Occupy Tesla for a Revolution Against Fascism
Gripped by a constitutional crisis and fighting against a fascist coup attempt, tensions in the USA are high. Fortunately, we’re beginning to see some resistance come to life. So far though, the resistance remains contained mostly within middle class law and order liberal politics favoring symbolic protests. We need a more aggressive strategy, organizing for a revolution against fascism, starting with something like occupying Tesla showrooms like folks in NYC and London have done.
This organizing strategy should ultimately be rooted in building democratic assemblies in our communities and workplaces. These should play a key role in governing our movements, coordinate defending each other from fascism, and how to sustain that defense. They should also be how we coordinate mass direct actions, and grow our collective capacity for general strikes. In order to get there though, we should first consider where things stand right now.
One example of the emerging resistance is a new non-profit called Tesla Takedown, which seeks to stop Trump, Musk, and DOGE by lawfully protesting outside Tesla showrooms. Another new non-profit at the forefront of organizing protests against Trump, Musk, and DOGE is called Hands Off, while a third is called 505051. They all use simple websites like Mobilize.us and ActionNetwork.org to plan these symbolic protests.
Saturday, March 29th was Tesla Takedown’s Global Day of Action against Tesla. Protests took place at nearly every showroom in the USA and many abroad. The following Saturday, April 5th Hands Off and 505051 have mobilized protests at roughly 600 locations across the country. Despite these organizations symbolically fighting for democracy, or rather the supposedly democratic republic, there has yet to be any emphasis on actually building a democratic movement beyond the top-down non-profit industrial complex these groups seem to embody.
This presents an opportunity to build a broadly grassroots democratic movement out from under these grass-tops non-profit industrial complex efforts. By operating through an assembly structure, existing grassroots movements can push these emerging protest efforts into a democratic organizing model, not a top-down one.
Middle Class Law & Order Liberalism Will Only Keep Failing
The approach of lawful, symbolic protests led by a small group of unelected non-profit bureaucrats follows these grass-top groups’ overall middle class liberal politics. In the case of Tesla Takedown, it’s been focused on convincing people who own Tesla’s to sell them and for people with Tesla stock to sell that too. This makes some sense, but this results in their base of support remaining heavily those who have much more money then the majority of the country, more than the 60% of us who are living paycheck to paycheck for sure.
Regardless, who still thinks the whole “law and order” approach will succeed? During their last organizing call, the Tesla Takedown leadership kept repeating the goal, which was to save the supposedly democratic republic. Hands Off and 50501 are about the same thing, stopping “executive overreach” and bringing us back to a normal that never was. Didn’t the last presidential election already confirm that this messaging only really makes sense to the dwindling number of folks who’re actually in the middle class, those who may otherwise identify with the middle class, or those who foolishly still think they will one day get there too?
What good is this framework when most people recognize that there isn’t much democracy in the supposedly democratic republic, and never was? It just makes these movements look like defenders of the failed neoliberal status quo, which is what allows the fascists to keep pulling in support from poor and working classes. What’s more, none of these groups themselves are actually building movements rooted in democratic decision-making. Their approach revolves around unelected non-profit bureaucrats far away, calling all the shots.
Trying to save democracy by building broadly undemocratic movements isn’t lost on anyone and glaring hypocrisy is wildly uninspiring. To build a base beyond doomed middle classes, we need a fighting democracy beyond the capitalist settler colony and its republic. It’s why they aren’t attracting thousands at each location, despite an all out attempted fascist takeover of the republic.
Assemblies, Community Defense, and Mutual Aid for Strikes and Occupations
To stop fascism, we need these protests across the country to organize more than lawful symbolism. But in order to do this these movements need to actually have some sort of capacity to make decisions beyond the top-down authoritarianism of middle class law and order liberals. So the first thing we need is for the protests to lead to the formation of democratic assemblies.
In places like Detroit, communities recently created a local democratic assembly to defend one another against ICE raids and deportation. This approach emerged during Trump’s first term and faded away thereafter, despite Biden accelerating raids and deportations in an attempt to out fash the fash in the name of moving to the political center. Former VP and once presidential contender Kamala Harris called that “progress” and supported a genocide in Gaza. Now that genocide is coming for us all.
Other centrist liberal groups within the non-profit industrial complex like Indivisible are advancing their own version of assemblies under the brand: Gathering for Democracy. There was a recent example called The People’s Town Hall in Lexington, Kentucky. Though democracy is in the name, they are just forums “to invite dialogue.” It’s a start but it needs to get going in a hurry because dialogue won’t save us.
Liberal groups like Indivisible are doing much needed work helping ensure that undocumented communities know their rights. But the fascists will only step up the violence in response, including the possibility of deputizing tens of thousands of citizens to support ICE. We all need to be prepared to counter this or we will get crushed. That requires mass community defense.
Unfortunately, a lot of what exists under the label of “mutual aid” tends toward more usual volunteering in the model of tax-exempt small businesses. That’s hardly the solidarity not charity model folks claim it to be. Despite the fact that this can lead people to retreat into their own Social Darwinist political bubbles, the role of real mutual aid in sustaining the defense of our movements against fascist assaults will only become increasingly necessary. We need mutual aid that emerges from a mass democratic movement and is accountable to it.
Strikes and Occupations for a Revolution Against Fascism
Assemblies to govern, community defense and mutual aid to sustain, what about how all of this can then lead to a revolution against fascism? We need all this to coordinate strikes, occupations, and otherwise shut down the economy, bringing the corporate-backed fascist government to its knees. This requires going beyond middle class law and order liberalism, and bureaucratic business unions too.
Going back to Tesla; like all capitalists, Musk and his minions in management need workers, but workers don’t need them. Workers should democratically control production themselves. Workers should control all of Tesla and every other workplace. Democratic worker assemblies are how this happens. Worker and community control of the economy is what real democracy is all about, not the supposedly democratic republic of colonizers. This starts with Tesla, because it has become the beating heart of Dark MAGA fascism.
If all of this sounds like a lot, it is, but it doesn’t have to be intimidating. Though it’s only just a start, the Toolbox on the OccupyTesla.com website already has a short guide on organizing a protest or occupying a Tesla showroom. We’ve also got a short guide on how to organize a community assembly, worker assembly, and community defense. We’ve got a guide on how to canvass a community, another one on how to organize co-workers, and best practices for building rapid response community defense too.
We’ve got handy flyers you can print out and share at upcoming protests. We’re also putting out videos on Bluesky, much shorter intros that can be shared broadly. Check out our “Do Not Occupy Tesla” videos for a little humor mixed in. We hope they make you smile. We can smile, laugh, and make a revolution together.