.