Join Us In 2025!
The 22nd Century Conference: Forging a People-Powered Democracy gathers the pro-democracy movement to weave relationships, sharpen strategies, and equip people with skills and resources to effectively block the rise of authoritarianism while advancing pro-democracy strategies and campaigns.
The 22nd Century Conference will bring us together.
The 22nd Century Conference welcomes frontline activists and organizers, researchers, communicators, network weavers, narrative strategists, academics, elected officials, and donors who are confronting U.S. authoritarianism and white nationalism. The conference creates space for networking and organizing, as we build capacity, infrastructure, and resilience for our work ahead.
We can’t win... unless we forge a people-powered democracy and out-compete authoritarians.
The 22nd Century Conference will bring us together.
The 22nd Century Conference will bring together frontline activists and organizers, researchers, communicators, network weavers, narrative strategists, academics, elected officials, and donors concerned with rising authoritarianism and white nationalism. It will serve as a vehicle for networking, organizing, and building capacity, infrastructure, and resilience for the work ahead.
A PRO-DEMOCRACY MAJORITY
The 22nd Century Conference aligns the pro-democracy movement to build strong majority pro-democracy coalitions to effectively block the authoritarian agenda while strengthening the pro-democracy majority’s generative, distributive, and institutional power.
The conference features plenary sessions followed by breakout sessions where we go deeper into the plenary themes with training, analysis, and strategy.
The conference will explore key paradigm shifts facing the pro-democracy movement, including:
What does it mean, and what does it take, to construct majority coalitions for people-powered democracy?
How do we develop campaigns designed explicitly to divide the right and recruit communities and constituencies to pro-democracy majority coalitions?
How can we react to the actions of the authoritarian right as opportunities to build power?
How can we revive civic life and local experiences of people-powered democracy?
How can we use strategic polarization to reshape the landscape and move constituencies toward our majority coalitions?
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THE OPPORTUNITY
An enduring, reparative, and people-powered democracy
Rising authoritarianism presents an opportunity for those of us building an enduring, reparative, and people-powered democracy; our equal and opposite reaction to rising authoritarianism could quicken the pace of building a pro-democracy majority.
Our power is needed…
The frontlines of authoritarianism are in every community–school boards, local and state governments, sheriffs, local news, local elections—
...everywhere
—as well as in intentionally divisive national and state narrative and policy fights waged by authoritarians against LGBTQ+ communities, the integrity of democratic elections, public schools and teachers, workers and organized labor, immigrants, secularism, and beyond.
POWER & SOLIDARITY
Attendees from many different communities – frontline organizers and activists, nonprofit leaders and staff, union organizers and members, educators, donors, elected and government officials, and more – can expect to:
Deepen a shared analysis of authoritarians and sharpen strategic organizing and narrative frameworks that can defeat and out-compete them with a long-term agenda for change.
Expand your network and relationships in order to build stronger majority coalitions for democracy at home.
Get inspired, deepen your vision of a reparative, people-powered democracy, and generate the excitement you need to energize your work on the frontlines of the pro-democracy movement.
Find new organizing and strategic partners that will take your pro-democracy work to the next level.
Demonstrate the power and solidarity of the pro-democracy movement.
The 22nd Century Initiative facilitates widespread opposition to authoritarian movements and ideas, and resources organizations and networks to build an enduring, reparative, people-powered democracy.
22CI’s long term vision is to achieve a truly democratic 22nd century, grounded in equitable participation and pluralism.
Our mid term vision is to build on the democratic potential of the U.S. to create a unified pro-democracy majority in this century.
