Radicals, Realists and Repression: The State of U.S. Activism Panel Discussion

We hosted a panel discussion and live podcast event on May 21st in Berkeley, CA. The topic was on “The State of Activism in the U.S.”

Listen in:

Part of our panel framing was:
“We’ve been in the midst of a serious rollback of first amendment protected activities. States are passing anti-protest legislation, police are increasingly militarized, surveillance is being drastically increased on activist groups and the Trump administration is turning activism into terrorism.

BUT, we are also seeing new large-scale resistance from the massive No Kings and May Day mobilizations to fierce resistance to ICE in Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, communities and movements are fighting back.The anti-AI Data Center movement has blurred political divides across the country. Activists are not only marching in the street and disrupting authoritarian forces, but actions at Tesla dealerships, Kimberly Clark warehouses, the offices of corporate war profiteers and other locations show a radical edge to today’s resistance.

This panel discussion will focus on the state of activism in the United States from its radicals to its realists, how the state is responding with repression, and understanding why movements and activists make the choices they do.”

Panelist bios//
Bio// Annie Leonard is the creator of The Story of Stuff film, book and organization; and spent 17 years with Greenpeace US, including serving as Executive Director from 2014-2023. She co-launched the Jane Fonda Climate PAC and the Committee for the First Amendment; and has campaigned on environmental and social justice issues around the world. She’s the co-author (with Andre Carrothers) of the new book “Protest: Respect It, Defend It, Use It”.

Bio// Jason Myles is the host of THIS IS REVOLUTION podcast with bylines in Current Affairs Magazine,Damage Magazine and Black Agenda Report

Bio// Omar Wasow is an Assistant Professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Political Science. His research focuses on race, politics and statistical methods. His paper on the political consequences of the 1960s civil rights movement was published in the American Political Science Review. His co-authored work on estimating causal effects of race was published in the Annual Review of Political Science. Previously, Omar co-founded BlackPlanet.com, an early leading social network, and was a regular technology analyst on radio and television.

Bio//Scott Parkin has been a campaigner and organizer in social justice and environmental movements for the past two decades. He has been a street organizer for 25 years. He is the Organizing Director at Rainforest Action Network and has led campaigns against Wall Street banks, mountaintop removal coal mining and the Keystone XL pipeline. He is also the co-host of the Green and Red Podcast.

Bio// Thomas Zeitzoff is a professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington DC. His research focuses on political violence, social media, and political psychology. His most recent book is No Option But Sabotage: The Radical Climate Movement and the Climate Crisis (Oxford 2026). His work has appeared in many of the leading political science journals, and he is also the author of Nasty Politics: The Logic of Insults, Threats, and Incitement (Oxford, 2023).