“Blind submission to authority,” or “favoring a concentration of power in a leader or an elite not constitutionally responsible to the people” is Merriam-Webster’s definition of “authoritarian.”
It’s also the threat organizers say is fueling the “No Kings” protests that are expected to draw tens of thousands of people into Bay Area streets Saturday, Oct. 18 – part of a mass movement planned across all 50 states to speak out against President Donald Trump’s policies that participants see as attacking American freedoms, including his aggressive immigration enforcement push, as well as ongoing threats to health care, election integrity and education funding.
In the South Bay, organizers with San Jose’s Indivisible chapter will lead a rally at North 2nd Street & East Saint James Street from 12–2 p.m. Contra Costa County organizers expect about 5,000 people to join the 90-minute rally in Walnut Creek’s Broadway Plaza, and have also set up events in Pleasant Hill, Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood and several West County locations.
The No Kings coalition in Oakland will be donning yellow on their noontime march to Lake Merritt. An estimated 10,000 people will meet at Wilma Chan Park, located at 810 Jackson St., across the street from the Lake Merritt BART Station, before arriving at the amphitheater bordering the lake, between 12th Street and 1st Avenue. Mayor Barbara Lee, Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland and other community members are planning to speak by 2 p.m., followed by performances from local dancers, poets and musicians.
Saturday’s demonstrations come less than four months after the first “No Kings” rallies held this summer, which drew more than 5 million people, according to counts from the American Civil Liberties Union, which co-sponsored the protest — recorded among the largest single-day mobilizations in US history.
That included more than 140,000 protesters who took part in 50 protests in the Bay Area during the “nationwide day of defiance” on June 14, according to a Bay Area News Group survey of local organizers.
Even bigger crowds are expected this weekend for No Kings 2.0.
An estimated 12,000 to 13,000 people hit San Jose’s streets for the No Kings protest in June, said Rebecca Elliott, with Indivisible San Jose, who helped plan the march and rally at St. James Park. She’s one of several organizers who said the bigger numbers projected this around are likely related to the Trump administration showing no sign of backing down from critics of its policies.
“I think more people are aware, and more people are afraid,” Elliott said. “I think more people have been impacted financially.”
They expect participants to voice opposition to ICE crackdowns on immigrants and Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to U.S. cities, Elliott said.
On other specific issues, participants also are likely to voice support for Democrats to press for the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies being part of a deal to reopen the federal government. Still more protesters will be there to drum up support for Proposition 50, the ballot measure that could reshape the state’s congressional map and deliver up to five new Democratic seats in the US House.
On social media, longtime Berkeley resident Robert Reich, former Clinton labor secretary and UC Berkeley professor emeritus, said mass movements like No Kings play an important role in the groundswell of opposition to Trump.
“As we resist Trump’s tyranny through protest, as we gain in solidarity, we feel more courageous,” Reich said in a TikTok this week, linking to the No Kings website that lists more than 2,500 locations where protesters will be participating nationwide. “As we feel more courageous and stand up to Trump, we weaken him and his regime.”
As with the June No Kings protest, and the weekly protests taking place across the Bay Area over the past eight months, Saturday’s event is designed to be peaceful and uplifting, organizers say.
On a nationwide Zoom planning meeting Thursday before more than 5,000 people, Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin said, “We want this to be joyful.”
He and his wife Leah Greenberg suggested protestors incorporate American flag iconography into their signs and outfits — or even dress up in inflatable-animal costumes, a trend started by Portland protesters.
Levin said there’s power in millions of people coming together “to say collectively: no kings ever in America.”
Kathryn Durham-Hammer, who leads the Indivisible Resisters chapter in Contra Costa County, said that these protests allow people “to build community around shared values.”
“Every time we come out and protest together, we build bonds with each other and we let new people know that we are here and that we care about liberty and justice for all,” she said.
For April Verrett, president of the Service Employees International Union, No Kings Day is about claiming what communities across the U.S. have already built.
“Working people built this country, not billionaires,” Verrett said. “We’re protecting what we’ve built, and we’re building what’s next. Let’s go get it.”
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