A steadying comfort in the hellish first week of the Trump administration has been the strength and diversity of the resistance against him. We’re seeing well prepared, well organised groups rolling into action and fighting on many fronts – protests, boycotts, legal challenges, pressure on politicians (both in the US and overseas). It’s a huge reminder of the importance of community organising and campaign literacy.
There’s a lot of useful resources out there for campaigning against Trump – one that I was struck by was GrabYourWallet.org, because it’s a great example of nimble campaigning. GrabYourWallet highlights companies that are associated with Trump, so that consumers can boycott and lobby them if they choose. They’ve used existing tools to quickly and effectively share their message.
It’s as simple as it could possibly be – it’s just a Google Doc, with the grabyourwallet.org domain name pointing to it, demonstrating beautifully how quick online organising can be. You don’t need slick, expensive sites – just useful, timely information, presented in a clear way. This basic document has been shared over 142,000 times on social media.