L.A. Kauffman

We Will Rise Again From genre luminaries, esteemed organizers, and exciting new voices in fiction, an anthology of stories, essays, and interviews that offer transfor...

STARRED review in Library Journal for WE WILL RISE AGAIN, the speculative activism anthology edited by @drkarenlord.bsky.social, @older.bsky.social and me! Pre-order here: www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Wil...

“Racism is up,
human rights are down
Peace is shaky,
war items are hot
The House claims all ties
Jobs are down,
money is scarce
And common sense is at an all-time low with heavy trading…”

Gil Scott Heron
“B” Movie

go.bsky.app/U8AjoRy

On Compliance and Noncompliance Resistance to authoritarianism isn't always showy, organized, or even public

"Resistance doesn't always look like marching in the street or holding rallies ... Sometimes noncooperation looks like regular people stubbornly holding to the existing rules and procedures of a democratic society."

My latest: lakauffman.substack.com/p/on-complia...

A graphic showing the cover of the book WE WILL RISE AGAIN: SPECULATIVE SOTIRES AND ESSAYS ON PROTEST, RESISTANCE, AND HOPE. Next to the graph are the words "In this guide for imagining a better tomorrow, L.A. Kauffman discusses the role of humor, setbacks, aesthetics, and risk taking in political action." Available for pre-order now. Pub date 12.02.25

I was interviewed in WE WILL RISE AGAIN: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope, out from @sagapressbooks.bsky.social on December 2nd. You can preorder the collection now at www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Wil...!

A graphic showing the cover of the book WE WILL RISE AGAIN: SPECULATIVE SOTIRES AND ESSAYS ON PROTEST, RESISTANCE, AND HOPE. Next to the graph are the words "In this guide for imagining a better tomorrow, L.A. Kauffman discusses the role of humor, setbacks, aesthetics, and risk taking in political action." Available for pre-order now. Pub date 12.02.25

I was interviewed in WE WILL RISE AGAIN: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope, out from @sagapressbooks.bsky.social on December 2nd. You can preorder the collection now at www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Wil...!

On Compliance and Noncompliance Resistance to authoritarianism isn't always showy, organized, or even public

"Resistance doesn't always look like marching in the street or holding rallies ... Sometimes noncooperation looks like regular people stubbornly holding to the existing rules and procedures of a democratic society."

My latest: lakauffman.substack.com/p/on-complia...

Some good news: for the last four years, I have been quietly working on a new book titled *For the Long Haul: How to Stay in the Fight for a Better World*. I have signed a contract with @akpress.org and they will be co-publishing the book with @btlbooks.com. The book will be out next fall!

Congratulations, Chris! What a timely topic -- I look forward to reading the book

Safety is sexy

On Compliance and Noncompliance Resistance to authoritarianism isn't always showy, organized, or even public

I took a bit of a break from my newsletter this summer, but I'm back with some thoughts on the many forms that cooperation and noncooperation can take, in our era of authoritarian overreach
lakauffman.substack.com/p/on-complia...

We Will Rise Again From genre luminaries, esteemed organizers, and exciting new voices in fiction, an anthology of stories, essays, and interviews that offer transfor...

I was interviewed in WE WILL RISE AGAIN: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance and Hope, out from @sagapressbooks.bsky.social on December 2nd. Could this collection be more timely and needed?

Give this project some love by preordering now at www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Wil...!

We Will Rise Again From genre luminaries, esteemed organizers, and exciting new voices in fiction, an anthology of stories, essays, and interviews that offer transfor...

I was interviewed in WE WILL RISE AGAIN: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance and Hope, out from @sagapressbooks.bsky.social on December 2nd. Could this collection be more timely and needed?

Give this project some love by preordering now at www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Wil...!

Zohran Mamdani Says He’s a Democratic Socialist. What Does That Mean?

Most of the ideas mentioned in this article—higher minimum wage, free tuition at public colleges, higher taxes on the rich—are not only popular now but were realities in the past, including in NYC, during the booming postwar years, when America was “great.”/1
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/u...

Two photographs of a disabled man with Brown skin and short gray and brown hair on the floor out of his wheelchair. He is being arrested by three armed Capitol Police. In the second picture they have him turned over with cuffs behind his back. The man is wearing a yellow ADAPT t-shirt and khaki pants.

Two photographs of a disabled man with Brown skin and short gray and brown hair on the floor out of his wheelchair. He is being arrested by three armed Capitol Police. In the second picture they have him turned over with cuffs behind his back. The man is wearing a yellow ADAPT t-shirt and khaki pants.

Disabled people are being arrested in DC today as they're protesting Medicaid cuts.

Source of this photo, ADAPT www.facebook.com/theRealNatio...

People in wheelchairs are getting arrested right now in the Russell Senate Office Building in DC. They showed up to tell Congress not to cut their Medicaid, because they cant afford health care without it. If you look closely you can see the zip ties on their hands. #WeWontGetOverLosingMedicaid

See that spike? That's the hundreds of people who saw Zohran win and said "huh, maybe I can run for office too." runforwhat.net

Escape the Heat, Find Some Shade Urban heat stress can be mitigated with the right shade

Escape the Heat, Find Some Shade
We know that shade can help reduce urban heat, but by how much. How valuable is the urban tree canopy? This story at Our Trees shows some temperature measurements in urban conditions on a 90F day. The results are pretty amazing! Read the story, and please subscribe.

We Have Friends Everywhere The Defiance is expanding, even to small rural towns. Plus, the danger of war with Iran and more on the ongoing debate on changing the Democratic playbook.

New from me: Why the most important #NoKings demos were in small towns; news of an Iranian-Israeli dialogue group's ceasefire petition; and more on updating the Dems dusty old playbook. open.substack.com/pub/theconne...

Lander has been released and says he’s fine, minus a missing button

He says he’ll get due process, but the man he was trying to protect will not

“He’s not gonna sleep in his bed tonight,” he said. “So far as I know, he has no lawyer. He has been stripped of his due process rights”

Brad has been released and the crowd breaks into a chant of “Free them all.”

Lander is being release now from DHS/ICE custody now.

Here's a longer video of Brad Lander's detention just now inside 26 Federal Plaza as he tried to walk a man out of immigration court, by masked federal agents.

Corollary: Publishers don't pay to create the index for a nonfiction book, the author pays out of their advance.

Lots of folks asking about the #s at the nationwide June 14 No Kings actions. My team won't have our own estimate for a few weeks; we validate every record to the fullest extent possible. Our current data are updated through the end of May; see the piece below for our report on trends prior to 6/14.

THIS: "sexual harassment tells you everything about someone's relationship with power"

Thank you for this concise and on-the-mark framing, @ourobororoboruo.bsky.social

A map of the US showing that very large numbers of events have taken place nationwide in April and May of 2025.

Mobilization has also been nationwide. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some activists are intentionally demonstrating in their local town rather than just traveling to a nearby big city for events.

In over 99.5 percent of protest events in April and May, we recorded no injuries, arrests, or property damage — an unprecedentedly tiny fraction for a movement of this size and geographic dispersion.

A line chart with a blue line showing a large growth of protest events from Jan 20 - May 31, 2025, and a green line showing the relatively modest growth of protest events during the same period in 2017.

My team and I at the Crowd Counting Consortium (@djpressman@bsky.social, Soha Hammam, & Chris Shay) have a new piece out: wagingnonviolence.org/2025/06/amer.... In it, we show that through May 2025, the size and scale of anti-Trump protests have dwarfed those in 2017. 🧵

They also did this weird thing
bsky.app/profile/laka...