By George Lakey
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2020
We’re making amazing progress mobilizing people to choose democracy. Large national progressive organizations are now quietly creating alliances to be able to move swiftly after the November election, even if some that are now going all-out to get out the vote.
Many people are signaling their willingness to go to direct action, if need be, to save our republic. Last week I did what I thought was going to be a local meeting on that subject, organized by Baltimore Quakers on Zoom, and found that over 700 people attended from over two dozen states!
Tonight we’re inaugurating the first national public trainings for a nonviolent direct action response to a possible Trumpian power grab. That’s a two-session training that attracted over a thousand people and is already full. The next is now open for registration: Oct 1/6. Go to ChooseDemocracy.us to register.
While there, be sure to sign the pledge – the more people sign the pledge, the more deterrence value it has for the wiser heads around our reckless President. (Let’s face it: they do sometimes prevail!)
The ChooseDemocracy.us website is loading evidence-based resources that help guide us when we face something new in our history, the possibility of a national coup attempt. Defeating a coup is strategically different from the social change movements we’re used to in the U.S. Thank goodness there are examples from other countries of successful use of nonviolent mass resistance that defeated a coup attempt, even by an army (which is not what we’ll be facing here).
I took a month of study to wrap my own head around the differences between defeating a coup and strategizing for social change. We can’t trust “what we used to do.†Don’t assume we all “rush to Washington,†or the federal building near you, for example! This threat challenges us to think freshly.
If you were a teenager who wanted to play more than one sport, you wouldn’t take your football rules into baseball season and tackle the pitcher of the opposing side!
We get the opportunity here to learn something new – a new “ball game,†to use the sports metaphor. Or, if you prefer, modern dance really is different from classical ballet! Dancers who do both need to keep the distinction clear!
ChooseDemocracy.us is on the frontier here, offering research-based materials to help you wrap your mind around the strategic differences and get ready for what – if it happens – could be your biggest moment in history! Keep returning to the website (which is planned to go out of business after our mission to defeat or deter a coup is complete).
More trainings will be announced on that website, so stay tuned, as well as to WagingNonviolence.org where my articles and those of others will continue to be posted.
For democracy,
George Lakey <glakey03@gmail.com>
Most recent new book (2018): HOW WE WIN: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning. https://www.mhpbooks.com/books/how-we-win/
Now available in paperback from PM Press: Facilitating Group Learning: Strategies for Success with Diverse Learners (2020).
Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT.org).
Columnist for WagingNonviolence.org
Global Nonviolent Action Database (http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu)
Recent book still popular: Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians got it right and how we can, too.