When authoritarian regimes consolidate power, they come for the artists first because artists name what is happening, make people feel what is true, and keep moral imagination alive when everything else is being suppressed. In this episode, Scot talks with two people who have spent their lives at the intersection of art and resistance: Jane Fonda, one of the most consequential activist artists of the twentieth century, and Nadine Bloch, strategic nonviolent actionista and Training Director for Beautiful Trouble. They talk about the First Amendment under pressure, what backfire looks like when you come for the artists, and why joy is strategic.
Beautiful Trouble equips social movements with an ever-growing suite of strategic tools and training to help grassroots movements be more creative, effective, and irresistible. Learn more about their work and offerings at beautifultrouble.org.
Originally created during the McCarthy Era, the Committee for the First Amendment stands in defense of constitutional rights against the forces of repression. They are fiercely united to defend free speech and expression, and urge everyone who cares about the First Amendment and every artist around the globe to join at https://www.committeeforthefirstamendment.com.
The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook digs into the theory behind what Nadine and Jane describe, why cultural workers are central to anti-authoritarian strategy, how creative resistance generates backfire, and what movements that have won can teach us about this moment. Read it at bit.ly/antiauthoritarianplaybook.
Episode Guests
As a longtime movement facilitator, strategic nonviolent organizer, activist artist, core team member of FreedomTrainers.net and Training Director of Beautiful Trouble.org, Nadine Bloch leverages the potent intersection of arts/culture and people power.
Sample her writings in Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution (aff), “Education & Training in Nonviolent Resistance” (USIP Special Report), “SNAP: An Action Guide to Synergizing Nonviolent Action and Peacebuilding,” and “From Airtable to Zoom: An A-to-Z Guide to Digital Tech and Activism” (Toda Policy Brief). Find her other “Arts of Protest” writings at WagingNonviolence.org.