Washington DC protest demands end to war on Iran
Washington, DC – On April 8, hundreds of people gathered outside the White House to join the emergency protest against Trump’s war crimes threats to Iran and Netanyahu’s terrorist bombing campaign on Lebanon. Calls for regime change in Washington, DC echoed through the White House barricades. This action came after Trump’s statement “a whole civilization will die tonight.”
Hundreds of people in DC had plenty of energy and spirit, so they protested the war on Iran two days in a row.
Even though news broke of the temporary ceasefire won by Iran the day before, organizers ensured the day of protest would continue, since many people wanted to express their anger and frustration over Trump’s warmongering in Iran, as well as to demand an immediate end to U.S. aid to Israel in the wake of its genocidal bombing in Lebanon.
Merawi Gerima, a member of the DC Against the Trump Agenda Coalition, started the program by rallying the crowd chanting, “It is right to rebel! Trump and Bibi go to hell!”
An organizer with Palestine Youth Movement DMV stated, “As people who live in the heart of empire, we have a unique obligation to end Zionist-U.S. violence. We have to ensure that death and destruction are not profitable, and we must stop the war machine in its very tracks.”
After the short program, the protesters took the streets disrupting traffic and marching down to Dupont Circle. On the way, chant leaders made sure to point out the racist Metropolitan Police Department officers who were trying to curtail the crowd. One MPD officer, Mendez, was identified as a racist cop who was previously seen harassing Black people for no reason. When DCAARPR members had questioned him on why he was harassing Black people, he said he, “can’t be racist because he has a Black girlfriend.” This encounter was pointed out to the crowd as they shouted at Mendez to quit his job and go get a real one.
Another MPD officer, Jason Bagshaw, a racist and killer cop, was pointed out and angry protesters started hurling insults at him and telling him to go to hell.
The protesters shut down one of the busiest traffic circles in the city before finishing out the program inside the circle itself. An organizer with FRSO DC stated, “Y’know, Donald Trump is very good at one thing: he is good at making an enemy out of everyone. He makes enemies everywhere he goes. He sends troops into DC. He sends ICE all across the country. He funds Israel’s bombs in Palestine, and then he bombs Iran. He kidnapped President Maduro from Venezuela. Now he has all the peoples of the world looking at him as an enemy. That’s where we find our unity.”
DC Against the Trump Agenda Coalition (DCATA), 50501DC, Palestinian Youth Movement DMV, the Party for Socialism and Liberation DC, Codepink DC, the DC Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (DCAARPR), the Anti-War Committee DMV, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization – DC, and many others rallied around the central demand “U.S. out of Iran now!”