Providence joins nationwide emergency actions against U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran

"Let’s be clear: The war that Trump has launched this morning against Iran was completely unprovoked and stands in defiance of the overwhelming majority of Americans, who only want peace."

“Overnight, the Trump administration, along with Israel, began bombing Iran,” said Kwame Gatlin, from the Party for Socialism and Liberation, to the crowd of around 125 people in Downtown Providence on Saturday. “This is an illegal, inhumane, unjustified aggression that only serves the billionaire elite and the oil companies and continues the U.S.-Israeli reign of terror in the region. It is crucial that we take to the streets to show the American people that we do not support this war and demand that it end immediately. Trump, his allies, and warmongers need to be held accountable for the wave of massive violence that they’ve unleashed around the world and here at home.”

Here’s the video:

The bombing overnight followed the largest U.S. military buildup in the Middle East since 2003, when the Bush administration launched its invasion of Iraq. The U.S. has 50,000 soldiers across the Middle East and has deployed advanced weapons to target Iran, including two aircraft carriers.

This protest was part of a nationwide day of emergency actions. The full list of demonstrations can be found here. National endorsements include a range of Palestinian organizations, 50501, CodePink, and others. Local sponsors include the Party for Socialism and Liberation, 50501 Rhode Island, and the Rhode Island Anti-War Committee.

Gatlin continued:

“We are in the streets today because history is fast-moving and because the emergency is now. We are here to say loudly and clearly, ‘No war with Iran.’ This is a depraved continuation of the war in Palestine and an escalation of the genocide that the people of Palestine have been fighting for two years straight.”

“While the U.S. has tried to hide that Israel was involved, we now know the truth. The U.S. and its proxy military base of Israel are openly and brazenly attacking sovereign nations. From Gaza to Tehran, Israel and the U.S. continue to demonstrate that they are the existential threat to the world.

“The people of Providence stand with the people of Palestine, Iran, and the entire region as they continue to resist Zionist, imperialist attacks. Let’s be clear: The war that Trump has launched this morning against Iran was completely unprovoked and stands in defiance of the overwhelming majority of Americans, who only want peace. Trump and Israel launched this war to provoke a wider regional war. This war is completely illegal under both the Constitution and international law, but after the genocide that we’ve seen in Gaza for the past two years, can we be surprised? This is yet another blatant imperialist attack that can only lead to death and destruction. Iran has not attacked the United States, and it has no intention to. Trump has decided to initiate this war because he wants to be able to dictate to any nation around the world what they should do in their own country.

“They are deliberately targeting children, as we saw this morning, when an Israeli airstrike in Iran hit an elementary school, murdering 40 school children just as they bombed school after school in Palestine. All the justifications for the wars the U.S. has launched in the past 80 years have been based on lies. The lies we’ve been told about Iran are particularly absurd. After the U.S. has spent the last half-century building a ring of dozens of military bases surrounding Iran, parked enormous warships off its coast, and repeatedly attacked it with our military, we’re told that it’s Iran that is aggressive and threatening us. Decades after Israel worked with apartheid South Africa to develop its own nuclear weapons in violation of every international law, we’re told that it’s Iran that must be attacked before it can get a weapon it isn’t even developing.

“After 25 years of watching the U.S. and Israel bomb and invade nearly every country in the region, assassinating countless people, we’re told that it’s Iran that sponsors terrorism. Every accusation by the U.S. is actually a confession.

“This war, like all U.S. foreign wars, will hurt the people we attack the most, but it will also hurt U.S. workers. Every bomb and missile dropped in Tehran is a new school or affordable housing complex that never got built here at home. And those bombs don’t just explode in Tehran and Gaza. They come back here. The weapons that ICE uses when it invades our cities, the techniques that DHS uses to disappear people and kidnap them to foreign countries, and the legal justifications for the murder of Americans in our streets all come directly out of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and everywhere else our empire has attacked.

“The government’s total budget for this war is well over $1 trillion. Let me say that again: It’s over $1 trillion. Every penny of that could be spent on the massive unmet needs of workers in this country. We need jobs, healthcare, decent schools, and affordable housing, not another endless war. The fight for peace abroad and justice for working families here in the United States is the same.

“We are on the front lines of this anti-war struggle here, from Iran to Palestine. Our immediate ask for the people here today is to expand that fight. Today, we will hear from speakers from the current student movement, the Rhode Island Muslim community, the DSA, and the Answer Coalition. We are here to share everything we see and hear. This could escalate into a major war, killing thousands of people in the region and around the world.”

Kwame Gatlin ©2026 Anthony Ricci

“We are here today for a reason,” said Imam Abdul-Latif Sackor, “It’s part of the nature of the human being. Our nature, the natural disposition of the human being in Arabic, is called the fitra. When you put ‘al’ at the beginning, ‘al fitra’ refers to the human being. Without the ‘al’, it refers to the animals and the ants. They have their own fitrah. The bees have their own fitra. They have their own natural disposition.”

The Imam continued:

“Part of the nature of the human being is to want good and to do good; to do what is right. It is in our DNA. All human beings are created with this fitrah. There’s a natural disposition to see good in everyone. Some people are lackadaisical, but other people have more drive. Those who have more drive, who have more zeal, we have to pull them toward their natural fithra, their natural disposition.

“Trump and warmongering neocons love to send your kids to wars that they would never fight themselves. They don’t want to send their own kids. They send our kids. In the Quran, it says, “Do not cause corruption. Do not cause wars on the earth.” They say, “We are not warmongers. We are peacemakers.” This is what they say. But what are they doing? They are causing wars. They are causing corruption on the earth. It’s up to us to stand up for what is right, do what is right, and stop their corruption and wrongdoing.

“There is a saying, ‘Stop the oppressor and the one being oppressed.’ It means helping those who are being oppressed or those who are oppressing.

“They ask, ‘How can we help? We understand helping those who are being oppressed, but how do we help those who are doing the oppressing?’ And the prophet said, ‘Stop them from their oppression.’ Stop them from their oppression by speaking up, marching, and protesting, because if we sit back and do nothing, it will continue and get worse.

“And they don’t care if they blow up the whole world because in their minds, they’re going to go to the moon. They don’t care if they kill everyone or destroy this earth as long as they go to the moon. So they said that they are peacemakers, but in reality, they are warmongers. They are corrupted, but don’t realize it. They have a thirst for power. There’s a part of the human being called the lower self, the ego. The ego, if you just let it grow, will get stronger and stronger, like the Incredible Hulk. It will keep feeding itself, taking everything. All the ego cares about is itself. It doesn’t care about any other self; it only cares about itself. If you allow it to grow and feed, it’s like a cancer. Keep growing and feeding. And if you don’t get help at the beginning, it destroys everything. Not only you, but everyone in its path. So, brothers and sisters, it is our responsibility. It behooves us to stop that cancer. Cure that cancer.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is what Trump wants: absolute power. This is what we’re seeing with our very eyes. Those who are in power want absolute power. But we, those of us who are, in reality, the peacemakers, want justice. Justice will overcome all darkness and evil. Examples of doing peace and justice: It’s like darkness at night. When it’s dark at night, the darkness must leave as the sun rises. This is why we are standing here. We came here to eradicate that darkness: the evil on the earth.”

©2026 Athony Ricci

“I’m not sure about y’all, but I woke up this morning incredibly pissed off, and I’ve never been more ashamed to be an American,” said Brittany Kubicek from the Democratic Socialists of America. “And that’s saying something considering the shit we do. I don’t understand how no one sees through the lies. Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying since the ’90s that Iran is weeks away from having a nuclear weapon. It’s the same excuse, WMDs, that was used to justify the war in Iraq and kill a million people. Do we really think that bombing Iran will bring them freedom? We cared so much about their freedom that we killed 50 plus kids in an elementary school, because apparently Iran is a threat to the U.S. How?”

Kubicek continued:

“We’re the ones with over 40 military bases surrounding their country. We have almost 800 military bases around the world to impose terror and destruction on any country unwilling to comply with U.S. capital interests. Who is the real threat to peace in the region?

“We made a preemptive strike last night - while having peace talks. We attacked Iran unprovoked. Once again, it seems like the United States’ solution to the problem of terrorism is killing more people. They are not the aggressor; we are. The United States is the real terrorist.

“Something I’ve been thinking about a lot about this attack is how Fidel Castro once said, ‘You strangle us for 40 years and then criticize us for the way we breathe.’ We overthrew Iran’s democratically elected leader in a coup in 1953, and that’s largely led us to where we are now. The U.S. doesn’t care about democracy. It cares about control. As has been said, we have plenty of money to oppress our fellow workers around the world, but never enough to give us a decent life at home. This must end.

“Make no mistake, this war with Iran is a colonial war. Just like the genocide in Palestine, the blockade of Cuba, and the abduction of Maduro. The purpose is to subjugate the people and kill any resistance. This didn’t begin with Trump, and it’s not going to end with Trump. The U.S. has been at war for 232 of the 249 years it has existed.

“We have heard members from both parties support intervention in Iran and Venezuela, among other places. It shows us that it doesn’t matter who’s in charge. Our ruling class parties support war and fund genocide. The U.S. is the greatest threat to world peace and global stability. We are here today to show the Epstein class that we will not be silent. We will not stand by while these unprovoked attacks occur. We will not stand for more U.S. aggression.”

“ANSWER stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, which is exactly why we are here today,” explained Karen, representing the ANSWER Coalition. “Trump’s war in Iran comes at a time when the U.S. is openly talking about recolonizing the world. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is talking to European leaders about reviving the Age of Empire, when the white male colonizers used incredible violence to try to subjugate the people of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.”

Karen continued:

“What Rubio won’t say is that that age never ended. The U.S. never stopped colonizing the world. For the last century, our government has waged war after war and imposed economic sanctions that have strangled working people across the world. Trump will tell us the same lie that every Democrat, Republican, and mainstream news outlet has always and is still telling us: That this war is somehow about bringing freedom to the people of Iran. We know that’s a complete lie. The U.S. has never cared about freedom. It has only ever cared about oil and global domination. Israel is still colonizing, starving, and murdering the people of Palestine, even after a supposed ceasefire, and the U.S. collaborates with Israel on this racist war against Iran because it serves their joint interests. When we protest, we’re called paid protesters, outside agitators, or terrorists by our own government.

“We’re supposed to believe that while we’re being arrested, beaten, and brutalized for protesting, that somehow our government bombs Iran in the name of providing them freedoms?

“They will tell us that the war liberates, but we know how that turned out in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, with millions dead, including many millions killed by U.S. sanctions, which blocked access to food and medicine. Not to mention the thousands of U.S. troops killed, wounded, and traumatized for life. Not a single stated objective was accomplished, and just like those needless wars, the oil company and weapons manufacturing CEO kids - the Epstein class kids - will not do the fighting and dying. They’ll be getting richer with every bomb dropped.

“By contrast, working-class people in this country will be on the front lines. The reason so many working-class people join the military is that it’s the only way they can access those things that the billionaires deny us, like healthcare and education. Trump is talking about working-class people when he says, as an afterthought, ‘American lives may be lost.’

“Should poor and working-class children’s families die for a rich man’s war? Should they go to kill Iranians to line the pockets of the billionaires? Our enemy is not Iran. Our enemy is this president and the billionaire class, who just cut access to Medicaid for millions, cut food subsidies for millions, raised the cost of everything, kept our wages stagnant, deported our immigrant neighbors in the hundreds of thousands, spread ICE terror and violence, and attacked our Black trans disabled siblings across the country.

“We are on the same side as the people of Iran in a war against the billionaires. What we do in this moment is decisive. Month after month, people have stood against the War on Venezuela, Cuba, and Palestine. The anti-war movement is still growing. We don’t just need to stop these wars. We need to defeat the U.S. war machine. That’s right, we need to use the trillions of dollars the war machine represents to fix our crumbling bridges, keep our hospitals open, and fund healthcare, housing, jobs, education, and peace for all.

“If you are a veteran or have friends or family in the military, you have a special role to play: Service members are organizing to refuse deployment to Iran. There are many ways you can help stop this war or even get out of the military. If that’s you, talk to me. It’s up to you, and it’s up to all of us to do everything in our power to stop this war. The Age of Empire that Rubio wants to drag us back to? That age fell because people across the world rose against war and the colonization of their countries, and we need to do the same.”

©2026 Anthony Ricci

“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!”

Kwame Gatlin returned to the mic to wrap things up:

“Thank you to all who spoke today. Your words are so important in this moment, when our task is not only to be in the streets today but also to go home, talk to our friends, families, neighbors, and coworkers, and bring them out next time because the only thing that has ever won real change is a mass movement of working people ready to shut it down.

“That’s what this moment demands. This war must be stopped. The U.S. is carrying out its largest military buildup in the Middle East since 2003 with tens of thousands of troops, aircraft carriers, and advanced weapons. This could spiral into a catastrophic regional or even global war. Iran has no intentions to build a nuclear weapon, and unlike Israel, has been a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty since 1970. The biggest threat to world peace is not Iran. The biggest threat to world peace is the U.S. government, with over 5,000 nuclear weapons, deployed bases, submarines, bombers, and all on top of that, intercontinental ballistic missiles all around the world.

“The U.S. is the only country ever to use a nuclear weapon. It’s also the only country in the world to reserve the right of first use of nuclear weapons, all while our politicians and friends in the media paint a picture that’s upside down and backwards, that our enormous empire is under threat. Yet while all this is happening, while Trump is launching a war that Americans don’t want and threatening to kill millions of people, what is our supposed opposition party doing?

“They’re offering mild objections while the war machine moves forward. That’s complicity, because ultimately, we know that they’ve got the same billionaire donors as the Republicans, and they want to profit from the U.S.-dominated war machine.

“We were all in the streets when the Biden administration carried out the genocide against the Palestinian people, so that we won’t be fooled. On both sides of the aisle, the ruling class wants this war, especially if they can stand aside, do nothing, and blame Trump for the war that they actually want. That’s not opposition. That’s complicity.

“With the fake opposition of the Democrats and the unity of the billionaires behind Trump, this war reveals the extreme authoritarian nature of the U.S. government. No regular American wants this war, but the leaders of both parties are more than happy to support Trump in launching it. The fact that our entire political class can ignore what the people want, and send our kids to die, and that Trump and his billionaire friends can make more money so that the Zionist regime can obtain regional hegemony, shows that we don’t live in a democracy.

“We live in a dictatorship of the rich. This crisis exposes a political system that serves billionaires, not ordinary people. No regular person wants endless wars. No regular person wants their tax dollars funding bombs. No ordinary person wants rising rents or healthcare costs. Yet both parties fall in line every time it comes to war and repression.

“What [right] does the U.S. have to lecture anyone on democracy or human rights? We’ve got a rigged political system dominated by two parties that listen to a handful of billionaires over literally hundreds of millions of American workers. ICE is executing protestors in broad daylight. Every day, Americans cannot afford a dignified life. Violence abroad and violence here at home; that’s what the ruling class has to offer us. That’s what their blood-soaked wealth wants to buy. The media will be trying to tell you that the protests won’t work this time, that our movement is stupid. But tell that to the people of Minneapolis, whose general strike on January 23rd, followed by the nationwide shutdown on January 30th, saw over 5,000 Rhode Islanders join forces against Trump and ICE.

“We can’t stop here. We have to keep growing our mass movement to stop the war with Iran, free Palestine, and end ICE terror.

“On Monday at 5:30, we need you to take the streets again. This time, across the plaza at Providence City Hall, to stop this war on Iran. We will also have light food available for those observing Ramadan.

“If you’re not an organization, please talk to an organizer before you leave here and make the connections. Our movement will only be effective if we are organized. The task ahead of us is long, and there’s no group of people that I’d rather be struggling with today, other than you all. We are an amazing group, and we will win. We will see liberation from Palestine to Iran to America.”