Executive Director of the Building Movement Project, Janis Rosheuvel unpacks how to bolster the frontlines of movement work for the fight ahead
The burning of the main office building at The Highlander Center, an historic movement training venue; the violent murder of Heather Heyer as she protested the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia; and threats against Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage, and her family; all demonstrate the perils of organizing on the left today. Threats to our movements have increased dramatically in the past decade. These and many other instances are part of a complex threat matrix undermining the ability of organizations to do their work. We must protect organizations and leaders fighting for progressive social change.
This blog is part of BMP’s Navigating Uncertainty series, which was created to document the impacts of the current political climate on the nonprofit sector. The series will address how to keep the sector secure and safer from threats, answer frequently asked questions about presidential executive orders, show how nonprofit social service providers are responding, and document resistance efforts by equity practitioners around the country.
Silencing progressive social movements in the United States is not new. The nation’s institutions have long been used to target resistance organizations and workers. Movements for the abolition of slavery and Jim Crow, women’s right to vote, Indigenous sovereignty, and farm worker justice all experienced state-sponsored repression and vigilante terror. Our movement elders and ancestors have much to teach us and we must adapt these lessons for our time.
What is the threat matrix?
The threat matrix is an interconnected pattern of actions using violence, fear, and institutions to suppress organizing and dissent. This pattern includes physical violence and online intimidation by state and non-state actors. Indeed, targeted digital surveillance and coordinated online harassment campaigns can quickly spiral into real-world threats. The digital landscape has become a battlefield where doxxing, digital stalking, and weaponized disinformation are used to destabilize movement leaders and organizations. Groups like Palestine Legal, ACLU, and Electronic Frontier Foundation are among the legal entities at the forefront of fighting back against online threats.
The threat matrix also harnesses the levers of power including the courts, media, and legislative and administrative actions to chill resistance on the left. This threat matrix is part of an authoritarian playbook used by the extreme right and their allies on all sides to endanger, disrupt, and dismantle the very infrastructure of progressive movements. This infrastructure includes the people, organizations, programs, partnerships, and advocacy tools that enable movements to thrive.
For those coming under attack, the threat matrix significantly jeopardizes their ability to do their work and by extension compromises the entire nonprofit sector. A frightening recent example is HR9495, a bill that, if it becomes law, will broaden the federal government’s ability to revoke the tax exempt status of nonprofit organizations. Reassuringly, hundreds of organizations are actively fighting to stop this bill. The coercive measures of the threat matrix are also putting pressure on philanthropy to withdraw or limit money to groups organizing on a wide range of issues.
In Building Movement Project’s recent report, Sounding the Alarm: Nonprofits on the Frontlines of a Polarized Political Climate, we documented that 73% of frontline social change organizations have faced or are anticipating one or more of a range of negative consequences as a result of the threat matrix. Organizations reported threats to their reputation, their office, their personnel, or reductions in funding. Of the 406 groups that said they experienced or anticipated negative consequences, 70% attributed that to their DEI efforts. A striking 44% of groups experienced or anticipated consequences for their expressions of support on current issues such as Palestinian rights, followed closely by those working on LGBTQIA+ Rights (39%). About a third attributed consequences to their immigrant rights (30%) work, as did about a quarter of groups working on both reproductive rights (24%) and education and racial equity (24%). And the situation is much worse now, given the direct threats groups are facing from the Trump Administration. As the threat matrix becomes even more expansive, it requires us to respond with robust infrastructure and partnerships.
Resisting the threat matrix:
For many groups, the ever-increasing onslaught of this threat matrix means learning on our feet and employing all the tools at our disposal to form a bulwark against repression. People are seeking solidarity by building collective responses to these attacks. We are having hard conversations about building alignment as we resist targeting and skilling up on what to do before threats become acute. Organizations like Shake Technologies, Vision Change Win, Equality Labs, Political Research Associates and hundreds of legal and organizing groups initiating know-your-rights efforts are offering services and training to help keep us aligned, connected, and safe.
Our colleagues across movements are also creating ways for people to get and disseminate information about emerging threats and how to face them. These include toolkits, podcasts, articles, websites, listservs, coalition dialogues, and strategy sessions. But it is also all of the conversations where we are sharing information, commiserating, and simply building trust with one another. All of these things matter. They offer practical tools for how we can meet this moment together and are forms of resistance in their own right. And we are not preemptively retreating. Those on the frontlines are using litigation, nonviolent direct action, naming and shaming, power analysis, and strategic communications at the local, state, and federal levels to protect our right to resist. While there is powerful work happening to impede the threat matrix, we have work to do to build sustained resistance to repression.
First, many communities and organizations already employ tools to help keep their neighbors safe. These are already expanding and will need to keep doing so. Groups will also need to expand everything from their digital security infrastructure and values-aligned security training to deepening the bench of movement lawyers ready to defend our right to dissent.
Next, we must support our wealth-holding and philanthropic comrades to fortify themselves and stiffen their backbones. Too much of progressive philanthropy appears to be in crisis at a time when they are most needed. Now is the time for them to remain steadfast in their funding and to be creative in resourcing organizations and leaders under attack. The Rise Together Fund, Piper Fund, Solidaire, Urgent Action Fund, and Emergent Fund all provide safety and security support to movement groups. More institutional and major donors must support or follow these models. They also need to be willing to give money to movement entities trusted within communities to get resources to those most urgently at risk. As a sector, we will also need to build long term security infrastructure. Funders can undergird their rapid response resourcing by making sure to offer longer term support to build sustainable safety infrastructure that can go to battle with the threat matrix.
Finally, we must cultivate community care mechanisms that allow us to rotate vigilance. Living under the realities of this threat matrix means our leaders, workers, and organizations are in a near constant state of hypervigilance monitoring for impending doom. While vigilance is necessary, correctly pacing our work, taking regular breaks, coordinating and sharing responsibilities means we can trust that others will be on watch to keep us informed and ready to respond to attacks. The threat matrix is designed to rattle our cores, make us cower, and exhaust us. Our collective action, skill building, cooperation, and care offer us a path toward meaningful resistance.
