A group of progressive students from Harvard's Kennedy School have launched a four-week online course to train activists from all around against US President Donald Trump's speculative agendas.

Called Resistance School, the course team consists of a diverse groups including former staffers from the Obama, Bernie, and Hillary presidential election campaigns, community organisers, advocates for human rights, campaign finance reform, and veterans’ affairs, and journalists for publications in the US and abroad.

Resistance School offers a four-week course with four in-person and live-streamed sessions and will also include interactive homework assignments, organizers of the program. 

The purpose of this school is to ''keep the embers of resistance alive through concrete learning, community engagement, and forward-looking action,'' says the Resistance School team.

Resistance School starts its first session today. Image courtesy of Resistance School

''We believe that both long-time activists and new additions to the movement need to forge effective offensive strategies to secure progressive victories. Throughout April, we invite you to join with neighbors, friends, or classmates to participate in livestreamed interactive workshops with renowned political campaigners, communicators, and organizers. Each of the skills they’ll showcase is critical to amplifying our collective impact,'' they added.

The program listed 4 sessions on the website named Communicate our values in political advocacy (Session One), Mobilize and organize our communities (Session Two), Structure and build capacity for action (Session Three), Sustain the resistance long-term (Session Four) and its first session starts today as announced.

The initiative came after the Women's March and the March for Science, which were organized and activated across the country following President Donald Trump's inauguration.

''Resistance School started with a couple of students chatting with a couple of professors, having a sense of outrage and despair and beginning to feel overwhelmed and exhausted with the question of 'What are we going to do after the election?'" explained Shanoor Seervai, a student at Harvard's Kennedy School and one of the cofounders of Resistance School.

According to organisers, more than 5,000 groups from 50 states and 6 continents have signed up for Resistance School so far. They encourage people to register sessions in groups as opposed to individually. 

''We just came together as a group of friends who care about something in common,' said Yasmin Radjy, a second-year public-policy student and one of the 11 co-founders of the Resistance School. 'And it just turned into this thing.' That 'thing' has become more than a simple meetup, it seems and apparently has piqued the interest of thousands of participants around the world.''

The program speakers include professors, an Obama For America alum and the current DNC vice chair featuring names Tim McCarthy, Sara El-Amine, Marshall Ganz, Michael Blake.

Top image: Harvard Kennedy School, courtesy of Harvard Kennedy School

> via Resistance School