Part 4 of this series contains the following chapter:

5. Strategy for Social Self-Defense

Defending Society Against MAGA Tyranny: A Prospectus for Action is a report from the Labor Network for Sustainability, co-published by ZNetwork.org.

Click here to read the report in full: Defending Society Against MAGA Tyranny: A Prospectus for Action

Strategy for Social Self-Defense

French Prime Minister George Clemenceau once warned that “generals always prepare to fight the last war, especially if they won it.” Conditions in 2025 differ in many ways from those of 2021. Social Self-Defense in the new MAGA era will fail if it is simply a rerun of the first Trump Resistance. Its strategy will have to pay continuous attention to what Trump is doing, how people are reacting, and what opportunities for action those developments open or close.

Trump’s action and popular response are highly unpredictable, so his opponent’s strategies will have to be highly flexible. Further, Social Self-Defense will unfold in the context of the global polycrisis, which is likely to be marked by “unknown unknowns” like unanticipated wars and climate catastrophes. We can, however, look back at past experiences and see what examples might be worth drawing on and what pitfalls need to be avoided.

The first Trump Resistance was not based on an overall plan or strategy for the anti-MAGA movement as a whole. It largely grew out of diverse people’s response to what was happening – their immediate feelings and needs. With benefit of hindsight, we may be able to be more intentional today, but we still must recognize that what arises spontaneously in response to people’s lived reality will be critical.

The Unfolding of Social Self-Defense

It is possible that Trump’s actions and the broader MAGA agenda, despite the harm they are doing to individuals, constituencies, and society as a whole, will not provoke sufficient opposition to significantly undermine MAGA power. Induced fear and helplessness, combined with entertaining circuses and the promise of bread “just around the corner,” may demobilize even a population being ravaged by Trumpian devastation. Other factors, known and unknown, may further help Trump to perpetuate his rule.

Trump’s greatest vulnerability will be the harm he is doing to individuals, groups, the American people, and the global future. The cold reality of harm is the chink in the MAGA armor. In the abyss of Nazi rule, the exiled German writer Bertold Brecht wrote “In Times of Extreme Persecution”:

Once you’ve been beaten

What will remain?

Hunger and sleet and

Driving rain.

“Who’ll point the lesson?
Just as of old

Hunger and cold

Will point the lesson.[1]

It is up to those harmed by MAGA to create the means for translating the experience of harm to people and society into Social Self-Defense. Defeating Trump requires a shift in power away from him and his supporters to his opponents. That process depends on cumulative disillusion and repudiation. Social Self-Defense can play midwife to that process.

Social Self-Defense is not an organization – it is a set of practices to be engaged in by myriad organizations, hopefully in close cooperation with each other. It can draw on both established and newly emerging organizations, as the first Trump Resistance incorporated thousands of local self-organized groups, newly emerging national networks, and long-established national organizations. Social Self-Defense need not become a single organization or umbrella group. But it requires that issue- and constituency-based groups expand beyond siloed practices to act in concert with each other to resist the Trump agenda.

The success of Social Self-Defense will depend on combining civil resistance in social institutions and the streets with political resistance in the institutions of government. It will take months or years for the Trump regime to eviscerate, coopt, or eliminate the institutions that might resist it. There are still courts, legislatures, local and state governments, legal, educational, labor, media, and other civil society institutions. Social Self-Defense can be pursued in part through supporting and strengthening those institutions willing and able to resist Trumpian tyranny. While there is at present little possibility for an “inside game” that attempts to influence the Trump administration from within, cooperation with anti-Trump politicians and institutional leaders where they exist is essential to the success of Social Self-Defense.

The Trump regime is likely to start with a furious flurry of actions designed to provide red meat to followers and put opponents off-balance. Social Self-Defense will need to respond in ways that make it clear that Trump cannot simply have his way unopposed. Even if his initial moves can’t be halted, is it important to show that they cannot be imposed without opposition. As his intentions are manifested in actions, it is necessary to oppose them and show the harm they are wreaking, both through legislative action where possible and through action in the streets. It is necessary to pressure Democrats to expose and fight MAGA policies and to present an alternative to Trumpism that has wide popular appeal rather than just representing the interests of a different faction of the plutocratic class. Opponents based in civil society outside the electoral system can strengthen their performance of these tasks by drawing together a non-electoral opposition, as discussed in Section 7 below. 

MAGA forces will undoubtedly continue and expand their longstanding efforts to cripple opposition in the electoral system through voter suppression, intimidation, gerrymandering, and similar anti-democratic techniques. These efforts will continue to be challenged in the electoral system, in the courts, and by direct action. The success of the two sides will be hanging in the balance. The result of successful resistance may be a period of dual power, in which Trump remains in office but is unable to implement his agenda because of popular opposition.

In the event that the electoral system is still functioning as more than a rubber stamp for MAGA power, the 2026 elections will provide a major opportunity to end MAGA hegemony, as discussed in Section 6 below. Both direct and electoral action should aim to dramatize the harm MAGA is doing, expose the illusion of its invincibility, and project a positive alternative. The aim is a massive repudiation of Trump and the MAGA agenda. If the Republican Party loses its control of one or both houses of Congress, that will put a powerful brake on the MAGA juggernaut.

Conversely, if the Republican Party remains in control of the presidency, the Supreme Court, and both houses of Congress, it may be well on its way to establishing an authoritarian para-fascist regime led by an autocratic dictator. Under those circumstances, Social Self-Defense will depend primarily on action taken outside the electoral arena.

Sometimes those in power come to be despised by a large proportion of the population, but political repression and the gutting of the institutions of democracy make elections and other normal democratic procedures ineffective as vehicles for change. Under such conditions, people in many parts of the world have turned to mass nonviolent popular uprisings, sometimes referred to as “people power” or “social strikes.” These have removed authoritarian regimes and established democratic governance in such countries as Poland, the Philippines, Serbia, and most recently in South Korea, as discussed in Section 8 below. They represent the ultimate power of Social Self-Defense, with an entire society withdrawing cooperation and support from a regime and making its continued rule impossible. They often grow out of previous forms of Social Self-Defense. The developing resistance to MAGA para-fascism should aim to lay the groundwork for such action should it ultimately become necessary.

Sooner or later replacement of para-fascism by democracy will need to be ratified by free elections.

Strategic Guidelines

This strategic perspective suggests a number of principles to guide Social Self-Defense against the MAGA juggernaut. The experience of past popular resistance to threats to democracy in the US and worldwide can help enrich those principles. The following guidelines are not offered as rules to be obeyed, but as hypotheses to be debated — and tested in action.

Broad strategic perspectives for Social Self-Defense

Take tactical initiatives within a strategic retreat We need to accept that Social Self-Defense will not be able to protect every immigrant, ensure a safe abortion for every pregnant woman, or halt the roll-back of all our rights. Unequal power makes it necessary to retreat where the power of the opponent is overwhelming, but still allows engagement where gains are possible. Acts like taking food to a political prisoner or providing safe abortion pills are humanly productive and worthwhile. They are also exemplary actions that can inspire others because they embody the principle that we help each other and protect each other because we are part of one society and one humanity. And they show it is possible to take an initiative within the context of an overall retreat.

Coordinate defense, pushback, and rollback. Social Self-Defense requires coordinating three strategic objectives. First, minimize the damage Trump does to people and planet. Second, terminate the Trump regime ASAP. Third, lay the groundwork for expanding protection of people and planet. These are part of a continuous process: Slow the Trump assault by pushing back; then begin to roll it back; ultimately evacuate it from the stage of history.

Engage in both a “war of position” and a “war of movement.” Trump engages in lightning “blitzkrieg” type attacks and maneuvers designed to keep opponents off balance and achieve quick gains. Social Self-Defense must be prepared to deal with such a “war of movement,” both by rapid response measures to protect those endangered and by political jujitsu that reveals such actions as further examples of his depredations. Trump’s mistakes may also create sudden opportunities that should be rapidly taken advantage of. At the same time, we are engaged in a “war of position” designed to slowly but persistently seize new territory by turning the people against Trump and Trumpism, rebuilding the institutional structures of democracy and of society, and ultimately using them to eliminate the MAGA menace.

Political objectives of Social Self-Defense

Aim to win the hearts and minds of the American people. Defeating MAGA requires winning, uniting, and activating the majority. They must be persuaded that Trumpism is bad for them personally; bad for the groups of which they are part; and bad for society as a whole. They must be able to see that better alternatives are possible and that their action can make a difference. Social Self-Defense may at times require actions that are currently unpopular, such as defending the rights of stigmatized groups or opposing criminal wars, but such actions should be conducted in ways that ultimately contribute to winning a majority.

Reach beyond the initial anti-MAGA base. For example, the large number of people who voted for Trump in response to inflation and inadequate wages can be appealed to by Fight for Fifteen-style minimum wage campaigns and debt-reduction initiatives. Those suffering denial of health care can be appealed to by programs like Medicare for All.

Undermine Trump’s wobbly pillars of support. Although some Trump supporters are motivated by para-fascist views on racism, sexism, and ethnic nationalism, others can be detached from his base. Trump won less than half the popular vote in the 2024 presidential election. His victory depended on contributions from billionaires on whom he may well turn; Republican politicians who hate him and will jump ship if they can do so without being smashed; workers who were protesting inflation, low wages, and poor economic conditions, but who will find things even worse under Trump; men whose real economic and social conditions will not be improved by Trump; a substantial proportion of women and people of color whose conditions will be sharply deteriorated by the Trump regime; and government employees and military personnel who will be necessary to carry out Trump’s policies but who will be severely harmed by them. High profile wealthy and powerful Trump supporters can be subject to exposé, public demonstrations, and demands that they withdraw support. People who supported Trump can be appealed to based on the harm that he is actually doing to them.

Fight to win social institutions to Social Self-Defense. To achieve permanent domination, MAGA must take over or eliminate the “secondary institutions” that can stand in its way, such as schools, religious congregations, trade unions, the medical system, and a host of others. These institutions and their networks, loyalties, and solidarities form the potential social base for either para-fascism or for Social Self-Defense. Many will be tempted to temporize with Trump. Most of them, however, will be subject to devastating attacks anyway. Unions, for example, may hope that they can escape Trump’s wrath by not threatening his power, but in reality MAGA’s goal is to break the power of unions and, if possible, eliminate them altogether. Unions and other institutions need to understand that they have no safety other than to join a broad movement for Social Self-Defense. Activists within those institutions need to persuade them that resistance, and resisting collusion, is their only road to self-preservation.

Make Trump’s actions increasingly ineffective. Use direct action to block MAGA policies, like sanctuaries for immigrants and trans kids and strikes and slowdowns to block harmful actions the way government workers defeated Trump’s government shutdown. Appeal to those who are in a position to impede implementation of Trump’s orders.

Show that Social Self-Defense can provide benefits here and now. Some people may participate in Social Self-Defense in hopes of realizing goals that may be achieved only in some distant future. But for many others such efforts may seem futile “pie in the sky” unless they can also give people a better life in the here and now. Social Self-Defense needs to use whatever means are available, from local community organizations to city and state government, to provide food, shelter, healthcare, security, climate protection, and other vital necessities. An inspiration for such actions can be the hundreds of initiatives embodied in “The Green New Deal from Below.” Adapting and expanding these can provide an in-the-flesh vision of what Social Self-Defense aims to realize, as described in section 9, “A Constructive Program for Social Self-Defense” below.

Techniques for Social Self-Defense

Use “political jujitsu” to turn MAGA’s power and aggressions against it. Repressive action by ruling regimes often backfires to reveal the regime as cruel and illegitimate. Popular movements have often used this dynamic to gain support and counter repression. An example: When New York City police brutally attacked a march by labor and other supporters of the Occupy movement and then arrested those they had attacked, public support for Occupy Wall Street soared and the police became wary of using such tactics. Call it winning by losing.

Project social self-defense as a benign, pro-social force. Paint two portraits, one of Social Self-Defense as the party of law, order, and caring; the other of MAGA as the menacing party of chaos and disruption. This is crucial for effective political jujitsu, where each act of repression further undermines the support and legitimacy of those responsible for it. This generally requires a form of disciplined nonviolence in which the protestors present themselves to the public as the upholders of peace, order, and legitimate law and the authorities as out-of-control hooligans attempting to maintain their own power through illegitimate violence. This does not require a commitment to nonviolence as a universal principle, but it does require a commitment on the part of participants not to turn to violence no matter what the provocation. This is sometimes accomplished by a formal agreement by participants in an action to act nonviolently during protest actions. With such a commitment to nonviolence every act of repression and violence by the authorities can be highlighted as oppression, and even members of the public who do not fully support the goals of Social Self-Defense can be mobilized around opposition to its illegitimate repression.

Make direct action and action inside the electoral system synergistic. Neither one is likely to bring MAGA down without the other. While there are inevitably tensions among different organizations and strategies, the experience of the first Trump resistance shows that mass direct action can positively influence the political arena and that success of Trump opponents in elections is a crucial means to reduce and eventually overcome the power of Trumpism. 

Cherish small victories. Every victory is valuable both for what it accomplishes in itself and as a building block for the ultimate defeat of Trumpism. Social Self-Defense can define its own criteria for success. Protecting one immigrant from attack or deportation is a victory. So is exposing one brutal act of repression or securing medical care for one person who has been denied it. The most important criteria for success are the growth of the movement and the expansion of public support.

Fight stigmatization with inclusion. MAGA builds power by defining and stigmatizing its opponents. The key to undermining this strategy lies in a visible commitment to protecting the rights of all people. The spirit of inclusion has wide appeal.

Build unity and avoid splits. The first Trump Resistance was highly cooperative but never really unified. The Women’s March, for example, came to be riven by internal conflict — eventually resolved through discussion and negotiation.[2] Trump, a master of playing one group off against another, will no doubt try to buy some of us off and drive the rest of us back into our silos. Social Self-Defense needs ways people can act together while agreeing to disagree in other arenas. Those not engaged in factional disputes need to influence those who are to act in ways that are constructive for the movement as a whole. If a further incentive to avoid destructive factionalism is necessary, keep in mind the fact that Communist vs. Social Democratic factionalism paved the way for Hitler.

If Trump’s election could have a silver lining, it might be the emergence of a Social Self-Defense strong enough not only to defeat Trump but to implement a long-term vision of how to protect and restore our planet and its people.

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[1] Bertold Brecht, “In Times of Extreme Persecution,” in Poems 1913-1956 (New York: Methuen, 1976).

[2] For details on splits in the Women’s March, see: Julyssa Lopez, “A Timeline of the Women’s March Controversy,” Glamour, January 18, 2019, https://www.glamour.com/ ; Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, “Turning the Women’s March into a Mass Movement Was Never Going to Be Simple,” The Nation, January 18, 2019. https://www.thenation.com/

Jeremy Brecher is a co-founder and senior strategic advisor for the Labor Network for Sustainability. He is the author of more than a dozen books on labor and social movements, including Strike! Common Preservation in a Time of Mutual Destruction, and The Green New Deal from Below.

The mission of the Labor Network for Sustainability is to be a relentless force for urgent, science-based climate action by building a powerful labor-climate movement to secure an ecologically sustainable and economically just future where everyone can make a living on a living planet.

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