"The resistance is alive and well - and our research shows it" from The Guardian

[Lulu KC]

I found this fascinating--tied together various avenues of discussion over the last two+ months. Enjoy.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/28/protest-research-trump-musk

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In February 2025 alone, we have already tallied more than 2,085 protests, which included major protests in support of federal workers, LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant rights, Palestinian self-determination, Ukraine and demonstrations against Tesla and Donald Trump’s agenda more generally. This is compared with 937 protests in the United States in February 2017, which included major protests against the so-called Muslim ban along with other pro-immigrant and pro-choice protests.

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Historically, street protest and legal challenges are common avenues for popular opposition to governments, but economic noncooperation – such as strikes, boycotts and buycotts – is what often gets the goods. Individual participation is deliberately obscure, and targeted companies may have little interest in releasing internal data. Only the aggregate impacts are measurable – and in the case of Tesla, Target and other companies, the impacts so far have been measurable indeed.

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In the face of such changes, the public’s most powerful options are often withholding labor power and purchasing power. Calling in sick from work or school, refusing to buy and stay-at-home demonstrations are notoriously difficult to police. Last month, an inestimable number of people participated in such actions to highlight a Day Without Immigrants. The prominence of billionaires in the administration and populist anger toward them make this type of approach even more viable in today’s climate.

Indeed, the diversification of resistance methods puts the United States on a similar trajectory to many democracy movements of the past. In anti-authoritarian movements of the 20th century, economic noncooperation – more so than protest alone – was the coordinated activity that split elites and made way for democratic breakthroughs. In apartheid South Africa, it was the enormous economic pressure – through boycotts of white-owned businesses, general strikes, divestments and capital flight – that brought the white supremacist National party to heel and elevated reformers who were willing to do business with Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress.