|
CT Organizing for March 18 Protests
by Christine Gauvreau / March 2006 issue of Socialist Action
newspaper
HARTFORD—Over
60 organizations and 800 individuals in Connecticut have signed a call for
a Third Anniversary march against the war to be held in New Haven on March 18
and demanding "Bring the Troops Home Now! Money for Reconstruction of
the Gulf Coast, Not War!"
On
Saturday and Sunday early afternoons, antiwar campaigners in bilingual
teams are roving door-to-door along the march route, and in the nearby
towns of Bridgeport, Danbury, and Manchester. After knocking on doors,
activists then gather at nearby homes and begin the week's phone banking.
All
of this activity is the fruit of the efforts of Connecticut United for Peace
(CTUP) to involve as many activists as possible in every stage of the
planning for the march.
The
demonstration was initially called out of the one person, one vote plenary
at a November state antiwar conference and finessed at a January planning
meeting attended by over 100 people. As a result, hundreds of activists
feel a great deal of ownership of this demonstration and are responding
with incredible contributions of time and enthusiasm.
Connecticut
has been the site of repeated organizing attempts by right-wing vigilante
groups who want to deputize cops to function as la migra and seal the border
with Mexico. Immigration-rights activists have been responding to every
public meeting called by these anti-immigrant forces with educational
pickets and counter-mobilizations.
At
a recent meeting in Danbury, one of these rightists proclaimed, "Every
single one of these illegals could be a vicious criminal or a
terrorist." The conflation of undocumented workers with terrorism has
become a staple of the right-wing propaganda arsenal and, thus, the
immigrant community in Connecticut is acutely aware of the relationship
between the government's War on Terror and the war on them.
All
this is compounded by the feeling that Latino high school students and their
families are basically under attack, due in great measure to the highly
intrusive methods employed by the military recruiters in Connecticut schools.
For these reasons, Latinos Against the War, Unidad Latina en Accion, and
the Regional Coalition on Immigration contributed to shaping the subordinate
demands of the march to call specifically for a defense of the civil
liberties of
“Arab-Americans,
Muslims, and immigrants.”
The
march will kick off from the center of the Latino community of Fair Haven
and bring community residents to the rally on the New Haven Green, the
heart of the Yale community. The involvement of the young Latino immigrant
rights organizers has, in turn, deeply affected several local unions with
significant immigrant memberships, and several union leaders have
moved
to assign organizers to build membership participation in the
demonstration.
Connecticut
mosques have responded to the demonstration call and the civil liberties
demand with similar enthusiasm. As in other areas of the country with
significant Muslim populations, congregations have been subjected to
illegal surveillance, interrogations, and false arrests, and made to feel especially
vulnerable since 9/11.
Five
mosques, the Muslim Association of Connecticut, and the state chapter of
the Committee on American Islamic Relations have endorsed the march, and organizers
expect a contingent of more than 500 to march from this community.
Much
of the outreach to local imams was undertaken by the state Palestine American
Congress, an organization of about 200 families whose activists have been stalwarts
in building the demonstration.
The
response from those most victimized domestically by the so-called War on
Terror has energized almost everyone aware of the march and contributed to
CTUP's ability to put together a broad speakers’ platform. On March 18
rally-goers will hear the Reverend Alvin
Johnson
of the Bethel AME church, Peter Knowlton of US Labor Against War and
United Electrical Workers District
2, Kathleen Sloan of Connecticut National Organization for Women, State
Rep. Bill Dyson, a Bridgeport librarian involved in that profession's federal
suit against the Patriot Act, and many others.
The
efforts of antiwar organizers to show solidarity at the picket lines at
Sikorsky Helicopter has convinced a striking Teamster to appear on the platform
to talk about the manner in which the war is being used to lower worker
benefits despite the company's super profiteering from military orders. For
more information on the details of the march, visit www.ctunitedforpeace.org/,
254 Main St., A31, West Haven, CT 06516. Mobile: (860) 478-5300.
|
