News and Views from the People's Struggle
New Orleans, LA – On July 25, a total of about 50 people came out to protest at meetings of the New Orleans City Council and the Board of the Port of New Orleans. The crowd demanded that the city council pass a ceasefire resolution and that the port cut all ties with Israel. Activists left unsatisfied with responses from both institutions.
Milwaukee, WI – On Tuesday, July 23, Vice President Kamala Harris made her first stop as a presidential candidate in Milwaukee, less than a week after the Republican National Convention. For four hours straight, members of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine (WCJP) chanted outside of Harris’ campaign rally.
Washington, DC – More than 10,000 pro-Palestine demonstrators marched in the streets of Washington DC, July 24. The demonstration coincided with the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress defending the genocide in Gaza. Police attacked the protest with clubs and pepper spray. Presidential candidate Kamala Harris denounced the protest as “unpatriotic.” Speakers at the large rally urged attendees to join the massive pro-Palestine protest set for the opening day of the Democratic National Convention, August 19.
Chicago, IL – On July 25, the U.S. Secret Service laid out maps for its security perimeter at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in August. In response, Hatem Abudayyeh, one of the spokespeople for the Coalition to March on the DNC, said, “Now that the perimeter is finalized, we still demand that the city of Chicago must provide a march route for tens of thousands of people who will be protesting the convention on the week of August 19.”
Abudayyeh continued, “The route offered to us by the city’s Law Department is inadequate. With the ongoing U.S.-funded genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, which has already killed 40,000 people, and all the other grievances that people have with the Democrats in DC, the city knows that it can’t accommodate all the protesters that will be here if it puts us on side streets and insists on a one-mile-long route.”
Organizers know that the crowd will stretch out over at least two miles, and the city’s route will cause bottlenecks and other problems that are easily resolved.
“The ball is in the city’s court,” concluded Abudayyeh. “It just needs to give us a longer route with wider streets, that is, all the way up Washington Boulevard, and we’ll immediately sign on the dotted line.”
In addition, the Coalition is concerned about DNC security plans after the experience of the March on the RNC in Milwaukee, when a Black man, Samuel Sharpe, Jr., was killed by a cop from Columbus, Ohio. The Coalition to March on the DNC is demanding that all officers from outside Chicago must be limited to duties inside the security perimeter and must stay out of public parks.
The Coalition will also launch a campaign this week to ask supporters to call the city of Chicago Law Department and urge Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry to grant the longer march route on Washington Boulevard.
#ChicagoIL #IL #PeoplesStruggles #DNC #AntiWarMovement #Palestine
Minneapolis, MN – On July 24, several hundred protesters took to the street in front of U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar’s downtown office on busy Washington Avenue. A smaller group, holding banners that read “We are the red line” then shut down the southbound on-ramp to Interstate 35W and declared their intention not to disperse despite police orders.
Denver, CO – On the morning of Saturday, June 29, members of Denver SDS and Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) picketed outside Pigtrain Coffee Company, a café located in Union Station in the Historic Lower Downtown District in Denver, Colorado.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following July statement from the Coalition to March on the DNC.
Genocide Joe Biden has stepped down from running for president as the Democratic Party nominee. His decision doesn't change the policies of Democratic Party leadership, specifically their support of the genocide in Palestine, so our movement must continue to apply pressure. On August 19 we will march on the DNC for Gaza regardless of who gets nominated for the presidency.
New Orleans, LA – On Monday, July 15, protesters crashed Boeing’s anniversary celebration to demand that the aviation corporation stop arming Israel. That evening, Boeing celebrated its 108th year at the National WWII Museum’s “US Freedom Pavilion: Boeing Center.” Activists rallied outside and expressed disgust with the corporation.
Austin, TX – Joe Biden was set to speak at the University of Texas at Austin on Monday, July 16, and the Austin community was prepared to greet him with a massive protest to demand that he stop funding the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Biden cancelled his trip at the last minute, but around 70 people still gathered outside the Texas Capitol Monday evening, to show Biden that the people will not stand for the killings of Palestinians in Al-Mawasi, or for any part of the U.S. backed genocide in Gaza.
Tampa, FL – On July 10, around 50 students and community members rallied and marched in support of students targeted by the University of South Florida (USF) for participating in a Gaza Solidarity encampment in April. Two students, Joseph Charry and Victoria Hinckley, were suspended and expelled respectively by the university, and now a third, Icarus Jaspard, was hit with code of conduct charges.