NEW YORK CITY, November 8—Progressive Labor Party participated in a mass march against the destruction and slaughter in Yemen. Although the protest was small, half the protesters blocked the doors of the Saudi Consulate, risking arrest. Comrades distributed dozens of CHALLENGE, hoping to spread an internationalist outlook.In 3 years of civil war there, the Saudis, together with the U.S., UK, and the UAE, have killed more than 10,000 of our working-class sisters, brothers and children and left more than half the population starving. They have blockaded the port of Hudaydah where relief supplies could enter the country.
Some U.S. politicians have expressed “concern” about the Khashoggi killing and U.S. support for the genocidal war in Yemen, but one thing is clear. The U.S. ruling class is not going to give up the hugely profitable arms deals with Saudi Arabia, nor the role the Saudis play for U.S. imperialism’s power and control of oil in the Middle East.
Stories from protesters
After the protest, I got together with four women friends, originally from Yemen. As usual we talked about our families and cultures and Yemen. I want to share some of their stories with CHALLENGE readers. Many of them talked about how the 2017 Anti-Muslim ban (the racist title of this executive order says it all: “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States”) issued by president Donald Trump effectively separated and devastated families.
I have eight sisters and one brother in Yemen. We can’t visit our family there and our brother, who needs to get a job to support our sisters, can’t get a visa to the U.S. because of the ban. They live in a village in Yemen. There are no jobs. The cities are destroyed.
I am an American citizen, born in Yemen. I got married one and a half years ago in Malaysia and returned with my husband to his family in Yemen. After the ban, I quickly returned to the U.S. to apply for a visa for my husband. We only lived together as a married couple for four months and now he can’t come to the U.S. and we have no possibility to have our own home and family.
I have family in Djibouti. It’s expensive to live there; a one-bedroom apartment costs $2000 a month. Yemen refugees there are waiting for years. They’ve sold homes and businesses to survive and now are not able to get enough to eat and are drinking dirty water.
Comrades, we have to continue this fight. We are one international working class and we must destroy imperialism!
