Dozens of protesters denounced President Donald Trump’s involvement with Israel, the sanctions in Cuba and the military attacks in Iran, Venezuela and Palestine on March 3 at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library.
The protest lasted from 6 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. with an estimated 20 to 30 protesters present. A flyer for the event was posted on Feb. 26.
Members of San Jose Against War, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and many others spoke at the demonstration.
“The aggression towards Venezuela, we want none of that,” Phillip Nguyen, member of the grassroots San Jose Against War, said. “Hospitals are closing, schools are closing because they (Cubans) have no energy.”
The inciting incident that led to this demonstration was the capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and First Lady Cilia Flores on Jan. 3. This also negatively affected Cuba which relied on Venezuela’s oil as its main energy source.
The United States further escalated Cuba’s fuel situation by preventing Mexican oil tankers from entering Cuba and threatening any country that sends oil to Cuba with tariffs.
Nassim Nouri, Green Party of Santa Clara County Councilmember, said the blockade and sanctions on Cuba for over 60 years didn’t stop them from creating programs like free healthcare and education.
“They (Cuba) present the largest, most valid threat to the U.S. empire,” Nouri said. “They are demonstrating what a very small resource-starved country can actually do in order to serve its people.”
Measures the United States took against Palestine and Iran were also addressed at the protest, particularly the assassination of Iran’s Ayatollah, Ali Khamenei.
“You’re going to stop the Ayatollah from killing people, by killing more people? It’s utterly idiotic,” John Duroyan, SJSU Students for a Democratic Society president, said. “Don’t believe a word that comes out of the talking heads in the State Department.”
Duroyan also said that most Iranians don’t want the United States to “intervene in the region,” including those who oppose the Ayatollah.
“I stand here as an Iranian, supporting the voice, the sovereignty and the right to self-determination for the Iranian people,” Nouri said. “I am against my government, the U.S. government, killing Iranians for any reason whatsoever.”
Nguyen said that the main goal of these protests is to get people involved and organize to win campaigns for “revolutionary change.”
“With our campaign at San Jose Against War, we want to divest public funds from human rights abuse,” Nguyen said.
San Jose Against War plans to have another meeting at the San Jose City Council on March 24 at 1:30 p.m. to demand that city officials not fund companies that support Israel and ICE.
According to Nguyen, those companies include but are not limited to Google, Apple, Amazon and others.
“No matter what criticisms you might have of another country’s government,” Duroyan said. “Bombing it to shit and murdering its people is no way to fix it.”
