• witten@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    17 hours ago

    From a recent article on this topic:

    Critics have pointed out No Kings’ lack of a policy platform as a flaw, a sign that the movement has no real demands.

    Marcus Board Jr, a political scientist at Howard University and author of Invisible Weapons: Infiltrating Resistance and Defeating Movements, argues that the standard by which we judge movements – did they produce legislation? Did they win federal policy changes? – reflects an outdated model of political change, one built for a different era. “The legislative and federal route made us think that we could change the world without changing people,” he said. “That’s just not the case.”

    The real measure of success, Greenberg said, is what happens in the weeks and months after No Kings: how many people who came out for the first time get asked to the next meeting, the next training, the next organizing effort.

    “It’s about the day of, but it’s also about how many people get asked: ‘Hey, can you come to a follow-up meeting? We’re going to talk about our neighborhood’s fight against this warehouse for ICE,’” Greenberg said. “Those are going to be the things that help us see: are we absorbing more people? Are we trying new tactics? Are we getting more people into the fight?”

    The point of No Kings isn’t to magically end the Trump regime in one day. It’s to onboard folks into the resistance movement so that they can work collectively at chipping away the pillars of support of the Trump regime—over the course of months and, if needed, years.