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An analysis received by email at CPNN from Pace e Bene

Today [March 28] millions of us will pour into the streets to respond with nonviolent action to the nation’s deepening emergency. From coast to coast, we’ll join hands with our neighbors to confront the conflagration of hate, fear and violence that threatens to keep burning out of control, with its blaze currently spreading across the Middle East and throughout the United States. 

Rather than fighting fire with fire, we’ll be a national bucket brigade bringing the waters of compassion and determination and nonviolence to contribute to dousing the flames. Stopping this destruction emanating from the White House will take many steps, but this nationwide mobilization will play an important role in generating and accelerating the people-power needed for durable change.

Sometimes, though, we might wonder, “What difference does this action make?”

Some of the people who converged on Washington, DC for The Mobilization in November of 1969 to protest the Vietnam War wondered this, too. As the second of two large demonstrations that autumn comprising what the anti-war movement called The Moratorium, some 500,000 people marched past the White House – yet  the war continued.  On the surface it didn’t seem to make one bit of difference. 

What the protesters didn’t know was that President Nixon watched the march from his office and, when the last protester got on the last bus to go home, he turned to his aide and said he couldn’t do what he had threatened to do–use nuclear weapons on North Vietnam.  “Why?” his aide asked.  “The American people just told me,” the president answered.  

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

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As Ken Butigan explains in Waging Nonviolence:

“Historian and journalist Garrett M. Graff has recounted the intricate details of how the Nixon administration signaled how it was preparing to wreak nuclear destruction on the North. It gave its adversary a deadline of Nov. 1, 1969. … On Oct. 26, bombers armed with nuclear weapons were launched and ordered to orbit over Alaska. “For three days, nuclear-armed B-52s tested the Soviet defenses, dancing around the edges of the country with their deadly arsenals in a display more provocative than perhaps any since the Cuban Missile Crisis…And then the whole thing stopped — as seemingly abruptly as it had started,” Graff writes. 

What Graff does not report is why this threat was lifted. As anti-Vietnam War organizer and author Robert Levering has noted, Nixon’s Nov. 1 ultimatum fell between the two major antiwar demonstrations. “When Nixon learned from CIA infiltrators that the Moratorium was ‘shaping up to be the most widely-supported public action in American history,’ he saw trouble ahead,” Levering explained. “As Nixon later wrote, he saw that ‘the only chance for my ultimatum to succeed was to convince the Communists that I could depend on solid support at home if they decided to call my bluff.’”

That support did not materialize. With more than two million taking part in the Moratorium, and over half-million flooding the nation’s capital a month later for the Mobilization, “the size and breadth of both the October and November protests surpassed the organizers’ most grandiose expectations,” Levering continued. The evidence suggests that the president jettisoned his threat to use nuclear weapons because of this immense outpouring of nonviolent dissent.

We don’t know what the impacts of today’s nationwide mobilization will be.  We know that concerted nonviolent action five decades ago apparently prevented an incalculably horrific escalation of an already gruesome war.  We also know that most of the protesters at the time did not realize that they had made this possible, since most of this story did not come out until 15 years later.

We take nonviolent action because it is necessary.  But we also know that, thanks to the growing study of movements—like the one that was built during the Vietnam war—we have more power, and more impacts, than we think.  May this be the case today.

Onward!

Stacie, Rivera, Layal, Shaina, Rosie, Mili, Erin, Ken, and the entire Pace e Bene community

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Text of speech from Facebook post

Thank you, Minnesota.

And let me thank Indivisible, MoveOn, 50501 and all of the organizations who have made this event possible.

And thank you to the millions of Americans, from our smallest towns to our largest cities, in every state in our country, who are gathering today at thousands of rallies.

It is absolutely appropriate that we hold a major “No Kings Rally” right here in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area.

When historians write about this dangerous moment in American history, when they write about courage and sacrifice, the people of Minnesota will deserve a special chapter for themselves.

video of Sanders speech

In the face of the unprecedented occupation of this city by ICE, Trump’s domestic army, this community stood up and, with extraordinary solidarity, fought back. Minnesota showed the American people and the world what democracy is about, what grassroots activism is about, and what standing up for the American ideals of freedom and justice is about.

And I want to thank my colleagues, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, for their leadership in the Senate on this issue.

And today, we remember and honor the two brave Americans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti – who lost their lives in the struggle — and we promise their family and friends that these two heroes will not have died in vain. Their sacrifice has inspired, and will continue to inspire, the American people in the never-ending fight for justice.

As all of you know, we are living in an unprecedented and dangerous moment in American history. In many ways the future of our country and the entire world is hanging in the balance – and the actions that we take now will determine what that future looks like.

The choices that we face are clear. In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and at a time of massive breakthroughs in technology, we now have the opportunity to create a nation in which ALL people can enjoy a dignified standard of living, where we wipe out bigotry and hatred, and where all of us can live in peace and participate in a vibrant democracy. Where the foundation of our nation is built on love, compassion, human solidarity and an understanding, as former Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone said, that we all do better when we all do better. That is one vision for the future — a vision that the vast majority of Americans share.

But there is another vision out there as well – a darker vision. It is a vision which says that we must give up on democracy, that we are too stupid and inept to govern ourselves, and that we must put more and more power into the hands of one man. It is a vision that says we should accept an economy in which a handful of Oligarchs have unbelievable wealth, while the vast majority struggle to put food on the table. It is a vision that says that the only thing that matters in life is the accumulation of money and power – and that it is okay if we lie, cheat and steal to achieve those goals. It is a vision which says that we must hate each other because of where we were born, the language we speak, the color of our skin, our religion or our sexual orientation. It is a vision that foments hatred and hatred. Division, division and division.

It is an Orwellian vision which says that we must live in a constant state of fear, that we must always have an enemy and that we must always be at war. It is a vision which says that we have unlimited amounts of money for bombs and guns and for killing, but never enough money to feed our children, provide affordable housing or enable our parents to retire with dignity.

Today, here in Minnesota, in Vermont and in every state in the country we say loudly and proudly that as Americans we will never forsake our heritage. We will never accept authoritarianism, we will never accept oligarchy, and we will never accept a president who is a pathological liar, a kleptocrat, and a narcissist who is undermining the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law every day.

We will never accept government policy that gives massive tax breaks to the billionaires, throws 15 million Americans off the healthcare they have, breaks unions, denies women the right to control their own bodies, and is pushing the planet closer and closer to a climate crisis.

In the last year, I must confess, I have been thinking a lot about American history: about the men and women in 1776 who, with unbelievable courage, announced to the world that they would no longer be ruled by the king of England, who had absolute power over their lives. These patriots demanded freedom, and they fought a bloody revolutionary war against the most powerful military in the world to achieve that freedom. And they won.

And after their military victory, they established the first democratic form of government in modern history. In 1789, they said loudly and boldly to the entire world: here in America we don’t want kings.

And let’s never forget the extraordinary words they left us: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

And today, in 2026, our message is exactly the same: No more kings.

We will not allow this country to descend into authoritarianism or oligarchy. In America, We the People will rule.

But let’s be clear: This moment is not just about one man’s greed, one man’s corruption or one man’s contempt for our Constitution. This is about a handful of the wealthiest people on Earth, who, in their insatiable greed, have taken over our economy, have taken over our political system, have taken over our media in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the working families of our country.

Never before in American history have so few had so much wealth and power.

Never before in American history has there been such extreme levels of income and wealth inequality, with the top 1% now owning more wealth than the bottom 93%.

Never before in American history have we seen the super-rich expand their wealth so rapidly. Last year alone, after receiving the largest tax break in history, 938 billionaires in America became $1.5 trillion richer. Trump, himself, became over a billion dollars richer.

Never before in American history have we seen a ruling class, within a corrupt campaign finance system, spend so much money to buy politicians. In the coming mid-term elections, the billionaires will spend many, many hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that government continues to work for them, and not working families.

Meanwhile, while the richest people become much richer, 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to put food on the table, struggling to pay their rent and mortgage, struggling to pay for child care and education, and struggling to put a few bucks aside for a decent retirement. Tens of thousands of Americans die unnecessarily every year because they can’t afford to go to a doctor.

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

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And, unless we change how our economy works, our younger generation, for the first time in modern history, will have a lower standard of living than their parents.

So today, we not only say NO to Trump’s authoritarianism, we say NO to Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Ellison and all the other multibillionaires. You cannot have it all. We WILL create an economy that works for ALL Americans, not just the 1%.

My friends. It’s not just the authoritarianism of the Trump administration that we must combat.

It’s not just the Oligarchs and their insatiable greed that we must combat.

Now, as the news of today reminds us, we have got to stop the out-of-control militarism of the Trump administration – here at home, in cities like Minneapolis-St. Paul – and abroad.

Let’s be honest. The American people were lied to about the war in Vietnam. We were lied to about the war in Iraq. And we are being lied to today about the war in Iran. This war must end immediately.

In the last election Donald Trump pointed out, correctly, the huge amounts of money that had been wasted in wars that should have been spent rebuilding America. He campaigned as a “peace candidate,” and he promised no more “forever wars.” Well, he lied.

One month ago Trump and his partner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, started a war with Iran. This war is unconstitutional. Trump did not seek or receive authorization from Congress. This war is in violation of international law. One sovereign nation cannot simply go about attacking another sovereign nation for any reason it chooses.

Since this war began 13 American soldiers have been killed and hundreds have been wounded — including another 12 yesterday. In Iran, nearly 2,000 civilians have been killed and many more wounded, and 498 schools have been attacked by American and Israeli missiles.

In Lebanon, more than 1,000 people are dead and more than one million Lebanese people — 15% of their population — have been displaced from their homes. In Israel, 20 people have been killed and over 5,000 have been wounded.

In the West Bank, Israeli vigilantes are burning down homes and killing Palestinians.

At a time when gas prices are soaring, when many Americans cannot afford the basic necessities of life, it is estimated that this war has already cost us a trillion dollars.

At a time when the American people are politically divided, there is one issue that is bringing us together. Conservatives, moderates and progressives are speaking out in unison: NO MORE WAR.

And as a U.S. Senator, I want to say a few words to you about what I intend to do about that.

First, we’ve got to make sure that Congress does not send another $200 billion to fight this war. That supplemental appropriation for the war in Iran must be defeated.

Secondly, I will be forcing a vote on legislation to block the sale of nearly a billion dollars in weapons to the Israeli military for bombs and bulldozers.

A nation that has committed genocide in Gaza does not need more military support from American taxpayers.

We must block the bombs and block the bulldozers.

My fellow Americans: We are all proud to live in a country which, throughout our history, has inspired people around the world to struggle for freedom, democracy and justice. And we understand that when we stand together, and don’t let demagogues divide us up, we can continue to inspire the world to believe in a brighter future.

Yes, we can create a vibrant democracy by ending Citizens United and not allowing billionaires to buy elections.

Yes, we can create an economy that works for every man, woman and child in our country and not just a handful of billionaires.

Yes, we can make certain that the revolutionary technologies of artificial intelligence and robotics are used to improve life for all of us, not just the wealthy owners of that technology.

Yes, we join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people as a human right.

Yes, instead of spending a trillion dollars a year on the military, we can wipe out homelessness and build millions of units of low-income and affordable housing.

Yes, in the richest country on Earth, we can have the best public educational system in the world, with tuition-free schooling, from child care through higher education.

Yes, we can expand Social Security and radically improve our pension system so that every senior in this country can retire with dignity.

Yes, we can raise the minimum wage to a living wage and guarantee every worker the right to join a union.

Yes, we can guarantee that every woman in this country has the right to control her own body.

Yes, at a time when billionaires are paying an effective tax rate lower than a truck driver or nurse, we can make certain that the top 1% and large profitable corporations start paying their fair share in taxes.

My fellow Americans: The establishment, including the corporate media and many of my colleagues in Congress, want you to believe that you are powerless. They want you to believe that you cannot change the status quo. But that’s a lie.

Throughout the history of our country, when Americans have stood up and fought for justice, they have prevailed.

The founders did it when they stood up to King George.

The abolitionists did it when they ended slavery.

The working class did it when they stood up to their bosses and formed unions.

The suffragettes did it when they demanded that women have the right to vote.

The LGBT community did it when they demanded basic human rights.

Time and time again, in difficult moments in American history, our people stood up, fought back and won.

They did it then. We can do it now.

Today, March 28, 2026, millions of Americans are out on the streets demanding freedom, democracy and justice. But we must make certain:

Today is not the end of our struggle. It is just the beginning.

Together, when we stand united, we will create the kind of nation that you and I know we can become.”

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