“Ultimately, what I have learned is that government repression can have a disruptive impact on our work, but we can turn a negative into a positive. The extent to which we can creatively, intelligently and fearlessly demonstrate the truth of what we are about when responding to what they are doing to us is the extent to which we will strengthen and build our movement.”

  -from my book, Burglar for Peace: Lessons Learned in the Catholic Left’s Resistance to the Vietnam War.

(Much of what follows is an edited version of a section in the concluding chapter of the Burglar for Peace book.)

My first years of progressive activism and organizing took place during the presidency of Richard Nixon, without doubt one of, if not the, most repressive Presidential administrations we have experienced in the US in the modern era. It was under Nixon that the Republican Party with its “southern strategy” began its move toward becoming the kind of ultra-rightist entity that allowed pathological liar, racist and sexual predator Donald Trump to be elected President in November of 2016, and again two weeks ago.

During Nixon’s first term, from 1969 to 1973, he oversaw the use of government agencies to attempt to destroy groups like the Black Panther Party and Young Lords, including armed attacks by police leading to deaths. Newly-enacted conspiracy laws were used to indict leaders of the peace movement and other movements. An entirely illegal and clandestine apparatus was created to sabotage the campaigns of his political opponents in the Democratic Party, leading to the midnight break-in at the Watergate Hotel. This eventually led to the exposure of this apparatus and Nixon’s forced resignation from office in 1974.

I personally experienced this repressive apparatus primarily via my inclusion as a defendant in the Harrisburg 8 case. We were charged with a supposed anti-Vietnam War conspiracy to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up heating tunnels under Washington, DC. When the case finally came to trial, the jury in conservative Harrisburg, Pa. was hung 10-2 for acquittal, after which the Nixon government dropped the case.

I learned during those Nixon years about how to deal with government repression. Unfortunately, given the reality of a second Trump administration about to take power, these are lessons very relevant for today.

There are a number of things which are essential to successful resistance to government repression. When I say “successful” I don’t mean that there won’t be casualties on our side, people behind bars, some for months or years, or people physically attacked and injured or worse, or job losses or greater economic hardship. We need to accept that under a Trump/MAGA regime this is all likely.

Several things which can lessen all of those negatives are these:

-good legal representation in court. I was glad to see the ACLU’s strong public statement about planning to do their job, and there are many other movement groups, like the National Lawyers Guild, and lawyers that I expect will do the same.

-a loving community of support. This can be within an organization, within the local area where we live, via social media or other forms of communication, and/or just within a family. We all need to do our best to help foster and strengthen these necessary support networks.

-broad community support when repression happens. If people and groups that are attacked, in whatever way, are not seen as, or do not come to be known as, honest and genuine human beings trying to be a positive force, it is going to be hard to rally and manifest the breadth of support probably necessary. Indeed, if we are such people already, attacks on us can immediately or over time serve to undercut support for the repressors, strengthen our movement of movements.

Another critical aspect is the need for us, white progressives in particular, to internalize the reality that there is a disparity between how repressive government deals with people of color, Black, Latino/a, First Nation and Asian, compared with people of European descent, white people. The historical realities of broken treaties, slavery, Jim Crow segregation, assumed white dominance and institutionalized racism continue to have their negative, discriminatory impacts. In 2024 it was manifested primarily by Trump’s repeated attacks on and threats to people of color immigrants.

Also, clearly, transgender people are right up there at the top of MAGA’s enemies list.

Those of us of European descent as well as all progressives must be conscious of these realities and act accordingly, ready to speak up and challenge unequal, discriminatory or explicitly racist, sexist and transphobic words and actions whenever they happen.

Another lesson as far as dealing with government repression is to not let it paralyze or divide organizations or movements.

This is one of the objectives of unjust governments trying to repress those who challenge its policies and practices. It is a known fact that government infiltrators are trained to look for differences within a group or movement and make efforts to deepen and harden them. That is why we need to be about the continued development of a movement culture which is respectful and healthy. Within such a cultural environment, it is much harder for people trying to create divisions to succeed.

It’s similar in regards to agent provocateurs, people who try to get others to engage in violent speech or action toward police or others representing government.

Anger against injustice and oppression is not just legitimate; it is a necessary component of successfully building a movement for real change. But anger needs to be used in a disciplined way. Those who are quick to call cops “pigs” to their face, engage in physical violence, or in other ways display anger negatively, ways which will be used to discredit and isolate us, are either government/corporate agents or are people who need an intervention. They need to be taken aside and spoken to in a direct, to-the-point and loving way about the counter-productiveness of what they are doing.

It’s a drag that we’re on the defensive on a national level and will be for at least a couple years to come, but that’s where we are. There are so many issues that we won’t be able to move forward on nationally, the deepening climate emergency being a huge one imho. But in this time of testing we owe it to the best within us and to those coming after us to stand as strong and gentle and loving as we can as we go about our essential work and activism. Generations past have pointed the way for us, and generations to come are counting on us.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

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