I’ve been tightening the calls to action at each event, but it’s a really good question I revisit often. Broadly I have been giving both electoral (school boards, hyper local elections) and non-electoral (join PTAs, block associations, community orgs) calls to action. Would love input!
Tell people to show up and speak up where they already are. At their church, school, coffee shops, libraries, playgrounds, dog parks just talk to their neighbors about what is going on and what kind of world they want it to be.
I’ve been dreaming about restorative justice practitioners hosting post-rally circles so community members can share stories about how they connect to what they hear and each other and contemplate next steps/actions together. We’d need a lot of us, but it could be sooooo beautiful and impactful.
This would be AMAZING! People need to take the rally schedules and run with them IMO
I think I needed to hear this! Gears are now turning…
mutual aid is something that is very important. supporting your community with food, clothing, childcare, etc. so when they are facing economic hardships, they have a community to rally behind them. like what we saw with the LA fires—the gov didn’t help the people. the PEOPLE helped the people.
I’m sure you will invite strong local progressive candidates up to the stage once election season comes back.
Some networks to help organize and perhaps aid those of us who can only afford to leave the house for Doctor's appointments would be good. ORGANIZED postcard protests would be the best as far as I can see. But also transportation to protests and town halls would be good to.
Thank you @prisonculture.bsky.social for raising the question and @aoc.bsky.social for quick and thoughtful response. Great to see you two in contact.
This is all good stuff but people need to be looking well beyond electoral politics at this point. We have to build people power, protect each other, and use every lever we have to physically stop the advance of fascism.
I love a visual aid, so maybe sharing a QR code with local resources at events? Also great if some local orgs can attend in person to connect attendees with resources too, but even if they can’t make it in person a QR code or similar flyer of resources could help.
@aoc.bsky.social Remind people that their dollars are their votes. Shop local, grow local foods, care for neighbors, and divest what they can from Wall Street ASAP.
Tell people to join DSA and fill out the EWOC support form to organize their workplace!
Your voice could do a lot to reinforce @kenmartin.bsky.social's call to rebuild the Democratic Party at the local level - we need so many more precinct captains and functioning ward committees.
PTAs are mostly cowards and hide behind 'we can't endorse candidates' - you need to find the engaged parents who will actually go to school board meetings and run for local office.
And PTAs are not realistic (or engaging) options for so many working parents, especially those holding multiple jobs.
exactly. They are exclusionary bodies.
Connect the evil back to a concrete, existing org. Ask people to connect what’s happening to something tangible. MAGA is an idea but the GOP is concrete and exists. Make sure people know that what the Oligarchs are doing they are doing under then GOP banner.
I want to buy a awesome T-shirt that helps fund you. Please make it and more. A.O.C IS ANTI OLIGARCHS CLUB!
Use multiple means to contact Electeds: district office visits/protests, calls, emails, postcards.... I've started sending postcards designed as mini-protest signs. Gettin' artsy with artivism.
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Find like minded people, stay in touch, keep each other informed, every where we go. Also, how about you and Bernie come do a local event, NY11 right here in BK and SI has a MAGA Congress Member. She has never held a town hall. 34% of people here on Medicaid. Come on out. We have great pizza too
It's Spring, and we should be turning our thought to community gardening. Gte together with your neighbours and maximise your gardening this year. Food may become scarce, and/or expensive. Hold meetings & study seed saving, & food preservation for the winter. Share overproduction with the others.
The rally happening IS the only call to action needed. Way for people to get energised, engaged and meeting each other. People need to figure out themselves what they should do based on what they're passionate about, what they can do, etc. Doesn't matter if the 'action' is chaotic.
It does matter whether or not the action is organized. If someone attends a rally, they are indeed doing something, but if they are then told that the next step is to do nothing more than what they're already doing, then no actual change has been effected.
WHO is telling anybody that the next step after rally is to do nothing? Organising is good but not an essential condition of action. And then, just like with abundance agenda, what organising and what action works in Wisconsin might be very very different what works in Washington St.
"The rally happening IS the only call to action needed."
I should note that I 100% agree with your comments about having a diversity of tactics. This is what I am responding to, though.
I think most of us wouldn't know enough about the inner workings of Congress to have said what needs to happen in terms of resistance when it came to the shutdown. There I definitely want AOC to say what to do. And she did, in spades and people followed the advice (call senators, etc).
In terms of what AOC needs to do. I was saying that I don't think it should be only on the shoulders of one person to hold the rallies, devise the detailed strategy and distribute 1000 pages booklets with tactics. She absolutely DID the action needed of her when it came to the shutdown
Things move fast nowadays (& the other side is devious), I think having the resistance with 'local commanders' that can be innovative and quick on their feet based on facts on the ground is more successful. My original assertion was that I don't think AOC needs to bullet point direct the resistance.
AOC/Bernie/etc are the figureheads that draw those crowds, inspire resistance (it's what Chuck didn't do), provide the moral underpinnings and the 10000ft strategy of the resistance. Local resistance people are much better at the tactics and organising that will work
The thing that matters now is mass and spread and for the resistance to be non-violent. It's important to create the impression that it's everywhere. Also anti-democratic forces only fear the population. Resistance needs to be leaderless initially until it reaches a tipping point.
The zone should be flooded with resistance. Much more difficult for the authoritarian state to know who to fight/where to aim. The rallies are there to build and keep the momentum of resistance going.
respectfully. no.
Great question. Thank you for that. The crowd sizes help me feel good, but what’s being organized here? Dems are still caving to the fascists. Now announcing they have McBride’s permission to throw trans people to the wolves. What are these crowds building? Where’s the movement?
Chaotic progressive actions (Occupy Wall Street, etc) got us to this point. MAGA has talking points and marching orders, we need talking points and marching orders.
What we really need is is a relentless red team. Talking points don't matter if you don't have the means to distribute them and repeat them enough.
I would argue that it would never work with talking points and marching orders in the Democratic coalition. It's too diverse and that's a good thing. Right now when people are exhausted, despondent, disorientated, fearful but angry, it does not matter if INITIALLY the resistance is brownian motion
What matters is that it's happening and building momentum and mass continuously. Also, it's not entirely clear what specifically would work. When it's diffuse, harder for the other side to counter attack. When enough mass built, then leaders can precision point the arrows
1) Get them to call their senators re: calling on Schumer to step down. 2) Get involved with an org doing progressive political work. 3) Start a union at your workplace: workerorganizing.org
Inviting local unions to come out and emphasizing the importance of organizing your workplace would be huge!!
I think that and any local officials too. People get into a blindness where they think the government only happens at a federal level with Bernie, AOC and Trump, but people need to get involved with city, county and state issues too. The people who wind up in DC are from those local processes.
this should be a top priority for all democratic politicians going forward. also, repeal Taft-Hartley, pass the pro-act.
at the denver stop i was very heartened to see the presidents of ufcw local 7, the CO education association speak & tell the crowds to organize their workplaces! plus jimmy williams from IUPAT!
Jimmy rules so much
dude he got us all hyped as hell, he was awesome
i honestly wasn’t expecting it to be THAT worker/union-centered but i lovedddd seeing so many union ppl there in the audience & lineup
Was thinking about college club fairs at the beginning of the academic year and how local orgs could probably use a well attended version of something like that for the general public. Gonna see if I can't try to put one together here in JC but maybe you can do this before your rallies?
I agree with @prisonculture.bsky.social !! it would be great to coordinate with local orgs beforehand—Immigration rights groups, resiliency and mutual aid groups, labor unions, the DSA, food pantries, non-profits, veterans groups… they could table w/info about how to get involved locally
Also I’ve been telling people to leave connected to one more person they didn’t know coming in.
Can you please ask Bernie Sanders to use the tools of the senate — filibuster, unanimous consent, anything else to oppose and slow down the authoritarian takeover?
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Are you even aware of this? bsky.app/profile/jenn...
@aoc.bsky.social when I watched your video of you speak and do this yesterday in Colorado (Greeley) I thought: Before she moves on she should ask the crowd to have the people they just met to make plans to reconnect in a week. Even if just to check in by phone or text or somewhere local. SUSTAIN IT
We're definitely at the "build community" stage of things as a citizenry.
😅 yep
Great question. The crowd sizes help me feel good, but what’s being organized here? Dems are still caving to the fascists. Now announcing they have McBride’s fucking permission to throw trans people to the wolves. What are these crowds building? Where’s the movement?
The pause in your speech to have the crowd introduce themselves to each other is incredibly powerful.
Ideally there should be volunteers in the crowd making sure everyone is signed up to receive follow up messages and passing out information for local organizations doing work on immigration, mutual aid, climate, elections, etc.
Local mutual aid, activist groups, nonprofits, and local indivisible groups could help with this
Can you make these specific calls to action clear in your social media posts about the events?
If the ultimate goal is impeachment, it seems like we need efforts to force GOP resignations. Perhaps we can take a page out of DOGE's make federal workers so miserable they resign campaign.
This is really good. @prisonculture.bsky.social has been encouraging folks to do this.
I went to a town hall this week and met a fiend from @electiontruth.bsky.social . My parents went to a demonstration in their town. We were just checking in and saying how much better and hopeful we feel after that.
*friend 🤭
spin these webs! 🕸️
You’re smart and good and went to BU. That’s enough for me.
Community is the first step in resistance
Please get your fellow members of Congress to do something (a standing rotating protest, for example) to tell them we are not ok with people being disappeared. (Among other things)
I worry they're being told the same thing to an extent @aoc.bsky.social . If I were MAGA, right now I'd be doing my best to tell everyone else on my team to strongarm the dissent out of anyone they think will take the message. Leave controlling one more person they weren't coming in.
One thing prisonculture does is that since a lot of people don't know what's going on, she encourages giving out short information flyers about Trump, DOGE, etc. The people at the rallies know, so you should be asking them to give out flyers.
Make the flyers! People take the flyers!
You may have already but perhaps for your staff and Bernie’s staff, picking up Mariame and Kelly’s book and use that as a basis for some concrete offers to the folks you’re engaging with outside of your district. Their language and approach is powerful and inviting - just what we need right now!
@prisonculture.bsky.social @mskellymhayes.bsky.social also created a companion workbook. It seems really important in this moment to invite people into popular political education while they’re fired up and ready to act.
Lastly, critical to stress that people listen to you @aoc.bsky.social - use your power for the most possible good!
Use the events to organize! Meet other connections!
Economic boycotts.
You are fantastic. Thank you !
AOC and Bernie Please try to come to Charleston, WV for an event. We need you here to explain to these people what is happening!!! They turned red for Krasnov in 2015. Horrible. Please set a date and come here. Thanks👏🙏🏼👍💞😘🦋
There was something you said in your IG livestream (Mariame talks about this a lot too): how ppl should show up where they can on the things they find important, and trust that others will show up elsewhere. That was a totally new concept to me
I’m not an organizer though so I’m not sure if generic calls to action at these types of events are less effective than more tight/S.M.A.R.T. types of calls
Would love an inclusive rally project adding live video with peer leadership and persons living with any disability (that keeps us from participating in public rallies). The voices of the houseless, housebound, institution bound, incarcerated speaking to these crowds
Ask people to stop making the broligarchs richer by using their products and services. Start with not using X anymore. Waiting for more ideas from those within the #altgov community 💕
Thank you so much for doing SOMETHING. It means a lot, if the ever growing crowds wasn't making that clear enough. Let us know when y'all are back in Maryland, we will top those crowd sizes no problem
start preparing folks to participate in a general strike ✊🔥✊ bsky.app/profile/more...
Ask people to get to know their neighbors. They can go to local stores, libraries & houses of worship & hand out KYR info. Once trust is built, train in rapid response & ICE watch. Accompany neighbors to imminent hearings. Form mutual aid coalitions. It's all about community building.
Would love concrete actions on supporting trans kids and adults—thank you for what you said the other day. ❤️
Here’s the Washington State pTA guidelines on joining! It’s a great opportunity. I do once a month art classes. wastatepta.org/can-pta-memb...
Could you please consider encouraging people to link up with their local DSA and Indivisible chapters, too? Maybe have reps from them involved in the rallies? I’ve been encouraging people to do that when they ask for specific actions for community-building strategies and it lands well!
Could your team coordinate with local/state action groups so they can be there to briefly tell people what they do/need? Or maybe have an area where groups can hand out info? It might give people a more concrete way to start.
Don’t forget that organizing in rural and semi-rural areas looks much different than it does in more suburban or urban areas. People need tailored toolkits, concrete steps, and local plus regional hubs. Baseline is always most vulnerable population/s. Community organizing and political organizing
Often overlap, but they aren’t the same. One is by the people, the other is (supposed to be) for the people. Folks with resources often have to frame of reference for what ppl without actually need, so they don’t really know how to help. Toolkits!
Ugh! *no frame. My kingdom for an edit button!
Here’s one ask/suggestion: They could start local groups in (via apps like Meetup) to get connected together in the local communities to help register and turn out new voters!
Direct calls to primary complicit Dems! None of this gets better without enablers being ousted.
Why are you giving props to Gallego? He is saying the kidnapped Venezuelans are a "political trap." He is hosting 5000 buck a plate PAC dinners with Andreessen as a speaker. He confirmed a bunch of nominees. No. I do not see how he is better than Sinema.
Please ask attendees to support and consume local media -- from their own communities, and from places where our policies are causing harm. A number of us would be happy to put together media sources for the places you visit, I would think.
Ask the local media to come out & cover it & introduce themselves to the community people could subscribe while they’re there?
Excellent idea if the event organizers invited local media and local indie journalists/creators to attend
Possible action items: 1. Continue to find ways to raise awareness to the coup 2. Help neighbors & co-workers find overt and covert ways to help 3. Hang in there - Nov 2026 is a marathon, not a sprint 4. No anticipatory obedience 5. Foster local economies supporting businesses inline with values
Sounds good! Will you join Rep Green in calling for impeachment?
Also, connect with local disability orgs and ask how they can help disabled neighbors through this.
Tell attendees to exchange numbers with 5 people next to them and start a weekly check-in. Have a sign-up sheet or a QR code to get texts about immediate actions and local meet-ups. Not for fundraising. We need to create concrete actions. Perhaps by teaming with people in advance for organizing.
Hoping with all this support, Trump can be impeached and prosecuted along with Musk.
There are a lot of good suggestions here and I would add even more local things like invite neighbors for coffee or drink. We (I live in a queer community of sorts) are going to set up a farm stand with free food and produce this summer for our rural community to take. To connect and know each other
Contact local groups before you go and invite them to volunteer & share information during the rallies (in the crowd). Local nonprofits, unions, immigrant rights groups, Indivisibles, etc. Encourage visible action, but also things like mutual aid, boycotts, prep for a general strike…
I've read a lot of stories that a lot of people don't know what's happening with Musk, EOs, etc., because it doesn't impact them directly (yet). Maybe encourage folks to talk to their friends and networks about what's happening? Share flyers in their neighborhoods?
Amer Legion, Sons of Am Leg, Amer Legion Auxilliary, Book Clubs, Grocery/Food Clubs, Sports Clubs, Health Clubs, Unions, neighborhood apps like NextDoor App. Let people know about @50501 & other sites for protests, strikes, boycotts.
Food banks are a central hub of connection and organizing here, and the work is increasingly necessary.
"mobilize your neighbors"....
Excellent. If there's an advance team at all, asking local community organizations to show up if they have specific volunteer opportunities with recruitment fliers would be good to add. How about local immigrant rights groups doing rapid response for ex? etc...
So much this!
Asking local community organizations to show up and also highlighting tools and steps to grow existing groups into community organizations. Like, does a percentage of your book club want to work on fighting book bans? Can your faith community start a food pantry?
Love this. Advance groups could suggest/start local Meetups to connect people who want to help register and turn out new voters. And educate people who want to be involved but don’t know how.
Yes! Set up a table and chairs and get the booths going! Love it!
You folks in the US need to do what the French do.
while i strongly agree, we are an enormous country, and people outside (and even inside) the US really don’t understand how massive an undertaking it is to get folks moving in that kind of way.
And our cops are armed like the military
that part
Doesn't help that your entire media apparatus is set against it too. But yeah you should be rioting at this point.
our mainstream media is all controlled by the oligarchy. but there are many independent outlets that are doing great work trying to educate the masses. in a country of 350 million people, about 3,000 miles, and half the population not understanding the scope, i’d say what we’re accomplishing is good
you’re not seeing the massive protests in every state/major cities because the news isn’t reporting on it, but it’s happening
I used the word riot for a reason ;) Yes I've seen some of the protests via social media channels. I don't think "nice protests" are going to help here. There needs to be mass disruption of some sort. I get that the logistics are next to impossible on this.
i can’t say what we need on a public platform but…your words have not gone unheard ;)
It might be a good idea for local community organizations go to #TeslaTakedown protests with some fliers to get protestors involed in the community too. And at @indivisible.org protests, too.
Doing something joyful as well, with people, that prioritizes DIY entertainment as opposed to consuming an entertainment product. There’s a danger that people will collapse inward into their own limited circles of security, and getting out of your usually traveled circles will help counter that.
I am so glad you're talking to @prisonculture.bsky.social !!! She is amazing and has the knowhow to help people organize on a local level that really helps!
Plug key issues that are part of fighting oligarchy specifically — I would have loved to have seen you/Bernie mention TABOR repeal in Colorado, the critical change we need to tax the rich on the state level.
Platform immigrants, families of those detained and federal workers who've been fired. Building momentum for a general strike. Pressuring GOP to dump Elon, pressuring Dems to dump Schumer and the senators who refuse to fight. And in 3 more months... new party tiiiiiiime
I've thought about this and consulted with him and I think your office and Sanders' office should call David Duhalde because he's the only living person who has had to corral the socialist, liberal, and enthusiastically Bernie audiences into meaningful long term action.
Gotta say, pretty hard to have any faith in you after you defended genocide and prostrated yourself for bidens crusty ass for his entire dogshit term
Continue educating ourselves about history: How authoritarian governments and dictatorships work and what successful resistance movements look like. Books like “Strongmen” and “When We Fight, We Win.”
I would suggest setting up local networks to check in regularly/set up potential volunteer assistance with the most vulnerable members of one's community, especially the elderly, disabled, families caring for disabled, and *people who don't speak English who may not be aware what's happening*.
Drive your ballot did this for voting and they have a good system that could work for broader use.
That's a really good idea! Do you know where to go to make contact with their organization?
I tried emailing them but no response. They are on Instagram.