How We Win

Last week I shared with you the little dream I have of us beating the state before it beats us. This, as a possibility, has occurred in no small part because of how fast things have progressed and how Trump has failed to capture the parts of society necessary to clamp down on resistance. It's also possible because a broad portion of US citizenry have shown they're not willing to put up with the abuses this administration is wreaking on people. Some of this pushback is coming, surprisingly enough, from within the state itself.

This means, rather inherently, that we do not have a perfect team ready to crush the fascists and lead the US into a non-hierarchical utopia, but we can't let perfect be the enemy of good. We can and should settle for beating fascism*. It does complicate our goal considerably, but it means that we have the opportunity to snuff out these particular fires in their "bonfire" stage rather than "burning acreage" maturity. I won't say infancy because, well, we know there's nothing young about American fascism, right?

Our goal remains, in the very short term, radicalization. Make your pops watch Andor. Give your cousins some Bookchin. Debate your poker night crew about the finite nature of the planet and how capitalism is an untenable system. Tell your barista about the Mine Wars and the MOVE bombing. We're building a big, big tent.

But there's much more to do than just radicalization. As someone who's been in the know for some time, you're uniquely positioned to flex expertise and help lead people, if you so choose, into action. And that's what I want to talk about today: the very first steps in organizing, locally, against the fascists in a way that cuts their legs out from under them nationally. It's not foolproof, but with numbers we don't need to be. This is how we fight while we grow our popular movement.

*What we have to hope is that we can smash the conditions that gave rise to fascism in this country, otherwise this other side will inevitably make it happen again.

Proof of Concept

Before we dive into particulars, I want to mention something that we truly don't get enough of here: actual good news. And I mention it not just because it's always, always, always funny to dunk on a billionaire, but because this happened through the work of people like you. Musk has backed away from his ridiculous work in DOGE because of public pressure. His stocks are tanking because people are burning up his dealerships and throwing cheese (look, it takes all kinds) on his cars. Sales have nosedived across the globe just as this prick thought he was ascending to the throne (and I kinda thought that might stick, admittedly). Now, he's maybe out of running Tesla? Beautiful.

To be serious about this, though; what y'all did, what everyone did, worked. The people berating him during a gaming livestream? That deflated him. Keying, spraypainting, cheesing, burning Teslas? Cost him money. The broader public stood up and protested his joke department's cutting of actual public works, and he backed away from the political sphere. It's not clean work, nor is it glorious, but it's also not violent (damaging objects isn't violence!). And it proves there is a way for us to fight these people without violence–though it is certainly not without risk*.

*and I'm definitely not saying violent means are illegitimate means. We're dancing on a razor's edge here and it may yet come to that.

What You Can Do

Beyond the radicalization of your friends and family and passersby, there is a lot we can be doing with what feels, to me, like minimal risk. It still demands being social, which is some lift, I know, but. I'm going to assume that you have been meeting with your group, keeping each other sane. Now you've got a mission. You're going to pick a small target, and you're going to fight it. This can be a person–a local politician, say–a hostile company, a Cop City monstrosity (though that's not so small), or what have you. The idea is that we pick something we're capable of defeating so that we can all achieve victory, which builds momentum, which becomes a movement, and then, well, the big R.

While there are considerable issues with the author and the book, Srdja Popovic's Blueprint for Revolution and the work of Otpor! serves as a real-world example of how you can help dismantle an authoritarian regime without being a whole ass army. It also instructs you on how to do so without getting your hands bloody (with blood you didn't bleed yourself). The book's principles aren't exactly new–they're applications of things we've known and things we've already done. But the book provides us with plenty of fodder if you're so inclined. FYI, also on my TBR pile are Black Flags and Windmills, Black Against the Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party, and Revolutionary Rehearsals in the Neoliberal Age. There is a lot for us to take away from the work the Black Panthers did–and if you wanted to simply start feeding kids breakfast, well, we know the good that can do in a community.

In the spirit of starting small, let's take a baby step straight from Otpor!. Find a symbol–not for your group, exactly, but not not. The raised fist is classic, of course, and you don't need to break the mold on this if you don't want to. But find a symbol, and so I'm not advocating breaking any laws here (that depends, actually), you're going to wheatpaste the fuck out of your neighborhood or your downtown or what have you with this symbol. Or, if you've already selected a target, go ahead and pop up some propaganda contra your opponent along with said symbol for extra credit.

This seemingly small gesture isn't, at all. It conveys, rather effortlessly, the idea that not only is there something to resist, but there are people resisting it–people you can join, rally around, embrace. And it does this in a way that's difficult for the state to fight against–not that it's hard to get rid of a poster, but it's time-consuming, and, critically, kind of embarrassing. You're thumbing your nose at the powers that be. A key idea from Otpor! and fights previous is that it's easy to humiliate a dictator, and it's hard for them to counter comedy. Use this to your advantage.

Next Week

We have a lot more to talk about when it comes to these acts of resistance. I don't want you to forget the other moving parts of the machine in the meantime, though. Last week saw Spain, Portugal, and Southern France experience a truly massive blackout. I don't think the cause has been definitively determined, but it's looking like an issue with Spain's infrastructure and its lack of compatibility with their renewables–Spain gets a lot of its energy from wind and solar, but apparently hadn't accounted for all the vagaries that come with that. That's worrisome! And our infrastructure isn't in any way shiny and new in the states. There's also climate issues to deal with, like how La Niña has already ended and 2025 is looking to be hotter than we thought.

We're gonna keep focused, though, and talk more about possible actions we can take. Stay tuned, and get talking with your people.