Only a few years ago, the prospects for progressive social movements looked more auspicious than they do today. In 2011, aided by new digital technology, massive street protests were on the march from the Arab Spring to the Occupy movement and the takeover of the Wisconsin State Capitol. Digitally organized protests continue in 2017, but the...

Six months into President Donald Trump’s administration, protests (and counterprotests) to his policies and agenda are only increasing, and Denver is taking a leading role in the resistance. Over the weekend, violence erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia, as a group of so-called white nationalists descended upon the college town for a planned “...

In my interactions with people from around the world, I’ve been asked a recurring question: how do we build mass mobilization in a society that is demobilized? In other words, how do we transform the dissent of a few into the resistance of many? The question is often born out of activists' frustration with a perceived public apathy, feelings of...

Self-government remains a messy, fussy, slow, frustrating business. We do well to remind those working its gears and levers that the public—not just the appalled me but the conjoined us whom the elected serve—is watching and aware. More than two centuries after our country took its shaky first steps, the union is miles from perfection. But it...

In the months since Donald Trump has become president, more and more people have become inspired to join the Resistance — whether that means volunteering, campaigning, donating, making calls, educating themselves and others on the issues, or otherwise. Bustle's 31 Days of Reading Resistance takes a look at the role of literature and writing in...

Flares fired by police punctuate the voices of protesters: “If you stay together, they cannot arrest you,” they say, “There are too many of us.” Over a megaphone, a police officer shouts at the crowd to vacate or be subject to “impact weapons.” The scene culminates in a familiar refrain: “the people, united, will never be divided.” This is the...

The Crowd Counting Consortium - a public service organization led by Erica Chenoweth, Devin Finn and Jeremy Pressman - reported more protest participation in the U.S. in June 2017 than any month since January. The group tallied 818 protests, demonstrations, strikes, marches, sit-ins and rallies in the United States, with no less than one in...

On June 20, the Sussex Police Force, of Sussex, England, posted a tweet that would go on to draw mixed reactions from those responding. It read “This man used Facebook to express his hatred for Muslims & has gone to prison #WeStandTogether against hate crimes." In Germany, twenty-three police departments raided thirty-six homes across...

Pride month - celebrated on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots - is now in full swing. Forty-eight years ago this Wednesday (June 28), queer people fought New York police in a violent three day riot, emerging victorious and celebrating it with a daring march through the city's streets, where the first pride was born. Today, there are two...

After the spread of democracy at the end of the 20th century, authoritarianism is now rolling back democracy around the globe. In the US, supporters of democracy disarmed themselves by imagining an “end of history” in which nothing but their own ideas were possible. Authoritarians, meanwhile, keep practicing their old tactics and devising new...