What the Pro-Iran Protests Reveal About Foreign Influence

Questions of outside funding surround the ANSWER Coalition’s protest network. - Tal Fortgang, Stu Smith

• The American strikes on Iran have opened both a new military front abroad and an old front at home. Mere hours after the bombs began to fall, leftist activists took to the streets with signs and chants denouncing American “imperialism” and demanding “Hands off Iran” and “No New US War In The Middle East.”
• It’s no coincidence that these protests bear similarities with the sometimes-violent anti-ICE, pro-Cuba, anti-Israel, and pro-Maduro rallies that have dotted the country in recent months. Behind many of these disruptions is the ANSWER Coalition—Act Now to Stop War and End Racism—an umbrella organization composed of various far-left groups.

A close look at ANSWER’s operations reveals a demonstration-industrial complex—a coordinated ecosystem in which organizations lean into their respective strengths and complement others’ infrastructure, messaging, or reach. 

These organizations are, in turn, closely linked with hostile foreign actors, raising questions not only about their propriety, but their legality...