The Gangsters Have Gone Global - So Has the Resistance

Charlie Angus / The Resistance

Oct 22

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People often ask me why I joined up with the MeidasTouch Network. Some suggest that I should be more patriotic and work with Canadian-based media.

Let me tell you how a bus driver in Ottawa helped me see the big picture.

When Trump was elected for a second time, I knew we had crossed a political Rubicon. I was in the final months of my political career and decided to do whatever I could to warn people about the dangers that were coming from American-style gangster fascism, Project 2025 and the threat to global democracy.

I had been a regular voice on national Canadian media but once I started dropping F-bombs (fascism) the invites to appear on the pundit panels stopped suddenly. So I decided to use my position as MP to speak out in the House of Commons.

I wasn’t expecting much of a reaction. After two decades in Parliament, I knew the daily proceedings weren’t exactly must-see television.

But something extraordinary happened. People began stopping me on the street to thank me and to share their concerns.

One day, a bus driver on Elgin Street stopped the bus in the middle of the road, got out and shook my hand. He said he wanted to thank me for speaking up for Canada. I was dumbfounded. Where had he heard my speech?

His answer was simple: MeidasTouch.

I had never heard of the Meiselas brothers but it turns out they had been sharing my speeches with a global audience who were looking for someone to articulate the threat we were facing. People wanted someone to call out the threat for what it was. And they wanted to know how to fight back.

That bus driver understood something the political and media establishment had completely missed. A resistance movement was waiting to be connected.

The Oligarchs Have Their Network. We Are Building Ours.

When I began working with Ben and the MeidasTouch team, I quickly realized that we shared a common understanding of the moment.

There is a fundamental mistake being made in how the political class interpret the rise of Donald Trump and the global authoritarian movement. The political and media establishment continues to treat the assault on democracy as a series of separate crises.

Trump in Washington.

Putin in Moscow.

The rise of Germany’s extremist AfD.

The growing influence of Maple MAGA in Canada.

Billionaire tech oligarchs who have decided democracy is an inconvenience to their business model.

As if these were all unrelated issues. Let’s be clear, they are not.

What we are witnessing is the emergence of an international network of oligarchs, political gangsters and authoritarian strongmen who are working to dismantle the democratic institutions that have protected us since the Second World War.

They share political strategies. They amplify each other’s disinformation. They use economic coercion, threats and intimidation to undermine democratic governments.

The goal is simple. Replace the rule of law with the rule of the strongman.

This is gangster fascism on a global scale.

If we think we can defeat this threat by fighting isolated political battles within our national borders, we are kidding ourselves.

That’s one of the central arguments of WTF America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy a new book, just released, written by my friends Ben, Brett and Jordy Meiselas of the MeidasTouch Network.

The book examines how America ended up in this political nightmare, the millions of people who refused to surrender, and how we build a movement capable of fighting back against the gangsters.

It also includes a chapter on Meidas Canada and the Resistance Tour.

The story is worth telling.

Democracy isn’t going to be saved by the same political and media establishment that failed to recognize the authoritarian threat in the first place. It will be saved by ordinary people.

This is what we have been witnessing through Meidas Canada and the Resistance Tour.

I spent years playing in punk bands before entering politics. I still consider myself a road dog. But I get so rejuvenated from travelling from community to community. What I hear from people across Canada bears little resemblance to what political pundits obsess over.

The people showing up to our events aren’t coming to hear another lecture about partisan politics. They are worried about the future of their country. And they are determined to do something about it.

We are talking about health care workers, hotel cleaners, construction workers, retirees, teachers and families. I even had a retired admiral attend one of the rallies and he provided excellent ideas for civilian resistance.

These are people who understand that the fight for democracy isn’t some abstract debate taking place in Ottawa or Washington.

It is about the kind of world their children will inherit. And they aren’t waiting around for permission to organize.

Through Meidas Canada and the Resistance Tour, we connect these grassroots conversations with an international audience creating a global conversation about defending democracy.

This is resistance without borders.

Meidas Canada was never intended to be an American branch plant. We have complete editorial independence. Our voices are Canadian.

But we are connected to something much larger.

The model we are trying to build is to work with democratic movements that are locally rooted, fiercely independent and internationally connected.

Different countries. Different languages. Different political traditions.

But a common commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

The Way Out of This Hell

WTF America?! isn’t simply another book cataloguing the latest outrages coming out of the White House. There are already enough of those. This book asks a much more important question: How the hell did we get here, and how do we get out?

This book is for the millions of people who refused to surrender. The ones who show up after working a twelve-hour shift. The ones who organize community events. The ones who understand democracy isn’t a spectator sport.

The complacency of the political establishment, the failures of mainstream media and the willingness of powerful institutions to accommodate authoritarianism helped get us into this mess.

We need to build something better.

That means stronger democratic institutions, independent media, accountability for the powerful and a global network of citizens prepared to defend the rule of law.

That is the promise of Meidas Canada, The Resistance and the larger MeidasTouch movement.

We have something the oligarchs will never understand - ordinary people’s determination to stand together and defend their freedom.

There is a helluva lot of work ahead of us. We have to organize, build and connect our movements across borders.

I encourage you to pick up a copy of WTF America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy, available now wherever books are sold.

The gangsters have gone global.

So has the resistance.

And we are just getting started.