I hope when you read this you have had a chance to be with your loved ones and your community. To hold and be held. To connect and reaffirm your connections with the people in your life who value life and justice and liberation. I am grounding myself in the longer arc toward justice and the work ahead of us. And, I’m also allowing myself the emotional space to process what has happened and what is to come.
I know that in the coming weeks, months, and years these connections, the love I feel for my people, and the very real demonstration of solidarity with people around the world will be critical. Critical to my well-being and critical for my ability to show up for my community and the people whose lives and well-being are threatened by Trump’s rhetoric and policy promises on the campaign trail.
Toward a future where we can all thrive
Right now, we can’t let go of our shared vision for a brighter future, and in fact we have to double down on it–even if it feels terribly far away in this moment.
Despair is the ultimate tool of authoritarianism. Protecting and caring for each other and ourselves, refusing to obey and comply with immoral actions, drawing lines in the sand—all of this is costly to authoritarians. They only truly win when we give into despair, when we turn on each other, and when we believe their lies.
Despite the election outcome, I believe that most of us, no matter what we look like, where we come from, or how much money we have, want democracy, freedom, a caring society, and a future where all can thrive.
As we navigate the challenges ahead, I will be holding this truth close: that “we” are a very broad and diverse segment of this country and the world. This is not just a comforting platitude or naïve hopefulness. It’s a highly strategic approach.
Trump’s previous presidency and his second presidential campaign is all the evidence we need to know that he and his corporate backers will continue to use fear and hate as weapons to divide us even further. As experts have warned, that’s how they may try to enact the authoritarian moves they have up their sleeves.
We will not play into the hands of authoritarians.
Because here’s the thing: This big we that encompasses so many people? That we is powerful.
As you remember, the first Trump presidency stirred the embers of the progressive movement in the U.S. Then the pandemic and racial justice reckonings of 2020 grew those embers into a steady flame. The sharpening climate crisis and the U.S.-backed genocidal attack on Gaza roared that flame into a bonfire. Millions of people were mobilized behind progressive visions of community care, the end of capitalist extraction and exploitation, and a future where all humans and beings can thrive.
But still, we were not powerful enough to defeat the disinformation and other forces of fascism fueled by corporate power.
So now must be the moment when we go all in to build enormous people power for the long-term. Now is the moment to turn our big we into as powerful a force as we can dream into being.
And right now, progressive organizations who share our vision for justice and liberation are mobilizing to do just that. For example, tonight Movement 4 Black Lives is hosting a Post Election Community Call, which I hope you can join. And Haymarket Books is hosting a livestream event, “Where do we go from here? A post-election assessment” with Naomi Klein, Astra Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Chenjerai Kumanyika on Thursday Nov 21, 7 pm ET.
At Corporate Accountability, we are playing our part by building global people-power to challenge corporate power. In these coming months and years, direct corporate campaigning and corporate pressure will be more pivotal than ever. Trump has been clear about his plans to give corporations even more power, take away people’s protections, and consolidate presidential power.
Corporate power: at the heart of Trump’s agenda
Trump’s election cements into place a government by the wealthy, where corporations have heavily influenced the levers of power in government — despite the growing movement of people organizing to prevent it, including people like you, all our members and allies.
For decades, a coordinated anti-democracy movement, funded by corporations and the mega-rich (often) white men behind them, put a stranglehold on democracy. And a network of think tanks and academics (on both the right and left) propagated a neoliberal ideology that vilified the role of government in protecting people and glorified the benefits of “the market.”
From ALEC to Project 2025, those behind corporate power created ways to push forward public policy that rob us of our rights and protections.
Now, we fully expect the Trump administration to go even further to benefit corporations and the mega-wealthy at the expense of the rest of us. It will likely try to roll back recent hard-won progress on workers’ rights. As a candidate, Trump promised to cut taxes for Big Polluters and gut already tenuous climate protections. And he was clear he plans to further weaken state agencies like the Department of Education and the protections they provide.
Moreover, Trump and his corporate backers will continue to use racist dog whistles, lies, and disinformation to pit people against each other, using the age-old strategy of divide and conquer for the sake of profits. (We can think back to the ways that coal corporations wielded racism as a way to destroy the powerful unionizing campaigns in Appalachia during the late 19th and early 20th century as just one violent example.)
In the face of all of this and more, direct corporate campaigning and direct corporate pressure will be more pivotal than ever.
At Corporate Accountability, we have a long track record of successfully challenging corporations, especially at the nexus of corporate power and the state. We are most effective when we organize in multiracial and international coalitions, following the leadership and vision of campaigners of the Global South. We have focused our attention on this approach over the last five or so years, and we are committed to going even deeper at this moment. This is how we will counter Trump’s corporate-backed rule, and it is how we will be part of the movement to hold the line on democracy, human rights, and people’s well-being.
What corporate campaigning looks like
We challenge corporations that fuel multiple crises and rig the rules. And under an authoritarian regime, corporate campaigning is more essential than ever. For almost 50 years, we have been waging campaigns that force seemingly untouchable corporations like Philip Morris International to change the way it does business, and achieve victories that seem at the outset to be impossible, like moving General Electric out of the nuclear-weapons-making business.
Now, with corporate power as a primary force behind the Trump administration, you can be sure we are not backing away from our mission. We are going full speed ahead.
Just one example: our campaign challenging Big Polluters.
Last year, Politico and other outlets reported that Trump blatantly asked the fossil fuel industry for $1 billion so he could do their bidding from the White House. You can be sure he intends to deliver.
And you can be sure that we will stand in the way. The core of our climate campaign has always been to challenge Big Polluters where they are most entrenched. Today, we are ready to campaign harder and smarter than ever and win where it matters the most.
We have made great progress in organizing to kick Big Polluters out of the rooms where climate policy is decided. We’ve helped build a global movement to make Big Polluters pay for fueling the climate crisis. We have been highly successful in countering and exposing Big Polluters’ lies — including the bogus PR schemes that are carbon markets and corporate “net zero.”
We’ll continue all this and more, amassing the people power we need to hold Big Polluters accountable, even under the Trump administration. This is part of how we will make a material difference in the coming years.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for how to get involved in actions we’ll be running to challenge the expansion of corporate power.
Hope in solidarity
In addition to doubling down on our mission and campaigns, we are also committed to being part of the larger movement to protect basic human rights and hold the line on democracy. Nourishing deep alliances across issue areas and creating the broadest coalition possible is how we will survive.
In this vein, if you are looking for something to do right now, you can find a local mutual aid group to support in your area.
And when I think about the organizers I have campaigned with around the world, I recognize that many have lived, worked, and loved under oppressive regimes. Corporate Accountability community members — including board members, international allies, members, and some of our staff and family members — have valuable lived experience engaging in refusal, resistance, and resilience.
These coming years may be some of the most challenging times that you and I will live through. But I firmly believe the human spirit is resilient, especially in community and through connection. I pledge to you that you will always have a place with us in this struggle. Together, we will organize and take action rooted in love to protect each other, our communities, and our shared future — until we the people win.
