Hungary Changed their Story. Trump Raised the Stakes.

Tax Day action, democracy training, anti-ICE organizing, higher-ed mobilization, Earth Week, and the lesson from Hungary.

Apr 13, 2026

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Coming Up This Week

Tax Day protests, democracy trainings, anti-ICE economic pressure, campus actions, Earth Week mobilizations, and May Day buildout. / Women's March Central Valley

Hungary just showed that an entrenched authoritarian project can be reversed, while Trump escalated in Iran in ways that could widen conflict and normalize more executive overreach.

Below is what happened this weekend, where pressure is building this week, and the clearest places to plug in now.

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What Happened This Weekend

The biggest democratic development came from Hungary. On Sunday, Viktor Orbán lost power after 16 years in office, with record turnout and a decisive victory for Péter Magyar’s Tisza party. The result is tied to growing public anger over economic stagnation, inflation, corruption, and Orbán’s erosion of media and judicial independence.

The other major development is escalation around Iran. After U.S.-Iran talks failed to produce an agreement, U.S. Central Command said it would begin a naval blockade of maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports on Monday, April 13, at 10 a.m. ET. (Today) The Strait of Hormuz is a choke point for roughly one-fifth of global oil consumption, which raises the risk of wider conflict and economic disruption well beyond the region.

That escalation also raises a familiar democratic danger here at home. Major military escalation can concentrate public attention, expand presidential power, and make accountability less likely.

The We Are America March is Underway

The We Are America March is no longer just an upcoming action. It began on April 11 and is scheduled to continue through April 25 as a 160-mile march from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. The march is rooted in a simple but important idea that democracy is not defended only through statements or isolated protests, but through sustained public presence, visible solidarity, and the deliberate rebuilding of community.

The Philadelphia Citizen reported before launch that organizers expected just over 100 core marchers this time, more than double the roughly 50 who made up the core group last fall. People can join for a day, a weekend, or the full route. It’s designed as a rolling invitation for people to step into something physical, public, and collective at a moment when many people feel politically overwhelmed and socially isolated.

This is not mainly a demand-driven campaign aimed at Congress with one narrow policy ask. The We Are America March describes its purpose as building community strong enough to resist authoritarian drift by showing capacity and resolve, reassuring people they’re not alone, and laying groundwork for broader nonviolent action if needed. In other words, the march is creating relationships, stamina, and public courage over time.

**Click here to learn more about the We Are America march and how to get involved for future marches with We Are America**

For readers looking for the strongest places to start, the clearest entry points this week are Tax Day public pressure on Tuesday, the ACLU rapid-response organizing session, the De-ICE Citizens Bank mobilization call, and local higher-education and Earth Week actions. (And of course, the We Are America march if you’re near or can make their route.) All of those connect directly to the strategy we laid out in last week’s April action calendar: local coordination, institutional pressure, skills training, and capacity-building before May Day.

April 15: Tax Day Actions

Across the country, local actions are drawing attention to who public money serves, what gets funded, and what communities are told to go without. Some are framed around oligarchy and billionaire capture. Others are anti-war actions demanding that tax dollars go to public need instead of militarism. We are using Tax Day to expose the widening distance between public need and political priority. Indivisible, Indivisible event pages and anti-war organizers both have public-facing action listings for April 15.

April 15: ACLU Rapid-Response Training

The ACLU California Action Organizing to Protect Democracy: Rapid Response session is scheduled for April 15 at 8 p.m. ET. This is for readers who don’t just want to witness events, but want to help build the skills to respond when rights, institutions, or communities come under immediate pressure. One of the biggest issues right now is that every crisis hitting the media is meant to make us feel isolated and disoriented… structured training is what we really need more of in this critical moment.

April 16: De-ICE Citizens Bank

The De-ICE Citizens Bank campaign is holding a national mobilization call on Thursday, April 16, from 7–8 p.m. EDT ahead of Citizens Bank’s April 23 shareholder meeting. Citizens Bank is financially entangled with private detention operators including CoreCivic and GEO Group. The strategy is to apply visible public pressure at a corporate governance moment when executives can’t pretend not to hear it. A reminder that not all effective action is broad. Some of the most strategic organizing is targeted, specific, and aimed directly at institutional chokepoints.

April 17: National Day of Action for Higher Education

The Coalition for Action in Higher Education is using this week to organize its Day of Action for Higher Education, building on a model that involved more than 100 campus teach-ins and protests in 2024 and more than 200 campus actions in 2025. The coalition frames this work around a higher-education system that is accessible to the public and free of political interference. Universities are often among the first institutions targeted when authoritarian pressure intensifies through censorship, administrative purges, ideological intimidation, and attacks on who gets to learn and speak freely.

If this helped clarify where to focus this week, subscribe. We will keep tracking what matters and where public pressure is building next.

April 18: The Start of Earth Week

Earthday.org says major EARTHDAY.ORG 2026 actions begin on Saturday, April 18, with Earth Week continuing through and beyond April 22. Earth Day 2026 is running on the theme “Our Power, Our Planet,” with event maps, toolkits, and organizing resources for cleanups, peaceful demonstrations, teach-ins, town halls, and voter registration drives. Climate action is not separate from democracy work. The same political culture that treats labor, immigrants, voting rights, and public education as disposable also treats the future itself as disposable.

**REGISTER YOUR EVENT ON THE EARTH DAY MAP**

Ongoing: Immigrant Solidarity and Community Defense

One of the strongest ongoing actions we highlighted last week remains NDLON’s Adopt a Day Labor Corner. NDLON describes it as an urgent call for people to show up where immigrant workers gather such as Home Depots, car washes, hiring sites, day-labor corners as allies, witnesses, neighbors, and friends. Some of the most meaningful democratic work now is accompaniment. It’s deterrence and building visible community presence where vulnerable people are most exposed to intimidation and arrest.

Click here to visit NDLON for ways to get involved

Hungary Just Voted Against Viktor Orbán’s Far-Right Government

Hungary helps breaks the illusion that democratic decline is always permanent. Orbán spent years consolidating power, weakening safety nets, narrowing public space, and presenting himself as historically inevitable. And yesterday, he still lost because the people got loud. Hungarians turned out in record numbers and that many voters were motivated by their daily reality of wages, inflation, public services, corruption, and the simple exhaustion of living under a regime that kept demanding more obedience and less stability. Authoritarian politics often looks strongest right before people stop consenting to its mythology.

What’s Next

Any of these events or actions will make a difference. You can show up for a Tax Day action, ACLU training, plug into the De-ICE campaign, support higher-education actions, join an Earth Week event, or help build a protective presence around immigrant workers in your community.

May Day remains on the horizon. May Day Strong: May 1 will center the demand for a country that puts workers over billionaires, with many participants refusing business as usual through “No School. No Work. No Shopping.”

**May Day actions are growing and more events are being added regularly.**

What are you joining, building, or tracking this week in your community? If there is a local action we should know about, let us know it in the comments.

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