Dick,

Wow. All of us together just pulled off the largest peaceful protest in American history. That’s not exaggeration or spin -- it’s just the factual truth. Leah and I spoke right before Bernie at the DC rally to a crowd of 200,000 people, an awe-inspiring sight of patriotic Americans showing up in defense of their rights and in the face of threats from the regime.

 As we prepare now to make the most of this accomplishment, here are my 3 takeaways from the day:

1. This was literally historic.

Saturday was comfortably the largest single-day peaceful protest in American history. More than 7,000,000 people at more than 2,700 protests across the world -- including in the biggest and bluest city centers and reddest and most rural towns in America.

My words can’t do justice to the breadth and depth of the events that day. We will be sharing the pictures, watching the videos, and reading the analyses from esteemed academics and historians for years to come. If you’re looking for a quick overview, I’d recommend Indivisible’s Bluesky account -- just scroll through and get a sense of what the largest protest in American history feels like.

And it wasn’t just one day out of the blue. This is our third mass mobilization this year, and each one has been bigger than the last.

April Hands Off: 3 million at 1,300 events.
June No Kings: 5 million at 2,100 events.
October No Kings: 7 million people at 2,700 events.

Notice the trend?

All year, we’ve said we are building movement muscle. We are pulling more and more people in to be part of the opposition. Saturday was more than a single historic day -- it was a sign of things to come.

2. The message couldn’t have been clearer or more powerful.

The regime did their damndest to smear us, scare off organizers, and dissuade people from showing up. They called us violent communists. They labeled it a “Hate America” rally. They wanted conflict, and they wanted it to be a bust.

They failed.

These were boisterous, enormous, peaceful demonstrations in defense of the First Amendment and against kingly rule. If you look at the pictures of crowds from Boise to Seoul to Austin to DC to Paris to Sioux Falls to London to Chicago and every place in between, you got two clear messages: joy and power.

In the largest protest in American history, there were no instances of violence from protestors reported. As of this writing, I am aware of one arrest of a No Kings protestor -- a woman in Alabama with a “No Dick Tator” sign dressed up as a giant penis. Unjust as that arrest was, that’s it.

Our commitment to nonviolence was important for sending the right message to the country this weekend, and it’s also important for protecting ourselves from the slander, threats, and attacks from the regime in the future. When they come at us, they are coming at the organizers of the largest peaceful protest in American history; a protest that was about one single thing: opposing monarchical rule in America.

3. The regime will now try to erase it -- so we must celebrate it and build on it.

The banner of “No Kings” resonates in this country. Trump himself couldn’t help telling the world how pissed he was with a truly unhinged AI video portraying himself as king while he dropped literal sh*t on peaceful protestors.

But unfortunately for the regime, our banner resonates so much that they are doing everything it can to pretend it didn’t exist. What the regime promised us would be a bloody eruption of communist insurrectionists, they are now spinning as a non-event -- via outright delusional denial or conspiracy theories that the crowds were AI.

I can’t help but think of George Orwell in a moment like this. “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” And with some exceptions, the establishment media in this country is happy to oblige. The New York Times saw fit to relegate the largest protest in American history to page 23.

The good news is we do not have to rely on the New York Times to tell this story. Get used to saying “the largest peaceful protest in American history” a lot. You will hear me saying that a lot.

It is up to us to both mythologize it and build upon it. The way we do that is by refusing to allow the regime to define what we did, and by refusing to allow this to be just a one-day protest.

This week the entire No Kings coalition is coming together for a follow-up call on Tuesday at 8pm ET, and then we’ll have a celebratory What’s the Plan with me and Leah at our normal weekly time (Thursday, 3pm ET) to discuss next steps. Lean in this week. Join us, and encourage others to join with you!

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from this weekend it’s that when we show up and do the work, it sends the regime scrambling. As Leah and I said to close our speech on Saturday:

We’re better than fear. We’re braver than billionaires. We’re bigger than ever. And we’re gonna win.

In solidarity,
Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible

Your weekly to-dos

1. Sign up for the “What’s Next After No Kings?” mass call tomorrow, October 21, at 8pm ET / 5pm PT. No Kings was massive, powerful, and meaningful -- but it wasn’t the end of our work. Join movement leaders and fellow activists Tuesday night to celebrate what we accomplished and dive into what’s next in the fight.
2. Find (and take action with) the local Indivisible groups in your area. Local activists and organizers were the beating heart of No Kings Day -- and they’ll keep leading the fight on the ground in your community. Use our map to see what groups are near you, follow them online, and get in touch with local Indivisibles.
3. Email your Democratic senator(s) and tell them to hold the line in this Trump Shutdown showdown. So far, all but three Senate Dems and Independents -- Cortez Masto, Fetterman, and King -- have held the line against Trump's dangerous budget. We need to let them know we’re behind them as long as they keep fighting hard!
4. Volunteer for a virtual phonebank to help Dems win big in Virginia this fall. We’re making 1,000,000 calls to voters to help VA Democrats build a vital defense against Trump’s authoritarian overreach -- a Democratic trifecta in his own backyard! All you need is your phone and a computer. Join a live phonebank training here.

P.S. Together, we just pulled off the biggest day of protest in American history -- and welcomed tens of thousands of new friends to our team! Now, we need to keep organizing and give folks the tools to keep fighting with us. If you can, please chip in today so we can build on the momentum of No Kings Day and keep growing our movement.

Upcoming events for you

These nationwide events, calls, and training sessions are coming up soon. For even more Indivisible happenings, check our national calendar and get in touch with Indivisible groups near you!

Trump Shutdown update: GOP talks 💩, does nothing

As the Trump Shutdown stretches into its fourth week, Trump and Republicans keep dumping on the American people -- and not just in gross AI videos.

House Republicans are skipping work and hiding at home. Senate Republicans have voted 10+ times to let healthcare costs double for millions of us. And Trump and party leaders are slandering the 7,000,000+ people who peacefully marched on Saturday as “hating America” and “terrorists.”

Republicans act this way because they still think Dems will fold and give Trump exactly what he wants. But after Saturday’s historic protests -- including massive turnout in swing districts nationwide -- the pressure on GOP lawmakers is becoming too big to ignore. We need to stay loud and keep stating our case.

Email your Democratic senator(s) now. Thank them for fighting hard, and urge them to keep holding the line in the Trump Shutdown showdown.

Fight back with friends to end the shutdown

Stopping this authoritarian onslaught is going to take all of us -- and that means bringing new friends into the fight. Fight Back with Friends (FBWF) is a nationwide program that empowers you to help your own friends and neighbors get off the sidelines!

This month, Senate Democrats are holding the line to protect us from healthcare cuts and price hikes, while Senate Republicans refuse to buck Trump and end the shutdown. We need our family and friends helping us pressure every senator to stand up to Trump and protect healthcare.

Sign up for the FBWF monthly meeting next Tuesday, October 28, to bring your friends into the fight to keep healthcare affordable and end the costly Trump Shutdown.

IndivisiWIN of the week

We’d normally use this space to celebrate the work of one local Indivisible group, but it’s impossible to do that this week -- after so many played such a huge role in making Saturday unforgettable!

So instead, let’s celebrate EVERYTHING our team accomplished this week all across the country. Check out this montage of No Kings Day protests of all fifty states and across the globe, and know that your work was indispensable!

Follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads to keep up on the latest information, and text “INDIVISIBLE” to 59798 to opt-in to our text messaging program, where we send rapid response actions a few times a month.