Thousands of Protesters Mark Labor Day with Mid-Manhattan March for Palestine (original) (raw)
On Monday thousands gathered in Union Square for a national march organized by the New York City-based organization Within Our Lifetime (WOL) and Healthcare Workers for Palestine. With the backing of 126 organizational endorsements, the march visited key institutions that have repressed the movement for Palestine, amplifying the demand for an end to the zionist colonization of Palestine — in spite of increasing attempts to silence the movement on the streets, on social media and on campuses.
WOL Chair Nerdeen Kiswani addressed the crowd in Union Square, calling on protesters to move beyond electoralism.
“Every president — including the Democrats, from Clinton to Obama, to Biden — have contributed to the genocide of Palestinians,” Kiswani said. “They are not just complicit; they are doing this with the zionist state. They have sent unlimited weapons to Israel; another $20 billion of military aid was just approved. So we say to those who say they are uncommitted — commit to liberation.”
‘We’ll show them what it means to not stop. What it means to not rest.’
The demonstrators headed north on Park Avenue, stopping at Meta New York, where Kiswani called out the digital repression being leveled against vocal actors within the pro-Palestine movement, noting the suspension of the Instagram accounts of Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and the NYU People’s Solidarity Coalition just as classes begin this week. (Back in February, Meta deleted the accounts of WOL and Kiswani.)
The march then made its way to the headquarters of American Israel Public Affairs (AIPAC), the biggest foreign affairs lobby group in the United States. Kiswani told the protesters that organizers had sought to take them to the United Nations, but the NYPD and SRG officers blocked the path to the UN, declaring the area a “frozen zone. They would “attack and arrest anyone going to the United Nations,” according to Kiswani.
“People from all over the country — all over the world — came to New York City today because the United Nations headquarters, and AIPAC headquarters, and Meta headquarters, are right here in our city,” Kiswani said. “And we have the right to protest them.”
Protestors then took Fifth Avenue, working their way down to Washington Square Park. As they passed The New School they chanted, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”
At Washington Square Park, Kiswani addressed the students in the crowd. “[Universities] thought the summer vacation would make you forget,” she said. “Well, show them what it means to not stop. What it means to not rest.”
Among the thousands of marchers was a student contingent organized by National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), the grassroots organization supporting over 300 SJP chapters across the country. Sean Eren, a representative of NSJP, spoke to The Indypendent, sharing the organization’s view on what considerations the student movement might need to take as it moves forward in the face of escalating repression.
Nerdeen Kiswani of Within Our Lifetime gives her final remarks at Washington Square Park.
Protesters gather in Union Square, circling a massive Palestinian flag laid out onto Union Square Park.
A group of protesters stand holding a banner reading “No Votes for Genocide; Resist for Palestine.” To their left, a protester carries a sign reading “17,000 Children Murdered By U.S. Weapons” while to their right, a protestor holds a sign reading “Stop Killing Kids.”
“We’re almost a year into the genocide. For the first eight months, the student movement didn’t have leverage; we weren’t exerting power on a national stage to the extent where the state was actually interested in undermining us,” said Eren. “Our situation has changed. Through the student intifada, we showed power, and we showed real movement, and that’s a threat. As we enter the fall semester, the power we’ve shown is now going to be used against us.”
Over the summer, universities across the country implemented repression measures geared towards silencing the pro-Palestine student movement: NYU designated “zionist” as a protected class, and Columbia cutting due process for students involved in the first Gaza Solidarity Encampment, who will now be sent straight to the University Judicial Board for sanctions without having the opportunity to testify to administrators.
“SJPs can’t act alone,” Eren said, highlighting the necessity of a collaborative mass movement in the face of universities increasing their repression of pro-Palestine students. “It’s our communities, really, and the rest of the movement at large that gives us weight.”
Joining Kiswani in closing out the march was labor organizer Chris Smalls, the co-founder and former president of the Amazon Labor Union, who called on greater labor solidarity with the pro-Palestine movement.
“Let me tell y’all this — as a labor organizer, we need more unions to speak up,” Smalls said. “And not just speak up … They need to be out here in the streets.”
Eren echoed Smalls’ sentiment, noting that systemic labor policies, such as no-strike contract clauses, are designed to diminish labor power.
“[The] labor movement … isn’t really capable of the type of coordinated mass action that allowed the labor movement to secure concessions from the 1900s to the 1960s,” Eren said. “That’s something that’s a real detriment to our work, because there also hasn’t been a time where the student movement didn’t have a strong labor movement — and not only a strong labor movement, but a strong socialist and communist current in the U.S.— to lean on and mutually support.”
Kiswani spoke to the solidarity of healthcare workers with Palestine, noting how it has been not politicians, nor major institutions that have stood with the Palestinian liberation struggle, but the workers of the world. Following the march a fundraiser was held at the Judson Memorial Church, which raised more than $23,000 for medical equipment in Gaza and the West Bank.
“We are strong; we are powerful; we are many; we are the United Nations,” Kiswani said to the crowd during the march. “And whether they let us go in or not, the UN will hear our message today: They should be abolished. They have proven themselves to be useless. They have allowed genocide to occur. They have exposed [that] there is no human rights. There is no international law. They will not be the ones to implement it; so we will take on that role. The people, united, will never be defeated.”