A protest is a threat

Without the promise of a people near revolt, demonstrations that inconvenience no-one can easily be brushed aside

~ Sourdough ~

On June 14 across the US and several other countries, protests took place under the title of No Kings. Organised by the 50501 movement in opposition to the Trump regime, UK events took place under the conciliatory title No Tyrants. The protests were a thoroughly peaceful affair, with great care taken not to upset the movement’s broad appeal in vague opposition to Trump and his policies. Compared to the crackdown on protests for Gaza, and the violent suppression of recent mass actions against ICE in Los Angeles and elsewhere, No Kings remained curiously unmolested. Turnout was widespread, with estimates of 4-6 million in attendance.

Yet it all came and went to little effect—the protests were more performance than substance. For all the numbers there was zero movement, no demands. Without a second thought of the dissonance, protesters waved the stars and stripes of the regime that oppresses them, deports their neighbours, and steals their futures—while democratic party organisers handed out fliers to vote in some supposedly upcoming election. There was immense fraternisation with the police. Even the messaging in opposition to monarchy was muddled. For all the mass demonstration of people’s power, it was enfeebled, unsure of itself.

Operating as it is now—a weakened cry from within the system, propelled and backed by the democratic party—No Kings protests are scarcely likely to accomplish anything. Quite telling is the absence of these new swathes of protesters from anything to do with resisting the genocide in Palestine. After allowing Gaza and its inhabitants to be the testing ground for state repression, they are now displeased to find its results back home. The plan for protests on July 4, American Independence Day, consisted un-ironically of the usual celebration activities. Even as the fascist regime encroaches across all realms of life, liberal resistance still takes the form of a barbecue.

It is easy to see why. As permitted opposition, both figuratively and literally, the group behind No Kings, 50501, supposedly emerged from the grassroots on Reddit before being propped up by previously existing liberal pressure groups such as Political Revolution, Indivisible, and the remnants of the 2017 Women’s March. Building on the momentum of previous mobilisations such as the widespread Hands Off protests, No Kings continues the feckless and spineless tradition of liberal ‘activism’: an absence of values concentrated into appealing to the widest number of people possible. Defanged from infancy, 50501 and movements like it offer a chance for those uncomfortable with truly confronting power to glimpse a return to the comfortable, playing into the narrative of peaceful progress without truly threatening power.

But what is a protest if not a threat against power? A protest is the greatest threat there is, it is a promise of a people near revolt. When there is no threat behind a protest, when it ceases to inconvenience anyone, it can easily be brushed aside. By proudly professing unconditional non-violence, violence is left within the sole domain of the state, which commits it every day to maintain its control. Refusing to disrupt property lets the capitalist system know that the people are forever their property. Refusing to fight lets the fascists know there will be little meaningful resistance to their carefully propagated chaos.

Consequently, the vast majority is kept eternally ashamed and embarrassed to express its outrage through any material method, as if mere appeals to power would work. There is no respect to be won from the state. There will never be a protest peaceful enough for it. Power only respects other power, and when such vast displays of people’s power are focused into exactly nothing, it rests easily and securely. Rather than allowing us to petition the existing structures of power for concessions or reforms, protests should be an opportunity for the people to flex their collective power. By allowing the state to set the rules of resistance through the lens of an ever-shrinking legality, we ensure our opposition is controlled into no opposition at all.

It is not enough to resist or be against something. Liberals are opposed to Trump but they are for scarcely little. The world they propose is almost no different to that of fascists, albeit with social niceties left intact. We have to stand for something, not just against something. By declaring our principles, by declaring boldly our fight for liberation, it will become all too clear who we stand against. Liberals hold no future beyond the past, so it is left to us to build something new.

We are not fighting against Trump the individual, we are fighting for a stateless, classless, moneyless society in which humanity can be free. We must work to demonstrate an alternative for the people who declare there is no alternative. Any movement seeking to resist fascism must take direct action to disrupt it, as well as demonstrating what a better world can be like.

No such world can be built within the constraints of the system. To threaten power is to move beyond its possibilities.

Photo: No Kings protest in Dallas, Texas. Brenden M. Rogers, Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0

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