Antiwar Movement Rallies Around Jill Stein - A report from Workers Strike Back’s working-class antiwar rally at the DNC
Published 10/10/2024
by Matthew Meloy
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) was held in Chicago this year and many predicted that, due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, protests at the convention were likely to rival the generation-defining protests at the 1968 DNC. In July, after Joe Biden announced he would not be seeking re-election, the Democratic Party and the most billionaires in history coronated Kamala Harris. This latestage replacement succeeded in cutting across struggle and reinstilled lesser-evil illusions around Harris. Protests at the DNC against the Biden-Harris regime's genocidal war on Gaza did not compare to the historic 1968 protests. Instead of 50-60,000 people flooding the streets as projected by some organizers, the largest event had no more than 5,000 people protesting. The DNC was held during the peak of the honeymoon period for Kamala Harris and the Democrats successfully energized their base while undercutting the momentum of the antiwar movement.
It must be recognized that Harris’ approach to the issues important to working people is not meaningfully different from Joe Biden. As a part of the Biden administration Harris has been a cheerleader for the genocide in Gaza as well as Biden’s partner in breaking the railroad workers strike, failing to fight for a federal $15/hour minimum wage, and failing to codify Roe v. Wade. These are among the many reasons why working people are reconsidering the positions of the Far-Right and Donald Trump even after driving them from office four years ago.
Thousands of rank and file union members across the country have passed resolutions calling for an end to weapons shipments and aid to Israel including several Workers Strike Back members. However, ceasefire resolutions have been hampered by labor leadership’s unwillingness to break with the Democratic Party. Every major union leader has endorsed Kamala Harris except for Teamsters President Sean O’Brien who has instead sowed illusions in Donald Trump. The labor movement should have used the momentum created by the antiwar resolutions and proudly used the DNC as a launching pad to organize around Jill Stein’s antiwar pro-worker presidential campaign. Without a movement with leadership ready to break with the Democratic Party, a political vacuum has been created that sows confusion and disappointment among working people. Workers Strike Back has been working to fill that vacuum.
On the night of August 20th, while Barack Obama gave remarks on the second night of the DNC, Workers Strike Back hosted a rally at Grace Church in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago around the slogan “Disrupt the DNC.” More than 200 working-class people from across the country gathered in-person, and more than 150,000 tuned in online to discuss a way forward for the antiwar movement and a strategy for the working class heading into November and beyond. Speakers that night included Left independent antiwar candidate Jill Stein, socialist co-founder of Workers Strike Back and former Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, Hassan Abdel Salam founder of Abandon Biden/Abandon Harris, Nick Cruse of the Revolutionary Blackout Network, and Palestinian Physicians Sabiha Kazi and Ibrahim Ibrahim. Attendees were drawn to the meeting by Stein’s platform which echoes the demands of Workers Strike Back. Stein supports a $25/hour minimum wage, Medicare for All, free college and housing, and understands the need for working-class people to break with the two parties of war.
Unlike many prominent labor leaders, Workers Strike Back saw the potential that protests at the DNC could have for the antiwar movement. We began building for this rally months in advance. In cities across the country Workers Strike Back members tabled and phone banked to spread the word that our rally was the place to be to “disrupt the DNC” and to articulate a way forward for our movements. The rally was the only major protest event being held in Chicago that day. When Workers Strike Back members arrived at the church to set up we were greeted by others who were so excited and ready to help that they showed up four hours early.
When it came time for the rally to start the venue was packed to capacity. The room was buzzing with energy and filled with working people including one 26 year old father and rank-and-file UAW member who drove over 3 hours just to attend the rally.
Workers Strike Back held this rally because of the urgent need to organize behind the strongest antiwar presidential candidate. There is a real opening for independent working-class politics to build the antiwar movement and win. The leaders of Abandon Harris have recognized the opening as well and drawn a clear line in the sand for the antiwar movement. Abandon Harris has refused to bow to pressure from the Democratic Party as Co-founder Hassan Abdel Salam laid out during his remarks,
“the goal is simple to never side with the criminals. To punish the President and the Vice President. To send a signal to the political landscape that when you engage in genocide you will be thoroughly punished definitively.”
His speech received one of many standing ovations from the crowd that night. Abdel Salam laid out the moral imperative the movement has in front of it, to never side with the criminals, and to organize the nearly 3 million Arab American voters who alongside working and oppressed communities across the country are looking for independent politics this election cycle and beyond.
The DNC took place just blocks from our rally. Celebrity speakers and misleaders of many kinds presented the agenda of the billionaire class with no solutions to the crushing cost of living crisis or the genocidal war in Gaza. Instead the DNC was a full display of “the politics of joy” mixed with rightwing fear mongering. From the Workers Strike Back rally stage Jill Stein cut through the DNC spectacle and stated very clearly,
“We say to anyone who is confused about who do they vote for and what do you vote for, just know that every vote for Kamala is an endorsement, it is an affirmation, it supports and it enables genocide. If you want to enable genocide you have got your candidate in Kamala Harris but if you wanna stop genocide, voting for our campaign is how we do that.”
The protests at the DNC often had an unclear direction due to the fact that many signs and speeches lacked clear fighting demands and many neglected to call out the Biden-Harris administration specifically. There was no clear expression of a path forward for the antiwar movement. Many speeches from organizers and activists chastised Democrats and used radical language about imperialism and fascism but completely avoided Harris’ name or put forward a concrete answer as to who working people should support in November. Workers Strike Back was the only one out of all the Left groups present at these events articulating a way forward for working people through November and beyond. We made it clear that Jill Stein’s campaign is the best way to strengthen the antiwar movement. Our banners, signs, and conversations centered around major demands like Medicare for All, a $25/hour minimum wage, and ending the genocidal war on Gaza. Workers Strike Back’s antiwar banner consistently received a positive reaction from press and protestors who would stop to photograph it because it articulated a way forward for the antiwar movement by linking it to other working class struggles.
Workers Strike Back members carry our banner for the March on the DNC Coalition
Every vote for Jill Stein is a clear vote against the genocidal war, and against the billionaire agenda. Every single one of those votes represents the potential to build a new mass party for working people out of this election. Workers Strike Back is working alongside the Stein campaign and the Abandon Harris movement to build the biggest possible vote for Stein in November, and specifically to deny Harris a win in Michigan. Michigan is of particular significance in this election because it is a key “swing state” and also home to the largest per capita Muslim population in the country.
To that end Workers Strike Back has two upcoming rallies with the Stein campaign and the Abandon Harris movement in Dearborn,MI on October 6th and in Seattle,WA on October 15th. The biggest possible vote for Jill Stein would demonstrate to the American working class that the demand for Left independent politics exists and that they are feasible if we fight for them. Register for these events and join Workers Strike Back!
Abandon Biden press conference to re-launch as Abandon Harris with co-founder Hassan Abdel Salam & Kshama Sawant interviewing Hassan for On Strike