As we launch into the new year, the Horizons’ team wanted to share some insights that are guiding much of our work in 2025. We are so grateful to all of our many partners who are an integral part of our sensemaking, shaping where we place our energies and our ability to adapt in such a quickly changing context. We look forward to staying in close touch and our collective action in the months ahead.
- Making meaning of the real threats to US democracy remains essential. Horizons is committed to continuing our educational efforts about the authoritarian playbook while foregrounding the historic and current manifestation of racialized authoritarianism in the US. At the same time, we understand that many people are experiencing the underlying failings of democracy differently and may be prioritizing other issues within a system that is not working for them. An important insight for 2025 is that when everything is a threat to democracy, nothing is. The pro-democracy ecosystem will need to be more precise in our definitions of what constitutes real threats to democracy, including the hard conversations about how racial justice is integral to the pro-democracy agenda, so we can communicate and mobilize more effectively. This will require deep conversations and listening to those who do not live and breathe pro-democracy organizing. As others have observed, in 2025 we will not be making meaning together through traditional broadcast media strategies nor by seeking the “right” words for different audiences to make them care more about democracy. So, while we remain steadfast in naming the historical throughlines of the racialized authoritarian faction that has always been in our country, Horizons’ organizing will continue to engage those who may have different perspectives and priorities.
- We are not alone in the struggle for democracy, and we need to continue building strong learning and solidarity networks with colleagues outside the US. We’re experiencing a period of democratic backsliding across the globe. Unfortunately, American exceptionalism is alive and well in the US and many still believe our institutions will provide sufficient guard rails to the current attacks on democracy here at home. Horizons’ “intermestic” line of work is embedded throughout everything we do. As the playing field for attacks on civic space are becoming more and more globalized and coordinated, we’re convinced more than ever of the need for cross-regional organizing to strengthen solidarity networks and learning opportunities. Together with several partners, we are carefully curating and sharing knowledge and experiences from outside the US to a predominantly US audience through our Intermestic Webinar series; we participate actively in many global platforms with fellow change agents; and we facilitate several small group salons, and cross-regional learning cohorts on issues such as business and democracy – narrative engagement to counter authoritarianism – and bridging and social justice.
- It is time to move beyond the left-right binary. One of Horizons’ guiding principles is that successful pro-democracy movements involve the broadest participation across ideologies, sectors, and geographies. Our pro-democracy organizing therefore must move beyond the left-right binary to include diverse coalitions of unlikely allies in the new year. In many rural and purple areas around the country, this kind of coalition building has always been a necessity. We have much to learn from these colleagues with experience building local “big tents” and working along lines of difference to make progress on local priorities. If the axis for our organizing is no longer along traditional liberal-conservative lines, then the new axis is to make common cause with those committed to serving democracy, while sidelining those seeking to undermine it. Leaning into the paradox of different approaches to change-making is a big part of moving beyond binaries, which is why Horizons will continue to focus on the Block, Bridge, Build framework in the new year.
- Prioritizing resilient movements–and in turn, a resilient society will mean working in new ways. Burnout is ever present in the sector. People are exhausted–some are changing jobs, taking leaves of absence, or even transitioning out of pro-democracy organizing spaces for good. We can have the best strategy and plans for how to work towards a pluralistic, just, inclusive democracy, but if those strategic plans do not also include intentional investment in the people who carry them out, we will continue to suffer these cycles of burnout. When we talk about movement resilience, how are we moving beyond conversations about individual self-care and insisting on deeper changes to movement dynamics that emphasize and foster collective care? Horizons is committed to modeling this kind of collective care and to lifting up the practices and mutual aid infrastructure that will help sustain the individuals who make up our pro-democracy movement of movements over the long haul.
- “Big tent” – broad front organizing is key to dismantling authoritarian systems and requires scaling up investment in skills and relationships. As mentioned, popular movements that unite people across differences and engage in coordinated collective action are the strongest antidotes to authoritarianism. While there have been important issue-focused and sector-specific pro-democratic efforts, big tent organizing that bridges ideological and sectoral divides and supports collective action remains weak and insufficient to address the expected barrage of authoritarian attacks. Horizons is committed to working with partners to co-create the relational infrastructure, grounded in trust and shared interests, which is vital to big tent organizing. We will lean into dialogue and facilitation skills needed to establish redlines (or “red zones”) related to anti-democratic actions, support collective action, and build democratic solidarity.
- Relatedly, a key to big tent organizing is harnessing the power of important pillars, such as businesses, faith organizations, bureaucrats, unions, veterans, and military families to withdraw consent and cooperation from authoritarian systems. Over the past year we have collected stories of how key pillars have pushed back against democratic backsliding in the US and around the world, with the goal of expanding the tactical imagination. But what actually brings about loyalty shifts and defections in key pillars, which are highly heterogeneous and consist of individuals with different motivations? What incentivizes courageous action by individuals within these pillars, particularly when it entails risk of punishment? Recent research suggests that in contexts of democratic backsliding, as opposed to closed autocracies, strategic engagement with pillars, followed by more forceful forms of direct action (strikes, noncooperation, etc.) undertaken by pillars themselves, is key to success. We are committed to deepening practical understanding of the psycho-social, organizational, and strategic factors that contribute to loyalty shifts and pro-democratic behaviors in key pillars, in particular how to establish needed solidarity networks that support courageous acts.
- We anticipate a range of egregious attacks on vulnerable communities and democratic freedoms over the next several years. Making repression and political violence backfire, so that whatever is attacked gains support and those responsible for the attacks pay a high price, requires planning, discipline, and strategic nonviolent action. Horizons has been working with core partners on a training initiative, called Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence (HOPE-PV), to help communities prepare for a range of injustices and take action to make them backfire. Research has shown that movements that built strong networks throughout social groups were able to draw on those networks to mobilize in response to “trigger” events, increasing the chances of backfire. This highlights the importance of actively engaging key pillars with large and influential constituencies (businesses, unions, religious groups, etc.) to plan and execute digital and offline campaigns designed to trigger backfire. And using humor, creative tactics, and nonviolent discipline to dramatize injustices and impose costs on perpetrators.
- What kind of training is needed to strengthen movement capacity? Investment is needed in traditional AND nontraditional ways of training and learning. We know from research that some of the most effective ways funders can support movements is through investing in spaces for training and learning. However, what these spaces and opportunities look like, who they are designed for, and how they meet people where they are matter. Training in strategic nonviolent action can help movement organizers think more broadly about the wide array of nonviolent tactics at their disposal (in addition to protests and marches.) Likewise, workshops in Kingian nonviolence can help organizers and bridgebuilding practitioners think through how to strategically sequence and synergize their approaches. But training without integrating opportunities for deeper relationship building, leadership development, and collective planning is insufficient. Likewise, training without intentional offers of ongoing support, including one-to-one and team coaching make it harder to foster continued growth and practice. A more holistic approach to training would incorporate these elements, and, as Hahrie Han put it in this excellent Democracy Notes podcast, focus less on “getting people to do a thing” and focus more on “getting people to become the kind of people who do what needs to be done.”
- How we come together is as important as what we eventually do together. Horizons has been carefully curating, convening, and facilitating spaces for sensemaking, learning, and collaboration since our founding, including the Growers Guild, intermestic learning cohorts, webinars, and pillar-specific salons. Not only do we convene, but we try to actively participate in as many others’ networks and programs as possible. This has led us to a growing appreciation for how to bring people and ideas together more effectively. We would recommend this article on relational infrastructure, “To take on challenges which rely on collective and collaborative efforts, we need to better understand how to cultivate connection, trust and shared identity. It means we need to understand how relational infrastructure is built, shaped, and maintained, whilst acknowledging that it can also be degraded and destroyed.” Part of our weaving work at Horizons is to attend many (many) conferences and events, and our hope is that everyone who is designing these spaces will focus more on how we prioritize building trusting relationships and the conditions for fruitful (sustained) collective action. Here’s a great list of creative ideas for making your conference or gathering more impactful.