We are stronger than we think

This article We are stronger than we think was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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The Trump-Musk administration has moved rapidly, ruthlessly and often illegally to consolidate authoritarian control and empower billionaires at the expense of ordinary people. In an administrative coup guided by Project 2025, the White House has sought to dismantle the separation of powers and deny critical services, punishing working people at home and abroad. 

Making good on his promises of revenge and retribution, Trump has sicced the Justice Department and IRS on perceived enemies, notably those who believe in a more diverse, equitable and inclusive America. The administration is cruelly scapegoating historically-targeted communities, including immigrants, trans people and the poor in an attempted divide-and-rule strategy. It has all but endorsed political violence and intimidation through the pardoning of nearly all of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. These actions threaten our most fundamental freedoms and the safety and well-being of our communities.  

Like all autocrats, Trump and his oligarchic henchmen are trying to overwhelm, disorient and distract. They want people to believe that they are invincible, and that any resistance is futile. But autocratic regimes, including this one, are weaker than they appear — and we are stronger than we think. Their kryptonite is their reliance on ordinary people, in different parts of society, to carry out their orders and go along with the status quo. They rely on workers’ labor, business revenue, civil servants implementing policies, religious leaders offering moral and organizational backing, and police and military obeying orders to arrest and repress. Support can be given, and support can be taken away. 

The long history of popular resistance to government tyranny in this country and globally shows how broad-based movements can prevail, even in the face of cruelty and abuse. They have relied on a wide range of nonviolent tactics, including those grounded in love, humor and hope, all while engaging in collective defiance and remaining resilient and disciplined. 

Noncompliance and backfire

Organized noncooperation, which involves withdrawing social, political and economic support from autocratic regimes via strikes, boycotts, walkouts and other forms of collective stubbornness, has been critical to the victories of pro-democracy movements. The most powerful campaigns of the U.S. civil rights movement — including the bus boycotts, lunch counter sit-ins and worker strikes organized by groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee — dismantled systems of racial apartheid through disciplined non-compliance. Planning and preparation for these campaigns, which faced violent backlash, happened in Black church basements and Quaker meeting houses. 

In Chile, the Copper Mine Workers Federation and the National Workers Committee used labor strikes as well as a slowdown to apply pressure on the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. In 1983, when a threatened strike by copper miners risked bloody clashes with security forces, the workers shifted gears and organized a decentralized slow-down, where Chileans across the country walked and drove very slowly on a designated day of protest. The go-slow action was impossible for the regime to repress and helped the Chilean opposition overcome fear and see that they were in the majority. Other tactics followed, including the banging of pots and pans outside homes at 8 p.m. across the country (a tactic known as “cacerolazo”) along with singing in the streets. Catholic churches served as sanctuary sites and hosted workshops in nonviolent action organized by groups like Servicio Paz y Justicia to support the resistance. 

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When unlikely allies engage in organized acts of noncompliance, this typically signals that a pro-democracy movement is breaking through. In Poland, when the far-right Law and Justice Party attacked the independence of the judiciary, hundreds of Polish lawyers and judges took to the streets. The “1,000 Robes March” in 2020, led by a group that normally does not participate in protests, took the nation by surprise and helped galvanize a broad-based movement that defeated the Law and Justice Party electorally in 2023. 

Cruelty, chaos and corruption are hallmarks of authoritarian regimes. They can also be their downfall if movements organize and mobilize in ways to make regime repression, incompetence and abuses of power backfire, meaning the perpetrators are forced to pay a high price. For backfire to happen, news of the cruelty or abuse needs to be widely disseminated and framed as unjust, illegitimate and possible to do something about.

We saw cruelty backfire during the first Trump administration, following his executive order severely restricting immigrants from primarily Muslim countries. Large numbers of people rushed to the airports to show solidarity and reveal the immediate discriminatory effects of what became known as the Muslim ban. The resulting coalition was one of the most diverse in recent years, bringing together people from religious and labor groups to immigration organizations. The significant and sustained mobilization around the ban undermined Trump’s goal of a total stoppage and helped usher in a rapid reversal once Joe Biden came into office.

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Backfire methods often include elements of joy, humor and love, creating pathways to build a broader “we.” When neo-Nazi groups planned an armed march in Whitefish, Montana on Martin Luther King Day in 2017, the community group Love Lives Here took action. They called on businesses with a shared interest in countering the perception of community intolerance to take a stand by posting Love Lives Here stickers in their windows, along with images of menorahs. The white supremacists, who were outflanked, stood down.

Defiance on the rise

Even now, during the early weeks of the new Trump administration, faith leaders have engaged in acts of loving defiance. At the inaugural prayer service in the National Cathedral, Bishop Mariann Budde spoke directly to the president, sitting in the front row, when she called on Trump to “have mercy” on those in America, particularly immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community, who are currently afraid.

Shortly after her remarks, she and the Episcopal Church began to receive threats — a typical response to those who stand up to bullies — but that didn’t stop expressions of support and solidarity from other religious leaders, people of faith and ordinary Americans from pouring in. The Southern Christian Coalition has posted on social media sermons of pastors who have echoed Bishop Budde.

At the same time, people have stood up against the attacks on dissent and the attempts to coerce loyalty. Groups have organized a “buy-cott,” or reverse boycott, of Costco in support of its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and refusal to roll back DEI practices. This is reminiscent of the mass action to patronize Haitian businesses in Springfield, Ohio after that community was attacked by the current president. Others have turned to digital forms of action, such as the mass spamming campaign designed to overwhelm the email account set up by the White House encouraging government employees to snitch on colleagues who don’t fit Trump’s agenda.

One of the most compelling features of these actions is that they are not solely about playing defense. Instead, these tactics are designed to draw on community power to decrease support for autocrats and increase community strength and resilience. For example, networks of Catholic groups across the nation are doubling down on their commitment to support millions of immigrants who have become one of the primary targets of the new administration’s attacks. Drawing from support infrastructure developed over several years, these groups are increasing their investment and finding innovative ways to provide sanctuary to those most vulnerable.

Meanwhile, Quakers and other faith groups have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration for violating their first amendment rights by allowing ICE into sensitive locations, including faith spaces. In Los Angeles, ongoing protests against mass migration have featured Mexican and Central American flags, as well as a freeway shutdown and walkouts at local high schools.

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Government employees have been another source of inspiring acts of backfire and noncooperation. Amidst the confusion surrounding the abrupt “buyout” offer designed to strip down the federal workforce, federal workers unions clarified what was happening. To counter Musk’s “fork in the road” proposition, the spoon emoji was quickly adopted as a symbol of resistance in online chats, and many civil servants began expressing how the offer instead spurred their desire to stay in their positions after previously considering resigning.

Simultaneously, after the administration purged 17 inspectors general across multiple government agencies, an act which has been criticized as illegal, USDA Inspector Gen. Phyllis Fong refused to comply. Because the government had failed to follow protocol in her firing, she would not leave on her own free will. Leadership in the USAID and the FBI, both targets of purges, have shared similar messages of defiance, refusing to play a part in any firings executed without due process and encouraging other employees not to comply in advance. 

In response to the administration’s executive orders focused on public education, school officials from Maryland’s Montgomery County have vowed to stand by their community and students, as well as maintain local authority over curriculum, teaching and learning. School officials in San Francisco, St. Paul, Columbus and elsewhere shared similar messages of caring defiance, declaring that they would not comply with orders to discriminate against transgender students.

At the university level, the American Association of University Professors released a powerful statement about standing up “Against Anticipatory Obedience.” It concluded with practical and urgent next steps for faculty and staff looking to counter the onslaught of attacks on academic freedom, shared governance and higher education as a public good.   

In a similar vein, the civic organization Showing Up For Racial Justice, or SURJ, through its national Gear Up program, has organized a Pledge to Protect and Resist, where communities across the country have pressed local officials and influential leaders to publicly commit to “protect the rights, safety and dignity of people in my community and resist Trump’s antidemocratic and immoral agenda consistent with the principles of nonviolence.” 

The AFL-CIO just announced a new “Department of People Who Work for a Living,” to ensure the federal government works for working people and isn’t destroyed by billionaires. “We’ll report on the facts of the Department of Government Efficiency cuts and what you can do to fight back,” the website notes. 

The clearest case of backfire — and a significant victory for the democratic opposition — came in response to the administration’s attempt to freeze federal funding. When Trump called for an immediate pause to the disbursement of federal assistance, it created chaos for states, federal agencies and nonprofits. Programs like Medicare, Social Security and Head Start scrambled, unclear as to whether they were affected, threatening halts to critical resources for communities. Organizations quickly mobilized, pressured members of Congress, and brought legal action against the unconstitutional move, forcing Trump to rescind the OMB memo in the first major victory against the new administration.   

Defining the terrain of struggle

There will be more acts of repression, cruelty and abuses of power coming from federal, state and local officials in the weeks and months ahead. There is no formula for deciding how to respond to authoritarian attacks, and being constantly on the defensive is exhausting and demoralizing. Reclaiming agency in defining the terrain of struggle away from repressive control and towards individual and community empowerment is key to building and maintaining momentum, as well as hope. Symbolic mass actions, like the “Minute of US,” a one-minute moment of silence — proposed by Choose Democracy and being organized weekly by civic groups — is an opportunity to pause, reflect and honor those being harmed as a result of the administration’s actions, while also supporting unity and community care.   

Symbolic solidarity actions are also important parts of building collective muscle for noncooperation and collective defiance, which will be key to protecting our freedoms in the months ahead. It is impossible to predict the exact triggers, cruelties or abuses of power that will push large numbers of people from different parts of society to engage in mass action. It is hard to know what the tipping point will be. But one thing that is clear from the global experience of challenging authoritarianism is that building the relational infrastructure for mass mobilization and noncooperation is critically important, as is training people for that eventuality. 

The success of these collective efforts will ultimately depend on breaking out of partisan binaries of conservative and liberal — to invite the broadest participation possible of all sectors of society who do not want the chaos and heartlessness that has been unfolding and will continue under this administration. Organizing strategies that allow Republican officials and other Trump supporters to save face while standing up against the cruel and destructive overreach will be essential to building a broad front to combat this authoritarian take over. There are progressive organizing spaces like Choose Democracy, Free DC, People’s March and strong movement infrastructure like Fight Back Table, Time to Act and Rural Defenders’ Union. Some groups are already discussing a general strike. 

In addition, we will need to continue to invest in other spaces that are cross-ideological to also build long-term, multi-sectoral, relational infrastructure for planning, coordination and creative imagination. Doubling down on training and organizing that is accessible for all parts of society to participate in creative nonviolent action, including mass noncooperation, will build strength, solidarity and harness the energy necessary to not only defeat authoritarianism but to reimagine beloved community for the next generation.

This article We are stronger than we think was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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Source: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/02/we-are-stronger-than-we-think/