Anti-Israel activists on Thursday called for a shift from protest to struggle and violent revolution at a protest in Atlanta against the presidential debate between US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
“Fuck the police, we will burn them in the streets and take what’s ours. This is not an empty threat, this is a promise,” a woman told about 100 activists at a protest organized by Palestine Action US. “The time for protest is over, it is shameful to be peaceful in the belly of a beast that is committing unlimited genocide in the global south. It’s time to follow the lead of fighters in oppressed countries. It’s time to pivot from protest to resistance.”
Advertisements for the “Stop the Debate” protests describe Biden and Trump as both part of a system that must be overturned and the choice between Democrats and Republicans as a “false choice.” In a video released by Palestine Action US, a speaker calls for the beheading of the “two-headed beast.”
“Intifada, intifada. Long live the intifada,” activists chanted. “Let the intifada go global.”
Select “Tactical Retreat”
The Escalate Network reported on Friday that protesters had opted for a “tactical retreat” when confronted by police. The group claimed a speaker quoted the philosophy of fallen terrorist Basel al-Araj, telling other protesters, “We don’t fight when the enemy is ready, we fight when we are ready.”
The Party for Socialism and Liberation also protested outside CNN’s Atlanta studios where the debate was held, and PSL presidential candidate Claudia de la Cruz also joined the pro-Palestinian protests.
“With Genocide Joe and ultra-racist Donald Trump shouting that they each support Israel and the war machine more than the other, more and more people are rejecting the two-party system and wanting an alternative,” PSL Atlanta said on Instagram on Saturday. “No matter who is president in November, we will not let up until we see a permanent ceasefire, an end to the occupation, and an end to all US aid to Israel! We must build a mass movement to overturn this unfair system!”
The Atlanta League of Democratic Socialists and the Atlanta Palestinian Multi-Faith Coalition also joined the PSL protest.
“This entire damn system must go,” wrote one photo the coalition shared on Instagram on Saturday.
The Atlanta DSA said on social media Saturday that neither Trump nor Biden represent the “will of working people.”
