Mass demonstrations likely largest protest in US history
Millions of people across the United States and around the world took to the streets on Saturday in the largest coordinated protest against fascism in decades. Under the slogan “No Kings,” demonstrators denounced Donald Trump’s authoritarian drive and the bipartisan assault on democratic rights, demanding an end to dictatorship, police repression, and state persecution of immigrants and workers.
The scale, breadth, and character of Saturday’s protests exposed the fascistic lies and slanders promoted for weeks by Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Stephen Miller, and other Republican Party politicians, who sought to depict the demonstrations as violent conspiracies organized by and comprised of “Hamas,” “antifa terrorists” “illegal aliens,” and “criminals.” In reality, the protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, multigenerational, and deeply rooted in the working class. Children, retirees, and parents made up a significant share of the crowds, while many younger workers were unable to attend because they were working on Saturday.
The composition and character of the protests bore no resemblance to the caricature promoted by the Trump administration and Republican media.
Across the country, protesters carried handmade signs declaring “No Kings in America,” “Defend Democracy: It’s Time for a General Strike!” “Abolish ICE Gestapo,” and “We Are Not Subjects.” The massive turnout showed that the effort to intimidate the population with police raids, fascist rhetoric, and even military deployments failed—and in many cases backfired, drawing even larger crowds into the streets.
The protests reached enormous scale in the country’s largest urban centers. In New York City, more than 100,000 people participated across all five boroughs. The NYPD, which deployed large numbers of officers and erected barriers around key intersections, acknowledged that there were zero protest-related arrests, a direct refutation of Trump’s claims of “riots” and “terrorist mobs.”
In San Diego, tens of thousands converged along the waterfront and surrounding streets, with aerial images and videos showing a sea of people stretching for blocks. Organizers estimated the crowd approached 100,000, making it one of the largest demonstrations in the city’s history.
Chicago saw 250,000 or more march through the city center in a dense, multiblock procession. Austin, Texas, where Republican Governor Greg Abbott deployed the National Guard in a failed attempt to suppress turnout, was home to another massive protest, with crowd sizes estimated between 50,000-70,000.
In Portland, Oregon, 30,000–50,000 demonstrators filled the downtown streets and greenways, while Charlotte, North Carolina saw 10,000–20,000 rally in one of the largest protests in the South. Denver’s demonstration outside the state capitol also drew 10,000–20,000, while marches in Dallas and Houston each brought out 5,000–10,000.
On the West Coast, Los Angeles protests continued into the afternoon, with thousands still massing in the streets as of publication.
One of the most striking features of the day was the scale of participation far beyond the major metropolitan centers. Demonstrations in mid-sized and small cities drew thousands, while even rural towns saw their largest anti-Trump protests ever.
In Rockland, Maine, around 1,700 people—over 4 percent of the entire population of Knox County—joined a march, a per-capita turnout higher than in New York City or Chicago. Petoskey, Michigan, saw several hundred people fill major intersections, while Keene, New Hampshire, Bozeman, Montana, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania also saw hundreds to over 1,000 in attendance.
In Pahrump, Nevada, roughly 200 people turned out in what locals described as the largest anti-Trump protest in the town’s history. Nye County, where Pahrump is located, is considered a Republican stronghold.
Protesters reported that a man brandished a firearm near the Pahrump demonstration while police refused to intervene, and authorities forced demonstrators off a public sidewalk at noon despite a lawful permit. The event nonetheless proceeded and marked an unprecedented mobilization in the rural town.
The breadth of the movement—reaching from the largest cities to small towns and rural counties—shattered the narrative promoted by the fascist right that opposition to Trump’s dictatorship is limited to liberal enclaves. The protests’ geographic spread revealed a movement that is both national in scope and deeply rooted in the working class.
The breadth and scale of the protests point to a significant development of political consciousness. Placards calling for a general strike were visible in multiple cities, and Socialist Equality Party campaigners reported strong interest in a revolutionary socialist perspective throughout the country. Many demonstrators expressed the view that the struggle against dictatorship cannot be separated from the fight against capitalism and social inequality.
The “No Kings” protests revealed the emergence of a mass social movement in the United States, one that is increasingly conscious of the connection between authoritarian rule, capitalist exploitation, and the bipartisan assault on democratic rights.
“No Kings” protests across Europe began in the morning, US time, as thousands marched in London, Madrid, Berlin, Stockholm, Rome, and Paris. Smaller demonstrations took place in Bristol, Southampton, Barcelona, Málaga, Seville, Amsterdam, Brussels, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Florence, Nice, Toulouse, and Lyon. Protesters held signs opposing dictatorship, fascism, police raids, and the illegal detention of immigrants.
A protester in London told the WSWS, “I'm here to support the Indivisible London organization, and to stand up against the authoritarian regime in the United States for all the anti-constitutional things that they’re doing on behalf of Trump’s executive orders.” These included “illegal deportation arrests by ICE of immigrants and actual American citizens, green card holders, people that are there legally, and yet are still being detained illegally.”
He was also demonstrating against “violations of our right to protest, our First Amendment rights, the silencing of our media.” He added:
There are just so many things that this regime is doing that are really anti-American, anti-democracy, and I think that if we as Americans and as global citizens don’t stand up against it, we’re going to really pay dearly for our rights. America has always been a leader in democracy and a safeguard for democracy globally, and now to see it turning is very frightening, and I think people around the world should be concerned about that. You can’t hold the political and military power that the United States does and become an authoritarian government. It’s just too scary, in my opinion.
Asked about the role of the Democratic Party, he said:
I think a lot of people are feeling that the Democratic Party has not been strong enough… The other party that has the money and has the influence and the power, other than the one in government or in power right now in the government, is the Democratic Party. And I think many Americans are feeling like they’re just not being strong enough.
Glenn, a US citizen living part of the year in Paris, told the WSWS: “It’s very scary to see what is occurring now, Trump is trying to mimic the things that brought Hitler to power. The slogans and the efforts that Hitler used are reappearing today, not only among Young Republicans but in the White House, with Stephen Miller. I’m sure there is much more hidden away.”
He added, “What we are doing here is just the beginning of the people expressing their desires.” He called for criminal charges against leading officials of the Trump administration.
One protester in New Jersey told the World Socialist Web Site, “A lot of our problems come from the United States’ imperialism and colonialism around the world that is now coming home to roost here. ... The number one thing that needs to be dismantled is US imperialism.”
Reporters and supporters of the World Socialist Web Site are currently intervening at demonstrations around the world. Updates will be posted throughout the weekend.
No Kings, No Nazi Führers! Mobilize the working class against Trump’s dictatorship!
This statement from the Socialist Equality Party was published prior to the demonstrations.
More than 2,500 “No Kings” protests are being held on October 18 throughout the US, in every major city and many smaller towns, as well as in other countries. The Socialist Equality Party supports these demonstrations and calls for the broadest possible participation. The last “No Kings” demonstrations, on June 14, attracted upwards of 10 million people in what is believed to have been the largest single-day political protest in American history.
These demonstrations are taking place under conditions of a mounting conspiracy by the Trump administration to establish a presidential dictatorship. In the days leading up to October 18, administration officials and leading Republicans denounced the protests as a “hate America rally,” branded demonstrators as “terrorists” and threatened to launch investigations against those organizing them. The White House is also preparing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would give Trump sweeping powers to deploy the military throughout the United States under his direct command.
National Guard troops have already been deployed to major American cities, including Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland and Memphis. In Chicago, the third-largest city in the country, residents face daily assaults by a combination of police, ICE and Department of Homeland Security agents, while National Guard forces have arrived in preparation for further action.
The language coming from the White House is the language of civil war. Trump has called for the military to be used against the “enemy within.” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has described even the Democratic Party as a “domestic extremist organization.” Trump has opened up the White House to neo-Nazis, Christian nationalists and far-right propagandists, who are openly plotting the abolition of democratic rights.
What is unfolding is not a temporary aberration or a passing episode. There will be no “return to normal.” With the Trump administration, the American ruling class is breaking with constitutional forms of rule.
The decisive question is: What is to be done? How can Trump’s coup be defeated?
As millions march in “No Kings” protests against dictatorship, Democrats focus on escalating the war in Ukraine
This statement from the Socialist Equality Party was published prior to the demonstrations.
On Saturday, millions of people will participate in an estimated 2,700 protests in every major city in the United States, under the framework of “No Kings.” The last protests, held in June, attracted between 5 and 11 million people, and the turnout at the second round is expected to be even larger.
The demonstrations reflect growing mass opposition to the Trump administration’s assault on democratic rights and its conspiracy to establish a fascistic dictatorship; outrage over the ongoing genocide in Gaza; anger at the mass deportations of immigrants; and resistance to the mass firing of federal workers and the destruction of jobs and social programs, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
The demonstrations draw inspiration from the democratic traditions of the American Revolution, whose anti-monarchical spirit is embodied in the slogan “No Kings.” Many participants in the last protests connected Trump’s efforts to overturn the principles of that revolution—to trample on equality, liberty and the rights of the people—with his campaign to dismantle public education, destroy public health, and place all of society under the oligarchy.
One issue that is not motivating masses of people is the demand for an escalation of imperialist war. But this is the central concern of the Democratic Party.
The Democrats in fact agree with large portions of Trump’s economic policies and have systematically enabled Trump’s attack on the working class. Every faction of the ruling elite insists that social programs be gutted, wages reduced, and public spending slashed in order to expand corporate profits. The Democrats therefore view the mass opposition to Trump with profound unease and hostility.
On the eve of the demonstrations, the editorial board of the New York Times, the principal mouthpiece of the Democratic Party, issued a statement calling for war against Russia, under the headline, “Russia Won’t Stop Until NATO Acts.”
The Times does not publish editorials every day. Indeed, the last editorial was published one week ago, on October 10. Its decision to issue this call to war on the very day before what could be the largest single-day protest in US history was deliberate. It is meant to signal the Democratic Party’s overriding priorities.
In its editorial, the Times declares that “European leaders should make clear that Russian aggression against NATO countries risks a forceful response, including the shooting down of drones … and potentially of Russian fighter planes that enter NATO airspace.”
In relation to Trump, the Times writes hopefully that “he has authorized more intelligence sharing with Kyiv to heighten the effectiveness of its attacks, including those on Russian oil and gas facilities,” and that he is considering allowing Ukraine to use Tomahawk missiles to strike deep inside Russia.”
Expressing the outlook of the Democratic Party and sections of the military-intelligence apparatus, the Times goes on to express concern over Trump’s “long record of coziness” with Putin and whether he will prosecute the war against Russia with sufficient aggression.
All these actions, the Times states, “bring risks, including the dangers of escalation … [but] the only way to contain him [Putin] is with resolute strength.”
The Times does not elaborate that the “risks” it blithely acknowledges are those of a nuclear war between the world’s two leading nuclear powers, which would mean the annihilation of human civilization.
The priority of the Democrats is also reflected in the efforts of the organizations officially sponsoring the “No Kings” protests, including Democratic Party-aligned groups such as Indivisible, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and other union bureaucracies. Yellow has been proclaimed the official color of the protests, presented on the “No Kings” website as “a signal of resistance and national self-determination amid invasion” in Ukraine.
The bloodbath in Ukraine is the largest war in Europe since the Second World War. This imperialist proxy war, instigated and fueled by the United States and NATO, has already killed and maimed more than 1 million Russians and Ukrainians. Ukrainian youth, seized off the streets and conscripted by a corrupt, US-backed regime, are being sent to die in a 21st century hellscape. The effort by the Democrats to besmirch mass opposition to Trump by promoting this murderous enterprise must be rejected with contempt.