Emerging “No Kings” protests have exposed the lack of education on the oppressive structures that have impacted working class Americans, and the ineffectiveness of a protest when it doesn’t function in accordance with working class interests.

Likewise, a mass mobilization of people provides an opportunity for effective organization; even if the protests themselves don’t. We need to show up, and build unity by doing so. But when we do show up, we need to organize. 

In Seattle (and other major cities alike), another No Kings protest was held on March 28. These protests have been getting mass news recognition as the biggest nonviolent protests in American history. This past March 28 demonstration replaced the first spot held by the previous No Kings demonstration held on October 18.  

What has changed since then? We have entered a war with Iran, American citizens have been publicly executed in the streets, and we now have, functionally, the gestapo at our airports (ICE). No Kings preaches about non-violent protests and the “change” electoralism can make. But there isn’t any real education happening on the structures that are the reason for our collective frustration. 

Or the billion dollar motives at play that directly impact our inability to have any influence in our government, because our representatives are being paid by companies to vote a certain way. A successful organized protest has to include direct action and mutual aid. Tangible efforts that are deliberately excluded in No Kings organizing. 

According to the No Kings site, “In America, we have no kings. Masked secret police terrorizing our communities. An illegal, catastrophic war putting us in danger and driving up our costs. Attacks on our freedom of speech, our civil rights, our freedom to vote. Costs pushing families to the brink. Trump wants to rule over us as a tyrant. But this is America, and power belongs to the people — not to wannabe kings or their billionaire cronies.”

Voicing frustration against the structural issues is not effective if you are doing nothing to organize against the structure itself. Power does belong to the people, but in America it has to be fought for because of these systems. 

As Amílcar Cabral, a revolutionary in Guinea-Bissau liberation, noted, “We are not going to eliminate imperialism by shouting insults at it.” Just as you can’t insult your way out of facism, you can’t vote it out either. 

^{Daniel Caracoza}

“Thousands showed up in Seattle for the third No King’s protest with homemade signs, flags, and passion for standing up against tyranny. “I have a Dream” in reference to MLK Jr. historical civil rights speech, depicting Trump arrested.

Imperialists’ powers, such as the United States, will never teach you how to dismantle them. The answers that are provided by academia, social media, or mainstream media largely revolve around peaceful non-violent protests rooted in voting. 

These ineffective liberal organizing structures purposely negates working class issues and often preaches electoralism (voting) as a solution. But as previously stated, our government system is antithetical to democracy. Consequently, unorganized protests are the symptom of this lack of education on organized resistance. 

In other words, this won’t be fixed by electing a liberal, or mass calls to a representative in an effort for them to listen to you (actions that No Kings encourage). They are quite literally getting paid not to listen to you. The blame or initiative shouldn’t be placed on individual voters, because it’s a structural issue. We should approach it with collective action against the structure itself, through tangible support with one another like mutual aid, and education of the root cause — capitalism. 

Liberal organizing would rather not believe its eyes that the system has always worked this way. It would rather not believe its ears when Americans voice their lived experience because of said system. Our government has always been made up of war mongers built to benefit the elite for capital accumulating at the top. 

There is no “trickle down” economics, you will never get that benefit because it’s made from your exploitation. So the fact that an organization with such a platform is putting emphasis on individual action, as opposed to collective tangible action against the billion dollar corporations behind lobbies, is harming the very same people it’s claiming to help. 

However, it’s important to meet the public where they are. And the public is showing up to No Kings protests more and more. At most, the No Kings protests offer an engagement opportunity for activists to speak to the masses directly. Real change is led by the working class and in coalition with civil rights activists.

With the new influx of laborers and civil rights involvement this past March 28, the working class presence is increasing. Hopefully, soon, so will change.