Activism in Acton: You don't have to live there

Taking activism beyond local town limits

Indivisible Acton Area started as ten people sitting in a circle, and has grown to more than 500 close-by members, with a weekly newsletter that has 1,500 subscribers, reaching far beyond the town limits. Christine Brown, who serves on the Indivisible Acton Area Steering Committee, describes the Acton Area as a “state of mind.” 

by Paul Lehrman

"We do smaller, more intimate postcard parties," says Christine Brown. "One to twenty people. We're in Acton, Concord, Harvard, Maynard and Westford, Massachusetts. Each group meets at least twice a month. Some are weekly, some are bi-weekly.”

But Indivisible Acton Area does not use that word “area” lightly.

“We have two purposes,” Brown said. “To reach out to people in other states, and to build solidarity and community locally, alleviating people's fears and inspiring them.”

Throughout this election year the Indivisible Acton Area group will be working far beyond Massachusetts. The group will be busy supporting Ruben Gallego's campaign for Senator in Arizona, registering voters and mail-in voting among Native Americans in Arizona, with Democratic candidates’ campaigns in Pennsylvania, and Sherrod Brown's campaign in Ohio and more.

Brown has already seen the group’s “think locally, work nationally” approach pay off. Reflecting on Tom Suozzi’s successful campaign to replace George Santos in New York’s 3rd district, she noted, "We sent almost 3000 postcards. People were on fire. The mainstream media says that nobody's energized, but that's not what I'm getting. I can hardly keep the postcards in stock."

Their latest project is the website www.turnpurple2blue.org to promote actions nationwide. 

"We identify grassroots groups and candidates that need donations, and promote phone and text banking as well as the postcards," Brown said. She has personally trained over 500 people for text banking and is planning to start action hours soon.

Favorite tools and resources

"We use Zoom for weekly conversations,” Brown said, “and we have an Instagram account, thanks to a woman in Illinois who came to a Zoom meeting and said, 'Let me set it up for you.'“ We have a closed group on Facebook, a safe space for members. But Indivisible fled (Elon Musk’s social media network) X. “It's just too toxic,” Brown said.

One aspect of Indivisible Acton Area’s work focuses on "spreading the word about where to get good media,” Brown said. “If we can get people to engage with Robert Hubbell or the Hopium Chronicles, then they will get a more balanced message daily.” “Mainstream” news organizations make money from clicks, she added, “and negative headlines get them clicks.”

The group also provides tools to fight disinformation on social media. These tools, based on studies by George Lakoff on how to fight disinformation, are collected on the group’s website at https://turnpurple2blue.org/messaging/

There are millions of us! 

"My latest message to everyone I talk to is that we can win if our opponents follow the rules,” Brown said. “But we know they won't, so we have to win by a much larger margin. I tell people: Don't be discouraged: there are millions of us working whom the press somehow ignores."

---

Christine Brown serves on the Indivisible Acton Area Steering Committee and is an editor of www.TurnPurple2Blue.org. Indivisible Acton Area publishes a weekly newsletter and invites new subscribers. 

The Grassroots Connector covers activism from all angles. READ MORE