Founded in September 2016 by the civil-rights lawyer, filmmaker, and Sikh interfaith leader Valarie Kaur, the Revolutionary Love Project (RLP) is a volunteer-run initiative based at the University of Southern California. Committed to “fight[ing] for social justice through the ethic of love,” RLP employs “protest, music, dance, and direct action” strategies designed to combat what […]
Founded in September 2016 by the civil-rights lawyer, filmmaker, and Sikh interfaith leader Valarie Kaur, the Revolutionary Love Project (RLP) is a volunteer-run initiative based at the University of Southern California. Committed to “fight[ing] for social justice through the ethic of love,” RLP employs “protest, music, dance, and direct action” strategies designed to combat what it describes as “hate”—most notably that of Republican President Donald Trump. Following Trump’s election victory in November 2016, RLP participated in a number of anti-Trump protests—both before and after his January 2017 inauguration. Some examples:
In the early weeks of the Trump administration, RLP denounced the new president for having: (a) “signed a cascade of executive orders that threaten the safety and lives of hundreds of thousands of people—refugees, immigrants, Muslims, the indigenous, Black people, and all working people in need of healthcare”; (b) closed our borders to all refugees and also immigrants from seven primarily Muslim countries—a de facto Muslim ban”; (c) “directed our government to construct a wall on our southern border, punish sanctuary cities, facilitate the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and construct pipelines across the sacred lands of indigenous people”; (d) “escalated a rape culture and threatened the rights of women on every front”; and (e) “signaled [that] there is more to come, including curtailing LGBTQI rights and rolling back voting rights.” In an effort to “change [the] culture of normalization that makes these policies possible,” RLP exhorts “people of faith and moral conscience” to “rise up in an army of moral resistance rooted in love.”
In an effort to undermine President Trump’s ability to advance his political agenda, RLP has circulated an online petition aimed at drawing attention to the plight of “the most vulnerable [people] within marginalized communities” who “are in harm’s way” because of Trump’s purportedly destructive policies. Among the notables who have signed their names to the petition’s pledge “to engage in moral resistance throughout this administration” are Kimberle Crenshaw, Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, Van Jones, Rev. Otis Moss III, Melissa Harris-Perry, Linda Sarsour, and Opal Tometi.
In February 2017, RLP distributed a script titled “#NoBanNoWallNoRaids Talking Points for Congressional Townhalls,” to help activists denounce President Trump’s immigration policies at town halls and other public appearances which were being held that month by Republican Members of Congress. Among the talking points in this script were the following:
Moreover, the RLP document instructed activists to demand that their congressional representatives “forcefully condemn” the Trump agenda. It also provided contact information for activists from two immigrant-rights organizations heavily financed by billionaire George Soros—the National Immigration Law Center and the Center for Social Inclusion.