Bring a Tent, or Admit It’s a Pep Rally

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — March 27, 2026

How Considerate of Them

First, let me congratulate everyone involved in the March 28 “No Kings” protest for having the basic courtesy to schedule their uprising on a Saturday. That was awfully thoughtful. It gives people plenty of room to fit resistance into the weekend, somewhere between errands, church, brunch, and whatever other sacred obligations apparently outrank the defense of democracy.

That is sarcasm, in case anybody from the organizing committee is reading this with a clipboard in one hand and a webinar link in the other.

Yes, March 28, 2026, is a Saturday, and yes, the national organizers are openly treating it as another mass day of action with local events, trainings, host toolkits, and event signups. The public-facing pitch is clear: show up, attend, make your voice heard, go home when the event is over. That is not me being unfair. That is how the infrastructure is presented in public materials. No Kings is advertising event finders, protest-rights trainings, and host resources; Indivisible-linked local pages show rallies scheduled in neat blocks like noon to 2:00 p.m. or similar short windows.

And that is exactly the problem.

If You Mean It, Stay

If this is really the great moral emergency the organizers say it is, then people might want to consider bringing a tent.

A sleeping bag would also be useful.

Late March is not January. In a lot of places it will be tolerable enough to stay out, especially if people actually intend to do more than attend a branded daytime gathering and then drift back home before dinner. Check your local weather, obviously. Rain exists. Cold snaps exist. Mud exists. Welcome to protest.

Some of us learned that a long time ago.

Occupy was not a two-hour booking on a public calendar. It was not a “find an event near you” link. It was people staying put. That meant rain, cold, logistics, no sleep, not enough food, nowhere good to piss, and the daily grind of trying to keep human beings fed, dry, and functioning in public space. Reporting from the time described exactly that kind of encampment reality, right down to the toilet problem.

That is what commitment looks like when it is not being focus-grouped.

Practical Suggestions for the Weekend Revolutionaries

Here are a few thoughts, since everyone is apparently very serious.

Bring a small stove if local rules allow it and if you know how not to be an idiot with it.

Set up a supply line.

Make sure people know the address.

If you really want to test whether your movement has a pulse, put out the word for food deliveries.

Occupy Wall Street famously got pizza sent in from supporters night after night. That is not folklore. It was remembered as one of the little lifelines that helped hold the camp together.

That is the difference between a movement and a gathering. A gathering consumes a program. A movement builds a survival routine.

And yes, in Chicago people improvised. They got wet. They got cold. They learned how to keep going. That is what people do when they are committed beyond the level of slogan consumption.

No Kings, But Please Keep It Comfortable

What I am seeing from the March 28 model is still mostly this: show up, listen to speeches, receive moral instruction from people who already think of themselves as the designated interpreters of the moment, chant on cue, go home, and feel pleased with yourself for having participated in democracy.

Fine. Better than sitting on the couch. I will give them that.

But let’s not confuse attendance with sacrifice.

And let’s not confuse choreography with courage.

The public materials for No Kings emphasize nonviolent action, lawful conduct, safety trainings, host toolkits, and structured local events. That tells you a lot. It tells you these organizers are trying to manage risk, control optics, and keep the action inside acceptable lanes. It tells you this is a disciplined coalition operation, not a spontaneous eruption willing to hold ground at all costs.

Again, that may be smart. It may even be tactically necessary in 2026.

But it is not Occupy.

How Deep Does Your Commitment Go?

That is the question.

If you oppose Trump, good. You should.

If you are horrified by where this country is headed, good. You should be.

But if your anti-authoritarianism expires at the end of a scheduled Saturday rally, then maybe what you have is not a movement. Maybe what you have is a managed emotional outlet for respectable opposition politics.

That sounds harsh because it is harsh.

Occupy had people who gave everything they had. One of the enduring truths of that period is that encampments drew people already on the edge of survival, including people with serious medical and economic problems, because the crisis being protested was not abstract to them. The camps were messy, difficult, and human in exactly the way polished coalition politics tries to avoid.

For context, I’ve embedded a first-hour video from Occupy Chicago below. This isn’t a highlight reel or a polished recap—it’s what it actually looked like when people showed up, stayed, and started building something in real time. If you want to understand the difference between a scheduled protest and a committed presence, watch it.

So when people today tell me they are bravely resisting authoritarianism for two hours on a Saturday afternoon, my reaction is not automatic awe.

My reaction is a question.

Are you staying?

A Weekend Event or an Actual Stand

This is the knife edge.

A weekend protest is easy to support. It fits into life. It can be photographed. It can be turned into an email blast, a fundraising bump, a media cycle, a nice little sense of civic decency.

An encampment is different. An encampment says: we are not leaving. We are going to become a problem.

That is when power stops applauding “engagement” and starts calling sanitation, police, park rules, and public order.

Funny how that always happens.

So yes, by all means, go on March 28.

But if the people running this thing really believe their own rhetoric, they might want to think beyond the Saturday program.

Bring a tent.

Bring a sleeping bag.

Figure out food.

Figure out bathrooms.

Figure out what happens when the speeches end.

Because that is the moment when you learn whether this is resistance or theater.

The Bottom Line

I do not object to people protesting Trump. I object to the illusion of depth.

If this is supposed to be a real stand against creeping authoritarianism, then at some point somebody is going to have to do more than RSVP for a daytime event and clap for the approved speakers.

At some point, somebody is going to have to stay.

And if nobody stays, then let’s be honest about what this is.

It is not a rebellion.

It is a Saturday.

References

Indivisible. (2026). NO KINGS National Day of Mobilization March 28th. https://act.indivisible.org/go/894414?akid=124442.113385.rPr8s8&t=26

Indivisible. (2026). No Kings III with Greater Andover Indivisible. https://indivisible.org/events/no-kings-iii/

Indivisible. (2026). NO KINGS NATIONAL Protest Airport Rotary Saturday, March 28th 12–2pm. https://indivisible.org/events/no-kings-national-protest-airport-rotary-saturday-march-28th-12-2pm/

Indivisible. (2026). No Kings 3. https://indivisible.org/events/no-kings-3-6/

No Kings. (2026). In America, we have No Kings. https://www.nokings.org/

No Kings. (2026, January 28). No Kings coalition responds to escalating brutality and authoritarianism with immediate action and future mobilization; condemns ICE’s deadly actions. https://www.nokings.org/news/no-kings-coalition-responds-to-escalating-brutality

The Guardian. (2011, October 24). Occupy Wall Street brings homelessness into the open. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/oct/24/occupy-wall-street-homelessness-us

The Guardian. (2013, March 30). A history, a crisis, a movement by David Graeber – review. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/30/democracy-project-david-graeber-review