“Biden, Biden, you can't hide.”
“Biden, Biden, you can't hide.”
“We charge you with genocide!”
“We charge you with genocide!”
On Wednesday night, hundreds of protestors gathered at Alta Plaza Park in San Francisco, demanding that the U.S. stop providing aid to Israel and support a ceasefire in Gaza.
*cheers* “The Bay Area demands a ceasefire now!” *cheers*
President Biden was scheduled to attend a dinner at a nearby location in Pac Heights, one of several stops on a statewide fundraising tour as he gears up for November. But nobody who spoke to KALW said they’ll support Biden’s bid for reelection.
“I feel like the Democratic Party keeps talking to us and saying, it's only gonna get worse.”
This is Maria J. They’re a registered Democrat, who lives in San Francisco, but they say they won’t vote for Biden in the upcoming Presidential election.
“'You have to vote for Biden, otherwise Trump is gonna get elected and you know, we're gonna not have a democracy anymore.' And I just feel like if we truly have a democracy, then there wouldn't be only one candidate to vote for.”
Wednesday night's protest was organized, in part, by members from the Party for Socialism and Liberation, or PSL. Ramsey Robinson is a member of PSL. He spoke to KALW about his and his party’s dissatisfaction with President Biden.
“We see Joe Biden for who he is. He’s enacting a genocidal war on innocent Palestinians. Obviously, we know tens of thousand innocent Palestinians are dead, and we're saying we see that and we demand a permanent ceasefire. And we demand the $3 billion a year that are going to the Israeli apartheid state in this genocide to be used instead for the things that we need here, like healthcare, like free education, like the basic necessities that everybody needs just to survive.”
After the rally at Alta Plaza park, protestors marched through Pac Heights, where they were met by dozens of police officers blocking access to certain streets. But protestors kept marching, and a little after seven, the crowd started cheering. According to organizers, President Biden did not attend his fundraiser dinner in Pac Heights.
“We showed up today strong with so much people power and we scared Joe Biden away and we're not gonna stop coming out into the streets because we know that is what changes history, is the people going out into the streets and building strong people's movements. Am I right?”
*cheers*
“Did people ever win any victory because those in power, because those in Congress, because those war criminals gave it to us?”
“No!”
“We won everything we have ever won through struggle and through being in the streets.”
In the last week, there have been several ceasefire protests in the Bay Area. Organizers say support for the ceasefire is stronger than ever.
Biden’s campaign did not return a request for comment.
