Dear ROPnet,
March’s Meeting the Moment gatherings helped us feel connected to a larger pro-democracy movement. Over 70 of you joined us to build our strategy, skills, and analysis to Defend Civic Institutions in the coming months. Read on for a recap of that Zoom call and for some updates about ROP’s virtual office hours.
Recap: March “Meeting the Moment”: Defend Civic Institutions
On March 10th, over 70 people from across the state gathered for our Meeting the Moment virtual gathering that focused on how we can defend civic institutions from the administrative coup we find ourselves in and how to build a pro-democracy movement that can win in the months and years ahead.
We were joined by three amazing guest speakers:
- Husam Oubari, a leader with Central Oregon for a Free Palestine in Central Oregon who is Syrian, shared stories based on his family’s experience living in a country that turned from democracy to dictatorship and now is potentially transitioning back to democracy.
- Nadine Bloch, Training Director for Beautiful Trouble. She has organized globally with movement leaders developing strategic plans and creative tactics to defend democracy in critical junctures like the one we in the US find ourselves in.
- Stephanie Guilloud, Project South‘s Movement Organizing Senior Strategist. She brings three decades of experience organizing in Southern movement and global justice work, including grassroots governance, rapid response, and mutual aid.
- Unfortunately, Scot Nakagawa was sick and unable to participate but stay tuned for more opportunities to connect with him, and subscribe to Scot’s Substack here for regular words of wisdom!
In a dynamic fishbowl conversation, we drew on lessons Husam learned from his parents and his personal experience in Syria. Nadine shared what she’s learned from past campaigns internationally that can help us meet this moment realistically and strategically. Steph shared stories of what she and her team are experiencing in the South, how it relates to previous authoritarian governance for them, such as during the Jim Crow era and Hurricane Katrina recovery, and what Project South sees as key areas to focus on in the months and years to come. Watch the recording of the fishbowl conversation here. Two key quotes from the discussion were:
- Ask folks you maybe haven’t worked with before, “Do you want to have a say in how we are governed?” If the answer is ‘Yes,’ we need to bring them in and find a way to work with them.
- If we build a broad-based coalition with faith-based organizations, unions, community groups, and more, we have a 52% chance of stopping the Trump-Musk coup. If we don’t, we have only a 7% chance.
Tools shared specifically for federal workers and civil servants:
- Serve the People’s Civil Servant’s Guide for 2024 and Beyond: Designed version, Text version
- Civil Service Strong: Resources for Civil Servants: https://www.civilservicestrong.org/
- The Federal Unionists Network https://www.federalunionists.net/
- Our Public Service https://ourpublicservice.org/supporting-federal-employees-through-change/#latest
- Public Service Alliance – Empowering Public Servants https://thepublicservicealliance.com/
- Tips in the chat:
- “Please do NOT communicate on work computers or phones. Get personal info, use Signal, VPN and do this on your own devices and time”
- “Have meet-ups outside of work hours… please see the link I shared above “Serve the People” for more ideas and options”
More tools and resources from our speakers:
- Steph shared the protect libraries tool that we previously put out over ROPnet: https://rop.org/update/one-step-against-fascism-organizing-to-protect-and-defend-our-libraries/
- Southern Movement Assembly ran a Get Ready Taskforce and compiled tools, there’s more here: https://www.southtosouth.org/get-ready-task-force
- https://beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/
- Digital security checklists https://activistchecklist.org/
Office Hours aren’t going anywhere!
We also had over 20 folks join our March 24th virtual Office Hours Zoom, where we had some juicy conversations about security tools, communications strategies, and more. We’ve heard from y’all that these monthly, unstructured meetings have been a useful space to connect with other human dignity leaders from across the state and to get support with your local organizing strategies. Virtual office hours will continue in May, after the Caucus!
Register today and mark your calendars for one or both upcoming ROP office hours:
Monday, May 19th: Register here
Monday, June 9th: Register here
Warmly,
Emma and the ROP team
P.S. Registration for the 2025 Rural Caucus and Strategy Session is now closed, but we have a waitlist and anticipate that some spots will open up in the coming weeks! If you would like to add yourself or your group to the waitlist, please email sidra@rop.org with your name, contact information, group, and county. We will add you to the list and keep you posted with any updates. Feel free to email or call Sidra at 541-799-6136 if you have any questions.
