How to Defeat Concentrated Private Power: A Practical Guide to Chris Hedges’ Prescription for Change

Chris Hedges has been warning for years that our democracy is collapsing under the weight of corporate rule. Both parties are bought, the press is neutered, and the safety valves of reform have broken. The only way out, he says, is through mass movements—organized from below, independent of both parties, nonviolent but disruptive enough to make business as usual impossible.

For those new to Chris, he's a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who spent fifteen years as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East bureau chief and Balkan bureau chief. After leaving the Times, he became one of the most incisive critics of American empire, corporate capitalism, and the liberal establishment that enables both. He’s the author of more than a dozen books, including War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Empire of Illusion, and America: The Farewell Tour.

Today, blacklisted by virtually all corporate media, Hedges writes independently via Substack, hosts video interviews on Youtube, and lectures widely on resistance, faith, and the moral imperative of rebellion. His work continues to challenge readers to confront the spiritual and political decay of modern empire and to rebuild movements rooted in justice, solidarity, and truth.

While Hedges' journalism has focused mainly on holding power to account, and his prognosis for America is often grim, Hedges remains defiant in spirit, never giving in to cynicism or despair. Often, when I share his articles, I hear people say they wish he included more tangible solutions or advice for action. It's true, not every article includes this, but he has outlined his prescription for change in two key articles, among many others. In the latest, he writes,

"The only hope to save ourselves from Trump’s authoritarianism is mass movements.

We must build alternative centers of power — including political parties, media, labor unions and universities — to give a voice and agency to those who have been disempowered by our two ruling parties, especially the working class and working poor.

We must carry out strikes to cripple and thwart the abuses carried out by the emerging police state.

We must champion a radical socialism, which includes slashing the $1 trillion spent on the war industry and ending our suicidal addiction to fossil fuels, and lift up the lives of Americans cast aside in the wreckage of industrialization, declining wages, a decaying infrastructure and crippling austerity programs."

In other words, the fight for democracy is inseparable from the fight for dignity.

In another essay, Hedges drew on Pope John Paul II’s 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens (Through Work) to remind us that the struggle for justice is not only political or economic—it’s spiritual. The pope rejected the capitalist notion that work is merely an exchange of labor for wages. He wrote that work is sacred because it expresses our creativity, gives us purpose, and connects us to one another through shared contribution. To strip people of stable, meaningful work—to reduce them to replaceable parts in a profit machine—is to violate human dignity itself.

The encyclical called for a moral economy rooted in full employment, living wages, the right to unionize, time for family and rest, universal health care, and secure livelihoods. These aren’t “radical” demands; they’re the building blocks of a humane society.

Hedges then concluded:

We must invest our energy into organizing mass movements to overthrow the corporate state through sustained acts of mass civil disobedience. This includes the most powerful weapon we possess – the strike. By turning our ire on the corporate state, we name the true sources of power and abuse. We expose the absurdity of blaming our demise on demonized groups such as undocumented workers, Muslims or Blacks. We give people an alternative to a corporate-indentured Democratic Party that cannot be rehabilitated. We make possible the restoration of an open society, one that serves the common good rather than corporate profit. We must demand nothing less than full employment, guaranteed minimum incomes, universal health insurance, free education at all levels, robust protection of the natural world and an end to militarism and imperialism. We must create the possibility for a life of dignity, purpose and self-esteem….

So that's Hedges' prescription for action in a nutshell. Let's say you just read this and you're already on board. Awesome. Me too!

What's next? How we do we put this into practice?

I thought it'd be valuable to break this into a handy action guide, so here goes:

1. Build Counter-Institutions

We can’t rely on captured systems to reform themselves. We need parallel structures that embody the values we want to see:

• Media: Independent, ad-free outlets funded by readers and small donors that expose power rather than flatter it.
• Labor: A new generation of unions and worker cooperatives organizing across gig, service, and logistics sectors.
• Education: Community-based, low-cost or free programs that teach civic literacy, local democracy, and organizing skills that corporate universities abandoned.
• Politics*: Join local and national organizations like the Working Families Party and Democratic Socialists of America that challenge corporate Democrats from within the system, while remaining structurally independent of it. Groups like WFP and DSA have already shown one path forward: fusion politics. They back candidates like Zohran Mamdani, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who run inside the Democratic primary pipeline—but on an unapologetically grassroots platform. This avoids the “spoiler effect” while building long-term progressive infrastructure. At the same time, we can run independent candidates in safe red districts and primary corporate Democrats everywhere else—creating a movement that grows across both wings of the duopoly.
  
  *Note: This point mixes my own editorial perspective with speculation on Hedges' views. See my disclaimer at the bottom of this guide for details)

2. Disrupt the Machinery of Injustice

Hedges calls for “sustained, nonviolent, disruptive civil disobedience.” The key word is sustained. One-day marches don’t threaten power; organized disruption does.

So what would a new wave of strikes look like?

• Labor Strikes: Coordinated work stoppages in key industries—logistics, health care, education, retail, tech. Workers join together to demand higher wages, workplace democracy, and climate-safe jobs.
• General Strikes: A step further. When national policy crosses a red line—say, a new war, or mass voter suppression—workers across sectors walk out. This requires months of groundwork: unions talking to unions, worker centers joining faith groups and mutual aid networks.
• Student Strikes: Campuses can become engines of solidarity, with mass walkouts, divestment from fossil fuels and weapons, and refusal to normalize state violence.
• Rent Strikes: Tenants collectively withhold rent in protest of predatory landlords, demanding housing as a human right.
• Consumer Boycotts: Targeted campaigns against major corporate offenders—banks, defense contractors, tech monopolies—that make profit from public harm.

To organize this, we need infrastructure: local strike funds, cross-union alliances, legal support, secure communication networks, and clear demands. Strikes do not arise spontaneously—they require strategic discipline and planning.

The goal isn’t to “collapse the economy.” It’s to make injustice unprofitable until change becomes the lesser cost.

3. Reclaim the Word “Socialism”

When Hedges says we must “champion a radical socialism,” he’s not talking about state control or utopian theory. He’s talking about common sense.

• If everyone needs health care, it should be guaranteed.
• If people work full-time, they should afford food, rent, and a life.
• If the planet sustains us, it shouldn’t be destroyed for quarterly profits.

That’s socialism at its root: community control of what sustains community life. Every town library, fire department, and public park is already socialist in principle—collectively owned, democratically run, accessible to all. “Radical” only means returning to the root. In this case, it means restoring a basic truth: the economy and the world's governments exist to serve people and the planet — not the other way around.

4. Starve the War Machine, Fund Life

The U.S. spends over a trillion dollars a year on militarism while bridges collapse, schools close, and hospitals struggle to stay open. Ending our addiction to endless war and fossil fuels isn’t fringe—it’s survival.

If even a fraction of that spending were redirected to clean energy, affordable housing, universal healthcare, and guaranteed jobs rebuilding our communities, the transformation would be revolutionary—and entirely achievable.

5. Foster Local Economic and Community Autonomy

• Launch and support local food cooperatives, energy collectives, credit unions, and community broadband initiatives to reduce dependence on national/global corporate systems.
• Develop or support time banks and mutual aid networks that enable neighbors to exchange services and goods outside the market economy, countering austerity and job precarity.
• Encourage democratic control of essential infrastructure — utilities, housing, transport — at the city or county level, making them publicly owned, community-run, and accountable.
• Organize skill-share workshops, repair cafes, and communal gardens that strengthen social ties, build practical resilience, and empower participation in the local commons.
• Practice “economic resistance” through divestment campaigns: pull resources from big banks, fossil fuel companies, giant retailers, and reinvest in local alternatives.

This approach embodies Hedges’ belief that grassroots organization must “make corporate power irrelevant” by building living alternatives — not just protest what exists, but practice what is needed right now for liberation and justice.

6. Organize for Structural Revolution, Not Reform

Hedges consistently argues that incremental reform is no match for entrenched corporate power and that our organizing must aim at total systemic transformation.​

• Set non-negotiable movement goals, such as nationalizing major banks, energy, and health care sectors; slashing the military budget; instituting a $15 minimum wage or higher; erasing student debt; and making public transit, health care, and education free for all.​
• Build disciplined, hierarchical (not just “horizontal”) movement structures capable of withstanding repression, and learn from historic and recent protest failures that lacked organizational resilience.​ In his 2023 article “Why Our Popular Mass Movements Fail,” Hedges argues these movements “did not implement hierarchical, disciplined, and coherent organizational structures.” Such lack made movements easy prey for repression and incapable of defending themselves when confronted by organized state or corporate power.​
• Develop readiness for state pushback: have legal teams, bail funds, and secure communications in place in anticipation of government or corporate retaliation.
• Embrace the clear moral imperative: that the goal is not simply to “make injustice visible,” but to abolish and supplant the corporate-state order with institutions serving the common good.​
• Shift focus away from “hope” in a passive sense, toward active, courageous engagement in the struggle itself, regardless of the odds or the speed of victory.​

Objections & Answers

Q: Isn’t this unrealistic? You can’t fight the entire system.
A: The only unrealistic idea is thinking this system will fix itself. Every reform in American history—abolition, women’s suffrage, civil rights—began with small groups dismissed as unrealistic. They changed the world because they organized.

Q: Won’t mass strikes give Trump or future authoritarians a pretext to crack down harder?
A: They’ll try. Every authoritarian in history has. But crackdowns often accelerate movements by exposing the system’s violence to the public. The key is disciplined nonviolence, broad public sympathy, and decentralized leadership—so repression backfires instead of silencing us. Power’s greatest fear is not chaos, but moral legitimacy combined with numbers.

Q: What about violence? Won’t that justify the police state?
A: Exactly. That’s why this must stay nonviolent. The state wants violence—it legitimizes their control. Nonviolent movements deprive them of that justification and keep public opinion on our side.

Q: Won’t third parties just split the vote and help authoritarians?
A: The spoiler problem is real under our rigged system. But groups like the Working Families Party and DSA are solving it through fusion campaigns and primary challenges—backing progressive candidates within the Democratic ballot line while staying financially independent. Long term, we fight for ranked-choice voting and proportional representation so every vote truly counts.

Q: Isn’t socialism unpopular?
A: The word is, thanks to decades of propaganda. But the substance—Medicare for All, tuition-free college, taxing billionaires, climate jobs—is popular across party lines. Once people see socialism as community over greed, not state bureaucracy, the stigma dissolves.

The Work Ahead

Chris Hedges’ prescription isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s the only realistic one left. Elections alone won’t save us. Tweets won’t. But organized people still can.

Every worker who unionizes, every tenant who organizes, every reader who funds independent media—these are the building blocks of a new democracy rising from the wreckage of the old.

How to Overcome Option Paralysis

After reading all this, I'd understand anyone feeling overwhelmed by the number of action ideas presented.

This “option paralysis” is a real phenomenon: when faced with too many worthy possibilities, it’s easy to freeze and do nothing at all.​

To avoid this trap:

• Recognize that the movement’s strength comes from diversity—not everyone needs to do everything. It’s powerful when many people pick one or two actions and do them well, rather than a few people feeling pressured to cover every front.​
• Start by clarifying your own values and skills. Ask: What matters most to me right now? Which ideas resonate with my passion or fit my resources?
• Narrow the field: List 2-3 strategies or projects that seem most meaningful or feasible for you, and focus your energy there, rather than trying to take on the whole list at once.​
• Give yourself permission to start small and learn by doing—a modest contribution, repeated and shared, builds the habits and confidence for larger steps later.
• Remember: The movement is an ecosystem. Our collective progress depends on each person tending their part, not each individual doing it all.

If you ever feel stuck, talk things over with a friend or group, and trust your instincts about what moves you. There’s no single right answer—what matters is that you pick something and invest your energy with others. Every bit counts, and together, small acts become a transformative force.

*On Political Strategy: One Area Where Chris Hedges and I May Disagree

I’ve tried to keep this guide as faithful as possible to the spirit of Hedges’ analysis and vision for change. There is, however, one area where I diverge slightly from his stance: the question of whether we should engage with political organizations that work within the Democratic ballot line while maintaining structural independence from the party itself.

Hedges has often warned that the Democratic Party is a graveyard for movements—a place where energy and idealism go to die. I agree with his critique of the party’s corporate capture, but I also see the value in using its infrastructure tactically when it serves the broader movement. Decades of “pure” third party efforts failing to build momentum or challenge the system do not give me much hope in that playbook. The “fusion” approach seems far more promising.

Would Hedges disagree? I couldn’t find any writings where Hedges explicitly endorses or opposes groups like the Working Families Party (WFP) and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), but he has praised individual victories such as Zohran Mamdani’s, even while expressing skepticism about what reformers can achieve within the system. Given Mamdani's victory was partly thanks to the work of DSA and WFP, it's possible Hedges and I don't actually diverge on this point, and would support folks joining these groups.

From my perspective, organizations like DSA and WFP represent a pragmatic form of fusion politics—one that challenges corporate Democrats from within while remaining financially and philosophically independent from them. They’ve already proven what’s possible by helping elect grassroots candidates like Mamdani, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among dozens of others. These campaigns used the Democratic ballot line as a vehicle for movement-building rather than submission.

While Chris Hedges might point to examples where Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders and others have made concessions to the establishment, I would counter that imperfect allies in power are preferable to being completely shut out, as we've seen with Ralph Nader, Jill Stein and the Green Party.

That said, primarying corporate Democrats is only half the playbook I support. As Les Leopold, Bernie Sanders and others have suggested, we can and should run independent candidates in “safe” red districts as well, creating pressure across both wings of the duopoly.

According to Les Leopold, there are "132 congressional districts that Republicans won with a margin of at least 25 percentage points.

In these districts, there is no viable second party. Given how toxic the Democratic ‘brand’ has become in these parts of the country, the spoiler effect doesn’t even apply. I expand on this hybrid “DemEnter + DemExit” strategy in this article.

To me, this reflects a dual power strategy worthy of our moment:

• Work within the system where tactical openings exist (avoiding the spoiler effect and past failures of third party politics).
• Build outside it through labor strikes, mass non-cooperation, mutual aid networks, co-ops, and independent media.

The core prescription Chris Hedges and I fully agree on is the need to build independent labor and political movements that exist independent of both parties and can organize strikes, apply pressure, and win concessions no matter who holds office.

History gives us the model. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement forced a Republican president to meet their demands through disciplined, organized, mass action. We will need that same kind of independent, organized power again.

Tim Hjersted is the director and co-founder of Films For Action, an online library for people who want to change the world. He is also the main admin of Films For Action's Facebook page, a community of 800,000 people working to create a more free, democratic, regenerative and wise society.