[News] We are witnessing the largest U.S. anti-war protests in 20 years

[Anti-Imperialist News]

mondoweiss.net
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/we-are-witnessing-the-largest-u-s-anti-war-protests-in-20-years/>
We are witnessing the largest U.S. anti-war protests in 20 years
Michael Arria - October 28, 2023
------------------------------

>From 2004 to 2010 scholars Fabio Rojas and Michael Heaney interviewed
thousands of anti-war activists in order to study the interaction between
political parties and social movements in the United States. In 2015 they
published their findings in a book, *Party in the Street: The Antiwar
Movement and the Democratic Party after 9/11*
<http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/american-government-politics-and-policy/party-street-antiwar-movement-and-democratic-party-after-911?format=PB&isbn=9781107448803>
.

Their main argument is that the U.S. anti-war activism largely ended up
overlapping with the Democratic party. While the Bush years saw a
reinvigorated peace movement in response to the invasions of Afghanistan
and Iraq, public protests dwindled under his successor.

Barack Obama’s opposition to the Iraq War was a central component of his
campaign and the most striking difference between him and Hilary Clinton
during the Democratic primary. “I was opposed to Iraq from the start,” said
the future president during his campaign. “and I say that not just to look
backwards, but also to look forwards, because I think what the next
president has to show is the kind of judgment that will ensure that we are
using our military power wisely.”

“I think I will be the Democrat who will be most effective in going up
against a John McCain, or any other Republican,” he continued. “because
they all want basically a continuation of George Bush’s policies, [and]
because I will offer a clear contrast as somebody who never supported this
war, thought it was a bad idea.”

Obama was right about his ability to beat McCain, but he certainly
continued some of Bush’s policies. In fact, he expanded a number of
them—dramatically stepping up the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, stretching
the “War on Terror” into more of Africa, and launching a global
assassination campaign in the form of a drone program. Despite these
policies, very few people took to the street.

“People have to make the choice, maybe unconsciously, where they could say,
‘You know, I could keep protesting the war, but does that make Obama look
bad? Is that an issue we want to avoid?’ And in the case of the antiwar
movement, partisan motivations and partisan identities won the day,” Rojas
told <https://jacobin.com/2018/05/anti-war-movement-democratic-party-iraq>
*Jacobin* in 2018.
*Palestine protests*

Since Israel began its siege on Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7th
attack, there have been massive protests across the world in solidarity
with Palestine. This includes the United States, where the country has seen
the largest anti-war, anti-imperialist protests since the Iraq War in 2003.
[image: NYC rally on solidarity with Palestine (Al Quds Twitter)]NYC rally
on solidarity with Palestine (Al Quds Twitter)

Thousands have hit the streets in NYC
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/14/thousands-of-protesters-chant-free-palestine-in-new-york-city>,
Los Angeles
<https://abc7.com/downtown-la-rally-thousands-gather-in-support-of-palestinians-israel-hamas-war/13953553/>,
Washington DC
<https://www.npr.org/2023/10/19/1207028328/thousands-of-protestors-turned-out-in-washington-d-c-to-support-palestinians>,
and dozens of other cities. A DC protest
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/500-arrested-at-capitol-as-jewish-activists-demand-gaza-ceasefire/>
organized by Jewish activist groups drew thousands, and hundreds were later
arrested, including two dozen Rabbis. An estimated 25,000 people showed up
to a rally in Chicago
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/chicagoans-demand-an-end-to-u-s-backed-attacks-on-gaza/>.
These events show no signs of stopping, with many more planned across the
coming days.
Jewish activists block traffic in DC in support of Palestine (IfNotNow)

These actions have gone beyond marches, with protesters showing up at the
offices and homes of politicians demanding a ceasefire. Six activists were
arrested at a pro-Palestine rally
<https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2023/10/18/six-jewish-protesters-arrested-at-pro-palestine-rally-outside-sen-elizabeth-warrens-boston-office/>
outside the Boston office of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). A large crowd
demonstrated
<https://pix11.com/news/local-news/protest-outside-sen-schumers-brooklyn-home-calls-for-ceasefire-in-israel-hamas-conflict-state-lawmaker/>
outside the Brooklyn home of Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Jewish
protesters showed up
<https://thehill.com/homenews/4265643-protesters-gather-outside-harris-los-angeles-home-demanding-cease-fire/>
outside the Brentwood house of VP Kamala Harris. IfNotNow members have held
sit-ins at the DC offices of Schumer, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep.
Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA).

Former staffers for Warren
<https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/20/warren-staffers-ceasefire-israel-hamas-war-00122674>,
Sanders, and Senator John Fetterman
<https://theintercept.com/2023/10/20/john-fetterman-ceasefire-israel-hamas/>
have publicly urged the lawmakers to back a ceasefire.
Walkout at Harvard University (*Dissenters Press*)

On October 25, tens of thousands of students across more than 100 North
American campuses united in a walkout to demand an immediate ceasefire, an
end to unconditional support for Israel, and university divestment from the
corporations funding the occupation of Palestine.

On the night of October 27 Jewish activists shut down Grand Central
Station, leading to the arrest of over 300 people.

“This is bigger than we’ve ever seen,” US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
(USCPR) Executive Director Ahmad Abuznaid told Mondoweiss. “This is the
result of decades of work that we’ve put into this movement, and I think
some of it is connected to the [George Floyd protests of 2020]. There was
so much racial, social justice, anti-war building in that moment.

“What I am witnessing today is folks asking the right questions, he
continued. “Why am I supporting this? ‘We am I complicit in this?’ Average
Americans are seeing this carnage and wondering why they are subsidizing
this genocide.”

Hatem Abudayyeh lives in Chicago and is the National Chair of the U.S.
Palestinian Community Network (USPCN). He told *Mondoweiss* that the sheer
viciousness of Israel’s assault and the political establishment’s refusal
to assist Palestine are major factors in driving people to protest.

“We’ve seen big protests on Palestine before,” Abudayyeh told *Mondoweiss*.
“We saw big protests in Chicago when Israel attacked Gaza in 2009 and when
they bombed Gaza in 2014. High thousands regularly, probably up to 10 or
15,000. We saw them again [when Israel attacked Gaza] in 2021. Nothing I’ve
seen looks like this. These have been the biggest I have seen since the
Iraq War. The scope is bigger than I’ve ever seen.”

Recent polling indicates that many Americans agree with protesters demands
for a ceasefire, an indication that the organizing is having a tangible
impact.

A new survey from Data for Progress found that 66% of voters “strongly
agree” or “somewhat agree” that the use should call for a ceasefire and a
deescalation of violence in the region. This includes 57% of Independents,
56% of Republicans, and a staggering 80% of Democrats.
*Palestine and the Democratic party*

Unlike the Obama-era protest dip that Rojas and Heaney tracked, this is all
occurring under a Democratic administration.

Biden is even facing pushback from lawmakers within his own party. A group
of progressive House members (Including Reps. Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib,
André Carson, Summer Lee, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna
Pressley) are pushing a resolution
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/progressive-house-members-introduce-legislation-for-ceasefire-in-palestine/#:~:text=A%20group%20of%20Democratic%20House,send%20humanitarian%20aid%20to%20Gaza.>
calling on the administration to embrace a ceasefire and send immediate aid
to Gaza.

At the D.C. rally, Tlaib called Biden out directly. “If we don’t get back
to our shared humanity, I don’t think we will ever come back from this,”
she told the crowd. “And to our President: I want him to know, as a
Palestinian-American and someone of Muslim faith, I’m not going to forget
this. And I think a lot of people are not going to forget this.”

A new Gallup poll found that Biden’s approval has dropped 11 points among
Democrats since the beginning of October, the worst numbers from his own
party yet. The group’s write-up of the survey notes that Biden’s downturn
comes in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack.

“Immediately after the attack, Biden pledged ‘rock solid and unwavering’
support for Israel from the U.S., and he subsequently visited the country
on Oct. 18 to reiterate that message,” it reads.
<https://news.gallup.com/poll/513305/democrats-ratings-biden-slip-overall-approval.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication>
“But Biden has faced criticism from some members of his party for aligning
too closely with Israel and not doing enough for the Palestinians. Some
prominent Democratic lawmakers and protesters around the U.S. have called
for Biden to do more to help the millions of Palestinians who are in need
of humanitarian aid as Israel attempts to eradicate Hamas.

“Although the survey is not designed to allow for statistically reliable
estimates for any subset of the three-week polling period, the daily
results strongly suggest that Democrats’ approval of Biden fell sharply in
the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas and Biden’s promise of full
support for Israel on the same day,” it continues.

This development shouldn’t be surprising to people who have followed
polling on the issue in recent years.

A 2021 Gallup survey found that, for the first time, a majority of
Democrats now sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis. A 2019 Data
for Progress poll
<https://mondoweiss.net/2019/10/new-survey-shows-americans-want-a-more-progressive-foreign-policy-and-yes-that-includes-israel/>
found
that 65% of Democratic voters support conditioning aid to Israel. A Center
for American Progress poll
<https://cdn.americanprogress.org/content/uploads/2019/10/29133831/NSIP-pollsheet-israel1.pdf>
from
that year had the number even higher, at 71%. A 2020 University of Maryland
Critical Issues Poll
<https://criticalissues.umd.edu/sites/criticalissues.umd.edu/files/UMCIP%20Middle%20East%20Questionnaire.pdf>
found
that 48% of Democrats who had heard of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
(BDS) “strongly or somewhat” support the movement. A survey by the same
group this year found that 44% of Democrats
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/04/new-poll-44-of-democrats-say-israel-is-a-state-with-segregation-similar-to-apartheid/>
think Israel is an apartheid state.

Biden’s reputation is also predictably taking a hit among Arab-American
voters, a compelling reason for the administration to be concerned. In
2020, 300,000 Arab-American, Democratic voters in Michigan helped push
Biden to a narrow victory over Trump in the swing state.

“The man broke my heart,” Palestinian-American comedian Maysoon Zayid
told *Politico
<https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/23/biden-israel-muslim-voters-michigan-2024-00122910>*
on October 23, “I never in my life thought the empathizer-in-chief would
sound the way he did. The Palestinians were given no humanity. Joe Biden
should spend every breath he has condemning Israel’s genocide with the same
zeal he condemned Hamas’ massacre of civilians, that same zeal. And we get
nothing. 1,000 children are dead, and we get nothing.”

“It’s really crazy to me that the Democratic party destroyed 20-years of
worth of good will with Muslims and Arabs in just 2 weeks, losing an entire
generation that was raised in the progressive coalition, possibly forever,”
tweeted <https://x.com/emanabdelhadi/status/1717576181816434785?s=20>
author and activist Eman Abdelhadi. “The rapidity of it, the finality–it’s
astonishing.”

“While Republican disregard for Muslim and Arab lives is clearly on display
<https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/gaza-aid-republicans-israel-hamas-rcna121493>,
some Muslim and Arab Americans also feel like the Democratic Party largely
takes their vote for granted, though Democrats’ policies never reflect as
much,” writes Dana El Kurd in *The Nation
<https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/biden-muslim-arab-vote-gaza-israel/>*.
“One Arab American friend expressed to me that, at least under Republican
administrations, ‘Arabs could find allies’ in their opposition.”

“Whether or not liberals agree with this calculation is irrelevant,” she
continues. “A growing number of people are deciding that the question of
how to improve the conditions on the ground in Palestine and the wider
Middle East has little to do with who is president. And this should be
concerning to the administration—that is, if Biden and his team can
actually absorb any of these lessons. For many Muslim and Arab Americans,
they are done hoping.”
*Media coverage*

Many have criticized the media coverage of the current movement.

“There are huge protests everywhere in the US against genocide in Gaza, in
solidarity with Palestinians and calling for not only a ceasefire but an
end to US support for occupation,” tweeted
<https://x.com/triofrancos/status/1716090305156403577?s=20> author and
professor Thea Riofrancos. “Yet, I haven’t seen a single article in a major
newspaper about what is becoming a mass movement. First, am I missing
something? Has the NYT, WaPo, etc covered this in any depth? Second, who is
keeping track of the numbers? I’m seeing anecdotal reports of thousands and
tens of thousands for some of these demonstrations. Is there anywhere these
numbers are being compiled?”

“We know media is an arm of the U.S. government,” Abudayyeh told
Mondoweiss. “It’s not independent, it’s owned by multinational
corporations..they want to cover the scope of it. We legit had 25,000 at
the Chicago. One of the outlets said hundreds! With the naked eye a child
could see it was thousands.”

A campus organizer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst told
*Mondoweiss* that about 300 pro-Palestine students showed up for a rally,
while just 3 or 4 pro-Israel students counterprotested. “The only coverage
of that event was in a student-run newspaper,” he explained. “The
mainstream media is not representing what is really going on.”

The aforementioned college walkout received barely any coverage beyond
student newspapers and a write-up in *Teen Vogue.
<https://www.teenvogue.com/story/gaza-college-students-walkout-calling-for-israel-ceasefire>*

In a post on Instagram the Philly Palestine Coalition
<https://linktr.ee/phillypalestinecoalition> criticized *The Philadelphia
Inquirer* for failing to cover a large Palestine protest in the city but
deciding to report on a much smaller pro-Israel action. “On Saturday
October 21, thousands of Philadelphians took to the streets to protest the
genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people,” it read. “This
was one of the largest protests in Philadelphian history, yet the
[*Philadelphia
Inquirer*] and other news agency’s gave it ZERO coverage while covering and
exaggerating pro-Israeli rallies. THIS IS MEDIA SUPPRESSION. We must
boycott the Inquirer and demand proper media coverage of the genocide of
the Palestinian people and our acts of solidarity with the Palestinians as
they resist their ethnic cleansing. SHAME ON THE INQUIRER.”

“The polls continue to show this organizing is working,” said Abuznaid.
“The media is doing the best it can to slow down the efforts of the mass
movement. We are seeing concerted efforts from U.S. decision-makers to
stifle this conversation in a public way. That means we need to double down
and keep going hard.”
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