1d ago

Can we talk organizing? Historic resistance movements? Tips? Tricks? Thoughts?

I've been thinking about this a lot recently. I'm sure a lot of you have. For my part, I've been finally writing down my political experience, what I saw, etc...in a way that I think might be able to move some people on the right. But I also agree with this post. People always talk/write, etc...and rarely actually take action.

So, with that in mind, can we talk about what that looks like? Very specifically?

I suppose I'm hoping we can go a step beyond "go protest," having unanimously agreed that we should all be out en masse to make it clear we're pissed about...well...kinda everything.

But this is a fairly radical bunch. So, what do you all know about this? What concrete advice/tips/plans/ideas can we dumbass individual Americans learn from historic examples, political movements, etc...? Indeed, one of those questions might be: is this even the place to talk about this? If not, where? Does that already exist somewhere in the aether out there? Communications is always an interesting to me (I've wondered whether something like LoRa could be useful to setup in my area).

If I want to start a group locally, are there things I should think about? Practical tips beyond "talk to everyone you know?" Books to read? Etc...? Even if you get a group, it's easy for it to mean nothing. How do you make it not mean nothing?

28 comments

You may like the book Why Civil Resistance Works by Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan. It includes three indepth cases studies of tactics used by resistance movements.
- Yes, perfect, thank you!

In the US, you have a second amendment right to have a firearm. Most states, even blue ones, allow open carry of rifles and long guns provided that you follow certain rules (i.e. no pointing them at other people, keep them unloaded, etc). That is to say, in many states, you are perfectly within your rights to open carry a long gun at a peaceful protest. And if a bunch of your friends bring long guns, well, hey, that's legal too! And hey, if a whole lot of people at the protest have guns with them when the cops decide they want to be fucking dicks, well, then I guess that's one of the decisions they were free to make.
For reference of how open carry at protests can weigh on how the authorities respond, see the documentary Winter on Fire.
Also, you don't have to start crazy, going to big huge protests hundreds of miles away. Start out easy, go to some city council and county supervisor meetings and speak publicly about what you think is important. You'll meet other people there and have a chance to network and organize with them, and make connections to bigger movements that way.

Well the first step for a lot of people on lemmy: dispense with the notion that you’ll have some beautiful, massive “general strike.” People romanticize them because of what they’ve seen in textbooks and historical photography. The vast majority have been abject failures and the organizing infrastructure isn’t there. And with the way things are right now most people are just sitting around waiting for everyone else to get to work so that they can take their cue to go out on the streets. That doesn’t work. A general strike requires organization and participation from massive national and regional unions. UAW seems to be cooking up something that’s worth keeping tabs on, but they have definitely not launched anything yet.
Effective organization requires sustained and expanding action. You have to find a group that is doing good work and help them grow, usually this requires drumming up donations which is never sexy but is always critical. If you’re looking for some “action” then you need to help a small group of people unionize at a single brick and mortar location with a larger organization above you helping y’all financially. It takes a lot of fucking work to do this stuff lol but it’s worth it!
- Great thoughts, thanks.

I'm a software developer. I've done a bunch of volunteering with protest/political groups. They rarely need my software skills
Instead: join a group, listen, figure out what they need, and do that.
Are they bad at organizing? Take minutes and set dates.
Are they trying to take donations? Offer to set up the bank account and track expenses.
Do they need a place to meet? Offer to schedule a room at the local library.

Find people in your area. Do tangible organizational things in real life.
Don't waste time making solutions in search of problems. Some doodad isn't going to help anyone. Nobody is wiring up an arduino lora whatever gadget. 'B-but just buy the modules and conn...' Stop. It's useless. Doesn't help anyone. No on is fidgeting with an Arduino sketch and some antenna wires and checking the 18650 battery while trying send packets to a guy over there. None of this matters when you're all getting pepper sprayed with boots on your neck.
You can pull out the RF gear when the nukes have sent us back to the stone age.
- I think you're right. Good call. I shouldn't have even mentioned the LoRa thing. It's one of those romantic notions I've had in the back of my head and I don't even know enough about it to suggest it as a practical solution to anything, much less here. I guess I was just getting at, "ARE there communications tools/platforms/organizational structures worth considering for an effort of this sort?"
  Probably should have asked that instead of, "How to La Resistance!?"
  
  I think it's still a valid question if you frame it along the lines of "something useful at protests, but also in everyday peaceful life".
  Meshtastic LoRa is worth looking into if you're going to protests with friends/family/cohorts. You can get a waterproof, GPS enabled, credit-card sized module with multi-day battery life and no flashing required for $35 (T1000-E). That's specifically because it can also be used when hiking, going to festivals, or just for fun.
  I was just at a Mardi Gras parade and text messages couldn't go through due to network congestion from too many people. With a couple of meshtastic devices our phones could still text each other and see our GPS positions on a map. All with encryption enabled.

Your post will probably get removed. You may want to go look at !Resist@fedia.io instead. There's a sticky post there with useful links too. Personally I favor https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/ because they're organized locally and perform targeted demonstrations e.g. to get a specific congressional rep to act a certain way.
- Thanks for the heads-up, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for/hoping people will mention here. It's a little bit ironic that the first big issue of the post is, "Wait, that's not allowed here!" But that's exactly one of my points. Say I decide to just organize a rally. I have some relevant experience, but in the past, I would be using Facebook/Twitter, etc... That seems potentially ill-advised here. It feels like some forethought about structuring the thing is worthwhile, before just "planning a big protest/rally." That is not really a whole lot in and of itself, in my view, unless you have a plan for, "Okay, but then what? What's next?"
  
  Well there are two issues there.
  First, where's the right place to organize? This community has decided to not focus on politics, and instead direct people to !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world and !askusa@discuss.online which is fair enough.
  Second, what can we do that is more than just a big protest/rally? There are plenty of organizations that do important work but a lot of progress isn't big and flashy enough to make the news. The 50501 demonstrations came about in part because people felt not enough was being done and wanted something bigger and flashier, and several organizations went to the 50501 demonstrations to offer "next steps." But to answer the question "what can we do?": find an organization that does more than just demonstrate, i.e. maybe they pressure congressional reps., maybe they focus on state- or city-level policy, maybe they support legal challenges, maybe they help protect vulnerable communities, etc.

There's all sorts of action that we can take, but the challenges in prescribing a national plan of action is simply too much without a national organizing committee. One of the most important aspects of successful mass movements requires the participation of labor/unions. That's why, when asked a question like this, I always start by recommending that you form a union at your workplace. Organizing is a skill just like any other, and you can develop it by actively learning in a real campaign. It will give you the toolset and connections necessary to learn how to start political and community organizing. CWA offers a union organizer course every weekend, which is a fantastic starting point to learn how it's done.
- Thanks for linking to an actual resource. That's cool and I'll check it out.

Number 1 priority: secure communications. Always assume that every single letter you send that isn't end to end encrypted WILL be read by your adversary.
USA already reached "TIA"(total informational awareness) around 2013, cfr. Snowden leaks.
One can only assume that they have since gained the ability to decypher and map all communications sent over the clearnet bar none. Disregard this advice at your own peril.
- For a small group that isn't planning to break laws, this can be a pain in the butt. If the group is organizing a public protest or boycott, this is a barrier to entry for other participants.
  An alternative is open communications: as a group, agree not to break any laws, agree not to joke about breaking laws, and then use whatever works for everybody.
  If you are planning to break laws, give'r.
  
  This is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. To generalize: you can post an event on Facebook/X. You can post it on Lemmy. You can post it on Signal and be totally invite-only.
  Sort of different "levels," each with pros/cons, the most "secure" level being the most-difficult to grow.

I've been reading quite a bit on the history of tax revolt. Safer than taking to the streets or outgrown a mass strike. Has a direct impact on the federal government if a relatively small percentage of citizens participate. Add in how the current administration has kicked the IRS in the teeth and reduced their numbers. I bought some domains to put information up that people can share with others. I'm hoping it might have some impact. I feel desperately that I have to try SOMETHING, as it's clear that the "guardrails" that are supposed to protect us don't seem to exist anymore.
- Got any specific sources you can recommend?

Join a union if you haven't already. This is the absolute best way to meet organised activists.

@rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Couldn't be more correct. The absolute best thing you can do is create a support group around yourself, and the best/easiest way to do that is unionizing. Your coworkers are people who you relate to and have similar issues with - same asshole boss, same shitty workplace, similar shitty wages. You don't have to be friends, but you do need to be teammates and stand together against people who want to prevent you from working together both at and outside of work.

I have been thinking about this too. I cant say i know much but what keeps coming to my head about this is you need to have at least one friend/acquittance who thinks the same way and willing to start that group with you. If there are 2 of you its already a group and its much easier to do things and think about what to do next.
Protests should be considered mostly as a way of finding likeminded people instead of thinking they might change something. They might, but probably not. Still its worth it do them even if they dont seem to affect much. They show others there are people who care too.
To make such group mean something you really need to think what you ultimately want to achieve and how you should do it. Just demonstrating to other people that there are those willing to take action should do something. Just be smart about what you do and consider how your actions might affect the response so you are always prepared for consequences which will inevitably come if you manage to do do anything meaningful. So have a plan on how to stay safe and hidden and what to do if that fails so your group cant be easily crushed. Nowdays staying hidden is in another world compared to the historic movements, with how surveillance has advanced. So definitely try to get people aboard who know a lot about computers if you can.
Though there is always the route of trying to do stuff that doesnt cause hostile reaction from the authorities. Less danger but that is also playing by their rules and will have less impact unless you know what you are doing. Though no matter what approach one chooses, i think thinking outside the box is the key about finding what to do that works.
At least this is what comes to my mind about this, I cant say I have any experience about it though. Hopefully someone else knows better. I have been thinking about this too occasionally.

Adam conover had a video recently. Skip to the 2/3 part. Basically, Find a group - EV's, nature, puppies, w/e. Talk to them. Show up somewhere. Yell a lot.

How does this post not contravene rule #6? Is there any moderation here?
Seriously, it's a good subject but there must be a more appropriate place for it.
- Organizing resistance to oppression applies in any country, not just the US
- Indeed, one of those questions might be: is this even the place to talk about this? If not, where? Does that already exist somewhere in the aether out there?
  That's why I said this. It may well break the rules, but...that does feel a little fitting, I guess. I'll consider it my first act of sticking it to the man.

28 comments