We Are Stronger Than We Think
Also catalogued elsewhere
The Trump-Musk administration is pushing authoritarian control and targeting vulnerable communities, which threatens our freedoms. History shows that organized nonviolent resistance can effectively combat such tyranny. Building broad alliances and engaging in acts of defiance will be crucial for protecting our rights and fostering community strength.
Like all autocrats, Trump and his oligarchic henchmen are trying to overwhelm, disorient and distract.
They rely on workers’ labor, business revenue, civil servants implementing policies, religious leaders offering moral and organizational backing, and police and military obeying orders to arrest and repress. Support can be given, and support can be taken away.
a wide range of nonviolent tactics, including those grounded in love, humor and hope, all while engaging in collective defiance and remaining resilient and disciplined.
Organized noncooperation, which involves withdrawing social, political and economic support from autocratic regimes via strikes, boycotts, walkouts and other forms of collective stubbornness, has been critical to the victories of pro-democracy movements.
Tags: prac/organising
Backfire methods often include elements of joy, humor and love, creating pathways to build a broader “we.”
these tactics are designed to draw on community power to decrease support for autocrats and increase community strength and resilience.
Reclaiming agency in defining the terrain of struggle away from repressive control and towards individual and community empowerment is key to building and maintaining momentum, as well as hope.
one thing that is clear from the global experience of challenging authoritarianism is that building the relational infrastructure for mass mobilization and noncooperation is critically important, as is training people for that eventuality.
Organizing strategies that allow Republican officials and other Trump supporters to save face while standing up against the cruel and destructive overreach will be essential to building a broad front to combat this authoritarian take over.
Doubling down on training and organizing that is accessible for all parts of society to participate in creative nonviolent action, including mass noncooperation, will build strength, solidarity and harness the energy necessary to not only defeat authoritarianism but to reimagine beloved community for the next generation.