St. Louisans Rapidly Mobilize Against War with Iran
On Saturday, February 28th, around 50 St. Louisans mobilized at the Koplar Fountain in Forest Park to protest the unprovoked aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran by the United States and Israel. The Party for Liberation and Socialism (PSL) and the ANSWER anti-war coalition called for the action. The groups’ call for action went out Saturday morning, less than four hours before people gathered.
The action opened with a prayer for peace from Friar Francisco Gonzales, which acknowledged the horror of the mass killing of girls from an American – Israeli missile strike on a school. Then Chris Henry with Veterans for Peace spoke, condemning America and Israel’s “heinous, unlawful attack on Iran”. He urged all people to the streets to resist the “sick, psychopathic, genocidal plans” of our ruling class.
Next spoke Scott Will of the PSL. He noted that Iran had not attacked the United States. He also pointed out that it is working class people who are being sent to the Middle East, not the elites and their children. “Barron Trump isn’t going to war”, Will said. His comments also touched up fears that this could escalate into a broader war and even a world war. “But a war for what?”, he asked.
He said that the claimed reasons for the war by American leaders cannot explain why they launched the attack. It’s not for a war to protect women’s rights, he said, as you don’t mass murder girls at a school to protect women’s rights. It’s not a war to stop nuclear weapons, as a deal was on the table over Iran’s nuclear program, and both aggressors in the war have many nuclear weapons. It’s not a war for human rights – it is absurd to look at what ICE and DHS are doing to people in our country and then believe that somehow the Trump administration cares about Iranian human rights and that government’s treatment of protesters. Will then said that in the United States, “the ruling class knows they are unpopular, so they are lashing out”.
The group then moved to the corner of Lindell and Kingshighway. A sizeable group of police vehicles immediately gathered at the corner. The police then blocked all traffic within a block of the area for a few minutes until some people told them that nobody was marching in the streets. At this point, the police stopped blocking traffic. People stayed at the corner for around an hour and were met with an overwhelmingly favorable response from pedestrians and passengers in passing vehicles.
Photos in slideshow by Richard Reilly
