The "No Kings Day" protest was celebrated for being "massive", "peaceful" & "historic" but what did it actually "DO"?
It got people to mobilize.
It crippled Donald Trump's support
"Activated" new people in activism
Smart & Experienced groups utilized the crowd to get people plugged into local-efforts. Bolstering their numbers.
However the question remains is it enough?
A protest with no demands and no leverage can't really accomplish much. At best it served to expose people to leftist organizations that might have been present.
Non-violent protests are an important first step to help educate the population about how effective they are or aren’t.
The people who show up to non violent protests are the folks to talk to for organizing next steps
Lenin and Trotsky didn’t orchestrate a revolution in a week.
We've been on this first step for decades. If the goal is to introduce people and move them to step two, it's clearly not working
I agree. Getting to the next stage is the hard part. I don’t know how to get there.
It seems like every media “river” is controlled by the oligarchy. And that socialist voices seem to be easily drowned out.
How can we get to the next stage of change.
Direct, organized and principled action with clear demands and individuals committed to seeing it through.
The hard part is still many steps down the line and it's honestly disheartening that you think think anti-capitalist demonstration is the hard part. You need to steel yourself comrade, it's a long road to liberation.
have we gained any ground since the Black Panthers ?
Sure seems like we lost anything gained. Reagan and then the fall of the USSR were huge blows to the movement in the US.
My two cents on the second stage:
We are free to organise in private companies, meaning that we can start a company that is completely socialist in every level. That means to work in a company where everyone is owner of the means of production, every penny earn is discussed, is shared, is invested on whatever the workers want. This is the way to show another option, and when it will success, because it will, other workers will want desperately to join or to start another company like that
I disagree. I think that people had no idea what the fuck was going on for decades and are waking up. Evidence: me. I had no idea about any of this a year ago. Now I am incredibly involved locally. Shit takes time when you are in the heart of it.
Not every person at a demonstration can be educated. Sure, some might be willing to hear out the socialists - some maybe even join up - but some are hopelessly ideological liberals practicing at the limits of what their worldview permits. It is our job to discern between the two because the latter would sooner push back against socialism than team up against capitulation. Trying to deprogram liberals in the middle of a rally is a fool's errand.
In fairness, non-violent protests can help foster some important skills among socialist organizers (such as crowd control, identifying wreckers/feds, etc.) However, we should look more to take these opportunities as they come rather than trying to create the conditions themselves.
There are far more effective means of education and radicalization than at a protest, namely meeting workers where they are rather than asking them to come to us. Protests may give us some leads, but simply talking to our neighbors under less stressful circumstances can be equally if not more effective. There's a reason agitation and education are two separate steps in the process.
Sure but there are also plenty of non violent protest with more to say than "more liberalism". And like I said above, I agree it was useful for networking with actual leftists.
An argument could also be made that the No Kings protest funneled class consciousness and revolutionary sentiment back into establishment parties.
Also I never claimed the revolution could be accomplished in a week but I also don't think performative displays with no substance are how we get there.
Ageed
I think the biggist thing out of this seris of protests is it gave the newer generation a taste of rebelion... not exactly socialism ( we may need more desperation for that)
but its a start
on the plus side it gave me good photos to rant about
(witch... yeah thats not academic sorry)
Correct. It took them eight months. We’ve been having the same protests “for organizing and next steps” for decades and literally nothing has changed. By the time we “have the numbers” most of us are too old to act.
It doesn’t help that we sometimes go tears between major protest events. We need a series of large, rapid fire protests over a short period of time, and then act swiftly and with the full force of the movement available. Without actual action we’re just shouting at an uncaring sky.
People do need to see that other people are like-minded though.
They will be more willing to take stronger action that is of greater risk to their survival in future, at whatever point they deem that necessary, if they have some relative confidence there are others who might assist or join them in any stronger action.
As a unifying event that made people feel they aren't the only ones or whatever, it was really important.
It wasn't about getting results, it was about visibility to others. The target audience was really horizontal, not vertical.
Consider it more akin to a Pride event, where visibility helps empower and engender broader community, which has ripple effects beyond the event itself.
It was also coordinated with LEO, had a scheduled start and end time, and intentionally non-disruptive. It wasn't a protest, it was a rally.
There was a ton of organizing at many of the larger No Kings events. Lots of unions, progressive AND socialist orgs had booths getting people signed up at the last ATX one.
Gotta get enough people well enough organized to sustain a protest and make demands.
Substantially it did very little. No demands, no disruption to the capitalist system, no real tangible policy changes. However ideologically, it gave leftists an angle to advocate for class consciousness, and pushed the majority to question the current political status quo. Fostering discontent, organizing the masses, and showing a desire to challenge those in power are important steps if a real revolution/ change is to ever occur. We can’t expect the masses to suddenly wake up one day and decide it’s time to oust the bourgeoisie and imperialist cores controlling the global political landscape. You have to start somewhere, and at the very least the lack of results will further grow resentment, and lean people into a more radical direction. It can take years, and countless sacrifices before any real challenge to the current order materializes. Accept it wasn’t perfect, but use the momentum and desire for change to build a more concrete call to action.
Gave actual leftists a chance to spread our message
This was the real win. A lot of communists and socialists organized at these and spread out information about socialism. It probably wasn't huge but it was a good opportunity to radicalize a lot of people.
really though? I didn’t see that happening much
i saw RCP in downtown Dallas.
Even better is that multiple communists spoke. RCA/RCP in DFW just kind of shows up to things without building relationships with organizers. They don’t do any actual organizing work. I say this as someone who left.
Did we see the same thing? It gave liberals a chance to get their steps in and go back to brunch feeling accomplished for nothing.
Really depends on where you are I think. In some cities, our organization has had success by building relationships with the left flanks of these groups, which has given us a platform to openly advocate for socialism. At least 3 speakers at our No Kings are openly ML. They gave us space to table and talk about our work with attendees as well. The groups that run No Kings have also joined coalitions alongside openly communist and socialist groups detached from the democratic establishment. They even come to us for advice. That comes with building trust with your community, which can be tough to do in spaces in liberals, but it needs to be done.
Oh wow if we only rally like 5 times more the revolution should really be happening
It let the libs feel like they were doing something. It was an outlet for their anger and frustration. Protests with no demands and no willingness to inconvenience the ruling class are useless feel-good performances.
They are however opportunities to enlighten people about the Immortal Science.
simply a lib pressure release valve
Instead of piling on endless criticisms of these protests, our job is to reach out to the people who are angry and frustrated and have good intentions but have no idea what to do about them. When all we do is sit around and wag our fingers and say "this was pointless" with no alternative to offer, people are understandably inclined not to hear us out. Our job as socialists is to educate the working class, not sit around and stroke our own egos over being right about everything. A real socialist would look at this as an educational opportunity
Some people are only gonna recognize direct immediate impact that is proportional to how bad these things are. Some people see it as successfully growing a base because of exposure to leftist groups specifically left out of American political discourse outside. The answer to what does it do is heavily dependent on who you are asking.
It sent a message to others that they are not alone in thinking that this cult of cruelty is wrong.
It gave me the strength I need to vote harder.
I'm gonna vooooote
That’s what I’m talking about!!
It did nothing, and that's the point.
Liberals don't want change, they want to be 'not them' and this was exactly what helped liberals think they're resisting.
That was a confused lib parade, not a protest.
It did nothing. Nothing has changed. No demands were.made.let alone met. The US government is still being run like a criminal enterprise. The 21st century gestapo has actually stepped up the violence of their tactics and any day now the orange dipshitnis going to announce a ground invasion of Venezuela as a distraction for all of tje oopsies in the released files where they missed blacking out his name or picture. Meanwhile the rest of us are going to freeze to death, starve to death or just die of easily curable illnesses so that massive data centers can have all the juice and clean water they need to create fake AI. Oh and don't forget that the real life hunger games will be coming to a TV screen near you next year
We are well and truly fucked and no one with any power seems to care enough to actually DO something about it.
Exactly what protests are supposed to do. Give angry people a steam valve that seems great, but is actually just people in power trying to funnel the anger away from guillotines
its not enough on its own. When i went with my DSA chapter i asked leadership what exactly we were doing here.
they said people are angry and theyre looking for a solution. we're here to provide that solution. they're upset enough to organize and protest and chant, they've got the spirit but no direction. The revolution won't start out of nowhere. We need to build support and community. We need to organize and make people UNDERSTAND what it is they're organizing for. Taking Baby Steps.
During our protest, we shouted all kinds of chants.
"No hate! no fear! immigrants are welcome here!"
"hey hey, ho ho! detention camps have got to go!"
"Trump Trump can't you see! This is Not Democracy!"
along with these chants we yelled Free Palestine, and a very angry liberal old man came up and started yelling at us to stop, that's not what we're here for. And it was this interaction that really made me see the kinds of people we're dealing with. They don't understand how the issues are interconnected. How intersectional our struggle really is. Along with him we saw the classic "if Kamala had won we'd be at brunch" and other such liberal slop and it opened my eyes to how the only thing they see wrong with America is Trump. it was fascinating.
But i was reminded that nearly every leftist started as a liberal, we're all doing what we can to learn and deprogram and it's not a linear experience. There's no right answer, but the fact that people are upset enough to organize, means that people might be willing to learn what we're about, and join us.
It gives people hope
Hope without substance is actually worse than nothing. It placated people without any gains.
Hope without praxis is blind faith. Revolutionary optimism is vital to any socialist movement, but if it doesn't arise from well-founded action, it is bound to dry up quickly.
Nothing. Playing by the rules will never achieve anything against people not playing by the rules.
It didn’t do anything, but it should of been a day where socialist talk and recruit regular people.
they did. i saw RCP at mine.
Libs went to touch grass rather than to their brunch, is all.
It had mostly the petite bourgeois (ie, our enemies), not the workers. It didn't change and didn't even try to shed the light on the extreme exploitation of the global south (especially Palestine).
It wasn't a socialist "movement", it wasn't even a movement! It was just centrists/right-wingers (the libs), being against other right-wingers in power (Trumplets).
This was only ever really a parade masquerading as a protest. It might have resembled one visually, but it made no demands, applied no pressure, threatened no consequences, fixed a set 'end date' without demanding a response, and had no real leverage. It was more of a spectacle, and if anything only serves to reinforce the status quo by providing people a platform to air their grievances in a way that doesn't threaten the existing order. Anger and outrage should be channeled productively, and this was very much not that.
It did jack.
I think the trouble with this protest is we didnt hold our ground until the trump administration were forced to abdicate
Nothing. It was a victory for liberal sign waving, feeling like they did something while achieving nothing, probably less than nothing through complacency
They allowed for networking and to form connections with like minded people. I haven’t seen us do a Marxist protest with all those demands people talk about
If you haven't seen Marxist praxis, that's on you. You're going to the wrong events and working with the wrong orgs.
There are no orgs where I live. Not everyone has access to these events locally. I only have a local DSA that meets once a month at the local library. Know how I met them? The first no kings protest. It was huge for rural America
The OP has the correct question. Is it time to move to direct action?
Networking. Meeting the community is never bad. I joined a signal chat with people running it and while I don’t agree with them most of the time there are people there that are like minded and they host several mutual aid events that help people.
It was more of a parade than protest. Activities like this are intended to redirect working class frustration into a non-threatening outlet. Bonus points that the "protest" policed itself, and members congratulated each other for it.
Also, if you have to register your personal details with an organization that popped up out of the ether to attend... That should be setting off alarm bells for you. This shit was astroturf.
We had something similar this year in France, "The 10th of September mouvement", calling for the population to take the streets, block the highways and the factorys.
It was a major trend on social media, but with limited number of people actually manifesting and organizing themselves, it primary served as an outlet for the people to express their anger (a lot of destruction of public goods happened) without using it as a weapon against our current regime.
As it was described later, "it made a lot of noise for nothing".
Nothing
Built community
Nothing, they never do. Downvote all you want.
Connected a lot of people to local organizations and showed that despite what the media and establishment says, there’s revolutionary potential in the working class that hasn’t been fully tapped yet. But other than that, youre correct.
It tapped that revolutionary potential and diverted it. Let's be clear on what this protest was about - liberals having a parade in the face of rising fascist elements.
It did exactly what it was designed to do, sap energy from any attempt to actually do something.
Nothing. It did nothing. Peaceful protests will never kill capitalism or fascism.
It got media attention, it showed many people are in opposition to Trump, it allowed community members to network and get connected to more people doing good work. It takes all types and all strategies to fight harmful systems.
Our government is failing. There may be no other thing to do to fix it than a full overthrow and reset.
The government isn't failing, it's reaching it's final form. The US has never been a government for the working class. It's dissolution has always been the only actual solution.
From the Trump assassination attempt through the inauguration maga people were holding the public space. The NO KINGFS protests took that space back.
♪ This democracy?
I think I'm sick of it
Constantly politicking chicken shit liberalists
If that sounds harsh it's fucking meant to be, live with it
Heart full of fire little drizzle to extinguish it
See the evil, hear the evil, talk a lot of bullshit
Complain about their ways but still support it
I heard a revolution's coming better batten down your bandwidth
Make stands from ya laptop and then finish off your sandwich
But oh shit, this isn't just a Twitter campaign
We gonna take to the streets, the man will know our name
But every protest is authorized, cleared and sanctioned
So is that really a protest or a pleasant little gathering
Two million marched against a war then what did they do?
Complained that no one listened, man there's two million of you
And all those mad about the fact you didn't vote for our leaders
Your solution is to wait and vote again? Fucking genius
That stiff upper lip shit? Man that was good marketing
Make man's trait to "never complain", remove the spark from him
Charming little phrase for emotionally retarding him
Hold it down son feel your darkened heart hardening ♪
I’ve been called “worse than MAGA” countless times for asking this exact question. Whenever I suggest we could do more, the Reddit libs start to get extremely vicious and unforgiving.
Most (and I mean a huge majority) of folks on the r/50501 subreddit seem to be content with using the protests simply as a means to recruit more people. I’ve had 3 top level posts, and they have all been met with a certain level of apathy toward the mission we aim to accomplish.
One reason I’m even reaching farther left politically is to find people who want change, and to escape the performative nature of “festival” mindset. We could be successful with a smaller number of focused and disciplined activists.
Doesn’t matter if we get 20 million people if most of them think that attendance is the only thing they need to offer. Before the election, I was a blissful liberal, now I’m burdened with the unmistakable proof that we’re wildly outnumbered, and that there is an 80% overlap in the desires of the Left and Right side of the ruling class, and they use the 20% difference to blow the wind back and forth while they live lives of opulence.
If we continue without direction, we need to brace ourselves for things to get worse and for both sides to keep their eyes closed.
The reason we actually got to see this talked about openly is bc by telling everyone “look we paid attention to you good job you guys did it” everyone stopped there. Bc yet again everyone has convinced themselves walking about with signs and chanting some catchy stuff is ALL they need to do when that is only step .5 not even fully step 1 of at least 100 steps
It wasn't meant to
In short: it gave me good photos to rant about
In long: nothing nothing at all (maybe the luffy flag but no)
The Genoside in Gaza and the west bank has been going on for approximately two and a half years.
millions of families have been displased by bombing and starvation
Right now, as of 12/15/2025
Isreal is busy dinying international war crimes
meanwhisle the the citizens of are left with dwindilig supplies and s
"it's as if the intire Zeitoun neighborhood was hit with a nucler bomb [refering to the complete distruction of the city] We came back to find nothing, nothing at all we were displaced many times, and as you can see, we returned to find our homes leveled to the ground"
- Ahmed Rihem durring a intervew segment with Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/9/5/live-israel-kills-18-overnight-as-intense-strikes-flatten-gaza-city
Not much except a good feeling. Until the working class uses our collective power to send a message, nothing will change. It's up to us, the people, to make our country fair and honest. But we're at the breaking point of the rule of law.
The no kings protest didn't cripple Trumps support, his attack on Iran, and his Epstein debacle did that. BOTH were very unpopular with his base. What was the POLICY GOAL of the no kings protest? Because you need to lay out specific policies to solve problems that people will believe in. By "believe in", that means you give enough information so people believe your policy can be implemented, and once implemented, will achieve the GOAL. If you can't do that, then it seems like you're just trying to win power.
Nothing long-term, but it definitely harmed the MAGA movement's silent majority narrative and opened more average people up to the idea of anti-government protests, so that is a small win I'd say.
I also think it showed any reasonable leftist or left-adjacent individual that democrats aren't capable nor willing to make substantial changes and value performative optics over taking action since it may alienate their opponents, whom they still hope to win over while not realizing anyone who still supports MAGA isn't worth winning over.
A combination of jack and shit
This was a Democrat psy op. Stay peaceful. Express anger with signs. No riots please .
Brought over 3% of the population together in solidarity. Organized countless protests across all 50 states without any help from the government; proved that we could organize. Allowed people to network and resource together with a shared goal (albeit a very Libby goal of pre-trump status quo). Allowed people to voice their frustrations in relative safety. Allowed people to participate in politics outside of the usual 'vote every 4 years' mindset. Showed people that there's tons of other groups out there that they were not previously aware of: socialist groups, mutual aid, local grassroots organizers, etc.
Enough for what?
Nothing, it did nothing!
The only action capitalist will respond to are ones that hurt their bottom line. They've spent decades breaking unions because, short of civil unrest, only a series of General Strikes will have any effect. Before that though a simple list of demands is required that have broad appeal (and crucially understanding) across the whole of society in order to attract as many people from all walks of life to the strikes as possible e.g. improved universal healthcare, a first-class education system, improved taxation eg stopping loopholes allowing the rich to be pretty much tax free, and help for veterans*.
*even if you don't support the armed forces most people do.
You have to laugh, because otherwise you'd cry. Look at the state of the "left" among Americans, dawg.
Best thing it really did was show Americans is deeply red areas that they are not alone in their morals and views. Speaking from experience, it is isolating to be surrounding by Trumpys, and it’s a breath of fresh air to see neighbors rallying together against fascism in areas you wouldn’t expect
These kinds of events are for building support, a sense of teamwork and a show of force. They do not change policy.
Essentially we need a unified Leftist league with clear goals not a Figure head or a Liberal leech Like 20 Zorhans
It was much more about sending a message than it was actually changing anything. I also like to think it showed MAGA that they're not the majority they think they are.
Anecdotal, but, my boomer mom went to a few of these kind of protests. First time protesting and she was surprised how many people she knew there. People she was hesitant to talk about politics with before, but has since the protests. They didn't change the world, but I think realizing you're not isolated. Cable news works hard to keep people isolated with their fears and frustrations, these kinds of events can show people they're not alone.
Nothing. It did nothing.
Can't emphasize enough that since these protests my normie liberal friends and family have been leaning left way harder than they would typically, and are noticeably pissed off with the neoliberal strategy from the DNC leadership - that's not nothing, in my eyes
Those who make peaceful protesters impossible make violent revolution inevitable. -JFK
One designated day of protest does nothing. It has to be prolonged and ongoing. American protests look like nothing when compared to what they do in France
It bruised the wannabe king's ego.
It did the same thing yelling at a brick wall does.
What does a raindrop do for a flood?
And most of these people will forget to vote in November. ...
What are you talking about, the majority of people at these gatherings are the exact sort who think voting is the only thing that can be done. They'll be first in line for it.
There are two outcomes that are real from these protests. They made clear that MAGA is not a broadly popular movement. It made them think twice about actually doing things like arresting or killing their political opponents. They will never be able to do that now. The moment when they could have done it without repercussions is gone. Perhaps it will return but for now they can’t do the truly evil things that will end what democracy we have in this country.
The second thing it did was influence the various elections that happened this year. It gave a space for progressive candidates to present themselves to the public. It gave voters a chance to get truly fed up with lib dems that are not willing to stand up for their constituents. This will have further effects in the midterms.