The "No Kings" Scam: The Oligarchs Are Funding Their Own "Resistance"

The No Kings rallies this weekend will not frighten the oligarchy.

The upcoming No Kings rallies, set to take place across America, will not spark fear within the oligarchy. It does not call for a general strike. It does not call for an end to the Iran War. It does not call for an end to the genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. It does not call to strengthen the labor movement. It does not call to leave the Democratic and Republican Parties.

Like the “anti-war movement” during the Bush administration or the Women’s March during the first term of Trump’s presidency, this will be an attempt to channel energy back into a decaying Democratic Party with leaders who have already acquiesced to President Trump’s demands. For if we are to break the oligarchy’s neoliberal order, it will not be done through anti-Trump demonstrations and organizations that accept money from the very people we are attempting to defeat.

Several organizations are promoting/sponsoring the rallies this weekend. One of them is Indivisible. Formed after President Trump’s 2016 victory by former Democratic congressional staffers Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, the organization has quickly become an extension of the Democratic Party seeking to push more candidates into office. It has also received significant grants from major donors like George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (over $7.6 million since 2017) and organizations linked to the Democracy Alliance. The Democracy Alliance doesn’t typically "fund" Indivisible directly from its own bank account. Instead, it recommends Indivisible to its network of wealthy donors, who then cut the checks. Indivisible's founders, Levin and Greenberg, have been featured at Democracy Alliance donor summits to pitch their strategy directly to the network's partners.

But the influence of oligarchic contributors extends beyond political staffers; it reaches into the very hearts of the corporate dynasties that exploit the American worker. Wealthy donors such as Christy Walton, a member of the Walton Family, have contributed funds to promote the No Kings rallies. The Walton Family, who earn $4 million an hour, are responsible for the creation of Walmart. The chain of stores, known for offering products at low prices, are notorious for prohibiting unions and being a recipient of corporate welfare. New employees who live below the poverty line are signed up for Medicaid, SNAP, and public housing. Walmart refuses to open up its coffers to assist them. For its fiscal year 2026, Walmart raked in $713.2 billion.

Outside the funding for the rallies/groups, the mood and culture of the rallies are dour when it comes to anti-neoliberal and anti-imperialism organizing. Readers have shared personal experiences of attending their local No Kings event with signs opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, only to be told, “We aren’t talking about that right now.” Other posts on social media and independent media confirm these accounts.

Malcolm X warned we must be wary of rallies, demonstrations, and organizations that engage in “status symbols.” These are events or figures that give people a chance to virtue signal or fund broken systems, yet they never do the hard work of organizing and mobilizing within their communities. The No Kings rallies represent the very status symbols the revolutionary figure warned us about. For if we are to defeat the oligarchy, it will not come about because we accepted their money, it will come about because we raised our voices loud enough that the oligarchs can hear them over their penthouses, private jets, and corporate boardrooms.

As the abolitionist Frederick Douglass advised, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

There are no serious demands from the festivities happening this weekend. The oligarchs will concede nothing after this weekend. It will fall to us to build something with serious demands that will force the oligarchs to concede something.