Yes, for us to diminish and then end escalating wars, for us to stop and then end onrushing Fascism, and for us to slow and then end climate catastrophe and AI armageddon much less to move forward to finally win fundamental social and economic change, we will need more than massive and growing numbers.Ā
We will need demands and coherence to diversify and deepen. We will need disobedience to grow.
We will need shared systemic vision. We will need shared creative strategy. We will need to become a movement of movements that does more than what it did last time each new time it acts. Absolutely.
And yes, for the people who see that need to be frustrated, depressed, or even furious that we the people are not there yet, is okay. You/we are right, we do need more. But for those who realize that we do need more to reject where we are at and to stay home, isāI donāt know how else to say itāeither monumentally dumb or worn out resignation that calls itself superior wisdom.
Why do I say this? Suppose you say we need more than No Kings, more even then a No Kings that has moved forward, as it has, to add No War to the signs and chants.
Suppose you say we need some growing civil disobedience along with growing outreach, we need some strikes, some encampments, some sit downs, some sit ins, and some crowded jails. Suppose you say we need organizing beyond mobilizing. You say all that but then you donāt advance No Kings. You disparage it. You stay home.
You think to yourself, this is not yet where it needs to be. You conclude for yourself, that you will not be part of it. You want more, so you will do less.
You say, been there, done that. Not me. Not again. Well, I ask you, how is to not partake a step toward doing more?
Victories take time. Trumpās support is dissipating. War support is nowhere. The public is moving on every front our way. Many factors are causing that. No Kings is one of those factors.
But Trump keeps doing worse. Yes, we havenāt fully won. To fully win needs more. But to back off is a road to doing less, not to doing more.
Just ask yourself, if Saturday is bigger than last time, isnāt that positive? If Saturday is smaller than last time, isnāt that negative?
And yes, I suppose it being smaller might even yield some desperate militance, but it will be by fewer and fewer participants. That too is a road to nowhere.
We need to retain and enlarge numbers and to also grow and diversify anger and thereby grow a continued threat of more and more resistance. That is our need, yes. But the No Kings efforts have turned out millions. To deny that achievement is delusional or worse.
To proceed in a way that brings dissident numbers down to hundreds of thousands or, more likely, mere thousands, even if we thousands are all angrier and more militant and more disobedient, is a road to ruin. To deny that is delusional or worse.
To retain and grow numbers, to keep shifting the overall public leftward, and to add to that leftward shift components that are compatibly more militant and more disobedient while maintaining on-going growth is a road to Trumpās collapse, to warās decline, to saving the planet and then on from there.
The radicalās task, the revolutionaryās task, is not to disparage millions turning out but to support millions turning out. It is to function in ways compatible with millions. It is to function in ways that broaden the strength, diversity, and focus of millions without driving their numbers down.
No Kings is historically good at mobilizing. Radicals and revolutionaries need to be historically good at compatibly organizing.
Support No Kings. And Beyond.
FIND A NO KINGS EVENT NEAR YOU!
Masked secret police are terrorizing our communities. An illegal, catastrophic war is putting us in danger and driving up our costs of living. Attacks on our freedom of speech, our civil rights, and our freedom to vote are happening on a daily basis. Costs are pushing families to the brink. Trump is acting like a tyrant.
But this is America, and power belongs to the people – not to wannabe kings or their billionaire cronies. This Saturday, March 28th, we will show up together to demand, No Kings!
Please plan to join what promises to be the largest democracy, human rights, and peace demonstration in U.S. history. More than 3,000 events are planned.
FIND A NO KINGS EVENT NEAR YOU!
As President Trump escalates his attempts to control us, it is on us, the people, to show that we will fight to protect one another and our country. If he believes we will roll over and allow him to take our freedoms, he is mistaken.
We are coming together on March 28 across issues, ages, races, and religions, because we know we can overcome this repression when we unite.
No Kings! No Wars! No Nukes!
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6 Comments
You write short comments either to waste time or, I assume, because you think doing so can move some people in a desirable direction. It can have consequences that can, in time, lead to desirable outcomes. I think writing can do that tooā¦but writing quite different content. More, however, I think 8 million people going into the streets can do that. Does it require more to follow, yes, of course. Does saying it hasnāt won so it was a mistake make sense? No. Because that is true in the early stages, even the middle stages, of every movement effort, not to mention of your disparaging comments.
The holier than thou, more radical than thou pose of many folks who say about no kings, we should stay home, is so infuriatingly stupid that it is hard to remain civil trying to address it. To suggest things that might, one hopes, take the efforts to new levels, with still better consequences is worth trying. To disparage without positive proposals, and to do so over and over, seems like nothing more than a plea that people do nothing.
You write short comments either to waste time or, I assume, because you think doing so can move some people in a desirable direction. It can have consequences that can, in time, lead to desirable outcomes. I think writing can do that tooā¦but writing quite different content than you seem to offer. More, however, I think working to get 8 million people simultaneously into the streets can also contribute to such a trajectory of change. Does it need more to follow, yes, of course. Does saying it hasnāt won yet, so it was a mistake, make sense? No. Because that is true in the early stages, even in the middle stages, of every movement effort, not to mention of your disparaging comments.
The holier than thou, more radical than thou pose of folks who say about no kings, we should stay home, it is misleadership, and so on, is so infuriatingly stupid that it is hard to remain civil trying to address it. To suggest things that might, one hopes, take the efforts to new levels, with still better consequences is a worthy pursuit, i think. To merely disparage is not. I apologize if i am mistaking you for someone elseā¦mistaking you for a person who says hey, look at me, I am really radical unlike the 8 million in the streets because I say we wonāt win until we winā¦.but do nothing and donāt even recommend anything that will move us further toward winningā¦
AI armageddon?
Dear Michael,
Your main argument in support of No Kings protests is exactly the same as to why one should vote for the Democrats ā because doing it “better” than not doing it; it’s somehow “doing more” in the right direction. It’s true that these protests can reduce popular support of the current administration. “The public is moving on every front our way.” Which way? The only practical alternative is the Democrats. Their electoral victory is the most obvious outcome of these protests and similar activities, which main organizers are the Democrats. Everything else is just rhetoric (“the radicalās task, the revolutionaryās task, etc.), which is not only useless, it’s harmful because it’s misleading and will disappoint many people once again. What can you practically offer to those “growing numbers”, to those millions? Demand something from their elected officials? Unless there is a united Left Force with electoral capabilities that can express the needs and interests of those millions and legally represent them, all this “mobilizing” is totally futile. Your “road to Trumpās collapse” reminding the Arab Spring (not that it was ever successful) in the current conditions of the U.S. “is delusional or worse”.
Nekto: I have noticed some of your comments. I of course donāt know your intent, but I hope you can hear that your words seem to say over and over, and never with anything other than assertion, that to do anything short of everything will not immediately win, and also that anything short of everything even in the moment is therefore worthless, which formulation seems to me to imply, that we should all do nothing lest we are doing something that cannot win.
You seem to have zero comprehension, I am sorry but it does seem that way, of how people can move from one stance and practice to another, and then to another, and so on. Of what kinds of actions and changes, even what kinds of words, can propel movements to the point where they win changes that in turn create conditions to win more changes.,You seem to offer no useful concrete recommendations, and to instead disparage everything people do.
Is it important that Trump and the Republicans lose in a year, and then two years later. Of course it is. If you think not, well, I think you should rethink. If the Democrats win the house, senate, and then the presidency does that mean we are free, free at last? No. So the task is to propose actions, words, steps, feelings, motives that can together not only get rid of Trump and reverse his gross violations, but also continue beyond that to further positive gains and ultimately to implementing new fundamental economic, political, social, cultural, and ecological relations. But to say that, to feel that, to want that, to work for that, in no sense whatever implies that seeking and winning things short of that is a waste of time. Anyone, I am sorry, anyone who says it is, is incredibly callous to existing oppression and mind disruptively blind to the dynamics of social life and change.