The No Kings alliance, the left-leaning groups that just pulled off a massive protest against Donald Trump, is officially rolling out a nationwide rapid response network that’s going to call on supporters to take new actions every single week. After an estimated seven million people flooded the streets last weekend, the leaders of the movement told The Guardian there’s serious energy for “some type of disruption,” and they’re not messing around.
Future actions could include targeted boycotts, campaigns at universities, more street protests, and electoral organizing in local communities. This is huge news, and it signals that the era of passive opposition is absolutely over, as one organizer put it, “The No Kings era is here, and it’s defined by widespread mass defiance of this regime”.
Honestly, the sheer scale of the turnout is what should have the administration quaking. Tens of thousands of people joined a national call earlier this week just to hear what’s next for the growing resistance. This broad showing is a big deal because it proves just how much opposition to Trump there is in every single corner of the US.
No Kings is bigger than ever
That geographic diversity means people are getting plugged in with local groups and organizing with goals that make sense for their areas, which could be anything from attending school board meetings to fighting gerrymandering efforts. Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, pointed out that this kind of growth needs to be nurtured and is bringing more people on board. While you might have heard that white people dominated past rallies, he stressed that with each new mobilization, the movement is getting more diverse.
The idea of a general strike is also on the table, and it’s one that has some serious top-tier support. Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, brought up the idea at his city’s rally, and labor leaders like the United Auto Workers president, Shawn Fain, and the Association of Flight Attendants counterpart, Sara Nelson, have both called for it.
Mayor Johnson’s quote on the matter spread widely for good reason: “If my ancestors, as slaves, can lead the greatest general strike in the history of this country, taking it to the ultra-rich and big corporations, we can do the same today”. Groups like Black Voters Matter are already involved with educating people around what a general strike is and how you can actually pull it off successfully.
Ezra Levin said, “No successful anti-authoritarian movement in the history of the world has relied exclusively on one-day protests, even historic, incredible life-giving one-day protests like Saturday. Successful movements grow, they evolve, they diversify their tactics, and they do new things together. There are going to be big mobilizations in our future, but before that, there’s going to be overreach from this regime. We’re seeing it with our own eyes. They’re dominating media institutions, they’re dominating universities. They’re bullying businesses and political opponents, and we need to coordinate a way to respond quickly and powerfully with the full force of this movement. The era of capitulation and obey in advance, that’s over.”
Moving forward, organizers are planning to intensify the impact on state and local levels by identifying strategic targets. Jamala Rogers, executive director of the Organization for Black Struggle, says these targets could be corporations or institutions who support the Maga platform. She believes the protest communities should also target places of commerce, like sports arenas, to literally disrupt the flow of capital. The goal for the next action, according to Cliff Albright, is to find a balance—something that is “practical enough to be manageable and doable, but also big enough and visionary enough to be impactive”.
Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, said it perfectly: “No successful anti-authoritarian movement in the history of the world has relied exclusively on one-day protests, even historic, incredible life-giving one-day protests like Saturday”. Successful movements have to grow, evolve, and diversify their tactics, and that’s what this new No Kings alliance is built for.
