“Our Collective is the Prize”
moving from defense to offense while fighting
Trump, Oligarchy & Fascism
An Online Course & Learning Community from Comrades Education
FACILITATORS: Eleanor Hancock and Dan McDonald
Wanna jump straight to registration? You can do that here!
“Our government has been taken over by fascist billionaires who are only interested in their own ends, their own power. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. Every transformative tool in the toolkit needs to be taken up, studied, and utilized. We can’t do this rough patch alone.”
“Strengthen those collective spaces that are already around you and that you are in. The only way to get us is to separate us from one another. When you are lost, let the principle ‘how do I make these groups stronger?’ guide you … because our collective is the prize.”
“Our Collective is the Prize” is an online course and a learning community focused on defending our communities & public institutions against the immediate attacks coming from a second Trump administration, while building our offensive capacity to create a completely different social system, one that serves the needs & wellbeing of all.
Read all about the course below, or jump straight to registration here.
-
“Our Collective is the Prize” is a online course designed to help individuals, communities, activist networks and various other groups who are looking for resources, camaraderie and support in the face of the fascist attacks to U.S. public institutions, democracy and civil liberties under the second Trump administration. Designed to be a community of support for reflection and taking meaningful action during this critical time, this course is designed to help you:
Understand how the current moment is both unique in American history and shaped by forces of oligarchy and fascism that have long shaped the contours of American society.
Learn principles and explore best practices to guide direct action, protect our communities and our civil rights, prevent a further degradation of our public institutions and democracy, end the genocide in Gaza and fight fascism at home & abroad.
Consider what it would take to “move from defense to offense” and build a movement capable of ending the destructive status quo and building a more equitable and just society that serves the interests of all.
All three sessions include curated study materials, engaging facilitator presentations, and opportunities to share, reflect, receive support, and inspire one another in small and large group formats. We are honored to be of service within the context of wide social action at this time, and we encourage participants to join the program with others they know.
Comrades Education (formerly White Awake & based in the U.S.) has outlined community guidelines and expectations for this learning community in our Course Structure, Agreements & Ground Rules document for the program.
Session Topics
Session One | May 18:
”OUR COLLECTIVE IS THE PRIZE” - UNDERSTANDING & MEETING THE MOMENT
Our first session together will focus on a broad assessment of the barrage of threats the Trump administration, in tandem with the “oligarchs on the dais”, has unleashed on American society.
We’ll take stock of the immediate failures of the Democratic party to provide any meaningful resistance to these attacks, as well as the encouraging mobilization of tens of thousands across the U.S. to come out for Bernie and AOC’s “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies.
Then we will turn our attention to resources and strategies for coming together, finding and/or strengthening our “political home,” relying on one another, and fighting for: CIVIL LIBERTIES; DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS; the end of abuses to IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES; the Palestine solidarity movement; and END TO GENOCIDE in Gaza.
Session Two | June 1:
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
In the second session we’ll engage in study & practical discussion about the foundational problem with relying on a capitalist economic system that inherently reproduces oligarchy, fascism, violence, genocide and ecological destruction. This system was set up for failure, and it has failed us.
We will also dive into the electoral origins of today’s crisis in the United States, with a focus on the last ten years. Our collective scrutiny will fall heavily on the Democratic Party and how its failures and corporate capture have effectively stifled democratic socialist movements and handed power to the Right. Participants will be encouraged to consider the implications of these failures within the context of their own political work and decide for themselves how best to respond.
Session Three | June 8:
MOVING FROM DEFENSE TO OFFENSE
In session three we’ll be focus on building a personal & collective vision of what type of society we want, what type of society we could have. The problems that we're facing right now are much deeper than Trump's second term in office, and resistance, for the sake of resisting, is a losing strategy. If we want to effectively counter what's happening right now, we need a positive vision for a different world and the skills to join with others and build a mass movement around that vision. To achieve that, we must consider: What would it take to build a mass movement capable of ending the destructive status quo and building a more equitable and just society that serves the interests of all?
Practical skills will include basics of organizing, an assessment of personal skills, capacity & passions each participant can draw upon to stay energized and engaged in working on a long term vision of social change, in which working people have built the base of power necessary to stop forever playing defense and be able to actually decide - together, democratically - how we should run our society.
Course Details
Three live, online sessions:
May 18, June 1, June 8
4:00-6:30pm ET • 1-3:30pm PT
Live attendance is not mandatory.
Sessions will be recorded.
Suggested registration fee: $75-300*
No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Course facilitators
Eleanor Hancock
built Comrades Education (formerly White Awake) from a small website to an organization of national significance. As founder and director of the organization, Eleanor holds a strong vision for Comrades Education’s work, and has built a supportive team of leadership to guide it. For more on how Eleanor frames her antiracism work, you can listen to this interview on Upstream Podcast.
Dan McDonald
served for ten years as a civil servant for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) where he worked on the team providing assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza. Long involved in local activist circles, he now spends his time planning demonstrations against DOGE, lobbying members of Congress and the public on behalf of federal workers, and organizing USAID’s field officers to resist democratic backsliding here in the United States.
What participants say about past courses
This course is actively supported by our Advisory Council Members:
Katrina Messenger
Betty Burkes
Bonnie Duran
"Why do you charge for your work?"
We believe the work that we do is significant, and we want to do it well. To this end, we charge a modest fee for our online programs, and solicit donations from participants and supporters, in order to meet our financial needs. This allows Comrades Education staff and instructors to focus their time and energy on the educational work this project promotes, for the benefit of all.
Comrades Education and our instructors support a transition away from capitalism, imperialism and white supremacy; we support reparations to historically targeted groups, communities and Peoples; and we make our work available to all regardless of financial means.
If you have further questions, please contact: info@comrades.education
“Our Collective is the Prize” artwork was created by
