L.A. Kauffman
@lakauffman
Veteran organizer, writer. She/her. Books: DIRECT ACTION and HOW TO READ A PROTEST. Occasional newsletter: DETOUR AMERICA lakauffman.substack.com
Standing-room-only crowd at @blueheronbooksny.bsky.social last night as @stephaniedavies.bsky.social read from her new essay collection, SURVIVING A PATRIARCHY ON STEROIDS. She shared my favorite of the pieces in this lovely book, a meditation on feminisms and trans survival in an era of backlash.
(Okay, it was a LOT of faxes. The district attorney declined to prosecute.) www.nytimes.com/1997/11/23/n...
A remarkable sign of the times: Legendary nonviolent resistance scholar and trainer @mariajstephan.bsky.social will be on @colbertlateshow.bsky.social tonight to discuss "what nonviolent action is, why it works, and how to take part in this growing broad-front pro-democracy movement."
The point of this fictional paper was to raise morale at a time of low energy, but it was more than that. Co-editor Onnesha Roychoudhuri and I based its stories on real historical examples, most notably Otpor!, the movement that drove the Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević from power in 2000.
The paper described how, after months of mounting protests and pressure from all sides, Trump had simply given up and abandoned the White House, slipping out of the country quietly in the dead of night. “Celebrations break out worldwide as Trump era ends,” read one front-page headline.
🧵 Seven years ago today, a small team and I fanned out in front of the White House and distributed copies of the Washington Post with a dramatic headline: UNPRESIDENTED - TRUMP HASTILY DEPARTS WHITE HOUSE, ENDING CRISIS The paper was a work of fiction, created with @theyesmen.bsky.social
I was interviewed in WE WILL RISE AGAIN: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope, out from @sagapressbooks.bsky.social on December 2nd. You can preorder the collection now at www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Wil...!
You can always count on The New York Times to minimize the scale and impact of protest. Yesterday's 2000+ No Kings actions smashed records for the most demonstrations in a single day. So the Times decided to publish a horseshit map of just a handful of "confirmed locations." We're not fooled.
There's a great deal of coordination taking place among pro-democracy groups, but the moment demands something even broader. Can we follow the example of Brazil's Pacto pela Democracia and build a truly big tent? My latest: open.substack.com/pub/lakauffm...
Chuck Schumer out here just underscoring how little he's done with the powers he has over the last 100+ days. What a pathetic excuse for an opposition leader.
How to spread courage in a time of fear lakauffman.substack.com/p/spread-cou...
I've started a newsletter, to share my reflections on pro-democracy organizing and strategy amid rising authoritarianism. My first issue takes on the crucial question of morale: lakauffman.substack.com/p/spread-cou...
One way to spread courage in a time of great fear is by publicly, effusively celebrating those who are refusing to cooperate with authoritarianism. Ask yourself: Who in your community is standing up for democracy, dignity, and decency? lakauffman.substack.com/p/spread-cou...
For the data nerds out there, here's a chart of the largest coordinated protests in U.S. history from my 2018 book HOW TO READ A PROTEST Today's "Hands Off" protests, in 1000+ locations around the country, rank as one of the very largest decentralized days of protests EVER.
If I remember correctly, November 29, 1999 was also the day of the iconic banner drop that framed the stakes of the larger protest mobilization. (This image also comes from the Citizens Trade Campaign archive.) The next day -- N30, as we all called it -- would be the big showdown on the streets.
The march was as wholesome and upbeat as a protest can be -- here's an image from the Citizens Trade Campaign archive that captures the goofy sweetness. Source: www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/trade-po...
Many of the marchers dressed as sea turtles, to protest a recent WTO ruling that had struck down sea turtle protections as unfair obstacles to trade. Here are some snapshots I took of my friend David that day.
Today is the 25th anniversary of the "Teamsters and Turtles" march, an exuberant convergence of organized labor and environmentalists on the eve of the Seattle WTO Ministerial, the scene of a historic conflict over democracy, governance, and global trade. (Tortilla, pictured, was two at the time)