Organizing kit
The full tactical playbook
Embedded Files
This is the full playbook — how the seven tactics work, how they reinforce each other, and how to build a practice that compounds over time without burning out. Everything here is designed to be used by one person or a group of twelve. Pick a lane and start.
How This Works
This library supports seven lawful tactics. Each one targets a different institutional vulnerability. None of them require expertise, confrontation, or heroics. Together they create sustained, compounding pressure without requiring constant engagement.
The tactics reinforce each other: FOIA records feed congressional letters. Congressional letters amplify public pressure. Consumer boycotts impose economic cost that strengthens everything else. There is no requirement to run the whole pipeline — just to be somewhere in it, consistently.
The Seven Tactics
📬 Congressional Correspondence Emails, letters, and web-form submissions that force staff to log, brief, and escalate constituent concerns. Volume matters more than eloquence. Persistence matters more than persuasion.
→ Learn more | Letter templates
📣 Public Pressure & Opinion Letters to editors, op-eds, and public statements that raise the reputational cost of inaction and shift the visible narrative. One letter is opinion. Many similar letters create momentum.
→ Learn more | Public pressure templates
📞 Call Script Campaigns Short, scripted phone calls that create operational friction inside congressional and corporate offices. Scripts take under two minutes. Staffers must answer, tally, and report.
🗂️ FOIA / Public Records Requests Legal requests that compel agencies to search for records, document their actions, and justify decisions in writing. Even denied requests create paper trails and lock agencies into positions they must defend.
⚖️ Ethics Complaints Formal complaints that require intake, assessment, and written disposition by oversight bodies. Patterns of complaints raise scrutiny thresholds and create defensible records.
→ Learn more | Ethics templates
🏛️ Local Governance Pressure Public comment, recorded votes, and published minutes at school boards, commissions, and local bodies. A small number of consistent participants can meaningfully influence outcomes.
→ Learn more | Local gov scripts
🛒 Consumer Boycotts Coordinated purchasing decisions that impose measurable economic and reputational cost on corporations whose political behavior enables authoritarian outcomes. Participation is passive once habits change — impact accumulates quietly over time .
Organizing Principles
Choose a lane. No one needs to do everything. Pick one or two tactics that fit available skills, time, and access. Depth beats breadth. Consistency beats intensity.
Template everything. Every tactic in this library has pre-written scripts, letters, FOIA requests, and public comment guides. The goal is zero cognitive overhead. Write once, reuse indefinitely.
Track every action. Log what gets done in the Actions Log. Every entry is a data point. Patterns matter. Cumulative records fuel journalism, lawfare, and oversight.
Stay lawful and ethical. All tactics are peaceful and lawful. No harassment, threats, or personal attacks. Focus on policies, institutions, and documented behavior. Credibility is the most powerful asset this work has.
Sustain over time. Autocratic movements depend on opposition exhaustion. Short, repeated actions on a schedule beat heroic one-time efforts. Rotate roles. Time-box actions. Rest is part of resistance.
For Small Groups (5–12 People)
Cells of 5–12 work better than individuals and better than large, loosely coordinated networks. Consider a recurring "democracy night" — monthly or biweekly, 30–60 minutes total.
A simple agenda that works:
15 minutes: what matters this week
20 minutes: take an action together
10 minutes: log it and plan next steps
Rotate roles — researcher, caller, letter-writer, log-keeper, public commenter. No one needs to do the same thing every time, and no single person carries the load.
Recommended Workflow
Choose a tactic lane
Use a template to take your first action
Log it in the Actions Log
Repeat weekly or on a schedule that fits
Rotate roles and expand to a second tactic when ready
Ready for the full strategic picture?
The Advanced Guide covers escalation, noncooperation, narrative strategy, institutional resistance, and how authoritarian movements actually fail.
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