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#ResistTrumpOrientation

Just the basics

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Welcome
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PLEASE NOTE
This is a publicly-accessible Zoom meeting
In the past we’ve experienced occasional attendees who disrupt speakers with obviously irrelevant or offensive comments - we call these attendees “trolls.” If someone displays troll-like behavior, they will be removed immediately and reported to Zoom. The Zoom host has the discretion to make this determination.
We’ve also received feedback about trolls who have harassed other attendees in private chat messages. If a troll sends you a harassing chat message, please take a screenshot, share the screenshot back to the chat, and then verbally identify who harassed you to the Zoom host. That attendee will be removed immediately and reported to Zoom.
You will be invited to actively participate in several breakout rooms during this orientation - please remain fully present for its duration and try your best not to multitask. If you cannot be fully present during this Zoom, please consider exiting and re-registering for another time when you can be fully present.
The host will not be able to closely monitor the chat, but feel free to converse with each other there.
This slideshow is publicly accessible via: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cNlT2c0JPKMuS2zbfcRJCXxzMnYNEMCQRfifnG6zWCQ/edit?usp=sharing
The linktree to orientation: https://linktr.ee/resisttrumporientation

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Agenda

Introductions
Authoritarianism is in… America?

Authoritarianism isn’t just at our doorstep, it’s in our house
How can we respond to the authoritarian threat? - Block, Build, Bridge, Break
Other “Breaking” Organizations
Other “Bridging” Organizations

Our Philosophy

Core Principles
Theory of change

How we work

Organizing model
Campaign teams

What you can do now
Small group discussion
Closing

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Introductions

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Co-Host Introduction - Nevin K

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Prior:

15 years experience in strategy consulting, leadership development, & international human rights

Current:

Director, #ResistTrump Campaign
Organizer, #ResistAustin

My “why”:

When liars are in leadership roles, it’s bad for everyone

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Attendee introductions

Who are you?

Why are you here today?

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Authoritarianism is in… America?

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Authoritarianism isn’t just at our doorstep,

it’s in our house

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How can we respond to the authoritarian threat?

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K’s Notes:

Copy and Paste in Chat:

The framework was first introduced by nonviolent civil resistance expert Maria Stephan in Waging Nonviolence (https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/how-we-can-meet-challenges-of-authoritarianism/).
This graphic was pulled from the “We Are Worth Fighting For” guide:

In essence, this is what we can do to stand up to authoritarian threats.
The framework was first introduced by nonviolent civil resistance expert Maria Stephan in Waging Nonviolence (https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/how-we-can-meet-challenges-of-authoritarianism/).
This graphic comes from the “We Are Worth Fighting For” guide, a toolkit on standing up to authoritarians created by a number of groups including Indivi. Moveon, and others.
Table analogy
“Block” - Stop as much harm from happening as possible. This includes but is not limited to:

Protecting communities under threat
Safeguarding democratic institutions, like the courts, voting, and even local institutions like school boards
Preventing MAGA wins in local and special elections

“Break”

This refers to the breaking up of the authoritarian power group, so in this case

Breaking the baga faction from its pillars of support (which we will talk about more later) and supporting healthy political pluralism

“Build” -

This refers to a number of possible things but the way I like to summarize it is building up our civic and community involvement. When crises or emergencies happen, we have two options: we can either panic and freak out and become useless or we can do something (while possible still freaking out) and yes this is slight over simplified. Building our power is the act of getting involved and doing something about the crises rather than sitting back and letting things happen.

Some examples of this would be

Investing in and building political power, leaders, and institutions or groups
Demonstrate what the world could be: i.e. point to something MN does different than TX and how it affects people’s lives differently.

“Bridging”

Dividing people, groups and individuals, is how authoritarians rule, so this is all about bridging differences within and across movements and other key groups. This helps provide understanding and builds strength.

This includes:

Inviting conversations - that means listening without judgement as well as talking
Experimenting with messaging
Welcoming new groups and coalitions

We at RT fall under the breaking and bridging categories but we aren’t alone. So I want to share some info on other groups with you all and I would like to add that if you all know any groups that do this sort of work, breaking or bridging, please do drop their names in the chat. We are always happy to learn about more groups.

Nev’s Notes:
The framework was first introduced by nonviolent civil resistance expert Maria Stephan in Waging Nonviolence (https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/how-we-can-meet-challenges-of-authoritarianism/).
This graphic was pulled from the “We Are Worth Fighting For” guide:

https://weareworthfightingfor.org/

“Blocking” - stopping as much harm from happening as possible.

We are worth fighting for:

Protecting communities under threat
Safeguarding democratic institutions
Preventing MAGA wins in local and special elections

“Breaking” the MAGA faction from its pillars of support and supporting healthy political pluralism
“Building” - creating broad-based power capable of achieving transformative changes to our political and economic systems.

We are Worth Fighting For:

Investing in and building political power, leaders, and institutions
Show what is possible

“Bridging” across differences within and across movements and other key groups to deepen understanding, resolve conflicts, and build broad fronts grounded in mutual interest

We are worth fighting for:

Inviting conversation
Experimenting with messaging
Welcome new groups and coalitions

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Other “Breaking” Organizations

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Name	50501	TeslaTakedown	Rise4Freedom	General Strike
Tactic	Protests	Boycott & Protest	Community Organizing & Teach-In	Strike
Website	www.fiftyfifty.one	www.teslatakedown.com www.teslatakedown.org	www.rise4freedom.org	www.generalstrikeus.com
Stated Goals	Uphold the Constitution Limit executive overreach	Stopping Musk	Bring people together Grow networks Get ready to mobilize	Racial, economic, and environmental justice

K’s Notes

Post in Chat:

50501: www.fiftyfifty.one
Tesla Takedown: www.teslatakedown.com, www.teslatakedown.org
Rise for Freedom: Rise for Freedom - Rise for Freedom
General Strike: www.generalstrikeus.com

These are other breaking groups that we are aware of. The one’s in green are ones we closely align with in our process and goals with. {speak of each group} I will post links to these groups in the chat in case you are interested in looking into any of them further.

Explain 50501 protests beginning on February 5, 2025. Share that their stated goals closely align with our vision and we’re constantly looking for ways to collaborate locally and nationally based on personal relationships. Share link: www.fiftyfifty.one
Explain #TeslaTakedown protests beginning on February 15, 2025. Share that their stated strategy closely aligns with our theory of change and we’re constantly looking for ways to collaborate locally and nationally based on personal relationships. Share links: www.teslatakedown.com, www.teslatakedown.org
Explain Rise4Freedom.
Explain General Strike and their demands (they plan to finalize their demands once they reach 6 million people; their current demands are multitudinous which makes it more difficult to formally ally - we have one basic demand, a future without Trump and his enablers in power - they have many - this is why their box is gray). However, their technique is classic nonviolent civil resistance and they appear to be popular. We have reached out to this group and hope to develop a connection. Share link: www.generalstrikeus.com
Overall - state that this may be impressive, but this is not *nearly* enough - this is just the beginning of a movement

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Other “Bridging” Organizations

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Name	Crossing Party Lines	Braver Angels
Tactic	Facilitated dialogues around controversial issues	Bringing Americans together to bridge the partisan divide
Website	www.crossingpartylines.com	www.braverangels.org
Stated Goals	“Building communities where difference of thought is appreciated and recognized as necessary”	Crafting “an America with respectful embrace of political disagreements.”

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Our Philosophy

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Core Principles

Vision - A future without Trump and his enablers in power.

Mission - Lawful, nonviolent civil resistance of Trump and his enablers.

Values:

Collaboration
Integrity
Nonpartisanship
Professionalism

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K’s Notes:

Up next: RT’s core principals, which is like the DNA of our campaign

Vision = A future without Trump and his enablers in power.

Now this does not “solve for” all the problems in the US, like misogyny, racism, xenophobia, the electoral college, etc. We are not trying to fix all the problems in the US, nor do we promise to do so. Instead we have a very pinpointed vision, because, if we all have the same goal, we can work together and build the bridges needed to work together and make it happen.

Mission = Lawful, nonviolent civil resistance of Trump and his enablers.

This is a core piece of our group so I want to take a few minutes and really break this down piece by piece as to what I mean and why it is important to our group.
Let’s start by defining T and his enablers - T and his enablers are T and those who either assist T’s authoritarian ways or are in a position to resist and not. Currently, we consider these to be those in a who fall under the definition of political appointees (as in those who can legally be hired and fired with each new president, which we are basing on past definitions, not current assumptions).

Next up let’s talk about Lawful:

Lawful means we are going to stay within the realm of what federal and local laws allow. This means no trespassing, sit ins, or other un-lawful civil resistance.
It is important because it minimized risk and allows our group to remain open and inviting to more people.

Non violent

Is not the same as pacifist but it does mean we will not be carrying weapons or taking actions where we could cause someone harm through our actions. For example: blocking doors to a hospital could put people in harm's way, even thought we wouldn’t be actively hurting them, so we wouldn’t do that.

Civil Resistance

Is different types of protest where people work together, outside of the political structure (that’s key) to bring about social, economical or political change.
Most famous example of civil resistance are the American Civil Rights Work of the 1950s and 60s and Ghandi’s work in India. However, not all civil resistance is “lawful” but there are 100s to 1000s of techniques that would fall under civil resistance, everything from a flash mob (currently legal) to sit-ins (non-legal) and tons more.
Civil Resistence is such an important part of our principles, we are going to dive a little deeper into that but first….

Nev’s Notes:
Read the vision, explain it with a metaphor (ie, mountaintop). Explain what this vision does *not* solve for (ie, misogyny, racism, capitalism, xenophobia). Express that as long as we can all agree on one goal, we can probably find ways to work together.

State the mission and explain each term (“lawful”, “nonviolent”, “civil resistance”, “Trump and his enablers”)

Lawful - explain that this allows our organization to remain open/inviting, and minimizes risk
Nonviolent - explain your understanding of this term
Civil resistance - share that this is a body of 100s to 1000s of techniques that demonstrate lack of consent by the governed of the governing authority
Trump and his enablers - highlight who we are defining these people as, and that we are open to expanding this definition

Explain the values

Lawful nonviolence - covered above
Collaboration - Define collaboration. Explain its history/or and relevance to our work. Ask why collaboration can be challenging. Invite people to share how to successfully collaborate despite those challenges.
Integrity - Define integrity. Explain its history and/or relevance to our work. Ask how do you know if something is “the right thing”? Share your personal approach to cultivating integrity. Invite reactions and other ways of defining integrity.
Nonpartisanship - Define nonpartisanship. Explain its history and/or relevance to our work. Warn of the limitations of this value (should not conflict with our other values). Demonstrate how we are living this value (ie, our members are attending meetings of multiple political parties in Austin across the spectrum)
Professionalism - Define professionalism. Explain its history and/or relevance to our work.

State that we remain open to adjusting these core principles, but use a metaphor or example that illustrates their firmness (ie, “We remain open to adjusting these core principles, but for now, they are the clay that’s begun to set—firm enough to shape but not yet fired in the kiln”)

Explain the concept of the “core principles” as “core DNA” of our campaign and how we are asking local chapters to commit to these core principles, as well. Use a metaphor of what this means (ie, we want to grow a forest with many trees). Explain that if attendees can agree to these principles, and our theory of change that follows, and help us continue to refine both, then we can be partners in this work.

Take questions

Invite people to react with an emoji or ask questions

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From voting to violence: Expressing political dissent

Civil

Disobedience

Lawful Civil Resistance

High Political Engagement

Medium Political Engagement

Political Violence

Examples:

Canvassing or phone banking

Running for office

Joining a political party

Lobbying

Shouting / Banner Dropping

Sit-ins and occupations

Blockades and Road Closures

Refusal to cooperate

Tax resistance

Armed revolts

Assassinations

Riots

Terrorism

Insurrections

Voting in elections

Donating to campaigns

Writing letters to representatives

Attending town halls

[----------Nonviolent Civil Resistance—-------]

Threats of Violence

Boycotts

Strikes

Protests and Demonstrations

Picketing

Artistic and cultural resistance

So this is a graph that ResistTrump made in house that we use in our resistance school to help explain what Civil Resistance is in relation to other types of political involvement.

On the left here we have Medium Political Engagement this can be things like {read from slide}. Now for some people that would seem like high political involvement, (after all a lot of people consider voting to be the extent of their political engagement). We consider it medium level engagement because these things are easier to do and less time intensive than what we define as high political engagement. High political engagement would be {read from slide}. These things, are all within the set up political system. Now, outside of the political system is civil resistance, for which there are two categories: Lawful Civil Resistance and Civil Disobedience, as well as a grey area between the those two categories.
Lawful Civil Resistance includes things like {read from slide}. According to federal, state and local laws, these things are legal so they fall under lawful civil resistance.
Civil Disobedience, however, are things that aren’t actually legal to do such as {read from slide}. So these are things that people could get rightfully arrested or fined for.
There are some things that fall under a grey area, like shouting and banner dropping. So for example, if you were to go to a local or state political procedure (like a vote in your state house or a city council meeting), and you started shouting or you unfurled a banner on your railing and security came up and asked you to stop or put it away, you would have two options: 1) would be to do as they ask and stop, that would keep you on the lawful side of the grey. Or 2) Don’t stop and get arrested or escorted out of the meeting. That would put you into the civil disobedience side of things
And then there is political violence which, I think is fairly self evident. Generally it is considered unuseful by experts, when your goal is a free democracy type society. There is a potential grey area between civil disobedience and political violence where there are threats of violence that don’t actually get followed through on. However, generally, threats of violence are considered, by experts and activists, to really belong under the political violence category as the results they produce end up matching more with actual political violence results. Again, not helpful if you want a peaceful democratic (small d) state.

Share a general overview of civil resistance:

Medium Political Engagement: Standard civic participation with limited personal risk or disruption.
High Political Engagement: Active political participation that requires more effort, time, and risk but remains within legal frameworks.
Lawful Civil Resistance: Nonviolent, disruptive actions that challenge power but do not break the law or are legally ambiguous.
Civil Disobedience: Deliberate, public lawbreaking to protest injustice, often with an appeal to morality.
Political Violence: Political actions involving physical harm, destruction, or armed resistance to achieve goals.

State the basic criteria for successful nonviolent civil resistance movements

Erica Chenoweth’s 3.5% rule and link (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world)
Hardy Merriman’s Trifecta of Civil Resistance - Unity, Planning, and Discipline and link (https://commonslibrary.org/the-trifecta-of-civil-resistance-unity-planning-discipline/)
Chenoweth’s concept of “momentum” as mass (size of movement) x velocity (frequency of actions) - more specifically, Mass = The number of participants on any given day. Velocity = number of events in the 7 days prior to that given day

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Our Theory of Change

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What is the #ResistTrump Campaign’s theory of change?

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How can we reach a “future without Trump and his enablers in power”?

Act outside of governmental channels

Act within governmental channels

Break Trump’s “pillars of support”

Remove or Replace Trump

Bridge to Trump’s base

Note our constraints:

Mission, Values

Induce Trump’s Resignation

Lobby elected officials

Litigate cases

Vote them out

Ally with other anti-authoritarian groups

K’s Notes:

…Our Theory of Change.

This problem tree demonstrates in green, how we hope to achieve our goal of getting Trump and his enablers out of power. We, as a group, are going to act outside of governemental channels, using the lawful-non-violent civil resistance we talked about, to shake the pillars of support and erode T’s popular support by building bridges to Trump’s base all while working with other anti-authoritarian groups in order to either lead to T’s resignation or to support, from the outside, the groups acting within the governmental channels (showin in black) to be able to get him removed through the system. Of course, as discussed earlier, our mission and values will constrain which actions we choose to take. i.e, yes to protests, no to sit ins due to staying lawful.
We have chosen to stick to this outside of the governmental channels option, in part, to divide out the workload required to get T out. There are already groups that do this bit in black and they do a great job already. And while some of them do incorporate some outside the system stuff (like protests) there are very few groups that solely focus on these outside methods. So we are choosing to specialize in this to divide the workload between groups to make sure we are chipping away at the problem from all sides

So to further explain our theory of change, let’s talk about what we mean by “Pillars of Support” and creating bridges to T’s base

Nev’s Notes:

Explain that this is a “problem-tree” and that our reaching the vision is constrained by our mission and values�Share that we continue to develop and refine this theory of change (TOC) through dialogue and study
Explain the nature of the inside/outside approaches to change
Emphasize that we believe local chapters in the RTN will adopt idiosyncratic (unique) approaches to bringing this TOC to life based on their internal capabilities and external environments. Give potential examples [ie, Austin (Tesla factory and showrooms, Joe Rogan’s comedy house) versus Los Angeles (media industry) versus rural areas (Trump’s popular support)]
Explain that RTC does not aim to be top-down but instead grassroots-led with occasional coordination & coaching (ie, monthly or weekly coordinated actions, recommended weekly actions) - ie, 90% autonomous
Invite people to react with an emoji, ask questions, or state any aspects we may have missed in our TOC
State the basic criteria for successful nonviolent civil resistance movements

Erica Chenoweth’s 3.5% rule and link (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world)
Hardy Merriman’s Trifecta of Civil Resistance - Unity, Planning, and Discipline and link (https://commonslibrary.org/the-trifecta-of-civil-resistance-unity-planning-discipline/)
Chenoweth’s concept of “momentum” as mass (size of movement) x velocity (frequency of actions) - more specifically, Mass = The number of participants on any given day. Velocity = number of events in the 7 days prior to that given day

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Breaking Trump’s “pillars of support”

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Trump and his enablers

General Population

CEO

Senior Management

Middle Management

Frontline Workers

Example Business Pillar

Corporations

Business and Economic Elites

Media

Party Official and Staff

Civil Servants

Security Personnel

Cultural Influencers

Foundations and Philanthropies

Religious Leaders

Organized Labor

Elite and Local Authoritarians

K’s Notes:

Post in Chat:

https://beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/tool/pillars-of-power

We got this model from “Beautiful Trouble, a group of organizers that helps train and educate grassroot social movements. I will drop a link to their took kit in the chat.

So here you will see that there are lots of types of pillars but they are basically the businesses and people who help keep and support T and his primary enablers in power, for example the Heritage Foundation, Tesla and Joe Rogan. To clarify just a bit: Thus far we have defined enablers as those in a position of political power who support trump and pillars being those not in government. Though there is some overlap, like El, so we may change our definitions some over time.
As you can see, each pillar is made up of different groups within the pillar who could be potential aims of our campaign as a way to make the pillar crumble. Here we have a business example (see slide) but even for someone like Joe Rogan, he would have advertisers, listeners, those who broadcast his podcast, etc. And the way you go after the CEO or Joe (if you decide it is worth your time to go after them) is going to be different than how you might approach board members , management, advertisers, etc. So you would likely choose different strategies for different groups even in the same pillar, as well as different strategies per pillar.

POST in Chat:

Exercise (Set up breakout rooms of 3-4 people) - 12 minutes

Task:

Remember your room number - this will be your group number
Introduce yourselves
Nominate a facilitator in your group to serve as a guide
Discuss who are in the local pillar(s) that support Trump and his enablers - or who are the pillars that support an alternative to Trump?
Nominate a reporter to report back any insights, questions, or reflections shared during the discussion

Nev’s notes:
Share link about pillars of power (https://beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/tool/pillars-of-power) and explain the concept
Explain how pillar contents are heterogenous (each contains actors who require different strategies of persuasion - ie, workers versus CEOs)
Share other idea for the business pillar like the #TeslaTakedown (http://www.teslatakedown.com).
Emphasize that we believe the implementation of this strategy will look very different across the landscape of local actors and chapters, both online and offline

Exercise (Set up breakout rooms of 3-4 people) - 12 minutes

Task:

Introduce yourselves
Nominate a facilitator in your group to serve as a guide
Discuss who are in the local pillar(s) that support Trump and his enablers - or who are the pillars that support an alternative to Trump?

Debrief the exercise: Insights, Questions, Reflections?

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Bridging to Trump’s base

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Overall support for Trump and his enablers

Number of people supporting Trump and his enablers

Average intensity of support for Trump and his enablers

Medium “MAGA”

Hard “MAGA”

Principled Conservatives

K’s Notes:

To move over to bridging to T’s base or eroding T’s popular support:

There are some supporters who will believe he is a God til their dying day, but, thankfully, they are not the majority. We know that there are those hard MAGA supporters but
there are also medium MAGA supporters, who might change their minds when it really all doesn’t go their way (as in what these tariffs are doing do our stock markets)
And then there are what we call “principled conservatives” This last group are conservatives, probably long term conservatives, or fiscally responsible types, or just conservatives who believe in the democratic process and rule of law. Yet, for whatever reason, they supported Trump. This is the group we really want to focus on, in terms of eroding the number of people who actually support T. We intend to reach out to, and build bridges with, these “principled conservative” through 1 on 1 discussions or networking, community service and community events. By offering proof that all Trump opponents aren’t evil or stupid and providing them with our honest narrative, we can, hopefully start to turn them against T. For example, I remember when the Tea Party was the Republican hard core click and there were places where Tea Partiers were working with liberal environmental groups to help protect the environment because they had shared interest and desire to do so. (The environment is the only political issue I agree with my MAGA uncle on). So in finding similar issues or community concerns that we do have in come, because we are all just people and most of us aren’t and will never be billionaires, we can find common ground. Whether that be shared interest in a political issue or just support for our favorite sports team (or in the case of me and my uncle an appreciation for old movies) that common ground allows us to build bridges with principled conservatives and start offering a different narrative to them (and a place to feel welcomed when they no longer fit in with or agree with the MAGA powers).
Also, through our actions of building bridges, we want to work to erode the general intensity of his support. Because a lot of Americans are generally apathetic to politics, and don’t pay much attention, so if we can get this part of the population to actually dislike him, it will tarnish his power and act a s a push back against all their lies and disinformation (nothing works better at making people distrust or not care what something says than by making that person unpopular with their immediate social group)

So how do we do this?

Give an overview of Trump’s supporters as on a bell curve
Share that we intend to start by engaging “principled conservatives” through 1:1 networking, community service, and community events
Give example of personal outreach electronically and in person
Invite people to react with an emoji or ask questions

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How we work

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The organizing model

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#ResistTrump Campaign

#Resist

[B]

#ResistAustin 501(c)4

Human Liberty Project 501(c)4

#ResistTrump Distributed Organizing Network

#Resist[X] Campaign

#Resist[Y] Campaign

#Resist

[A]

#Resist

[C]

Anti-Authoritarian Coordinating Campaigns

Local Chapters of Lawful, Nonviolent Civil Resistance

Umbrella Coordinating Entity

K’s Notes:

We want to be very grassroots and we want our mission to outlast T and use what we learn to fight back against other authoritarian leaders around the world (like Orban in Hungry, Abbot).
So we want to have individual local chapters that agree to adhere to our values and mission but which are autonomous. These would be your #ResistAustin, etc, These groups would be 90% autonomous but would receive support, ideas, training, collaboration etc from the overall movement that is ResistTrump.
In order to have the longevity of being able to continue to make a different in a post T world our founder Nevin is creating Human Liberty Project as an overall umbrella.
The best part about this model in my opinion is that it allows the individual local groups the opportunity to provide unique approaches to make the theory of change a reality in a way that makes the most sense in their area.
For example you aren’t likely to bother with a big Tesa protest in a rural area where people couldn’t care less about Tesla or couldn’t dream of affording one. However in a place like Austin, where there is a factory and showrooms, anti-Tesla protests would be great. The rural areas will have people doubting T as his policies hurt more and more people
Nev’s Notes
Explain the vision of the ResistTrump Network (RTN) - a global nonviolent civil resistance network for Trump and his enablers which can be repurposed to target other authoritarian regimes (examples include, arguably, Orban in Hungary and Abbott in Texas).
Guide to Distributed Organizing: https://blueprintsfc.org/guide/distributed-organizing/
Share that RTC will be housed in a 501c4 whose development is currently underway
Invite people to react with an emoji or ask questions

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Campaign Teams

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Division	Subdivision	Purpose
Organizing	N/A	Deliver on the mission
Support	Marketing	Build awareness of #ResistTrump
	Legal	Legally protect the delivery of the mission
	Strategy	Develop strategies to reach the vision
	Technology	Ensure that campaign technology suits campaign needs
	Fundraising	Procure resources for the campaign

Projects can involve campaign volunteers and/or Discord users (change often)

Defend Harvard, Pillars of Support, PutinPushback, Webinar Series

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What you can do now

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What can I do now?

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Option	Roles	Weekly Commitment (Hours)	Here’s what to do next:
1	Activist	1-5+	Join the Discord Server Find a local event Host your own local event
2	Pro-Bono Advisor (Remote)	1-5+	Apply on Idealist
3	Campaign Volunteer (Remote)	5-10+	Apply on Idealist

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Small Group Discussion

How would you like to resist Trump

and his enablers?

(Please remember your group number)

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Last Update: 2/10/2025

K’s Notes:

We want to be clear that lawful non-violent civil resistance is covered by the First Amendment of the Constitution. {read above} And I have a link to share with more information if anyone is interested.

Post in Chat:

https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/first-amendment-freedoms-developed-during-civil-rights-movement

Now, of course, that is not going to stop those who oppose us from making outrageous claims like saying we are being subversive, disloyal, or unlawful. But if those people have a problem with what we are doing then they have a problem with the 1st amendment and they probably want the authoritarian government that we are working to protect this country from.

Now let’s talk more about what Civil Resistance actually is…

Nev’s notes;

Read the text
Emphasize that we are utilizing 2 to 3 of the 5 freedoms in this very meeting
State that lawful, nonviolent civil resistance is protected by the 1st amendment, as described in https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/first-amendment-freedoms-developed-during-civil-rights-movement
Explain that if people claim we are being subversive, disloyal, or unlawful, then they have a problem with the 1st amendment
Invite people to react with an emoji or ask questions

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Appendix

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Last Update: 2/10/2025

Amendment I

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

K’s Notes:

We want to be clear that lawful non-violent civil resistance is covered by the First Amendment of the Constitution. {read above} And I have a link to share with more information if anyone is interested.

Post in Chat:

https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/first-amendment-freedoms-developed-during-civil-rights-movement

Now, of course, that is not going to stop those who oppose us from making outrageous claims like saying we are being subversive, disloyal, or unlawful. But if those people have a problem with what we are doing then they have a problem with the 1st amendment and they probably want the authoritarian government that we are working to protect this country from.

Now let’s talk more about what Civil Resistance actually is…

Nev’s notes;

Read the text
Emphasize that we are utilizing 2 to 3 of the 5 freedoms in this very meeting
State that lawful, nonviolent civil resistance is protected by the 1st amendment, as described in https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/first-amendment-freedoms-developed-during-civil-rights-movement
Explain that if people claim we are being subversive, disloyal, or unlawful, then they have a problem with the 1st amendment
Invite people to react with an emoji or ask questions

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Host Introduction - Kaethe

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Background:

Grew up in the deep South and Texas, currently living in MN.
Been politically active in some capacity since age 13.

Current:

Ballet dancer, adult fitness instructor (pilates, stretch and ballet)
Campaign Volunteer for #ResistTrump Campaign - assistant instructor and organizing team, joined in Feb. of ‘25

My “why”:

I value protecting people and helping people and I want a government that is for the people, not for the bro-ocracy.

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Core Principles

Values:

Collaboration
Integrity
Nonpartisanship
Professionalism

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K’s Notes:

Next up, going back to our core principles, we are going to talk about our Values as RT. In the interest of time, I am going to move through these fairly quickly, but there is more information on the following slides so if you want to dive a little deeper you have access to those through the slide show:
Read the vision, explain it with a metaphor (ie, mountaintop). Explain what this vision does *not* solve for (ie, misogyny, racism, capitalism, xenophobia). Express that as long as we can all agree on one goal, we can probably find ways to work together.

State the mission and explain each term (“lawful”, “nonviolent”, “civil resistance”, “Trump and his enablers”)

Lawful - explain that this allows our organization to remain open/inviting, and minimizes risk
Nonviolent - explain your understanding of this term
Civil resistance - share that this is a body of 100s to 1000s of techniques that demonstrate lack of consent by the governed of the governing authority
Trump and his enablers - highlight who we are defining these people as, and that we are open to expanding this definition

Explain the values

Lawful nonviolence - covered above
Collaboration - Define collaboration. Explain its history/or and relevance to our work. Ask why collaboration can be challenging. Invite people to share how to successfully collaborate despite those challenges.
Integrity - Define integrity. Explain its history and/or relevance to our work. Ask how do you know if something is “the right thing”? Share your personal approach to cultivating integrity. Invite reactions and other ways of defining integrity.
Nonpartisanship - Define nonpartisanship. Explain its history and/or relevance to our work. Warn of the limitations of this value (should not conflict with our other values). Demonstrate how we are living this value (ie, our members are attending meetings of multiple political parties in Austin across the spectrum)
Professionalism - Define professionalism. Explain its history and/or relevance to our work.

State that we remain open to adjusting these core principles, but use a metaphor or example that illustrates their firmness (ie, they are “the firmest clay we are working with”)

Explain the concept of the “core principles” as “core DNA” of our campaign and how we are asking local chapters to commit to these core principles, as well. Use a metaphor of what this means (ie, we want to grow a forest with many trees). Explain that if attendees can agree to these principles, and our theory of change that follows, and help us continue to refine both, then we can be partners in this work.

Take questions

Invite people to react with an emoji or ask questions

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Collaboration

The action of working with someone to produce or create something
None of us can do this alone. Therefore:
We believe in collaborating internally and externally
Internal collaboration refers to

Collaborating with other group members and sharing our diverse backgrounds, experiences, knowledge, research, and expertise.

For this reason we want a diverse group of core volunteers who are different genders, races, backgrounds, careers and etc.

External collaboration refers to

Working with groups whose visions and missions align with ours.
Particularly we want to work with groups whose core principals align with ours (i.e. our principle of nonviolence)

It is only by working together that we can achieve our goals.

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Integrity

“Doing the Right Thing”

Merriam-Webster: “Firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values”
Cambridge Dictionary: “The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change”
The exact definition of integrity will vary depending on who you ask. What the “right thing to do” is will vary based on who you ask and the situation. However, having integrity means having a set of values to fall back on when trying to decide what you believe is right and wrong in that moment.

We ask campaign volunteers and chapter leaders to act with integrity when representing this group.

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K’s Notes:

Integrity:

Also known as doing the right thing. But whether you are talking about the definition or what doing the right thing is in any given situation, ask 20 people get probably 20 different answers. So we ask that our members try to always act with integrity and do the right thing in the moment.
This is particularly important as our movements become better known and become a torn in the side of the MAGA establishments. We have some examples from this group, and I have heard of others from other groups, where counter protesters or clear MAGA supports show at events in the hopes of scaring people or causing disruptions. We ask our members to act with integrity and try to defuse the situation rather than letting the MAGA annoyances get under people’s skin and actually cause problems. They want to goad us into giving up our integrity and values to make us look bad, and we can’t let them do that. We have to prove to people that we are on the side of helping and protecting people and that they are the trouble makers.

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Nonpartisanship

We are not affiliated with any political party.
We welcome all those who are pro-democracy and anti-authoritarian. We offer a place to fight back against authoritarians and their pillars of support. We also offer a place to fight for democracy, democratic ideals, and democratic (small d) leaders of all stripes, using legal and peaceful means other than the traditional, already-in-place systems.
We offer these opportunities to any and all regardless of current or past party affiliation (if any).

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Professionalism

Given the seriousness of our task, our goal is to maintain a professional atmosphere with basic communication etiquette.
Let’s start with examples of unprofessionalism that we don’t want:

Typing only in all-caps; redirecting conversations to off-topic subjects; skipping meetings without reason or notice (repeatedly); inappropriate cursing, ignoring guidelines of when, where or how to post on Slack; being disruptive in other ways; etc.

We understand this is a volunteer role and things happen. However, we ask that campaign volunteers maintain the professionalism and communication etiquette one would demonstrate in a professional startup nonprofit setting, because that’s what this is.

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K’s Notes:

Last but not least

Professionalism

“We hold ourselves to maintaining a professional atmosphere and maintaining communication etiquette” We are not asking people to wear suits and /or dresses (unless you like wearing suits and dresses), but we do ask people respect the commitments they have made and the time of others and consider how their communication comes across.
For example:

If you commit to a group or a meeting and something happens, we do understand, but we ask that you communicate with us. Continuous no shows with no communication as to why or no warning have led to people being asked to leave the campaign
Similarly, if you have a one-on-one scheduled and you need to reschedule cause something came up, fine. But, again, continuous no-shows is disrespectful and wastes the time of the person you are meeting.
And writing letters or notes in all caps can seem rude and abrasive and is not condusive to a professional working environment.
We understand emotions are running high and that people have other life commitments, but we want to be productive and make things happen and that requires professionalism from everyone involved.

Also, as you will see in a bit, we are working to set up a long-term non-profit to help end authoritarianism world wide so we do take our work very seriously.
Ok moving on to…

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What is the #ResistTrump Campaign’s theory of change?

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How can we reach a “future without Trump and his enablers in power”?

Act outside of governmental channels

Act within governmental channels

Break Trump’s “pillars of support”

Remove or Replace Trump

Bridge to Trump’s base

Note our constraints:

Mission, Values

Induce Trump’s Resignation

Lobby elected officials

Litigate cases

Vote them out

Ally with other anti-authoritarian groups

K’s Notes

We work …Any questions?

Nev’s Notes:

Explain that this is a “problem-tree” and that our reaching the vision is constrained by our mission and values�Share that we continue to develop and refine this theory of change (TOC) through dialogue and study
Explain the nature of the inside/outside approaches to change
Emphasize that we believe local chapters in the RTN will adopt idiosyncratic (unique) approaches to bringing this TOC to life based on their internal capabilities and external environments. Give potential examples [ie, Austin (Tesla factory and showrooms, Joe Rogan’s comedy house) versus Los Angeles (media industry) versus rural areas (Trump’s popular support)]
Explain that RTC does not aim to be top-down but instead grassroots-led with occasional coordination & coaching (ie, monthly or weekly coordinated actions, recommended weekly actions) - ie, 90% autonomous
Invite people to react with an emoji, ask questions, or state any aspects we may have missed in our TOC
State the basic criteria for successful nonviolent civil resistance movements

Erica Chenoweth’s 3.5% rule and link (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world)
Hardy Merriman’s Trifecta of Civil Resistance - Unity, Planning, and Discipline and link (https://commonslibrary.org/the-trifecta-of-civil-resistance-unity-planning-discipline/)
Chenoweth’s concept of “momentum” as mass (size of movement) x velocity (frequency of actions) - more specifically, Mass = The number of participants on any given day. Velocity = number of events in the 7 days prior to that given day

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Exercise: What are methods of nonviolent civil resistance?

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Visit database https://www.tactics.nonviolenceinternational.net/categories and show how to use it
Suggest tactics associated with each category: Protest (March), Appeal (Teach-In), Noncooperation (Strikes and Boycotts), Refraining (Suspending a Strike), Disruptive Intervention (Blockade), Creative Intervention (Conducting a Mock Election)

Exercise (12 minutes, groups of 3):

Remember your room number - this will be your group number
Introduce yourselves
Nominate a facilitator in your group to guide the group and share their screen

The facilitator should share screen and visit https://www.tactics.nonviolenceinternational.net/categories. Explore the database, and review at least 3 methods. Discuss, what the nature of the method? Read aloud the example provided by the database. Discuss its relevance (or lack of relevance) to our current authoritarian challenge.
Note that some of the methods in the database involve civil disobedience, which RT does not engage in.
Nominate a reporter to report back any insights, questions, or reflections shared during the discussion

Debrief the exercise with each group