#AltGov: the secret network of federal workers resisting Doge from the inside
Source: The Guardian
Wed 26 Feb 2025 07.00 EST
Last modified on Wed 26 Feb 2025 12.22 EST
‘Helping people before, during, and after (this democratic) disaster,’ says the #AltGov Fema account on Bluesky. Composite: Guardian Design/Bluesky
After seeing Elon Musk’s X post on Saturday afternoon about an email that would soon land in the inboxes of 2.3 million federal employees asking them to list five things they did the week before, a clandestine network of employees and contractors at dozens of federal agencies began talking on an encrypted app about how to respond.
Employees on a four-day, 10-hours-a-day schedule wouldn’t even see the email until Tuesday – past the deadline for responding – some noted. There was also a bit of snark: “bonus points to anyone who responds that they spent their government subsidy on hookers and blow,” one worker said. Within hours, the network had agreed on a recommended response: break up the oath federal employees take when hired into five bullet points and send them back in an email:
“1. I supported and defended the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
“2. I bore true faith and allegiance to the same,” and so on.
It was only the latest effort by a growing and increasingly busy group banding together to “expose harmful policies, defend public institutions and equip citizens with tools to push back against authoritarianism”, according to Lynn Stahl, a contractor with Veterans Affairs and a member of the network. Increasingly, the group is also trying to help its members and others face the thousands of layoffs that have been imposed across the federal government. Calling itself #AltGov, the network has developed a visible, public-facing presence in recent weeks through Bluesky accounts, most of which bear the names or initials of federal agencies, aimed at getting information out to the public – and correcting disinformation – about the chaos being unleashed by the Trump administration.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/26/altgov-elon-musk-doge-federal-workers
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