Recently, I was at a powerful gathering of environmental and climate organizations from around the country. My friend and comrade, the Director of Water Protector Legal Collective, and I gave a three-hour workshop on assessing risk, armoring up, and continuing to do the work in these troubling times. We discussed the many normal, fundamental safety practices that all political activists and organizations should do as habit–like document hygiene, digital security and safety planning. But we also discussed two other topics that may be even more vital to the strategic effectiveness of our political movement work in these times.

1. One of the main goals of an authoritarian regime is to create despair among the people. A hopeless, apathetic population that thinks they are powerless against such a regime are docile sheep, easy to abuse and control. Waking up every day and fighting despair is an act of resistance. I’ve said it many times before–when confronted with state repression, the best antidote is to redouble your strategic efforts. If the State thinks their repressive tactics are working, they will expand and double-down on those tactics, to the detriment of political movements everywhere. Preemptive compliance–censoring yourself and your work in the hopes of pleasing the authoritarian king–has never been a successful strategy, and only causes increased damage and state control. Yes, there are people and groups that have been, and will be, harmed by this fascist regime–as in many other time periods in recent U.S. history. But bowing your head, taking a knee, and neutering your public interest work will not protect you.
2. Instead, we must focus on true substantive solidarity in ways that most of the “left” has not had to do for many decades. One of the themes of this gathering was the concept of “murmuration,” and I think it is a good one to ponder now (check out this video on murmuration).

A murmuration is a special kind of flying bird flock, named for the low murmur it makes from thousands of wingbeats and soft flight calls.

Often you will see in the sky a shape-shifting flock of thousands of birds (as many as 750,000). The birds spread out and come together; the flock splits apart and fuses again, constantly changing direction and formation.

Scientists believe that the more birds in the flock, the lower the risk to any one bird of being caught by a predator. Hawks and other predators generally catch the nearest prey, so the swirling of a murmuration may happen as individual birds try to move toward the safer middle of the crowd.

The more birds in a flock, the more eyes and ears to detect the predator before it’s too late. Yes to copwatch, ICEwatch, and legal observers everywhere!

And a colossal mass of whirling, swirling birds can make it hard for a raptor to focus on a single target. The predator may get confused and distracted by tricky wave patterns in the murmuration’s movements. It also must be careful not to collide with the flock and get hurt. So, the more people out there fighting the good fight, the more safety for all–especially given the regime’s short attention span and obsessive focus on a variety of perceived adversaries.

Also relevant to our analogy to movement solidarity and strength, murmurations have no leader and follow no static plan. Scientists who study starling murmurations believe their movements are coordinated by individuals observing what others around them are doing. Interestingly, scientists believe that each bird, while flying as fast as it can, must keep track of six or seven neighbors and adjust based on what they’re doing to keep the murmuration from falling apart in a chaotic mess.

Remember the importance of situational awareness and keep track of six or seven friends. And in the words of one of the speakers at this gathering I was at, “it’s time to gird your loins* and murmurate.”

*(gird one’s loins, also gird up one’s loins, prepare oneself for something difficult or challenging)

This blog was written by CLDC’s Director of Litigation & Advocacy, Lauren Regan.