RESOURCES FOR RESISTANCE
& CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

The Trump agenda can feel so overwhelming that it can be hard to know what to do or how to resist. We strongly believe that protesting in the streets is a great way to start. But we also believe that it is important to have next steps to resist the forces threatening American liberty and moral leadership. To that end, we have set up this page as a highly curated collection of resources for resistance. 

THE INDIVISIBLE GUIDE 

https://www.indivisibleguide.com/

This document was created by former congressional staffers, based on the (highly successful) practices developed by the Tea Party movement. It started life as a poorly formatted google doc, but interest turned out to be so high that it now comes in handy PDF form, and the authors have begun building additional organizational tools. 

FIVE CALLS

https://5calls.org/

Five calls is a simple tool that provides phone numbers and scripts for calling your legislators about the issues at hand. Your congress person very likely keeps a tally of the calls he or she gets on upcoming votes and can be pushed to do the right thing. This is important even if you live in a deep blue state, as Senators Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein recently demonstrated (to their shame.)  

TARGETED DONATION TOOLS 

https://secure.actblue.com/

https://givegreen.com/

It can be hard to know where to send money to make a difference. Act Blue and Give Green are tools designed to help you steer your donations to places where they will have the greatest impact. Both tools are designed to encourage change at the state/local level. This will be crucial for laying the groundwork for 2018 and 2020. 

https://swingleft.org/

Swing Left  is an organization aimed at rallying and targeting support support in potential swing congressional districts—districts in which the incumbent won their last election by a low margin and are considered vulnerable. Swing Left helps you find the districts geographically close to you where your money and time might make a big difference.

DIRECT DONATION

In addition to pressuring legislators, we must utilize our access to the courts. The American Civil Liberties Union, The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and The Electronic Frontier foundation are all passionate defenders of your civil liberties. Litigation is expensive but effective. 

Planned Parenthood does not litigate or lobby, but they do provide vital health services to women across the country. For low income women Planned Parenthood, is the only point of access to basic reproductive healthcare and screenings. 

OPSEC FOR ACTIVISTS (AND EVERYONE ELSE)

Short of Operational Security, OpSec is a set of practices that can help keep your data safe(r) from from prying eyes. It is important to note that there is no magic bullet in operational security. Like safe sex, the only real guarantee is not to engage in risky behavior at all. That said, good OpSec discipline can help protect you and people connected to you. 

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has compiled an exhaustive review of "tips and tools for safer online communication." You can access it at https://ssd.eff.org/en To supplement this resource, we collaborated with a security expert to develop an overview of best opsec practices for researching, organizing and protesting.

Remember that good OpSec is how you behave, not the tools you use.

YOUR PHONE

Your phone is of enormous concern—it is an amazing organizational tool and provides a connection point between the front lines of a protest and the rest of the world. It is also contains a treasure trove of data about you and everyone you know. Here are some OpSec basics related to your phone:

  1. If you are going to attend a protest, leave your phone at home.
  2. If you must bring a phone bring a pre-paid "burner" phone, rather than your regular smart phone.
  3. If you must bring your Smart Phone, sanitize it by deleting your contacts, messages, email and browser history.
  4. Lock your phone using a PIN or password, NOT your fingerprint. You cannot be compelled to give up your PIN without a warrant, but fingerprints meet a different standard and are not protected legally.
  5. Use whole device encryption.
  6. If it's going down, turn off your phone. It will require your PIN on reboot and it is harder for an attacker to circumvent encryption from a cold start. 

THE INTERNET

You may also feel the need to protect your identity and activity when browsing the internet. Use TOR for browsing. You can find what you need to get started here: www.torproject.com BUT be aware of the following:

  1. TOR is not a closed system and leaks some information that could be used to identify you (DNS can be aproblem)
  2. There are attacks against TOR that state level actors can use. 
  3. The more people using TOR the harder it is for states to target individuals.
  4. Don't do anything that can be tied to your identity via a TOR session (like logging onto facebook, watching Netflix, buying something with a credit card.)

MESSAGING APPS

Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal provide significantly more protection than iMessage. BUT be aware of the following:

  1. There are known methods of attack against these platforms.
  2. It is not easy to pull the trigger on those attacks. 
  3. Like with TOR, the more people that use these platforms the harder it is to target individuals.