National purpose with local action
Next meeting: April 20, 2026 at 7:00pm
Christ Lutheran Church
1701 Arroyo Chamiso Road, Santa Fe
Steering Committee updates 📣 With Janie stepping back from her role as Chair, we have some updates to share about the Steering Committee. I myself have volunteered to take on the Interim Chair role, and Natalie, who saw us through the complicated and extremely successful No Kings III 🚫👑 has stepped up as Interim Vice Chair. The committee is working to clarify and refine how we operate. Read more here, including about the new "office hours" and suggestions email alias:
Donovan Kolbly
Protests, Rallies, and Events
Showing up with the Body Politic
April 18: Primary season Ice Cream Social
🍨Things are heating up this election year. What better way to cool off than with ice cream??
Action Network
April 14 (TODAY!): Water Quality Control Commission hearing
Guest post
This morning at 9am the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) is considering a proposal by WATR (Water Access Treatment and Reuse), an oil and gas industry sponsored group, on the matter of the reuse of Treated Produced Water. You can sign the petition at Wild Earth Guardians to make your voice heard -- just click this button and fill out the form!
Saturday April 18: Celebrating Rural Indivisibles
Dimid came on Monday to speak about this event, which is a true celebration of our New Mexican resistance movement as embodied by the anniversary of the resistance effort in tiny Abiquiu 💙
The Mobilize link for the event is now included in the article so people can register, or just click here:
Guest post
Regular protests
- Banner Drop April 23 at Cuyamungue exit 176 4-5 pm – contact Linda F if you're interested
- Signs of Fascism May Day Edition – May 1st, at Home Depot 9-10 and Target 12-1
Guest post
Donovan Kolbly
Donovan Kolbly
In the News
What folks are saying, of interest around here and elsewhere
Authoritarianism falls in Hungary
The thing with populists is that sometimes they stop being popular
It was heartening to see a major victory for democracy in Hungary. Trump brought his best game (sad that sending JD Vance was his best game 😆, but there you go) and lost bigly
HCR sums it up nicely 💙
Heather Cox Richardson
O'ga P'ogeh Land Tax
Important as it is to acknowledge that the land on which we live and work is unceded land of native peoples, the acknowledgement is surely only the first step.
Guest post
Land development in New Mexico
After last night's informative discussion by Matthew McQueen, it was topical to read about the NMSLO protecting another 60,000 acres of state trust land: https://sourcenm.com/briefs/nm-state-land-office-announces-60000-acres-of-state-trust-land-protected-from-development/
From the desk of Indivisible Santa Fe
Debra reminds us that there are so many ways to register protest – especially against the $4 price of gas, and the oligarchs in the oil industry:
Debra Efroymson
And Bruce writes in the SFNM about the necessary role of us – the people – to be a brake on the regime's offenses:
Bruce Berlin
Stay in touch with us
Check out our resources page with lots of links to useful information, constantly being updated as we find new web resources to help fight for democracy and the rule of law.
You can help our effort to expand our digital presence, including social media on Bluesky, Facebook, and Instagram by following us and liking and re-posting our messages, or sharing our website with people who might be interested – they, too, can sign up and get this newsletter! 🎉 Help us get the word out!
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Indivisible National
I’m going to ask you to focus on some good news. I know, I know – the bad stuff demands my attention too. How could it not? Last week, Trump threatened genocide against Iran, then we got a fake ceasefire, then Israel immediately broke it, and now we’re more or less back to where we were: on the precipice of disaster, or headed into just another week where everything might break.
Without taking away from the urgency of that reality, I want to argue that it’s important to proactively look for light in this darkness. And I’ve got a couple bright spots to share.
Pro-democracy forces beat the fascists in Hungary. Viktor Orbán, newly defeated Prime Minister of Hungary, is not just any authoritarian leader. He is the inspiration for today’s Trumpism.
Kevin Roberts, a lead architect of Project 2025, said “Modern Hungary is not just a model for conservative statecraft, but the model.” Vance once said, “I think Orbán made smart decisions that we could learn from in the US.” Trump himself called Orbán “a very great leader, a very strong man.”
All those quotes come from a terrifyingly prescient October 2024 report by the European Council on Foreign Relations: The Orbanisation of America: Hungary’s lessons for Donald Trump. In short, it details how a second term Trump would likely “adapt many of Orbán’s techniques” to dismantle American democracy as Orbán sought to dismantle Hungarian democracy -- capturing courts, rigging elections, controlling media, crushing civil society.
All kings fall. So all eyes were on Sunday's Hungarian national election. The Trump regime even got Vance off the couch and sent him to campaign for Orbán in Budapest. Leah and I have been in touch with pro-democracy organizers in Hungary who were worried about the tricks Orbán might pull in a close election. Some anti-authoritarian experts feared the worst -- a straight Orbán victory, a messy split government, or outright sabotage or coup by the regime.
But the Hungarian people had other plans. On the eve of the election, more than 100,000 Hungarians showed up at a pro-democracy megaconcert. It was joyful and powerful and loud -- an urgent display of nonviolent, organized, people power insisting on democracy.
Then we all held our breath.
Orbán lost. And he didn't just lose -- his regime was electorally crushed with record-breaking turnout. The opposition party won 138 of 199 parliamentary seats. Turnout hit nearly 80% -- a record in post-communist Hungarian history. The opposition now has the supermajority needed to amend their constitution and dismantle Orbán's 16 years of authoritarian consolidation.
The voters’ message in this election was unambiguous: No kings.
Hungary’s lessons for all of us. The outcome of the Hungarian election makes one thing very clear: Organized, massive, nonviolent people power can defeat an Orbán-style authoritarian, even in a weakened democracy. Those who say our midterms are already lost are in effect arguing that American democracy is weaker than Hungarian democracy after 16 years of Orbán’s rule. I don’t buy it. I refuse to forfeit the power Trump wants us to just hand him. And I know I’m not alone.
New polling shows we're the growing majority. If No Kings were a politician, it would be the most popular politician in America.
Indivisible just released a national poll we commissioned to better understand how big No Kings 3 was, what motivated participants, and how it was received by the nation. You can read toplines here (and full cross-tabs if you really want to nerd out); I’ll give you some highlights:
ATTENDANCE: An astronomically high 7% of all US voters say they attended No Kings in person, and 16% more said they wanted to but couldn’t. Do I think 20 million Americans actually attended No Kings 3? No -- that’s clearly inflated -- but these responses reflect how damn much people wanted to be part of it. People want to be with the winners, and No Kings is clearly where the winners are.
POPULARITY: By a spread of 10 points across all voters (including Republicans), American voters support No Kings. Moderates supported it by a margin of 22 points! No Kings has higher approvals than disapprovals among every demographic subgroup, with the highest net favorables coming from Black voters and young voters.
GROWTH: Thirty-two percent of protestors were first timers. 27% of all voters said they want to come next time. Read that again: More than a quarter of Americans would like to go to the next pro-democracy protest.
None of this means our work here is done. America is America, not Hungary; Trump is Trump, not Orbán. But this is our democracy. If Hungarians can organize their way to a nonviolent electoral obliteration of their authoritarian regime, we can do the same to our weakened, declining executive and his sycophantic Congress. We just have to do the work.
In solidarity,
Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible
Your weekly to-dos
- Prepare for the next national day of action on the "Communities Not Cages" training call (Tues 8pm ET/5pm PT). The Trump regime is purchasing and converting warehouses all over the nation to serve as concentration-camps for those disappeared by ICE and Border Patrol -- but local communities are already fighting back. Detention Watch Network is leading the planning for a National Day of Action on April 25; on tomorrow's training call, we'll learn tactics and strategies for hosting actions in defense of immigrants in our local communities.
- Tell your Members of Congress: Say NO to reauthorizing a highly controversial law that lets the government spy on US citizens by sidestepping the Constitution. Section 702 of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is set to expire on April 19 -- but in the past, it's been routinely reauthorized with bipartisan votes. Let your Members of Congress know that they have a choice: Will they greenlight warrantless mass surveillance of American citizens super-charged by AI? Or uphold the Constitution and demand actual guardrails to reject authoritarian access to our private data?
- Plan your participation in a day of economic disruption on May Day: No work. No school. No shopping. We’re flexing our economic power on May 1, sending a message to Trump and his oligarch enablers: We refuse to do business as usual as you trample our rights, terrorize our communities, and conduct your war. Led by May Day Strong, this will be a day of mass refusal to engage with the American economic engine, featuring rallies, marches, and non-violent disruptions across the country (find an event near you here). Not everyone will be able to refuse work, school, or spending entirely, but it's vital that each of us does whatever we can do to show the regime that we don't just have numbers -- we have economic leverage.
- Tell Congress to stop dragging its feet on the Iran War! This weekend, Trump once again failed to achieve a (real) ceasefire in the bloody war that he and Israel launched on Iran. Democrats have repeatedly tried to bring an end to the carnage by forcing a War Powers Resolution and Republicans continue to stand in their way. There are more votes this week to end the war. Tell your Members of Congress, no matter their party: Americans never wanted this war and Congress must do all it can to bring it to an end -- and if they don't, we'll hold them accountable for the blood on their hands.
- Join Indivisible’s phone banks for Jasmine Clark in GA-13 (tonight, 7pm ET/4pm PT). Join us as we make calls to voters in GA-13 to let them know why Indivisible is supporting Jasmine Clark for that district in Georgia's upcoming Democratic primary (May 19). Help us send a real fighter for families and defender of democracy to Congress! (Paid for by Indivisible Action. Not authorized by any candidate or committee).
- ON WEDNESDAY: Join “What’s the Plan?” with Leah + Ezra at 3pm ET/noon PT Our weekly interactive Q&A with co-founders and executive directors Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin will be on Wednesday this week.
P.S. No Kings was a record-breaking success on March 28 -- and the very next week, we began working on two more national days of action with allies, all while also continuing to organize against Trump's war, attacks on democracy, mass detention camps, and domestic spying. But Indivisible has no plans to pull back or back down, and we know you don't either. If you can, please pitch in to support your friendly pro-democracy organizers.
Communities Not Cages -- disrupting Trump's plans to warehouse humans
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intends to scale up Trump's inhumane kidnapping and deportation agenda by converting warehouses into concentration camps. It's critical that we come together now to oppose the literal warehousing of people in the United States.
We've already begun to see wins in this fight -- local activists have scrambled to help prevent the construction or conversion of 12 detention centers, including in rural areas and deep red states. To build on this momentum, Indivisible and Disappeared in America are partnering with Detention Watch Network on its planned Communities Not Cages National Day of Action, on April 25. The day of action will be part of a broader campaign offering new tools for organizing in your community; connections to already-engaged local partner groups; and dedicated staff support.
Ready to join the fight? Register for the training call on Tues, April 14 (8pm ET/5pm PT).
You’ll hear directly from frontline organizers, learn how to expose plans for detention centers near you, and get support for hosting local events that are peaceful and effective. The call will be recorded if you're unable to attend, and you can check out the hosting toolkit here.
There's a role for everyone in stopping Trump's concentration camps, whether or not one is planned for your area. We hope you can join us on Tuesday!
IndivisiWIN of the Week
On his way to meet supporters in Montrose, CO recently, US Rep. Jeff Hurd (R, CO-03) found himself meeting first with members of Montrose and Ouray County Indivisible.
Group leader Holly Speaks told a reporter with The Daily Sentinel that the group learned Hurd was going to be in town "at the last minute," so they scrambled to get there first.
Image courtesy of Holly Speaks
Hurd stopped to speak with the protesters, who in particular raised the fact that he isn't holding in-person town halls, preferring must-easier to control virtual events.
We're in this fight for the long haul, and folks dedicated to ending the Trump nightmare have to make their voices heard, particularly with their representatives -- especially when those representatives make it harder to speak up. A nationwide mobilization like No Kings is one critical tactic; another is stopping politicians in their tracks to tell them where we stand. Organizing on the spot, standing up a pop-up protest, and making sure the press covered it? We love to see it!
Upcoming events for you
These nationwide events, calls, and training sessions are coming up soon. For even more Indivisible happenings, check out our national calendar and get in touch with Indivisible groups near you!
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Follow Indivisible national on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads to keep up on the latest information, and text “INDIVISIBLE” to 59798 to opt-in to their text messaging program, where they send rapid response actions a few times a month.
