The Progressive Movements Commons
We are rebuilding this site for a variety of
reasons, and apologize for the mess.
Some Links currently DO NOT WORK
A cornucopia of information for progressive individuals and movements
Challenging the Right-Wing Backlash
Notes about this website and its policies
Visit Common Dreams for “News and Views for the Progressive Community”
Top Taps Table of Contents | |
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What Does a Social Movement Need to Succeed? Slideshow for your Skeptical Friends: How Trump’s Rhetoric Fueled a Bigoted Right-Wing Juggernaut of White Nationalism, Heteropatriachy, & Repression
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Up Front – Our Spotlight On a Great Resource |
Author Sarah Jaffe Talks
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Featured Video: When Democracy Works. Made in 1997 — it’s still as Current as the Election of Donald Trump |
‘Social Self-Defense’: Protecting People and Planet Against Trump and Trumpism by Jeremy Brecher |
Groups,
Organizations, Websites
Key Sources for
Challenging Trumpism
- Center for Media & Democracy
- Center for New Community
- Colorlines
- Oh Crap! What Now? Survival Guide
- Online University of the Left
- Organizing Upgrade
- Political Research Associates
- Practical how-to guide for getting your members of Congress to resist Trump
(written by former congressional staffers) - Progressive Movements Commons <<< you are here
- Research for Progress
- Weathering ]]]the Storm
- What Do I Do About Trump?
Reliable Media: No More Fake News!
Reliable Websites from progressive, liberal, and civil liberties
organizations
- Alternet
- American Prospect
- Black Agenda Report
- Colorlines
- Democracy Now
- Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
- In These Times
- Indypendent
- Labor Notes
- Mother Jones
- Nation Magazine
- Progressive Magazine
- Utne Reader
- Washington Spectator
- Z Magazine
Public Interest Journalism
Regional/Local
Special Interest Commercial Media
Organizations and Groups by Topic
Democracy and Human Rights
American Promise
–Set reasonable election spending limits
Amnesty International USA
–Defending Prisoners of Conscience
Demos
–An equal say and an equal chance for all
Facing History and Ourselves
–Resources for Teaching about Genocides
Open Democracy
–Global Information Network
People for the American Way
–For a diverse democratic society
Peace & Antiwar
- Code Pink
- International Institute for
Peace Education - Iraq Veterans Against War
- National Peace
Academy - VietnamVeterans Against the War
- Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom
Civil Liberties
Why should progressives support civil liberties and
free speech for all?
- American Civil Liberties Union
- Americans United for Separation of Church & State
- Center for Constitutional Rights
- Civil Liberties Defense Center
- Rights & Dissent
the merger of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee & Defending Dissent Foundation
Sustainability and Environmental Protection
Other Reliable Progressive Groups
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
Black Lives Matter
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Media & Democracy
Center for New Community
Changelab /
Scot Nakagawa’s Race Files Blog
Class Matters
Color of Change
Day Laborer Organizing Network
Domestic Workers Alliance
Guestworkers’ Alliance
Movimiento Cosecha
Highlander Research and Education Center
Institute for Southern Studies
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Move On
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Children’s Advocacy Center
— Multiple State & Local Affiliates
National Law Center
on Homelessness & Poverty
National Lawyers Guild
National LGBTQ Task Force
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
National Organization for Women
National Urban Indian Family Coalition
Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress
Our Revolution
People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
Political Research Associates
Race Forward / Colorlines
South Asian Americans Leading Together
Southeast Asian Freedom Network
Spirit House Project
Showing Up for Racial Justice
United for a Fair Economy
United for Peace & Justice
US Human Rights Network
(Member Groups)
Working America
Working Families Party
Zinn Education Project: People’s History
Regional & State
- Institute for Southern Studies
—Facing South
—SouthernExposure - Montana Human Rights Project
- New Florida Majority
- New Virginia Majority
- Project South
- Rural Organizing Project
(Oregon) - South to South
- Southerners on New Ground
- Western States Center
International
United Nations
–Global Sustainable Development Goals
–What are Human Rights?
–Universal Declaration of Human Rights
–Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Urgent Care:
A Section on Safety and Security
U.S. Constitution: Amendment I.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right
of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
government for a redress of grievances.
Click above to read a lot more about what it means
Remember: The First Amendments protects ideas,
but not actions that break laws
♥
Why should progressives support civil liberties and free speech for all?
♥
When libertarians are our strategic or tactical allies!
{in the queue}
Jump to list of civil liberties groups
Movement Building
The Basics
When movement leaders create a coherent and persuasive
interrelated package linking a group’s Ideology, Frames, and
Narratives it helps build powerful social movements on the Left
and Right
- What Social Movement Needs to Succeed
- Building Ethical Alliances and Coalitions
- Establishing Principles of Unity
- Social Movement Theory for Progressive Activists
Visualize an Online Resource Hub for folks interested
in building human rights, civil liberties, civil rights,
and progressive movements; and it maintains bibliographies,
and an extensive glossary of terms
< click me!
Race, Gender, Class – try to separate them
and you help build systems of oppression.
Is Organizing Enough? Race, Gender, and Union Culture
by Bill Fletcher Jr., Institute for Policy Studies and Richard W. Hurd, Cornell University
Race, Gender, and “Essentialism”
Thoughtful analysis from Colette Guillaumin, 1995. from her book Racism, Sexism, Power and Ideology. London: Routledge.
Organizing to Block Trump’s Plans
Start with this excellent slideshow from Organizing Upgrade
> Post-Election Slideshow
Then Read: ‘Social Self-Defense’: Protecting People and Planet
Against Trump and Trumpism by Jeremy Brecher
Research Resources
Being Regrooved
Strategic Rhetoric for Progressives
deals with the relative position of ideas and ideologies
while “Violence” is an act. Thus the term
“Violent Radicalization” undermines First
Amendment guarantees of free speech, and masks the wave of
surveillance and political repression being carried out by
US government. Avoid using the term “Radicalization”
in a pejorative sense in the current political climate.
(The Act or Methodology)
—Examples: Racist Terror, Sexist Rhetoric, Islamophobic
Articles, Antisemitic Posts. Homophobic Assault, Stigmatizing
the Disabled, Stereotyping Mexicans
—WHY? “Extremism” is a term used to
deligitimize any ideas outside the political Center; and to
suggest systems of oppression are something we all do not need
to confront.
Crimes” or “Ethnoviolence.”
—WHY? Because most of us tend to think those people that
“hate” are not like us, and so we do not confront our
own–often unconscious–complicity in existing systems of
oppression.
How Trump uses the rhetorical Tools of Fear:
systems of oppression in the United States are fueled by
Prejudice, Bigotry, Supremacism, and Ethnonationalism
which create fear and anxiety about losing power and
privilege in a society under stress
How does Trump’s rhetoric of “Scripted Violence” work?
Best Websites for Researching & Challenging Right-Wing
Movements
Since 1981
Political Research
Associates
The Premiere Progressive
Website for Studying
Right-Wing Movements and Institutions
Home
Page
Reports
Public
Eye Magazine
Read Stories Exposed by
The Center
for Media and Democracy
Using
Investigative Journalism
Major Focus Sections
Special Investigative Projects
Koch exposed (Koch
Brothers & Koch Industries)
ALEC exposed
(American Legislative Council
SPN exposed (State
Policy Network)
Trump Exposed
Major Sections
PRWatch
SourceWatch
Outsourcing
Business
Chambers (US Chamber of Commerce)
Right Web:
Tracking militarists’ efforts to influence
U.S. foreign policy
Scholar Bob Altemeyer
Donald
Trump and Authoritarian Followers
and
Authoritarianism
& the Tea Party Movement
People for the
American Way: Right-Wing Watch
Invaluable Collection of Lists of Right-Wing
Organizations
– People –
American United for Separation of
Church and State
Southern Poverty Law Center
Most extensive and reliable information on the
Ultra-Right, especially White Supremacists, Misogynists,
Antisemites, Islamophobes, and Homophobes
Center for Right-Wing
Studies
University of California at Berkeley has a huge
physical archive
Right-Wing Populism in America
Online excerpts and many expanded
resources from the
book by Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons that
predicted the Tea Party and Trump
to Enlarge this nifty chart on
Right-Wing Populism and the “Producerist” Narrative”
Building Human Rights Network
(Currently Under Construction but with
topical search)
|
Major Introductory Overview of:
The Ideological Roots of the
Republican Party and its Shift to the Right in the 2016
Election
To successfully counter Trumpism, progressive organizers and
organizations need to expose the ideologies behind the Trump
campaign, and also show how they are rooted in
“mainstream” US society.
Abstract
Introduction
White Nationalism
Christian Nationalism
Heteropatriarchy
Neoliberalism
Conclusion
References
This study is by Alex DiBranco and Chip Berlet who
are busy writing a chapter on this for Routledge Press,
so please respect the copyright.
Coming Soon:
- Rugged Individualism {in the queue}
- Aggressive Militarism
- Planetary Resource Exploitation
White Nationalism, Right-Wing Populism, and Fascism
A slideshow originally created for Showing Up for
Racial Justice by Chip Berlet – May 16, 2017
This
link takes you to a slightly revised version
based on feedback from a panel of experts.
Bibliographies:
Chip Berlet’s
Reading List: ‘Trump, Populism, and White Nationalism‘
on the WorldCat website. These are the books I
frequently refer to when researching right-wing politics in the
US. I am working on smaller topical lists as requested by you
pests.
A
slightly out of date but nifty
Searchable database of books about right-wing reality
by critics, scholars, and participants —-
Developed for the Political
Research Associates library
Multimedia
At Organizing Upgrade
- Post-Election 2016:
Changed Terrain Demands a New Orientation (Slideshow
in PowerPoint .pptx)
—Facilitators’Resource Guide - Organizing on
Shifting Terrain
(A Changing Electorate and Rising Economic Inequality)
—Facilitator’s
Resource Guide - The Right, the Far
Right, and the Rise of Donald Trump
—Facilitator’s
Resource Guide - The U.S. Electoral
System and Progressive Electoral Strategy
–—Facilitator’s Guide - Resource Guide:
Election 2016 and Beyond
At Research for Progress
Video
Audio
Slideshows
Trump, Populist Rhetoric, and
Fascism (pre-election)
Bibliographies
Charts
Training Guide Track
Under Construction by Strelnicov & Friends at
Research for Progress
Resources
for Defending
Democracy and Human Rights
The FAQ Files:
The Truth is Filed Here
are the Different Sectors of the US Right?
A Chart from Political Research Associates
Under Construction and {in the queue}
Armed Citizens Militias
“Cultural Marxism”
Alt-Right
Dominionism
Fascism
Populism
Right-Wing Populism
— As
a precursor feature of Fascism
— Core elements
——Producerist
White Nationalism
——Demonization
& Scapegoating
——Conspiracism
——Apocalyptic
Narratives & Millennial Visions
—The
Sucker Punch of Right-Wing Populism
Right-Wing Movements & Groups
Key Institutions and Think Tanks
Cato Institute
Heritage Foundation
—Conservatism
—Patriot Movement
——Tea Party Movement
——John Birch Society
——Oath Keepers *
——Sovereign Citizens *
—Conspiracism on the Right
——Key Targets
———Saul Alinsky
———Collectivism
———Democrats & Liberals
———LGBTQ Community
———Obama linked to Hitler & Stalin
———Socialism
———Voter Fraud
———Welfare Recipients
Tools of Fear
—Demonization
—Stereotyping
—Discrimination
—Prejudice
White Nationalism
—as Ideology
—White Supremacy *
——as Ideology
——as Organized Movement *
———Ku Klux Klan Groups*
———NeoNazi Movements *
***Part of the Ultra-Right
Citizen Journalism
Training
Journalism Training Home Page
- FactChecking
- GettingStarted – Keeping Current
- Don’tLimit Your Audience
- Howto Interview
- ProtectingYour Sources
- Whatis Investigative Journalism?
- TheMuckraking Tradition
- Conspiracismis Not Investigative Journalism!
- Whatis Power Structure Research?
- UsingStyle Sheets for Publishing
Other Training Websites
On Radical Copy
Editing by Alex Kapitan
- MITCenter for Civic Media
- At the Largemouth:
- KeyCorrespondents
- MediaShift
- YouDecide
- CivicEducation for Media Professionals
- Searchfor more <<<
Chip Berlet’s Resource Stash
for Progress Website & Blog
What are the
Tools of Fear Used by Trump?
From Bigotry to Scapegoating to Violence
How Organized Wealth
Keeps Screwing U.S.
A Slightly Snarky History of the 1%
Given the trends we are facing, all of us who want to defend
human rights and democracy have to fight on four fronts. We must
organize against:
- The rise of reactionary populism, nativism, & fascism with
roots in White supremacy, xenophobia, Islamophobia,
antisemitism, conspiracist subversion myths, and the many
mutating offspring of the Freemason/Jewish banker conspiracy
theories. - Theocracy and other anti–democratic forms of religious
fundamentalism, around the world, which in the US is based in
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant with its subtexts of elitist
hierarchy, patriarchy and heterosexual privilege. - Authoritarian state actions in the form of militarism and
interventionism abroad and government repression and erosion of
civil liberties at home. - The antidemocratic pillaging by the greedster elites of
organized wealth and rapacious multinational capital
(neoliberalism) with their attack on the standard of living of
working people around the globe.
The Tools of Fear & Systems of
Oppression
Systems of Oppression in the United States that are fueled by prejudiced ideas, and which generate acts of discrimination and violence |
Racism
Sexism
Classism
Ableism
Homophobia
Xenophobia
Nativism
Antisemitism
Islamophobia
Religious Triumphalism
(and many more)
Forms of Discrimination:
Actions and Attitudes that create Systems of Oppression
Individual — i.e. person to person
Structural (defacto) — i.e. within
kinship, family, and/or societal structures.
Systemic (defacto) — i.e. political
systems (social democracy, fascism), economic systems
Institutional (defacto) — i.e.
Fox News, Tea Parties, John Birch Society, Heritage Foundation,
Free Congress Foundation
Legal (dejure) — i.e. Courts, Police,
Parole officers, FBI, etc.
These can occur singly or in combinations.
* defacto: discrimination enforced as a matter of fact without
being tied to a specific law, and sometimes illegal.
* dejure: discrimination enforced by being tied to a
specific law.
Note that the First Amendment protects prejudice in the form of
ideas without necessarily being tied to concrete acts, unless
these acts break an existing law.
Prejudice is Ideas — Discrimination is Acts
The First Amendment protects Ideas
Heroes Know Which
Villains to Kill:
How Coded Rhetoric by Demagogues
Incites Scripted Violence Against Scapegoats
by Chip Berlet
A New Inclusive Formula
Prejudice
+ Power
—————-
= Oppression
This simple formula allows us to
discuss
interrelated
“Systems of Oppression”
that keep us apart
but also explore the intesectionality
that could unite us into a powerful movement
for justice, democracy, and human rights.
Favorite Hoax Quote
Mussolini Said What?
The
Hoax Quote on Corporatism
Seek
Peace
Nurture Nature
Challenge Oppression
Build Human Rights
Defend Democracy
Demand Justice
Resist Repression
Notes on this website and its policies
This website features progressive organizations
and tends to avoid links to Inside-the-Beltway groups, with overly
close ties to the Democratic Party or mainstream liberal
organizations, because of their lurch to right in terms of
ideologies, analysis, and action plans since the 1970s.
There are hundreds of progressive organizations and movements
across the US. This page is a small curated collection of links
that highlights only a few of them.
Not listed here are progressive groups that offer training for a
fee, many of which are excellent. However free online resource
materials from these groups are linked when appropriate. We
generally do not link to information behind a pay wall.
This website was originally developed in 2008 as part of a set of
webtools demonstration sites as a way to urge progressive
movements to build collaborative online resources to fight the
right. It is currently is curated by Chip Berlet. In 2019 it will
be turned over to a consortium of progressive organizations who
will curate it in a collaborative manner.