Sustainable Resistance

It’s easy to lift up protest as the answer right now. And a sustained protest movement, one that doesn’t just turn out once but floods the streets again and again and halts business as usual, could be crucial at this moment. But, even if that movement manifests, **not everyone can be out marching. And not everyone should be.

There are countless other roles and responsibilities for us to take on in the fight against fascism. Here are ten of the countless options. Jump in where you fit in, because this struggle will take all of us doing what we can.

Protest art – Art sparks change and raises awareness. We know things are bad right now, but millions of people have no idea what to do about it. Revolutionary art straddles the border with propaganda, informing people and rallying them to the banner of transformation. Revolutionary art also opens the door to new possibilities, new ways of being and new ways of struggle. The old tools, the old stories, the old paths have failed us, and we need artists to help light a new way right now more than ever.
ICE alert – ICE has been swooping in and kidnapping parents, children, and friends for no reason other than their ethnicity. These people are increasingly disappearing to El Salvador without any process. **We must get together to resist these abductions, and with your community you can be on guard for ICE. ** Community organizations may offer training to spot these agents, even when they don’t want to be spotted, and we can create networks to alert the more vulnerable among us. We can also show up, record, and ultimately gather the numbers to block the kidnapping of our neighbors.
Contacting and pressuring Representatives – Anyone can call Congress. And those of us who are able to show up to the halls of power to demand more should. As we’ve seen in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Senator Chris Van Hollen went to El Salvador to meet with him, and ultimately secured his release from Bukele’s mega-prison camp. In the wake of that visit other members of Congress have gone both to El Salvador and to detention facilities within the United States to visit people who were kidnapped by the state. We can’t count on Congress to save us, but we can use every avenue to pressure them to use their power rather than leaving cards on the table.
Childcare organizing – We need to help each other care for one another, and that includes our children. In communities across the country people are finding creative ways, based on relationships and networks of trust, to provide more childcare for their neighbors. The cost of conventional child care has become prohibitive for some people, and although networks of neighbors might not fully replace the dominant model and enable us to return to older methods of communally caring after children, we can at least begin by supplementing the dominant model to begin with. This frees people up to organize, to take action, and simply to be less burdened by the exorbitant costs of child care.
BDS and other boycotts – Targeted boycotts are a way to use the economic power we do have. We know the impact the boycott and divestment movement had on helping bring down apartheid South Africa, and millions of people have implemented these tactics against the genocidal apartheid state of Israel over the last year and a half. Right now we’re also witnessing people, led by the Black community, have a real impact on Target’s bottom line through a tightly targeted boycott. Withholding funds is an act anyone can participate in, and as these efforts grow more focused and organized they can have tremendous impacts.
Local politics and organizing – This category is broad, but that means that there are countless ways to get involved. If you can’t protest, you can still run for office or volunteer in your local political arena. Especially in this moment where federal politics is a disaster and where having any sort of effect in the national arena seems impossible, local politics present countless opportunities. You can run for school boards, run for library board, help get good people elected to city council and more. At the local level you can have an impact directly. You can also bolster local defenses against fascism at this level, and be part of the growing tide of resistance and change.
Political education – This option also can manifest in countless ways. People organize panels and events at local libraries and community centers, turning them into places where people not only gather but gain the tools and knowledge to move us toward system change. Local organizations are most likely already putting on some of these workshops and panels and more, and they always appreciate volunteers and co-conspirators. But there’s also always room for fresh events, book clubs, seminars in the park as the weather gets good and more. We have a lot to learn, and the best way to learn is in community.
Non-carceral response teams – This is a big project, but one that people around the country are diligently working to move forward. We need to take care of each other now more than ever, and one profound way to do that is to** develop non-police responses to emergencies in your community. This won’t happen overnight, but community safety teams are already being implemented, and over time with diligence and deep relationship building and growing teams of participants we can increasingly outsource the response duties of police to neighbors. In this shift **we reduce both the risk of police violence and the odds that members of our community will end up behind bars.
Push institutions to fight the right – Right now our institutions need to organize. Whether it’s colleges or local governments and community organizations, we can’t afford to have the people in charge bending to the right. Fascists will pressure them on DEI, immigration, queer and gender issues and more. Some institutions cave, but mass public pressure, and the clear message that we will not bow to fascists can help them grow a spine and advocate for what’s right.
Quietly build power – Ultimately, we must steadily build the power to fight the far-right and to create systemic change. A lot of this won’t be sexy. It’ll involve countless meetings, countless conversations, door-knocking and phone banking and more. We must be diligent and deliberate about building our capacity. When the time for mass protest, sustained protest does come, it is the unglamorous work of bringing people together, of organizing one another into formations that can actually wield power that will determine if the protests are effective. A one-off event here and there can send a message, but the real question is how we plug into the day-in and day-out work of organizing and building. Find your niche, find your spot, and play the part you are able and suited to play. We need you.