The slaughter in Gaza, currently being carried out by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) with the full political, military, and economic support of US imperialism and its NATO allies, continues to provoke broad opposition on school campuses, outside weapons companies, and in the streets of major cities.
Today, and over the last 48 hours, protests against the ongoing genocide in Gaza have erupted in cities across the world. The latest demonstrations are a continuation of the global movement that has emerged against the war over the last month. Despite their size and scope—the largest anti-war protests since the Iraq war protests in 2003—they have been censored and then slandered in the mainstream Western press.
The latest protests, like those that came before it, include workers, youth, and many Jewish people, refuting the lie advanced by Zionists and right-wing political parties in every country that opposition to the capitalist state of Israel and its current ethnic cleansing campaign is an expression of “antisemitism.”
On Thursday, President Joe Biden reaffirmed that his administration will do nothing to stop the slaughter, telling reporters that there was no chance of a ceasefire: “None. No possibility.”
IDF artillery and aircraft, with the support of two US aircraft carrier strike groups, continue to carry out military strikes against civilians and non-military infrastructure.
Videos have emerged showing thousands of Gazans, many waving white flags, marching miles south under the barrels of IDF guns, abandoning their homes and possessions in the process.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, over 10,800 have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7. Another 150 Palestinians have been slain in the occupied West Bank by Israeli security forces over the same period, including 44 children, according to the UN.
On Thursday, the UN reported that seven more aid workers had been killed in the Strip, bringing the total to 99, and observing that this was “the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history the United Nations.”
While capitalist governments co-sign and endorse ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, workers and youth throughout the world continue to register their opposition.
At the London School of Economics and Kings College London, hundreds of students participated in mass walkouts against the genocide. Rebuking the entire political establishment and the right-wing press, students defiantly chanted, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!”
Later on in the evening, dozens of healthcare workers staged a march calling for a ceasefire now and a stop to the occupation.
The previous night in London, protesters demonstrated outside the Thales Group, a French multinational weapons company. Protesters smeared the building in red paint and blocked entrances.
Protests against weapons manufacturers supplying arms to Israel also took place in the United States and Canada. In West Hartford, Connecticut up to 100 people protested outside the Colt’s arms manufacturing plant on New Park Ave. early Thursday morning. Protesters held signs that read “Stop Arming Genocide” and “Shut it Down for Palestine.”
Speaking to CT Insider, Mika Zarazvand said that Israel is requesting 24,000 guns from the US and, “we know that two-thirds of them are going to come from Colt.” CT Insider reported that Colt refused to respond to the allegation that it is selling weapons to the IDF.
In Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, a group of protesters with Labour 4 Palestine blocked the entrances to GeoSpectrum, a subsidiary of Elbit, one of the leading suppliers of weapons to Israel. Protesters held signs calling for “Ceasefire now!” and “Stop the genocide, free Palestine.”
In Vancouver, protesters who identified themselves “in solidarity with #BlockTheBoat and #StopArmingIsrael global actions” demonstrated in the offices of ZIM, the largest Israeli-owned shipping line in the world as well as Scotiabank.
Early Thursday morning, hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters occupied Union Station in Toronto. Banners carried by demonstrators called for an end to the illegal blockade of Palestine and for a ceasefire.
On college campuses across the United States, thousands of students are heeding the call to “Shut It Down for Palestine” and are participating in mass walkouts and marches including in New York, Iowa, Washington, Louisiana and South Carolina.
The World Socialist Web Site will be updating this article with reports from protests around the United States.
Thousands protest Biden’s Chicago visit, denouncing him as “Genocide Joe”
Thousands protest “Genocide Joe” in Chicago, Illinois, November 9, 2023. [Photo: SEP-US/WSWS]
Over 5,000 workers and youth gathered in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood Thursday night to protest President Joe Biden’s campaign fundraiser event.
Protesters were met with a heavy police and security presence at the corner of Armour and Hubbard. Nevertheless, protestors loudly denounced Biden as “Genocide Joe,” as he arrived at the fundraising venue shortly after 4 p.m.
