Denver, CO – On Sunday, June 23, the Colorado Palestine Coalition (CPC) organized a protest at Denver’s annual Pride Parade to draw attention to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and the complicity of companies like Lockheed Martin in that genocide. Denver’s Pride Parade was sponsored by several arms contractors that sell weapons to Israel, like Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems. The protest was attended by about 500 people.

Starting at 8 a.m., protesters gathered in a contingent at the beginning of the Pride parade route. Demonstrators held signs and chanted “From Stonewall to Gaza, globalize the intifada!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” As the crowd grew larger and larger, eventually protesters marched onto the street to join the parade, ignoring the growing line of riot police from the Denver Police Department. Effectively becoming a large contingent in the parade, the protesters continued to march the route to Civic Center Park, stopping to give speeches along the way.

“We gotta unite and fight! We need to build a fightback here at home just like the fightback at Stonewall! Just like the fightback in Gaza!” said Paul Nelson of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Along the march, the vast majority of onlookers supported the protest, raising their fists or even joining in on the march.

Once at Civic Center Park, the crowd marched through security with no resistance and onto the main stage at the Civic Center Park amphitheater. Now having the opportunity to address a much larger crowd of everyday LGBTQ people attending Pride, protesters gave several more speeches.

“The tide is turning, and we have people power! We are in the belly of the beast, and it is our duty to rise up, to reject this in every way we can, however we can, because America is the aircraft carrier from which this offensive is launched!” said an organizer with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and a third-generation anti-Zionist Jew.

After exiting the stage, protesters gathered in a grassy area for more speeches. In a victory for the demonstration, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems, anticipating the backlash they would receive, had already pulled their tables from Pride after the protest was announced.

Despite the presence of dozens of riot cops and an armored police vehicle, the protest faced minimal repression and no arrests were made.

#DenverCO #CPC #SDS #PRIDE