Milwaukee says, “We won't vote for genocide!” ahead of the DNC

Milwaukee, WI – Nearly 200 people marched through the streets of downtown Milwaukee on the afternoon of August 17, demanding an end to the genocide in Palestine and denouncing Democrats like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for facilitating Israel’s crimes.

The crux of the march and rally was that the Democratic Party isn’t entitled to peoples’ votes just on the basis that they aren’t Donald Trump; they have to earn the votes, and to do that, they need to end aid and weapons to Israel.

Some of the main chants from the day echoed the sentiments of the broad masses of people in this country, including “Bombs or ballots, you decide! We won’t vote for genocide!” and “Ceasefire first!”

“Not supporting a genocide is a no-brainer for the vast majority of people in the U.S. Yet, for those in power, for the Biden administration, for Democrats and Republicans alike, this genocide is nothing but a business,” said Audari Tamayo of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. “The U.S. war machine sees Israel as a cash cow, just like genocide Joe Biden said since the 80s, Israel has been the U.S. ruling class’s prized investment.”

The march served as a good primer for what is to come, being that it came just two days before the mass demonstration being planned for the opening day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, organized by the Coalition to March on the DNC. A host of Wisconsin-based organizations can be counted among the more than 200 groups that have joined under the coalition’s banner.

At least two buses are being organized to bring activists down, totaling nearly 100 people between them, and that’s to say nothing of the slew of other activists and progressives who will join them in Chicago. People from across Wisconsin are eager to meet the Democrats at their doorstep with the central demand to end U.S. aid to Israel and to stop the genocide against Palestine.

“FRSO has no illusion about the nature of this system. We’re being asked to pick between genocide or a reactionary Trump. This is a clear indication that this is a failed system that produces nothing but rotten choices. Where something is failed and rotten, the solution is to tear it out by the root. Our goal is to make the U.S. ungovernable by the ruling class and build a revolutionary movement,” said Tamayo.

Tamayo concluded, “As long as a single bullet or a single dollar is being sent to the genocidal regime of Israel, this government deserves nothing but mass protests and constant disruptions of their events. On Monday, join us as we will take the streets of Chicago because we refuse to be silent or still as this genocide continues!”

The August 19 protest of the DNC starts at noon in Chicago’s Union Park.

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