No Kings Now, and Then More

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 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. 

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, is—I don’t know how else to say it—either 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 don’t 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. Trump’s 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 haven’t 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, isn’t that positive? If Saturday is smaller than last time, isn’t 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 Trump’s collapse, to war’s decline, to saving the planet and then on from there.

The radical’s task, the revolutionary’s 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.

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