Crucial anti-Trump protests risk failure if these key improvements aren't made

Will the Oct. 18 No Kings protests equal or surpass the 5 million who marched in June? Donald Trump’s poll numbers keep dropping with his escalating attacks on democracy. People are hungrier than ever for ways to act and resist. And the huge Jimmy Kimmel victory should create resistance momentum. But when I look at the major national days of protest since the original No Kings, I see organizing and communications breakdowns that make their impact less than it could have been. And we want them to be as large and broad as possible.

One problem is Trump opponents relying too much on self-organizing. Groups or individuals use tools like the Mobilize maps to call a demonstration, post time and location, and then assume people will show up: If you build it, they will come. But this can replace the hard work of building coalitions, engaging people to participate, and directly coordinating efforts.

It’s also hard to know which are the major events. For Oct. 18, I went to the No Kings map that all the groups link to and punched in my Seattle zip code. It came up with two neighborhood events plus two more general ones with similar enough descriptions to be largely indistinguishable.

Later I saw a utility pole flier for the one that had mentioned Indivisible peripherally, and discovered that the sponsors also included SEIU, Planned Parenthood, League of Women Voters, and three major state-wide activist organizations. That’s a major coalition. But when if first clicked to RSVP there was no way of knowing that. And even after the host group belatedly added a link to the larger list of sponsors, the only way I found that out was clicking the RSVP page again.

I then entered the zip codes for Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta. They all had just one main center-city event listed, plus suburban events, so that was less confusing. New York City had two in Manhattan and separate Brooklyn and Queens events. So again less confusion. But even if you clicked through, the main events all just said “volunteer organized,” giving no clue to the large coalitions organizing them.

If people don’t know whether an event is organized by three random friends or a dozen major groups, it’s hard to know which to attend. Friends throughout the country have mentioned a similar confusion.

I suspect that’s one reason for the drop-off since the original No Kings events. Seattle’s No Kings demonstration had over 50,000 people. But since then, no Seattle demonstration has turned out more than a few thousand, and multiple events have divided attendance — we had three different Labor Day “Workers Over Billionaires” events.

The drop-off has happened with all the subsequent national protest days, important as they’ve been.

No Kings Day had over 2,000 events, drawing over 100,000 in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, 50,000 or greater in a half dozen more, and at least 10,000 in 45 cities.

Since then, we’ve seen coordinated protests for the anniversary of John Lewis’s death, for Labor Day, and for the Sun Day renewable energy events. The John Lewis anniversary had 1600 events and Labor Day and Sun Day each had hundreds. Their breadth has been powerful, reaching into communities nationwide. But the numbers have been significantly less than the original No Kings.

From what I can find, Chicago Labor Day had 10,000 people, maybe a bit more. Austin had 5,000 people as part of a day of events challenging Texas redistricting. Others have had several thousand, although some have been highly creative, like a Portland Oregon Sun Day event that brought together 30 groups for a renewable energy festival and a parade across a downtown bridge that might have also had higher numbers.

The original No Kings numbers were larger in part because the events were a counterpoint to Trump’s military parade, which helped with advance media coverage. But while I’m seeing all sorts of notices for the new No Kings, the necessary organizing since last June seems to have been more scattershot, with fewer fully engaged coalitions, and more reliant on the maps.

When multiple competing events post without clear information on who is sponsoring them, it’s hard for people to know where to attend, or whether to attend at all. And when they list multiple recognizable sponsors then it makes it more likely for people to go, because it feels like you’re part of a movement where people are working together with power and momentum. It certainly felt that way at the first No Kings Day.

Lots of powerful resistance is going besides those major protests and rallies. More modest rallies in smaller suburbs and towns, and local neighborhoods, have underscored that opposition is everywhere. Protests at Tesla dealerships, Sinclair TV stations, and challenges to ICE have made a difference even when the numbers are modest. There are some critical fall elections and people are getting out the vote. The Jimmy Kimmel campaign was an important victory as multiple groups sent out alerts, entertainers stood in solidarity, and ordinary people pressured local stations and advertisers, including attending local vigils.

But national protest days still play an important role for building a sense of common power and solidarity, inspiring local news coverage, and bringing people together for further action. If we want them as successful as possible, organizers need to do more to:

• Make clear which are the main events in their cities, so supporters can focus organizing attention, and participants know which to attend.
• Press Mobilize to add a field for endorsements and co-sponsors, where hosts could enter multiple organizations. When I corresponded with one of their staffers, she said it would take multiple groups requesting it for them to make it happen.
• If Mobilize doesn’t do that, highlight the larger potential rallies on other ways, including in the text on the Mobilize postings, so members know which ones to attend.
• Coordinate on the ground. Affiliates of the national groups need to be working with local labor, environmental, civil rights, social justice, and faith groups. And then asking members to text, call, and email their friends, so invitations come from trusted messengers.
• Post fliers or posters on lamp posts to complement digital outreach with a physical advance presence.
• Collect contacts at every event to plug random new participants into future efforts, for instance by using QR codes. Then work together continually, not just for major events.

Given the Trump regime’s threats to democracy, Oct. 18 should be a key moment for pushing back and building further momentum. Our tools and approaches should serve this purpose as effectively as possible.

• Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of Soul of a Citizen and The Impossible Will Take a Little While, with nearly 300,000 in print between them. Sign up for his Substack here.