Providence continues protesting U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in national day of action
“This fight is bigger than one president," said Sterk Zaza. "It is about ending a system that profits from death and destruction. It is about creating a new world where we have dignity."
“As many of you know, we were out here, across the plaza, on Saturday, and we’re out here again today because the U.S. government has once again chosen war,” said Sajo Jefferson, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, from the steps of the Providence City Hall on Monday. “In only two days, this war has escalated into something even more horrific. In only two days, more than 500 Iranians have been killed in the U.S.-Israeli attacks. In only two days, the reported death toll from a strike on a girl’s elementary school has climbed to over 150 children. Israel has expanded its attacks into Lebanon, threatening to drag the entire region into a devastating war. And on the very same day these bombs began falling, Israel sealed all crossings into Gaza, tightening the siege and pushing Palestinians once again to the brink of starvation and death.”
On Saturday, the Trump Administration, along with Israel, launched an unprovoked, illegal war on Iran. More than 100 protesters gathered at Providence City Hall as part of a coordinated day of action. A full list of demonstrations can be found here.
The strikes on Iran follow the largest U.S. military buildup in the Middle East since 2003, when the Bush Administration launched its invasion of Iraq. The Pentagon has 50,000 soldiers across the Middle East and has deployed advanced weapons, including two aircraft carriers.
This conflict has the potential to quickly expand into a devastating regional war. Already, other countries in the region have been drawn into the war. President Trump has made it clear that he is willing to sacrifice the lives of U.S. servicemembers in this regime change war, along with an unlimited number of Iranians and others in the region.
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Sajo Jefferson continued:
“They tell us this is what security and stability look like. But this is a lie. This is not true. We know exactly what this is: This is a new chapter in 75 years of U.S. imperialist meddling in Iran. We all know that the U.S. elite have wanted Iran’s oil, so we must tell the truth and assert that this is a regime change war designed to give the ruling class of the U.S. a grip over a sovereign nation. Once again, it’s ordinary people like you and me who are going to pay the price in Iran, Palestine, across the region, and right here at home, who are expected to suffer and grieve their loved ones for this rich man’s war. For decades, Washington and its closest ally in the region, the genocidal government of Israel, have escalated violence while claiming to defend democracy, but the lies immediately fall apart.
“In a press briefing this morning, Pete Hegseth said, “War is Hell.” And he’s right. U.S.-Israeli bombs are raining down on the people of Iran and Lebanon right now. What democracy forces people into a living hell? U.S. intervention does not create democracy. It only brings devastation. U.S. warmongers impose sanctions that starve civilians. They use our tax dollars to level neighborhoods, and they manufacture fear to pull the wool over all of our eyes.
“We reject this.
“We have heard this all before, and we will not be fooled. We reject this war in Iran. We reject all the lies told to justify it. And we reject the idea that working people literally anywhere in the world are going to be made freer from bombs and sanctions. The people of Iran are not our enemies. Our struggle is not with each other. It is with a system that puts profit over human life at absolutely any cost. This cost is unfathomable. The people of Iran are workers, parents, students, and elders, human beings who deserve to live free from sanctions, bombs, and foreign interference. These crimes are committed in our names for our supposed freedom, but every bomb dropped is money stolen from our schools. Every missile fired is healthcare denied. Every escalation is a reminder that in a capitalist society, war is a business for the billionaire class that puts every single working person in the crossfire.
“But this war is not inevitable. Another future is possible. A future built on solidarity, not sanctions, on self-determination, not regime change, on peace, not permanent war. So I ask all of you, are we going to stay home and watch our government start another war in front of our eyes? No! To have the future that is possible and end today’s destruction, we have to fight. That’s why each of us came out here tonight, and that’s why we’re going to be in the streets all across this country until we end not only this war, but all wars. Let’s get loud, let’s get organized, and let’s show them that the anti-war movement is alive and growing, and we will not be divided.”
“I am here because I am outraged,” said Omar Bah, founder and former Executive Director of the Refugee Dream Center. “I reject war. I condemn war, and I condemn the aggression against Iran. By the way, not supporting the war against Iran does not mean you are not patriotic. If that makes anybody unpatriotic, then so be it, because I would rather condemn the attack against innocent civilians where children are being bombed in schools than support a war, especially a war that is unjust and not sanctioned by Congress.”
Omar Bah continued:
“I want to bring a perspective to this because I work in refugee resettlement. Currently, there are 117 million people displaced worldwide, and the number is growing. We are counting. At the end of this year, it’s projected to reach 150 million, from Venezuela to Iran to Lebanon. The numbers keep growing and growing.
“What is going to happen for this thing to end? Let’s bring sanity to the world.
“When people are displaced, they become refugees, immigrants, or asylum seekers. And most of the refugees are produced by wars where the United States intervened. The Americans were part of it. They messed up Venezuela. Over 6 million people were displaced and remain displaced. In Somalia, you will see what they’ve done recently in Minnesota, but Somalia did not happen out of a vacuum. Somalia was messed up because the U.S. intervened from 1993 to today, and they have not taken their hand out of Somalia. We see what is happening in Syria. The news may not be showing it, but Syria is still struggling through U.S. intervention, one way or the other.
“In 2021, over 85,000 Afghans were evacuated to the United States, and most of them were brought in by U.S. military planes because of the destruction caused by the U.S. war in Afghanistan. And what is happening right now? Five new policies by the U.S. government are targeting individuals, especially Afghans. These are people whom we destroyed their countries and brought here, and then created policies to target them.
“Number one, there is a travel ban for 39 countries, and most of them have full travel bans. This is targeting Muslim countries, countries of color, Latino countries, and Black countries. Countries that we intervened in and created destruction by war.
“There is also an asylum ban. Asylum is when somebody comes to this country and asks for protection. Maybe there are conflicts, bombs are flying in that country, or there is an unsafe situation in that country. Most of the time, it’s people fleeing wars caused by the U.S. They come and ask for protection, and we say, “Asylum ban.” Millions of people in this country cannot adjust their status right now because of that.
“Then there is the benefits ban. If you are in the country and have asylum or are a refugee, you cannot apply for any benefits because there is a ban on that. You are stuck, even if you are legally in this country.
“Then they came up with a new policy from the White House and said, “For all the people who entered this country as refugees or asylum seekers from 2021 to 2025, there will be an open review of their cases, meaning they are finding every little thing to send them back. These are people brought in on military planes, to take the Afghans as an example. So the government is reviewing these cases to send them back home. The Refugee Dream Center is part of a group of litigants suing the federal government over that.
“Finally, there is a new policy that came out last week targeting every refugee who has applied for a green card. The policy is to arrest all of them, round them up, and potentially deport them.
“So this is the situation right now: We bomb people’s countries, create war (most of the time, wars that are not sanctioned or authorized by Congress), and destroy their homes. The minimum we can do is give those people a second chance by letting them live in peace when they’re here in the United States. But we don’t do that.
“This year, the entire refugee resettlement process was banned in the U.S. No one entered the country. The U.S. manufactured a crisis in South Africa and started bringing in South Africans, and called them refugees. You know why? Because they’re white.
“That is what we Americans are saying no to, because they are speaking in our name, and it is not correct that they are doing these things. Because of the bombs dropping in Iran right now, millions of people are going to be displaced and are going to suffer. Those millions of people will likely not be brought here because they are interested in bringing South Africans.
“The bombs that are dropping on Yemen through Saudi Arabia and other places? Those Yemenis are not coming here as refugees. Most likely, it’s going to be the same thing in Iran.
“So on that note, I say no to war. I say no to conflict, no to aggression, no to external aggression on Iran, no to aggression on Lebanon, no to aggression on Syria, no to aggression on Yemen, Sudan, and Venezuela. Let us stand, speak out, and call for peace. It’s not hard to ask for. Let’s ask for peace, not war. There is no winner in war. We are all losers.”
“As Omar said, the same government that wages unnecessary, cruel wars abroad creates displacement, destruction, and forced migration, and then turns around and criminalizes the people those wars forced to flee,” added Sajo Jefferson. “Many of us have been in the streets together in Providence this year, fighting against the deportation regime, which has expanded, but it didn’t start this year. That’s important to note. Twenty-three years ago, ICE was founded as the Bush Administration used the tragedy of 911 as a pretext for war, not only on the Middle East, but against Muslim, Arab, and South Asian immigrants here at home in the United States. We cannot isolate ICE’s crimes in our communities from the U.S. military’s crimes overseas.”
“I am F.A.T.,” said Brian. “It stands for Farmers Against Trump. I’m a farmer against Trump. Please listen carefully to Arundhati Roy’s words:
‘Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.
’The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.
’Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.
’Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.’”
“I speak to you all at the intersection of my identity as a member of the Iranian American diaspora and my role as a student organizer for the Palestine movement,” said Ash. “Both of my parents immigrated to the United States to escape the devastation of the Iran-Iraq war, in which the U.S. sold weapons to Iraq in an attempt to regain imperial control over our homeland. Now, Iran faces its next war at the hands of Western imperialism. Indeed, the hands of the West have been stained with the blood and tears of the Iranian people for more than a century. From the British invasions and theft of the Iranian oil fields, to the infamous coup of the populist elected prime minister, Muhammad Mosadeh, at the hands of the United States, to the modern sanctions regime, which deprives the ordinary Iranian people of affordable necessities while the theocrats in charge live in luxury, the United States has never acted in the best interests of ordinary Iranians.”
Ash continued:
“Despite this, some in the diaspora see the brutality of the United States and Israel as necessary to save Iran from its current regime. Understand this: I will never defend the brutality of the Islamic Republic towards the Iranian people, not as an Irani and especially not as a woman, but I ask those who seek a better future for the people of Iran to look to history. The West has spent 100 years making life unbearable for the Iranian people. The brutal racist regimes of the United States and Israel do not wage war, do not sanction, do not bomb, and do not kill civilians to benefit the ordinary Iranian. Just today, Israel, which so arrogantly claims that its actions will protect Iranian women and girls, bombed a girls’ school in Minab, massacring over 80 female students. Are these the actions of a government that cares about Iranian women?
“No. The fact is that the bombs and massacres of the West will never liberate the Iranian people. Imperialism does not liberate. Behind the facade of American and Israeli propaganda is the true motivation for this war: Imperial domination and extraction of Iran’s natural resources. Just as in Venezuela, the United States seeks to dominate and exploit the global south to fatten the pockets of shareholders while you, the average American, have been deprived of affordable necessities by your government. This is why the anti-war movement has always thrived here in the belly of the beast, where the struggle against foreign wars is deeply intertwined with the struggle against the capitalist exploitation of the working class.
“Remember this always: The struggle against imperialism is a working-class struggle. We, the everyday people of the United States, must fight in solidarity with the everyday people of Iran.
“It is here again that I appeal to our shared history. The student movement, both in America and Iran, has always been a vital organ of battle against campaigns of imperialist war. From Brown University to Tehran University, we, the students of the world, will always fight alongside our communities to resist the oppressive grip of fascism.
“Yet one thing remains ever true: We students cannot do this alone. Our struggle is intimately tied to that of our local working-class comrades. This is why I plead with students of Providence fight with us, for it is not the old who are sent around the world to kill in the name of freedom, nor is it the rich who face fire and debris on the front lines. The time to get organized is now. The time to inherit the legacy of the anti-war movement is now. The time to join the global struggle against fascism and imperialism is now.
“And to those in the Providence community, we ask that you continue to fight alongside us. Solidarity is our greatest weapon, and there is no greater honor than to fight with you all for our collective liberation. Join me and shout: From the belly of the beast, hands off the Middle East!”
“I stand before you today as a Muslim, a Syrian, a Kurd, and an American citizen,” said Sterk Zaza, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. “This is the second time I stand on these steps to say, “I am ashamed of being an American citizen. I am ashamed of what this government is doing in my name and in your name. I’m ashamed. Are you ashamed?”
Sterk Zaza continued:
“I am here, though, to make history. We are here to make history. I am here to stand against imperialism. We are here to stand against imperialism. I am here for my four beautiful granddaughters and for every child whose sky has been filled with drones instead of stars.
“Remember these dates and every single day in between: On March 20th, 2003, the United States invaded Iraq. I will never forget that day. They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none. But there were cities destroyed. There were homes destroyed. There were futures destroyed. Some people were brutally murdered.
“On October 7th, 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan. 20 years of war, 20 years of occupation. 20 f- years. Fill in the blank.
“In 1953, the United States overthrew Iran’s democratically elected government. In 1988, a U.S. warship shot down Iran Air Flight 65, killing 290 civilians. 66 of them were children.
“On January 2020, the United States assassinated an Iranian leader on Iraqi soil, pushing the region toward a wider war.
“And let’s be clear: this is a two-party business. Under Bush, the United States carried out 57 drone strikes. Under Obama, there were 563 drone strikes in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. So we will not be fooled when the Democrats try to convince us that things will be different if they win the midterm elections, which is a bunch of bull crap. We remember Gaza under the Biden Administration. Thousands and thousands of civilians were killed. We remember Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, and Iran. In the pursuit of endless profit, the U.S. ruling class has made Western Asia, what they call the Middle East, a battlefield. (Next time you refer to the Middle East, call it Western Asia.)
“Sanctions suffocate economies, bombs fracture generations, military bases surround sovereign nations, and they call it security. But does this keep us secure? No. Does this keep anybody secure? No. The billionaires make billions through these life-destroying wars while we, the working class and oppressed people of the world, are the ones who pay the price. We refuse to be the fuel for the Empire’s war. Say it with me: We refuse to be the fuel for the Empire’s war.
“We are the working class. We are the majority. We are the ones who build this country. Without us, nothing moves. That is our power. That is why we are the ones who can stop these wars, believe it or not. People think we’re crazy standing out here in this cold, but you know what? We are the power. We will win this because they can’t make their profits without us. We, the working and oppressed people of the world, are the ones who have the power to stop them. We must remember this. Don’t ever forget this. We must keep showing up. We must be loud, and we must be clear: No war on Iran!
“This fight is bigger than one president. It is about ending a system that profits from death and destruction. It is about creating a new world where we have dignity. I want my granddaughters - my babies, the loves of my life - I want them to inherit peace, not drones. I want them to have justice, not occupation. I want them to live in solidarity, not in sanctions. History does not remember the silent. I don’t know how much I can stress that. History remembers the ones who stand up and fight.
“So let it be said, when the Empire moved, we stood up. When the war machine roared, we spoke out. When they told us it was inevitable, we said no, because war is not inevitable. Imperialism is not permanent. The U.S. Empire is not invincible. Every empire in history has fallen. Every empire has fallen. Not because it wanted to, not because it decided to, but because ordinary people like you and I decide enough is enough.
“They tell us we are small. They tell us we are powerless. But look around you. We’re out here. We are the power. We are the working class rising, and we’re only getting stronger. We truly are. And we’ve seen this in the past few years. On U.S. soil, we are getting stronger. If they try to drag us into another war, if they try to bomb Iran in our name, if they try to sacrifice another generation, they will have to reckon with us. I am not afraid. Are you afraid? No. We are not afraid. We are not silent. We will not back down. And when the people rise together, we cannot and will never be stopped. No more sanctions, no more war.”
“Good evening, as salam alaykum,” said Sapha. “We gather here today as American Muslims, Christians, Jews, and people of conscience, united by a shared belief that every human life is sacred. From the devastation in the Gaza Strip to the threats of war on Iran, many in the Muslim community experience these moments not as isolated conflicts, but as a part of a broader pattern where Muslim lives are treated as expendable.”
Sapha continued:
“We reject violence against civilians everywhere. We also refuse to ignore the reality that when bombs fall, when entire populations are dehumanized, and when fear and suspicion target Muslims at home and abroad, it creates the feeling that our communities are under siege. The United States and Israel’s interference and exploitation must be stopped. We are tired of the ongoing rhetoric and propaganda that depicts Muslims as savages, uncivilized human animals, all to dehumanize and demoralize. We cannot be complacent in the genocides and exploitation of Sudan, Congo, or Gaza, or the constant bombing of Lebanon, Syria, and other parts of West Asia.
“So we stand for justice, not revenge, for dignity, not domination, for peace, not endless wars. We call for an end to the violence in Gaza, for de-escalation with Iran, and for a future where Muslim lives, all lives, are valued equally, because our message today is simple: We will not accept a world where our faith is feared, our humanity is questioned, or our communities are treated as collateral damage. We will continue to raise our voices for justice, for peace, and for the sanctity of every human life. Free us all from the lies, free all oppressed people of the world, especially ourselves. No one is free until we all are free, and love is the greatest form of resistance. It is a pleasure to stand with you all here today.”
“Thank you for raising your voices in solidarity with the people of Iran, Palestine, and everywhere that has been oppressed by U.S. imperialism,” said Sajo Jefferson, wrapping things up. “Today has made one thing crystal clear: War does not happen by accident. War is in the DNA of the capitalist system. A system built to protect none of our interests, but the interests of a very small minority at the expense of all of us. Let’s be clear: this is not just a problem of one party. From Bush to Obama, from Trump to Biden. Democrats and Republicans alike have waged wars, carried out drone strikes, funded occupations, and committed massacres, all in the name of the U.S. Empire. U.S. imperialism is fueled by a two-party ruling class that keeps the profits flowing and the bombs dropping, no matter who sits in the White House.”
Sajo Jefferson continued:
“The genocide in Gaza is the most recent proof of that. We also know this: The war abroad and the war at home are the same. The bombs that fall in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen create refugees, and then ICE raids and mass incarceration. Attacks on immigrant communities enforce Empire here at home. That’s why our fight has to be connected. Ending imperialist wars and fighting for justice here requires one massive united struggle, and we can only win it together.
“It’s got to be a fight, too, right? We can’t sit on the sidelines and watch. History has shown us that those in power will not stop on their own. They will escalate. They will lie as they’ve lied many times just in the past few days, and they will divide us unless we organize. The only path forward is building a powerful mass movement—a movement that connects struggles at home and abroad, a movement rooted in solidarity and the truth. Every protest, every conversation, every act of organizing, all of us being out here tonight is part of that movement. Are we going to keep building that movement? Today’s rally is the beginning, not the end. We will keep organizing. We will keep building the movement until we build a movement that can finally win a world completely free of wars.”
War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!