Similarly, here in the Northwoods, large numbers of folks turned out at numerous different communities. The largest was in Duluth, where several thousand participated in a 2pm rally, and a couple of feeder marches which were held before hand. Organizers estimate the running tally for the event may have been as high as 7,500. We also feel it is worth noting that the Duluth protest had a significant number of union members present, including from the United Steelworkers, MN Nurses Association and AFSCME. The second biggest was in Grand Rapids, MN, where over 1,700 folks turned out. Almost a 1,000 turned out for both the protest in Superior and in Ashland. Cloquet had an impressive 600 people. Hayward had a turnout of 445. Two Harbors had just over 420. Grand Marais had 400. Biwabik had 300. There were 270 people at the protest in Moose Lake. Brule’s protest drew 175, and nearby Iron River drew 65. And Silver Bay had a precise head count of 91 people. We have yet to hear numbers for Cook, Ely, Mora or Spooner. Some of these protests, like the one in Duluth, set the record for the largest protest in the history of their town!
The majority of these events were organized by various chapters of Indivisible. However, there were other groups, like Duluth 50501, We Are Rising & Resisting, Brule Area Defenders of Democracy, Northern Progressives and other independent local groups that were part of this impressive mobilization. We noticed that different local protests sometimes had different themes. A common one was “No ICE! No War!”. The Duluth protest had a theme centered around calling for fair elections. For our part, the Northwoods Socialist Collective supported these events and helped promote them. Given that our country is currently waging an unprovoked and unjust war against Iran, we felt it was critically important to use these protests to raise that issue and called on folks to prioritize bringing anti-war signs and banners. In Duluth, we organized a “No War With Iran” picket before the main 2pm rally, and then went to the event as an “anti-war contingent”.
There are some on the left who have criticized the No Kings protests as too tame or not having radical enough politics. As revolutionary socialists, we are all for people drawing and acting on radical conclusions. But we recognize these kind of large, peaceful protests as having a lot of value. We feel that it is worthwhile and powerful when massive numbers of people come together to collectively raise their voice. These kind of protests also serve as a critical on ramp for people looking to take that first step into opposition to the status quo. And at the end of the day, we see no reason why the revolutionary left shouldn’t be present in these spaces introducing and sharing radical politics, like why it’s so important to oppose imperialism, and how ultimately it is the whole system, and not a single politician that is the problem. So, in conclusion, we salute the participants of these protests and we congratulate the organizers on successfully mobilizing so many people against Washington’s unjust policies. We urge folks looking to stay involved to avoid getting sucked into Tweedle Dee vs Tweedle Dumb politics, and to instead prioritize building independent social movements. Much remains to be done, and we look forward to working together on the many crucial issues that we face – like defending trans and abortion rights, working to abolish ICE and doing everything we can to stop this unjust war in the Middle East. The struggle continues!
>> The article above was written by Adam Ritscher of the Northwoods Socialist Collective.
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