THE RESISTANCE IS GROWING
The resistance to the coup and dictatorship of President Trump and co-President Musk is growing. Non-violent resistance has overthrown many dictatorships in recent decades. There are a wide range of actions we can take to resist Trump and his cronies. Don’t acquiesce; participate in the resistance and fight back.
(Note: If you find a post too long to read, please just skim the bolded portions. Thanks for reading my blog!)
President Trump and co-president Musk continue their deluge of destructive and generally illegal actions. Republicans in Congress and in the states are standing by mutely and acquiescing to everything Trump and Musk are doing. They are complicit in the coup.
Elsewhere, the resistance is growing. Democrats in Congress and on the ground are starting to find their voices although they need to speak out more frequently and more forcefully. Federal workers are starting to find their voices and, with the help of lawyers, to push back. Lawyers and the courts are starting to find their voices and to stand up for the rule of law.
All of us are starting to find our voices and are pushing back more and more, both individually and collectively. We need to be louder. We need to do more. We need to badger our elected officials into doing more. They are our elected representatives; they should represent us.
As the negative effects of Trump’s and Musk’s actions are starting to hit home, more and more Americans, including in Republican districts, are starting to pushback. For example, the farmers in the Midwest whose agricultural products are not being purchased by US AID for foreign aid are complaining about the loss of sales and the potential impact on the prices they get for their products.
My previous post suggested actions to take. Everyone can do something and every little bit of protest and resistance matters. These actions and many more (198 in total) are listed in the book From Dictatorship to Democracy (Gene Sharp, 2012, CPI Group Ltd., UK). It was originally published as a pamphlet in Bangkok in 1993 by the Committee for the Restoration of Democracy in Burma. The original pamphlet and now the book are viewed by many as the go-to guide for non-violent resistance. It played a key role in the uprisings of the Arab Spring in 2010 and 2011. These pro-democracy protests and revolts took place in the Middle East and North Africa. They challenged and toppled entrenched authoritarian governments in Tunisia, Egypt, and most recently, after a long struggle, in Syria.
Since 1980, regime change through non-violent resistance has occurred in numerous countries, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Slovenia, Madagascar, Mali, Bolivia, the Philippines, and the Ukraine. Significant non-violent resistance has taken place in numerous other countries including the Tiananmen Square protest in China and the protests in Hong Kong against the Chinese takeover.
Here in the U.S., we don’t face nearly as daunting a challenge as the people of these countries did, so I’m sure we can succeed. I’m not saying it will be quick or easy; it certainly wasn’t in most of these other examples. However, if we work together and each of us makes a commitment to do what we can, we will succeed.
As Sharp writes, dictators rely on the acquiescence of the people they rule. They need people to acquiesce to the authority they claim, i.e., to obey and often to cooperate or even assist the dictatorship. Refusing to acquiesce is a key piece of resistance. This applies not only to individuals but also to the organizations and institutions they are part of.
Dictatorships are inherently unstable because of lack of competency, inefficiency due to decision making based on favoritism and whims, internal strife due to personal and institutional conflicts and rivalries, and the instability of hierarchical power structures.
Sharp identifies three types of non-violent resistance:
Protest and persuasion
Non-cooperation
Intervention
Protest and persuasion can include:
Formal statements in speeches or in writing presented in the full range of media.
Symbolic acts, such as commemorating an event or person with a moment of silence or placing flowers at a relevant site, or by wearing buttons or relevant colors.
Physical acts, including protest rallies, marches, or sit-ins; as well as protest songs and acting performances in skits (such as SNL) or plays.
Non-cooperation is essential for effective resistance and has three sub-types:
Social actions, such as boycotts or cancellations of events, walkouts from social institutions or events, and turning one’s back at events.
Economic actions, including targeted or widespread consumer boycotts of companies, strikes (including a short-term general strike of all workers and all consumers), work slowdowns or sick-outs, and a refusal to cooperate from key experts.
Political actions, such as rejection of the dictator’s authority through speeches, writing, or actions; boycotting or blockading governmental buildings, agencies, or bodies; non-cooperation with government officials or agencies; and civil disobedience.
Intervention can include occupation of facilities, publicized fasting, overloading governmental administrative systems, exposing and publicizing the actions of and the individuals cooperating with the dictator’s regime, and mock trials of government officials.
There have been many local resistance actions and a national resistance movement is beginning to develop.
Friday, February 28, will be a one-day consumer economic boycott where customers will not buy anything and in particular will avoid using credit and debit cards and other electronic payment systems.
Saturday, April 19, appears to be developing as a day for nationwide rallies and marches.
Stay tuned. There’s much more to come.