Protesters rally across US after Iran strikes and reports of Khamenei killing

As news reports circulated that Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, had been killed in US and Israeli airstrikes on Tehran, anti-war protesters gathered across the United States, including outside the White House and in New York’s Times Square to voice opposition to US military involvement in the region.“It wasn’t sanctioned by Congress, so what Trump is doing is on his own terms, it’s making him a fascist and it’s making the country into a fascist state,” said Sue Johnson, a protester.Trump, she added, “just couldn’t wait. He’s such an impatient child. He’s like, ‘Well ICE didn’t work, so let’s go stir things up in the Middle East. He bombed Iran for no specific reason.”“No president can attack or kidnap or bomb another country without the permission of the Congress,” she said, but conceded that “it’s irrelevant what Congress thinks because this president goes and does whatever he wants to do to any country.”That sense of fait accompli that accompanies recent Trump administration foreign policy actions, including the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, permeated the New York gathering of several hundred protesters.Scores of protests were sponsored by a coalition of leftwing groups, including: the ANSWER Coalition, the National Iranian American Council, 50501, American Muslims for Palestine, the People’s Forum, Palestinian Youth Movement, CodePink, Black Alliance for Peace and the Democratic Socialists of America.The coalition listed other “emergency protests” on Saturday, including in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and Minneapolis.Others will be held on Sunday in smaller cities, including: Albany, New York; Ellensburg, Virginia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Decorah, Iowa; Gainesville, Florida and Springfield, Missouri.Organizers put out a statement calling “Trump’s unprovoked, illegal attack on Iran is an act of war that threatens to cause unthinkable death and destruction. But the people of this country reject another endless war and will take to the streets now and make our voices heard.”New York’s DSA-aligned mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said earlier in the day that the US and Israel strikes on Iran “mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war. Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change.”The American Civil Liberties Union joined scores of Democratic lawmakers to demand that Congress take immediate action to end Trump’s unconstitutional use of military force against Iran. The veteran civil rights group noted it had been “steadfast in insisting, from Vietnam through the war in Afghanistan, both wars in Iraq, the military action against Libya, and the ongoing use of force in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia, that the Constitution is clear that decisions on whether to use military force require Congress’s specific, advance authorization”.That sentiment was echoed Willie Cotton, 48, of Brooklyn, New York, who told the Guardian that he didn’t believe it was in the interests of the US for Iran to have a nuclear weapon “but I am opposed to US bombing”.“I support the demonstrations,” in Iran, he said, “and support the thousands that have been killed by the regime there. But the US doesn’t go in there to help them, nor to benefit the region, it’s going in there for it’s own interests and aims.”Cotton acknowledged that Trump told Iranians, as he announced the strikes early Saturday, that the attack on Iran’s theocratic regime represented “probably be your only chance for generations” to take power .“He said that to Venezuela and then said, this is our oil two minutes later,” Cotton pointed out skeptically. “US history is that they go into these conflicts for its own benefit, not for the benefit of the people there. I don’t think he’s deviating from that course of protecting US business interests, including his own.”“But that’s no different than Biden or Obama or any of the like. I don’t give back-handed support to Obama. He had the same course of sanctions that hurt the working people of Iran,” Cotton said.As a member of the Socialist Workers party, he added, he was firmly is support of Israel defending itself after Hamas’ cross-border attack on the country on 7 October 2023. “It was Iran that organized the bombing campaigns against Israel and Israel has a right to defend itself.”“But the US isn’t defending itself here … it’s advancing its goals all around the world.”Protesters gathered as the FBI’s counterterrorism and counterintelligence teams were placed on elevated alert nationwide. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said she is “in direct coordination with our federal intelligence and law enforcement partners as we continue to closely monitor and thwart any potential threats to the homeland”.Jacqueline, a woman who was giving out “Stop the War on Iran!” placards on behalf of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said even if protests did not have any effect in stopping the bombing “at least we can voice that people oppose another endless war in the Middle East.”“It’s not in any our our interest to the people here in the face of the cost of living crisis, murder on the streets by ICE, and the US is not an arbiter or beacon of democracy. I think we’ve all seen that lie pretty clearly now”.Healthcare worker Christina Perez, 44, said she joined to protest “the Trump regime in general, all of it”.“It’s like constant salt in the wound. You never know what you’re going to wake up to. Why is this person allowed to all these legal atrocities and no one stops him. It’s like rampant tyranny”.Asked how she felt waking up Saturday to news of the strikes, Perez said:“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised and why do I have to keep waking up for more terrible shit. We’re being distracted from the things that really matter because you’re constantly being inundated. Americans have legitimate grievances, but there’s never money to solve those things and always money for war.”