How about a whole bunch of good news? (A celebrating-the-wins retrospective)

A former colleague and organizing mentor, Akili, used to stand up at the front of the room during monthly all-staff meetings. He’d look out over the gaggle of social-justice-y do-gooders, seated in rows in our conference room named after Nelson Mandela, and ask: “What happens if we don’t show up?”

We’d all take a moment to contemplate.

However bad things felt, however much it felt like we weren’t winning, or weren’t winning enough, or weren’t winning fast enough… if we imagined what things might look like if we didn’t show up, it was easy to see how much worse off we’d all be—and, by contrast, how much we were, in fact, succeeding.

These days, it feels all too easy to imagine how much worse things could be.

But I woke up a week ago with a slightly different version of the question ricocheting around in my head: What happens when we do show up?

To close out the year here at Purple Titanic, I decided to investigate.

Below, you’ll find a month-by-month round-up of ways people have shown up and made a real difference this year. (Yes, good news!)

Three criteria of sorts:

• Most of these victories are from the U.S. But I take an internationalist approach to change-making, so I’ve included a few highlights from elsewhere, too.
• Most are people-powered—meaning the hand of individual people like you and me, as grassroots action-takers or as brave decision-makers—is visible. (So I’ve left out, for example, most court victories—unless I know how grassroots organizing played a role, as in holding Big Polluters accountable (see March) and stopping a far-right attempt to overturn election results in North Carolina (see May).)
• And most are tangible, concrete wins that make life materially better for people. There are many more victories-in-process, like widespread boycotts that are notching successes but have yet to achieve their aims. These types of process wins are crucial, too! But that’s for another day.

The point is not to be naïve or to dismiss how bad things are right now. Things are bad. For many, many people.

The point is to focus our attention, for seven minutes, on what people all around us did about it this year—and thereby give us wind in our sails for 2026.

So join me as we spin back the clock. And when we meet back here in December at the bottom of this post, I’d love to know what resonates most with you.

Tip: Don’t have time to read the whole thing now? Bookmark this post for a future day when you’re feeling down about the state of the world, and let me give you a little pick-me-up.

January

• As Trump takes office, amid a flood of ridiculous Cabinet appointments, one name is missing: Matt Gaetz, whose nomination for U.S. attorney general caused such uproar that he had withdrawn eight days after being announced. (Okay, this technically happened in late 2024, but I really struggled to find wins from January!)
• A Danish company announces plans to expand a giant wind farm in Ukraine’s war zone, noting that “it takes 100 times more missiles to destroy a wind farm compared to a single gas plant.”

February

• East and Gulf Coast dockworkers approve a new hard-fought contract following a historic strike the previous October.
• The people of Germany just barely fend off the return of the hard-right to power, setting turnout records in the process. A bright spot is the growth of a leftist party that harnessed grassroots organizing with a focus on affordability (sound familiar?)—both in the federal elections and the Hamburg municipal elections a week later.
• Grassroots activists in Seattle win—in a landslide—a historic ballot measure to fund affordable housing by taxing corporations’ excessive CEO pay.

March

• The usually fossil-fuel-friendly Supreme Court denies attempts by a set of fossil-fuel-fanatic state attorneys general to derail lawsuits holding Big Polluters accountable for their decades of deception. This becomes the latest (and highest) process win by campaigners on the long legal march to secure justice.
• Clean energy advocates win big in Utah when the governor signs a first-in-the-nation “balcony solar” law to bring the sun’s energy to the people—heralding major shifts as several other states introduce bills to follow suit.

April

• More than three million people, including in MAGA strongholds, turn out to the first mass mobilizations to demand Hands Off! of jobs, services, and neighbors at rallies in every state and a dozen cities internationally—at the height of DOGE’s slash-and-burn campaign. 
• Then, Wisconsin voters hand Susan Crawford an overwhelming victory for state Supreme Court in a resounding rebuke of Elon Musk’s money in politics and DOGE.
• Environmental advocates in New Mexico win legislation to protect the state’s water from PFAS and other chemicals, a direct response to the Supreme Court’s 2023 weakening of the Clean Water Act.
• Experts complete analysis on 700,000 digital images of the wreck of the Titanic gathered in 2023, corroborating some debated theories and survivors’ eye-witness reports.

May

• North Carolinians win a six-month struggle to defend their Supreme Court election against the far-right election denial machine.
• Grassroots activists put enough pressure on enough senators to announce ‘no’ votes that Trump withdraws the nomination of Ed Martin, a key lawyer behind his “Stop the Steal” 2020 election lies, for U.S. attorney for D.C.
• A coalition of 40+ Colorado organizations wins a landmark state voting rights act.
• Pittsburgh residents vote to keep their public water system public for good. (Full disclosure: my org has worked on this for years!)
• A broad coalition in Connecticut wins updates to a law to make it harder for companies to collaborate with ICE.

June

• After Tesla Takedowns, boycotts, workers’ quiet defiance, and loud institutional resistance, Musk leaves the government with his DOGE-y tail hanging between his legs.
• Public outcry—after immigrant rights groups successfully made his case a national moment of reckoning for the Trump regime’s cruelty—forces the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S. (Refresher: the administration admitted he was deported due to “administrative error,” then defied the Supreme Court and scrambled for retroactive excuses to keep him in an El Salvadoran prison. His saga is ongoing, but he won another procedural victory days ago.)
• Behind-the-scenes organizing among DC lawyers keeps the brother of Trump’s attorney general/henchwoman from winning a little-known but consequential election for president of the DC Bar.
• Five million people show up for the first round of No Kings protests to ruin Trump’s birthday, changing the narrative about Trump’s invincibility and possibly taking the title for largest protest in American history.

July

• School districts, teachers, and parents band together in a lawsuit that forces Trump to back down on withholding education funding.
• Thousands of SoCal grocery workers successfully organize to win wage increases and better health benefits.

August

• Philly teachers secure a three-year union contract just in time for the new school year.

September

• Three million people cancel their Disney+ subscriptions, compelling ABC to return Jimmy Kimmel’s show to the airwaves a mere week after suspending him.
• After years of organizing, the global Kick Big Polluters Out coalition moves the U.N. climate treaty to take meaningful steps toward stopping polluting corporations’ rampant interference in global climate talks. (Full disclosure: my org has worked on this for years!)
• Eleven divers succeed in gathering images and artifacts from the wreck of the Titanic’s sister, HMHS Britannic, 99 years after the hospital ship struck a mine and sank in the Aegean Sea during World War I. 
• Grassroots and national organizers and activists celebrate as New England’s last polluting coal plant shuts down for good—years ahead of schedule. (Full disclosure: I worked on the Beyond Coal campaign over a decade ago in Illinois.)

October

• Seven million people turn out for the second No Kings protests—surpassing June’s show of force to take the crown for most-likely biggest day of protest in U.S. history.
• Privacy and consumer advocates win unanimous passage of the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act in the state Senate, which will provide some of the strongest data privacy protections in the country once it clears the state House and governor’s desk (expected).
• MIT stands up, rejecting Trump’s politicized funding “Compact” as an unacceptable blow to academic freedom; six other schools quickly follow suit.
• A broad coalition wins a landmark AI transparency bill in California to combat AI-generated disinformation.

November

• You know about the high-profile elections, but did you see the news of the Georgia Public Services Commission (big implications for clean, affordable energy), Maine’s voting rights victory, Colorado’s vote to fund universal free school lunches, and the end of Mississippi’s right-wing supermajority?
• Almost every country in the world unanimously agrees it’s time to hold Big Tobacco liable for killing people, taking a step forward for accountability at global treaty meetings. (Full disclosure: my org has worked on this for years!)
• A “first-of-its-kind” lawsuit over the use of AI in voter intimidation and deception wins in New Hampshire.
• 21,000 University of California workers ratify a new union contract in a “historic win” after a year and a half of organizing.

December

• Unionized journalists win a precedent-setting victory on AI protections at Politico.
• Amid national strikes, and following “Red Cup Day,” New York City baristas notch a historic win when Starbucks agrees to pay $38 million to settle claims it violated city labor laws.
• Thanks to sustained union protests and a popular ballot initiative gaining steam, Utah’s legislature votes to repeal one of the most restrictive labor laws in the country—which it had only just passed in February.
• Pope Leo XIV appoints new U.S. bishops who believe immigrants are people, in line with Catholic doctrine (and in contrast to the Catholic vice president’s doctrine).
• Lawmakers in Indiana, reading the tea leaves in public outrage over the regime’s gerrymandering push, defy Trump’s call for redistricting.
• Dozens of faith leaders successfully shut down ICE’s San Francisco office for a day, and community members shut down ICE’s raids in Charlotte after just five days, likely saving thousands of people from ICE kidnapping.

So what happens when we do show up? All the above.

And this is really just a small sample of the ways people like you and me have won victories that matter this year.

What did I miss? I’d love to know via email or in the comments below.

(For more inspiration, check out the 2025 wrap-up post from the Defiance Dispatch. These examples of everyday people using creativity and joy to defy authoritarianism gave me a serotonin boost.)

There’s no doubt 2026 will bring a lot more bad news. Things will likely get worse before they get better.

But I noticed, as I compiled this, that the pace of wins seems to have picked up since the start of the year. Perhaps we are indeed finding our footing.

And I wrote this post because it’s the victories that keep us going. One victory out of ten attempts matters. It matters because we don’t know when we start if we will win or not. It matters because when we do win, it makes a real difference in real people’s lives.

It matters that we show up.

So, here’s to inspiring each other to show up in 2026.

Thanks for reading and happy new year,

Ari

What else?

• Have you done your 2025 Resistance Wrapped yet? (A fun & simple quiz.) I’m a “Community Catalyst” ... how ‘bout you?
• As mentioned, things are bad. Defying medical consensus, the Trump regime’s attempts to erase trans people continue. Submit a public comment to protect trans health care.
• A nice read to welcome 2026: People probably like you more than you think.

P.S. As we close out the year: If you found this (or any other post this year) compelling, thought-provoking, or hopeful: will you share Purple Titanic with a friend who you think would like it, too?