WASHINGTON—It’s back to the streets, on January 20, for 50501, No Kings, the Women’s March and their labor and other allies, campaigning anew against the autocracy of Republican White House occupant Donald Trump.
“History is clear: Authoritarianism is defeated by broad, nonviolent movements rooted in solidarity across differences,” the organizers announced in unveiling the latest plans for protests, called the Nationwide Free America Walkout.
The last round of anti-Trump and anti-authoritarian protests, on October 18, drew seven million people nationwide—the largest demonstration in U.S. history.
“No single organization, tactic, or moment will be enough on its own. What this moment demands is coordination—everywhere, all at once,” the coalition declared.
One group, in Toms River, N.J., jumped ahead of the rest, scheduling a January 6 protest from noon-1 p.m. in front of the office of Republican Rep. Chris Smith.
So far, 461 events are posted to the groups’ joint website. Signups are available here.
Attendance is sure to swell, because the websites have yet to post scheduled protests in Los Angeles, Chicago, the Twin Cities, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York City. The closest ones so far to the Big Apple are in Hoboken, N.J., and at Port Jefferson on Long Island.
No unions or union-affiliated organizations have signed up as sponsors, but unionists are expected in large numbers. They were a big share of the prior protests, especially the No Kings marches in spring and fall. Then, the Teachers/AFT was a top sponsor and union President Randi Weingarten campaigned for the cause. And SEIU Local 32BJ sent large contingents down from New York.
Most protests will occur January 20. Boston will host two, one each on January 20 and January 24.
The D.C. protest, from 2:30 p.m.-5 p.m., will greet evening rush-hour commuters on M Street near Key Bridge, a main route in and out of the Nation’s Capital.
While the New Jersey group didn’t say so, their January 6 protest falls on the fifth anniversary of the Trump-ordered, aided, incited and abetted insurrection and invasion of the U.S. Capitol. The Trumpites tried to prevent the count of Electoral College votes that gave Democrat Joe Biden the presidency.
Trump was so deeply involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 events, former Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith testified behind closed doors recently, that Smith had overwhelming evidence to convict him “beyond a reasonable doubt” of leading the conspiracy to violate voters’ civil rights and the U.S. Constitution.
Now things are even worse, the organizers of the latest protests warn.
“One year into Trump’s second regime, we face an escalating fascist threat: Raids on our communities, troops occupying our cities, attacks on immigrants, families torn apart, mass surveillance, and terror used to keep us silent. It is time for our communities to escalate as well,” the coalition urged.
“Across the United States, we’ve seen a rapid consolidation of executive power, the hollowing out of essential public services, the erosion of data protections into a growing surveillance state, escalating militarism pushing us toward global conflict, and the rise of authoritarian rule rooted in fear, control, and exclusion.
“Just two months into Trump’s second term, Project 2025 was already more than 41% implemented,” they explained. The project is a 900-page tome, which Trump adopted as his campaign platform in 2024, crafted by the radical right wing Heritage Foundation—and packed with extremism.
“This was not accidental. It was a deliberate strategy designed to overwhelm, disorient, and evade accountability” while creating fear. “But history, and our own recent experience, shows fear is not inevitable.”
Besides Toms River, Boston and D.C., walkouts, teach-ins, and “disruption of normal routines” are scheduled in blue, red and purple cities and states. They include Wichita, Kansas, on January 17, and Boulder, Colo., which already has 152 people pledged, on January 20. There will even be a protest in deep-red Joplin, Mo.
Others that day include at the state capital in Hartford, Conn., in Green Bay, Wis., at the Texas state capitol building in Austin and ten planned protests—targeting billionaires, too—in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. Others are at Seattle’s Garfield High School, and Carbondale, Ill., site of Southern Illinois University. A second Illinois protest is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. in the state capital of Springfield.
“We walk away from fascism. We walk toward a free America. We fight for a future that belongs to all of us. Everybody in. Nobody out,” the coalition concluded.
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