Action
We have not truly started to resist, yet. The “No Kings” protests have only signaled our intention to both resist and hold in solidarity with one another. This does not become real until we present a united, coordinated effort of civil disobedience that can be both measured and tracked.
Protests
Let us be clear about the fact that we are not just protesting The Office of the President of the United States (POTUS). We are denouncing the entire federal government as illegitimate. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is reversing the judicial decisions of lower courts that support a healthy democracy for the people. The Congress of the United States (COTUS) has abdicated its duty to provide a check against a rogue POTUS and a corrupt SCOTUS. Indeed, COTUS itself has become corrupt, fueling its ineffectiveness in this crucial moment.
We need to protest more often than every few months. I recently received a meme from a friend that criticized the infrequency of protests in the U.S. We should get to the point that we are staging protests daily, in order to continually signal the displeasure of the people. Every city that held protests for “No Kings” should have daily participation. Even if we only have a few dozen people protesting in each participant city, it will be a constant reminder to both our allies and our political enemies that we will not back down.
Parliament chambers should work with any activist groups that are organizing the protests. Groups such as 50501 and Indivisible are good places for community and city parliaments to start.
The most effective protests will be held in conjunction with other civil disobedience actions, such as boycotts and strikes. The protests themselves serve to help build solidarity amongst the participants, both signaling that we are not alone as individual actors and reinforcing our part in a larger, collective effort. At these protests, signs and messaging that broadcast the adjoining boycott and/or striking actions will not only build solidarity but also communicate to unaffiliated citizens who agree with the resistance that they have a community to tap into. This posture serves as a passive recruitment tool, giving others the courage to join the effort. Further, protesting in this manner continually broadcasts public discontent to the targets of the civil disobedience actions. This matters. Recall that the United States Declaration of Independence states that governments maintain power based on the “…consent of the governed…” Consistent messaging and actions that detail growing discontent amongst the populace indicates removal of that consent, thus removing legitimacy of the sitting government, weakening its power. Ultimately, these actions transfer that power back to its source and rightful owners, We, The People.
Boycotts
Targeted Boycotts
We can start with companies that support the Trump regime and/or those that have bent the knee to its authoritarian tactics.
The idea is to single out one company to boycott as a show of force. Once the impact is felt, we can add another company to the list, until we are boycotting a list of companies. We will also provide a list of demands that must be carried out. Otherwise, the boycotts are to continue, indefinitely.
The following companies are supporting Trump’s White House Ballroom as donors:
- Apple
- Microsoft
- Booz Allen Hamilton
- Lockheed Martin
- Palantir Technologies
- Carrier Global Corp
- YouTube (Possibly donating separately from their parent company, Google/Alphabet)
The following is a sample of companies that have abandoned DEI initiatives either in the whole or in part. Note: This is not an exhaustive list.
- Target
- Walmart
- Lowe’s
- Meta
- Disney
- Bank of America
The following are seasonal events that are important to the overall retail industry. We could consider boycotting these events, in order to attack the economy.
- Halloween
- Black Friday
- Cyber Monday
- Christmas
- New Year’s
- Valentine’s Day
- St. Patrick’s Day
- Easter
- Memorial Day Weekend
- Independence Day Weekend
- Labor Day Weekend
National Boycott
When we are ready, we should boycott a broad swath of the economy.
In this approach, we would only purchase groceries, necessary medicines, and any goods and services required for commuting to work. Additionally, we would continue paying for certain monthly expenses required to maintain our households (cell phone service, internet service, gas and/or electric service, water service, etc.). We would forego all discretionary spending. This means that we would both fix and recycle items as much as possible, in order to restrict retail spending to the minimum amount possible, only purchasing personal and household items when absolutely necessary. For example, we would mend old clothes as much as possible, before buying new clothes. The idea is to starve the entire retail industry from clothing to travel, from gaming to movie theaters, and from restaurants to bars/clubs. I know that many of us are supportive of local businesses that are not corporate chains, and we may not want to see them suffer, in the case of a national boycott. Therefore, a wrinkle could be to only support local, community businesses as a way to foster community building.
A positive of this approach is that we will have the opportunity to find alternatives for entertainment. This would be a great time to build community by socializing with others in our communities and cities. We could hold block parties, neighborhood movie showings, game nights, etc. This would also be a good time for us to hold additional planning and strategy meetings within our parliamentary chambers.
A negative outcome from this approach could be that we recognize additional layoffs, as companies experience falling revenues. In this case, we would need to be ready to support each other within our communities and across parliamentary chambers of all levels. Refer to “Solidarity & Funding” in Part II of the Civil Disobedience Framework.
Strikes
A prolonged, indefinite, general strike is the most powerful tool that we have, as the people of the United States. However, we have to acknowledge the challenges that we face to affect such an act. It is recommended that we grow to the point of holding a United States People’s Parliamentary National Convention, or Parliamentary National Convention (PNC) for short, prior to taking action toward a general strike (see “Parliamentary National Convention Hierarchy” in the “Parliamentary Structures, Hierarchies and Responsibilities” section in Part III of the People’s Parliamentary Charter). It is most probable that we will need interparliamentary support in order to maintain this level of strike. This would be managed at the national level.
However, once the steps have been taken to prepare for strikes, we should follow guidelines that help us to focus the striking action. These criteria will dictate our approach to the strikes. Meeting these criteria will enhance the effectiveness of striking action.
Criteria
As stated in all parliamentary writing up to this point, it seems inappropriate to prescribe specifics with regard to action. Rather, we should consider the philosophy of approach. The details of implementation should be determined during parliamentary debate, in relevant chambers, at the time of planning and execution. With that said, here are some ideas to consider when building the strike force of workers that will refrain from offering labor to the economy.
Labor Force Strike Numbers
The idea is to remove a great enough number of laborers of a particular type to the point that targeted industries and companies cannot hope to replace these workers by seeking help in the open labor market. The magnitude of the striking numbers becomes more important as the specialization of the labor type decreases. That is to say that the lower skilled the position, the greater the numbers that have to strike, since it will be easier for companies to find scabs – people who do not hold solidarity with the striking movement.
Labor Force Strike Specialization
Quite the reverse of raw numbers, the more specialized the labor type, the lower the striking numbers needed. By definition, highly skilled positions require greater talent and training to execute. Additionally, there are also less opportunities to attain these posts. Further, there are typically specializations and gradings that exist within these job classes, creating highly sought after niches among a smaller pool of qualified workers. This creates more opportunity to leverage losses of headcount against industries.
For example, Big Tech features software engineers, site reliability engineers, project managers, product managers, scrum masters, etc. The medical field has doctors of internal medicine, surgeons of various disciplines, anesthesiologists, registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, etc.
Changes in the labor market that remove the need for specific kinds of specialized labor can affect this approach. This is often associated with advances in technology. For example, entry level white-collar jobs have been affected by the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. It will be necessary to conduct research on the job type and available workers, before determining which fields of specialization are ripe to be chosen as strike targets.
Profile of Industry Target
The profile of industries and companies will help us when finding target rich environments for strikes. We are looking for opportunities to exploit weaknesses.
Questions we should ask:
- Is this industry or company one that operates on low margins? If so, then they may be ripe for attack. Low margins means they cannot go without workers for long before their bottom line dips into the red. This can be leveraged, and it may mean that the strike may be shorter lived, which reduces strain on both the striking force and the communities who are supporting them.
- Does this industry have a high percentage of specialized workers? If this is a targeted strike, then striking the specialized workforce may be all that is required. Additionally, industries that hire S.T.E.M. professionals typically leverage H1-B visas in order to attract foreign talent. As of this writing, the Trump regime has levied a $100,000.00 fee for new H1-B visas. Some companies are foregoing the acquisition of new H1-B talent, due to this price tag. This could give us more leverage when striking. Industries may be more willing to assist our cause in order to reacquire striking workers rather than pay for H1-B visas to replace them.
- If this industry underperforms, then will it create public outcry? Frustrated voters garner the attention of politicians. This public outcry could come from those who sympathize with our cause or those who do not. Either way, the combined dissatisfaction of both corporate heads and the public amplifies our message.
Profile of the Strike Team
We don’t have solid calculations on the number of supporting members needed to hold up striking members. It’s possible that we could need anywhere from two-to-four individuals or households to support striking individuals or households. That could mean a requirement of anywhere between twenty-four million and forty-eight million additional people available to support a nationwide general strike. I do not state this to dissuade us from considering this action. It is mentioned so that we understand the amount of work necessary.
Realistically, we’d need striking members to report their monthly subsistence necessities so that we can determine how much support will be needed to sustain them, over the term of the strike. Additionally, we’d need all non-striking members to report the resources that they can donate either monthly or annually to the striking initiative. This is another reason to manage this through the national chamber of parliament. We can roll up the expenses to the national level and leverage our national resource bank to provide a foundation for the strike. This is especially true in the case of a general strike. Any and all members who are efficient at working with numbers and accounting should donate their services toward managing the tracking of these resources. Those with experience in logistics will be needed to assist with both the gathering and the distribution of these resources. Members who are strong in planning, strategy and leadership – including communications – will be required in order to carry out executive actions; delegate tasks; mitigate consistent, detailed communication with all parliamentary chambers; report on mission needs and effectiveness; make recommendations for debates and votes on any potential adjustments to strategy; and maintain communications with all citizens not yet affiliated with a chamber, elected representatives, and both mainstream and independent media outlets. There will be plenty of work for all of us to do.
Targeted Strikes
Here are some ideas for targeted strikes for our current day.
Company-Specific Strikes
This kind of strike targets a specific company. While this has its effectiveness in certain cases, we should consider if this approach solves our current problems. This method would essentially shut down one company, but it may only push business in that industry to the target company’s competitors. Since we are attempting to mitigate systemic change, it may be more effective for us to focus on entire industries and sectors of economic activity (see “Industry Specific Strikes” below in this section).
However, this kind of strike should be retained as an option when we notice that a particular company is employing unjust labor practices, endangering the public with regard to its method of product and/or service provision to the market, or is one of a small subset of companies within its industry that is either engaging in or supporting other societally harmful practices. In this case, we would want to hamper the company and shunt economic activity to its communally compliant competitors.
Industry Specific Strikes
These strikes are focused on hampering a specific industry. Examples would be the automotive industry, travel and leisure, sports retail, etc.
This kind of strike will likely force us to be more strategic and pay close attention to the striking criteria mentioned. When targeting a specific industry, we need to be aware that many of the companies in these sectors employ both high-skilled and low-skilled labor. Low-skilled positions will require higher numbers of strikers, in order to disrupt that part of the industry. High-skilled workers will not require higher numbers, due to the likelihood that each striking member will be harder to replace.
For example, when striking against the automotive industry, specialized maintenance technicians and automobile designers and engineers would represent highly skilled assets. We would likely require a lesser number of these laborers to create impact as opposed to salespersons or parts associates. However, we should aim to affect all possible areas of the industry for maximum impact. This example is only meant to discuss the thinking behind the strategy when considering types and numbers of laborers to target for striking.
Logistics and Supply Chain Strikes
This kind of targeted strike aims to destabilize systems that other industries rely upon.
Consider focusing on the trucking industry. In this approach, sets of workers to focus on would be dock workers, truck drivers, load schedulers and dispatchers. Logistics and supply chain strikes also hurt entire industries as a downstream effect. Retailers across many sectors would be harmed because the trucking industry supplies goods of all kinds, from automobiles to children’s toys, from food and alcohol to arts and crafts supplies, and from electronics to sports apparel.
Another desirable target would be the airline industry. Eligible specialties could be air traffic controllers, ramp workers, pilots, flight attendants, and aircraft marshals. This kind of strike could also be considered as both a societal infrastructure strike and an industry strike since air travel is an essential part of modern life in all of these aspects.
Societal Infrastructure Strikes
This kind of targeted strike focuses on disrupting infrastructure that society relies upon. In this case, we would consider strikes among workers in waste management, postal services, local public transit and railroads. Many of these options cross over into the logistics and supply chain industry, as many companies execute verticals in their business for that purpose. As an example, railroads provide both passenger carriage (societal infrastructure) and freight hauling (logistics and supply chain).
General Strike
There have been successfully-implemented general strikes either within certain regions of the U.S. or within certain industries. Examples are the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the 1919 Seattle General Strike, and the 1934 San Francisco General Strike.
To my knowledge, there has never been a nationwide general strike in the United States. As stated in the preparation section for general strikes, we need a minimum of twelve million people to strike, plus additional members to support those who cannot support themselves without pay. Many of the same criteria used for targeted strikes will also apply to general strikes. It seems that the general rule of having three and a half percent of the total population engage in a strike might work due to the large number of workers abstaining from participating in the work force.
Even with that large number of people striking, we need to make sure that the striking workers can significantly impact the ability of the larger economy to field enough workers. We want to ensure that multiple industries are lacking the necessary labor to effect their function in society.
There isn’t much more to discuss with general strikes. This is the nuclear option. Most of the work here is in both determining target-rich opportunities and preparing to support the striking workers. I believe the large numbers involved should get us to where we need to be in terms of hampering the economy by denying labor. Again, once we are ready to launch a general strike, we should have enough active parliamentary chambers to hold a PNC. At this point, the national chamber should do its due diligence in analyzing the striking force against the relevant criteria.
Incidentals
Possible Retaliation
Let us take the time to consider that industry leaders might react to a strike by laying off more workers, in an attempt to disrupt a general strike. I could see this playing out in a few ways.
- They try to fire workers in an attempt to see if they can break our support teams.
- They conduct additional layoffs as a ploy to pin the loss of jobs on us, as a play to paint us in a negative light among the general public.
- They could try to send their own agents into parliamentary chambers as undercover agents, in order to disrupt operations.
These options could be among our answers.
- Stockpile resources, ahead of the general strike. We’d want to aim for somewhere around six-to-twelve months of resources. That should give us time to significantly hamper either the overall economy for a general strike or the industry/sector in the case of a targeted strike.
- Leverage a public relations campaign that uncovers the duplicitous behavior of the industry leaders. If effective, this could bring additional citizens to parliament. If ineffective, then we could potentially lose members, fail at the strike, or take a hit to the public perception of parliament.
- See “Always Autonomous” and “Protecting Our Power” in Part III of the People’s Parliament Charter.
We may need to have both a significant stockpile of resources and a strong public relations strategy, before we attempt a general strike. Food for thought.
Gray Areas
With respect to some federal positions, such as air traffic controllers, striking is considered illegal. These positions are considered essential. However, when dealing with a federal government that denies critical healthcare to children, murders citizens in the streets, and ignores legal court rulings, it might be prudent to consider this a gray area and behave accordingly. If We, The People, should decide to strike these positions, then it would be responsible to have all job-holders review their employment contracts in order to understand the repercussions of striking. Additionally, the communities supporting these strikers should consider how they can assist striking members in absorbing the financial and career blows that are likely inbound. Further, clear communication should be made with the employer so that operations can be safely spun down, without putting lives at risk.
Communications & Messaging
Posture
We need to stop arguing and debating with members of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. They have proven themselves to be both inhumane and intellectually dishonest. We should refuse to debate with such people. We should refuse to meet them halfway. Only once they accept that all people deserve human rights and civil rights, per our Constitution, and they are willing to have honest conversation in which they are willing to accept verifiable facts and data, should we even engage with them. Until then, it is all-out political and economic warfare that is meant to completely destabilize the Trump regime, the ineffective Congress, the errant Supreme Court, and the entire MAGA movement. Full stop.
When MAGA reverts to disingenuous approaches, described by either “whataboutisms” – rhetorical tactics used to deflect criticism by responding to an accusation with a counter-accusation or by raising a different issue – or DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) tactics, as they are often keen to do, we will cut straight through the tactic and refuse to engage, holding to the points that shine a light directly on their behavior and harmful ideology. We will not answer their dishonest questions. We will simply ignore them and move forward. We are the majority. As long as we are united, our voices will simply drown them out. Instead of debating MAGA, we should focus on our activist work of building a true democracy in the United States.
Public Officials
It will be vital that we maintain open communications with our city, state and federal representatives, during sustained civil disobedience. We need to send a clear message that outlines the actions that we are taking and the result that we want to accomplish. We should request assistance in the form of resources from our elected representatives. And we should keep account of those who act in solidarity and those who do not. For ideas regarding the kinds of resources we should request from our elected representatives, see the “Solidarity & Funding” section in Part II of the Civil Disobedience Framework.
These public officials can serve as key points for communicating our desires to any level of government to which we are making demands. We should still have a dedicated group of people from each community who are present for any meetings with those officials who have the ability to affect our requests. This allows for transparency with each community of citizens, permits parliamentary chambers to directly project their power, and familiarizes members with official government protocols and procedures.
Demands
We need to have a clear set of demands that communicate what we intend to accomplish with the execution of boycotts and strikes. As usual, we will not designate the specifics here. However, we can propose some ideas that can be used within parliamentary chambers to spark ideas for building lists of demands.
Here are some stipulations to consider:
- The removal of Trump, Vance, and their entire cabinet.
- To be accompanied with emergency voting to replace them with interim options.
- The removal of all MAGA associated members of Congress and the Supreme Court and those Congressional members who fail to serve the needs of the people (especially Speaker of The House Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Brett Kavanaugh).
- To be accompanied with emergency voting to replace them with interim options.
- The restraint of DHS officers, and specifically Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) practices of harassment, intimidation, and brutalization of all peoples within the borders of the United States of America, in accordance with the Constitution of the United States of America, the U.S. Code of laws, and any state and local laws, as applicable in the agents’ area of deployment in the field.
- The revocation and stated illegality of federal law enforcement agents to obscure their identity when deployed to U.S. cities, towns, villages, etc. All proven accounts of violations are to be prosecuted via expulsion from eligibility as a federal law enforcement agent and forfeiture of any and all stated restitution, as stated in any employment contract.
- The allowance and promotion of local and state law enforcement authorities to both arrest and prosecute any and all federal law enforcement agents who break local, state or federal laws, including the violation of individuals’ civil liberties, as stated within the Constitution of the United States of America, whether intentional, incidental, or accidental, when executing their functions across the country. Local and state law enforcement officials who refuse this role, when violations are reported, are to be likewise prosecuted, per law. We demand true accountability.
- The abandonment of the proposed White House ballroom and the restoration of the previous East Wing of the White House.
- The elimination of the current tariff regime.
- The extension of the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies.
- The Department of Justice must list all white nationalist groups as terrorist organizations, and it must actively both investigate and prosecute any and all members of those groups who commit any crimes, with extreme prejudice. This engagement is to be enacted retroactively to the fullest extent allowable by any statutes of limitations.
- An amendment to the Constitution that allows for a voting vehicle that can be used by the electorate to oust elected federal officials via a vote of no-confidence, at any time.
- The cessation of both funding and resource allocation, of any kind, to any sovereign nation that is involved in either genocide or ethnic cleansing of any kind.
- The release of the full set of all available Epstein Files, in both fully unredacted and unedited formats.
This list should provide a foundation to begin building a healthy list of demands that reflect the desires of the public. Additionally, we need a consistent point of contact that acts as public relations, in order to distribute our communications. By the time we’ve reached the point of nationwide action, we should be able to figure this out via the PNC.
We’ve introduced ourselves to the need for our civil disobedience, how to prepare for it, and what action looks like. There’s only one other consideration for our framework.
Up next, the final chapter of the civil disobedience framework: Marching Forward.