#TeslaTakeDown is Working - March 1st Actions

The big well-funded national orgs aren't doing sh*t, it's time to take democracinto your hands.

In February sociologist co-writer of the excellent Meme Wars, Joan Donovan proposed protests at “Most of us can't get to DC to protest what is happening to our government, but we do have options. Come out and participate in an international picket #TeslaTakeover locally. Stand up and be counted!” From there activist/actor/director Alex Winter took up the banner and started organizing for the planned February 15th wave of protests. He wrote about it for Rolling Stone - here.

The first wave was a wild success and since February 21st there has been more than 100 protests - not counting of course the nearly 100 that took place today. With the lack of action and organizing from national orgs that usually do that sort of thing, and Democrats frozen from doing anything at all it seems the TeslaTakeDown protests have given people a way to show their anger. People are finding creative ways to organize, including a bike ride to the Tesla protest in Portland, OR and a mariachi band in Berkeley, CA.

With no large organizations behind these protests the signs are nearly all handmade (they were at the Norfolk, VA action I photographed) bringing a true grassroots vibe to the rallys. Protesters in Madison, Wisconsin even mixed it up a bit by protesting at a Tesla Supercharging hub.

The protests and the general feeling about Elon Musk and his DOGE gang marauding through the US government seem to be having an effect, Tesla stock is down 30% in February. According to Yahoo Finance “After hitting a closing high of $479.86 in mid-December, Tesla stock has nearly given up all its post-election gains, a loss of nearly 40%.”

The Pew Research Center on February 19th reported that “Just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they have an unfavorable view of Musk, including 36% who have a very unfavorable opinion of him.” Trump polling at the same time (Feb 20th) was 52% favorable. It will be interesting to see what happens if Musk’s polling is viewed as a drag on Trump.

Norfolk, VA - where I photographed a small protest at a Tesla dealership had over a dozen people holding homemade signs. The signs were creative, “Don’t buy a Swasti-car,” “From 0 to 1939 in under 6 seconds,” and “Honk if you hate DOGE” with a meme goose next to the wording. One protester lamented buying a Tesla years ago, telling me that he had a sticker on the car saying “I bought it before I knew.”

Actions are being organized regularly and you can easily start your own at TeslaTakeDown.com.

Here’s posts with photos of just some of the actions around the country on March 1st, 2025. If you want me to add a link to yours, DM me on BlueSky at @ZDRoberts

Tesla in Golden valley Minneapolis

Downtown Chicago

Hawthorne, CA at SpaceX

Brooklyn, NY

Boston, MA

New York City

Berkeley, CA

Peabody, MA

Bellevue, WA

Santa Rosa, CA

Tacoma, WA

Superior, CO

Carmarillo, CA

Palo Alto, CA

Arlington, VA

Santa Barbara, CA

Portland, OR

Madison, Wisconsin

Decatur, GA

Rochester, NY