Brazil (AIL): Anti-imperialist Demonstration in Front of the Yankee Consulate
We hereby share a report published on the website of the Coordinating Committee of the Anti-Imperialist League (AIL).
Brazil (AIL): Protesters hold anti-imperialist demonstration in front of the Yankee Consulate
The International Anti-Imperialist League (AIL), in its speech, once again called on the people to join the popular struggle against imperialism, emphasizing the need to take this struggle to the streets.
A combative anti-imperialist demonstration was held on March 3 in Rio de Janeiro, denouncing the ongoing imperialist aggression by the Yankees in Latin America and the Middle East, and praising the anti-imperialist struggles underway around the world. The demonstration began at 5 p.m. in Largo da Carioca and continued in a march that closed streets until reaching the US Consulate General, where red flares were lit and the flags of the Great Satan (US), and the Little Satan (“Israel”), were burned.
The demonstration was formed of anti-imperialist organizations, student movements, unions, activists, and cultural collectives, who raised banners and chanted anti-imperialist slogans. At the beginning of the demonstration, protesters gathered near the subway and used a loudspeaker to rally the crowd.
The International Anti-imperialist League (AIL), in its speech, once again called on the people to join the popular struggle against imperialism, emphasizing the need to take this struggle to the streets. In addition, it raised high the banner of the Agrarian Revolution as the main anti-imperialist struggle in the country, and paid tribute to Comrade Flecha, who was brutally executed on the morning of January 23 in an operation by the Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) of the Mato Grosso Military Police in cooperation with the repressive forces of Rondônia. A month earlier, the AIL had already organized a large demonstration in solidarity with Venezuela in the capital of Rio de Janeiro.
A representative of the Renato Nathan Cultural Collective (CORENA) pointed out that imperialism “can no longer tame the world in the same way as before… now it has to make increasingly cruel attacks […] And in doing so, it creates the conditions for its own downfall […] these attacks actually fuel national resistance, unification around national resistance.”
In his speech, he praised the anti-imperialist resistance movements that are rising in the Middle East and Brazil, and expressed his support for student Mateus Galdino, who was arrested at a demonstration in solidarity with Venezuela and won his freedom after widespread popular mobilization.
Activists march to the Yankee Consulate
Throughout the demonstration, the Special Patrol and Crowd Control Battalion (RECOM) was present with the aim of intimidating protesters, controlling the event, and repressing the anti-imperialist sentiments of the most combative participants. According to orders from the protest leaders, it would have ended at Largo da Carioca, without reaching its final goal of arriving at the US Consulate General, frustrating the anti-imperialist youth eager to fight. The International Anti-Imperialist League (AIL), realizing the retreating attitude, took over the leadership of the protest and led the activists in a combative march, blocking the streets until they reached the Yankee Consulate.
