Even with all their prisons and armed agents, oppressive structures are never as all-powerful as they want us to think. Regular people can fight back effectively for freedom and a better world. None of us has to do it all alone. There are millions of us and everyone can do something. Decentralized, persistent and varied opposition adds up. Here are some tips to fight the power.
• Our psychological ability to resist is the key thing we have to nurture, protect and defend. The biggest thing working against popular struggle can be our self-perception of weakness — not seeing how anything we can do as an individual can make a difference.
• Organizing with others can decrease isolation and powerlessness. Building trust face-to-face with friends, neighbors, family and at work makes everyone less afraid. You can join study groups, affinity groups or radical organizations, but parties, dinner guests and picnics help, too.
• We have to be for something, not just against stuff. Let’s clearly articulate our values and describe the world we want based on tolerance, abundance, compassion, health, freedom, sharing, beauty, inclusion, pleasure, environmental sustainability and love. Just being against cruelty, conformism, violence, greed, hierarchy and pollution keeps us weak and on the defense.
• Insurgents need joy, healing, rest and mutual aid to endure over the long haul. Eat and sleep!
• Disruptive actions can divert authoritarian resources and slow down their agenda.
• Decentralized leaderless movements are harder to crush. Build trust in small cells.
• Despots depend on people voluntarily complying and gradually adjusting as things get worse. Don’t alter your behavior before you’re forced to. None of this is normal or inevitable.
• Humor and ridicule are secret weapons. Tyrants rule through anger and fear — shift the script.
• Act out as part of your daily life, keep at it, and have fun. Rebellion brings meaning and joy.
• Here’s a catalog of actions anyone can take inspired by Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Action:
Banner drops
Blockade ports, train tracks, airports
Boycott Amazon or similar collaborators
Candlelight vigils
Circulate petitions
Copwatch
Create public art
Disclose identities of state agents
Display caricatures of our oppressors
Don’t help the police or army
Engage in pranks
Fasts
Funeral protests
General strikes
Give mock awards
Graffiti
Group bike ride protests or rallies
Hide dissidents or fugitives
Make zines and leave them around town
Marches and parades
Mock funerals
Mutiny
Nude-ins
Organizational open letters
Overload administrative systems
Pickets against government and business
Pie public figures
Prayer and worship actions
Prisoner support
Property destruction
Provide sanctuary
Public speeches
Quickie walkouts (lightning strikes)
Reclaim oppressor’s symbols
Refuse to conform to dress codes
Remove signs to create confusion
Rename public places to honor rebels
Renounce degrees or honors
Report sick at work (sick-in)
Resign from job in protest
Riot
Sex strikes
Sit-ins
Slow down traffic by dancing in crosswalks
Slowdown strike
Spell out slogans with rocks, sand or plants
Stay-in strike
Street party
Street theater / guerrilla theater
Student strikes
Take extended lunch
Tax resistance
Teach-ins
Tell subversive jokes
Torchlight march
Tree sits
Turn your back to oppressors
Paste up posters
Whistle or pot & pan “concerts”
Work-to-rule strike
Write and sing freedom songs
Write letters to officials