North Texas speaks out: No war with Iran!
Dallas TX – Dallas antiwar organizations met at the Grassy Knoll downtown on Sunday afternoon, March 1, to speak against the attacks on Iran.
Beginning in the early morning of February 28 amid weeks of deteriorating negotiations, the United States and Israel launched a series of attacks that initially destroyed a girl’s school killing over 180 people. These attacks were met with mixed reactions across the United States, with Dallas’ reactionary monarchist groups rallying downtown on Saturday to praise these imperialist attacks.
Iran retaliated to these escalations with a series of strikes targeting Tel Aviv alongside U.S. bases and targets in Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
The crowd grew to hundreds just after 3 p.m., with chants of “One olution: Revolution!” and “No boots on the ground or bombs in the air, U.S. out of everywhere!”
Sabah Shah from DFW Shias for Justice spoke in observance of Khamenei's murder. “We know that our leaders are martyrs and our martyrs are leaders, and Al Quds and Palestine are the axis of the hereafter. I’ve felt so much grief, and I’m not going to stand here and tell you that I don’t feel physically suffocated because we are not just mourning a leader. We are losing a guardian, a father of resistance, a voice that stood when others trembled, a soul that carried the weight of Islam while the world watched in silence.”
Dillan Ahmadi of Revolutionary Front DFW told the crowd, “When you become the target of the imperialists’ ire, you only have two options: You can either capitulate and become their dog, or you can stand defiant and resist.”
Rick Majumdar, a Teamster, spoke on behalf of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, “This empire is realizing that these movements, the anti-imperialist movements, the movements against ICE, the labor movement, are growing faster than they can control it. They are realizing that this Trumpian movement is not going to survive.”
Majumdar continued, “There is no precedent to believe the United States will act in any moral way. And so, since these movements are growing, if you consider yourself an activated member of a community it is time for you to stop being activists and start being organizers.”
Jo Hargis of the DFW Anti War Committee brought the conversation back to the Garland neighborhoods of the DFW area, “We know for a fact that BLU109 Bunker Buster bombs and MK 82 and MK84 missiles were used in these bombings, and as many of you know the BLU109 and MK 80 series bombs are only made in one place, and that place is Garland, Texas, 34 minutes away from here at the REPKON ordinance facility.”
Hargis continued, “While REPKON sees fit to arm Israel as it carries out its genocide in Palestine and beyond, REPKON simultaneously partners with schools here at home. REPKON partners with Dallas College with Garland ISD and with other school districts in our communities, using students at home to normalize their complicity in the slaughter of students across the world. DFW Anti War Committee is working to end REPKON’s partnerships with our schools and we need everyone’s help if that effort is going to succeed.”
Organizations participating in the protest included the Palestinian Youth Movement, DFW Antiwar Committee, Indivisible Dallas, DFW Shias for Justice, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Revolutionary Front DFW, and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression among others.