Biden is disrupted on the campaign trail at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina by protesters shouting “ceasefire now!” and later gets on a flight to the Dallas airport, where more protesters are waiting for him. Biden’s speech at a Virginia campaign event is interrupted thirteen separate times, and as he leaves his motorcade is met with more protests. Biden, who brands himself as the “most pro-union president” is called out by union workers for his support for the genocide in Gaza as he is receiving the endorsement of one of the largest unions in the country. Biden’s staff attempt to hold a “morale-boosting party” as their boss’s approval rating tanks and more and more men, women, and children in Gaza die from US-made bombs, only to be yelled at by protesters shouting “quit your job!”
Wherever Biden or his allies go, they are given no quarter by the Palestine solidarity movement. Biden and his administration continue to actively fund the onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza. The same day that the International Court of Justice finds merit to South Africa’s claims that Israel is committing genocide, the State Department cut off funding to the main UN relief agency in Gaza, UNRWA, based on allegations that 12 of the agency’s employees were involved in the October 7 operation. Biden has bypassed Congress several times to provide weapons to Israel, even while those US-made weapons are being used against the civilian population of Gaza including women and children. Biden refuses to call for a ceasefire, and the White House has even gone so far as to call the progressive push for a ceasefire within Congress “repugnant.”
This is despite the fact that Israel, using US-made bombs and weapons, has killed over 26,000 Palestinians, 10,000 of them being children, with many more thousands trapped under the rubble. People around the world have been moved to action by the horrific images documented by journalists in Gaza, recounting the atrocities committed against civilians such as the systematic targeting of hospitals and the wiping out of entire families.
While the President shows no sign of letting up on his unconditional support of Israel, protesters show no sign of halting disruptions. The January 8 disruption at the Mother Emanuel AME Church drew controversy with some who believed that it was offensive to stage a disruptive protest at the same church where white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine Black churchgoers in a brutal hate crime in 2015.
Some were just as offended by Biden’s presence at the church, which has a deep history in the struggle for Black liberation.
“Considering the rich history of struggle at the foundation of the AME Church, for years many church members, leaders, and elders have been involved in liberation struggles for years, particularly during the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 60s and 70s,” writes Jacqueline Luqman in Black Agenda Report. “So how did church leaders today see a campaign speech by Joe Biden as beneficial in any way to their church’s legacy and to the oppressed people within the church’s community?”
“To be clear, this was not a church service; it was a political campaign event,” read a statement by Free Palestine Charleston. The organization claims that several of its members were singled out and denied entry prior to the event, including Charleston Black Lives Matter organizer Marcus McDonald.
As political commentator Marc Lamont Hill said of Biden’s visit, speaking at St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago, “I was struck last week when I saw that they opened the pulpit up for Genocide Joe.”
“The moral atrocity that took place wasn’t some disruptive protesters, it was the fact that you allowed the leader of the most violent and bloody empire in modern history to stand in this place and represent a tradition that [Biden] ain’t got nothing to do with,” he continued.
After Biden left the church, he flew to Dallas, where more protesters were waiting for him at the airport. Demonstrators temporarily blocked the entrance to Love Field airport, and thirteen were arrested.
BREAKING! Over a dozen protesters were just arrested for taking the streets at the entrance of Love Field Airport as Biden lands in Dallas! One protester arrested includes a former Palestinian intern of the late Eddie Bernice Johnson who Biden is in town to pay respects to. pic.twitter.com/NBqGK9tvMK
— Palestinian Youth Movement (@palyouthmvmt) January 9, 2024
As Biden courts the approval of labor unions, which typically are more than happy to endorse establishment Democratic Party candidates, workers at UAW are organizing against their union’s endorsement of Biden. At the UAW CAP Conference in DC this week, UAW President Shawn Fain formally endorsed the current President, after which Biden himself was invited to speak. As Biden was speaking, however, several UAW workers staged a disruption with shouts of “ceasefire now!” and at least one worker was physically dragged out of the room.
“As organized labor, we see the potential to make it untenable for the US to support the genocide of the Palestinian people,” UAW Local 2110 worker Jay Pabarue told Peoples Dispatch. Pabarue, alongside 527 other UAW workers, signed a petition calling on the the UAW CAP (Community Action Program) to “only endorse and allocate our dues and V-CAP contributions to candidates who publicly call for a ceasefire and vote accordingly on any relevant bills (e.g. Cori Bush’s resolution 786).”
“Us members feel it’s our duty to actively use our power, as UAW has in the past, to popularize the urgent demand for a ceasefire via our endorsements in the US political sphere, and to give real teeth to the ceasefire call our membership issued,” Pabarue added.
