Anti-War Protesters in Times Square: ‘We Have to Dramatically Expand This Movement’
Anti-war protesters pack Times Square this past weekend in response to the Trump administration’s unilateral bombing of Iran which began last Friday night.
By Joe Maniscalco
War has never been good for working class people anywhere in the world and it isn’t good for working class people anywhere in the world now.
Roughly two hundred people assembled in Times Square this past Sunday afternoon for an emergency street action challenging the Trump administration’s unconstitutional bombing of Iran over the weekend. Similar emergency demonstrations against the bombings were also held in dozens of places around the United States.
“This is a bipartisan war on the people of Iran,” a spokesperson for the Answer Coalition told the Times Square crowd as a small knot of pro-war demonstrators blasted airhorns nearby and NYPD officers stood by. “We are not going to get our solutions from Congress, from the courts—the only solution is you. The only solution is the working people of this country becoming organized and daring to take back control of our politics.”
Sunday’s emergency action in Times Square challenging the Trump administration’s bombing of Iran were replicated in dozens of other places around the country.
Others speakers jeered Senator Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for their anemic response to the Trump administration’s bombing of three sites purported to be nuclear facilities inside Iran beginning last Friday night.
A larger New York City demonstration protesting the bombing of Iran is scheduled to take place on Thursday night, June 26 at Union Square. That street action will be followed up by a mass “Stop the War on Iran” rally in Washington, D.C. on June 28, sponsored by the Answer Coalition, National Iranian-American Council, Palestinian Youth Movement, The People’s Forum, CODEPINK, Democratic Socialists of America and other organizations.
A spokesperson for the People’s Forum told demonstrators in Times Square on Sunday that working class people hold the real power in the country—and can determine whether or not we are all plunged into a possibly civilization-ending world war.
Anti-war protesters march through Times Square on June 22, following the Trump administration’s bombing of Iran.
“We are going to show Donald Trump and his billionaire friends with real power looks like,” the spokesperson said. “We are the ones who run this country. We are the ones who run the economy. Without us, there would be no billions and trillions of dollars that keep lining the pockets of these billionaire who use it just to kill children and kill families and spread war.”
The People’s Forum spokesperson said that it’s now “more urgent than ever before” for working class people to mobilize.
“So many people have been marching and mobilizing and organizing,” the spokesperson said. “So many people have been standing up against the genocide in Palestine—but now we have to dramatically expand this movement. We have to bring people who haven’t marched before, we have to convince them, we have to go with them—we have to show everyone that in fact, if we stand up, we are the ones who will determine the future of humanity.”
Buses bound for Washington, D.C. on June 28 will be leaving from the People’s Forum located 320 W 37th Street at 7 a.m.
B-2 stealth bombers launched from an Air Force base near Kansas City, Mo. reportedly dropped 14 “bunker-buster bombs” on multiple targets inside Iran, according to Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Dan Caine who briefed reporters following this weekend’s attack. Each of the 30,000-pound bombs used in that attack costs millions of dollars to produce.