The anti-Trump demonstration was a classic astroturf operation organized by Democratic Party operatives, writes Margaret Kimberley. Real political action is different.
No Kings rally in Houston on Oct. 18. (Jill_Ion/Flickr/Public Domain)
By Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Report
Many years ago the late Glen Ford, then the Black Agenda Report executive editor, related his experience with the One Million Man March, which took place on Oct. 16, 1995, in Washington, D.C.
It was organized by Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam and was meant to be a day for Black men to “atone” for what were said to be their shortcomings. There were a multitude of opinions about whether Black men had to atone for anything at all, or whether its male orientation was sexist, or whether Farrakhan should have been the organizer. But on that day, the controversy was forgotten as somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million men attended.
Glen Ford was among them and years later he still expressed dismay at what he saw as a missed opportunity. Ford was of the opinion that the only reason to have 1 million people gather in one place was to make clear and cogent political demands. But he recalled that after many speakers came to the podium Farrakhan himself came to the stage, made obligatory thank yous to his fellow organizers and then began musing about numerology and its connections with United States history.
“There, in the middle of this mall, is the Washington Monument, 555 feet high. But if we put a ‘1’ in front of that 555 feet, we get 1555, the year that our first fathers landed on the shores of Jamestown, Virginia as slaves. In the background are the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, each one of these monuments is 19 feet high.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president. Thomas Jefferson, the third president, and 16 and 3 make 19 again. What is so deep about the number 19? Why are we standing on the Capitol steps today? That number 19! When you have a nine, you have a womb that is pregnant. And when you have a one standing by the nine, it means that there’s something secret that has to be unfolded.”
Fortunately , Farrakhan had more to say other than those cosmic observations but Glen Ford was correct. There were no political demands for Black people that were connected with the One Million Man March. It is true that Minister Farrakhan never made a claim of making any political demands, but the fetishization of large-scale events persists to this day and that is why the recent No Kings actions on Oct. 18 attracted some 7 million people across the country despite being of questionable value.
Desperation Over Trump
No More Deportations protest at the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago on Oct. 3. (Paul Goyette /Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 4.0)
The impressive numbers for No Kings speak to the desperation that millions feel as President Donald Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill” would deprive millions of people of affordable health care or any health care at all.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are terrorizing immigrants and citizens alike as it raids apartment buildings, snatches minor children into the maw of detention and inevitably kills people. Trump is preparing for war against Venezuela, while few in Congress or the public express any opposition.
The attraction of a large scale gathering is obvious. The history of mass action is an important one. Would there have been a Civil Rights Act without nationwide protest or an Environmental Protection Agency without the first Earth Day protest? We all say that the answer is no, but we miss other important points in thinking that marches alone brought change or neglect to ask ourselves who calls for a large-scale action and why.
Classic Astroturf
No Kings rally in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 18. (Rob Pegoraro/Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
The sponsoring organization for No Kings, Indivisible, is run by Democratic Party operatives. No Kings was a classic astroturf operation, giving the appearance of emerging from the grassroots when it was a top-down effort, endorsed by the likes of Hillary Clinton, the queen of neoliberalism, imperialism and political ineptitude, whose failure to get a handful of votes in swing states cost her the 2016 election and made Donald Trump president not once, but twice.
There can’t be an effective movement if most people still believe that having a supposedly lesser evil party in the White House or Congress is the answer to fighting Trump, or that Trump himself is the cause of every problem, or that all was well before he won a presidential election for the second time.
The organization Indivisible is a Democratic Party operation and its goal is to keep its voters in the fold. In short, No Kings was a national get-out-the-vote operation for Democrats, a party that is committed to offering very little in the way of political change. Rallies bereft of political demands create exactly what the Democratic Party wants, energized voters who will show up at the polls determined to choose “blue no matter who,” and in the process give them carte blanche to do as they and their oligarchic patrons please.
The yearnings for affirmation and camaraderie are understandably appealing but also dangerous. Everyone feels better when marching with thousands of other people, but those good vibes don’t amount to much if there is no organizing behind the march and if there isn’t a single-minded purpose among the participants. The March on Washington and Earth Day came about because real grassroots organizing took place first. The large-scale events occurred after smaller groups formed with concrete goals and missions and after they laid out their demands and after they formed coalitions with one another.
Same Dynamic in 1995
One Million Man March in Washington, D.C., in 1995. (Yoke Mc / Joacim Osterstam /Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY 2.0)
The same dynamics that can bring large numbers of people together can also be detrimental. In 1995, Black people were asking what we should do politically. One year earlier, in 1994, Bill Clinton passed a Crime Bill, which immediately put thousands of Black people at risk of mass incarceration. Clinton was still popular though and the contradictions of voting for someone whose agenda was inherently harmful meant that many people were looking for answers. So much so that they swore to atone when they didn’t need to and decided that being with one another would perhaps provide answers to their questions.
The question for Black people in 1995 and still in 2025 is “What should we do now?” There are a multitude of responses, which all too often boil down to voting for Democrats in an effort to keep the white people’s party, the Republicans, out of office. Good attendance numbers can hide political weakness and the debates about the value of No Kings were proof.
Many people didn’t just argue in favor of participating but were angry if anyone questioned their decision. Responses ranged from feeling a need to do anything at all, to castigating those who chose not to take part as useless naysayers.
While the backbiting went on there were communities in Chicago recording ICE agents, attempting to stop their kidnappings, and in the process risking arrest themselves.
Wouldn’t it be more useful for their work to be replicated across the country, and for others to learn what to do when Trump sends federal law enforcement to their cities?
In Tucson, Arizona, communities organized to force their city council to defeat a proposed Amazon data center and are still fighting after their local elected officials continue to collude with the corporate giant despite their opposition.
Those are just two examples of effective organizing taking place and they should be shared with people whose energies would be of better use than claiming victory because they marched with thousands of others.
The One Million March is remembered as being a success, mostly because it took place at all. Yes, there were some individuals who organized together who ultimately did good work but the impact of having a huge Black organized march should have been bigger and better.
In 1996 Black people still voted for Bill Clinton in huge numbers. Clinton pursued and won media consolidation that destroyed Black radio, and financial services deregulation, which years later cost Black people their homes in the real estate bubble.
Political action must start out small and determined. Any victories must then be shared among activists while big marches and electoral politics should be last on any agenda. If not, people will be in a crowd listening to numerological equations or following duplicitous political operatives who paved the way for Trump to be in office at all.
Bigger is not always better. All politics are local and those strategies must be mastered before the next No Kings spectacle. Surely there will be one and hopefully there will be far fewer people in attendance.
Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter, Bluesky andTelegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.
This article is from the Black Agenda Report.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
The ‘no kings’ meme just feeds the Donald’s
Ego. Look how quickly he took down the
East Wing (in front of a moribund Congress)
starting the next workday after the rally.
I think the rallies are good, clearly they are
Very popular with people across the political
Spectrum.
But let’s change the name to “We the People”.
in this forum no one gets to say Farrakhan is a light skinned straight haired pimp who has spent his entire life accomplishing nothing other than rejecting Martin Luther King? And that it is wrong and Fringe Kook KneeGrow to say he is somehow better than Hillary Clinton who is seen as a leader by most Black Americans?
The “10 Million Zionist liberals March”, aka “No Kings” protest.
How about a “No Oligarchs” protest next time? That would be real progress.
It’s Germane, we’re back to the future! It’s 1931 again, only the continent this time is North America, where, the overthrow and literal deconstruction of democratic governance is under reconstruction to an even more sinister version of what came before.
Only this time the explosive fireworks will be nuclear, and immediately intercontinental.
Seven million lemming court jesters passively parading, protesting the coming fascist plutocratic plunder, throughout the realm.
No Golden Dome program will ever protect the populace.
This may be interpreted as defensive pessimism, where hope alone, is but futile optimism.
What the author calls “Democrat party operatives” are doing with organized days like NKD are called astroturf because they do not lead anywhere, but, unless something different was intended then something else is going on. Very good article, btw. People accept tribalist alignment, the feeling of being there, subconsciously as zero sum compensation for effort going out; that is why they are happy to sequester then dissipate, theory. Why don’t these “operative” cough cough oligarch friends of these constituents also figure out something strategic? They don’t and so, it seems another person’s type of art was the intent, to just sequester then dissipate. I imagine these sorts of things get elaborate. It can really have good psych effect, but me thinks the problem is people are not aware (that this constructs done-deal like I said, just saying).
The slogan “No Kings” was definitely a misnomer! What about : “No to U.S. imperialism”! “Hands off Venezuela”! Stop U.S./Israel Genocide in Palestine”! U.S. Out of West Asia”! U.S. Out of South/Central America”! “Stop U.S. Deadly Adventurism in the Caribbean Sea”! And many more other slogans that would have succinctly rejected U.S. imperialist policies around the globe! Further, there were no clear demands other than mere sloganeering! Because the rally was organized by the other imperialist party (Democrats) of the U.S. ruling class, a great opportunity was missed, as Margaret Kimberly correctly alludes to!
It’s true that NKD demonstrations are organized by Democrats, albeit on the progressive side of that party, and therefore have an astroturf smell. I would note that the lack of demands is less true locally – folks here in the Willamette Valley seem to have a pretty good idea what they want. I’m frustrated by the lack of any forceful followup to polite, legal demonstrations, which are all too easy to ignore.
That said, I and my colleagues go to them faithfully because they’re an almost ideal tabling opportunity for the Green Party. Plenty of those who turn out seem to be aware of the fundamental uselessness of the Democratic Party and are looking for alternatives. I just wish the Oregon Green Party was more functional – Covid destroyed our solidarity and reduced our numbers. As it did around the country. It’s hard to work for a party when you don’t trust its leadership.
So: what next?
Brilliant Margaret nails it. I agree completely with commenter Drew Hunkins, especially this apt comment: “I’d laugh heartily at them if the ultimate potential consequences of their dumb Russophobia wasn’t nuclear war.”
Thank you Margaret. I was one of the refusniks. I felt deflated by the enthusiasm for this Pink Hat March duplication. Even the worst sign from the first one, “If Hillary was president we’d be at brunch” was duplicated with Kamala as the president that would allow the liberals to stop paying attention for another four years. The Dems are liberals’ security blanket. They can’t imagine life without it.
It’s going to be up to the authentic left to do the grunt work of building real organizational pushback against this corrupt white supremacist genocidal colonialist empire. The others simply hate being inconvenienced by the work of grassroots democracy.
Great comment.
You know Lois sometimes your take is brilliantly exposed by your gift to be able to be so damned efficient with the written word.
Seems to me you have. summed up the future of America in about six lines. Drew is 100% correct!
This piece is part of the Wet Blanket Patriarchal crowd who hold idealized visions of end-goals forgetting that activism is a process. The fact that many who turned out on the streets never had done so before. That is a “new” energy and definitely worthy of “next chapter” organizing which could include consciousness raising around specific issues not solely pertinent to safe guarding freedom of speech and freedom of assembly – issues motivating the thousands to turn out and show up. How can you not use the fact of this massive turnout to generate next step possibilities, specific issues closest to your own vision? How unique it would be to read an affirmation of the spirit driving the No Kings march protesters to march – to stand up for basic values that are being ripped int0 shreds? Criticizing it because Hilary and the Dems pushed it is to lose sight of the potential generated.
It’s the first time I disagree with Kimberley about anything. IMO this is gloming on to a position too fast without enough reflection…on the part of “my” camp. If we expect MAGA to come left to any degree [to something eventually unstoppable], this demonstration wasn’t that weird of a step forward.
“How unique it would be to read an affirmation of the spirit driving the No Kings march protesters to march – to stand up for basic values that are being ripped int0 shreds?”
It would not make sense because the “spirit” driving these protests is to elect more Democrats, the very people who started the shredding of the basic values of free speech and assembly that you are decrying. Where were these people when Biden was doing it?
Thank you for saying the right thing.
Selina – I agree. And especially now when we have an early dementia, impulsive grifter in the WH who’s ACTIVELY planning an illegal third term and — like all presidents — has his finger on the proverbial button. To me, the stakes are so high that we have to show the non-MAGA Republicans that there isn’t unanimous support for Trump, so that hopefully some of them will feel able to resist supporting him blindly…
Margaret, you are bang on about this. Thank you for this well written and thoughtful piece. One other downfall I fear with empty mass demonstrations is that people will become so discouraged when they don’t produce any change that even those events will eventually stop attracting people at all.
You are correct, there needs to be clear purpose and a clear outcome, one of which is to get people to sign up to attend strategy meetings to address specific issues that can be addressed. Engaging people further is the key.
Many of the No Kings activists are, sad to say, deluded political lightweights bordering on imbecility who only have a grasp of the issues as far as Soros type organizations allow them to go.
I’d laugh heartily at them if the ultimate potential consequences of their dumb Russophobia wasn’t nuclear war.
(I did see a few keffiyehs here and there which is always a welcome sight, but c’mon, the Dem establishment and the vast majority of the NGOs connected to no kings don’t give a rip about Palestine or fighting against Zionist power and sadism.)
Good lord! Sure lambast and ridicule those who showed up because they don’t fit your perfect vision of what they “should” look like and “should” act like. Pure unadulterated arrogance. How well does that work in making connections? How does that cultivate interest among people new to political action to deepen their connection to each other and to the “cause.” How does that work in building trust? Commitment?
Build trust and commitment with Maddow and CNN brainwashed Russophobic freaks? Good luck with that.
Sure, some of them are fine people who are reachable, but many are as deplorable as the Trump worshippers.
No arrogance intended, just sound political analysis grounded in reality.
Why is “No Kings” attacked as anti T ?
Is an idea a person ?
Or just what one interprets it as ?
Next event “No Rulers” focusing on education ?
Give or Take your Nit Pick !