No Kings 3 in Oakland: What’s Next!

by Nancy L.

Oakland showed up and showed out for NO KINGS on March 28! It was a day of beauty, defiance, joy, and power. People came for so many reasons – to say no war, or no secret police force, or hands off our neighbors, or hands off trans kids, or we’ve had enough of tech oligarchs making ridiculous amounts of money while ordinary families struggle. And then there was the person carrying a sign that read: “I was accidentally added to this protest by a Signal group chat.” All we can say to that is: Welcome!

In Oakland, we were 20,000 strong. With over 3300 other events in every Congressional district and on six continents, organizers estimate over eight million people turned out. This made NO KINGS 3 the largest protest in U.S. history (followed by NO KINGS 2 in second place and NO KINGS 1 in third place).

A one-day mass mobilization is an important way of showing the sheer scale of opposition to the Trump regime. Making the scale of opposition visible gives us courage, pushes people in institutions to stand up to MAGA, and shifts the calculus of elected officials. These mobilizations may not directly precipitate the desired changes…but they form the foundation that makes those changes possible.

Each NO KINGS brings out more people. And we are getting familiar with the 3.5% rule: between 1906 and 2006, no authoritarian regime was able to stay in power once 3.5% of the population showed up during a peak mobilization event. But this doesn’t mean that our work is done if NO KINGS brings 11.5 million people into the streets. That 3.5% must do more than come out on a Saturday – they must engage in sustained organizing. This means that we get trained up, build mutual aid networks, develop new leaders, and engage in diverse and creative tactics.

So yes, these mass mobilizations are not, then, an end in themselves – they are part of a broader strategy. Be sure to find out more by viewingthe recording of the mass call on What’s Next after NO KINGS! Here’s the basic plan:

• Protect Our Neighbors: Push back on ICE abuses on our home turf and stand up for communities under threat – join IEB’s Adopt-a-Corner program.
• Escalate and Innovate on May Day: Strengthen our capacity for lawful defiance and noncooperation, and show up in force for May Day (May 1). Text OAKLAND to 58910 to connect with May Day Strong; register for the April 9^th May Day call; and build your strike skills with the Strike Ready trainings.
• Prepare to Protect and Defend the Elections. Trump will try to sabotage the election, but he will fail because we will stop him. The muscles we build through organizing in our community, protecting our neighbors from ICE, and engaging in mass noncooperation on May Day – those are all muscles we need to have free elections and make sure that every vote is counted.

Want to relive the NO KINGS Oakland Glory?

• Here are amazing photos from our friends at Pro Bono Photo.
• Here’s some great drone footage.
• Check out SF Chronicle coverage of marches in the Bay Area, including ours!

Last Saturday, we started at Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza, where the happy crowd listened to a live brass band, took handmade origami butterflies from volunteers, admired one another’s signs, greeted friends, and found a contingent to march with.

Chanting and singing (with the Mighty Marching Chorus over 400 strong), we marched to Lake Merritt. As we got near the lake we descended into the darkness of an underpass, where people stood above us and called: TELL ME WHAT COMMUNITY LOOKS LIKE! TELL ME WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE! TELL ME WHAT AMERICA LOOKS LIKE!

Community, democracy, and America look, of course, like all of us.

As we emerged into the light, we saw across the way in Lake Merritt Amphitheater, a massive sign that spelled out our future: