abstract art picture of a group of people.

Resilience and Post-election Management: Sustaining Democracy Movements

Introduction

Webinar by the Democracy Resource Hub on insights, strategies & lessons learned from managing movements during a post-election period.

About the Webinar

In times of political transition and uncertainty, movements for democracy and social justice face critical challenges in sustaining momentum and adapting to new realities. This webinar, held on December 3rd, 2024 and hosted by The Horizons Project. This event was part of the Intermestic Learning Exchange Series hosted on the Democracy Resource Hub. (About Us)

The fight for freedom or democracy or equality or justice is not an event. It’s a process… And you are part of a process. You are part of a journey. – Evan Mawarire

The global panel of speakers included: 

Speaker Contributions

Evan Mawarire (Zimbabwe)

Founder of #ThisFlag movement, Democracy Fellow at Renew Democracy, and author of Crazy, Epic Courage.

Core Insights:

  • Movement as Process
    “This whole journey of the fight for freedom or democracy or equality or justice is not an event. It’s a process… And you’re part of a process; you’re part of a journey.” [00:10:00]
  • Strategic Victory Framing
    Drawing from Zimbabwe’s nationwide shutdown in 2016, Mawarire explains how movements can define success on their own terms: “Instead of that moment of them not changing beating us down, our own [re]framing of what our victory was to us in that moment lifted us up… We didn’t allow them to frame the victory for us.” [00:35:00]
  • Graduated Engagement
    “Each time people in our movement […] participated in a call to action and they were safe… When the next call of action happened, people were prepared to shift their comfort level… They were prepared to just shift it just a little bit more.” [00:40:00]

Isabella Cuomo

Trainer and Head Researcher, Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS)

Core Insights:

  • Protection Planning
    New research reveals urgent challenges: “We found 55 percent of participants have experienced physical abuse… 25 percent of respondents who identify as activists have attempted suicide.” [00:15:00]
  • Proactive Security
    “Activists are having a hard time creating something that can protect them before repression and ensure that they can keep going when it will inevitably occur.” [00:15:30]
  • International Learning
    “Now is a time for us to start looking to others and learning from others… We need to look to other countries that have recently experienced elections and backsliding in the way that we’re seeing in the U.S. and take lessons from those activists.” [00:27:00]

Ashley Johnson

Training Innovation Manager, Race Forward

Core Insights:

  • Learning as Process
    “Learning is a journey and a process and needs a particular container for unpacking and getting to some of this like root cause systems analysis that allows us to apply the learning to our worlds.” [00:21:30]
  • Collective Care
    “When one person burns out, then everyone who is in that movement space organizing space organization is then having to hold the person who is not willing to relinquish work, is not practicing care for themselves.” [00:58:30]
  • Building Connection
    “If we want to be learning from international solidarity efforts, we need to be having people feel connected to each other. And in the U.S. that is not the case. People do not practice connection. They do not have community.” [00:48:30]
A woman known as Ashley Johnson is speaking to the camera on a webinar call.

Q&A Key Discussions

Question 1: How can a well-known nonprofit develop a democracy-focused speaker program without jeopardizing nonprofit status?

[Link to video]

Ashley [00:46:11]: “I think that you should be encouraging your team to focus on like narrative strategy. What are the ways that you can be having some of these conversations intentionally that don’t… fall privy to the swinging pendulum of political ideology in this country.”

Isabella [00:49:03]: “Peacebuilding cannot be overemphasized and engaging the other side. It’s meaningful to sit down with that family member that disagrees with you. That’s powerful. Having those conversations, like, those are small victories.”

Question 2: How can we help American activists see that self assessment and resilience is not about the individual, but rather the collective?

[Link to video]

Evan [00:53:15]: “I have to understand as an individual that even though I may have started the movement, it doesn’t number one, belong to me. And number two, the onus is not upon me to complete the goal of the movement on my own.”

Ashley 00:57:34]: “When one person burns out, then everyone who is in that movement space organizing space organization is then having to hold the person who is not willing to relinquish work, is not practicing care for themselves.”

Question 3: How can activists and organizers address political violence from well-armed grassroots individuals and groups?

[Link to video]

Isabella [01:01:31]: “Physically speaking, you should be varying your daily routines. Do not take the same routes to and from the same locations you go to. Do not create predictability in where you will be.”

Isabella  [01:01:59]: “The first groups of activists that are targeted in that backsliding are people of color and women. So I would really really have that big call to action as a topic of discussion.”

Question 4: How to ensure that counter-movements born after elections are not hijacked by system forces?

[Link to video]

Key Response from Evan [01:07:38]: “Movements are not always going to be the exact same thing they were at the beginning. Right. It’s important to track the evolution of your movement.”

Isabella added [01:12:21]: “It comes down to strategizing and planning before victory or elections happen. If a movement is trying to make moves after victory and after elections have happened, you’re already behind your opponent.”

Question 5: What are the first steps towards a graduated approach for movement building for democracy?

[Link to video]

Key Response from Isabella [01:17:11]: “The largest movements we’ve seen are not singular movements. Instead, it’s better to think of them as a really big coalition of a bunch of other movements and a bunch of civil society organizations.”

Ashley emphasized [01:19:38]: “In those early stages of that loose coalition building, there’s just some transparent conversations about what and how we show up in relative relationship to conflict… and commitment to ongoing or shared learning.”

Resources & Further Learning

The following resources and learning materials are inspired by the event and the speakers. If you would like to add any additional insights or resources, please send additional insights resources and suggestions to [email protected]

Organizing and Resistance

Evan Mawarire & Zimbabwe

Book cover - Title reads 'Crazy Epic Courage'. Author reads 'Evan Mawarire'. Portrait photo of author with hands clasped in front of mouth.

Protection & Resilience 

Watch Full Webinar

About This Resource

This resource emerged from the fourth webinar in the Intermestic Learning Series: “Resilience and Post-election Management: Sustaining Democracy Movements” on December 3, 2024. Hosted by the Horizons Project, this series bridges international pro-democracy work with domestic organizing within the United States to support global knowledge sharing and solidarity.

The Intermestic Learning Series aims to foster a dynamic exchange of knowledge, strategies, experiences, and insights among organizers and movement builders from the United States and around the globe on defending and promoting democracy in their respective contexts.

The Horizons Project recognizes the urgency for diverse movements to come together in the United States to protect democracy, stand for nonviolence, and demand peace. Our vision, mission, and values represent our deep commitment to systems-level organizing with the existing ecosystem of social change.

The Democracy Resource Hub (democracyresourcehub.org) is a collaborative effort supported by the 22nd Century Initiative, United Vision Idaho, the SHIFT Action Lab, and the Horizons Project. It is hosted by the Commons Social Change Library. For more information and to access a wealth of learning resources to complement these webinars, visit the Democracy Resource Hub Collection

To learn more or get involved, visit:


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