More than 2,500 “No Kings” protests are being held on October 18 throughout the US, in every major city and many smaller towns, as well as in other countries. The Socialist Equality Party supports these demonstrations and calls for the broadest possible participation. The last “No Kings” demonstrations, on June 14, attracted upwards of 10 million people in what is believed to have been the largest single-day political protest in American history.
These demonstrations are taking place under conditions of a mounting conspiracy by the Trump administration to establish a presidential dictatorship. In the days leading up to October 18, administration officials and leading Republicans denounced the protests as a “hate America rally,” branded demonstrators as “terrorists” and threatened to launch investigations against those organizing them. The White House is also preparing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would give Trump sweeping powers to deploy the military throughout the United States under his direct command.
National Guard troops have already been deployed to major American cities, including Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland and Memphis. In Chicago, the third-largest city in the country, residents face daily assaults by a combination of police, ICE and Department of Homeland Security agents, while National Guard forces have arrived in preparation for further action.
The language coming from the White House is the language of civil war. Trump has called for the military to be used against the “enemy within.” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has described even the Democratic Party as a “domestic extremist organization.” Trump has opened up the White House to neo-Nazis, Christian nationalists and far-right propagandists, who are openly plotting the abolition of democratic rights.
What is unfolding is not a temporary aberration or a passing episode. There will be no “return to normal.” With the Trump administration, the American ruling class is breaking with constitutional forms of rule.
The decisive question is: What is to be done? How can Trump’s coup be defeated?
The October 18 demonstrations express deep hostility to the Trump administration’s efforts to set up a fascistic dictatorship in the United States. The central slogan, “No Kings,” articulates vast popular hostility to autocracy, (though we would add to it, in the present-day context of the neo-Nazi program of the Trump regime, “No Führers”). However, anger and outrage are not enough to stop dictatorship. What is required, and what is most critical, is a clear program and political strategy to direct this struggle.
Trump, the oligarchy and war
To defeat Trump and send him to the dustbin of history, it is first necessary to understand what this gangster represents. Trump is not a rogue individual, but the political representative of the American capitalist oligarchy. He is the personification of a ruling class that has spent decades enriching itself through financial speculation, parasitism and the relentless impoverishment of the working class.
Hitler, in his time, was placed in power by the most powerful sections of the German ruling class. As for Trump, the aspiring Führer held a meeting with the leading tech billionaires last month in which he pledged to “make it a lot easier” for them to further expand their wealth. The oligarchs—including Bill Gates of Microsoft, Tim Cook of Apple, Sundar Pichai and Sergey Brin of Alphabet (Google), Mark Zuckerberg of Meta (Facebook) and Sam Altman of OpenAI—responded with effusive praise, lauding his “incredible leadership.”
This past Wednesday, on the very eve of the “No Kings” protests, Trump held yet another gathering of dozens of oligarchs in the White House. According to a report in the New York Times, Trump thanked them for the “tremendous amounts of money” they had given to build a White House ballroom that will be used to wine and dine billionaires at future events. “We have a lot of legends in the room tonight, and that’s why we’re here to celebrate you, because you gave,” Mr. Trump told the oligarchs.
Trump, whose corrupt operations were financed by banks during his years as a real estate conman, is their guy. His corruption, total lack of scruples and penchant for violence fit their needs. He has been chosen to deal with an escalating series of economic, social and geopolitical crises for which no conventional, legal, Constitutional and non-violent solutions are at hand. The foundations of the US economy have been rotted out by unprecedented debt and the continued erosion of the dollar’s value on world markets. Above all, they are terrified of the growth of popular opposition to the obscene concentration of wealth in an infinitesimal segment of society.
The 400 richest Americans now control more than $6.6 trillion, while the vast majority of the population is confronting soaring inflation and eroding living standards. US household debt has reached a record $18.39 trillion, including more than $1.2 trillion in credit card debt and $1.6 trillion in student loan debt. Such levels of social inequality are incompatible with democratic forms of rule.
However reckless, bizarre, incoherent and even absurd Trump’s ramblings may appear, there is a logic that connects all facets of his policies: they are aimed at imposing the consequences of the bankruptcy of American capitalism, within the United States and internationally, on the working class.
The ongoing government shutdown, for example, is being used as a battering ram to destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs, dismantle social programs, and strip millions of workers of healthcare, housing and retirement benefits. Measures are already being prepared to slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
The war on democratic rights is inseparable from the eruption of imperialist violence abroad. The Trump administration has secretly authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela, expanding a campaign of assassinations and regime-change efforts aimed at toppling the government of Nicolás Maduro. In recent weeks, US military forces have attacked vessels off the Venezuelan coast, murdering 27 people under the pretext of “anti-drug” operations.
Trump’s so-called “ceasefire” in Gaza is nothing less than a neocolonial settlement atop the bones of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the rubble of destroyed buildings. These crimes mark a new stage in the decades-long escalation of imperialist war that has now entered the initial stages of world war, encompassing the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Pacific. The capitalist class cannot wage world war abroad while preserving democracy at home; dictatorship is the domestic face of imperialism.
The role of the Democratic Party
That Trump does not speak merely for himself is demonstrated by the absence of serious opposition within the political establishment. Every institution of American capitalism has either endorsed or adapted itself to his authoritarian agenda.
Nine months of the second Trump administration have proven beyond any doubt that the Democratic Party is not a force of opposition but of collaboration and complicity.
In the run-up to the 2024 election, the Democrats warned that Trump was planning to rule as a dictator. They explicitly referred to him as a fascist. But now, confronted with a criminal government that is brazenly violating the Constitution, the Democrats fail to advance any call, let alone strategy, for Trump’s removal from office. As Trump prepares to invoke the Insurrection Act and seeks to criminalize opposition, including the Democrats themselves, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are issuing appeals for “bipartisanship.” They beg Trump and the Republicans to “work together” to end the government shutdown and “make healthcare more affordable,” while saying nothing about the escalating conspiracy for dictatorship.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the representative of the “left” wing of the Democratic Party, plays a particularly cowardly role. He talks about “fighting oligarchy” without advancing any strategy whatsoever to lead this fight. Trump will not be defeated by blasts of oratorical hot air. Sanders has issued no call for mass opposition and no demand for the removal of the administration. His entire role, along with figures like Democratic Socialists of America member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and now New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, is to channel opposition behind the Democratic Party.
To the extent that any strategy is to be inferred from the disparate statements of the Democrats, it consists entirely of 1) appealing to the Supreme Court to overrule Trump and 2) winning back control of Congress in the 2026 elections. The absurdity of relying on the Supreme Court is self-evident. As for waiting for the outcome of the 2026 elections, there is good reason to believe that if they are even held, it will be with military and fascist para-military forces patrolling the streets of US cities and the ICE gestapo threatening voters outside polling places.
The impotence of the Democrats is rooted in their class interests. Whatever tactical disputes exist between the Democrats and Republicans, both parties are united in the defense of capitalist wealth, the prosecution of imperialist war, and the suppression of popular opposition. The Democrats fear nothing more than the emergence of a mass movement of workers and youth that would challenge the foundations of capitalist rule. Their differences with Trump have always been centered not on his fascistic attack on democratic rights but on aspects of US imperialist policy, especially the US-NATO war against Russia over Ukraine.
As for the apparatus of the trade unions, it is doing nothing as the Trump administration wages a war on the working class. One would never know, judging from the spinelessness of the AFL-CIO, that unions first emerged as organizations of struggle against capitalist exploitation and political repression. The AFL-CIO and its associated organizations have absolutely no independent policy for the defense of the working class.
The union bureaucracy responds with plaintive appeals for “bipartisanship” and “compromise,” while refusing to organize any resistance. Sections of this apparatus, including the United Auto Workers and the Teamsters, have openly aligned themselves with Trump’s program of economic nationalism and trade-war policies.
The Socialist Equality Party calls on all those participating in the “No Kings” demonstrations to take up clear and urgent demands to rally opposition to Trump’s dictatorship. These must include:
The removal of the Trump administration from power and the dismantling of its fascistic apparatus.
The immediate withdrawal of all troops from American cities and an end to the militarization of public life.
An end to the persecution and deportation of immigrant workers, and the abolition of ICE and DHS.
The immediate end of all threats and acts of aggression against Venezuela and other countries, and the dismantling of the American war machine.
The defense of free speech and all democratic rights, including the right to protest, organize and speak against the government without intimidation or censorship.
An end to the mass layoffs, cuts to social programs and destruction of living standards.
These demands cannot be achieved through appeals to the ruling class or its political representatives. They require the independent intervention of the working class, acting as a unified and conscious political force. Workers must organize collectively to resist the attack on democratic rights and prepare a general strike to bring down Trump’s dictatorship.
The Socialist Equality Party calls for the formation of rank-and-file committees in every workplace, factory and neighborhood to coordinate this struggle. These committees must unite every section of the working class—teachers and nurses, auto and logistics workers, public employees, youth and students—into a single, powerful movement. They must become the foundation for a counteroffensive linking the defense of democratic rights to the fight for jobs, wages, healthcare and social equality.
In the development of the struggle against dictatorship in the United States, it is critical to understand its international dimensions. It is necessary to break with all forms of nationalist parochialism. The greatest strength of the working class lies in its international character. American workers must see themselves as part of a global working class, and strive consciously to connect their fight against Trump with the movement of the working class on a global scale. In an epoch when all aspects of the production process are ruled by global economic networks, the strategy of the working class must be international.
The SEP is spearheading the building of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) to unite workers across industries and national borders in a global struggle against dictatorship, inequality, and capitalist exploitation. The establishment of dictatorship in the United States will sound the death knell for democratic rights everywhere. The response must be international, uniting workers across every continent in a common struggle against imperialist war and social reaction.
The entire historical experience of the 1930s demonstrated that the fight against fascism cannot be separated from the struggle against capitalism and for socialism. The defense of democracy requires the expropriation of the financial oligarchy and the transformation of the corporations and banks into public utilities under democratic workers’ control. The immense wealth concentrated in the hands of a few must be used to meet human needs, not private profit.
Many of those participating in the last “No Kings” demonstration drew inspiration from the American Revolution. It is necessary to recall that the great uprising of the American colonists in 1775 was provoked by the British monarch’s deployment of troops in Boston, New York and Philadelphia to intimidate and suppress opposition to tyranny. Now, as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the spirit of revolutionary commitment to the defense of the rights of man must be revived. These are indeed, as the great Tom Paine wrote so memorably, “the times that try men’s souls.”
The ruling class is in the process of repudiating all the democratic rights established in that revolution and reaffirmed in the great struggle for the abolition of slavery led by Abraham Lincoln between 1861 and 1865. The defense of these rights is now inseparable from the development of a working class movement to achieve its social rights: the right to a job and a livable income, to food, housing, healthcare and education. These rights are not compatible with the capitalist profit system.
To achieve these rights and stop the descent into fascism and barbarism, the working class must take power into its own hands, reorganize economic life on socialist foundations, and establish genuine democracy based on social equality. The Socialist Equality Party and its youth organization, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), call on workers, young people and all those who are committed to the defense of democratic rights and social equality to take up this fight: Build rank-and-file committees in factories, all work places, schools and neighborhoods.
We urge all those who agree with this strategy to join the SEP and turn the immense social power of the working class into a conscious movement for socialism.
Any protest that has a state and end time isn't a protest. It's a parade.
When held in monarchic countries, they rebrand it 'No Tyrants'. Thinkworthy!
>No kings>No tyrants The last cope of the liberals before they are plunged into oblivion. They would not dare utter the two words that would truly reveal the situation in full.
Even Trump knows what he is. He explicitly said he is no king, and he is correct. The liberals (the blue ones) are in a twist.
He has stated that his opposition includes the anti capitalist, yet the blue liberals insist on their narrative.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/countering-domestic-terrorism-and-organized-political-violence/No capitalists is the only name, the only slogan they should be using here. Their refusal to only shows how false they are in terms of opposition and how malicious they are in their intents. Reality will be getting it’s check sooner or later, and I and everyone else will no longer have to suffer through their bullshit.
>>2525832On Saturday, millions of people will participate in an estimated 2,700 protests in every major city in the United States, under the framework of “No Kings.” The last protests, held in June, attracted between 5 and 11 million people, and the turnout at the second round is expected to be even larger.
The demonstrations reflect growing mass opposition to the Trump administration’s assault on democratic rights and its conspiracy to establish a fascistic dictatorship; outrage over the ongoing genocide in Gaza; anger at the mass deportations of immigrants; and resistance to the mass firing of federal workers and the destruction of jobs and social programs, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
The demonstrations draw inspiration from the democratic traditions of the American Revolution, whose anti-monarchical spirit is embodied in the slogan “No Kings.” Many participants in the last protests connected Trump’s efforts to overturn the achievements of that revolution—to trample on equality, liberty and the rights of the people—with his campaign to dismantle public education, destroy public health, and place all of society under the oligarchy.
One issue that is not motivating masses of people is the demand for an escalation of imperialist war. But this is the central concern of the Democratic Party.
The Democrats in fact agree with large portions of Trump’s economic policies and have systematically enabled Trump’s attack on the working class. Every faction of the ruling elite insists that social programs must be gutted, wages reduced, and public spending slashed in order to expand corporate profits. The Democrats therefore view the mass opposition to Trump with profound unease and hostility.
On the eve of the demonstrations, the editorial board of the New York Times, the principal mouthpiece of the Democratic Party, issued a statement calling for war against Russia, under the headline, “Russia Won’t Stop Until NATO Acts.”
The Times does not publish editorials every day. Indeed, the last editorial was published one week ago, on October 10. Its decision to issue this call to war on the very day before what could be the largest single-day protest in US history was deliberate. It is meant to signal the Democratic Party’s overriding priorities.
In its editorial, the Times declares that “European leaders should make clear that Russian aggression against NATO countries risks a forceful response, including the shooting down of drones … and potentially of Russian fighter planes that enter NATO airspace.”
In relation to Trump, the Times writes hopefully that “he has authorized more intelligence sharing with Kyiv to heighten the effectiveness of its attacks, including those on Russian oil and gas facilities” and that he is considering allowing Ukraine to use Tomahawk missiles to strike deep inside Russia.”
Expressing the outlook of the Democratic Party and sections of the military-intelligence apparatus, the Times goes on to express concern over Trump’s “long record of coziness” with Putin and whether he will prosecute the war against Russia with sufficient aggression.
All these actions, the Times states, “bring risks, including the dangers of escalation … [but] the only way to contain him [Putin] is with resolute strength.”
The Times does not elaborate that the “risks” it blithely acknowledges are those of a nuclear war between the world’s two leading nuclear powers, which would mean the annihilation of human civilization.
The priority of the Democrats is also reflected in the efforts by the organizations officially sponsoring the “No Kings” protests, including Democratic Party-aligned groups such as Indivisible, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and other union bureaucracies. Yellow has been proclaimed the official color of the protests, presented on the “No Kings” website as “a signal of resistance and national self-determination amid invasion” in Ukraine.
The bloodbath in Ukraine is the largest war in Europe since the Second World War. This imperialist proxy war, instigated and fueled by the United States and NATO, has already killed and maimed more than 1 million Russians and Ukrainians. Ukrainian youth, seized off the streets and conscripted by a corrupt, US-backed regime, are being sent to die in a 21st century hellscape. The effort by the Democrats to besmirch mass opposition to Trump by promoting this murderous enterprise must be rejected with contempt.
From the 2016 election onward, the Democrats centered their critique of Trump not on his attacks on democratic rights but on his perceived unreliability in prosecuting American imperialism’s global interests and, in particular, on the conflict with Russia.
The Democrats’ first impeachment of Trump in 2019 was not over his crimes against the Constitution but his hesitation in sending weapons to Ukraine. The Biden administration, which came to power calling for a “strong Republican Party,” made the escalation of global war its central priority, first by instigating the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine and then by financing and backing Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
These speeches provide a Marxist analysis of the relentless escalation of imperialist militarism over the past decade.
Buy now
Since Trump’s return to power, the Democrats have said as little as possible about his consolidation of dictatorial power. The major Democratic leaders have remained silent on Trump’s threats to invoke the Insurrection Act and impose military rule even when White House officials have denounced Democrats themselves as “domestic extremists.”
The Democrats have now lined up to praise Trump for his fraudulent “ceasefire” in Gaza, which is nothing less than the consolidation of imperialist-Zionist domination atop the bones of tens of thousands of murdered Palestinians. They have reacted positively to Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and indications that the administration will supply Kyiv with longer-range missiles for strikes deep into Russia. Not a single leading Democrat has spoken out against the mounting preparations for war against Venezuela or the illegal killings of Venezuelan fishermen in the Caribbean.
There is little doubt that sections of the Democratic Party are counseling Trump that an escalation of war—with Russia, China or another target—would provide the necessary framework for “national unity” at home and the suppression of opposition from the left.
Those participating in the “No Kings” demonstrations must repudiate the filthy, pro-war politics of the Democratic Party. The Democrats speak not for the millions who have taken to the streets but for Wall Street and the Pentagon. A particularly foul role is played by figures such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who promote the lie that opposition to Trump’s dictatorship can be waged through the Democratic Party.
In its October 15 statement, “No Kings, No Nazi Führers! Mobilize the Working Class Against Trump’s Dictatorship!”, the Socialist Equality Party explained that the fight against dictatorship requires a clear political program and concrete demands.
At the forefront stands the demand for the removal of the Trump administration from power and the dismantling of its fascistic apparatus. This must be joined with the demand for the withdrawal of all troops from American cities and an end to the militarization of public life; the abolition of ICE and DHS and an end to the persecution and deportation of immigrant workers; the termination of all US threats and acts of aggression against Venezuela and other countries; the defense of free speech and all democratic rights; and an end to mass layoffs, social cuts and the destruction of living standards.
Every one of these demands, which express the needs and interests of the vast majority of the population, stands in direct conflict not only with the fascistic agenda of the Trump administration but also with the Democratic Party. Both represent the capitalist oligarchy, which demands that society be subordinated entirely to profit, war and repression.
To oppose Trump’s dictatorship and the descent into fascism, therefore, requires the independent political mobilization of the immense power of the working class, united across all industries, regions and national borders. The working class must build its own movement against capitalism, the oligarchy and all their political representatives.
>>2525849Read Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism.
Critical support for MAGA on their jihad against shitlibs.
>>2525846The neocon parades supports warmongering, what a surprise. Very good post you have provided to this thread. We must cut out all democratic influence over the public permanently, and with haste. Else we shall see regressions caused by both sides of the duopoly.
>>2525853Obviously, out of such enormous superprofits (since they are obtained over and above
the profits which capitalists squeeze out of the workers of their “own” country) it is
possible to bribe the labour leaders and the upper stratum of the labour aristocracy. And
that is just what the capitalists of the “advanced” countries are doing: they are bribing
them in a thousand different ways, direct and indirect, overt and covert.
This stratum of workers-turned-bourgeois, or the labour aristocracy, who are quite
philistine in their mode of life, in the size of their earnings and in their entire outlook, is
the principal prop of the Second International, and in our days, the principal social (not
military) prop of the bourgeoisie. For they are the real agents of the bourgeoisie in the
working-class movement, the labour lieutenants of the capitalist class, real vehicles of
reformism and chauvinism. In the civil war between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie
they inevitably, and in no small numbers. take the side of the bourgeoisie, the
“Versaillese” against the “Communards”.
So campists tell me which side am I supposed to take between the trotskyists pro government (larouchite magacom) and the trotskyists anti government (neocon democrats)
>>2525862Reds vs the yellow-bellied
>>2525862It’s all run by the DNC. The National Democratic Institute is the intelligence wing of the DNC and it’s been involved in color revolutions around the world.
Communist revolution only possible when workers and peasants are ready to lay down lives for the star, not the democrat party.
>>2525761My problem with these protests is they don’t really explain the cause of the problem (capitalism). It’s like saying someone who is sad to “don’t be sad”.
Similar situation in Japan. There are counter protests of “no discrimination”, “no racism”, etc. But they fail to explain these people what the cause of their problem is. Telling them to just stop being racist isn’t enough.
Why does the left fail so miserably? Why not set up a stand with a microphone and talk about the evils of capital? Why do we treat our knowledge like hidden magic rather than make it public?
>>2525761its gonna be cool how nothing will come of this
I don't even understand the optics of these protests, who's supposed the purported "king" of the USA again? Trump? wasn't he democratically elected? literally wtf are they on about, at least make it make sense
Burgerreich has finally begun imploding. Can't wait!
>>2526108>CapitalismIs it really though when many of us aren't brownshirt ghouls looking to terrorize minorities, or the ones voting for them?
Blaming it all on Capital and pretending people have no choice but to support pogroms is it own kind of mystification and denial of moral agency.
>>2526138In Hawaii it's "no American kings" and in Britain it's "no tyrants"
>>2526154why the fuck are brits even invited into this idgi
>>2526108Because these are fundamentally liberal protests, not socialist ones. That's why they act like everything was fine before Trump even though he's simply the logical conclusion of capitalist decay. However, there are socialists who turn out to these protests, and it's important that we continue to do so in order to have a visible presence and normalize socialism into the collective consciousness as much as possible, even if only slightly.
>>2526164>there are socialists who turn out to these protests, and it's important that we continue to do so in order to have a visible presence and normalize socialism into the collective consciousness as much as possible, even if only slightly.The "socialists" who died in bloody sunday may disagree. Lenin, nor any revolutionary, would ever be caught in bloody sunday. Following the feds into the killzone is bad idea
>>2526184Those were revolutionaries, so they had the psychological (and materiel) capacity to wage an actual armed resistance. Our movements not so much. Of course it's a risk since fascists and jackboots want to kill us all, but either we can stay hidden and do nothing or display our presence the only way that we currently can.
–Even though Woody Allen told USanians that 90 percent of life is just showing up, a demonstration is more than just showing up. Frederick Douglass: One must make demands.
–The esteemed Lady Bunny has been on my FacBk feed inveighing against the pointlessness of No Kings. And Lady Bunny, as ever, is right. No demands, no bite, no purpose.
–What I learned from the five (yes, cinque) demos I attended in September and early October in Italy in support of the Global Sumud Flotilla: Fine sentiments are not enough. The government only budged (slightly, ever so slightly) when people walked out of work, flooded the train stations, and blocked the streets.
–In typical U.S. fashion, No Kings is going to be feel good, with nary a thought about the disastrous Democratic Party and Republican Party and how to dismantle them. Then everyone will go to their favorite taqueria and consider it a sign of solidarity.
–At this point, with the rich looting the U S of A at a furious and furiouser pace, the only viable option is withholding one’s work — for days on end — and disengaging from consumer culture — no more artisan hummus from Whole Foods! General strike.
–A demonstration with no demands has a strong whiff of a central problem in U.S. life these days: You have one group of gatekeepers fighting with another group of gatekeepers over who gets the goodies. Which excludes you.
–PS: And don’t count on the U.S. Supreme Court for a damn thing. The sooner the populace disengages from the nine miscreants, the better.
–PPS: Let justice be done even if the heavens should fall.
>>2526192>either we can stay hidden and do nothing or display our presence the only way that we currently can.To join liberalism is not merely to "do nothing," but to betray socialism.
>>2525761>be le liberal>organize a protest against muh heckin dictator drumpf>zero concrete demands>no follow-up plans>absolutely no political organization takes place at the protest>leftists, obviously, call this stupid>"OKAY LET'S SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO">completely ignore the effectiveness of leftist protests worldwide (especially concerning palestine)>no kings day comes>complete and total nothingburgercan we please kill these people now
>>2526508>muh heckin dictatorMore like muh heckun tyrant. Couldn’t even stick to king because they thought that was too offensive (even though they’re supposed to be liberals).
>>2526515it's hilarious how they couldn't even have the spine to oppose all kings.
>>2526515these uyghas did the french revolution and the glorious revolution btw, libs are too spineless to even hold the most basic position of fuck the monarch these days, no wonder neo monarchism is a thing these days with thiel and shit.
Protest went well. Lots of people. Some MAGA guy was riding around in a Corvette while holding a MAGA flag and getting his 6 year old daughter to flip the protesters off. Some local Dem politician spoke.
>>2526519FUCK YOU LIBERAL
behead liberals
>>2526519Did any Communist speak
>>2526519you are the grave digger of the American revolution
>>2526520Dude was zooming off as soon as the light turned green but I was gonna ask him if he got the kid from Epstein's island.
>>2526536Nah, I imagine most Socialists/Communists were down in Los Angeles. I went to a smaller protest with some older family members. This was without a doubt a fairly liberal protest, though there was one guy wearing some Antifascist Aktion shirt, some folks holding signs that were like bayonets going into Swastikas/The Patriot Front/Confederate Flag. A few Palestinian and "fuck Israel" flags though weirdly enough there was one lady showing up with a miniature Israeli flag.
Honestly I think it goes to show just how ideologically incoherent the protest broadly was, or perhaps a better way of phrasing it would be how ideologically incoherent the wider "left" is. One aspect of the two-party system that benefits the Right is just, the Left is ideologically distinct and the Right isn't. Like it's become pretty common to say "Oh Trump killed the Libertarian movement" but I think a lot of it was that Libertarianism was a niche ideological current on The Right and more a libidinal outburst of rage and "you can't tell me what to do" type shit. The forms and functions of Rightwing Ideology don't really matter so much because at the end of the day they're chill with a fascist regime.
Meanwhile on "The Left" (mostly referring to as broad a definition of the American Left here) you've got MLs and Maoists and SocDems and Anarchists and Liberals. These definitions are often mutually exclusive, the adherents of these ideologies are often at odds, and it makes mass political action heavily diluted which privileges the liberals by virtue of their actual investment within established political institutions. The closest thing to "policy" or a coherent program was the local representative saying "Vote Yes on Prop 50!" (which would gerrymander California's elections to fuck over the Republicans) and otherwise you've got these atomized individuals. Some people there had signs that said "tax the rich" while others said "eat the rich", some people had signs calling for socialized medicine while others had signs asking for "affordable healthcare", some people had pro-Ukraine signs and others had peace signs. A few were chanting that our enemies are billionaires not immigrants but what does that mean
functionally?
One of my takeaways is that it's important for an actual left wing party to start competing electorally. Because like it or not, people are still relying on bourgeois democracy as the established forum for political change and reforms, and it doesn't matter how loud
the crowd gets if there's no leadership to shape a left wing program and give function to it. Leadership, that's what we need, and for as long as we don't have it then it means that no matter how much they're widely despised by the public, the Democrats will continue to be the face of "The Left".
>>2526449Showing up at a liberal event and demonstrating to the people our existence and program for the sake of wresting control is not the same thing
>>2526569I agree. I noticed that some people were even hesitant to shout about the Epstein Files thing despite repeated prompting. This is why I advocate that we need to at least show up and have a clearly defined message that we declare to the people, lest they only see milquetoast Liberal (aka right win) Dems as "The Left" by virtue of being the only ones to show up. DSA was there but they need to be more openly vying for leadership of the protests. We cannot let liberals continue to hand us over to fascists with barely even a complaint.
Went to mine to hook up with an ICE resistance group. Its presence consisted of a trifold on a table with some info about ICE/a prison operator with some of its members explaining the distros of snacks and water for the people stuck outside waiting for their check ins. Small group and it's not like they're gonna be breaking people out of detention centers like the Red Army any time soon but it made me glad to see at least one group of people planning an independent protest.
Aside from that, the only other thing of note was an unrelated old lady with a sign that read "good job, Chicago" and "keep it up Portland!", presumably cheering on the people getting in ICE's way in other parts of the country.
>>2526508Thanks for encapsulating what threw me off about the proests. i knew it was shitlibbery
>>2526670>I agree. I noticed that some people were even hesitant to shout about the Epstein Files thing despite repeated prompting. This is why I advocate that we need to at least show up and have a clearly defined message that we declare to the people, lest they only see milquetoast Liberal (aka right win) Dems as "The Left" by virtue of being the only ones to show up. DSA was there but they need to be more openly vying for leadership of the protests. We cannot let liberals continue to hand us over to fascists with barely even a complaint.See that's the thing, I think leadership comes in some ways from electoral success. There are socialist protests out there, but I think it's the fact that No Kings were tangentially embraced by the Democratic party (and celebrity mouthpieces for them) that allowed them to get as large as they are. And what do you do with that vast mass of people?
Unfurl flags, raise banners, maybe have crowds line up to form the phrase "No Kings" from aerial photography. You can be impressed with the sheer size, I remember at the last protest they were close to that magic "3.5%" number. For those in the know, the saying goes that no government survives when 3.5% of its population takes to the streets. But lets be honest, even if 6% of America took to the streets, what are the odds anything happens? The Democrats don't want the government to collapse, plain and simple, and so they'll shift people towards voting or towards marches, but nothing will happen if a large enough number of people protest for one day. The Trump admin in particular seem committed towards supporting him to the hilt.
Maybe the utter lack of progress made with peaceful protests will radicalize people? No clue. But the fact is that barring something extraordinary that makes national news, I don't think we'll see the Democratic party lose its iron grip on leadership short of being increasingly supplanted by Socialists electorally.
>>2526703>TrotsInto the trash it goes
>>2526703the more agitation the better
>>2526703The kirk article is dumb
>>2526703I'd rather libs stay libs than become trots.
>>2526715Idk they might have a point: before Kirk's death there was a growing schism on MIGA due to the Epstein files, Israel and worsening standards of living that pretty much went away after the murder re-unified the Zio-evangeliKKKal reaction against the islamo-communist trans Left.
If you're schizo it seems like a more reasonable conspiracy theory to believe Kirk was killed precisely because of this than some kind of Israeli op for some reason.
>>2526747It gives too much weight to Kirk as a propaganda tool. They were already gearing up to do this, they just pretend publicly that Kirk is the excuse for them to do so. Even if he had lived we'd be seeing the same thing just with different explanations. I don't think the schism is as big as they claim it to be; the base is already very brainwashed to support MIGA.
the USA public is caught in a delusion. what they've seen happen in many banana republics they never thought, still don't think, would be possible in the USA. they do not recognize what is happening and do not understand what the proper proportional response is necessary to stop it. all their lives they've understood advertisement and images to be the driving forces of social progress. so now it is what they desperately try to control. and they will desperately hold on to that belief. it is precious to them.
>>2526708>>2526729you might hate this but lets be real, american socialism will be influenced by trotskyism.
Meh
>>2526703Trots? Handing out newspapers??? Now you're pulling my leg
>>2526758there needs to be more bipaetisanship
>>2526986why can't he hit up his tech ceo mates for better quality and no watermark?
>>2526991the bad quality and watermark adds to his boomer credentials
>>2526986Did he really post this? Lmfao
>black libz 2010
<We wuz kangz n shiet
>black libz in 2025
<No 2 kangz
>>2527034Did you know that the portrayal of Subsaharian African tribes as heirs to the Egyptian Empire come from a strategy of ethnic division and conquer employed by the British Empire before that same strategy was more recently coopted by the US throughout the world?
>>2526569In regards to some of the stuff I brought up here, there's that viral experiment that you see make the rounds on social media about Mice drowning. Like, Mice that've been rescued before would swim for something like three times as long as others, which would give up and drown quicker. Often it's used as some "its all in your head, never give up" type shit.
I'd offer that you can graft such an interpretation onto politics so as to say that as long as there's an appearance of even the possibility of rescue then we'll just keep desperately swimming around the bowl, hoping for what amounts to a miracle. What liberalism is great at doing, unlike pre-revolutionary Russia and China, is giving people the impression that change is possible. Trump, they say, can be defeated in the midterms. If he's not defeated in the midterms he'll be term limited. When he's term limited we can get a "good" democrat who will "fix" everything.
Of course, maybe such things held true for prior generations. Nixon, I would argue, was far less openly scandalous than Trump and was removed in part by his own party. FDR was voted into office during the great depression and gave us a taste of social democracy. But today the stagnancy and rot of the system seems unreformable. I've heard plenty of people argue that it would take at least two democratic presidents serving two full terms each to return to the "norm" of pre-Trump politics.
And so how does No Kings factor into all of this? Well I think it's relying on the assumptions or "norms" of prior politics, its fully bought into the idealized conception of liberal democracy. Perhaps in "normal" times the protests would've been enough to sink a President; I mean, shit, were George W. Bush or Nixon faced with protests on this scale? I've heard claims that the No Kings protests might've been one of the largest single-days of protest in U.S. history. You'd think that in "normal" circumstances a President would be tendering his resignation after that. Trump though? He doesn't give a shit. He doesn't go on the defense. If he was met with the Republicans of Nixon's time he'd force them to impeach him, all the while openly threatening anyone who'd even talk about it. He sees these historic protests and its all "who gives a fuck? You can't make me leave."
So everyone shows up, they pat themselves on the back, I think libs will bask in the afterglow for a few days. Then sometime next week they all wake up and they realize nothing has changed, the protests did nothing. While the media showers them with facts about how it was "The biggest peaceful protest in American history". But Trump ain't resigning in disgrace and the government is still shutdown.
Maybe something Socialists could do at this point would be advertise a radical alternative. Maybe do guerilla advertising: posters that say something as striking (even if a bit absurd) as "let's build a new government". Encourage people to form "citizen's councils" that use direct democracy as an alternative to the present system of governance. Because I think most vaguely left-of-center people see a profound crisis, they see how bad things are, but the only direction the democrats give them is "well wait one more year, next election bro, I promise."
>>2527283I mean big protests used to be an actual show of force, in the sense "we're still nice now but careful, look how many we are ready to take a stand". People that protested didnt just show up in a mythical hope their pacific march would make their opponents bend, they were ready to escalate things if their demands werent met and start riots, occupy factories, burn government buildings, attack politicians, match the police violence, block infrastructure, strike and disrupt production.
If your protest doesnt imply a potential escalation, and dont even disrupt production significantly, ofc the government can just ignore it without consequences, only dumbfuck libs who dont understand shit of the way of the world think peaceful marches without an implied threat of not peaceful action have any consequence. The problem is liberalism had such a complete hegemony they started drinking their kool aid about how their shitty ""democratic"" system respond to citizens concern, they just dont think in term of actual power relation anymore.
>>2527283>>2527416We need to be actively contesting for leadership, not just in elections but in external actions like this too. Further, we need to not only draw a clear line in the sand, but be able to back up our demands with public consensus.
>>2526997yeah someone posted the actual link to the post in /usapol/
>>2527049not that anon and I think they should provide a source, but also I think it's telling that you ask
>>2527041 for a source while taking
>>2527034 as a good post unworthy of any criticism
>>2527668the latter post is either trolling or fascist, the former is an actual claim
>>2525761All in all pretty good
>It is necessary to recall that the great uprising of the American colonists in 1775 was provoked by the British monarch’s deployment of troops in Boston, New York and Philadelphia to intimidate and suppress opposition to tyranny. Now, as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the spirit of revolutionary commitment to the defense of the rights of man must be revived.
<glazing the counterrevolution of 1776 in the year 2025You're not gonna survive the Turtle Island cultural revolution
>>2527739you also forgot by the time of the American Revolution the thirteen colonies had already developed a independent ruling class. they wanted to break free because it served their material interests. While up in Canada the ruling class there was still loyal to the crown because the majority of them still had significant investments in the United Kingdom.
>>2527739>>2527804for 1776 to be a counterrevolution, there would have to be an actual revolution that it was counter to, which there wasn't
Glad American leftists are open about being Democrats nowadays
>>2527283TRVTHNVKE. It's now 2 days after the protests and absolutely nothing happened, there wasn't even a protest that escalated into a riot. Just more performative liberal virtue signalling as usual.
And the reason Democrats don't give any direction other than "wait until 2028 for the next voooooote!" is because they're controlled opposition for the "left" designed to maintain the status quo, much like Republicans are for the "right". Every day I marvel at the genius of this system, funneling the people's own revolutionary tendencies into upholding the status quo rather than tearing it down.
>>2527926We need to conjugate spoke into "spake" again it sounds so cool
>>2527025libs then:
>frogs are le problematiclibs now:
>frogs are le resistance! Why is Trump bad again? Hes reversing globalization which has been a disaster for the American working class. Hes bringing back real production and jobs. Hes kicking out illegals which will increase the demand for labor, reduce unemployment and increase wages. Hes accelerating AI instead of regulating it to death, which will bring us closer to FALC.
>>2528134>>2528166Pepe was originally nonpolitical, even on 4chan, so reclaiming it is a good thing imo (or it would be if it wasn't by fucking libs)
>2528218
bot
>>2528218>Hes bringing back real production and jobslol, lmao even
>>2528063You can hardly blame people (okay you can blame them a little bit) when the further-left alternative is like "let's hope Trump wins to heighten the contradictions" and then you don't do any contradiction heightening when he wins, instead you just don't do anything. That's not going to work. I'll just be a liberal.
There's also the possibility of a strike wave in 2028 because several major contracts expire at the same time. Some of them are preparing for it, and it could link up with the No Kings bullshit, and the real communists though? Meh. This isn't for them. They won't be fooled.
>>2528129They are but at least they do more economic damage to america
>>2528981Yep, I'm glad Trump won because he's both stupid and unrestrained and he's going to drive the American Empire into the ground, while your democrats at least would maintain the status quo. 建国同志万岁！
Why don't they call it No Bourgeois? Capitalists have more power than kings ever did
>>2528988This is seriously pathetic. If they wanted to sit around some monument on a central square to cast slogans, they could have just said so, and not pretend to be doing a protest
>>2529071Because the protests are organized by the DNC and the PSL are cucks
Realistically speaking, No Kings is going to be the last libshit protest movement before shit hits the fan and people learn the hard way that vooting isn't going to save them.
>>2529015You're really presenting me with a difficult choice of going to a No Kings demonstration or doing nothing.
>>2528988I can't find an actual source for this outside of a Facebook post by "Donald Trump For President's Post". Are you sure this isn't fake?
>>2529124still doesn't rly have a source and since it's organized by a bunch of different groups not the dems themselves, you can't necessarily blame "american democrats" for that since the existence of kings around the world is due to a broader interplay of corrupt elements than just one… like the dems aren't solely responsible for canada and uk still being fucking cucked monarchies
>>2529135>still doesn't rly have a source and since it's organized by a bunch of different groups not the dems themselves, you can't necessarily blame "american democrats" for that since the existence of kings around the world is due to a broader interplay of corrupt elements than just one… like the dems aren't solely responsible for canada and uk still being fucking cucked monarchiesYou are just playing dumb I have to believe. Every mention of "No Tyrants" will tell you the same thing.
https://www.theverge.com/policy/687195/no-kings-trump-parade-protestsLondon, UK
>London’s protest was a little different than most: it was almost entirely bereft of “No Kings” signs, thanks to the fact that about two miles away much larger crowds were gathered to celebrate the official birthday of one King Charles III.
>“We don’t have anything against King Charles,” Alyssa, a member of organizers Indivisible London, told me. And so, “out of respect for our host country as immigrants,” they instead set up shop in front of the US embassy with a tweaked message: “No kings, no crowns” became “no tyrants, no clowns.” >>2529109No kings = doing nothing
>>2529171No person is under any moral obligation to obey any agent of the United States government at the current time.
>But the protesters are a bunch of white liberals
They're right though
>They're old
Seniors are people too
When the police tell you what to do, I suggest that you obey. But obedience is not enough and I suggest also that you constantly express your enthusiasm for obedience in general. After all, that is who you are.
>>2529356I ship these two.
>>2529364That's nice, keep it to yourself.
>>2526976What the fuck are you talking about?
>>2527025I like Portland/Oregonian Frogs tho. They are peak halloweencore cringekino, post more.
>>2526703RCA is the leftist org with the least baggage in the US and their analysis is the most correct, change my mind. DSA is just the left wing of the Democratic Party (will never go anywhere). ACP is a glowing joke. PSL is a big tent org that has no clear message or program.
>>2529384The costumes are also made in China so the more we buy, the more we build the productive forces.
>>2527986>t. didn't read the articleSaturday’s “No Kings” demonstrations, which drew an estimated 7 million people into the streets across the United States in the largest mass protests in American history, gave powerful expression to the growing popular opposition to the Trump administration’s conspiracy to establish a dictatorship. The White House reeks of fascism, and millions of people have caught the stench.
For those who marched or supported the protests, one question now poses itself with burning urgency: What next?
The mass protests are only the beginning of an expanding movement against the Trump regime. But for this movement to go forward, the demonstrations must be critically evaluated and placed within the context of the overall political situation. The danger is that, without the articulation of a clear perspective, the enormous popular impulse of opposition will be dissipated.
It is first of all necessary to understand that the demonstrations themselves, however massive, will not stop Trump’s drive toward dictatorship. The president’s own response, in the promotion of AI-generated videos depicting himself dumping feces on protesters, was both vile and violent. It expressed the contempt of a criminal regime for the population.
Trump speaks not as an individual but as the political representative of a class, the capitalist oligarchy. Confronted with mounting economic, geopolitical and domestic crises, the ruling elite has drawn the conclusion that the preservation of its wealth and privileges is incompatible with democratic forms of rule.
This reality was underscored two days after the demonstrations, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the White House could proceed with the deployment of National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, under the absurd pretense that the city is a “war zone.” The decision makes clear that Trump’s drive toward dictatorship rests on the active collaboration of the state apparatus, including the courts and the military.
What was most clearly absent from the protests was a defined program upon which this government can be opposed. The declaration “No Kings” expresses a democratic sentiment that is very broadly felt, but in and of itself it is an abstraction in that it does not define how the drive to dictatorship is to be stopped. This weakness reflects both the as yet low level of historical and political consciousness among broad sections of the population and the fact that the demonstrations remained, however tenuously, under the political control of the Democratic Party and its affiliates.
It must be stated bluntly that any subordination of this movement to the Democratic Party will prove fatal—absolutely fatal—to the struggle against Trump’s fascistic conspiracies. The Democratic Party is, and has always been, a capitalist party. Historically, it has functioned as the “graveyard of social movements,” the place where popular opposition is defanged and buried. This is all the more true today, when the Democrats act not as opponents of the Trump administration, but as its collaborators and enablers.
This includes figures like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the senator from Wall Street, who joined a march in New York City after weeks of doing everything in his power to cover up the Trump administration’s escalating conspiracy for dictatorship. It was Schumer who earlier this year played the central role in securing the passage of the budget resolution that guaranteed funding for Trump’s government.
More politically pernicious, however, are individuals such as Bernie Sanders, who was brought in to deliver the main address at the demonstration in Washington D.C. The role of Sanders (and many others, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Zohran Mamdani and other members of the Democratic Socialists of America) is to conceal the absence of any genuine program to oppose Trump with empty demagogy, that is, political deceit disguised as radicalism.
Nothing in Sanders’ speech addressed the real causes of the present crisis. There was not a trace of analysis, not a single reference to capitalism or socialism and not one word about how the criminal Trump government is to be driven from office, which is the basic question. Instead, he appealed to his “Republican colleagues” to “start negotiating” and not let “the American healthcare system be destroyed.” In a different time, would he call on his “Nazi colleagues” not to neglect Social Security?
The basic deceit is the claim that it is possible to oppose Trump and the growth of fascism through the Democratic Party, and without opposing the capitalist system that gives rise to them. But this is the fundamental issue. As the Socialist Equality Party explained in its statement to the “No Kings” protests, “The entire historical experience of the 1930s demonstrated that the fight against fascism cannot be separated from the struggle against capitalism and for socialism.”
The aim of the Democrats and their affiliated organizations is to block any movement of social protest from developing a political program and direction that threatens capitalism. Their goal is to let off steam and divert popular opposition behind their own pro-imperialist political agenda. Those involved in the protests and seeking a way to stop Trump’s conspiracy cannot allow this to happen.
The Socialist Equality Party intervened in the October 18 demonstrations to fight for a socialist program and political perspective. Supporters distributed tens of thousands of copies of the SEP’s statement “No Kings, No Nazi Führers! Mobilize the working class against Trump’s dictatorship!” at protests across the United States and internationally, along with the party’s pamphlet, Trump’s Fascist Conspiracy and How to Fight It: A Socialist Strategy.
The SEP’s intervention aimed to transform a spontaneous outpouring of anger into a conscious political movement, armed with a strategy for the mobilization of the working class against fascism and capitalism.
The response to the SEP’s intervention revealed an unmistakable political fact: There exists within the population an immense, deeply felt opposition to dictatorship, inequality and war; broad opposition to the Democratic Party; and a growing receptivity to a socialist program. Workers, students and young people who spoke to SEP campaigners wanted to understand not only why this crisis has developed but what must be done to stop it.
To return to the question: What next? The answer is to develop an offensive for socialism in the working class. While many workers participated in the demonstrations, they did so primarily as individuals. This is due in large part to the absolutely pernicious role played by the union apparatus, which functions entirely as a mechanism of the suppression of class struggle.
The working class has not yet intervened as an organized force, with its own program. This must change. The central target of all the Trump administration’s actions is the working class. It is workers who are being thrown into unemployment by the mass firing of federal employees, who face the destruction of vital social programs, and who will suffer from the elimination of the Department of Education and the escalating attacks on teachers.
The dismantling of public health has driven conditions for healthcare workers to the breaking point, while Trump’s trade war policies have fueled soaring inflation that is wiping out living standards. And it is the working class that will be used as cannon fodder in the escalating global war.
When Trump speaks of the “enemy within,” he is giving voice to the fears of the capitalist oligarchy of the working class. And when he denounces “socialism” and “Marxism” with ever-greater hysteria, he is articulating the terror of the billionaires that the masses of workers and youth in the United States and internationally will turn consciously to a revolutionary program aimed at abolishing the capitalist system.
There is a growing mood of social opposition and protest throughout the United States and internationally. The task now is not to wait passively for the next demonstration but to use this opposition as a lever in the fight for a movement of the working class for socialism.
The Socialist Equality Party is spearheading the fight to build rank-and-file committees in every workplace as part of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) and to develop within the working class a conscious socialist movement, strategically aligned and organizationally connected with the developing struggles of the global working class.
Opposition to dictatorship can only go forward to the extent that it is rooted in the social and political struggles of the working class, based on an internationalist socialist strategy. The defense of democracy is impossible without the development of a socialist movement to end capitalism and place the wealth of society under the democratic control of the working class itself.
We call on all those who agree with this program to join the Socialist Equality Party.
Nazism, big business and the working class: Historical experience and political lessons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPMz5YRLqRk&t=2s>>2528063See I'm not sure if "riots" are the answer. I think what would be needed (hypothetically, of course, NSA) is leadership that could steer a generic "riot" into something with political bite. Shit like actually taking territory and sectioning it off, declaring a "people's government" or what have you. Generic property damage and violence isn't the answer, ideally things would remain peaceful, but it'd be a stark declaration that you wont be governed by the Trump regime any further.
>>2529896>Shit like actually taking territory and sectioning it off, declaring a "people's government" or what have you. this is much more dangerous than "Generic property damage and violence" though, thats straight separatism and is ample justification for the state to use all his means including its armed forces
>>2529896>leadership to steerwtf is Joe Sims doing then?
>>2530187>Wowzers what a controversial opinion!!!!On this site it is somehow
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