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By Nick Lavin
Demonstrators call for arms embargo in front of the Massachusetts State House. Credit: Eli Gerzon
BOSTON COMMON – Around 1,000 demonstrators drawn from dozens of Boston-area organizations rallied on Sunday to demand Kamala Harris call for a ceasefire and arms embargo.
The event, called by the Uncommitted National Movement and held in coordination with more than seventy like it across the country, comes after months of pressure from grassroots activists on Democratic National Convention (DNC) delegates, local politicians, members of congress, and President Biden to end the brutal Israeli siege of Gaza.
Protesters gathered at the Park Street T Station in Boston Common and marched up to the State House, accompanied by a local brass band. Once there, rally-goers occupied the street to chalk a “Not Another Bomb” mural while local faith and community leaders spoke to the conditions in Gaza and the need for an arms embargo.
Among the speakers was a Gazan boy named Anes, who lost three siblings in the past ten months of Israeli attacks.
“We are just innocent children. What did we do to deserve this?” Anes asked in Arabic.
While anguish over the deaths of all Gazans was at the front of everyone’s minds, the special plight of children was a theme many speakers paid particular attention to, including Merrie Najimy, member and former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
Najimy spoke specifically to how Israeli attacks have not only interrupted education but targeted schools.
We are just innocent children. What did we do to deserve this?
“What the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians, beyond genocide, is scholasticide” Najimy said. “If you go to the UN dashboard, they say 93 percent of schools in Gaza have either been damaged or destroyed.”
Regarding President Biden, who has promised continued negotiations but has failed to deliver any meaningful changes for Gaza, Najimy said “his rhetoric of ceasefire has gotten us nowhere, the only path forward is an arms embargo.”
“Ceasefire” is increasingly seen by those involved in Palestine solidarity work to be an empty signifier, as many Democrats including Biden call for it while continuing to supply billions of dollars in military aid. Locally, Senators Warren and Markey have both given lip service to the term while voting for every Israeli weapons bill placed in front of them. Warren in particular carefully separates herself from activist demands for ceasefire by re-fashioning the word as ‘cease-fire’ in her statements.
Observing these calculated movements in language but not action by the Democrats, pro-Palestine activists have shifted to the more concrete demand of an arms embargo in the lead-up to the DNC. They say the need for the shift is further highlighted by Israel’s steadfast rejection of peace proposals from Hamas, the US, and other international mediators.
Building a National Movement For An Arms Embargo
The pivot toward weapons restriction is led at the national level by the Uncommitted National Movement and a coalition of organizations including IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Democratic Socialists of America.
The Uncommitted National Movement came together during the Democratic Party primary to demonstrate widespread frustration with the White House’s inaction over Israeli genocide. While not the only factor in Biden’s decision to drop out, the Uncommitted Movement underlined the failure of his administration to meet the moment while also coalescing critical elements of the Democratic Party base against him, especially in the must-win state of Michigan.
Uncommitted placed critiques of the Democrats front and center at a time when Biden was deeply underwater against Trump, providing an unparalleled opportunity for activists to agitate against the pro-Israel consensus in Congress and organize newly disaffected Biden voters.
Credit: Eli Gerzon
For its part, Democratic Socialists of America leaped in headfirst to support Uncommitted, first providing critical infrastructure and volunteers in dozens of states in the Movement’s primary season push and now co-sponsoring many of the rallies happening this week. On the 18th, the National Labor Commission held a “Labor Action Call” with Not Another Bomb and union activists from across the country, including Rafael Jaime, UAW 4811 President. Local 4811 represents the University of California students who went on strike for the safety and free speech of pro-Palestine campus organizers last spring.
Sunday’s rally was a notable boost of energy in the Boston area, which has been seeing a slow but noticeable decline in rally attendance as people are discouraged by the war’s continuation. Sobering analogies to Vietnam (and the yearslong battle for peace then) abounded. Dave Grosser, a former organizer with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the 1960s and today a member of Boston DSA, pointed out to me that “withdrawal from Vietnam took nine years from the first major protests; right now, we’re only ten months in.”
While parallels to 1968 are striking – an expensive foreign war, a confrontational DNC rally, an enormously unpopular sitting president and (soon-to-be) appointed presidential nominee – there is one major difference. Back then, only a narrow majority of Americans disapproved of the war. Today, more than seventy percent of US residents want a ceasefire. With the White House writing multi-billion dollar checks for Israel, we need a mass movement for peace composed of the overwhelming majority of Americans favoring an end to the genocide. But as ever, the question remains: who will organize them?
Learn more about the various organizations sponsoring the rally here, and sign up to get involved here. To learn more about Boston DSA’s efforts in particular, read our petition and sign on here.
Nick Lavin is a Boston Public Schools paraprofessional and a member of the Boston Teachers Union.
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