Hundreds of protestors came to Dayton Sunday to speak out against NATO. The protestors reject NATO's position of peace through strength, this is one of NATO’s core operating ideas. NATO advocates all member nations maintain a well trained and supported military to deter external threats.
The People's Assembly for Peace and Justice gathered supporters and national speakers from across the country.
According to organizers, buses came from New York City, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cleveland, Akron in addition to car caravans from Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Toledo, and Louisville.
Their focus, to stand against the 2025 NATO Parliamentary Assembly working in Dayton for their spring session.
At noon, people gathered in Deeds Point MetroPark on Webster Street for a huge rally.
"Stop the wars before they start," Cleveland organizer Dallas Beckman proclaimed to the crowd. "The current tragic, unnecessary war in Ukraine is the direct and undeniable consequence of decades and decades of NATO expansion as demanded by both sides of the political aisle here in the United States."
Amy Culwell lives in New Albany, Indiana. She came to Deeds Point to support her daughter who is a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). "Peace can't wait. Disband NATO," Culwell said. "We need to take our dollars that we're putting into being a war machine and spend them here on our people, on our education of our children, on our health care, on so many social systems that are just faltering right now."
Chairman of New Era Cleveland Antone Tolbert stoked supporters with a chant. "I'm going to say, our people, you're going to respond, our purpose, because our people are our purpose. Our people! Our purpose! Our people," Tolbert said.
"We recognize that the people of Palestine have lost the right to speak. They have lost their right to exist, they have lost the right to eat," Laila Shaileh is a member of Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Cincinnati.
"It is not that Gaza has run out of food, it is that these complicit, imperialist, so called world leaders that have been propped up by organizations like NATO and have been amplified by organizations that they have decided to starve their brothers and sisters."
Beckman led the crowd in another chant. "U.S.A. shut it down, no more war, no war, U.S.A., shut it down, no more war."
Hundreds then poured into the street and marched from Deeds Point and across the Webster Street Bridge. They traveled less than a mile to St. John’s United Church of Christ on East Third Street. Inside, more speakers laid out arguments rejecting the need for NATO by accusing the multinational organization of causing more harm than good.
Gloria La Riva was one of the speakers. She's with the Party for Socialism and Liberation in San Francisco. She told the crowd about being in Yugoslavia for 10 days during NATO's bombing war in the '90's. She emphasized "We're fighting for a society where all the labor of the people who work, which is the vast majority of us, that we benefit from it."
"We pay all these taxes for war, but we have no health care, no decent housing and education, the college students right now are getting garnished if they can't pay their debt," said La Riva. "We have a different vision. That everyone who creates all this wealth benefits from it, can have a decent retirement, a decent life. And that we repair the damage that we have caused in the world."
Tolbert led another chant. "Tax the rich and feed the poor! Tax the rich and feed the poor! Tax the rich and feed the poor! Tax the rich and feed the poor! Tax the rich and feed the poor!
20-year-old Judas Damon lives in Dayton. He's on a cane and carefully steps over tree roots as we move to a quiet corner. "I have a connective tissue disorder. I have trouble standing for long periods of time, walking for long period of time. I also have a couple of neurological conditions," explained Damon. "We have the ability to provide everyone free universal healthcare if we just wanted to. And the people want it, the government just doesn't."
Austreeia Everson is a member of New Era Cleveland and president of The Love Project Movement in Cleveland. "The real power and solution is us finding what our skill sets and our powers are and connecting with one another," Everson urged the participants. "Individual people connecting with the organizations and the organizations connecting with each other across Ohio so that every part of Ohio has food, shelter, water, housing, security, a sense of love and belonging. We have it and we got it because it's time to build a better Ohio right now."
Dozens of national organizations endorsed and support the People’s Assembly for Peace and Justice, including the ANSWER Coalition, The People’s Forum, CODEPINK, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, National Students for Justice in Palestine, the Dissenters, Palestinian Youth Movement Cleveland, Palestine Diaspora Movement, Cleveland Palestine Advocacy Community, Veterans for Peace Pittsburgh, New Era Cleveland.
