Palestinian Youth Movement Commemorates Oct. 7 Anniversary with Downtown Circuit
On Oct. 5, two days before the first year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) hosted a march in Downtown Los Angeles. Almost every speaker at the event defined their purpose, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and total arms embargo against Israel. Another emergent purpose was the unification of the movements working in collaboration for this cause.
Prior to the official meeting time of 2 p.m., early birds assembled in the northeast corner of Pershing Square. Attendees prominently dressed in green, white, red, and black, doubly referencing the flag colors of Palestine and Lebanon. Many donned black and white keffiyehs, or scarf headdresses. Many protesters were masked.
Immediately apparent was the coalition. A rumored 50 associations, movements, and groups joined PYM in the square. Representatives from the organizations socialized, recruited, and networked. Leftist outlets distributed their newspapers, including the Workers’ Vanguard and the New York (War) Crimes. Fringe speakers traded off on the mic, rallying energy and defending their home organizations. One speaker advertised his as a “good company for fighting apartheid.”
Signs ranged in severity, from “Health Care, not Warfare! Books not Bombs!” and “Zionism = Death” to “Stop Following the Bourgeois Electoral Bullshit… Start Following @BobAvakianOfficial.” Novelty T-shirts included such lampoons as “The Anti Genocide Social Club” and “I Hate a Neutral Ass Bitch;” others wore band tees. The area and occasion was prime for capitalization. For-profit vendors lined the streets selling parody T-shirts and paraphernalia.
“Lots of different ideologies,” remarked a protester. Remaining anonymous, the protester brandished a handmade sign reading “Let the UN do its JOB, stop abusing veto.” He denied affiliations with any organization. “I’m here to bring my sign and share my opinion… don’t know if the other side will be so popular,” he said, covering a roughly lined geographic map on the poster.
Shortly before 2 p.m., a small group centered the square, banged a drum, and unleashed the first of endless call-and-response chants upon the assembly. The audience amassed, echoing the chants hastily. After generating significant energy, the leader closed his chant and urged the audience to take to the streets.
By 2:23 p.m., the street on the southbound side of Pershing was full, barricaded from 5th to 6th and confirmed closed online by LAPD’s Central Division. PYM speakers forwarded the crowd on a yellow truck, bellowing chants for the audience’s repetition. Out of earshot, the back of the crowd contributed to the noise with a differing chant in a contrasting rhythm.
“Our people will never submit to the tyranny of Zionism. We will rise in our demand of our full liberation… and refuse to die quietly in the face of a 17-year-old siege,” said a PYM speaker. “We know liberation is imminent and return is inevitable.” Applause roared.
PYM welcomed speakers from across the coalition, including the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.). The speakers condemned a year of “deception from the Biden administration,” and drew connections between the situations in Gaza and the diaspora of Korea, as well as the displacement of Native Americans. In moments of solemnity, the current of energy trickled to the sides and back of the ensemble, while silent audiences listened, enraptured, their colossal flags nodding in the wind as soundless appraisal.
Between speakers, the audiences immediately relaunched their chanting and drumming. Mirroring instantly, the crowd crackled spontaneous calls of “Justice is our demand - no peace on stolen land!” and “There is only one solution - intifada revolution!”
“How many kids have we killed today?” echoed children on bite-sized megaphones.
One woman perched a babydoll, beheaded and bloody, on her shoulder; another wore a white dress covered with the names of martyrs.
A truck carried giant watermelon slices, the famous emblem of the Palestinian flag, smothered in fishing nets.
At 3:23 p.m., the marching began down 6th Street. For the first time, the chanting assumed total unity in rhythm.
Nadia Mehanna, a PYM representative, acknowledged the faltering of the current. “I think it’s normal in organizing to see the fluctuation and the ebbs and flows. I think what we’re seeing now is a re-energization of the masses.”
Downtown architecture, ramshackle buildings, and prolonged drum thunder fostered a physical echochamber. The temperate weather, ranging in the eighties, magnified among the thousands of marchers. Drones captured footage and established ceilings from the skies and bees frolicked in the sprawling colors of the flags. A few climbing masked marchers draped flags over traffic lights.
Drums hammered ceaselessly, paired with every possible rhythmic iteration of the words “Free” and “Palestine.” For 40 minutes, the march progressed northeast.
Apexing at 4:06 p.m., the protest crossed at 1st and Main, beholding the LAPD Headquarters and Los Angeles City Hall.
“There is no amount of criminalization that will allow us to abandon our struggle,” said the PYM speaker. “We cost the city thousands of dollars today because we shut down the streets for Palestine.”
“The goal is raising awareness, stopping traffic, costing the city money,” said Nati Casanova, independent organizer and activist. Casanova expressed doubt these demonstrations are enough. “We need to do more than that. We need to start pushing more towards direct action, pushing more towards getting companies and universities (and) getting the city to divest from Israel, from genocide, from apartheid.”
In an inquest on methodology, protesters and speakers alike expressed disenchantment with electoralism. “Reject pro-genocide candidates… throw them out,” said a speaker; “whether it’s Trump or Harris, we won’t tolerate genocide,” stated another. Ryan Bernales, card-carrier for the Revolutionary Communists of America, rejected both Republican and Democratic parties, admitting defeat, “Until the working class realizes the power they have.” Mehanna commented, “I think the people that came out today know that the ruling class doesn’t support their interests.”
At approximately 4:10 p.m., Alex Guillen, a 26-year-old resident of Los Angeles, was seen spray-painting “Free Palestine!” onto police headquarters.
The drum heartbeat swelled. The common time was punctured with crotchet triplets, accompanying cries of “Resistance is glorious!”
Marchers weaved around cars forced into park, their horns berating indistinguishable annoyance and support. Occasional drivers extended their fists or laid their horns to the beat of the chants to affirm supportive intent.
Drawing to an end, the drumming tightened and the chants simplified to “Gaza! Gaza!” Mics cracked, voices hoarse through dehydration, but the decibels remained astronomical.
As the march reapproached South Hill Street, a Highway Patrol car pushed in discordance. A flood of sentiment erupted from the protesters, lauding the patrollers with jeers of “LAPD KKK” and gesticulations. A legal observer from the National Lawyers Guild stated the patrol were responding to an arrest unrelated to the protest.
By 5:13 p.m., the group of marchers refilled their initial formation, welcomed with bells and whistles. At a cohesive stand-still, the national flags re-entered airspace. The final PYM speaker ended confidently: “It is very clear the Zionists have failed to crush the resistance of the Palestinian and Arab people.”
An A.I.M. speaker concluded the fest with a prayer: “We give our thanks, Creator. We also give our thanks for the humanity that has been shown here today, the solidarity with our brothers and sisters, our relatives in Palestine and beyond, in Lebanon, in this particular area of the Earth that is in such turmoil right now. …For their spirits, we sacrifice a little today. We march a little today, we sweat a little today, Creator. We give our thanks for that opportunity to do so.”
Around 6:20 p.m., Guillen was apprehended by the LAPD and arrested for felony vandalism.
“Today we came out here in the streets of downtown L.A. to commemorate one year of genocide and one year of resistance,” said Mehanna. “We know it’s our role and responsibility here and… a lot of us are out here today to create a crisis in imperialism and the political establishment.”
Reflecting on the significance of the anniversary, Casanova stated, “We’re coming up on a year of this genocide and this ethnic cleansing, so it’s just a marker to remind us… (to) reinvigorate everyone and re-energize the fight.”