By Steve Gillis
June 24, 2026

Activists with the Boston Coalition for Palestine (BCFP) joined with the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition (AFFC) on June 13 and 19 in outreaching in the streets to tens of thousands of international World Cup football enthusiasts. The groups explained how fans can join the international campaign to combat FIFA’s (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) complicity with U.S. war crimes, including genocide — from Palestine, Lebanon and Iran to Cuba, Venezuela and Nigeria.

Fans from Brazil, Cabo Verde, Haiti, Morocco, Scotland and elsewhere embraced the Coalition’s message that now is the time to spread the call worldwide to “Boycott the U.S.!” Fans dressed in tartan kilts and other national fabrics or wrapped in their countries’ flags stopped to get souvenir pictures taken with BCFP’s banner that reads: “FIFA: Move the World Cup OUT of the U.S.! Boycott the U.S. for war crimes!”

Many fans said they hadn’t heard of the U.S. boycott before arriving in Boston, but now that they know, they’ll be raising demands back home to move future sporting and cultural events such as the 2028 Olympics, currently scheduled for Los Angeles, out of the U.S.

At Boston’s South Station, where tens of thousands of fans were boarding trains to the out-of-town stadium on June 13, BCFP activists held their ground when initially surrounded by police brass and FIFA security, with surveillance drones buzzing overhead. The cops claimed that protesters’ presence in the “FIFA permitted” public street was not allowed. But thousands of fans witnessing the scene soon turned the balance of forces by embracing the pro-Palestine activists, accepting and waving hundreds of Palestinian flags supporters were passing out to the crowd.

A flier that the BCFP activists distributed in the thousands laid out the AFFC’s clear reasons why the U.S. should be targeted, including U.S. support for Israel, previously for apartheid South Africa. The fliers advocated an international boycott, divest and sanctions campaign: “The demand by the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition to move the World Cup out of the United States due to blatant violations of human rights worldwide has been ignored. The Boston Coalition for Palestine, therefore, has joined the international call by Black Alliance for Peace to ‘Boycott the World Cup!’ ‘Expel Israel from FIFA!’ and ‘Boycott the U.S.!’”

The flier continued: “The United States is a dangerous place to host ‘the beautiful games.’ Providing support for ongoing genocide in West Asia, waging illegal wars of aggression against Cuba, Nigeria, Venezuela and many other countries and profiting from the ICE [Immigration Customs and Enforcement] imprisonment of people from the same countries the World Cup claims to celebrate, the United States has shown it cannot be trusted and is an illegitimate venue for all international events.

“Each passing day, officials, players and fans attempting to visit the U.S. find racist and discriminatory barriers to their entry, whether by inhospitable reception on arrival, by harassment and interrogation for hours, or by denying visas and entry to the U.S. As it is our duty from the belly of the beast, Boston Coalition for Palestine is proud to be in solidarity with all who have been subjected to human rights abuses by the war regime in Washington, D.C.”

AFFC-organized actions at World Cup games throughout Canada, Mexico and the U.S. have been taking place daily since the tournament began, spreading the word globally that now is the time to target the U.S. — the source of the many wars being inflicted on the world’s working-class and oppressed peoples who are everywhere in heroic resistance to U.S. imperialism. To learn more about the FIFA boycott and to join the growing global movement to “Boycott the U.S.!” go to: peoplescenteredhumanrights.com/move-the-games (or tinyurl.com/54nnx2ac)