'No Kings' Protest To Be Held In Pottstown

POTTSTOWN, PA — A "No Kings" protest will be held in Pottstown this weekend as part of a wave of national demonstrations against President Trump's administration.

Organizers will gather with protesters at Pottstown Plaza from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 18.

Similar events are being held around Montgomery County, including major "pre-game" protests at the Norristown Transportation Center and Lansdale Train Center. Demonstrators at those events will head into Philadelphia for the larger event in the afternoon.

"Our peaceful movement is only getting bigger and stronger," organizers said in a statement. "'No Kings' is more than just a slogan, it’s the foundation our nation was built upon. Born in the streets, carried by millions in chants and on posters, it echoes from city blocks to rural town squares, uniting people across this country to fight dictatorship together."

The Pottstown event is being put together by Community for Change, one of numerous grassroots groups brought together by the national organization Indivisible.

In the first No Kings protests in June, millions of people demonstrated against what they say are authoritarian policies of President Donald Trump. The protests were held on the same day as the U.S. Army 250th Anniversary Parade on Trump’s 79th birthday.

At least 2,000 protests will be held Saturday in every state in the country, with demonstrations planned in most major U.S. cities, as well as in Canada and Mexico. Protests are designed to be a peaceful day of action, according to the No Kings website.

Protestors’ ranks are expected to be swelled by laid-off federal workers who won’t get a paycheck until the federal government reopens or who may lose their jobs entirely.

The American Federation of Government Employees urged members of its 900 local unions to join the protests. Together, the locals represent more than 820,000 workers in almost every federal agency of the government.

“The protest movement has taken on new urgency with the government shutdown that began Oct. 1,” the union said in an Oct. 6 statement. “Shutting down the government is another authoritarian power grab by this administration, which has threatened to lay off mass numbers of furloughed federal workers as part of an ongoing quest to gut federal programs and services the administration finds objectionable.”

No Kings said demonstrators this weekend are expected to protest a variety of administration policies, including immigration enforcement by masked agents and the disruption of migrant families, congressional map gerrymandering, health care, and higher costs of living.