On June 14, organizers anticipate that 1,800 local demonstrations around the United States will challenge President Trump’s autocratic policies while a military parade in Washington marks his birthday. June 14 is also Flag Day and the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary celebration. The campaign is calling for demonstrators to carry American flags at “No Kings Day” marches.
PAUL LOEB; [email protected]
Loeb’s books on social change like Soul of a Citizen and The Impossible Will Take a Little While have 350,000 copies in print. For The Fulcrum, he writes about why it’s important for protestors to reclaim the flag for No Kings Day and beyond.
Loeb told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “The idea for No Kings Day is to have coordinated, decentralized demonstrations throughout the country. That strategy is important because change happens when local communities everywhere confront what’s going on. It may not be routine for many people to participate in protest, but for these movements to succeed, people need to participate for whom it is not routine.
“Carrying the flag strengthens all your other messages of protest. It may not feel comfortable, but you have to overcome the discomfort.
“If you look back at Martin Luther King’s March on Washington and at his anti-Vietnam[-War] speeches, you will see American flags next to him or behind him. He and others who marched with him understood that you didn’t want to cede the flag because on some level, the flag belongs to us all. But many of those politically active against that war, probably the majority, found it uncomfortable to embrace the American flag while protesting their country bombing people. The split seemed to begin then. That fundamental rupture has carried over in other protests: against the U.S. interventions in Central America, against the Iraq War, against the U.S. helping Israel kill civilians in Gaza. In all of those cases, there is a sense of discomfort in identifying with the flag, because those protesting identify the flag with the government actions they’re challenging. So much of the progressive movement has abandoned the flag. We’ve accepted the idea that we’re outsiders. But tossing the flag is historically short-sighted.
“That [split] wasn’t always true. In the iconic labor strikes of the IWW, who were the most radical labor folks around, they displayed flags on the front lines. They were saying ‘We are Americans fighting for our rights, dignity, and wages… We want bread and roses. We want a decent life.’ The flag was part of the American tradition of dissent. I think it was a strategic mistake [for progressives to give up the flag]. When you protest with the flag, you can do two things: you hold the flag to say ‘We are American as anybody,’ and at the same time, you hold a sign challenging the policy of the government. You’re saying you’re part of this country and this is what America needs to do.
“That’s true no matter who is in office and what you’re protesting. In the particular case of Trump’s profound and escalating attacks on democracy, it is going to take Americans from all different perspectives to say this is wrong and we need to stop it. If we look at social movements that have stopped dictatorships or would-be-dictatorships across the globe, part of what occurred is that people crossed political lines.” The flags help us do that.