‘Every Dead Child is a Loss to Us All’ — And Working Class People Have the Power to Stop it
Ceasefire advocate kisses a bundle representing a slaughtered Palestinian baby before placing it onto the sidewalk. Photos and video by Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
Photojournalists and reporters documenting the tiny white bundles being set down solemnly on the sidewalk near West 40th Street and Broadway on Thursday afternoon were warned the numbers would soon grow into the hundreds and quickly fill the space.
Hundreds of more marchers demanding an immediate end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza had cradled the bundles in their arms — each one representing a dead Palestinian baby — for blocks from Bryant Park, through Times Square, and on to their final resting place at Golda Meir Square.
“I’m a parent and when I see the pictures of children and babies and the suffering — to me saying ‘ceasefire now’ is not political,” a Brooklyn attorney named Lailah told Work-Bites. “It’s actually the bare minimum.”
The line of protesters began assembling for the start of the somber procession around noon, directly across the street from the twinkling lights and still bustling crowds happily shopping at the Bryant Park Holiday Market.
Marchers — many of them older adults who have seen lots of murderous carnage before in the name of national security — assemble on West 40th Street in Manhattan across the street from the Bryant Park Holiday Market.
They filled the entire length of West 40th Street between 5th and 6th avenues. Still more continued lining up around the corner towards West 39th Street as drums began beating out an end-of-year elegy for the dead.
At the time of this writing well over 21,000 Palestinian people in Gaza have been slaughtered underneath a barrage of shelling by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government — shelling that U.S. labor activists demanding an immediate ceasefire stress is largely being paid for with U.S. tax dollars — and has now snuffed out the lives of some 9,000 children.
“What do we teach our children?” Lailah continued. “Do we teach our children to bomb the heck out of each other? Or do we say we have to solve things through talking — even when that’s really hard and really challenging.”
Ceasefire advocates begin marching carry placards and bundles to remind everyone that the thousands of children and babies being killed in Gaza are not abstract numbers and statistics.
Artist Jenny Dubnau looked out onto West 40th Street and thought about U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and how back then “a lot of grassroots support for pulling out of the war” impacted America’s foreign policy — and how it could do so again.
“If the average person is supposed to turn against the atrocities that are being committed by Israel and seeing things in a different way, then I think that’s a very important harbinger for change among your average Americans,” she said.
The U.S. provides the Israeli government with billions of dollars in military aid each year. Just last month, President Joe Biden pledged an additional $14.3 billion to that deluge of cash.
In his latest piece for The Nation, noted labor writer and Hard Ball Press author Bill Fletcher Jr. along with Max Elbaum notes how "Biden’s approach to Gaza has been a moral and political catastrophe."
Every Dead Child is a Loss to All: Ceasefire advocates march through Times Square.
Indeed, a couple of weeks before Christmas, UAW President Shaw Fain said it was up to trade unionists and the trade union movement to “stand up and fight for the best of what humanity is — and can be.” He also thanked rank and file UAW workers for "speaking out and pushing” union leadership to “come out in support of a ceasefire.”
“It was the right thing to do,” Fain continued. “Now it’s time for the rest of our elected leaders to step up and do what it takes to end the violence.”
Back at Golda Meir Square, the bundles continued to be left on the sidewalk in ever greater numbers — but carefully, so as to avoid any of them being stacked one upon the other.
Bundles representing dead Palestinian babies are set on the sidewalk at Golda Meir Square.
“I’m Jewish,” Lailah added, “and my whole family is here because our Jewish culture teaches us that what’s happening in Gaza right now is wrong and indefensible. It just needs to stop.”
Some kissed their tiny bundles before placing them on the sidewalk. Others wept and hugged each other for support. Everyone began singing “ceasefire now.”
Some passersby, however, were obdurate and spit racists rants as they went.
“Fucking joke” one said. Another declared, “Without guns, none of us are going to survive because of the Gazan people.”
Emotion overwhelms ceasefire advocates at Golda Meir Square.
Earlier, as the procession crossed 42nd Street and 6th Avenue, a chirpy pre-teen speaking to a pal confidently stated, “It’s a very complicated issue...”
Is it really?
That’s something more working people and the labor movement need to decide very quickly — because what they conclude will in large measure determine how many more children in Gaza are killed.
How many more tiny white bundles can the streets of New York City bear to see?