Your Role in the Resistance

Because it’s going to take all of us.

Protests and marches are important. But they don’t appeal to everyone.

The truth is that we need all sorts of actions to power this fight. That means that each of us can decide how we want to contribute our skills and passions to the resistance. You don’t have to do everything, but everyone has to do something.

Here are some ways you can contribute:

NETWORKERS are good at building connections with organizations and other changemakers.

1. Meet with progressive leaders focused on other issue areas. Find common ground and build coalitions.
2. Utilize social media or word of mouth to generate excitement and boost attendance for cause-related fundraisers, protests and rallies.
3. Encourage dialogue and collaboration, and make a habit of introducing people who could learn from or help one another, especially folks from different political ideologies, generations, and faith backgrounds. Also, help build civil society, whether it’s through PTA groups or unions.
4. Attend your local city council meetings, and consider running for office yourself, especially if you’re a woman or a POC. Now is also time to start thinking about midterm elections, and supporting progressive candidates in swing districts.

BUILDERS like to create projects that address problems directly.

1. Dream up creative resistance tactics, i.e. an online bulletin board and communication channels to alert people in your community about local actions.
2. Connect with local folks using entrepreneurship to solve an environmental or social justice problem, and offer your skills. Consider issues such as voter disenfranchisement, voter engagement, access to health care, reproductive rights or solidarity/allyship for vulnerable communities.
3. Rebuild the Democratic Party into one that appeals to all progressives, not just elites and intellectuals.

COMMUNICATORS are great at crafting messages at finding creative ways to spread information.

1. Amplify hopeful news stories about people around the country making positive change.
2. Don’t like what you see on the news? Create your own videos, digital memes, signs at protests, social media campaigns/Thunderclaps and news articles.
3. Help the Democratic Party craft a new message — one that is simple, coherent, emotionally compelling, and reflective of the hopes and dreams of everyday Americans.
4. Read about the history of all different types of protests. Share that information with your friends to generate a broader understanding of the roles of different types of protest (permitted v. not permitted, direct action, etc.) and the impacts they have had in different historical contexts.
5. Call your local representatives or The White House and voice your opinions every single day.

RESISTORS are willing to take bold action to get their point across.

1. Organize protests, boycotts, occupy actions and marches, and demonstrate against policies that stand in the way of our efforts to build a more sustainable and just world.
2. Join your local Indivisible organization and put pressure on your local representatives at their town hall meetings.
3. Start a movement to abolish the Electoral College.

NURTURERS are always willing to help out where they can, whether it’s providing encouragement in time of frustration or bringing snacks to meetings.

1. Help changemakers sustain the fight! Provide childcare, rides, hugs or home-cooked meals to those on the ground. Encourage friends to practice self-care and take time for themselves.
2. Get trained in allyship, racism un-training and facilitation, to promote a safe, inclusive environment at meetings. Also consider getting trained to be a legal observer.
3. Volunteer with a local organization focused on providing care such as food, housing, childcare, showers or medical care to vulnerable populations including women, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, the homeless and refugees. Also, help with fundraising efforts for these organizations.
4. Attend a Bystander Intervention training, and learn de-escalation strategies to fight harassment in real time.

INVESTIGATORS are skilled at doing research, ask the right questions and get the facts.

1. Engage in investigative journalism to fight back against “alternative facts”. 1a. Figure out ways to creatively disseminate this information beyond the “echo chamber”.
2. Establish performance metrics for the new administration and communicate policy happenings to the public.
3. Research what kind of economic policy would best appeal to and unite the working class.

Changemaker types courtesy of The Story of Stuff Project