Demonstrators gathered at Oak Street Plaza on Wednesday evening to protest the United States’ war with Iran and its broader military involvement in the Middle East.
The demonstration began at 6 p.m. at Oak Street Plaza and was organized by Fort Collins Against War.
“This is our first action as an organization, and we were excited to be out here with our community,” organizer David Stakelin said during an interview at the plaza. “We’re out here tonight to oppose the relentless and unnecessary wars that the United States has waged against the people of Iran and the people in the Middle East.”
Fort Collins Against War describes itself as an anti-war and anti-imperialist organization that supports national sovereignty and the interests of working-class Americans. The organization calls itself “non-tendency,” meaning members are not required to subscribe to one political ideology. Its stated principle is “unity in action over unity in ideology.”
During a speech at the demonstration, Stakelin connected the war with Iran to concerns about public spending and the cost of living in the United States.
“U.S. war hurts regular people like you and me everywhere,” Stakelin told the crowd. “It hurts people from Iran to Palestine to right here in Fort Collins, Colorado.”
Stakelin argued that federal money directed toward military operations should instead support education, healthcare, and other domestic priorities.
“We believe that we deserve a government that uses our money for education and for our health care, not for war and terror,” Stakelin said.
Fort Collins Against War organized Wednesday’s demonstration in response to a national call to action from the Anti-War Action Network. The local group said the Fort Collins protest was one of more than twenty other actions planned across the country, including one in Denver.
“There’s this narrative that war is something that keeps us safe, and it’s not,” Stakelin said in an interview following the demonstration. “That’s not the truth. That’s not the reality of what the U.S. does with its imperialist wars.”
Stakelin accused government and corporate leaders of pursuing military intervention for profits and access to resources, rather than to improve the lives of people in the United States.
“They do it to build profit and to extract resources from places all around the world, not to make our lives better,” Stakelin said. “We can see that with the current state of our economy right now.”
Although much of Wednesday’s message focused on federal foreign policy, organizers also framed the demonstration as the beginning of a longer-term local organizing effort.
“I hope that people take away from this the importance of getting organized,” Stakelin said. “Even if it’s not with FCAW, I want people to get organized. I want people to build relationships in their communities and to get experience doing actions like this and learning how to mobilize.”
He said those relationships would be important in producing political change over time.
“This is really how we affect change long-term in our country, organizing like this,” Stakelin said.
During his speech, he similarly encouraged attendees to speak with organizers and other community members at the plaza.
“Get to know one another, because the only way that we’re going to strike blows against aggressors like the U.S. war machine is to come together and get organized,” Stakelin said.
Fort Collins Against War plans to continue participating in national days of action organized by the Anti-War Action Network while also developing campaigns focused on the Fort Collins community.
“Our next step is building a local campaign and building membership,” Stakelin said. “We’re really trying to get more people surrounding us, engaged in our work and interested in building local campaigns.”
Stakelin said he had organized in Denver for more than a year but had not previously become involved in organizing Fort Collins, despite living in the city for more than three years.
“I wanted to bring what I learned in Denver to Fort Collins,” he said. “It has manifested into an anti-war group.”
He said he believes Fort Collins needs an organization capable of bringing residents together around national and international issues that affect their lives.
“Fort Collins definitely needs some sort of mass organization to bring people around these big topics that are affecting everybody’s lives,” Stakelin said.
The demonstration was FCAW’s first public action, with additional meetings and events planned in the coming weeks.