Activism
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March 31, 2025
I went to a #TeslaTakedown in New York and signed on to a Zoom “Resistance Lab” coaching. Right here’s what I noticed.
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Protesters reveal in opposition to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) initiatives throughout a nationwide “Tesla Takedown” rally outdoors a Tesla dealership on March 29, 2025, in Pasadena, California.
(Mario Tama / Getty Pictures)
My pal and fellow Nation contributor Micah Sifry, like many people, has been on the lookout for the fitting phrase for the anti-Trump motion 2.0. He by no means cherished “resistance” as a result of he thought it exaggerated our troubles (and heroism) by evaluating us to individuals who fought Nazism. (Some bros affiliate it with “Wine Mothers” aka Hillary Clinton supporters, however neither he nor I truck with that.) Some advocate utilizing the phrase “opposition” this time round, however with so many elected Democrats, within the supposed opposition occasion, caving to Trump and copresident Elon Musk, that doesn’t fully work both.
Sifry likes the time period “defiance,” and so do I.
His Substack, The Connector, is must-reading on this period of defiance. For one factor, he stories on the rising anti-Trump, anti-Elon Musk protests, whereas pundits merely opine. In opposition to a backdrop of jaded Beltway reporters insisting that anti-Trump forces lack vitality, he cites analysis by Erica Chenoweth and others displaying there was way more activism since Inauguration Day than there was right now in 2017. Sifry charts the lots of of protests sponsored by teams of laid-off or threatened federal staff like Resistance Rangers and letter carriers. (Actually, you need to subscribe.)
He additionally stories, based mostly on his lengthy historical past of overlaying upstart actions, that the continued #TeslaTakedown protests—throughout which of us collect outdoors numerous Tesla websites, largely dealerships—are for actual, and never merely a enjoyable daylong diversion. They’ve been organized by a variety of activism veterans like New York’s Alice Hu, actor/activist Alex Winter, and Annie Wu Henry, a veteran of Swifties for Harris and John Fetterman’s progressive social media marketing campaign again when he was a progressive. The primary Manhattan protest was spearheaded by a lone girl and a pal who took a video of her (I haven’t been capable of finding out her identify) on February 4. So I went out to cowl the most important one but in Manhattan on Saturday, a part of a “international day of motion” that drew tens of 1000’s of protesters to 253 Tesla websites.
Certainly one of a number of cardboard exploding Tesla vans at Saturday’s #TeslaTakedown in New York.
It began at midday, however after I arrived at 12:20 pm, Washington Road between 14th and thirteenth (within the touristy Meatpacking District) was jam-packed, and the NYPD had already blocked off visitors on thirteenth Road. (There have been additionally guards outdoors Rolex and Gucci down the road.) Ultimately the jubilant, noisy crowd spilled south in direction of twelfth Road. I’d say it was no less than 1,000 individuals at its top.
It was 80 levels although windy, typically a terrific early spring day for a protest. Amazon staff of their blue and yellow vests turned out, so did mother and father with child strollers and dozens of canines, in backpacks and on leashes, together with one who wore a “Canines in opposition to DOGE” signal.
The demonstration was enlivened by an inflow from a close-by march celebrating the thirty eighth anniversary of the ACT UP motion, which acquired long-delayed consideration, and funding, from the federal authorities for HIV and AIDS analysis and therapy again within the late Eighties. To at the present time, it’s in all probability probably the most profitable mass protest motion for the reason that Sixties civil rights mobilization. Pink triangles have been in every single place.
Most of the ACT UP contingent have been youthful individuals and trans individuals—in no way shocking given the threats they face below Trump. At one level activists did a “die-in,” proper on the Tesla entrance. I used to be too distant to see it, however of us round them raised “gravestones” with protest slogans. “DOGE Is Killing Medicaid,” one learn. Others mentioned DOGE was killing AIDS analysis and PEPFAR, the George W. Bush program that saved tens of millions of lives in Africa (greater than these killed by his pointless Iraq Warfare). There have been numerous indicators warning of threats to Social Safety and Medicare within the crowd. A disproportionate share of protesters got here from the demographic that cares about that the majority—which means mine.
A girl of my demographic then sat down subsequent to me, taking a brief break for a second. Retiree Linda Stevens mentioned it was her first anti-Trump protest of any sort this time round. “I felt like I wanted to take some form of motion as a substitute of studying The New York Instances and deploring issues,” she informed me. “All rationality has been thrown to the wind.” She marveled on the vary of protest indicators and T-shirts, starting from “Beto for Senate” to “Park Rangers United” to “Third Act” to many alternative labor unions. “There’s simply a lot to protest,” she marveled. Then she acquired as much as rejoin the group.
The 2 most seen indicators, banners hoisted by a number of individuals, included a preferred one studying “Would Have Fought The Nazis? Now’s Your Likelihood.” Extra divisive was “Burn a Tesla. Save Democracy.” That form of rhetoric, backed by very uncommon vandalism in opposition to Tesla, have led whiny man-baby Musk to name such strikes “home terrorism.” Backed by Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi, that might lead even to peaceable protests, conceivably, being criminalized. However there was no vandalism on Saturday. (A number of individuals have been arrested at this website for property harm two weeks in the past.) The one barely divisive second got here when a contingent started including “Free, Free, Free Palestine” to different chants. A gaggle of 4 older individuals filed previous me to go away at that time. “You simply misplaced me,” one man mentioned. “Me too,” mentioned a feminine companion.
That was the one subject debated on a #TeslaTakedown message board that I noticed after the group dispersed. Many of the 10 individuals (solely 10) writing about it on the message board complained about including that demand to the demonstration; one argued that with Trump snatching pro-Palestinian protesters off the streets with out due course of, a strong anti-Trump motion can’t ignore the problem. I’m simply the reporter right here.
Regardless of stories of DOGE counterprotests deliberate for the day, I solely noticed a handful of remoted counterprotesters in Manhattan. (In Idaho, Oregon and Fresno, California, an assortment of Proud Boys, militia members, and one man dressed like Hitler confirmed up, however they have been outnumbered by takedown supporters.) In Manhattan, a fashed-up, bulked-up man in tight black clothes, taking photographs of the group on his iPhone, clashed with an older anti-Trump protester, however each police and different members of the group separated them shortly. An earnest teen in a Inexperienced Bay Packers cap accosted somebody carrying a pro-trans-rights signal, telling him that “most” trans individuals remorse transitioning (it’s a tiny however well-documented minority), so he’s really the one championing trans rights. Remarkably, individuals within the crowd argued rationally with the kid. They’re higher than me.
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Given the rise and unfold of anti-Trump, anti-Musk protest, in addition to the assaults on those that resist, Consultant. Pramila Jayapal designed a “Resistance Lab,” to coach individuals within the rules of nonviolent resistance, as we see establishments from universities to large regulation companies to mainstream media corporations capitulate to Trump’s threats, whereas Democrats dither in Congress, and Republicans proceed promoting their souls to Trump.
Pramila Jayapal: “We Need to Stand Up and Battle Again”
Joan Walsh
I attended the Zoom assembly on Sunday, the place I used to be joined by no less than 1,300 attendees from 31 states and three nations (Canada and Austria). That quantity far exceeded the five hundred individuals who confirmed up in particular person in Seattle on March 22.
“We need to provide help to seed and coordinate these nonviolent resistance actions,” Jayapal informed Zoom, “And to have the ability to perceive your threat tolerance,” as the chance of Trump cracking down on different types of protest escalates.
She launched Erica Chenoweth, whose analysis into the surprisingly sturdy anti-Trump defiance I famous above has helped individuals really feel their very own energy, Jayapal mentioned. “I get up each morning with the identical nervousness you do,” Chenoweth confessed. However the rising activism she sees steels her backbone. Nonetheless, what she known as “a worldwide democratic recession” yearly for the final 17 years has been weakening democracy worldwide, lowering the variety of nations which might be democratic and elevating autocracy. In 2024 that pattern accelerated with the anti-incumbent wave that gave us Trump 2.0. In March, Monty Marshall of the Polity Challenge downgraded the US from a democracy to a “non-democracy,” attributable to what he known as an “government coup,” and a “complete lack of checks and balances of the manager.” Examples vary from dismantling congressionally mandated businesses like USAID, assaults on science and universities, makes an attempt to erase civil rights with anti-DEI measures, and the accelerating arrests and deportations of non-U.S. residents both allegedly right here illegally or right here legally however who’ve exercised their civil rights in ways in which Trump deplores, resembling pro-Palestinian college students Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk.
The lesson from struggles elsewhere, she mentioned, is that “establishments alone don’t save us.” From Poland to South Africa to Chile to the Jim Crow South to 2024 South Korea, Chenoweth mentioned, “profitable pro-democracy actions have relied on “sturdy and sustained grassroots and grasstops mobilization,” including “each tyrant relies on the cooperation and obedience and assist of 1000’s of individuals…autocratic energy is extraordinarily fragile.” She outlined the five-segment spectrum of political opinion within the US from “energetic opposition” to the anti-Trump motion to “energetic allies,” with passive and impartial of us in between, and mentioned the key to constructing a profitable resistance is to nudge every group a little bit bit to the left, a little bit bit away from the autocrat. However to do this, she mentioned, these actions must get fairly massive and develop momentum. Nonetheless, international research present that mobilizing simply 3.5 p.c of the inhabitants in opposition to the authoritarian chief, on this case Trump, can topple the regime.
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Actions have to keep up “resilience and self-discipline,” she warned, within the face of violence, which she predicted will escalate right here. “Meaning having a plan for nonviolent resistance in addition to noncooperation.” Chenoweth ended by pointing to the feelings that mobilize individuals (“anger and hope, collectively”) and people who demobilize individuals (“concern and a way of powerlessness,” specifically), and closed with: “You’re not alone, and also you don’t must do something alone.”
Jayapal then walked by the rules of nonviolence, closely based mostly on the US civil rights motion, and tips on how to deploy it in opposition to a rising tide of repression that’s solely sure to develop. She outlined methods of “elevating the prices on perpetrators” of anti-resistance violence that may in the end backfire on autocrats.
Yow will discover Chenoweth and Jayapal’s talks and slide displays right here; they’re extremely helpful whether or not you need to simply watch, to learn by, or to get organized. To me, a very powerful stuff got here out of the small focus teams. Individuals started planning “die-ins” at their native Social Safety workplaces, posting billboards in pink areas educating individuals about Social Safety and Medicare cuts (once more, numerous seniors right here), and increasing messaging to persuade People that “that is about all of us,” as in nearly each American besides the super-wealthy shall be damage by the Trump-Musk autocracy.
Is that this sufficient “defiance”? In fact not. However Jayapal and Sifry agree that it’ll not be sufficient to depend on the courts, or to channel individuals solely towards, say, the 2026 midterms (though in case you’re in a state with an election this 12 months, get out and vote; there’s the April 1 Supreme Court docket election in Wisconsin, in addition to particular elections in Florida). Harm, even demise, is happening in our names proper now. The dearth of USAID help is killing victims of the Myanmar earthquake as I write. The HIV/AIDS medication withdrawn by the PEPFAR shuttering is killing sick individuals in Africa.
The rise in native, distributed protests, from #TeslaTakedowns to GOP city halls, is encouraging, however individuals additionally want instruments, concepts, inspiration and, as Chenoweth put it, the sense that “you’re not alone, and also you don’t must do something alone.” The keenness each at my native Tesla protest and the Resistance Lab Zoom buoyed my languishing optimism that we will wake ourselves up from this nightmare, collectively.
Donald Trump’s merciless and chaotic second time period is simply getting began. In his first month again in workplace, Trump and his lackey Elon Musk (or is it the opposite approach round?) have confirmed that nothing is protected from sacrifice on the altar of unchecked energy and riches.
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Onward,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Writer, The Nation
Joan Walsh
Joan Walsh, a nationwide affairs correspondent for The Nation, is a coproducer of The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Present and the creator of What’s the Matter With White Individuals? Discovering Our Means within the Subsequent America. Her new e-book (with Nick Hanauer and Donald Cohen) is Company Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Defend Revenue, Energy and Wealth In America.
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