How to Organize a Rally or Protest

Before the Rally or Protest

Preparation is important for the success of every rally or protest. It will be your job to plan an event that is both safe and effective. That involves creating awareness of the rally or protest by using social media and contacting your local news, getting any necessary permits or permissions, lining up speakers, acquiring any needed equipment, setting rules, creating flyers or graphics for people to share, and more.

Obey Local Laws and Ordinances

In order to ensure the safety and success of your protest or rally, you need to ensure that you have the rights to protest at the location you wish to hold it at.

If you are planning to hold the protest outside a business or government building, make sure that you have the right to do so. Some cities or towns require permits, advance notice, and/or have other rules and laws that you will have to follow to do the rally or protest legally (which is highly recommended). If you fail to do so, they may call the police and ask you to leave and arrest you if you don't.

One way to get around this is by holding a march so that you are not gathering and staying in one location. This could lead to blocking roads or sidewalks, which can lead to car accidents and impeding traffic. So if you think that this will be a problem, you should contact the local authorities in advance, check the local laws, and get permission to hold a march. Otherwise, your march could lead to the police being called on you.

Another possible work around for this is having smaller groups do a march at multiple locations in the city at the same time. This creates much wider awareness of the protest or rally, without disrupting traffic as much. To do this effectively, you will need trusted people to lead a march at each location and that can keep the smaller crowds manageable and safe.

Finally, violence and destruction should NEVER be allowed or encouraged for any reason. Violence and destruction are criminal acts that will lead to arrests, riot police, martial law, curfews, and more government controls. If you engage in such activities, you will face more censorship, greater media condemnation, being added to government watchlists.

Furthermore, violence and destruction not only hurts society and results in more violence, it destroys all moral justification for the cause. There are far better ways of promoting your message without endangering lives, wreaking havoc, or creating absolute chaos. Be creative with humorous and creative messages, performances, speakers, music, and signage.

Choosing a Location

One of the most important things you need to do is choose a good location. It should meet the following criteria (depending on your needs and the type of protest):

• It should be able to sufficiently accommodate a large group of people.
• There should be public restrooms on the property or very close by.
• The location should have ample free or cheap parking, or you should come up with a plan for how to transport people to the location using a bus or vehicles that go back and forth throughout the event.
• If you plan to use audio equipment and/or lighting, then it should have outlets and you will need permission to use their electricity - otherwise you will need a generator or other power source.
• It should have a platform, stage, or stairs that you (and/or others) can stand on and speak from. Or if you plan to bring something to stand on, it should have the space and area to support it.
• It should be a noise and crowd-friendly location. That means avoid residential areas and places where people might report the event for noise or other disturbances.

Before you choose the location, you should take a tour of the property to ensure that it meets your needs and has adequate parking and facilities. Take pictures and notes as it may be useful in planning.

Find at least 3 locations that meet the criteria, so you have backups in the event you can't hold it at the preferred place.

Plan Carefully

Come up with plans for what to do during and after the protest or rally. Create a set of protocols to use as a guide for if/when things go wrong. Have one or more backup plans ready just in case.

If you are organizing the rally or protest with others, be sure that they are made aware of all the plans and also have access to equipment and things, in case you or some other key player is unavailable or late.

Create a Schedule
Put together a schedule, and have plans for what to do when things are behind schedule. The schedule may be for having special speakers, performances, chants, songs, or other activities. This helps keeps people energized, engaged, and excited about the cause.

Finding Speakers and Entertainers
Seek out people who can speak and entertain your audience. This may include local, state/provincial, or federal representatives, group or organization leaders, celebrities, or common folks. Whoever you find to speak, be careful in who you choose as it should be someone with a good reputation that can help represent your cause. Choose wisely as it can influence how the media and public perceive the event.

You can find speakers on sites like Speaker Hub, you can also ask relevant book authors, YouTubers, or podcasters, university professors or professionals, people who are leaders of local groups that support the cause. You can also ask your team or volunteers if they would be willing to speak for a couple minutes about why they are supporting the cause. Anyone of note that you ask to speak may expect or want some kind of compensation or at least to have their travel costs covered, so that is something to keep in mind when planning your budget for the event.

What To Bring
Be sure to have clothes, shoes, drinks, snacks, and other things you need for your protest ready to go so that you aren't scrambling to get those things when it's time to go. Leave behind anything that might endanger your life or others, or give the police a reason to detail you.

What To Wear
When planning what to wear, avoid all black clothing, and instead opt for bright colors. You can use your clothes to show your support for your cause at the protest or rally with the help of t-shirts with relevant messaging and other apparel (hats, costumes, wigs, etc.).

Get Needed Equipment and Gear
Be sure to acquire all the gear, signage, and equipment you need for the protest beforehand. You can borrow, rent, or purchase a lot of it inexpensively. If funding is needed, be sure to plan some kind of fundraiser ahead of time so that you can raise the amount needed and have time to acquire it.

Be Clear in Your Messaging
Make it clear in your messaging before and during the protest that it is peaceful and that all weapons or potentially harmful objects are either forbidden or strongly discouraged. Anyone who causes trouble should be removed immediately.

Establish a Security Team
If you want to make sure your protest or rally is safe, put together an armed security team that can put a stop to any fighting or violence that might break out and that can detain people until police arrive. The security should have shirts that say security on them so people know they can go to them for help.

Create Awareness
No one will know about your protest or rally unless you tell them about it. First create a website or event page on a platform with details, dates, and times for the protest or rally. Next, you need to share it - do so in groups and on platforms frequented by people who support your cause. You should also request it be added to the free rally and protest directory on FreedomRally.net. Be sure to create images for sharing on social media, as well as flyers that people can use to promote it with their contacts.

Contacting Media
The media frequently downplays and ignores the rallies and protests on conservative issues. This can make it difficult to get any media to report on it, and if they do, it is usually negatively slanted. There are conservative and alternative media outlets and individuals that may be more interested in reporting it. So contact those news networks (ie. Newsmax, Epoch Times, etc.) in advance so that they can learn about your protest and talk about it with their audience.

Protect Your Privacy

Keeping your privacy in check, whether online or offline, is important to you and your family. Although most people will use masks, face paints, hoods, or glasses to hide their faces and identities, criminals do the same thing, making the rally or protest a point of interest with the police. Such actions can also be illegal depending on your country of residence, so be sure to check with that before trying to mask your identity.

It is best to assume that everything you do and say can be seen, heard, and recorded. The NSA and government agencies are looking for "domestic terrorists" and are using AI to go through text messages, social media, etc. Simply mentioning certain words or being connected to someone or something can land you on the secret "no fly" list or other secret investigations.

No technology is truly "safe" - if it was, governments and massive companies would never be hacked. Nothing is ever truly deleted, especially on the internet.

In addition to this, you should keep in mind that society, individuals, and businesses rely and use technology. Cameras are everywhere from surveillance cameras to people recording things on their phone. There may be attendees or observers, media, or governments that can track, record, and identify you.

Be expected to be infiltrated by Antifa, government agents, extremists from both sides, and bad actors. They are everywhere.

Don't give them anything they can use against you, you can do that by being a good person, condemning violence and criminal activities, and being careful what you say to everyone. Even friends and family can turn against you.

The best thing you can do is educate yourself and don't commit or encourage violence, trespassing, or destruction. Be peaceful, respectful, and truthful. 

If you're a Christian, then act like one. Be Christ-like in all your ways, thoughts, and actions. That means being good, loving, gentle, patient, tolerant, peaceful, and following Jesus' example, not that of the world.

Learn about your federal and local rights. Speak to an attorney for guidance in what to do if questioned by law enforcement so you do not incriminate yourself when you haven't actually done anything wrong.

Communication

There is increasing amounts of censorship and tracking on all major platforms for social media, messaging, text messages, forums, emails, and web browsing.

You could have a private conversation with someone and it could be monitored or censored without you even knowing. You can do a search online and it could secretly put you on a watchlist. That is the sad reality of life at this point due to the massive surveillance being conducted by private companies and government entities.

Even if apps or websites aren't spying on you, the devices you use could be. Big tech is collaborating and coordinating their efforts to combat whatever they decide is "misinformation" or "disinformation" - which is ever changing to include anything they personally don't like.

Protests and rallies can turn bad, like the one on January 6th in D.C. You could be doxxed, put on a watch list, fired from your job, or face a wide variety of other consequences from simply being involved.

Organizing a protest or rally can potentially put you in harms way or lead you to face consequences you were not expecting. So it is important to do things carefully and securely, to be aware of the risks, to take precautions and have plans for what to do when things go wrong.

Thankfully, you can make it harder for big tech to track, monitor, and censor you with the help of some special platforms, tools, and new habits. You can learn more about protecting your group online by going here.

Encrypted Messengers

Use encrypted channels to ensure that your communications are more secure. Delete any information you don't need in your phone and reload it once the rally is over. Also keep in mind that people can screenshot your conversations and share it with others, as well as on social media. Be careful who you chat with and who you trust.

If you are looking for an encrypted platform to use, we recommend Matrix.org - it is possible to acquire anonymous VPS hosting offshore and install the Matrix platform on it. You can then create your own accounts that will be free from censorship and can't be deleted.

Matrix is a decentralized platform that works differently than other platforms like Telegram or Signal. You can think of it similar to email, but for instant messaging. When you start a chat with one or more people, you start a message chain that is stored in each account. If one person loses their account, the chat still exists in the other accounts.

Communication at the Event

When planning your communication at the event, use phones, walkie-talkies, encrypted messaging, or other communication gear to communicate orders to your team by voice or text.

If your devices rely on cell towers or wifi, be aware that large groups in one area may cause the connection to be interrupted or slow, so it is best to use walkie-talkies or some other kind of communication system that can work without internet.

You should also be aware that some governments or law enforcement will use devices to jam the signals or block cell signals for a wide area. This is often used when they anticipate a riot. Thus, all the more reason to make every effort to put together and maintain a peaceful protest or rally.

Prevent Location Tracking

Even if you protect your identity and use encrypted channels to communicate, it may all be in vain because your location can be tracked.

From your phone to your card purchases, if now or sometime in the future, your event is deemed illegal or seen as a threat in some way, your information could be obtained by the authorities and used against you, even if you didn't do anything wrong. Even your mere affiliation with it can make you a target for harassment and investigation.

Say for example, you planned a peaceful event but for whatever reason it broke out into a riot, you could be held responsible and blamed for it even if you did nothing wrong. If you want to see some examples, look at what has been happening in Australia and what happened after the January 6th rally in DC.

The authorities may have the power to identify anyone in the area during the time frame of the event using a multitude of resources like photos, bank records, search history, phone records, social media, and more.

If you are concerned, you should take precautions to protect your identity and get a faraday bag for your phone or leave your phone at home and use a burner phone. You could encourage your attendees to do the same... BUT please note..

Anonymity can make you appear suspicious, even if you aren't doing anything wrong.