By now we hope you’ve heard of the Tesla Takedown – a fully autonomous, decentralized, peaceful movement to protest the main company behind Elon Musk’s obscene personal wealth and his ability to buy his way into political power. Every Saturday (mostly) thousands of people gather at hundreds of Tesla dealerships not to protest electric cars (there are lots of other cheaper and better models nowadays), but to protest Musk and his role in fueling fascism. Today (March 29) is the biggest day of action yet and if you can join us, please do!
The protests are clearly working. Elon Musk has commented numerous times to the press that he hates these protests and blames them for Tesla’s dropping share price – which is the most direct threat to his personal wealth. But Musk and his allies in the Trump Administration are also lashing out. Trump has called Tesla Takedown organizers “terrorists,” and threatened them with 20-year jail sentences in El Salvador labor camps. Musk has singled out individual organizers on X/Twitter, leading them to receive death threats and other violent messages.
These aren’t idle threats. As we’ve seen, Trump and his fossil fueled fascist regime are kidnapping their political opponents off the street, deporting or detaining them in open defiance of the law and court orders, and that’s just the ones where we have live video footage and who have legal representation. Because we’re stronger and harder to arrest in large numbers, we’ve joined with a coalition of free speech advocates to denounce attempts to arrest and imprison nonviolent Tesla Takedown activists. Will you add your name to our petition to make it harder for them to single out individual people and groups for retribution?
Not that the law is the point with fascist regimes like Musk and Trump, but it’s worth remembering that Donald Trump pardoned 1500 insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, including the ones that committed violence, as one of his first official acts. That feels like a long time ago, but it’ was on’s only been a few weeks that Musk has been using his DOGE service to commit real acts of violence and vandalism by firing tens of thousands of federal workers, often illegally and in defiance of labor laws and judges. Musk has also broken the law repeatedly by allowing people without security clearance to access personal data, including social security numbers.
It’s no wonder why people are angry. Activists like you have taken a stand by speaking out against illegal arrests and deportations, and by supporting federal workers who refuse to cooperate with the illegal and immoral regime. The Tesla Takedown actions are a logical next step, and consistent with our long term strategy to use nonviolent direct action tools like boycotts and divestment in new and updated ways to fight fossil fuels, climate change, and fascism.
Today, you can join the tens of thousands of protesters taking action as part of the TakeDownTesla movement. You can also take a stand against the illegal and violent suppression of protest and free speech by signing our petition with partners. By taking both actions, together, we can help protect fellow activists, and send a message that you stand against fascism.
And then next Saturday, April 5, don’t forget to join nearly 1000 distributed actions all over America as part of the Hands Off! day of action. See you in the streets. PS – if you like our new “Wankpanzer” sticker and would like to order one (or a few) to bring to your next Tesla Takedown or other protest, you can do so here.