The Green Party Should Support “No Kings” – and Plant Revolutionary Seeds

I joined my political party, the Vermont-based Peace & Justice Party, at the March 28 No King’s Rally in Montpelier, Vermont. We are not affiliated with the Green Party (at least, not yet). However, I have been involved in the Green Party in Maryland and Virginia, and I believe my small socialist party in Vermont can, at some point, affiliate with the Greens.

My experience at No Kings was very positive. Which is why I was surprised to see online leftists and Greens oppose participation at No Kings, or else dismiss them.

For example, Ajamu Baraka, the Greens former Vice Presidential candidate, said “[t]hese rallies are not opposition but instead affirm the legitimacy of a system that has never been legitimate for millions of us in the U.S. and around the world. Not centering U.S. warmongering & bipartisan support for genocide reveals the phony nature of these social outings.” Jill Stein, the Greens former Presidential candidate, said “No Kings is a Democratic Party psyop. We need no empire, no genocide, no oligarchy, and no warmongering duopoly” and “I’ll go to a No Kings protest when the Democrats behind it stop throwing people-powered opposition like @ButchWare off the ballot.”

At my No Kings rally, we did have some Democrats and Democrat politicians attend. This is not surprising in a state that has voted for the Democrat presidential candidate 60%-30% since 2008. However, this doesn’t make No Kings a “Democratic Party psyop”. And it doesn’t mean we should dismiss the energy that flows through these crowds. As the chair of our political party, I am more curious to see what the crowds are saying, who is reaching out to the crowds, and how we, as a socialist party, can plant the seeds of revolution in the hearts of these people. And I was not alone. Many Vermont groups tabled at the event alongside us.

Several socialist organizations tabled there: Democratic Socialists of America, Party for Socialism and Liberation, and our Peace & Justice Party – DSA was passing out a “May Day Strong” flyer for a Williston rally against ICE. Other workers organizations (or worker supporting organizations) also joined: RAD VT, Vermont Labor for Palestine, and Vermont AFL-CIO. Voters Rights and other civic mobilization groups tabled: Third Act Vermont, Vote 411 (The League of Women Voters), LeanLeft and ACLU; finally there were legislative policy groups there: Vermont 350.org and VPIRG. There were more, but this gives you a flavor of the groups and people we met. They were friendly and welcoming to me, and I was to them.

I told many of these groups I was running for statehouse, and I would be interested to hear from them if/when I get elected. While I am bad with faces – I guarantee many of those organizations will take me up on my offer, and I will see the same organizers years from now – whether or not I get elected. My purpose (and our party’s purpose) was to reach people, make connections, build networks, and take our place as an organization involved in civil society. And in that we succeeded.

I disagree with a lot written in Jacobin – and with many writers there, including Ben Burgis and Bhaskar Sunkara. However, I in large part agreed with sentiments they expressed about No Kings. Burgis stated that we need to participate in No Kings because “[w]e need to make [our case] to the millions energized to fight authoritarianism in the here and now, and we need to make them not as hecklers from the sidelines but as co-participants in the fight.”  Sunkara agreed with Sherry J. Wolf when she reported from New York City’s No Kings rally: “There were more people leafleting, sloganeering, raising Palestine and anti-war chants, and agitating for May Day, in other words – getting ORGANIZED – which is the central task of any movement …. but leftists who dismiss No Kings aren’t offering a genuine analysis… Listen to what people are actually saying. It’s a central component of organizing people.” Socialist Equality Party, (frequent critics of these kinds of protests) even participated in No Kings “to advance the strategy required to transform mass anger into a movement capable of stopping war and defeating dictatorship.”

Greens will not create a mass political party without listening to people. We will not create a governing political party by dismissing where people are at. Instead, we will be outmaneuvered and out-organized by our opponents, who will gladly take time to meet people where they are at and listen to their concerns. Greens should take a lesson from No Kings: get offline, talk to our constituents, and change minds.