Category: Uncategorized
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Door-Knocking in Election 2020
Yesterday, Lara Putnam and I published a piece in the American Prospect called “Door-Knocking in a Life-or-Death campaign.” The piece compares the very different ground games being run by the Trump and Biden campaigns during the pandemic. Although rumors were flying yesterday afternoon that the Biden campaign was going to begin canvassing as part of…
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Bracing for More Resistance
As America wakes up to the news that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died, many political groups and Republican Senators have already started pushing forward with their political agenda. Plans are underway to respond with resistance in the streets. Here is the most recent Resistance Timeline since the 2018 midterm elections (which feel like a…
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What we learned from the #MarchOnWashington2020: very little violence and broader priorities.
Since George Floyd was murdered in late May by a police officer in Minneapolis, media attention has focused on the demands of protesters across the country who want to abolish and/or defund the police. By listening to the activists who are yelling the loudest, the main message of the protesters who have turned out to…
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Thus begins a long week of Resistance
On Saturday, the #SavetheUSPS day of action mobilized thousands of people to participate in more than 800 events outside local post offices around the US. The event was coordinated by a broad coalition of progressive groups including MoveOn, NAACP, SEIU, Working Families, Indivisible, and the American Federation of Teachers. It provides a great example of how distributed organizing…
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Continuing to Study Protest through the Pandemic
Even though the COVID-19 pandemic originally motivated many groups to shift their activism online, the killing of unarmed George Floyd by police in May motivated extensive and sustained protest across the US. As these protests grew and the Trump Administration deployed forces in many cities, it become increasingly clear to me that this wave of…
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How Violence at Protests Escalates
Last night, the Mayor of Portland joined the protesters in the streets of the city and was teargassed by “federal law enforcement” deployed by the President. Here’s a great thread by Washington Post reporter Marissa Lang with video of the night and here’s another thread that puts last night in perspective by Sergio Olmos who…
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Updated Resistance Timeline
Over the past four years, I’ve posted Resistance Timelines a few times to this site (and a truncated one is included in the book). If you’re interested in how I define Resistance, see this post. As the protests that erupted after George Floyd was murdered continue in many cities, Putnam, Pressman and Chenoweth have reported…
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The Diversity of the Protests is a Good Sign for Racial Equity
Today I posted a new piece on the How We Rise blog at the Brookings Institution. The piece discusses the implications of the racial and ethnic diversity of protesters on the 2020 Election. It highlights that, not only are activists supporting Joe Biden who is more likely to support policies that promote racial equity, but…
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Patterns Across Protests Sparked by the Killing of George Floyd
It’s been a month since protests began after the killing of unarmed George Floyd in Minnesota. Working with teams of researchers, I have collected data on three different days at the protests in Washington, DC: during the District Die-In on 6/4, over the weekend on 6/6, and during Juneteenth on 6/19. There are some clear…
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The Demographics of the Current Protests
Since protest erupted across the country after the killing of George Floyd, I’ve been working to collect data on the protest participants. Over the weekend of 6-7 June, I worked with teams to collect data from the protesters in Washington, DC, New York City, Los Angeles, and London. We were testing out the viability of…
Dana R Fisher 