Kesey Square rally promotes alternatives to endless war

Presenter: KEPW’s Todd Boyle was at Kesey Square Nov. 2 for the rally, ‘No Votes for Genocide.’ The complete rally is available on Todd’s YouTube channel. Introducing the speakers:

Kamryn Stringfield: Thank you everybody for coming out on this afternoon. We’re about three days out from the general election in the United States and of course everybody knows what’s going on with that. We have two main presidential candidates that both support the genocide in Gaza. It’s unconscionable.

[00:00:30] So today we’re standing up here and saying, ‘No votes for genocide.’ We’re not going to continue to vote for these two genocide-supporting candidates just because of an alarmist call that it’s the most important election of our lifetime.

[00:00:45] We’ve heard that every election of our life so far. So I’m not going to take up much time but our speakers today are going to say a few things about the national races and give you some other choices to vote for.

[00:00:58] So without further ado, the speaker is Mazda, who’s a longtime anti-war activist with the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition.

[00:01:05] Mazda Majidi (ANSWER Coalition): …Of course, we know the genocide that is ongoing now for over a year in Gaza. At least 50,000 people have died as a direct result of the bombings, indiscriminate bombings, women, children, everyone. And we know at least another 100,000 people have died as a result of the starvation that the people are forced to live with.

[00:01:35] When we talk about the U.S. political establishment defending the genocide in Palestine, it’s not just today. It’s been going on for 76 years now and it’s not just support for Israel. It is support for the U.S. imperialist project in the region. We have to emphasize that…

[00:01:54] So we talked about Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, another country that Israel sees it as its own right to bomb as it pleases. And even if you don’t know anything else about the region, if you have one country that is dropping bombs on several of its neighbors and even goes beyond its neighbors, dropping bombs on other countries, it’s easy to tell who is the instigator of the violence there.

[00:02:25] I’m a teacher and I know in the school if a kid gets sent to the principal’s office because they’re fighting, if it happens every day with a different kid, you don’t have to, you know, you don’t have to do too much work to figure out where the problem lies, and then you have to deal with that individual student and so forth.

[00:02:42] In the Middle East, Israel has fought every single one of its neighbors, and even in the recent period, with the exception of Egypt, it’s bombed pretty much everybody. Israel is a danger to world peace because Israel has done everything in its power, and not just in the last year of the more extreme version of the genocide, but even in previous years, trying to get the U.S. to get involved and start a war in the region in particular against Iran.

[00:03:12] And so for that reason, of course, the plight of the people in Gaza is painful enough, and I know every single person who’s here has seen that and that’s a major issue but if you weren’t concerned about that, if we were concerned about the danger of a world war, if we’re concerned about the escalation of the existing Israeli war against the people of Palestine, and if we’re concerned about the people of Palestine who suffered so much having to suffer through these same conditions for more months more years, we need to do everything we can.

We here are doing something and that’s great. I think we need to double our efforts to get our friends, co -workers, family members, whoever to raise their voice and raise our level of activism against the state of Israel.

[00:04:05] The people of Palestine, if they have nothing else, they have one thing and that is an inspiration that they provide to the people of the world over to, against all odds, continue this struggle.

[00:04:17] Kamryn Stringfield: Thank you so much Mazda. I want to introduce Justin Filip who is the Secretary of the Pacific Green Party, the co-chair of the Eugene chapter of the Pacific Green Party, a delegate to the Green Party U.S., and the only anti-genocide choice on the ballot for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District.

[00:04:43] Justin Filip (Pacific Green Party): Thanks Kamryn. All right. The late political commentator Michael Brooks once said, ‘Be kind to people, be ruthless to systems.” So I try to keep that in mind when talking with people about organizing and voting. I know there are some in our movement that we don’t all necessarily agree on the same electoral approach, but I’m going to sort of make the case for not voting for genocide as best I can.

[00:05:11] Some will say don’t be a one-issue voter. Well, we’re not. We’re putting the entire system on trial this election and every election. It’s the system that has brought us this genocide in Israel that’s now expanding to the rest of the region. This did not just manifest out of nowhere. This is a systemic problem and the root of the problem are the two major capitalist imperialist parties.

[00:05:39] And that’s why we have to put our energy into building people power outside of those two imperialist capitalist corporate parties. That’s why we had to start building power with groups like the Green Party and with PSL.

[00:05:52] Continuing to vote for the two major parties is perpetuating an unjust system. We are here to build something better. If we’re going to stop the genocide and future ones we’re going to have to stop supporting imperialist parties and start supporting working-class parties…

[00:06:10] Kamryn Stringfield: Thank you so much Justin. Our next speaker is Kaleigh, who is a local community organizer and a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, who’s going to be telling you about Vote Socialist 2024.

[00:06:32] Kaleigh Bronson-Cook (Party for Socialism and Liberation): Thank you all so much for being here today. We are here together at a very critical and important moment. This election season, Americans are ultimately being faced with the choice to, as Justin said, uphold the status quo or build something different. And we’re here today to make it clear which choice we’ve made in saying: No votes for genocide.

[00:06:59] This two-party system really is one-party system. It’s two names for the same party. (Typical American extravagance.) That’s right. Typical American extravagance. We can’t just have one ruling elite party. We have to have two. Even though they’re the same party. Different names, same party. It’s designed to make us feel trapped in a situation where we have no choice but to support a candidate who backs the genocide of Palestinians and another endless war in the Middle East.

[00:07:28] We are here today to repeat to say that we refuse to be extorted. We will not vote for any politician who wants to use our tax dollars to carry out a genocide.

[00:07:43] Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are outspoken supporters of the Israeli regime and its genocide against Palestinians. It is disgusting and repulsive that this is the so-called choice that the two-party system presents us with.

[00:08:02] The idea that this is the greatest democracy in the world is a joke. If you have to vote for genocide to save democracy, I have a news flash for you. You do not have a democracy in the first place.

[00:08:19] We have to make the continuation of the genocide in Gaza impossible. We have to build working class political power and fighting institutions to actually combat the rise of the far right. As Justin perfectly explained, the Democratic Party has proven itself time and time again as utterly incapable of meaningfully combating Trump and his policies. They are not only responsible for the genocide in Gaza, but they have done nothing to actually stop far-right policies such as the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Instead, they spend their time catering to Never Trump Republicans and trying to kick third-party candidates off the ballot in states across the country.

[00:09:10] In the words of Claudia De la Cruz, you don’t fight the right and win with the center. You fight it with the left.

[00:09:21] Many people who stand with Palestine are supporting third-party candidates. We in the party for Socialism and Liberation are running Claudia De la Cruz and Karina Garcia. I encourage you to come to our table over here and learn more about them and their campaign. But regardless of who you vote for, the most important thing is to reject the candidates of war and genocide and stay in the streets until Palestine is free.

[00:09:46] Kamryn Stringfield: Thank you all for standing out here in the rain. This is something that happens rain or shine, us standing and resisting imperialism, and you can plug into these groups around here—the Pacific Green Party, PSL, I encourage you as well the Springfield Eugene Anti-Imperialist Coalition is a place where every progressive sort of left group around here organizes. And so there’s tons of events that I’m sure are going to be coming up soon on the U of O campus as well, as they continue their push for divestment here on these streets, and of course showing solidarity with the continued repression of protesters, the continued oppression of homeless people in our city etc.

[00:10:31] Presenter: That’s a quick KEPW News summary of the Nov. 2 rally in Kesey Square, ‘No Votes for Genocide.’ Todd Boyle’s video featuring the complete speeches by Mazda, Justin, and Kaleigh is available on his YouTube channel.