Inform Your Resistance

Prosecuting "Antifa": The Prairieland Case and Its Implications for Organizers

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 20:16:30 +0000

In this episode, Koki sits down with PRA Principal research advisor, Steven Gardner, to discuss the recent March 2026 verdicts in the Prairieland case from North Texas when 9 protestors were found guilty of a variety of charges ranging from providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, to concealing a document or record and discharging a firearm. The charges stem from an investigation following a noise demonstration and confrontation with local law enforcement outside a North Texas ICE detention center on July 4, 2025.

In court, the case hinged on accusations that these defendants belonged to an Antifa cell and thus engaged in domestic terrorism, premised on the 2025 Executive Order “Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorism Organization.”

Steven and Koki discuss the details of the case and trial, other instances of legal persecution of anti-ICE protestors, what these cases tell us about the Trump administration’s authoritarian project and implications for ongoing resistance organizing with concrete advice from Steven on how to mitigate risk without demobilizing.

Steven Gardiner is the Principal Research Advisor and former Research Director at Political Research Associates. He has been researching and writing in opposition to the politics of bigotry, violence, and authoritarianism since the early 1990s. In 2004, Gardiner received a PhD in cultural anthropology from Cornell University. Since earning his doctorate, he has taught more than 20 different courses at eight universities in the United States, Pakistan, and the UAE.

Episode Resources

Podcast Episode: “Prairieland and Antifa Terrorism”, It Could Happen Here, March 23, 2026
Ava Thompson, “Timeline: What we know about events surrounding the Prairieland ICE detention center shooting trial”, KERA News, February 24, 2026.
Steven Monacelli, “How the Prairieland ‘Antifa’ Verdict Threatens the Anti-Trump Resistance,” Texas Observer, March 19, 2026.
PRA Podcast, “All Eyes on Minneapolis: Lessons on Resisting Authoritarianism,” Inform Your Resistance, February 3, 2026.
Shane Burley, “The Great 2020 Antifa Scare,” Political Research Associates, July 13, 2021.

Fracturing the MAGA base: A conversation on the War in Iran and its Reverberations at Home, with Steven Gardiner

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 21:49:50 +0000

In this Season 4 bonus episode, Koki sits down with PRA’s Principal Research Advisor Steven Gardiner to discuss the outset of the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran, how the war compares to a history of U.S. imperial violence, and what it signals about the second Trump administration and its authoritarian project. Gardiner provides analysis of how the lack of support for the war signals possibilities for meaningful rupture in the MAGA coalition and adds significant complexity in the lead up to the 2026 midterm elections.

The conversation concludes with an evaluation of what this war means for anti-authoritarian organizing. What can and should organizers be doing to respond effectively in this moment? How do preparedness and resiliency factor into a strategic emphasis on recruitment and mobilization?

With the possibility of significant fracture within the MAGA coalition and historically low levels of support for the war within the U.S. electorate, this is a time to act—both to deliver a unified rebuke of the war and to block Trump’s authoritarian progress.

Episode Resources

Habiba Farh, “Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Author Q&A with Dr. Maha Hilal,” The Public Eye, February 14, 2024.
PRA Podcast, “U.S. Imperialism Comes Home to Roost: A Conversation with Ramah Kudaimi,” Inform Your Resistance, November 7, 2024.
PRA Podcast, “Belligerence Abroad, Repression at Home: From Venezuela to ICE, with Steven Gardiner,” Inform Your Resistance, January 20, 2026.

All Eyes on Minneapolis: Lessons on Resisting Authoritarianism

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 17:57:53 +0000

In this bonus episode, PRA researchers discuss the deadly ICE crackdown in Minneapolis and the powerful resistance we’ve seen on the streets. ICE continues to kidnap thousands with impunity, and the brutal murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti show the naked brutality of this authoritarian administration. But everyday people continue to defend their neighbors and communities: by organizing in neighborhoods, on street corners, at airports, and at City Hall; and by grinding business as usual to a halt and showing the entire country, and the world, what it takes to stand up in this moment.

To make sense of the moment, PRA’s Ben Lorber talks to fellow Senior Research Analysts Annie Wilkinson and Ethan Fauré, as well as Principal Research Advisor Steven Gardiner. They discuss the decades-long advance of today’s anti-immigrant movement from the margins to the MAGA mainstream; the strategies of lawfare, repression and fearmongering at the heart of the authoritarian playbook; and what we can expect from the Right moving forward. They also explore what the resistance in Minneapolis can teach us as we sharpen our own strategies to block the Right and build a better future. This episode was recorded on Friday, January 30th.

Episode Resources

Ben Lorber, “The Right Is Shocked by Anti-ICE Organizing,” Religion Dispatches, January 26, 2026, https://religiondispatches.org/2026/01/26/right-shocked-anti-ice-organizing.
Annika Brockschmidt, “Make No Mistake About Trump’s Minnesota ‘De-Escalation,’” Religion Dispatches, January 30, 2026, https://religiondispatches.org/2026/01/30/make-no-mistake-about-trumps-minnesota-de-escalation.
Kelly Hayes, “In Chicago, We Run Toward Danger Together,” Organizing My Thoughts, November 8, 2025, https://organizingmythoughts.org/in-chicago-we-run-toward-danger-together.
Ethan Fauré, “‘We Must Fight for Everyone’ for Immigrant Justice,” The Public Eye, September 23, 2025, https://politicalresearch.org/2025/09/23/we-must-fight-everyone-immigrant-justice.

Belligerence Abroad, Repression at Home: From Venezuela to ICE, with Steven Gardiner

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 08:00:38 +0000

In this season bonus episode, Koki talks to Steven Gardiner, PRA Principal Research Advisor, about the Trump administration’s early-January attack on Venezuela and escalating domestic confrontations around ICE enforcement, including the Minneapolis protests around the murder of Nicole Good. Gardiner describes how the kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro represents both a familiar extension of U.S. imperial power and a dangerous acceleration of presidential authority, bypassing Congress and normal democratic oversight. He explains that this belligerence largely resonates with the MAGA base, which accepts violent action when framed as efficient, hypermasculine, and rooted in authoritarianism rather than democracy or human rights.

Gardiner concludes with guidance for organizers: increase participation to prevent fatigue and stress; build strong, offsite support networks off the front lines; maintain the practice nonviolence, prepare for right-wing provocation, targeting, and doxing; and apply sustained pressure on those with the biggest voices. Effective action, he argues, must extend beyond the streets to counter an increasingly authoritarian state.

Steven Gardiner is Principal Research Advisor and formerly Research Director here at Political Research Associates. He has been researching writing in opposition to the politics of bigotry, violence, and authoritarianism since the early 1990s. In 2004, Gardiner received a PhD in cultural anthropology from Cornell University. Since earning his doctorate, he has taught more than 20 different courses at eight universities in the United States, Pakistan, and the UAE.

Episode Resources

Political Research Associates, “Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days: Authoritarian Gains and Consolidation,” The Public Eye, 2025.
Katherine Stewart, “Burning Down the House: What’s Behind the U.S. Antidemocratic Reaction?” The Public Eye, 2025.
Political Research Associates, “‘Do Not Let Grief Harden into Despair’: PRA Analyzes Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days, Part 1,” Inform Your Resistance, 2025.
Political Research Associates, “‘It's Never Just About Gender’: Gender and Authoritarianism: PRA Analyzes Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days, Part 2,” Inform Your Resistance, 2025.

Keywords

Venezuela attack, Nicolás Maduro kidnapping, Trump administration, authoritarianism, MAGA, foreign policy, ICE attacks, ICE raids, Anti-ICE protests, Renee Good murder, Minneapolis protests, Insurrection Act, hypermasculinity, U.S. imperialism, nonviolent resistance, right-wing provocation, protests, resistance, Far Right, fascism, repression, militarism

Beyond the Ballot: the Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism with Steven Gardiner

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 08:00:38 +0000

In this season finale episode, Koki talks to Steven Gardiner, PRA Principal Research Advisor, to reflect on the first year of Trump's second term and its implications for U.S. democracy. While the MAGA base remains about 15% of the U.S. and Trump’s approval ratings remain low, the Trump administration has chipped away at democratic norms, maintained control over the Republican party, decimated the bureaucratic state, and is poised to interfere with the 2026 midterms and likely 2028 elections beyond through strategies of “contested authoritarianism.”

But the highly visible actions of immigration enforcement, violations of the constitution, and nods toward White supremacy do not equate with chaos alone. Gardiner lays out how these are spectacles that mobilize, fear-monger, and deliberately normalize repression, erode democracy, and spur further political violence. He also discusses the effects of Project 2025 in action, attacks on trans rights and bodily sovereignty, and the roles of Dominionist theologies and Christian nationalism more broadly. The episode concludes by focusing on opportunities for division and dissent within the U.S. Right, along with the difficult but necessary work ahead to withstand election interference, register dissent, and continue to build the necessary power to overcome rising authoritarianism.

Steven Gardiner is Principal Research Advisor and formerly Research Director here at Political Research Associates. He has been researching writing in opposition to the politics of bigotry, violence, and authoritarianism since the early 1990s. In 2004, Gardner received a PhD in cultural anthropology from Cornell University. Since earning his doctorate, he has taught more than 20 different courses at eight universities in the United States, Pakistan, and the UAE.

Episode Resources

Political Research Associates, “Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days: Authoritarian Gains and Consolidation,” The Public Eye, 2025.
Katherine Stewart, “Burning Down the House: What’s Behind the U.S. Antidemocratic Reaction?” The Public Eye, 2025.
Political Research Associates, “‘Do Not Let Grief Harden into Despair’: PRA Analyzes Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days, Part 1,” Inform Your Resistance, 2025.
Political Research Associates, “‘It's Never Just About Gender’: Gender and Authoritarianism: PRA Analyzes Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days, Part 2,” Inform Your Resistance, 2025.

How 287(g) Expansion Fuels Mass Deportations

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 08:00:30 +0000

In this episode of Inform Your Resistance, Koki reads “Florida Is the ‘Tip of the Spear:’ How 287(g) Expansion Fuels Mass Deportations” by Jessica Pishko, as part of our ongoing From the Archives series. From the Archives features those must read and, now, must listen to pieces from PRA’s more than 40 years of publishing. This article was published in the Fall 2025 issue of The Public Eye magazine.

Resources

"The Unchecked Power Of Sheriffs," Fresh Air, 2024.

The New Frontlines of Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 08:00:36 +0000

How is ICE mobilizing on our streets today? What role does local law enforcement play in Trump’s immigration crackdown? And what are local organizers doing about it?

This episode is guest hosted by Cloee Cooper, PRA Research Director and host of The Insurgence: Sheriffs, a podcast series that uncovers how a national network of far-right sheriffs is mobilizing to create a White Christian republic, one county at a time. This episode features Felicia Arriaga, Jessica Pishko, and Camilo Garzón.

Felicia Arriaga, who is featured in episode four of The Insurgence: Sheriffs, is the author of Behind Crimmigration: ICE, Law Enforcement, and Resistance in America. Felicia is also a former fellow with PRA.

Jessica Pishko, who is featured in episode six of The Insurgence: Sheriffs is a lawyer and journalist. She's the author of the recently released book, The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy.

Camilo Garzón is an award-winning Colombian American writer, filmmaker, documentarian, and journalist. He is the founder of Cuentero Productions which produced The Insurgence: Sheriffs.

Episode Resources

The Insurgence: Sheriffs on PRA Presents, wherever you get your podcasts
Pishko, Jessica. “Florida Is the ‘Tip of the Spear’: How 287(g) Expansion Fuels Mass Deportations,” The Public Eye, 2025.

Coalitions and Contradictions between Capitalist and Far Right Agendas with Hialy Gutierrez and Claudia Espinel

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 07:00:28 +0000

In this episode, Hialy Gutierrez, PRA Deputy Research Director, and Claudia Espinel, discuss the connections and contradictions between prevailing economic systems, political infrastructure and ideology, and rising authoritarianism. We touch on the various ways that corporate power intersects with government, civil society, and media to prioritize profit accumulation and market dominance over human and environmental dignity and wellbeing. We also identify ways to sharpen movement strategy so that we can more effectively and more coherently fight back, not just against authoritarian leaders and governance, but also against the economic systems that keep enabling them. We highlight the urgent need to combine our narrative strategies to combat the spread of far right ideology with a clear, materialist strategy to build alternative economic systems.

Hialy Gutierrez is the Deputy Research Director at Political Research Associates, where she supports researchers in grounding and testing their analyses in a political economy strategic framework. She is also a cooperator in the solidarity economy ecosystem in Chicago; a PhD candidate and Fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she explores strategic relationships and possibilities across grassroots movements, state institutions, and alternative institutions; and a steering member of the NY-DSA political education academy where she helps to advance education on different expressions of socialism.

Claudia works as a consultant for the new Corporate Rights portfolio and political economy at PRA. After spending 15 years in organizational development for both for-profit and non-profit organizations, Claudia joined the PhD program in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago as a student. Her research focuses on the role of labor in neoliberalism and the forces and dynamics that create the conditions for labor exploitation. Claudia’s main research interests include non-extractive labor, cooperative governance, and democratic workplaces. She served as the research manager for the Community Wealth Building Project, a City of Chicago initiative that supports cooperative development. She also works on political education projects within Chicago’s worker cooperative ecosystem and has experience in building structures and processes to institutionalize democratized economic governance.

Resources

Media Justice. https://mediajustice.org/
Rashid, Qasim, Esq. “Corporate Media Is Capitulating to Trump,” Let's Address This with Qasim Rashid, 2025.
Torres-Spelliscy, Ciara. Corporatocracy: How to Protect Democracy from Dark Money and Corrupt Politicians. NYU Press, 2024.
Cooper, Cloee. “ What Is Movement Infrastructure? How Movements Sustain Us Amid Rising Authoritarianism,” The Public Eye, 2024.

“It's Never Just About Gender”: Gender and Authoritarianism: PRA Analyzes Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days, Part 2

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 07:00:06 +0000

This episode is the second in PRA’s panel discussion series, The First 100 Days of Authoritarian Gains: Key Analysis to Inform Our Resistance. This second part discusses how MAGA weaponizes gender to entrench authoritarianism. Looking at the essential role that anti-LGBTQ, particularly anti-trans organizing and policy and anti-reproductive healthcare access and abortion restriction play in reinforcing authoritarian norms and politics.

Research Analysts, Annie Wilkinson, Chancie Calliham, and Mary Reynolds are joined by reproductive justice movement leader Norbese Flint, for this focused discussion of the ways that gender and bodies are reified restricted and deployed by the U.S. Right to reinforce the cis-hetero Christian patriarchal norms that are essential to the authoritarian state making project both in the United States and abroad.

They conclude their discussion with a clear call to action that defending reproductive and LGBTQ rights and flourishing are essential to the work of resistance and provide key insights into how to do this extraordinarily necessary work. The discussion is inspired by PRAs recent Winter Spring 2025, issue of the Public Eye on gender and authoritarianism.

Resources

Gardiner, Steven. “Authoritarians Must Break Your Will to Resist — So What Can You Do About It?” Religion Dispatches, 2024.
Gardiner, Steven, and Tarso Luís Ramos. “Capitol Offenses: January 6th 2021 & The Ongoing Insurrection.” Political Research Associates.
Political Research Associates. “Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days: Authoritarian Gains and Consolidation.” The Public Eye, 2025.
Ramos, Tarso Luís, and Kathryn Joyce. “One Year In: A Q&A with Tarso Luís Ramos on Trump’s First Year in Office.” The Public Eye, 2018.
Wilkinson, Annie, and Mary Reynolds, with Nourbese Flint. “Authoritarianism, Criminalization, and Reproductive Injustice: A Roundtable Discussion.” The Public Eye, 2025.

Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism—Episode 1: What is Antisemitism and its Weaponization? A Conversation for Movement Organizers with Shoshana Brown and Ben Lorber

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 07:00:34 +0000

Inform Your Resistance is coming to you this week in between regularly scheduled episodes to introduce you to a new podcast series, Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism. This collaboration between Political Research Associates and Diaspora Alliance explores how to understand antisemitism and its weaponization and to fight for collective liberation. Amidst rising authoritarianism and Israel’s genocide in Gaza, this series offers a rigorous analysis of how authoritarians uses antisemitism and its weaponization as a tool to repress progressive movements and to dismantle democracy itself.

You can find all six episodes of Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism on the PRA Presents feed wherever you get your podcasts or on politicalresearch.org.

“Do Not Let Grief Harden into Despair”: PRA Analyzes Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days, Part 1

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 07:00:30 +0000

Our collective freedom is at stake. How do we prevent the most vulnerable from being excluded, targeted, or taken advantage of, while providing values, moral clarity, and the most strategic inputs possible? In this first of a two-part series, we share insights from PRA’s researchers about how to move beyond the work on blocking rising authoritarianism, to the work of building power, vision, and solidarity. Steven Gardiner, Ethan Fauré, and an unnamed PRA researcher in conversation with the Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart describe the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, and how to respond.

Our panelists provide an overview of the quality makeup and ideologies of the current Trump administration, the interplay between state repression, particularly of the Palestinian Liberation Movement, and Islamophobia and weaponized antisemitism, and the expansion of the deportation machine in direct alignment with the white nationalist anti-immigration movement. They provide deep insights into the White, Judeo-Christian authoritarianism demonstrated in extrajudicial violence, denial of humanity, further power disregard for congressional and judicial power, concentration of executive power, the “power of the purse,” and attacks on public speech, gathering, and due process.

Our panelists offer insights to focus your organizing, stay in community, right size threats to understand them more accurately, create counternarratives, get into the field, enact noncompliance, and identify and grow the fissures between factions of the Right.

Resources

Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days Authoritarian Gains and Consolidation by Political Research Associates
The Antidote to Authoritarianism with Jiva Manske by Political Research Associates (podcast)
What Is Movement Infrastructure? How Movements Sustain Us Amid Rising Authoritarianism by Cloee Cooper
Q&A: Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence: An interview with Scot Nakagawa and Hardy Merriman by Naomi Washington Leapheart
Book Review: Commune or Nothing! Lessons for Building Grassroots Power Toward Liberation and Democracy by Hialy Gutierrez
Book Excerpt: Three Way Fight: Revolutionary Politics and Antifascism by Xtn Alexander and Matthew N. Lyons
Rising Against Authoritarianism: Amplifying Voices for Immigrant Justice by Cloee Cooper
Religion Dispatches article: “Authoritarians Must Break Your Will to Resist — So What Can You Do About it?” by Steven Gardiner
Religion Dispatches article: “Trump’s Cabinet (and Other) Picks Paint Picture of a Christian Nationalist ‘Kakistocracy’” by Annika Brockschmidt and Thomas Lecaque
Religion Dispatches article: “Leading ‘Constitutional Sheriffs’ Org Announces ‘Full Support’ for Trump’s Mass Deportations” by Ethan Fauré

The Antidote to Authoritarianism with Jiva Manske

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 07:00:19 +0000

Today’s episode welcomes The 22nd Century Initiative’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, Jiva Manske. Koki and Jiva lay out key ways that the Left can and must build a shared vision of democracy, all while the pro-democracy movement is in a moment of extreme crisis. They talk through the “what is to be done?” about this moment, drawing inspiration from key strategies such as mobilizing, non-compliance, non-violent direct action, and alternative institutions like mutual aid, collective care, and infrastructures of solidarity. In discussing a range of accessible, non-violent actions both historic and current—from the 1930 Salt March across India to the street theater of 1970s Chile to the recent veterans D-Day protest in D.C. in June 2025—Jiva describes why we need to look to our past to build up resilience for our present, and in turn, seed the global democratic future we need and desire.

Jiva Manske is an organizer, strategist, partner, and dad who is connected to people around the world who are dedicated to building powerful, transformational movements. As Director of Strategic Initiatives for the 22nd Century Initiative, his work focuses on building a more resilient, innovative, and aligned pro-democracy field. His approach to change is grounded in a commitment to accountability through collective action, organizing led by those most impacted by injustice, and healing-centered practice. He has facilitated strategy, training, and change with youth, elders, activists, incarcerated people, educators, and government officials in Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Canada, Costa Rica, England, Iran, Ireland, Mexico, Peru, Romania, and throughout the United States.

Resources:

The 22nd Century Initiative, www.22ci.org (2025)
Grace Lee Boggs, Living for Change: An Autobiography By Grace Lee Boggs, Minneapolis: UMN Press (2016)
Chancie Calliham, ”Calling In Author Q&A with Loretta Ross,” Political Research Associates (2025)
End Political Violence, endpoliticalviolence.org (2025)
Freedom Trainers, freedomtrainers.net (2025)
Jean Hardisty, “The Resurgent Right Why Now?,” Political Research Associates (1995)
Lauren Jacobs, Worker Power in the Fight Against Authoritarianism, a conversation with PowerSwitch Action's Lauren Jacobs, Inform Your Resistance (podcast) (2023)
Political Research Associates, “Ground Rules and Tips for Challenging the Right,” Political Research Associates (2016)
Scot Nakagawa, The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook, antiauthoritarianplaybook.substack.com (2025)
Urvashi Vaid, with eds. Jyotsna Vaid and Amy Hoffman. The Dream of a Common Movement Selected Writings of Urvashi Vaid, Durham: Duke University Press (2025)

Why Authoritarianism Needs Gender Stereotypes – and Democracy Needs Gender Justice by Annie Wilkinson

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode of Inform Your Resistance, Koki reads “Gender and Authoritarianism: A Framework for Analysis and Action” by Annie Wilkinson, as part of our ongoing From the Archives series. From the Archives features those must read and, now, must listen to pieces from PRA’s more than 40 years of publishing. This article was published in the Winter/Spring 2025 issue of The Public Eye magazine, and you can read the article here.

The Neoreactionary Movement Defining the Authoritarian Rise with Steven Gardiner

Thu, 15 May 2025 07:00:00 +0000

In conversation with PRA’s Principal Research Advisor Steven Gardiner, he and Koki discuss the wide-ranging practices, policies, and ideologies underlying the antidemocratic goals of the Neoreactionary Right—and how to resist them. Diving into the foundations of white nationalism and Christian supremacy that prop up the billionaire agenda under Trump, their conversation pieces together the connections in topics ranging from privately owned micro states and the tariff regime intended to re-industrialize a post-industrial United States, to the fascistic, curtailing of opposition and checks on power.

Steven Gardiner is Principal Research Advisor, and formerly Research Director, at Political Research Associates. He has been researching and writing in opposition to the politics of bigotry, violence, and authoritarianism since the early 1990s. In 2004, Gardiner received a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Cornell University; since earning his doctorate, he has taught more than twenty different courses at eight universities in the United States, Pakistan, and the UAE.

Resources:

Peter Montgomery, “Project 2025: How Trump Loyalists and Right-Wing Leaders Are Paving a Fast Road to Fascism,” Political Research Associates, Feb 14 (2024)
Erica Verrillo, “The Neo-Reactionary Coup Erica Verrillo,” Medium, Feb 8 (2025)
James Pogue, “Inside the New Right, Where Peter Thiel Is Placing His Biggest Bets They’re not MAGA,” Apr 20 (2022)
Andrew Prokop, “Curtis Yarvin wants American democracy toppled. He has some prominent Republican fans. The New Right blogger has been cited by Blake Masters and J.D. Vance. What exactly is he advocating?,” Vox, Oct 24 (2022)
George Michael, “An antidemocratic philosophy called ‘neoreaction’ is creeping into GOP politics,” The Conversation, Jul 27 (2022)
Jason Wilson, “He’s anti-democracy and pro-Trump: the obscure ‘dark enlightenment’ blogger influencing the next US administration,” The Guardian, Dec 21 (2024)
Ben Makuch, “Extremist blogger to debate Harvard professor at unsanctioned campus event,” May 2 (2025)
Hialy Gutierrez, “Exposing and Resisting the Coordinated Attacks on Higher Education: Q&A with Isaac Kamola on Manufacturing Backlash,” Apr 16 (2025)
Scot Nakagawa, “Why They're Winning And What We Can Do About It: An Issue of the Anti-Authoritarian Playbook Newsletter,” Apr 9 (2025)
Alyssa Bowen, “The Education Wars: Author Q&A with Jennifer C. Berkshire,” Political Research Associates, Dec 13 (2024)
Ben Lorber, “Three Way Fight: Author Q&A with Xtn Alexander and Matthew N. Lyons,” Political Research Associates, Mar 11 (2025)
Steven Gardiner, “End Times Antisemitism: Christian Zionism, Christian Nationalism, and the Threat to Democracy,” Jul 9 (2020)
Aidan Orly, “101: Christian Zionism,” Apr 24 (2024)

Keywords:

Authoritarianism, fascism, Far Right, techoauthoritariansim, NeoReactionary Movement, Neo-Reactionary movement, NRx, Dark Enlightenment, DOGE, Elon Musk, JD Vance, Stephen Miller, Peter Thiel, technofascism, technostate, White nationalism, Christian nationalism, private military, neoliberalism, Libertarian movement, labor, theocracy, microstates, Christian Zionism, state capture, Project 2025, Trump administration, Donald Trump, anti-immigrant, deportations, resistance, mutual aid, democracy

Leading in Resistance: Three Decades of Fighting Authoritarian and Supremacist Forces, A Conversation with Tarso Luís Ramos

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 08:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Koki interviews PRA’s former Executive Director Tarso Luís Ramos, who stepped down from his role in December 2024 after nearly two decades at the helm of the organization. With over 30 years of experience working, researching, and leading in the Fight the Right sector, Tarso has had an indelible impact in the social justice Left, informing the ongoing and evolving fight against White, Christian, patriarchal supremacy. In our conversation, he reflects on the fascinating ways that the terrain of contestation between Left and Right has shifted over three decades, what this evolution tells us about the possibilities and imperatives of this moment, and where he looks to for inspiration in an era of growing authoritarianism.

Former PRA Executive Director, Tarso Luís Ramos has been researching and challenging the U.S. Right Wing for nearly 30 years. At PRA, Tarso launched major initiatives on antisemitism, misogyny, authoritarianism, White nationalism, and other threats to democracy. Ramos is a sought-after public speaker and his work has been featured in The Guardian, The New York Times, and Time Magazine, among other outlets.

Before joining PRA in 2006, Ramos served as founding director of Western States Center’s racial justice program, and exposed and challenged corporate anti-environmental campaigns as director of the Wise Use Public Exposure Project.

Resources:

Nativist Bedfellows: The Christian Right Embraces Anti-Immigrant Politics by Tarso Luís Ramos and Pam Chamberlain for Political Research Associates
Listen to “Nativist Bedfellows: The Christian Right Embrace Anti-Immigrant Politics” on Inform Your Resistance Season 3, Episode 2
One Year In: A Q&A with Tarso Luís Ramos on Trump’s first year in office by Tarso Luís Ramos and Kathryn Joyce for The Public Eye
Multi-Racial Democracy, or Authoritarianism?: A Webinar Discussion and Excerpt by Tarso Luís Ramos at the 2018 Facing Race conference closing plenary
Capitol Offenses: January 6th 2021 & The Ongoing Insurrection, PRA State of the Right Report by Steven Gardiner and Tarso Luís Ramos for Political Research Associates
Press Release: Political Research Associates Welcomes New Executive Director Sylvia Broude

Right-Wing Grievances in Progressive Clothing: Canada's Far Right, with Mariel Cooksey and Amy Mack

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 08:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Koki speaks with researchers Mariel Cooksey and Amy Mack about the Far Right in Canada today. They discuss the evolution of the Far Right and its disparate movements, the current rise to prominence of the Far Right in provincial politics, and the discordance between a rich history of anti-democratic organizing and a profound global reputation for progressive liberalism. Is Canada as exceptional as it seems?

Mariel Cooksey is the Executive Director of the Canadian Institute for Far Right Studies. Her research background focuses on Christianity and far-right extremism in the United States and Canada, with an emphasis on antisemitic and “Radical traditionalist” Catholic groups. She is currently researching the overlap between Gen Z internet culture, climate collapse, and accelerationism.

Amy Mack is co-director of research at the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies. Her research focuses on the resurgence of ethno-nationalist and white supremacist movements in Canada, and their use of social media to build communities and circulate their ideologies. She is currently researching their narratives of white male victimhood, belonging, and entitlement.

Episode resources

The Canadian Institute for Far Right Studies
Meet the Radical Right-Wing Group Seizing Power in Canada’s Conservative Heartland by Jeremy Appel for Jacobin
A Fundamental Difference Between Danielle Smith's Bill of Rights and What's Come Before by Jason Markusoff for CBC
Meet the Extreme, Far-Right BC Conservative Candidates Who Are Now Legislators Following BC’s Wild Election by Luke LeBrun for PressProgress
Why Are Gen Z Girls Attracted to the Tradwife Lifestyle? by Mariel Cooksey for Political Research Associates
Listen to “Why Are Gen Z Girls Attracted to the Tradwife Lifestyle?” on Inform Your Resistance Season 2: Episode 5

How Solidarity Provides the Path of Resistance: A Conversation with Naomi Washington-Leapheart

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 08:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Naomi Washington Leapheart explores the role of community and solidarity in creating responsive and durable strategies of contestation—of resistance—in our contemporary political moment. As PRA's Strategic Partnerships Director, Naomi presents empowering stories of how we at PRA inform our resistance movements, and as a reverend and community organizer, she breaks down the philosophical concept of community organizing to present a vision and plan for self actualization, collectivized risk, and the possibility of triumph through solidarity.

Naomi Washington Leapheart, PRA Strategic Partnerships Director, is a Black queer daughter of Detroit, and a minister, professor, and movement strategist. She has worked as a faith organizer and director for Power Interfaith, the National LGBTQ Task Force, and the Mayor's Office for Public Engagement in the City of Philadelphia.

Naomi teaches emerging scholars of religion and theology at Villanova University, Arcadia University, and Harvard School for Divinity. Music was and is her first love. In her spare time, she delights in singing with an all volunteer choir whose mission is to bring audible comfort and kindness to the bedsides of people living in hospice care.

Episode resources:

To hear Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart on other podcasts, check out this list.
Q&A: Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence: An interview with Scot Nakagawa and Hardy Merriman by Naomi Washington Leapheart
Book Review: Commune or Nothing! Lessons for Building Grassroots Power Toward Liberation and Democracy by Hialy Gutierrez
What Is Movement Infrastructure? How Movements Sustain Us Amid Rising Authoritarianism by Cloee Cooper
Book Review: Reverberations of October 7: Mobilization Against Genocide Undeterred by Peak Anti-Palestinian Repression by Palestine Legal by Habiba Farh
Fire Dreams: Making Black Feminist Liberation in the South: A conversation with Deon Haywood, Laura McTighe, and Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson by Kitana Ananda
Book Excerpt: Three Way Fight: Revolutionary Politics and Antifascism by Xtn Alexander and Matthew N. Lyons
Rising Against Authoritarianism: Amplifying Voices for Immigrant Justice by Cloee Cooper
Synagogue Safety Beyond Higher Walls and Militarized Police: An Excerpt from Safety Through Solidarity by Ben Lorber and Shane Burley

Strategizing for the 2025 Trump Regime Change with Steven Gardiner

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 08:00:00 +0000

In this episode, PRA Principal Research Advisor Steven Gardiner provides astute analysis on what has led us to this moment in history—when Donald Trump and the Republican Party have so decisively won the presidency and both houses of congress. Steven shares likely scenarios that may play out in Trump’s first year back in office, the implications of his chaotic cabinet picks for the implementation of both mundane and reactionary policy, and, most importantly, on the opportunities available to resisting the fascistic capture of the U.S. state.

Episode resources

PRA Statement on the 2024 National Election
Religion Dispatches article: “Authoritarians Must Break Your Will to Resist — So What Can You Do About it?” by Steven Gardiner
Religion Dispatches article: “While Nixon Sought to Secretly ‘Screw’ Political Enemies Trump’s Dictatorial Desires Are Less Modest” by Steven Gardiner
Religion Dispatches article: “Loyalty and Chaos Play a Role in Trump’s Nominations, But This Schoolyard Tactic May Provide a Better Explanation” by Steven Gardiner
Religion Dispatches article: “Trump’s Cabinet (and Other) Picks Paint Picture of a Christian Nationalist ‘Kakistocracy’” by Annika Brockschmidt and Thomas Lecaque
Religion Dispatches article: “Leading ‘Constitutional Sheriffs’ Org Announces ‘Full Support’ for Trump’s Mass Deportations” by Ethan Fauré

From Palestine to Atlanta: The Institutional Policing of Dissent

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 08:00:00 +0000

In this episode of Inform Your Resistance, Koki reads “From Palestine to Atlanta, Outside and Foreign: The Institutional Policing of Dissent” by Habiba Farh, as part of our ongoing From the Archives series. From the Archives features those must read and, now, must listen to pieces from PRA’s more than 40 years of publishing. This article was published in the Spring 2024 issue of The Public Eye magazine, and you can read the article here.

HAF Way to Supremacy: Rebranding Hindu Supremacy as Minority Rights, a Conversation with Safa Ahmed and Pranay Somayajula

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 08:00:00 +0000

This interview with Savera Coalition partners Safa Ahmed and Pranay Somayajula dives into an expose on the immensely influential Hindu American Foundation, or HAF, as a Hindu supremacist institution masquerading as a civil rights organization. We discuss HAF's reputation as a leader in civil rights and its true agenda to perpetuate caste discrimination and support for the authoritarian Indian Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP regime in the United States.

We discuss HAF's roots in the Hindu supremacist or Hindutva movement and its recent, more explicit shift towards the broader U.S. multiracial far right. We conclude with a discussion of the Savera Coalition's goals and strategy in bringing it down.

Safa Ahmed is the Associate Director of Media & Communications for the Indian American Muslim Council. She has written on Hindu supremacy and human rights in India for Al Jazeera, The Diplomat, Jacobin, Progressive Magazine, and several others.

Pranay Somayajula is an Indian-American writer and organizer, based in Washington, DC. He currently serves as Organizing and Advocacy Director for Hindus for Human Rights, an organization that was founded in 2019 to provide a Hindu voice of resistance to caste, Hindutva (Hindu nationalism), and all forms of bigotry and oppression. His writing has been featured in Jacobin, The Nation, and The Drift, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. He is also the host of Return to Bandung, a podcast that explores questions of imperialism, resistance, and internationalist solidarity throughout history and into the present day.

Episode resources

“HAF Way to Supremacy: How the Hindu American Foundation Rebrands Bigotry As Minority Rights,” Political Research Associates and Savera, 2024.
“Hindu Supremacy and the Multiracial U.S. Far Right,” Savera, The Public Eye, 2024.
“A Global Trail of Violence: India’s Hindu Supremacist Movement and Its Role in the Transnational Far Right,” Savera, The Public Eye, 2024. Edited excerpts from Savera’s report, “The Global VHP’s Trail of Violence.”

U.S. Imperialism Comes Home to Roost: A Conversation with Ramah Kudaimi

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Koki talks with Ramah Kudaimi about U.S. imperialism and state violence, and its reverberations both domestically and abroad. From the global war on terror, to genocide in Palestine, to anti-Muslim policing and surveillance in our communities, we discuss the ways that imperial power, capitalist interests, and far-right organizing intersect in ways that compound harm and entrench systems of oppression.

We discuss the ways in corporations profit not only from war and militarism, but specifically from Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry and violence. Ramah unpacks the concept of “terror capitalism” or the idea that corporations reap massive profits from labeling entire communities as “terrorists,” who then become the test subjects for technologies of warfare (both at home and abroad) that line the pockets of large corporations and continue the war long after ground troops have come home.

We also discuss the modes of resistance available to us and our movements to counter these forces. Ramah Kudaimi works at the Action Center on Race and the Economy as the campaign director of the Crescendo Project, which focuses on researching and campaigning against corporate complicity in Islamophobia and anti Muslim bigotry.

Episode Resources

How Big Tech Sells War on Our Communities
“DHS Open for Business: How Tech Corporations Bring the War on Terror to Our Neighborhoods,” a report from Action Center on Race & the Economy, LittleSis, MediaJustice, and the Surveillance, Tech, and Immigration Policing Project at the Immigration Defense Project, 2022.
Banking on Solidarity CitiBank campaign
Genocide Gentry, a dataset and analysis of weapons company executives and board members with connections to educational and cultural institutions
Shattering Justice, an online visual timeline on the War on Terror in the U.S.

You Might Think They're Absurd but They're Quite Serious: Frederick Clarkson on The New Apostolic Reformation

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 07:00:00 +0000

This episode with guest-host Jack Gieseking features an in-depth discussion with Frederick Clarkson about the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a significant and influential movement within the Christian Right. Clarkson explains the background and history of NAR, as well as its contemporary political significance. The conversation also touches on the relationship between NAR the January 6th 2021 Capitol insurrection, NAR’s relationship with Israel, and their strategy to build their voting block and flip districts, as well as the broader and far-reaching implications NAR has for democracy and religious freedom.

Clarkson emphasizes the importance of understanding this movement, given its significant impact on politics and society. He calls for increased awareness and study of the NAR among all of us who care about fighting rising fascism. The discussion concludes with a call to action, urging listeners to educate themselves about the NAR and develop a common vocabulary to facilitate meaningful conversations about its influence and implications.

Episode Resources

The Insurgence: Sheriffs is a podcast series that uncovers how a national network of far-right sheriffs is mobilizing to create a White Christian republic, one county at a time. The series features first-hand accounts from people across the country who have come up against the sometimes-fatal consequences from the unchecked power of county sheriffs and their growing alignment with the new Far Right. The Insurgence: Sheriffs is created and hosted by investigative reporter and PRA Research Director Cloee Cooper, and co-executive produced by Political Research Associates and Cuentero Productions.
Christian Right Denialism is More Dangerous Than Ever: A Reporter’s Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation, by Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné, Religion Dispatches, 2022.
Christian Nationalists Dream of Taking Over America. This Movement Is Actually Doing It by Kiera Butler, Mother Jones, 2024.
Packed with Threats of Political Violence, Media Largely Ignore the NAR’s ‘Million Women’ Rally in DC, by Frederick Clarkson, Religion Dispatches, 2024.
Where’s Wallnau? A NAR Apostle Takes Aim at Swing Counties in ‘The Battle for the Mountain of Government’, by Frederick Clarkson, Religion Dispatches, 2024.

Episode Keywords

New Apostolic Reformation, Christian Right, Christian Right leaders, Project 2025, Project 19

The Insurgence: Sheriffs—Episode 1: The Sundown Siren

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Inform Your Resistance is coming to you this week in between regularly scheduled episodes to introduce you to a new podcast series, The Insurgence: Sheriffs. This collaboration between Political Research Associates and Cuentero Productions uncovers how a national network of far-right sheriffs is mobilizing to create a White Christian republic, one county at a time.

Subscribe today, wherever you get your podcasts to catch the rest of the episodes in the series.

Nativist Bedfellows by Tarso Luís Ramos and Pam Chamberlain

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode of Inform Your Resistance, Koki reads “Nativist Bedfellows: The Christian Right Embraces Anti-Immigrant Politics” by Tarso Luís Ramos and Pam Chamberlain, the fourth in our new From the Archives series. From the Archives features those must read and, now, must listen to pieces from PRA’s more than 40 years of publishing. This article was published in the Summer 2008 issue of The Public Eye magazine, and you can read the article here.

This week we're also excited to announce the launch of a new podcast series. The Insurgence: Sheriffs is a podcast series that uncovers how a national network of far-right sheriffs is mobilizing to create a White Christian republic, one county at a time. The series features first-hand accounts from people across the country who have come up against the sometimes-fatal consequences from the unchecked power of county sheriffs and their growing alignment with the new Far Right. The Insurgence: Sheriffs is created and hosted by investigative reporter and PRA Research Director Cloee Cooper, and co-executive produced by Political Research Associates and Cuentero Productions.

Anti-Immigration Politics with Ethan Fauré: When the Center Helps the Right Capture State Institutions

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 07:00:00 +0000

In this first episode of Season 3, we are back with a conversation about the origins, unlikely intersections, and influence of the contemporary anti-immigration movement. Ethan provides us with a fascinating overview of how this movement developed, from its White Nationalist origins, with significant bipartisan and centrist support. We discuss John Tanton’s network of organizations, funding sources for the anti-immigrant movement, significant legislation impacting the immigration landscape, intersections with other movements (not all right-wing) like the environmental movement and Christian nationalism, and Project 2025’s vision for immigration policy in the U.S. We end on a high note, discussing local resistance strategies to fight back.

Ethan Fauré is a Senior Research Analyst at PRA, with over a decade of experience focusing on movements promoting anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and White nationalist ideologies. Ethan works closely with other researchers, journalists, national organizations, and grassroots activists to deepen their understanding of these forces, informing resistance efforts, and their work building power across the country.

Episode Resources

The Tanton Network (animation). Political Research Associates, 2022.
Where the White House Gets its Racist Immigration Policies. Ethan Fauré. Political Research Associates, 2018.
The National Sheriffs’ Association Strengthens the Deportation Machine. Ethan Fauré. Political Research Associates, 2019.
Nativist Bedfellows: The Christian Right Embraces Anti-Immigrant Politics. Tarso Luís Ramos, Pam Chamberlain. Political Research Associates, 2008.
White Borders: Author Q&A with Reece Jones. Shane Burley. Political Research Associates, 2022.
The Right’s Decades-Long Fight for A Census Citizenship Question. Ethan Fauré. Political Research Associates, 2019.
Immigrant Justice and the Right Wing's Eliminationist Agenda: A Q&A with Hamid Khan. Political Research Associates, 2018.
Blood Red Lines: How Nativism Fuels the Right: Author Q&A with Brendan O'Connor. Ethan Faure, Ben Lorber. Political Research Associates, 2021.
Blurring the Border: Immigration Enforcement and Solidarity in Ohio. Austin Kocher. Political Research Associates, 2018.

Episode Keywords

Anti-immigration, anti-immigrant, John Tanton, Project 2025, Immigration Justice, Fight the Right

Rerelease: Racist Tech Meets the Labor Movement: AI, Policing, and Gig Economies

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Uncover the disturbing realities of racial capitalism and state violence with host Koki Mendis and Saqib Bhatti, co-executive Director of the Action Center on Race and Economy (ACRE). Bhatti’s insights illuminate the distressing crossroads where austerity programs, mass incarceration, and a negligent police state meet. Throughout the conversation, Bhatti exposes the dangerous influence of corporations on public services and their contribution to the rise of a racialized policing system. We discuss ways in which over policing and mass incarceration uphold racist wealth and inequality and strategies available to us on the left to contest power and advance redistribution. We explore how austerity programs that reduce social safety nets and inflated budgets for incarceration and policing have created a relationship of criminalizing people instead of providing support and care. Technologies like ShotSpotter, which claims to detect gunshots accurately, are not only rife with inaccuracies, but also operate on the myth that more policing leads to flourishing and safer communities.

The second part of our conversation pivots to the ways rideshare giants, Uber and Lyft, have upended the taxi industry, including how these corporations avoid responsibility for drivers’ employment conditions, and the consequent fallout for the predominantly immigrant workers who previously made their living as full-time taxi drivers. We further examine the related trend of companies being bought out by private equity firms, which can lead to workers losing their pensions and benefits while shareholders profit. Bhatti provides unique insights into the ensuing destabilization and the worrying trend of private equity firms buying failing corporations and profiting from their debt.

We also explore how organizing labor, renter, and debtor unions can help build worker power and solidarity across economically marginalized groups. Finally, we consider the role of non-traditional unions in amassing and aggregating collective power to fight against corporations.

EPISODE RESOURCES

Murdered Behind the Wheel: An Escalating Crisis for App Drivers by Gig Workers Rising, PowerSwitch Action, and Action Center on Race and the Economy
“What Does It Mean to Dismantle Racial Capitalism Anyway?” by Saqib Bhatti and Bree Carlson
“Remaking the Economy: Race for Profit” an NPQ webinar recording with Maximillian Alvarez, Saqib Bhatti, and Bree Carlson
“Austerity Kills” a PRA webinar recording with Saqib Bhatti, Lauren Jacobs, Daniel HoSang, and Donald Cohen
STOP ShotSpotter coalition to end ShotSpotter and build community-led responses to address the root causes of gun violence

--------- EPISODE KEYWORDS ---------

Racial Capitalism, State Violence, Austerity Programs, Mass Incarceration, Policing System, ShotSpotter, Uber, Lyft, Taxi Industry, Private Equity Firms, Anti-CRT, Critical Race Theory, Labor Unions, Renter Unions, Debtor Unions, Economic Interests, Collective Power, Wealthy Corporations.

Rerelease: Militant U.S. Anti-Abortion Activists: Towards the Total Abolition of Abortion

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Who are the abortion abolitionists? What drives them, and how do their tactics overlap with those of other far-right movements? Join host, Koki Mendis, and PRA Senior Research Analyst, Cloee Cooper, as we uncover the differences between the broader pro-life movement and the abortion abolitionist movement.

The abortion abolitionists are a nationwide network of militant anti-abortion far-right activists who want to eradicate all abortion. They would like to see the death penalty for those involved in abortion. They draw on the militant anti-abortion movement from the 1990s that was responsible for violence against abortion clinics and providers. We discuss how the pro-life movement is more interested in working within the US legal system for reforms that further restrict access to abortion, while the abortion abolitionists want to abolish abortion in all instances.

We explore the influence of Christian Reconstructionism on the anti-abortion movement, and how its vision for a theocratic society has had a significant impact on the abortion abolitionist movement today. We examine the overlap between the abortion abolitionist movement, militias, and other far-right movements, including the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.

We examine the broader pro-life bills that have been introduced in various states, and we compare these bills with the ones that the abolitionists are advocating for, which would criminalize anyone who has an abortion and grant legal protection to fertilized eggs. We also look at the role of Bradley Pierce, the attorney behind many of the abortion abolitionist bills, and how his Foundation to Abolish Abortion is connected to the right-wing homeschooling movement. We explore the concept of the Overton window, and how the abortion abolitionist movement is pushing for their extreme ideas to become accepted as common sense.

Finally, we discuss how the abortion abolitionist movement is shifting its tactics to become more mainstream and to influence change. We assess the need to understand the strategies of the abortion abolitionist movement and to build coalitions to establish movement strategies rooted in communities and movements on the ground.

EPISODE RESOURCES

No Sanctuary: Anti-Abortion “Abolitionists” Go to City Hall by Cloee Cooper and Tina Vásquez
How the anti-abortion movement fed the Capitol insurrection by Tina Vasquez
The anti-abortion abolitionist movement is dangerous. Here’s what you need to know by Cloee
Cooper and Tina Vásquez
The New Abolitionists: The Christian Anti-Abortion Movement Gaining Ground in State Legislatures by Heidi Beedle
The Army of Gideon: Anti-Abortion Activism in Wichita by Heidi Beedle
Convergence of Far-Right, Anti-Democratic Factions in the Northwest Could Provide a Model for the Rest of the Nation by Frederick Clarkson and Cloee Cooper
The Prochoice Religious Community May Be the Future of Reproductive Rights, Access, and Justice by Frederick Clarkson
Mobilizing for Reproductive Freedom in the Battle Over Bodily Autonomy by PRA featuring Adaku Utah, Cloee Cooper, Loretta Ross, and Tara Romano

--------- EPISODE KEYWORDS ---------

Abortion Abolitionists, Christian Right, Christian Reconstructionism, RJ Rushdoony, Capitol Insurrection, Anti-Abortion Legislation, Homeschooling Movement, Overton Window, Pro-Choice Religious Community, Movement Strategies, Collective Power for Reproductive Justice

Rerelease: Worker Power in the Fight Against Authoritarianism, a conversation with PowerSwitch Action's Lauren Jacobs

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 07:00:00 +0000

In this conversation with Lauren Jacobs from PowerSwitch Action, the discussion focuses on the role of worker power in combating authoritarianism. Lauren and host Koki Mendis explore the allure of reactionary anti-state narratives in explaining worker precarity and how labor organizing can present counter-narratives and options for reducing worker suffering. They also discuss the barriers to unionization posed by corporations, the relationship between worker organizing and the presidential administrations, and the impact of municipal and county governing structures on worker power formation.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

“Austerity Kills,” a PRA Webinar featuring Saqib Bhatti, Lauren Jacobs, Daniel HoSang, and Donald Cohen, 2020.
“Precarity: The American Way,” a PRA Webinar featuring Aislinn Pulley, Jessica Quiason, and Gabriel Winant, 2021.
“Who Works for the Workers?” by Gabriel Winant, n+1, 2016.
“Seizing Labor’s Moment w/ Alex Press & Eric Blanc,” The Dig, 2023.
“How to Build a Fighting Labor Movement w/ Jane McAlevey,” The Dig, 2023.
“On the Line w/ Daisy Pitkin,” The Dig, 2022.

EPISODE KEYWORDS:

Worker Power, Labor Organizing, Labor Strikes, National Labor Relations Act, Community Organizing, Unions, Corporations, Union Busting, Capitalism, Authoritarianism.

Rerelease: Christian [Home] Schooling and How It Advances the Christian Nationalist Project with Dr. Chrissy Stroop

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 07:00:00 +0000

In this eye-opening interview, Dr. Chrissy Stroop peels back the layers of Christian dominionism, and explains how this ideology is deeply woven into the fabric of Christian homeschooling.

Dr. Chrissy Stroop is both a former insider and an expert scholar. She has long written and shared candid stories of growing up in a Christian educational environment. Here, she recounts the ways in which evangelical ideology was deeply woven into her own educational experiences. Her experiences are a prism for a deep exploration into the world of Christian homeschooling and its dominionist influence throughout the country. As Dr. Stroop explains, the pervasiveness of Seven Mountains Dominionism in homeschooling spaces should not be underestimated. More than an implicit ideology, it is often central to the curricula adopted by homeschooling parents.

We discuss the organizations, institutions, and ideologies behind Christian (home)schooling. We explore the role of the John Birch Society and the Council for National Policy in the grassroots development of the public school exit initiative. We discuss far-right movements that are supported by the DeVos family's school choice agenda.

We also explore resistance, including the influential work of activists like R.L. Stollar and Torah Bontrager, as well as the importance of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We consider the strategic defense against these movements and how to promote true separation of church and state, as well as religious pluralism.

Dr. Stroop also considers the valid reasons for pulling kids out of public schools in order to homeschool them, the difficulties of finding non-right-wing Christian co-ops and curricula, and explores how homeschooling families that do not support the right-wing Christian agenda often end up allying themselves with the Right, unintentionally.

The Spirit of January 6th: The Theology of This Seldom Discussed Movement Animates the Growing Threat to U.S. Democracy by Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Koki reads “The Spirit of January 6th: The Theology of This Seldom Discussed Movement Animates the Growing Threat to U.S. Democracy” by Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné, the third in our new From the Archives series. From the Archives features those must read and, now, must listen to pieces from PRA's more than 40 years of publishing.

In this article, Clarkson and Gagné offer a peek into a shadowy, dramatic, and hugely influential corner of the Christian right. The New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, is populated by modern day apostles, prophets, and demons, and is a key Christian nationalist movement quickly gaining power and influence best exemplified by the recent election of Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. This piece provides timely insights into the key players, texts, and organizing tenets of this influential and increasingly global movement. You can read the article online at our sibling site religiondispatches.org.

Frederick Clarkson is a Senior Research Analyst at Political Research Associates. He has written about politics and religion for four decades. His work has appeared in a wide range of publications from Mother Jones, Church & State, and Ms. Magazine to The Christian Science Monitor and Salon.com. He has also worked as an investigative editor at Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Communications Director at the Institute for Democracy Studies; and co-founded the group blog, Talk to Action. He is the author, co-author or editor of several books including Dispatches from the Religious Left and Eternal Hostility.

André Gagné is Full Professor and Chair of the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. His teaching and scholarship focus on political theology, religion and violence, and the interpretation and reception of Scripture. Dr. Gagné has published eight books, multiple academic articles, and his work has been featured over 350 times in media outlets. His most recent book is entitled: American Evangelical for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times (Routledge, 2024).

EPISODE RESOURCES

The Alabama Embryo Opinion Is About More Than Christian Nationalism by Stephanie McCrummen, The Atlantic, 2024.
How Trumpism has pushed a fringe charismatic theology into the mainstream by Matthew D. Taylor and Paul A. Djupe, Religion News, 2024.
He's on a Mission From God: Pennsylvania GOP Candidate Doug Mastriano's War With the World by Frederick Clarkson, Political Research Associates, 2022.
American Evangelicals for Trump Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times by André Gagné, Routledge, 2024.
A Reporter’s Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation by Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné, Religion Dispatches, 2024.
101: Dominionism by Frederick Clarkson, Political Research Associates, 2022.
Belief in the 7 Mountain Mandate Appears to be Growing in the Last Year by Paul A. Djupe, Religion in Public, 2024.
The New Dominionism Tries to Rule by Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon, SPLC, 2024.

--------- EPISODE KEYWORDS ---------

7M, 7 Mountains Mandate, Apostles, C. Peter Wagner, Charismatics, Christian Nationalism, Christian Right, Demons, Dominionism, Dutch Sheets, End Times, Five Fold Mandate, Lance Wallnau, Michael Flynn, Mike Johnson, New Apostolic Reformation, Pentecostals, Prophet, Religious Right, Seven Mountains, Seven Mountains Mandate, Spiritual Warfare, Trump

The Entwined Geographies of White Nationalism and Climate Denialism with Laura Pulido

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 07:01:00 +0000

In this episode, Koki interviews Laura Pulido, Collins Chair and Professor of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies and Geography at the University of Oregon, who studies race, environmental justice, and cultural memory. They discuss the intersection of racial and climate denialism, and how these realms of politics, understanding, and identity buttress one another. Laura and Koki dig into some of the key insights from Pulido's work, an invaluable vocabulary with which to parse the salience of emotion, identity, and belonging in crystallizing and simultaneously mobilizing oppressive political ideologies and practice in the face of environmental injustice.

EPISODE RESOURCES

The “Business-as-Usual” of Right-Wing Climate Realism by Ajay Singh Chaudhary, Political Research Associates, 2024.
Cultural Memory, White Innocence, and United States Territory: The 2022 Urban Geography Plenary Lecture by Laura Pulido, Urban Geography, 2023.
Distorting the Climate Crisis: Far Right Environmentalism with Alex Amend, Inform Your Resistance Podcast, 2023.
Blood and Vanishing Topsoil American Ecofascism Past, Present, and in the Coming Climate Crisis by Alex Amend, Political Research Associates, 2020.
From White Privilege to White Supremacy: An Illustrated Interview with Laura Pulido by Danya Al-Saleh & Heather Rosenfeld, Edge Effects, 2016.
Wildfire Rumors and Denial in the Trump Era by Laura Pulido in Political Ecologies of the Far Right: Fanning the Flames, 2024.
Environmental Deregulation, Spectacular Racism, and White Nationalism in the Trump Era by Laura Pulido, Tianna Bruno, Cristina Faiver-Serna, & Cassandra Galentinein Environmental Governance in a Populist/Authoritarian Era, 2020.
Reimagining ‘Justice’ in Environmental Justice: Radical Ecologies, Decolonial Thought, and the Black Radical Tradition by Laura Pulido and Juan De Lara, Environment & Planning E: Nature & Space, 2018.
Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity by Daniel Martinez HoSang & Joseph E. Lowndes, UMN Press, 2019.
Living in Denial Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life by Kari Marie Norgaard, MIT Press, 2011.

--------- EPISODE KEYWORDS ---------

Climate Denial, Climate Denialism, Environmental Justice, Environmental Racism, Historic Sites, Memorialization, Memorials, Oregon, Racial Denial, Racial Denialism, Rural Community, Rural-Identified Community, Surplus of White Nationalism, White Nation, White Nationalism, Wildfires

The Organizational Psychology of the Far Right with Shane Burley

Thu, 23 May 2024 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Koki sits down with Shane Burley to discuss some of the most peculiar, and—at times, most influential—corners of the Far Right, capturing a spectrum of White nationalist, misogynist organizing that spans the neopaganist Wolves of Vinland to the multiracial, hypermasculine Proud Boys to the highly suspect community of so-called Formers.

Shane also provides timely updates on his seminal pieces written for PRA on these movements and we discuss their significance for the broader landscape of White nationalist organizing. He also shares a clear-eyed defensive, preventative strategy for disrupting the continued growth of the Far Right, leaving us with a navigable path forward.

Episode Resources

Collapse of White Nationalist Party Offers Lessons for Anti-Fascist Strategy, Shane Burley, TruthOut, 2024.
Can You Ever Trust a Former White Nationalist?, Shane Burley, The Public Eye, 2022.
Total Life Reform: The Real Consequences of the Far Right’s Self-Help Grift, Shane Burley, Political Research Associates, 2020.
The Far-Right Tribe Sacrificing Animals, VICE, 2023.

Keywords

Far Right, Formers, Multi Level Marketing, Proud Boys, Shane Burley, White Nationalism, White Nationalists, Wolves of Vinland

Total Life Reform by Shane Burley, the Pipeline from Self-Help to Far-Right Ideology

Thu, 09 May 2024 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode of Inform Your Resistance, Koki reads “Total Life Reform: The Real Consequences of the Far Right’s Self-Help Grift” by Shane Burley, the second in our new From the Archives series. From the Archives features those must read and, now, must listen to pieces from PRA’s more than 40 years of publishing. This article was published in the Fall 2020 issue of The Public Eye magazine, and you can read the article here.

Why You Should Care about the End Times: Christian Zionism & its Outsized Influence on American Policy with Aidan Orly

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Koki is joined by Aidan Orly, one of a handful of U.S.-based researchers writing and speaking about Christian Zionism: the right-wing domestic and international movements that use a Christian biblical interpretation to promote and endorse Jewish nationalism. Christian Zionism forms the largest political base of support for the state of Israel in the U.S. Koki and Aidan focus on the authoritarian nature of Christian Zionist movements, and discuss their key leaders, organizations, and financial and cultural engines (including tourism and popular media). They also speak to the ways the Left can both unintentionally spread Christian Zionist policies and actions and also how the Left can identify and call those out, and thus push back against the broader Christian Right’s efforts. Orly is a writer, researcher, and fundraiser at Political Research Associates.

EPISODE RESOURCES

101: Christian Zionism by Aidan Orly, Political Research Associates, 2024.
The Jewish Federation is Marching with Christian Antisemites Out of Support for Israel, Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg and Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele, Mondoweiss, 2023.
Progressive Movements Cannot Afford to Ignore the Role of Christian Zionism in the Dispossession of Palestinians, Jonathan Brenneman and Aidan Orly, Political Research Associates, 2021.
End Times Antisemitism: Christian Zionism, Christian Nationalism, and the Threat to Democracy, Steven Gardiner, Political Research Associates, 2020.
The New Christian Zionism and the Jews: A Love-Hate Relationship, Rachel Tabachnik, Political Research Associates, 2010.
For Many Christian Zionists, Israeli Protesters are a Threat to God’s Plan, Aidan Orly, Religion Dispatches, 2023.
What’s Next for American Christian Zionists?, Colum Lynch, Foreign Policy, 2021.
This is How the Republican Party Became So Strongly Pro-Israel, Danielle Kurtzlebe, NPR Morning Edition, 2023.
Israel-Hamas is Not a Religious War and this is Not Your Rapture, Thomas Lecaque, Religion Dispatches, 2023.
Taking Evangelical Support for Israel at Face Value is a Terrible Idea: a Response, Chrissy Stroop, Religion Dispatches, 2019.
The Pentecostalization of Christian Zionism, Joseph Williams, Church History 84, no. 1 (2015): 159–94.
Explaining Christian Zionism to Israelis, by Sarah Posner, Religion Dispatches, 2015.

--------- EPISODE KEYWORDS ---------

Anti-Muslim, Christian Nationalism, Christian Zionism, Israel, Jerry Falwell, Jerry Falwell Jr., Jewish State, Jewish Zionism, The Late Great Planet Earth, Left Behind Series, Mike Huckabee, Zionism

Why Are Gen Z Girls Attracted to the Tradwife Lifestyle?

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Koki reads “Why Are Gen Z Girls Attracted to the Tradwife Lifestyle?” by Marielle Cooksey, the first in our new From the Archives series. From the Archives features those must read and, now, must listen to pieces from PRA's more than 40 years of publishing. In this article, Cooksey explores the growing online Tradwife subculture, one with deep ties to White nationalism, Christian nationalism, and anti-feminism. This article was published in the Spring/Summer 2021 issue of The Public Eye magazine, and you can read this article online at politicalresearch.org.

Mariel Cooksey is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies (CIFRS). Her current research focuses on the intersection of climate collapse and accelerationism, as well as anti-government movements in Western Canada.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

The Real Tradwives: Why More Young Moms Are Becoming Traditional Housewives, Caroline Burke, Katie Couric Media, 2024
From Baking To Hating: Tradwives and Terrorism with Dr Kristy Campion, Kristy Campion, The Wholesome Show, 2023
#TradWives: Sexism as Gateway to White Supremacy, Miranda Christou, openDemocracy, 2020
The Housewives of White Supremacy, Annie Kelly, The New York Times, June 1, 2018, sec. Opinion.
Conversations with Other (Alt-Right) Women: How Do Alt-Right Female Influencers Narrate a Far-Right Identity?, Maria-Elena Kisyova, Veilleux-Lepage Yannick, and Newby Vanessa, Journal for Deradicalization, no. 31 (2022): 35–72.
Tradwives: The Housewives Commodifying Right-Wing Ideology, Sophia Sykes, and Veronica Hopner, GNET, 2023

EPISODE KEYWORDS:

America First, Anti-feminism, Anti-LGBTQ, Christian Nationalism, Climate Collapse, Christian Fundamentalism, Ecofascism, Far Right, Feminism, Manifest Destiny, Misogyny, Online Amplification, Nick Fuentes, Racism, Social Media, TikTok, Tradwives, Tradwifery, White Nationalism, White Supremacy

Mid-season break—And our newest issue of The Public Eye

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

This week, Inform Your Resistance is on a mid-season break. Instead of interviewing a guest, host Koki Mendis shares some quick takes on incredible new content from our quarterly magazine, The Public Eye. See links to the pieces she discusses below, and listen to the episode for Koki’s analysis!

“Project 2025: How Trump Loyalists and Right-Wing Leaders Are Paving a Fast Road to Fascism,” by Peter Montgomery, The Public Eye, 2024.
“County Capture: The Role of Militias in County Governments in Central and Southside Virginia,” by Carolyn Gallaher and Priya Dixit, The Public Eye, 2024.
“Review: The Age of Insurrection,” by Shane Burley, The Public Eye, 2024.
“When the Sheriff Is Above the Law: The Rise of the Far Right in Western New York,” by Raina Lipsitz, The Public Eye, 2024.
“Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Author Q&A with Dr. Maha Hilal,” by Habiba Farh, The Public Eye, 2024.
“Countering the Ideology of “Violent Care”: Lessons from Bay Area Radical Abortion Defense,” by Angela Hume, The Public Eye, 2024.
“Practicing Emergent Strategies to Fight the Right and Resist Fascism,” by Andrea J. Ritchie, The Public Eye, 2024.
“The Art of Activism: Zoe Newton,” The Public Eye, 2024.

Project 2025: The Plan of the Century with Peter Montgomery

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 10:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Koki interviews Peter Montgomery, Research Director at People for American Way, to discuss Project 2025, the Right’s playbook to remake the U.S. government as we currently know it toward authoritarianism. Peter discusses the architects of this plan, the people and movements who have signed on to it, and the implications for the American public if it should be put into place. Koki and Peter discuss how the Right has stitched together such disparate tensions and factions in the Right, in Peter’s words, with the am to do so “long enough just to get the power they need to overwhelm political and legal opposition.” They end the conversation with how useful Project 2025 is to mobilize and organize the Left to take action, and offer what we must and can do to forestall a precipitous decline into authoritarianism.

Episode Resources

Project 2025: How Trump Loyalists and Right-Wing Leaders Are Paving a Fast Road to Fascism by Peter Montgomery, The Public Eye, 2024.
Project 2025: An Authoritarian Conspiracy. Conspirituality Podcast, Episode 187. January 4, 2024.
Ryan Anderson’s Road Map for Marriage Resisters by Peter Montgomery, Right Wing Watch. July 2, 2015.
The MAGA enemies list is growing, and so are the odds that you’re on it, by S. Myrick, The Hill. February 26, 2024.
“Project 2025” Promises Revenge, Oppression, and Autocratic Rule by Thomas Zimmer, Democracy Americana. March 4, 2024.
Project 2025 is GOPers’ blueprint for destroying the planet. It must be stopped, by Will Bunch, The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 30, 2023.
What “Project 2025” Would Do to America by Thomas Zimmer, Democracy Americana. February 29, 2024.
Project 2025: The Right’s Dystopian Plan to Dismantle Civil Rights and What It Means for Women by Carrie N. Baker, Ms. February 8, 2024.
Inside the Next Republican Revolution by Michael Hirsch POLITICO. September 19, 2023.

Keywords

Alliance Defending Freedom, American Family Association, American Family Association's Center for Judicial Renewal, America First Legal, American Legislative Exchange Council, American Moment, anti-aborition, anti-CRT, anti-immigration, anti-LGBTQ, anti-marriage equality, Article V Convention of States, authoritarianism, Center for Immigration Studies, The Center for Renewing America, Christian Right, Christian Nationalism, Claremont Institute, Corporate Right, Family Research Council, Heritage Foundation, Hillsdale College, Leonard Leo, Moms for Liberty, Project 2025, Republican, Right, Stephen Miller, Students for Life, Trump, Turning Point USA

Male Supremacism: Ideology, Movement, and Political Strategy with Alex DiBranco

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Koki talks with Alex DiBranco, executive director of the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism. Alex breaks down for us: What is male supremacism? What is its relationship to other supremacist ideologies and movements? And how does male supremacism form part of a political strategy?

We discuss both the religious and secular versions of male supremacism; its intersection with other right-wing movements; how male supremacism is central to the culture war; its relationship with anti-trans figures on both the Left and the Right; as well as its notorious conspiracism and how that has impacted women politicians and public figures.

Episode Resources

What Is Male Supremacism?, IRMS.
Misogynist Incels and Male Supremacism: Overview and Recommendations for Addressing the Threat of Male Supremacist Violence by Megan Kelly, Alex DiBranco, Dr. Julia R. DeCook, New America, 2021.
Five Ways to Address Male Supremacist Violence by Alex DiBranco, Megan Kelly and Julia R. DeCook, Ms. Magazine, 2021.
Before the Alt Right: Anita Hill and the Growth of Misogynist Ideology by Alex DiBranco, Political Research Associates, 2018.
A PRA Webinar: Mobilizing Misogyny in the Service of Authoritarianism with Alex DiBranco, Shereen Essof, Isabel Marler, and Tarso Luís Ramos, Political Research Associates, 2020.
An IRMS Webinar: Roots, Structures, and Intersections of Supremacism: Bio-essentialism and Anti-Trans Attacks with Blue Buchanan
IRMS Conference on Supremacism and Authoritarianism: Keynote Panel on education and democracy, 2022.
West Virginia textbook battle shows how GOP turned its image from ‘blue blood to blue collar’, an interview with Carol Mason by Kyle Vass, The Guardian, 2021
Reading Appalachia from Left to Right: Conservatives and the 1974 Kanawha County Textbook Controversy by Carol Mason, Cornell University Press, 2009.

Keywords

Anti-trans, Authoritarianism, Biological Essentialism, Culture War, Incels, Incel Terrorism, Institute for Research on Male Supremacism, IRMS, Male Supremacy, Male Supremacism, Misogyny, Patriarchy, Right Wing, Women

An International Affair: Hindu Nationalism and the U.S. Right with Prachi Patankar

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Koki interviews Prachi Patankar, an anti-caste and feminist writer and organizer, to discuss Hindu Nationalism, or Hindutva, a little understood but large and well-resourced movement that has transnational influence on U.S. politics and culture. Prachi explores the connections between Hindu nationalism, White supremacy, and other supremacist ideologies.

In the diaspora, including in the U.S., caste hierarchy persists. However, Hindu and dominant caste immigrants in the U.S. fall within the over-simplified group, “people of color.” Prachi discusses how this simplified narrative of race in the U.S. obscures the ways in which Hindu and dominant caste groups can perpetuate supremacist ideology, all while claiming a marginalized racial identity. She argues for more nuanced analysis of race and caste and argues for the importance of a multiracial, multifaith, pro-democracy movement to challenge all supremacist ideologies and create broad solidarity among oppressed communities.

Episode Resources

Vivek Ramaswamy Represents the Convergence of White Supremacy and Hindu Supremacy — And He May Well Be Trump’s Running Mate, Usha Kumar, Religion Dispatches, 2023
The Global VHP’s [Vishwa Hindu Parishad / World Hindu Council] Trail of Violence, Savera: United Against Supremacy, Savera, 2024
The Hindu Nationalists Using the Pro-Israel Playbook, Aparna Gopalan, Jewish Currents, 2023
The Trauma of Caste, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Penguin Random House, 2022
Bulldozer Justice and the Indian State’s Lawlessness, Harsh Mander, The Caravan, 2024

Pink Revolutions: Globalization, Hindutva, and Queer Triangles in Contemporary India, Nishant Shahani, Northwestern University Press, 2021

Keywords

Brahmin Supremacy, Caste Hierarchy, Casteism, Global Right Wing, Hindu Nationalism, Hindu Supremacy, Hindutva, Indian Far Right, Transnational Politics, White Nationalism

Anti-Trans Legislation and Why It’s a Feminist Issue with Heron Greenesmith

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Koki interviews Heron Greenesmith, Esquire, former Senior Research Analyst for LGBTQ justice here at PRA and a policy attorney with over a decade of LGBTQ advocacy experience, to reflect back on 2023 as the worst year in anti-trans organizing, and look ahead at anti-trans organizing momentum and trends in 2024.

Heron is presently Deputy Director of the Transgender Law Center, which recently released the Trans Agenda organizing statement. Drawing on their experience and research, Heron points to the small number of well-funded organizations that promote some of the loudest voices and finance some of the largest legal cases in the anti-trans movement. Covering anti-trans laws and bans around athletics, medical care, and schooling, Heron explains how anti-trans organizing is a core feminist concern.

Episode Resources

101: Anti-LGBTQ Organizing, Heron Greenesmith, Political Research Associates, 2022
Combating Anti-Transgender Disinformation: Anti-LGBTQ Organizing 201, Heron Greenesmith, Political Research Associates, 2023
2023 Was the Year of Anti-Trans Hysteria, Heron Greenesmith, In These Times, 2023
Trans Agenda for Liberation, Transgender Law Center, 2023
Gender-affirming Care Bans Carry Significant Penalties for Physicians, UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, 2023
The Trans Sports Panic Has Reached Peak Stupidity, Frankie de la Cretaz, The Nation, 2023
Public Policy as Trans Harm: Troubling Administrative Governance through Transfeminist Sports Studies, Elizabeth Sharrow, TSQ: Trans Studies Quarterly, 2023
Trans Care, Hil Malatino, UMN Press, 2020
Histories of the Transgender Child, Jules Gill-Peterson, UMN Press, 2018

EPISODE KEYWORDS:

Activism, Anti-LGBTQ, Anti-trans, Anti-trans Laws, Anti-trans Sports Bans, Detransitioners, Disinformation, Feminism, LGBTQ, Parents Rights, Trans, Trans Athletes, Trans Children, Trans Feminism, Trans Youth, Transgender

Announcing Season 2!

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 08:00:00 +0000

We’re back later this month with a new season of conversations with some of the most brilliant minds working in social justice. With interviews spanning a sober assessment of the year to come in anti-trans organizing, to the pervasive influence of violent misogyny, and how the authoritarian Hindu Nationalism movement shows up in the U.S., we will engage with the question of which movements, actors, and ideologies threaten our already failing democracy and what we, on the Left, can do to block them and build a just and inclusive democratic society. Tune in on January 30th wherever you get your podcasts.

Worker Power in the Fight Against Authoritarianism, a conversation with PowerSwitch Action's Lauren Jacobs

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 08:00:00 +0000

EPISODE RESOURCES:

“Austerity Kills,” a PRA Webinar featuring Saqib Bhatti, Lauren Jacobs, Daniel HoSang, and Donald Cohen, 2020.
“Precarity: The American Way,” a PRA Webinar featuring Aislinn Pulley, Jessica Quiason, and Gabriel Winant, 2021.
“Who Works for the Workers?” by Gabriel Winant, n+1, 2016.
“Seizing Labor’s Moment w/ Alex Press & Eric Blanc,” The Dig, 2023.
“How to Build a Fighting Labor Movement w/ Jane McAlevey,” The Dig, 2023.
“On the Line w/ Daisy Pitkin,” The Dig, 2022.

EPISODE KEYWORDS:

Worker Power, Labor Organizing, Labor Strikes, National Labor Relations Act, Community Organizing, Unions, Corporations, Union Busting, Capitalism, Authoritarianism.

Forty years of Antifascism with Daryle Lamont Jenkins

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:00:00 +0000

What does it look like, on the ground, to fight the Far Right showing up in our communities? What is the day-to-day work of antifascists in this work for the long-haul? Daryle Lamont Jenkins is well poised to answer this question. He is the founder and executive director of One People’s Project (OPP), a New Jersey-based anti-hate organization that researches, monitors, and reports on right-wing groups and individuals that seek to polarize communities.

In this interview host Koki Mendis and Daryle discuss the change in how the Far Right has shown up both historically and today, the importance of pushback, and the work of One People's Project in documenting and exposing far-right movements. Daryle emphasizes the need for accurate research, community engagement, and maintaining credibility in the fight against the far-right. He also highlights the power of public pressure and holding individuals accountable for their actions.

EPISODE RESOURCES

Get involved with One People’s Project
Culture and Belonging in the USA: Multiracial Organizing on the Contemporary Far Right (2019) by Cloee Cooper and Daryle Lamont Jenkins
Police, Paramilitaries, and Protests for Racial Justice (2020) by Political Research Associates
Paramilitaries at Your Protest: An Activist Field Guide to the Far Right (2020) by Political Research Associates
No Fascist USA! A Q&A with Hilary Moore, co-author of No Fascist USA!: The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons for Today’s Movements (2020) by Shane Burley

EPISODE KEYWORDS

Antifascism, Antifa, One People’s Project, Proud Boys, Fight the Right, Fascism, White Supremacy, Anti-Fascist Organizing, January 6th, Movement, White Lives Matter, Activism, Police, Multi-Racial

Distorting the Climate Crisis: Far Right Environmentalism with Alex Amend

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 17:05:00 +0000

The rise of far-right environmentalism is more than just a reactionary response to the climate crisis. It is an ideological framework weaponizing environmental concerns to propagate nativist and reactionary politics. Together with Alex Amend, an experienced freelance writer and researcher who has spent years studying far-right ideologies and climate change politics, we dissect the rhetoric of the climate crisis within the Far Right, including within the U.S. Republican party, while also revealing the role Gen Z Republicans play in this evolving landscape.

Don't let the greenwashing fool you. Ecofascism and econationalism are not about care for the environment. They want to preserve the environment for a very specific subset of the population, and are a veil for anti-immigration policies fueled by a desire to maintain a White patrician America.

A case in point: the Unabomber. Ted Kaczynski's manifesto, while attacking leftism, still attracts the attention of the anarchist leftists and environmental radicals. But, its most potent influence is on the Far Right. Figures such as Tucker Carlson and Peter Thiel, as well as far-right neonazi telegram channels, use his life and work as a framework for justifying xenophobia. We review the allure of Kaczynski's legacy and the dangers posed by the Far Right's exploitation of the climate crisis. The conversation turns to the unique opportunities presented to far-right organizing in the face of climate destruction and active wildfires.

Finally, we consider strategies to counteract this appeal and the importance of pushing narratives of abundance and justice. Join us as we navigate this complex and often disturbing intersection of far-right politics and environmentalism.

EPISODE RESOURCES

Blood and Vanishing Topsoil by Alex Amend
The Arc of History Bends Towards Climate Crisis: A PRA Roundtable Discussion with Andrew Curley, Alex Amend, Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, and Shanté Wolfe
The Rise of the American Conservation Movement by Dorceta Taylor
The Unabomber Manifesto in Historical Context by Peter Staudenmaier
A Mighty Forest Is Our Race: Race, Nature, and Environmentalism in White Nationalist Thought by Kevan A. Feshami
Greenwash: Nativists, Environmentalism and the Hypocrisy of Hate by SPLC

--------- EPISODE KEYWORDS ---------

Far-Right Environmentalism, Republican Party, Ecofascism, Econationalism, Nativism, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Climate Crisis Rhetoric, Anti-Immigration Policies, Generation Z Republicans, American Conservation Movement, Great Replacement, Tucker Carlson, Peter Thiel, Neo-Nazi Telegram Channels, Inflation Reduction Act

Christian [Home] Schooling and How It Advances the Christian Nationalist Project with Dr. Chrissy Stroop

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 07:08:00 +0000

In this eye-opening interview, Dr. Chrissy Stroop peels back the layers of Christian dominionism, and explains how this ideology is deeply woven into the fabric of Christian homeschooling.

EPISODE RESOURCES

The Bugbear Dispatch, Chrissy’s new-ish Substack
“Mission to Destroy Public Education Rebrands Under COVID-19: Understanding the Christian Homeschooling Movement,” by Chrissy Stroop
R.L. Stollar’s blog and writings for Religion Dispatches
Building God’s Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction, Julie J. Ingersoll

--------- EPISODE KEYWORDS ---------

Christian Homeschooling, Christian Schooling, Dominionism, Seven Mountains Dominionism, Anti-Vax, Anti-Mask, White Male Patriarchy, John Birch Society, Council for National Policy, School Choice, Child Rights Advocacy, Limiting Parental Control, Wisconsin v. Yoder, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, HSLDA, Charter schools, Private schools, Public school

Inside the National Conservatism Movement to Reshape the Right with Ben Lorber

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 07:05:00 +0000

On this episode of Inform Your Resistance, host Koki Mendis and guest PRA Senior Research Analyst Ben Lorber pull back the curtain on the National Conservatism Conference 2022 (NatCon 3), a gathering of far-right politicians, intellectuals, and influencers with a goal to reshape the Right. Listen in as Ben gives us an on-the-ground view of the convention. With his focus on White nationalism and antisemitism, Ben provides a unique perspective on the rhetoric, atmosphere, and anti-elite sentiment that permeated the conference.

Ben and Koki explore the rise of White Christian nationalism within the conservative movement and its impact on the U.S. political landscape. They unpack the agenda of figures in the National Conservatism movement: an obsession with culture war and moral order as a way to promote their vision for a Christian society–including the promotion of anti-abortion policies, bans on gay marriage, banning so called critical race theory in schools, and the enforcement of cis-heteropatriarchal gender roles. They analyze the transformation of the GOP into a movement that borrows from the economic populism of the Left, at least rhetorically, in an attempt to create a new right-wing nationalist consensus. Ben considers the presence of Orthodox Jews at NatCon3 and how their views may influence the Right's agenda. Finally, Koki asks Ben what it’s like to be there in person at a right-wing conference.

EPISODE RESOURCES

Part 1 of the map Ben mentions in this episode–“ A Bid For Power: Mapping The Electoral Far Right in the 2022 Elections” by Ben Lorber, Olivia Lawrence-Weilmann, Steven Gardiner
Part 2 of the map Ben mentions in this episode–“The Fight Ahead: How the Electoral Far Right Fared in the 2022 Midterm Elections” by Ben Lorber, Olivia Lawrence-Weilmann, Steven Gardiner
“The Elite Movement Laying the Foundation for a MAGA That Will Outlast Trump and Remake America: Inside NatCon Part I” by Ben Lober
“White Nationalist Ideology Shines Through at Elite MAGA Conference: Inside NatCon Part II” by Ben Lorber
“The postliberal crackup: The GOP’s post-midterm civil war starts with the New Right” by Kathryn Joyce

--------- EPISODE KEYWORDS ---------

National Conservatism Conference, NatCon 3, Right Wing, White Nationalism, Antisemitism, Christian Nationalism, Christian Right, Conservative Movement, Politicians, Intellectuals, LGBTQ Rights, Gender Roles, Orthodox Jews, GOP, Republicans.

Racial Capitalism with Saqib Bhatti

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 04:00:00 +0000

EPISODE RESOURCES

Murdered Behind the Wheel: An Escalating Crisis for App Drivers by Gig Workers Rising, PowerSwitch Action, and Action Center on Race and the Economy
“What Does It Mean to Dismantle Racial Capitalism Anyway?” by Saqib Bhatti and Bree Carlson
“Remaking the Economy: Race for Profit” an NPQ webinar recording with Maximillian Alvarez, Saqib Bhatti, and Bree Carlson
“Austerity Kills” a PRA webinar recording with Saqib Bhatti, Lauren Jacobs, Daniel HoSang, and Donald Cohen
STOP ShotSpotter coalition to end ShotSpotter and build community-led responses to address the root causes of gun violence

--------- EPISODE KEYWORDS ---------

Abortion Abolitionists with Cloee Cooper

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 07:01:00 +0000

EPISODE RESOURCES

No Sanctuary: Anti-Abortion “Abolitionists” Go to City Hall by Cloee Cooper and Tina Vásquez
How the anti-abortion movement fed the Capitol insurrection by Tina Vasquez
The anti-abortion abolitionist movement is dangerous. Here’s what you need to know by Cloee
Cooper and Tina Vásquez
The New Abolitionists: The Christian Anti-Abortion Movement Gaining Ground in State Legislatures by Heidi Beedle
The Army of Gideon: Anti-Abortion Activism in Wichita by Heidi Beedle
Convergence of Far-Right, Anti-Democratic Factions in the Northwest Could Provide a Model for the Rest of the Nation by Frederick Clarkson and Cloee Cooper
The Prochoice Religious Community May Be the Future of Reproductive Rights, Access, and Justice by Frederick Clarkson
Mobilizing for Reproductive Freedom in the Battle Over Bodily Autonomy by PRA featuring Adaku Utah, Cloee Cooper, Loretta Ross, and Tara Romano

--------- EPISODE KEYWORDS ---------

Trailer

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 16:03:49 +0000

We talk to experts about some of the most significant contemporary threats to democracy from the mainstream and Far Right so that you can inform your resistance in the fight for a just and inclusive democratic society.

Inform Your Resistance

Prosecuting "Antifa": The Prairieland Case and Its Implications for Organizers

Episode Resources

Fracturing the MAGA base: A conversation on the War in Iran and its Reverberations at Home, with Steven Gardiner

Episode Resources

All Eyes on Minneapolis: Lessons on Resisting Authoritarianism

Belligerence Abroad, Repression at Home: From Venezuela to ICE, with Steven Gardiner

Beyond the Ballot: the Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism with Steven Gardiner

How 287(g) Expansion Fuels Mass Deportations

The New Frontlines of Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

​Coalitions and Contradictions between Capitalist and Far Right Agendas with Hialy Gutierrez and Claudia Espinel

“It's Never Just About Gender”: Gender and Authoritarianism: PRA Analyzes Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days, Part 2

Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism—Episode 1: What is Antisemitism and its Weaponization? A Conversation for Movement Organizers with Shoshana Brown and Ben Lorber

“Do Not Let Grief Harden into Despair”: PRA Analyzes Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days, Part 1

The Antidote to Authoritarianism with Jiva Manske

Resources:

Why Authoritarianism Needs Gender Stereotypes – and Democracy Needs Gender Justice by Annie Wilkinson

The Neoreactionary Movement Defining the Authoritarian Rise with Steven Gardiner

Leading in Resistance: Three Decades of Fighting Authoritarian and Supremacist Forces, A Conversation with Tarso Luís Ramos

Right-Wing Grievances in Progressive Clothing: Canada's Far Right, with Mariel Cooksey and Amy Mack

How Solidarity Provides the Path of Resistance: A Conversation with Naomi Washington-Leapheart

Strategizing for the 2025 Trump Regime Change with Steven Gardiner

From Palestine to Atlanta: The Institutional Policing of Dissent

HAF Way to Supremacy: Rebranding Hindu Supremacy as Minority Rights, a Conversation with Safa Ahmed and Pranay Somayajula

U.S. Imperialism Comes Home to Roost: A Conversation with Ramah Kudaimi

You Might Think They're Absurd but They're Quite Serious: Frederick Clarkson on The New Apostolic Reformation

The Insurgence: Sheriffs—Episode 1: The Sundown Siren

Nativist Bedfellows by Tarso Luís Ramos and Pam Chamberlain

Anti-Immigration Politics with Ethan Fauré: When the Center Helps the Right Capture State Institutions

Rerelease: Racist Tech Meets the Labor Movement: AI, Policing, and Gig Economies

Rerelease: Militant U.S. Anti-Abortion Activists: Towards the Total Abolition of Abortion

Rerelease: Worker Power in the Fight Against Authoritarianism, a conversation with PowerSwitch Action's Lauren Jacobs

Rerelease: Christian [Home] Schooling and How It Advances the Christian Nationalist Project with Dr. Chrissy Stroop

The Spirit of January 6th: The Theology of This Seldom Discussed Movement Animates the Growing Threat to U.S. Democracy by Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné

The Entwined Geographies of White Nationalism and Climate Denialism with Laura Pulido

The Organizational Psychology of the Far Right with Shane Burley

Total Life Reform by Shane Burley, the Pipeline from Self-Help to Far-Right Ideology

Why You Should Care about the End Times: Christian Zionism & its Outsized Influence on American Policy with Aidan Orly

Why Are Gen Z Girls Attracted to the Tradwife Lifestyle?

Mid-season break—And our newest issue of The Public Eye

Project 2025: The Plan of the Century with Peter Montgomery

Male Supremacism: Ideology, Movement, and Political Strategy with Alex DiBranco

An International Affair: Hindu Nationalism and the U.S. Right with Prachi Patankar

Anti-Trans Legislation and Why It’s a Feminist Issue with Heron Greenesmith

Announcing Season 2!

Worker Power in the Fight Against Authoritarianism, a conversation with PowerSwitch Action's Lauren Jacobs

Forty years of Antifascism with Daryle Lamont Jenkins

Distorting the Climate Crisis: Far Right Environmentalism with Alex Amend

Christian [Home] Schooling and How It Advances the Christian Nationalist Project with Dr. Chrissy Stroop

Inside the National Conservatism Movement to Reshape the Right with Ben Lorber

Racial Capitalism with Saqib Bhatti

Abortion Abolitionists with Cloee Cooper

Trailer

Coalitions and Contradictions between Capitalist and Far Right Agendas with Hialy Gutierrez and Claudia Espinel