By MICHAEL SCHREIBER
The No Kings movement is going forward. After millions poured into the streets on Oct. 18 to protest Trump-incited authoritarianism, the organizers of the mobilization announced a plan to carry on the struggle with the launching of a grassroots-based action coalition. The new No Kings Alliance, they said, will help plan and coordinate activities aimed at a “mass defiance of the regime.”
But questions should be raised about the goals and strategy of this quickly developing movement. Is the energy that was displayed on Oct. 18 to be harnessed in order to increase the Democratic Party vote in future elections, and thus aim for a restoration of the pre-Trump status quo? Or will the protests acquire deep roots, gathering the broad ranks of the working class and oppressed people into a movement that has the will and the power to create fundamental changes in U.S. society?
The mobilization was monumental in size
The size of the Oct. 18 mobilization was historic. Some 7 million took part in over 2700 actions in all 50 states. It was the second largest single-day set of protests to ever take place in this country—only exceeded by the number who participated in Earth Day 1970. Just as remarkable is the fact that the current outpouring of protesters came merely nine months after Trump’s second inauguration, whereas previous movements of this scope took years to grow to a massive size.
Rough counts of the Oct. 18 demonstrators in many cities were stupendous—350,000 in several boroughs of New York, 250,000 in Chicago, over 100,000 in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis. In most towns and cities, the numbers who responded to the call were well above those who came out for the first No Kings marches last June.
Many of the Oct. 18 marchers carried signs that affirmed their conviction that there is a critical need to counter the erosion of democracy in the United States. Messages ranged from “Liberty, not tyranny” to “We are the power” to “Eff off, fascists!” A protester in Anchorage, Alaska, held a sign reading, “The only kings we want are salmon!”
One protester in Philadelphia told NBC 10 News: “We’re losing our democracy every day that he [Trump] acts, and we have to fight back. America has a long history of protest, and we’re losing our First Amendment rights.”
In other interviews, protesters expressed their belief that an authoritarian regime has been imposed on the country. As evidence, they frequently pointed to the sending of National Guard troops to U.S. cities and the efforts of the Trump administration and its acolytes to silence dissent. The protesters also cited the violent actions of masked ICE officers, who are grabbing migrants (and at least 170 U.S. citizens) off the streets. ICE operatives, acting in partnership with other agencies, appear to be laying the foundations for a national police force under the control of the White House.
A public school teacher told a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer that he came with his nine-year-old son to the demonstration in Havertown, Pa., because “he had to be there for his many immigrant students—some who’ve gone home to find their dads deported—who can’t safely demonstrate themselves.” He added, “There are people in the shadows right now and they’re terrified.”
Trump ideologues bait No Kings protesters
The huge turnout on Oct. 18 showed clearly that protesters have refused to be cowed by the efforts by Trump and his loyalist politicians to mock, slander, and threaten them.
House Speaker Mike Johnson branded the nationwide events as “hate America” rallies, made up of the “pro-Hamas wing” and “Antifa people.” The remarks of some politicians carried the implied threat that violence could be used against the demonstrations. Greg Abbott, the far-right governor of Texas, actually called up the National Guard to stand by in Austin, just as he did for the first No Kings rally in June.
Abbott’s directive was in line with recent actions by the Trump White House, in which protests against the ICE raids in Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Ore., and elsewhere have motivated the administration to declare a “war” against “insurrectionists.” That mantra, plus allegations that an uncontrollable surge in crime is taking place in U.S. cities, has been employed by Trump to authorize the use of National Guard troops; he is weighing whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to “justify” those measures. (As we write, mass meetings and rallies have been taking place in San Francisco to oppose the plans floated by the president to send the National Guard into the city.)
Supporters of the No Kings mobilization hastened to answer the violence baiting by Trump and the right wing. “The real threat to this country isn’t peaceful protesters. It’s politicians shutting down our government to protect billionaires and corporate greed,” said Jaime Contreras, executive vice-president for SEIU 32 BJ, which represents 185,000 janitors and other service employees along the East Coast. “What’s ironic to me is you call peaceful protesters ‘terrorists’, but then the people who destroyed our nation’s Capitol building ‘patriots’.
“On 18 October,” Contreras continued, “SEIU members will be in the streets across the country as part of the No Kings [protests], because America belongs to the people, working people, not to billionaires or a few politicians who think they can rule like kings in a democracy like ours” (The Guardian, Oct. 18, 2025).
As it turned out, while the Oct. 18 protests were often boisterous, they remained peaceful (although a couple of fascist Proud Boys leaders tried to stir things up at the march in Miami). Many marchers came dressed as bunny rabbits or cartoon-like frogs; such animal costumes became widespread as non-violent symbols of resistance after ICE agents tear-gassed a protester wearing an inflatable frog costume in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 2.
But the right-wing politicians and media refused to let up in their drive to belittle the demonstrators. Fox News reported that although millions of people had participated in the Oct. 18 mobilization, “several now-viral social media clips have overshadowed the day’s events.” The pro-Trump network proceeded to trumpet the news from Chicago that “a man was captured on video yelling into a bullhorn that ICE agents should be killed.” And among other world-shaking horrors, according to Fox, a woman at the Chicago protest “was captured on video apparently mocking Charlie Kirk’s assassination.” Fox assured its viewers that authorities were looking into whether the woman should be removed from her job as a teacher in the Chicago school system.
Fox commentator Laura Ingraham quipped: “Half of the goofballs out there didn’t know what they were protesting. … Like a bad high school production, where the kids just didn’t rehearse enough.”
Trump himself called the huge protests a “joke… paid for by Soros and other radical left lunatics.” The people who took part were “whacked out,” Trump said. To make his diagnosis more graphic, Trump issued an AI-generated video on Truth Social, which portrayed him wearing the crown of a king and sitting behind the controls of a jet fighter. The aircraft then took off and dumped what looks like human excrement over a protest demonstration below.
Trump’s infantile tantrum came just days after he had declared at a fund-raising banquet with ultra-wealthy supporters that he would decorate Washington, D.C., with a grand triumphal arch, in the style of the Roman emperors, and as demolition began on the historic East Wing of the White House in order to make way for Trump’s palatial $300 million ballroom.
Toward the No Kings Alliance
The major national organizing groups of the No Kings mobilization conducted a wrap-up of the Oct. 18 events at an online event attended by close to 40,000 people. During the hour-long session, held on Oct. 20, the moderators announced the formation of the No Kings Alliance. They said that the new coalition characterized itself as the “rapid response arm of the movement,” which would “push back in real time against authoritarian attacks” and provide “new and different tactics to fight authoritarianism.” The organizers also said that their objective is to build a mass movement against fascism.
The activity of the Alliance is summed up on the No Kings website: “There will be more mass protests in our future, but before that there will be authoritarian overreach to defend against … and quickly. What we do will change week to week. Whatever the moment requires, we’ll adapt. Because authoritarianism doesn’t stand alone—it survives on silence, complicity, and cash flow. The No Kings Alliance is simple: make it impossible for anyone—in power, in profit, or in denial—to quietly capitulate.” The Alliance plans to send out weekly calls for mass action in order to respond to threats as they arise.
The organizers appear to be taking a step forward in looking to form partnerships with local grassroots activist organizations around the country. However, true coalitions are built when people feel that they have a real voice in decision-making, and when the course of action is agreed upon democratically. Moreover, the leaders of coalitions should be representative of and accountable to the participants. Unfortunately, at this point, the national leadership of the No Kings Alliance still seems rather obscure (nobody elected them), and their decisions on what, when, and how to conduct activity seem to be made from the top down.
The major organizers of the new Alliance appear to be associated with Indivisible—an organization that was started by “progressive” Democratic Party staffers as Trump took office in 2016 and is still closely tied to the Democrats—along with 50501, the ACLU, and a few other organizations. In addition, we might expect that most of the over 200 organizations who signed on as “partners” in sponsoring the Oct. 18 events will have input into the new coalition. Most of those “partners” seem to be non-profit formations that advocate progressive reforms and have backed causes such as protecting the climate and education, as well as defending voting rights, free speech, and other civil liberties.
A key role for organized labor
Compared to earlier pro-democracy actions this year, Oct. 18 saw the increased presence of organized labor in some areas. A labor feeder march in Portland, Ore., reportedly brought out close to 1000 people; SEIU took the lead in organizing the contingent. In New York City, unions helped to mobilize thousands of workers for the massive march through Manhattan. In addition, a dozen unions organized a feeder march that went up Sixth Avenue to Union Square. In addition, a handful of union locals and federations—such as the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)—were listed as national “partners” for building the No Kings marches.
In many cities, however, while union officials might have spoken from the podium, the labor movement had no other organized presence, with just a scattering of union banners visible in the crowd. It appears that relatively few unions made much of an attempt to publicize the actions among their members, let alone to mobilize them to attend.
If the No Kings protests are to continue to grow in size and power, and to reach deep into workplaces and communities, activists must reach out with increased effort to organized labor—as well as to other formations that are organizing within the various sectors of the working class, such as Black and immigrant community groups. Of course, such groups would be more likely to join a coalition if they believe that they would have a significant voice in organizing actions and that their own issues and concerns would be reflected in the demands.
In addition to the weekly action responses that the No Kings Alliance is organizing, the No Kings leadership promises that another national mass mobilization—similar to the marches and rallies on Oct. 18—will take place in the spring of 2026. In the months of preparation proceeding those events, it would be important for local and national coalitions to sponsor meetings and assemblies that can agree on raising demands that have a clear focus.
In an article that this author wrote after the first No Kings marches in June, it was pointed out that “‘No Kings!’ was fine as a general defensive slogan to unite people against the rise of authoritarianism. But rather than merely protesting for the restoration of things that the Trump administration has removed or is threatening to abolish, we should go on to demand far-reaching measures that can achieve true economic and social justice for all people. To do this, we must present clear and concrete demands to the government—the entire government, not just Trump and not just the Republicans.”
Similarly, it would be a mistake to call for millions of people to mobilize again in the spring, while signaling that the main goal of the demonstrations would be to get out the vote in order to gain a Democratic Party majority in the 2026 elections for Congress and other political offices. History has shown repeatedly that such a strategy leads to a dead end for movement building. If this movement can unleash the earthshaking power that it is capable of—effectively challenging the anti-democratic actions of the federal government—it must remain independent and in the streets!
