During the Second World War, Free French forces and the French Resistance adopted the Cross of Lorraine as their symbol. The famous “peace sign” was first used as a logo for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 50s. The “Black Power” movement of the 60s used the traditional raised fist (a black one, naturally) as a symbol. Women’s Liberation used the fist as well, but put it inside the circle and cross symbol that normally signified women or females. The “Gay Pride” movement chose a rainbow flag to rally around. Earlier this year, millions of women around the world wore pink knit hats to unite the hundreds of marches into one single rally.

If the many different factions that oppose Trump and Trumpism are going to ever unite, they are going to need some sort of sign or symbol to link them together.

Back in January, Greenpeace activists climbed a crane near the White House and hung a giant banner with the single word “Resist” on it. Think Progress, an investigative journalism blog, is selling t-shirts with that same word on it. Over at GQ, Keith Olbermann has a series of video op-eds that have the general header “The Resistance”. At the end of each, he exhorts his viewers by saying “Resist…. Peace.”

Why not use the word “Resist” as the rallying cry against Trumpism?

It’s easy enough to put it on signs or stickers or buttons. If you’re printing it out, use a bold font that can be seen and read at a distance. Most bold fonts like Arial Black and Impact imply strength and permanence, but they are rather dull and uninspiring. I like Eras ITC Bold; the varying stroke widths give it style, and the slight slant hints at movement and activity. Alas, if you want to go into professional production, there might be licensing issues involved. I haven’t found a free font that I like….but I’ve found one called “Accidental Presidency” that seems appropriate somehow.

A plus is that you can use colors to indicate your personal reason for resisting.

Pink for women’s issues:

Green for the environment:

Black Lives Matter?

LGBTQ?

(By the way, that’s a godawful acronym. It’s too hard to pronounce, it’s too easy to get the order of letters wrong, and why do you need five letters anyway?)

Generic Democratic/Liberal:

You can even stick a little hashtag symbol in front of it if you want.

But whatever you do, use it. Put it on all your signs, make t-shirts and buttons… You can’t “rally ’round the flag” if you don’t have a flag….