This is all about power in its rawest and bluntest form. Autocrats see threats and try to eliminate rocks in their road. We may not likeit, but we get it. This is big league, no-holds barred stuff. These are scorched earth fights with no Marquis of Queensbury rules of any kind, and increasingly it seems little that can stop them and fewer countervailing powers big or brave enough who are willing to stand in the way.

Still, I continue to be surprised at the same fierceness being utilized to oppose independent nonprofits. Since 2015, Putin has attacked nonprofits in the country declaring them foreign agents, the latest being Human Rights Watch. Modi has squeezed thousands of nonprofits in India by restricting outside resources to quiet any dissent. Xi has young protestors in Hong Kong sentenced to prison terms. The autocratic theory of change is that even the smallest spark might start the prairie fire that drives them out of power.

As organizers, whether in the community or the workplace, our stated mission is to build power for the powerless, leveling the playing field so that grievances can be resolved, justice can be won, and equity can be achieved. But, being totally frank and honest, at the zenith of our greatest success, few of us organizing for change ever believe in that we are actually threatening state power. Yet, as Tunisia’s emergent autocrat Kais Saied jailed nonprofits leaders and bolted their doors, he also interviewed had all of the organizers with ACORN’s embryonic and small affiliate in order to chill any further work on their part. Had we built power there? Not by a long shot! How were we a threat?

The attack on ACORN is now more than fifteen years old in the United States, but it is still a regular meme among conservatives and increasingly a standard bearer among progressives, but a shadow of its former self, more a symbol than a substantive rival, either then or now as we relaunch. Two years ago, we saw ACORN’s French affiliate attacked by parliamentary leaders and the top echelons of Macron’s cabinet, blocking funds awarded by the European Union, because our organization of Muslim women had sought access to sports and public facilities. In whose fever dream are young women in hijabs kicking soccer balls or young Muslim mothers taking their children to public swimming pools a threat to state power?

In recent weeks, it seems like déjà vu all over again in Ontario, Canada reading in the New York Times and watching the video. Doug Ford, the conservative premier of Ontario reacted to a demonstration against his unilateral attack on tenants’ rights and his attempt to end rent controls by attacking ACORN directly and threatening to “audit” the organization. It’s almost needless to say, but ACORN Canada received no money from the provincial government any more than that had been the case for ACORN in the US in 2009 with federal funds. Trump in his tirades goes after foundations and others with bluff and bluster threatening to also audit and withdraw their tax exemptions through the force of baseless accusations.

Do we—or others—have that much power? Are we more successful and threatening than we imagined? What’s at work here?

It might be flattering in some ways to think that in fact we were knocking on the door of state power, but the point is likely less the fact that they can put their ears to the ground and hear us coming than that these autocrats and wannabe dictators want to send a message to intimidate and thwart all institutions, all opposition and all challenges. Watching universities, law firms, and even nation states cower and supplicate themselves to Trump is proof enough that such tactics by those in power in fact work. Foundations, philanthropists, and others are back seat drivers not for the most part institutions driving anything from the front.

Resisters, be it organizations, individuals, or political parties are dangerous to autocrats and their copycats not because they have real power to compete with states, but because our very existence and unwillingness to stand down and hide our hands while throwing the proverbial rock is itself an essential and existential threat to power. There need to be more of us, and more need to stand with us in solidarity through thick and thin.

Maybe there’s hope, but only when we respond by continuing the fight. In Canada, Ford’s attack on ACORN prompted more than 23,000 to sign an online ACORN petition of protest. Hundreds poured into the membership through the website to such a degree that ACORN Canada had to create a new category on the charts to record the numbers. Other organizations joined with ACORN in a protest of thousands.

Appeasement, flattery, surrender, and retreat don’t work in stopping autocracy. Standing in its face won’t automatically stop its spread either, but it is a first step, and it sends a message that resistance is a powerful antidote to repression and intimidation.