Strategy and Tactics for the Burgeoning Resistance
The wide mix of acts of resistance over the past week have made it clear that there is and will be widespread resistance to the Trump/MAGA regressive, racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic and pro-billionaire plans, There have been actions in the streets in DC and all over the country. Congressional Democrats are speaking up, filibustering and organizing town meetings. Numerous creative social media postings have helped to keep up people’s morale. Rachel Maddow on MSNBC five nights a week is playing an important role as have other TV/podcast/written reports and commentaries. And there have been a number of federal court filings, a few of which have already led to positive, initial judicial decisions.
Here are my thoughts on an overall strategy and the tactics we should be prioritizing as we keep building the mass US resistance movement which has burst into public view during the first week of February.
Strategy: On a national level we are on the defensive; that has to be our starting point. We can win some victories over the next two years, even some big ones, at local and state levels, but it’s unrealistic to expect we can make major advances at the federal level given Trump/MAGA/billionaire dominance of the executive and congressional branches of government and a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. Our overall strategy must be one of making as many advances as we can on local and state levels while preventing as much damage as possible to the primary MAGA targets: US democracy, human and civil rights, including internationally, organized labor and programs that benefit low- and moderate-income working people, and the natural environment on which all life depends.
Tactics: I see five areas where we as a movement of movements need to be focused during these difficult years: street heat–local/state/federal government—courts—media and publicity—outreach.
Street heat: This is essential. Visibility is needed to strengthen morale and attract others to our resistance movement. Well-organized and/or big demonstrations can also have an impact on elected officials, judges and masses of people, including some who voted for Trump. Some people will be challenged, appreciative or moved to consider the issue(s) being addressed because of street heat and demonstrative actions.
Local/state/federal government: I’m very close to people who are big on calling or emailing elected officials at all levels of government to urge them to do the right thing. Honestly, this isn’t the form of action that I’m really into. However, the Associated Press reported a few days ago that there have been so many calls to Congress that phone systems in individual offices are overwhelmed. WE NEED TO KEEP THIS UP. Just as mass demos/street heat have an impact, there are numerous examples over the years of massive calls to Congress preventing or advancing legislation and motivating Senators and House members to be more outspoken about the immediate issue. This pressure is undoubtedly primarily responsible for Senate and House Democrats stepping it up both in word and action (filibuster, organizing town meetings) this past week.
I’ve put on my calendar for the month of February making at least three calls each day to my Senators and House rep, practicing what I’m preaching.
Courts: Without a judicial system which is charged with upholding the US Constitution (which includes the Bill of Rights and amendments prohibiting slavery, etc.), our chances for winning victories on the way to ultimately isolating and overcoming the MAGA’s would be much less. And that’s still true with the 6-3 dominance of conservatives, not all of them MAGA conservatives, however, on the Supreme Court.
Court cases usually take time, often a lot of it. When you are out of power and on the defensive legislatively and dealing with executive orders, this is helpful. Federal district court and court of appeals rulings are often good ones on many issues. These decisions can have political impacts, strengthen support for the positions our progressive movements are taking. And when the legal and extra-legal repression comes down from the Trumpists and MAGA, as it inevitably will, the courts are critical.
Media and publicity: Elon Musk may have his X, Fox News is what it is, and there are many other ways that the ultra-rightists can connect with each other and try to confuse masses of people about what is true and false, but there’s no question that we have our own ways to communicate and spread the truth. And there are non-electronic ways to communicate, like by mass in-person leafletting, draping banners over major highways or wheat-pasting posters, or doing multi-day or multi-week walks along the side of well-traveled roads and through towns and cities. Groups can organize community teach-ins and public meetings in churches, civic centers, universities, etc. Where there is a will to get out the word, there are definitely ways.
Outreach: Finally, it is not enough for us to do all of the above with only those who are already critical of Trump (half or a little more of the country, likely to grow as the MAGA policies do their damage). We need to do outreach to and with these many tens of millions, for sure, but we also need to look for opportunities or make specific organizing plans to interact with Trump voters, including in rural areas, and voters who didn’t vote because they’re turned off to both parties. I know from personal experience doing canvassing to defeat Trump last fall in eastern Pennsylvania that many of these folks have strong feelings, for example, about the dominance of the US economy by billionaires and the growing class divide. Another example is the opposition among many conservative landowners to oil, gas and CO2 pipeline companies being allowed by governments to use eminent domain to take their land. And there are other examples.
White male progressives have a particular responsibility to look for ways to have these discussions and interactions. Serious anti-racist/sexist/heterosexist practice must include a willingness/commitment to do this work. In my Burglar for Peace book I wrote about it this way: “It is critical that whites organizing whites take up the economic, health care, education or other issues impacting predominantly white communities, to show that they are concerned about all forms of inequality and want a just society for everyone. A good organizer knows that you need to start with people where they are, make connections on the basis of issues, experiences or other things held in common. As those connections are made, as people get to know and respect the organizer, they are more willing to listen and think about constructive criticism from her/him or ideas other than those they are ordinarily exposed to.” (p. 192)
Our situation is in no way hopeless. Trump is being called out publicly, like in a Wall Street Journal editorial last week, as “dumb,” which he is. His Canada and Mexico tariff proposals were pulled back one day after he made them, not exactly a way of leading that inspires confidence among followers. His insane proposal standing next to Netanyahu to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians was met with open disbelief by numerous Republican Senators. He will continue to say and do things like this for as long as he is President, and it will probably get worse as his advanced age combined with his other mental problems weaken his “governing” facilities going forward.
The independent and progressive movement of movements can give the leadership needed to win this battle. Si, se puede!
Trump-Musk Coup Leads to Resistance in the Courts and in the Streets
Monday 10 February 2025, by Dan La Botz
President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have been on a rampage, closing government agencies, firing thousands of workers, and pressuring two million federal employees to resign, actions that threaten the well-being of millions of Americans—children, the elderly, the disabled, federal workers, and others who depend on the federal government. Their actions constitute an on-going technocratic coup from the top and from within the government itself, what in Latin America is called an auto-golpe (a coup against one’s own government) as Musk’s techies, mostly young men employed by him, effectively take control by commandeering the state’s computer systems. Trump’s assault has left the country in a state of shock and confusion.
At the same time though, only a month into his second term as president, Trump has galvanized a resistance in both the courts and on the streets. The resistance, still small and inchoate, is beginning to take on the characteristic of a mass popular movement.
Lawsuits brought in the federal courts have at least temporarily stopped Trump from carrying out all of his executive orders. A federal court stopped Trump from freezing billions of dollars in grants and loans. Another stopped Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing Treasury Department records. Yet another court has blocked Trump’s attempt to force federal employees into retirement. A court has also stopped him from ending birth-right citizenship. In some of these cases, Trump and Musk have failed to abide by court orders. Still the number of suits grows as students sue to stop DOGE’s takeover of the Education Department and unions bring suits to protect federal workers’ jobs.
Meanwhile tens of millions of Americans, 1,500 per minute, have been calling their representatives in Congress, completely overwhelming the congressional telephone system. They call to complain that their government jobs are threatened, that they have not received payments to their NGO, their company, or themselves, or calls simply to decry what Trump and Musk are doing to the country.
Out in the streets, tens of thousands protest Trump’s executive orders in cities across the country. Organized by a pop-up movement called 50501, meaning 50 demonstrations in 50 cities on one day. The protests, many of them at the state capitals, took place in at least 40 states, both Republican and Democratic, varying in size from a handful, to hundreds, to thousands and taking up a wide variety of particular issues, but also the big issue of attempt to impose an authoritarian oligarchic government that ignores democratic institutions. In one of the demonstrations a woman carried a sign that read, “This is a coup: Clash, Don’t Collaborate!”
In the largest demonstrations so far, thousands marched in Los Angeles to protest Trump’s deporting of immigrants, blocking streets and briefly paralyzing a major freeway. In New York City, thousands, among them a number of non-binary children and adolescents, gathered in Union Square to protest Trump’s attack on gender affirming care for trans children.
Some of these protests have been led by Democratic Party politicians, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren who headed up a group of legislators, federal employees, and common citizens demonstrating at the Treasury Department. Democratic lawmakers and government employees also led another in Washington, D.C. to protest the closing of USAID, the American aid and development agency.
Protestors of all ages, all genders, and all ethnicities carry signs reading: “Stop Musk.” “Stop Project 2025” (the Republican program) “Stop the Coup” and “Stop Fascism.” Others carried signs that said, “Christians, Love Thy Neighbor.” In some demonstrations protestors flew the American flag, the LGBTQ rainbow flag, the Mexican flag and the Palestinian flag. Will this become a movement of millions?
P.S.
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