By Mandy Hoffmeister
Minneapolis, MN—On Sunday, September 20, dozens rallied at Chute Square in Northeast Minneapolis as part of the Anti-War Action Network (AWAN)’s National Day of Action Against the War on Iran.
Protesters held signs and banners that read, “No war on Iran,” “Iran is not the enemy” and “No blood for oil.” Chants such as “From the belly of the beast, U.S. out of the Middle East” conveyed the sentiments of the demonstrators.
The rally was jointly organized by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition (MPAC) and the People’s Action Coalition Against Trump (PACAT) to recognize 200 days of ongoing resistance to the U.S.-Israeli war of aggression against Iran and its people.
A banner outlining the event’s demands read “No bombs! No sanctions!”
Organizers also made connections from Donald Trump’s war on Iran to the upcoming 25th anniversary of former U.S. President George W. Bush signing the Patriot Act, which authorized mass surveillance and curtailed civil rights, into U.S. law.
Nadiyah Salawdeh from U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) spoke during the program, stating, “The U.S. ‘war on terror’ may have started in 2001, but U.S. wars of terror in West and Central Asia have been slaughtering entire populations for decades.”
Salawdeh continued, “Iran has established its control over the Strait of Hormuz and the world’s economy. Yemeni people are liberating their land from Saudi occupation while continuing their fight against the Zionist entity. The Lebanese resistance continues its fight against rabid Israeli expansion. The people of Palestine continue to resist the genocidal Israeli occupation.”
Alissa Washington, director of the Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over-Sentenced Families Council (WIAOFC) also spoke, highlighting the everlasting effects of the Patriot Act, abroad and at home. “The Patriot Act dramatically expanded the government’s surveillance powers. Entire communities, especially Muslim, Arab, South Asian, African, and immigrant communities were treated as suspicious. The consequences of that era did not disappear when Bush left office,” stated Washington.
The U.S. has killed thousands of people, including hundreds of children, and committed war crimes in the roughly 200 days since it attacked Iran unprovoked on February 28 of this year. The human cost is amplified by U.S. economic warfare, like sanctions and a shipping blockade, against Iran.
Washington emphasized that “when economies are strangled, ordinary people struggle with the price and availability of food, medicine, fuel, transportation, and basic necessities.” She connected these attacks by the U.S. abroad to the domestic struggle.
“There is always money for war – for bombs, weapons, surveillance, the machinery of militarism. Yet, when our communities demand housing, healthcare, education, food, mental-health resources, environmental protections, and investments that actually keep people alive, suddenly we are told there isn’t enough money,” Washington affirmed.
In his speech, Yossi Aharoni from the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) added, “We are told that Iran is our enemy. Iran’s only ‘crime’ was kicking the U.S. out from their energy markets, exercising their sovereignty over their own resources, and their refusal to let Palestine die alone in the dark.”
Organizers highlighted American crimes beyond the Middle East. Concurrently, the U.S. is blockading Cuba, coercing Venezuela after kidnapping its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife Cilia Flores, supplying Israel with weapons for genocide against Palestinians, intensifying an air campaign on Somalia, kidnapping immigrants around the U.S., contracting with tech companies for mass surveillance, and more.
Other speakers at the event represented Families Against Military Madness, About Face: Veterans Against the War, Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Let Iran Live, and Educators for Justice in Palestine.
The same week, anti-war organizations in Tucson, Milwaukee, San Jose, Seattle, Washington D.C. and other cities across the country also participated in the AWAN’s call to action against U.S. war on Iran.
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