What’s Next after NO KINGS?

By Nancy L

The NO KINGS protests may have been the largest in U.S. history, with an estimated five million people pouring into the streets. The split screen that showed anemic turnout for the birthday boy’s military parade and giant crowds for NO KINGS nationwide was exactly the contrast that organizers hoped for. And we at Indivisible East Bay did our part, bringing out at least 10,000 to the peaceful and joyous Oakland march and rally (read more in our blogpost, check out this online photo gallery, marvel at this drone view of the march, and watch our highlight video)!

We threw down in a big way on June 14th – but where do we go from here in our fight to defeat the MAGA regime? You can check out the web page nokings.org/next for a recording of a mass call on June 16th that explains what’s next across the NO KINGS coalition. Read on to see how the broad strategy will translate into what we do here at Indivisible East Bay!

A Three-Pronged Strategy

We can think of the work as having three prongs. The first two are in the realm of normal politics; the third goes beyond normal politics to fight fascism. The normal politics tasks are to:

• Reduce harm. This includes protecting the people targeted by the MAGA regime (right now immigrants and trans people are feeling the worst of the regime’s cruelty), and fighting back against the MAGA murder budget, which slashes Medicaid and SNAP to pay for a massive tax cut for the rich. (To protect targeted people, join our rapid response team. To help defeat the budget: (1) join this phonebank to call Medicaid recipients in red states and urge them to call their Senators ahead of the upcoming budget vote; and (2) call your Senators using this phone script.)
• Elect Democrats. Indivisible is not an arm of the Democratic party – and we are often deeply disappointed in Democratic electeds. But since Democrats oppose MAGA, putting them in office is critical. So in 2026 we take back the House and fight like hell for the Senate; in 2028 we take back the presidency. We can make this happen as Trump’s popularity continues to drop, we learn how to navigate the fragmented media ecosystem, and we all do the painstaking work of reaching cynical and conflicted voters (taking many of our cues from the smart people charting the way forward here!).

The third prong of our strategy is designed to defeat the Trump regime’s attempt at authoritarian consolidation: locking in power by eroding checks and balances; taking away civil liberties; and undermining fair elections. The MAGA regime is doing all of that, but We The People are resisting, and we can still stop democratic backsliding. Indivisible National has a new “theory of change” about how to defeat the would-be king – a theory based on the scholarship of Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan that explains how nonviolent civil resistance can bring down autocratic regimes.

Civil resistance works through mass participation that undermines the regime’s authority and leads elite institutions (e.g. media, universities, religious organizations, the business community) to stop supporting the regime. To remain in power, regimes need these pillars of support; without them, they will fall.

What Makes Civil Resistance Successful?

Not every civil resistance movement succeeds. Those that do have four characteristics:

• Shifting the loyalties of people inside the pillars of support, causing the pillars to “defect” (withdraw cooperation from the regime). Sometimes loyalties shift because of relationships. A famous example is from the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, when the military refused an order to fire on demonstrators – a refusal that led to Milosevic to resign the same day. When journalists asked members of the military why, many said they thought they saw someone they knew in the crowd. More often, though, pillars defect not through a change of hearts and minds, but in response to incentives engineered by civil resistance campaigns. This happened in South Africa when boycotts of white businesses led business owners to demand that the South African government negotiate with the African National Congress. (Check out Maria Stephan’s talk on the June 16th mass call to learn more about the pillars of support.)
• Mass, diverse, and sustained participation. Most civil resistance movements succeed when they have sustained participation from at least 3.5% of the population. Participation must be broad-based and diverse, bringing in people from all walks of life. The more broad-based the participation, the more likely it is that people active in the movement have relationships with people inside of the pillars of support (and with people positioned to influence the pillars). Finally, to demonstrate sustained participation, we need very large mass mobilizations (like HANDS OFF and NO KINGS) with consistent actions in between. 
• Diversity of tactics. We tend to think of protests, marches, and rallies when we think of movement tactics. But successful movements use a variety of tactics, and in fact getting in the streets typically does not directly bring down a regime. Mass protest does two important things: (1) communicates people power; and (2) brings more people into the movement. Communicating power gives people hope and shakes the aura of inevitability that regimes seek to convey. But we must go beyond protest to use the wide range of tactics that past movements have used – and invent new ones! Using creative tactics keeps action fresh and effective. Also, campaigns aimed at causing pillars of support to defect typically require non-cooperation tactics such as boycotts, strikes, and disruptions.  
• Disciplined nonviolence in the face of repression. As popular resistance gains steam, regimes often try to retain control by repressing the populace through the threat of violence and actual violence. It is critical that the movement remain nonviolent so that it continues to grow the numbers of people who sympathize with the movement and join in. Civil resistance can benefit from the paradox of repression: repression backfires when bystanders (those not yet drawn into the movement) are horrified by the treatment of nonviolent protestors and then decide to stand up themselves. This happened just a few years ago in this country, when a “Wall of Moms” came out in Portland to stand between federal agents and protestors who had been getting tear-gassed at Black Lives Matter protests. The practice spread to other cities, and inspired Walls of Dads as well.

What is Indivisible East Bay doing, and what can you do?

We here at IEB are determined to contribute to successful civil resistance to block MAGA’s attempt at authoritarian consolidation. 

• Campaigns to cause defections within pillars of support. We are starting to plan (in collaboration with other Indivisible groups) for campaigns directed at pillars of support. Does this sound interesting to you? Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch.
• Mass, diverse, and sustained participation. We need to keep the momentum up with nationwide mobilizations. We’re getting ready to plan the next one that will take place on July 17th: Good Trouble Lives On. Sign up here! Ready to go beyond attending the event to planning it? Fill out this form to work with the IEB Events Team on the July 17th action! And new people are joining IEB every day. Our heroic Welcome Team could use more help in welcoming newcomers! If that sounds like your jam, fill out this form. And we know that we need to do more. IEB will keep working to build and diversify our base through training, leadership development, and collaborating with other groups in the East Bay. 
• Diversity of tactics. We have a Tactics Development Team that is working on innovating new tactics – join them here!
• The discipline of nonviolence. We have a wonderful Peacekeeping Team, and we hope you will join them by filling out this form! But nonviolence is for all of us, and we will continue to emphasize peaceful protest by sharing resources and returning to the topic in our All-Member Meetings and blogposts.

There’s no sugarcoating it – the country is in a dangerous moment. But MAGA is not invincible, and We The People are standing up. In fact, we’ve been standing up at greater rates than we did when Trump was elected the first time. And as three political scientists who study democratic backsliding said in the New York Times after the April mass mobilization: “So far, the most energetic opposition [to the authoritarian offensive] has come not from civic leaders but from everyday citizens, showing up at congressional town hall meetings or participating in Hands Off rallies across the country.” 

Damn straight!