President’s Letter: Power Protects

Dear friends,

We all experience crises during our lives — in health, in work, and in our closest relationships. These are moments of reckoning. Some people deny the crisis (“it’s not that bad!”) and try to delay the inevitable. Others keep doing things the way they’ve always done it, because the cost of change feels too high (“this has worked for me before”). A minority remake themselves in the midst of a crisis. These are the stories we all know — of people who transform their relationships, find the courage to pursue a calling, or radically deepen their spiritual practice and connection to the transcendent.

We are in the midst of a crisis for our democracy and for the future of this country. The deeply immoral bill passed by Congress last week will decimate Medicaid, food assistance, and many more crucial programs on which millions of Americans rely, give enormous tax breaks to billionaires, and expand an immigration enforcement system that is systematically separating families and harming the economy. The enactment of this deeply unpopular legislation is just the latest illustration of how deeply unresponsive our system of government has become.

This crisis is prompting a reckoning for many individuals, but also for foundations, churches, unions, community groups, businesses, universities, and law firms. Some people and institutions have been in deep denial about the level of crisis we face, or capitulated to assaults on fundamental freedoms. Others have continued to do 95% of what they were doing before the meteor hit, as though nothing has changed. But a growing minority have upended their plans and taken a leap of courage into new ways of being and operating. This courage to change to meet the moment is a source of profound hope.

Sarah Schulman writes about this phenomenon in her oral history of ACT UP, a collection of stories from those who devoted themselves to fighting AIDS. She wanted to find the pattern: Why did some people make the choice to take action when the vast majority did not? After a conversation with someone who did something, Schulman wrote:

Hearing this remarkable story, I suddenly realized that what all those ACT UPers had in common was not experiential. That there was no common concrete factor in their lived lives. Rather, it was characterological. These were people who were unable to sit out a historic cataclysm. They were driven by nature, by practice, or by some combination thereof, to defend people in trouble through standing with them….In case of emergency, they were not bystanders.

Reflecting on our current predicament, I share Schulman’s view that no particular factor readily predicts how people show up. I’ve been surprised to see some organizations and colleagues make few changes to their programming or approach and to see loud proponents of justice in 2024 get very quiet in 2025. And I’ve been moved to tears by bold leadership from people and groups I didn’t expect, taking risks that involved upending long-term plans or upsetting key stakeholders.

But I differ from Schulman in that I think this is not only a matter of character. Certain conditions enable people to adapt quickly to a crisis. Courageous leadership matters. Solidarity matters — people are much more likely to take the leap when they do it together. Resources matter — while money isn’t everything, changing in an environment of scarcity is harder. Agitation, a term of art in organizing, can help too. When friends who care about someone sit them down, listen deeply, and surface the contradiction between their stated values and their behavior — without haranguing or calling out — people can be moved to action.

It’s also important to have a viable strategic framework — when you take a leap, what’s on the other side? I recently argued in The Guardian that the pro-democracy field needs to step beyond status quo strategies and revive tools that have been used by successful movements for decades, especially the methods of strategic nonviolence.

We must use these tools to: disrupt authoritarian actions, through boycotts, strikes, and other lawful actions that exact economic and political costs; delegitimize authoritarian policies, by driving down public support for them; draw defectors, by welcoming those from across the political spectrum into a big-tent movement for democracy; and develop alternatives as part of a compelling vision for our shared future.

But even with all of these tools — even if you know you need to change what you’re doing — it’s not always obvious how to make the shift. Many of us have operated in the same organizational plans and structures — with the same ways of doing things — for a long time. We have all developed skill sets over many years, skills that are bound up with our identity. Even as we look around and realize that something different is required, deep down we may feel more comfortable simply sticking to our pre-existing plans and what we know best.

Having examples of organizations that have successfully turned the corner is crucial for overcoming these obstacles. So where can we look now?

I have been encouraged to see a number of bright spots, where groups in the field are showing how we can make the leap — and come out stronger for it.

This spring, I visited ISAIAH, a Freedom Together grantee in Minnesota. Over the past decade, this remarkable group has worked with allies to win major statewide policy victories and established itself as a national leader among state-based, power-building groups. Co-Executive Directors JaNaé Bates and Alexa Horwart call ISAIAH “an organizing home for people across race, class, and geography in Minnesota.” Like many homes, ISAIAH has multiple rooms, or programs, where people come together to advocate for issues that matter to them. They organize in rural communities and Black barbershops, in churches, mosques, and synagogues, among childcare center owners, nursing home facility workers, and manufactured home park residents.

Earlier this year, ISAIAH’s leaders decided that the organization needed to pivot to meet the scale of the crisis facing their communities and our democracy. They began by gathering top staff and member-leaders to reimagine the organization’s strategy. They decided to adopt an approach that favors flexibility, experimentation, and urgent action, with a focus on expanding on-ramps for organizing everyday Minnesotans — especially those not already activated.

“We are living through an extraordinary time,” wrote JaNaé and Alexa in the resulting strategy document. “To succeed, we must abandon business-as-usual approaches, discarding comfortable organizing plans….” That has meant fostering a willingness to try new things, an openness to failure, and habit of continuous iteration.

Driving all of ISAIAH’s organizing: the idea that “power protects.”

As people contend with the growing risk of speaking out, building collective power can offer protection. As Alexa and JaNaé say, “claiming your agency in public and inviting other people in is the way that we protect each other and build something bigger.” Authoritarian actions are designed to disempower us — organizing is the best way to counter this.

To understand how power can protect, consider a brand-new organizing program at ISAIAH for Muslim young people. When ICE began disappearing their friends and family earlier this year, many were afraid to speak up. But then they began connecting with each other and discussing ways to build collective power. ISAIAH recently brought together 400 of these young leaders to listen to and strategize with them, and is providing them with advanced training to help maximize the impact of their work. It is now organizing with them, too. As a result, many have moved from fear and cynicism to hope and action.

ISAIAH is welcoming these young people and many others into a broad “no” coalition, consisting of people who disagree with the authoritarian actions of this administration — regardless of whom they voted for last year. In its approach, ISAIAH exemplifies an organizing principle described by the political scientist Hahrie Han, a Freedom Together board member who studies civic participation: belonging before belief. That means creating opportunities for people to feel seen and heard, regardless of their political beliefs, as they go about building power. It is a crucial step toward building what we call a “bigger we.”

ISAIAH’s commitment to belonging is informed by its roots, which lie in the church. Though its programs now reach across religious communities and welcome those with no religious affiliation at all, faith still grounds its approach. The organization has sought to organize rural clergymembers through its new Project Lighthouse initiative, which this year has brought together more than 300 rural clergy across Minnesota to join the “no” coalition. So far, ISAIAH has trained them to advocate with elected officials on crucial issues facing their congregants, such as Medicaid cuts.

Out of its growing “no” coalition, ISAIAH aims to forge a “yes” movement. That means establishing and clearly articulating affirmative policy goals. This December, ISAIAH plans to gather 5,000 people from across the state — including major representation from Black congregations and Muslim youth — for a year-end congress, where they will set policy priorities and then work together toward achieving them.

Already this year, ISAIAH has succeeded in achieving policy victories. In the legislative session that just ended, ISAIAH and its allies won a $5,000 subsidy for childcare workers to send their own children to childcare — something many thought impossible. The victory fuels people’s willingness to take on even more challenging issues, from immigration to cuts to public education.

ISAIAH is demonstrating how organizations can and should take risks and experiment with new approaches. Its leaders emphasize that the innovative work required to stop authoritarianism doesn’t have to be perfect — we need to be willing to try new things, be open to failure, and keep improving. “At ISAIAH, organizers get to learn,” Alexa says. “In this house, we need to open up all the doors and windows and let people in.”

I am deeply encouraged by ISAIAH. It has demonstrated profound courage and strategic insight in response to the current crisis. And it models the design elements that researchers say make for the most effective civil society organizations. This design will be a key feature of a soon-to-be-released Freedom Together report (stay tuned!). And to learn more about ISAIAH’s vital work, please visit isaiahmn.org.

The existential challenges we face in this country raise many legitimate fears about our future. But the fear of changing organizational habits, plans, and strategies cannot be one of them.

ISAIAH shows us that we don’t need to be in perfect alignment to act. That we don’t need to have all the answers ready before we take a leap of faith. And that by building a “bigger we,” we can build the power that will protect us all. It’s our best shot to secure a democratic future.

I know we can do it.

In Solidarity,

Deepak Bhargava