Tesla Takedown Trains Up New Protestors
I attended my first protest in a year, joining the Tesla Takedown and learning from seasoned activists.
Yesterday morning, I went to a protest for the first time in over a year. I’ve been adjusting to walking with a cane and learning new skills to manage my PTSD and it’s left me little capacity to be physically present on the front lines. I’ve changed tactics in many ways, prioritizing deep 1:1 organizing and learning from folks who’ve been around the block a few more times than I have. Yesterday, however, my curiosity about the Tesla Takedown protests overwhelmed my desire to stay warm and comfy.
It was brisk; the protest lasted about one hour and the wind was blowing directly into my bones. Cloudy but nonetheless bright out, the weather did not prove too challenging for the 70 or so people who showed up to protest. They ranged in age from a handful of tweens to a large contingent of white-haired hellraisers. They came with little experience – “I’ve never really thought about it but I guess I should wear a mask if I don’t want to show up in pictures!” – and they came with decades of insight on organizing.
I was fortunate enough to strike up a conversation with a few such seasoned protestors named Tom and Diane. Tom walked up to me after seeing me take photos of the single cop car up the street from the protest. He and I chatted for a while about the Tesla Takedown, about how these protests seemed to be impacting the Tesla stock price significantly. “I think we’ve got a long way to go to tank the stocks, but it’s nice to know we’re having an impact.”
“Oh, my wife is more of the organizer,” he demurred, when I asked if he had done this type of thing before. “She’s been getting a neighborhood meeting going.” He said he and Diane have been politically active for decades but that the current moment required more of all of us. “Obviously Trump and Musk are the real problems, but a lot of Democrats, they need to step it up.” He told me they have a trans child in their family and he does not feel like many politicians have done enough to protect trans people or fight the fascists.
“Courage is contagious,” she said with a grin.
He emphasized how important protests like the Tesla Takedown were for helping shift people out of their ordinary, rule-abiding lives. He and Diane were both grateful for young activists’ fire and diversity of tactics, but he is also glad there are protests like these with a lower intensity. He feels that peaceful actions that are maximally accessible and minimally risky are the perfect venue to teach newly activated protestors the skills they need to show up for each other in the troubled times ahead. His wife Diane agreed.
“Courage is contagious,” she said with a grin. She had spent most of the time that Tom and I were getting to know one another chatting with a fiery older woman who had momentarily blocked the driveway to the Tesla dealership. While the protestor slowly sauntered across the drive, an impatient Tesla driver white knuckled the steering wheel. Another woman approached her afterward to express concern that the police would arrest them if she blocked the road. Diane must have de-escalated them because by the time Tom and I had wrapped up, she was chatting with everyone in the cluster of people like they’d been old friends.
The Tesla Takedown protests are drawing all kinds of people together, people who never would have met one another outside this context. Diane thinks it represents a tremendous opportunity to organize with people who are not used to doing so. She wants to see more of the innumerable small, local protests covered by local news. She feels if people see the joy of resisting, they’ll start practicing it, too. As we talked, we watched people begin to teach one another. Protestors were discussing different signpost making tips, poster materials, slogans, and designs. One man arrived with a sheet of clear painter plastic covering his sign and the crowd went wild with admiration and jealousy. It felt generative, and intergenerational, and more than anything, it felt fun. On a shitty, rainy, cloudy Saturday morning, 30-50 feral moms and their families and friends showed up to yell “Elon is a dick!” together for an hour. That feels like progress, if not perfection.
Show up for the Tesla Takedown every Saturday at 11am:
Tesla Golden Valley
Tesla Maplewood
