More than 3,100 anti-authoritarian protests are scheduled across the US and at least 15 other countries on Saturday. All these events will take place under a single banner: No Kings.

Formally launched in June to fight back against Trump administration policies, the No Kings movement has grown with astonishing speed – its second and most recent mass protest in October drew an estimated 7 million participants. Organizers expect Saturday’s events to be the biggest protest in American history.

But the movement is also leaderless, broad in cause and hasn’t advanced any policy demands. Some social movements experts recognize No Kings’ momentum but question if it needs clearer goals.

“There’s not any one way to get people into a movement. You want to have as many doors open as possible because you have to reach people wherever they are,” said Hahrie Han, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University and the co-author of Prisms of the People: Power & Organizing in Twenty-First-Century America. “The bigger challenge is, once they’re there, how do you keep them there, and then how do you channel that engagement in collective ways?”

But organizers say they are aware of such critiques and that these choices are all by design.

“The name No Kings is, in and of itself, a demand. It is a direct repudiation of this administration, of this regime, of its unconstitutional, illegal, immoral and frankly profane actions,” said Hunter Dunn, an organizer with the 50501 movement, one of the groups behind No Kings. “It’s a declaration of intent that we are going to return power back to the people.”

  • MrSelfDestruct25@fedinsfw.app
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    1 day ago

    This shit needs to be taken place on a weekday during the busiest times. This shit is annoying and this is coming from an early organizer of 50501 and Indivisible in my city.

    • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      this is coming from an early organizer of 50501 and Indivisible in my city.

      Going by your comment history on your month-old account, that is VERY doubtful.

      I’ve lived a long time, but I’ve NEVER seen any activist, much less a protest organizer, work as hard as you to throw mud on any idea of protesting, or be so quick to express that thought that it will never do any good.

      Activists and protest organizers KNOW the very real power and benefits of organizing and protesting, that’s why they work so hard to make them happen. Your comments read like those of someone who’s never even been to one.

      • MrSelfDestruct25@fedinsfw.app
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        16 hours ago

        Pleased to be your first. This instance hasn’t even been around but a month or so. If anything what I say can be justified because I have been there. I’ve even been harassed by the MAGA group in my town. I was the media coordinator for Indivisible in a Texas city. I was there for 50501 first protest in Austin which was just supposed to be a day. I took photographs of the movement, made flyers, attended local town Hall meetings and helped organize my cities first 50501 branch and organized the Tesla protests by myself because the rest of the group was afraid of any retaliation.

        Unfortunately I was doxxed and my wife and I harassed so I took a break. On my break. As I stepped aside, I saw the egos within the activist groups eat each other and saw that a lot of them just wanted the spotlight and not so eager for change. I’ve seen the egos within the 50501 Discord rooms attack each other and forget about the mission. My opinions have gotten more cynical and more extreme and more left. I plan to get back to organizing, but I’m looking for the right group to help.

        So fuck what you think. Way to go Sherlock.

        • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          So fuck what you think. Way to go Sherlock.

          That’s a hell of a long reply for “fuck what you think”, Sherlock. I stand by what I said. No one who organizes protests spends as much time throwing words of discouragement at them as you do.

          I simply don’t believe you.

          And if you had not posted so many, I would not have found myself replying to three of them. In other words, it’s not because you’re special; it’s because your bullshit is prolific.

          If you don’t want people to point out your bullshit, stop posting it.

          • MrSelfDestruct25@fedinsfw.app
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            16 hours ago

            Like I give a shit to prove anything to a stranger online. Have fun having my posts live rent free in your head. Loser

            • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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              16 hours ago

              But you do. You care enough to reply at length, sending what I am absolutely sure is your very best. “Loser” lol. It’s all you have. :D