Palestine is the Tip of the Spear

Speech given by AWC member Trent Fast at the post-election protest on 11/6/2024 in Minneapolis.

I’m honored to be here today among friends and community and I thank you for coming out to show your support for this event.

I want to start by saying this in regards to the election: the genocide in Palestine is, was, and will continue to be the issue. No matter how much the Democrats try to skirt around taking responsibility for an embarrassing loss, the fact remains that they refused to move an inch on arming and funding a genocide. 

Palestine is the tip of the spear. Palestine is what shows us the way in ALL anti-imperialist work. The resistance in Palestine has opened the eyes of the western world as to the nature and function of the relationship between the United States and its lapdog in West Asia, Israel. In future decades this period of time will be looked back upon as a beacon of light. A light that illuminated a global reckoning with colonialism, zionism, and US imperialism.

In the Anti-War Committee we are firm believers that politicians only give us what we MAKE them give us. Whether we are packing state board of investment meeting after state board of investment meeting, blocking traffic to demand the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, or marching with a crowd of 15,000 in uptown, the ruling class will NOT stop hearing from us. For as long as it takes for divestment and as long as it takes until Palestine is free. It NEVER mattered who was going to win this election. Since both choices were rotten, we already knew where we were gonna be on November 6, in these streets. So no, we won’t stop demanding an end to the genocide. We won’t stop demanding an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

We know that under this system we only get what we want by taking to the streets and fighting for it. And so as this new administration takes the reigns of genocide, we’ll be out HERE. We do not COMPROMISE with genocideairs. A Trump victory cannot be blamed on the Palestine solidarity movement and we must STAND and DEFEND our Arab and Muslim siblings from the inevitable attacks by democrats.

In the Anti-War Committee, our number one demand is that the MN state board of investment divest ALL its holdings from apartheid Israel. If you’re not aware I invite you to visit our website at divestmn.com. After extensive research by some of our members we have identified $5.4 billion of Minnesota money which is invested in public assets belonging to entities complicit in and/or profiting from Israel’s apartheid regime.

What we are seeing in Palestine is the true cost of US imperialism. In the United States we have no right to tell people resisting a genocide how they should or should not be going about it. Especially when it is our tax dollars funding the death and destruction. It IS our duty as people living in the imperial core to hold our government accountable for the terror it reigns down on people across the globe while people starve and sleep on the streets here at home. The United States congress is an arms dealer, it doesn’t work for the people. 

I’ll wrap it up with this. Che Guevara once told an American activist visiting Cuba, “I envy you. You North Americans are very lucky. You are fighting the most important fight of all– you live in the belly of the beast.” Now whether you’ve heard that a thousand times, or that was your first time hearing it, I want you to keep that in your heart as we move into this new phase of the fight at home, and in the fight for a free Palestine. Because none of us are free until Palestine is free. Can I get a FREE FREE PALESTINE?