by Farrukh Abadi
On March 28, hundreds of pro-Palestine activists protested a fundraiser for Biden’s presidential campaign at Radio City in NYC. Former presidents Obama and Clinton headlined the self-titled “grassroots fundraiser,” where tickets cost up to $500,000 a person. Other speakers included late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert, who moderated a discussion between the former presidents and Biden, as well as a variety of politicians, celebrities and multi-millionaires.
The record-breaking event raised over $25 million, more than any single political fundraiser in history until Trump surpassed it with a $50 million fundraiser days later. The increasing amount of money spent on elections highlights their bankruptcy; they are a rich man’s sport, and such fundraisers represent the open bribery of politicians by the imperialists who can afford to pay such price tags.
The event aimed at presenting a picture of Democratic unity while ramping up hysteria around a potential Trump victory. At one point Biden stated, “I think democracy is literally at stake.”
The discussion between the former presidents and Biden was interrupted at least 5 times by pro-Palestine protesters among the audience members.
Following one such disruption, Colbert asked Biden about the US’s role in Israel and Palestine. Biden responded by saying, “We can’t forget, Israel is in a position where its very existence is at stake. You have to have all those people. They weren’t killed. They were massacred. They were massacred.”
During an off-camera fundraiser portion of the event, Biden stressed that he’s been working with Arab countries and that “they’re prepared to fully recognize Israel, fully recognize Israel for the first time,” referencing the US Imperialists’ “Abraham Accords” plans that seek to draw down US presence in the Middle East as part of their pivot to encircle China, and that there has to be a “post-Gaza plan” and a “train to a two-state solution.”
Obama was also interrupted by a protester at one point, and he responded by saying that “it is important for us to understand that it is possible to have moral clarity and have deeply held beliefs but still recognize that the world is complicated and it is hard to solve these problems.” The former imperialist-in-chief’s “nuance” amounts to nothing more than genocide apologia.
Biden’s campaign has been struggling to prevent his events from being disrupted by pro-Palestine demonstrators. Since a speech of his was disrupted about a dozen times in January, his team has made his events smaller and have withheld information about the precise location of the event from the public for longer than usual.
In the New York Democratic primary on April 2, roughly 12% of registered Democrats who voted cast a blank ballot as part of the “Leave it Blank” campaign. The campaign is part of a nationwide effort signaling to Biden that a significant portion of his voting base will abandon him if he continues to support the genocide of Palestinians. While the campaign does not abandon the illusions of electoralism completely, it demonstrates a positive trend toward breaking with elections by promoting an election boycott as a viable tactic to delegitimize imperialism.
The Leave it Blank campaign saw a significant increase in the number of blank ballots cast as compared to previous primaries: in the 2020 Democratic primary, roughly 8% cast blank ballots, while in 2016, it was less than 1%.
photo: Protesters rally at the Biden fundraiser on March 28
