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It was only through that solidarity that South Africa could envision a future different than the past. It is only through that solidarity that we can do the same.
Hypocrisy, political convenience – these forces possess a gravitational pull. So often, it is easier to make a concession, to relinquish a long-held belief, to abandon a principle than to hold firm. That was true when the world asked Madiba to compromise on apartheid. It was true when many asked him to abandon the Palestinian struggle for freedom. And it remains true today. But in that moment, as Ted Koppel pressured him under bright lights, Madiba showed us the power of solidarity universal and unyielding – solidarity extended to all, solidarity even when the injustice is contested, solidarity even when there are many who seek to deny what you know to be true. Solidarity, as Pope Francis told us, is uncomfortable. Solidarity, as Madiba proved for 95 years, is not just a value, it is a strategy. In his demand of solidarity from himself and from each of us, Madiba becomes more than a man, more than a messiah: he becomes a mirror. When we hear his refusal to abandon those with whom he shared common cause, do we recognize ourselves? When we hear his willingness to lose power before he loses himself, do we recognize ourselves? When we hear his devotion to solidarity, not as an abstract concept but as a call to action, do we recognize ourselves? Or do we recognize only the version of Mandela that asks nothing of us? Too many do.
VI. The Bottom Line The standard electoral playbook (register, GOTV, knock doors in October) treats the 89 Million as a mobilization problem, but the data says it’s an organizing problem, a trust problem, and a power-building problem, all happening on increasingly authoritarian terrain. Hardy Merriman’s civil resistance tradition tells us conditions don’t determine the outcome. Skills do. Strategic choices do. Unity and planning and discipline do. So the 89 million are not lost. They are unorganized. The 3-point drop in Black turnout isn’t inevitable. It’s the product of suppression, abandonment, and the absence of any political home built for them. Those are conditions. Conditions can be transformed by skilled intervention. The intervention is a pipeline, not a program. Three entry points for three populations, feeding into the same engine of civic habit, building toward the same outcome: a community of people who have rediscovered that collective action works, that their participation matters, and that the structures designed to exclude them can be overcome by organizing to change them, not by waiting for the system to change on its own. Or as Merriman puts it, drawing on Nobel laureate Thomas Schelling, the tyrant and the people are in symmetrical positions. Either side, if adequately disciplined and organized, can deny the other most of what it wants. It remains to be seen who wins. The answer depends on who organizes first. Nothing we want will be handed down. We can’t win without each other. Know your roles.
Lane 3: Expand the Frame (For the Ideologically Out) Merriman principle: An effective strategy provides options for everyone (the poor, the wealthy, the young, the old) to do something, small or large, to support the movement. Accommodate varying risk tolerance and capacity. These folks aren’t wrong that electoral politics alone are insufficient, because one single tactic won’t get us the world that we want. The intervention isn’t to argue them into voting; it’s to offer a broader frame that includes, but isn’t limited to, elections. “What do you actually care about?” Then show them the power map. Most people who say they don’t believe in voting believe deeply in their kids’ education, their neighborhood safety, and their water being clean. Map the power relationships: who decides, how they got there, and what pressure points exist. Sometimes the answer IS electoral (school board, DA, city council). Sometimes it’s direct action. The point is the map, not the prescription. Mutual aid as on-ramp to collective power. People who don’t trust the government often trust each other. Buying clubs, childcare cooperatives, community defense, tool libraries: these are structures of interdependence that build the muscle for collective action. Merriman’s concept of “parallel institutions” is exactly this: the creation of alternative structures that demonstrate self-governance and build organizational capacity. The person who organized a neighborhood food share is one conversation away from understanding why the city budget matters. Governance beyond elections. Community assemblies, participatory budgeting, people’s platforms. On authoritarian terrain, this becomes critically important: when institutions are captured or hollowed out, building and utilizing parallel democratic practice preserves the skills, norms, and expectations of self-governance.
Lane 2: Build a Political Home (For the Sick and Tired) Merriman principle: Develop a shared and inclusive vision based on deep knowledge of grievances, aspirations, culture, and values. Unity means developing propositions that resonate with personal experience. The Lane 2 campaign isn’t a single fight. It's a campaign frame: multisectoral, multitactical, multi-issue work designed to produce three outcomes: loyalty shifts away from Trump, MAGA, and the administration; interdependence and solidarity across communities; and people power that compounds across cycles. The specific issues are local. The strategic objective is constant. This is the deepest work and the one campaigns never do because it doesn’t have a November ROI. But it’s where 76% of young people, those with no political community, actually live. Start with the material. Jobs, housing, food prices, gun violence, healthcare. Not “vote because democracy” but “here’s what’s happening to your rent, your grocery bill, your kid’s school, and here’s who has their hand on those levers.” The connection between local government decisions and lived experience is almost completely invisible to most people. Making that connection visible is organizing, not messaging. The South African UDF model is directly instructive: local civic groups pursued municipal demands (clean water, services) while building toward a shared national vision. Year-round issue campaigns that happen to include elections. The action isn’t “vote”. The action is “fight for this specific thing,” and voting is one tactic among many. Counter misinformation through trust networks, not broadcast. The AI-generated images and false credit narratives spread through group chats, barbershops, and social media, not through news. Our counter must travel the same routes. We have to invest in trusted messengers (not just influencers, but the auntie, the barber, the coach) and equip them with simple factual tools.
Lane 1: Interrupt the Lockout (For the Structurally Suppressed) Merriman principle: Diminish the impact of repression through accurate risk assessment and dispersed, irrepressible tactics. ID access tied to material needs. Frame ID acquisition around what people need IDs for (jobs, housing, banking, healthcare), not around voting. The data shows phantom barriers are as powerful as real ones. A “Do you know what you need to vote in your state?” tool can immediately interrupt confusion. Connect ID drives to existing community infrastructure: churches, barbershops, salons, health fairs, WIC offices. Logistical sovereignty. The 27% who said they were “too busy” include folks who are working two jobs without affordable childcare. The intervention: rides programs, childcare co-ops on Election Day, employer pressure campaigns for paid time off, and expansion of early/mail voting access. This is mutual aid meeting civic infrastructure in real time, on authoritarian terrain. These tactics, together, can become irrepressible at best, and at least, can set us up to make repression backfire. Registration defense. Purges are real, ongoing, and accelerating post-Shelby. A “check your registration” push 90 days out, embedded in activities people are already doing, is a dispersed tactic that doesn’t require mass mobilization to execute. One person checking their registration and telling three others is the pot-banging model applied to voter protection.
The Intervention: Three Lanes, One Pipeline The intervention is not “get people to vote.” It’s reconnecting people to their own agency through the things they already care about, and letting electoral participation sit inside a broader repertoire of power rather than stand in for the whole toolbox. That reframe matters, because the problem itself isn’t what the standard GOTV playbook assumes. This is an organizing problem. It’s a trust problem. And, critically, it’s a power-building problem, which is a different animal from either. Three populations. One architecture. Different ways in. The architecture runs on a habit loop: receive CTA → take action → prove it → recruit others → repeat. That loop must accommodate varying risk tolerances, available time, and capacity for sacrifice, exactly as Merriman describes for successful movements under authoritarian conditions.
Others in this news/activism list are @theonion.com @rbreich.bsky.social @moreperfectunion.bsky.social @prisonculture.bsky.social
Solidarity Social Update Solidarity Social launched its website (https://solidarity.social) on Mar 17,2026 with the announcement below on its account @solidarity.social which is hosted in the Solidar Network, a new ATPROTO network services operator. With a mission of “Building Trust, Organizing Action”, Solidarity Social connects Bluesky users via surveillance proof messaging, censorship resilient social media hosting and provides additional organizing tools for collective action. The Solidar Network is an independent, privacy-first, sustainable ATPROTO network operator that operates the Solidar App, a modified version of the Bluesky App that supports end-to-end encrypted messaging, and PDSes (Personal Data Servers) for hosting users’ ATPROTO/Bluesky accounts.The Solidar Network issues handles in the <solidarity.social> and <solidar.social> domains and support custom domains as well. The user accounts hosted by the Solidar Network, collectively make up Solidarity Social, a social network that is part of the Atmosphere/Bluesky and seamlessly interacts with <bsky.social> and other handles. Solidarity Social creates a space where movements advancing justice, democracy and resisting authoritarianism around the globe can find each other, collaborate safely, and rise together.
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Strikes are the MOST EFFECTIVE TOOL for ousting dictators & wannabe dictators. Let's get STRIKE READY https://strikeready.org
May Day 05.01.2026 Strikes are the MOST EFFECTIVE TOOL for ousting dictators & wannabe dictators. Let's get STRIKE READY.
ANTIFA won two World Wars.