A STATEMENT by WORKERS’ VOICE
Workers’ Voice joins the call for all who support the struggle for peace and justice in Palestine to mobilize for the March on Washington for Gaza. The historic event will take place this coming Saturday, Jan. 13, on the National Mall. The march will begin at 1 p.m.
It is likely that the march will be the largest antiwar protest in decades to be held in the nation’s capital. Well over 100,000 demonstrated in Washington on Nov. 4 to end the assault on Gaza, and this action promises to be even larger.
The Jan. 13 march is being hosted by American Muslim Taskforce for Palestine*, in partnership with the ANSWER coalition. It has been endorsed by a broad spectrum of over 200 antiwar, community-building, and social-justice organizations.
The march will carry the struggle to the doors of the White House with the demand that President Biden stop providing weapons and economic aid to the Israeli apartheid regime. Since Israel was founded, it has received over $270 billion from Washington, mainly in military aid. Since Oct. 7, the U.S. has sent 50,000 tank shells and at least 15,000 bombs to Israel, including giant “bunker-busters” that have been used to level entire multi-story apartment buildings. These weapons have killed close to 23,000 Gaza residents, as documented by the local health authorities, plus perhaps 8000 more people who are lying under the wreckage and assumed dead.
The organizers of the march point out: “President Biden has spent three months ignoring the screams of Palestinian children trapped under the rubble of their homes and the cries of grieving mothers in besieged hospitals across Gaza. This must end. We must ensure that President Biden hears the voices of the American people loudly and clearly outside the White House on Saturday, Jan. 13.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, is one of the major organizations that have endorsed the march. In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said: “We urge every American who is outraged by the daily images of the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza to rally in our nation’s capital on Jan. 13 to show elected officials that they are defying the clear call of the people to end our nation’s complicity in war crimes. Americans can and should stop this genocide by holding the Biden administration accountable.”
Workers’ Voice urges all of our readers and supporters to heed the calls to build a strong and united movement to end the genocidal war on Gaza and support the rights of the Palestinian people for peace, freedom, and self-determination. Please make every effort to participate in this historic national march, and bring your families, coworkers, and friends. All out for Jan. 13!
- Israeli troops out of Gaza! Stop the bombing now! No to genocide!
- End U.S. aid to Israel!
- Self-determination for the Palestinian people! No to expulsions!
- Stop the confiscation of Palestinian land! End all settlement building!
- Free the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails!
- For a free, democratic, and secular Palestine with equal rights for all!
*The American Muslim Task Force on Palestine includes American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Muslim American Society (MAS), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslim Student Association-National (MSA), Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) and Young Muslims (YM).