Democracy Resources
Click on the individual items to link to the web page
Know Your Rights – ACLU
Safety and Security for Protesters
Civil Resistance Tools and Articles
- “What can I do to fight authoritarianism?” offers drop-down menus of resistance techniques arranged by level of difficulty. It also provides training agendas on everything from de-escalation to mutual aid.
- Civil Resistance Tactics in the 21st Century by Michael A. Beer
- 198 Methods of Non-violent Protest and Persuasion by Gene Sharp
- Choose Your Own Adventure interactive activity asks you to “guide us towards a better, more humane democracy.”
- The Faithful Fight: Toolkits for countering authoritarianism offers strategies to bring religious communities together, and helps us to act; Protect Democracy.
- Indivisible’s Practical Guide to Democracy on the Brink, shares strategies for defending the democratic process against authoritarian creep and a list of tactics constituents can use to pressure their elected officials.
- Can nonviolent struggle defeat a dictator? This database emphatically says yes, by George Lakey, Waging Nonviolence, January 2025.
- We are stronger than we think, by Maria J. Stephan, Waging Nonviolence, February 2025.
- Pro-democracy Organizing against Autocracy in the United States: A Strategic Assessment & Recommendations by Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks, October 2022; Faculty Research Working Paper Series
- Resistance is alive and well in the United States by Erica Chenoweth, Jeremy Pressman, and Soha Hammam
Substack Daily Newsletters
- Robert Hubbell – Today’s Edition Newsletter
- Heather Cox Richardson – Letters from an American
- Robert Reich – daily newsletter
- Jen Rubin and Norm Eisen – The Contrarian
- Joyce Vance – Civil Discourse
Expert Analysis of Current Issues
U of San Diego Library is linking/gathering info on a lot of things this gov’t is doing.
Democracy Movement Partner Organizations
UUSJ Democracy Action Team- Side With Love – Democracy / UU the Vote
- Coalition of UU State Action Networks (CUUSAN)
- Brennan Center for Justice
- Common Cause
- Democracy 2025
- Indivisible
- League of Women Voters
- Poor People’s Campaign
- Protect Democracy
- Public Citizen
- The Workers Circle – Democracy Circles
Training Videos
2/9/2026 Community Strike Readiness training with Freedom Trainers
2/18 Strike Ready Corps Step 1 Call
- Slides
- Recording Passcode: &1Y@J8J!
- Example texts for reaching out for 1:1s (but of course use your own words!)
- Form to think through your 1:1
Register for Community Strike Readiness:
Interfaith Nonviolent Civil Resistance 101 Training – October 22, 2025
One Million Rising – all 4 sessions training videos: July 16 – October 8, 2025
Rise for Freedom training videos for organizers March-June, 2025
- June 5: Intro & Traditional Broadcast Media Training
- June 5: Social Media & Storytelling with Sylvia Salazar
- May 29: Digital Hygiene for Activists
- May 22: Advanced Organizing Skills: Choosing your Tactics
- May 15: Mutual Aid & Structures for Stronger Local Organizing
- May 8: Conflict de-escalation & action security
- April 24: Harnessing our power to end political violence & repression
- April 17: Talking to people you disagree with
- April 10: Building to a critical mass locally (outreach)
- April 3: How did we get here? Intro to organizing under creeping autocracy
- March 27: Training & Launch
- March 20: Launch
Other Useful Videos
- Democracy on the line: How we got here and how to stop an authoritarian takeover 6/2025 Center for American Progress event – Heather Cox Richardson and Steven Levitsky
- The Top 10 Most Effective Actions to Meet This Moment– Franciscan Action Network 6/2025 event with Nonviolence experts Maria Stephan and Rivera Sun
- Democracy TED Talks – various lengths, perfect for watching followed by discussion
- Ava King, a 17-year-old, and John Trezise, a 101-year-old reflect on the right to vote and what might be at stake this coming election. Filmed and produced by Rev. Alex Jensen, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Grand Traverse
- David Pepper – Saving Democracy: A User’s Manual for Every American
Steve Phillips – How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy- Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt – Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
- Rev. Cecilia Kingman – Recognizing and Resisting Fascism as People of Faith
- Dale Anderson from UUSJ Democracy Action Team – Your Personal Plan to Help Save Our Democracy – Part i
Books
- Anne Applebaum:
- Ruth Ben-Ghiat – Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present
- Mark Bray – Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook
- Erica Chenoweth:
- Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
- Nancy MacLean – Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
- Rachel Maddow – Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism
- Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen – Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want
- David Pepper – Saving Democracy: A User’s Manual for Every American
- Steve Phillips – How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good
- Sami Sage and Emily Amick – Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives
- Gene Sharp – From Dictatorship to Democracy
- Timothy Snyder
- Jason Stanley
Secure Communications
Get Out the Vote Partner Organizations
- UUSJ Democracy Action Team
- Side With Love – Democracy / UU the Vote
- Center for Common Ground / Reclaim Our Vote – postcards
- Common Cause – election protection
- Environmental Voter Project – phone banking, postcards
- League of Women Voters
- MomsRising – postcards
- Movement Voter Project – invest in selected local voter organizations
- NextGen America – text and phone banking, social media
- Power the Polls – poll working
- The Civics Center – letters
- The Workers Circle – Democracy Circles
- Vote Forward – letters