Not the first time the world or even the US has had to confront authoritarian rule, and there are smart, effective guides to help get us through this. Step away from ragebaiters who likely dominate your feed and turn to these four books. First two are short and can be read in a few hours each. 1/ - ThreadSky

flglusa.bsky.social • 12 days ago

Not the first time the world or even the US has had to confront authoritarian rule, and there are smart, effective guides to help get us through this. Step away from ragebaiters who likely dominate your feed and turn to these four books. First two are short and can be read in a few hours each. 1/

Comments

flglusa.bsky.social•12 days ago

First, Gene Sharp’s From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation. Face the truth. Don’t negotiate. Find the weaknesses. Plan and apply defiance, nonviolently, through multiple active channels. Escalate. Block the next coup. Includes 198 actions anyone can participate in. 2/

flglusa.bsky.social•12 days ago

From Dictatorship to Democracy is still in print, and a free pdf is available through the Albert Einstein Institution, which has many other resources in their library including a compilation of the 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action. 3/  

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62b0eb7da51f3717911bb4e1/t/642f2c6a956bc34188310fbe/1680813163028/FDTD+%28English%29.pdf

flglusa.bsky.social•12 days ago

Second, Frances Fox Piven’s Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America. While electoral politics and politicians can be useful, they rarely drive change. A practical history of disruptive power and dissensus politics in the US. Free pdf. 4/ 

https://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/jhamlin/4982/Challenging%20Authority%20How%20Ordinary%20People%20Change%20America.pdf

flglusa.bsky.social•12 days ago

Third, Mark and Paul Engler’s This Is An Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century, walks us through Saul Alinsky’s structured approach (which was appropriated by the right starting in the early 70s to lead us here to today), 5/

flglusa.bsky.social•12 days ago

…Piven’s more activist mass mobilization methods, and hybrid models like Serbia’s Otpor movement which overthrew the Miloševíc regime. As with Sharp, they emphasize the need to harden and institutionalize the change to prevent a return of authoritarian movements. 6/

flglusa.bsky.social•12 days ago

And fourth, Kelly Hayes and Mariame Haba’s Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care, is an essential guide to sustaining activism. Their prescription for mutual aid goes far beyond “do not obey in advance” to “do not abandon” people, ideas, rights. 7/

shazamzimzow.bsky.social•9 days ago

✨ essential reading ✨

tippedbeaker.bsky.social•12 days ago

Yes!
Here’s some other resources Kurt!
Thanks for sharing this!!!

Check out the stuff from non-violent conflict as well!!

https://bsky.app/profile/tippedbeaker.bsky.social/post/3lkq3zoilts2z