See ya out there folks
post
National website -https://www.nokings.org/
Map tool is down the page a bit.
I'm part of the safety team for ours! Might as well put some of that first responder training to good use.
will complain about how it's a useless parade, but I'm still going.
Is it the most effective possible protest? No, but I wouldn't call it useless either.
lots of people go there and use all their energy on that one event and do noting else.
but the best part of these useless parades is that its great to recruit people and collect signatures.
But if you get a tiny fraction of those people involved in other things that are useful, doesn't that make the whole event useful?
In general, there is a pretty dramatic drop off in activism the more effort is required. Most people who go to a march are never going to do more than that, and I think it's OK to give them that avenue to have some impact, even if it is small. Especially if you use the event as an opportunity to pull some of them into a deeper level of resistance.
Also, media coverage and normalizing open dissent has some cultural value, even if it isn't directly disrupting fascism. Authoritarianism thrives on fear, and millions of people showing they are not afraid makes all resistance easier.
a protest is a show of force. it isn't an informal poll to inform politicians. it's an implied threat that if they don't change what they are doing shits going to hit the fan, strikes, riots, civil disobedience... ie, let corporations be greedy or have a working state? Instead, the way the media portrays the "discent" in protests does the exact opposite.
it celebrates and idolizes the "peaceful" matches, the only legitimate form of discent, completely pacifist, about writing songs, and having clever signs. meanwhile they demonise when protests turn to riots, when they actually work.
most US organisers are afraid organize a protest without getting a permit from the city first!!!
if protests don't escalate, if their goal isn't to fix things, then they are useless and are designed to benefit the status quo. because those who go to these regularly approved parades, feel like that's all they can do and are satisfied with themselves. no one told them how little they did, they are even less activated than before.
the only good thing about them is that they are excellent recruiting opportunities. and once recruited, they can be woken up.
I’ll be out there in Chicago.
National website -https://www.nokings.org/
Map tool is down the page a bit.
i will be there in person (won't say what location so i don't get myself doxxed). anyone who comes out will meet me, even if it's not me in the meat you're meeting. our shared voice today cries out for freedom.
and before the lemmy perfectionists whine we're not doing enough, celebrate that more people are coming out. a movement doesn't start instantly. more and more americans are waking up every day to that the politics of left and right are the politics of up and down and unless you're at the top, you should be on the left.
good luck, be brave
Yeah, our local one is growing each time we do it. We do a bunch of stuff between the big protests too, but the visibility of No Kings has been really good for getting people to realize we're even out here to begin with.
also for anyone who feels like it's not enough, these events are the doorways, not the houses we've built. if you want to build a robust movement, you have to recruit people. if you want to recruit people you have to go where the people are. if you want to go where the people are, the people have to be somewhere. here in america the Block party is illegal most places because the most powerful place for the people to be is the streets. they have the least control over us when we're in a crowd together speaking with our shared voice.
if you are out today:
- recruit people to your mutual aid project
- learn about community defense leagues in your area
- join a mutual aid project
- learn who's in your town and what they've been doing you haven't been seeing
the stronger you make your local community the less vulnerable it will be to army recruiters, mining operations, tech dickheads.
Can't, brain surgery is a bitch. But give em hell
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