Somewhere on East Jefferson Avenue, there is the ghost of a sign. In uneven, narrow script the words “NO CONSENT” once stood out boldly, red on a low gray wall.  The letters have long faded. But their spirit remains to guide us.

The declaration embodied the resistance to the drive toward Detroit bankruptcy. As much loved activist and City Council member JoAnn Watson often reminded us: Detroit did not file for bankruptcy. An unelected, illegitimate, anti-democratic emergency manager did. It was all a ruse to shift public wealth to private hands. It was a practice case for what is now happening on a national scale.

The city did not consent. Our council continued to object, and members used their power to organize resistance. Our elected school board, removed from authority and replaced by an emergency manager, continued to meet, to make decisions, to support schools, and to hold public forums. Community members organized Freedom Schools. Our city workers, union members, and allies challenged every undemocratic action, launched lawsuits, held public demonstrations, blocked water shut-off trucks, disrupted government meetings, and ringed buildings to block daily functioning. Citizens organized to not only resist water shut-offs, but to create alternative systems of water distribution, to research the health effects of water shut-offs, and used every possible venue to resist the inhuman values shaping public decisions.

We need this kind of resistance on a national scale. The corporate media and the Democratic Party are trying to get us to believe that “resistance is futile.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Such statements are like believing Ukraine invaded Russia. One of the most dramatic examples of the Detroit experience under Emergency Management was that water shut-offs, the most repulsive of the EM’s actions, dramatically decreased for days after any major public demonstration. 

This altering of behavior is not because the EM and his backers cared what we thought. It is because they feared us. They feared collective action. They feared our educating each other about the unfairness and dangers of this moment. They understand that what they were doing was unpopular, out of balance, and unsustainable. 

In a recent article about the Tesla Takedown, Edward Hasbrouck wrote in Waging Nonviolence:

We need to name our enemy, without pulling punches: We are struggling against a fascist coup mounted by the Trump-Musk-Vance regime. We are not alone in this global struggle against fascism, or in facing the two existential threats it poses on nuclear omnicide and climate change.

An essential element of nonviolent resistance — particularly in cases of coups and authoritarian power grabs — is the withdrawal of cooperation. Coup-plotters, coup-makers, and coup-profiteers are vulnerable to people power, and right now the unelected Musk is the most vulnerable.

This understanding offers three critical areas for action.

First, every individual and collective action of non-cooperation is essential. We should celebrate those who have resigned from office rather than carry out unlawful orders, those who are using alternative media to get the word out about what is happening, those who are organizing lawsuits, and those who are educating us about the real human costs to the chaos, disruption and cruelty of Trump and his billionaires club. 

Second, we need to target strategic actions that not only disrupt the efforts of Trump-Musk but hit them in their pocketbooks. Targeting Tesla, refusing to do business with companies that have removed commitments to justice, and national days of boycotts are essential strategies. 

Third, we must organize and create alternative institutions to provide for our common good. We especially need to provide mutual aid and material support to those who are most directly being affected at this moment: immigrants, members of the Trans community, children, and government workers. 

And as the recent actions by the Washington Post and the Trump White House show, we need a strong, alternative media, able to speak the truth, help us think clearly and inform us of the depth of resistance. 

Creating a future that is life-affirming begins with a simple commitment. We do not consent to the way things are. We have the power to create a different world.