On Monday, around 100 people gathered in front of the steps of Providence City Hall to protest the United States and Israel’s recent airstrikes in Iran. The protest was organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation Rhode Island as a follow-up to a similar demonstration on Saturday.
Humanitarian group The Iranian Red Crescent Society has estimated that at least 555 Iranians have been killed since the beginning of the campaign on Saturday. Early Sunday, Iranian state media also confirmed that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the airstrikes.
Sajo Jefferson, a PSL organizer, explained that demonstrators were protesting “criminal attacks launched by the Trump administration and Israel against Iran.” Jefferson also accused the Trump administration of carrying out the airstrikes in an attempt to gain control of Iran’s oil resources.
The White House and the Israeli government did not immediately respond to The Herald’s requests for comment.
The event began around 5:45 p.m. as organizers led a prayer to the left of the City Hall steps for community members observing Ramadan. Food was offered at a nearby table for individuals to break their fasts.
Jefferson told The Herald that the prayer was held in order to emphasize “unity in the face of the attacks abroad.”
“It’s important that we create space culturally for our communities to be able to be here tonight,” they added.
After the prayer, a series of community members climbed the steps to present speeches about the violence in the Middle East. Organizers held large signs behind them that read, “No more wars based on lies” and “Money for people’s needs, not for war with Iran.”
In a speech to the crowd, Jefferson decried the airstrikes as a “new chapter” of “U.S. imperialist meddling in Iran.”
“Intervention does not create democracy,” they said. “It only brings devastation.”
Omar Bah, founder of the Refugee Dream Center, argued that “millions are going to be displaced” by the attacks on Iran.
Bah also noted that recent U.S. policies, including an expanded travel ban and asylum ban will make it more difficult for refugees to enter America.
The “minimum” the U.S. government can do in light of bombing Iran is “give those people the chance to a second life,” Bah said. “But we don’t do that.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to The Herald’s request for comment.
Ashe Shirazi ’28 told the crowd that her parents immigrated to America to escape the Iran-Iraq war. She argued that Iranians “deserve freedom from both the brutal fascism of the Ayatollahs and the destructive hands of America and Israel.”
The Iranian government did not immediately respond to The Herald’s request for comment.
Shirazi called on Providence students and residents to continue fighting “alongside our communities to resist the oppressive grip of fascism.”
Adam Cioe, a Cranston resident who has previously organized with PSL, stated that attending the protest was “the least (he) could do.” Cioe said that protests like Monday's “are really just the beginning, just the spark for a much broader struggle.”
“Solidarity is our greatest weapon, and there is no greater honor than to fight with you all for our collective liberation,” Shirazi said in her speech.
The anti-war movement is “alive and growing,” Jefferson added in their talk, “and we will not be divided.”
Michelle Bi is a metro editor covering City Hall & Crime and State Politics & Justice. She is a sophomore from Oak Park, CA and studies English and IAPA. In her free time, you can find her playing guitar, the LA Times crossword or one of her 115 Spotify playlists.
