Performative Conduct for Precarious Times

In this chapter, we seek to explore tactics that are currently being envisioned by the pluralistic voices of the Left in the era of an authoritarian, nativist, de-regulated vision of the US nation-state. Our case studies include collectively authored texts such as A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda by Indivisible and Debt Resistors Operations Manual by Strike Debt. We also take stock of the client-based tools generated by Safety Pin Box, an enterprise by Black liberationists Marissa Johnson and Leslie Mac. Together, these movements and enterprises signal a proliferation of ‘how to’ manuals encouraging the People to push back against the distribution of inequality that defines the present. These nuts-and-bolt texts mark a return to the genre of the advice manual, now adapted to user-driven platforms such as Google docs, YouTube, blogs, wikis and photo-sharing sites. These advocacy tactics are visible, real-time acts that, through public assembly and performative conduct, become an instrument for Leftist resistance.