More than 500 protests across the country and several in the state are expected for those seeking to make their voices heard for the “Free America Walkouts.”
Protests, denouncing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in U.S. cities, among other grievances, will be scattered around the state and are set to begin at 2 p.m. Tuesday with the biggest Connecticut crowd expected at the Hartford protest in front of the Connecticut State Capitol.
Other planned state protests sites include Newtown, Canton, West Hartford, Granby, Windsor, Bridgeport and New Milford (5 p.m.).
Alison Greenlaw is the Hartford County lead for CT 50501, which is among the groups, along with Women’s March and FEMINIST, leading the Hartford protest. She said “several hundred” are expected at Tuesday’s event. She said the group hosted an event in New Haven last week that attracted about 700 she expects about the same number in Hartford on Tuesday.
The coordinated walkouts are on the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second term. Groups are protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on communities, military occupation of cities, attacks on immigrants, families torn apart, expanded surveillance, and actions meant to silence dissent, according to the Free America website.
“On January 20, we’re calling on people everywhere to turn their backs on fascism and walk out,” Executive Director of Women’s March Rachel O’Leary Carmona said in a statement.
“Authoritarianism runs on our obedience, and we’re withdrawing it. We walk out to disrupt business as usual, to build mutual aid and public service, and to prove that ordinary people still have the power to bend what looks immovable,” she said. “We walk out because a Free America is the only America worth calling great.”
Greenlaw said her group has seen huge increases in interest following the death of Minnesota’s Renee Good earlier this month, which sparked protests and demonstrations across the state and country.
“We have seen an explosion since Renee Good was murdered. This made people furious,” Greenlaw said. “People want to come together.”
Greenlaw said protesters will bring signs, noisemakers and “are going to let people know that people care about these issues and that people are willing to walk out of work to show up to make their voices heard and let people know that they care about these issues and are willing to walk out of work to make sure their voices are heard.”
ICE says it works to identify and apprehend “removable aliens, detains these individuals and removes illegal aliens from the United States.” The agency also says its Criminal Alien Program supports it and the Enforcement and Removal Operations in “executing its mission to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of aliens who threaten the safety of our nation’s communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws.”
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Greenlaw added that there will be several tables or booths for people about other ways they can get involved.
“The biggest thing we hear from people is that they want to come to events and do something,” Greenlaw said. “They’re sick and tired of just protesting and they want to actually get out in their communities and make a difference. So that’s why we always try to invite as many other community organizations as we can so that people can connect with the people on the ground doing the work and find their way to get into the movement.”
Hartford speakers expected on Tuesday include Nadia Sims, Poet Laureate of Manchester; Rob Baril, president of SEIU Local 1188 NE; Ruth Fortune, candidate for U.S. Congress in Connecticut’s 1st District; Lisa Del Sesto, president of National Organization for Women, CT chapter; and Raine Palladio, president of We Are Women Rising, with more expected.
Greenlaw, a Bloomfield resident, said the walkout is also to illustrate the power of labor and the leverage to strike.
“This is not a sustained strike, this is a walkout but it’s symbolic of the fact that we do have the ability to withhold our labor from the economy and without us the economy doesn’t work,” Greenlaw said.
“We have speakers coming out to represent labor,” she said.
“We have speakers coming out to talk about civil liberties and that’s how our civil liberties are being destroyed by this administration. We have some folks coming to talk about how recent changes to classifications of primarily female health professions are affecting those who work in that field and are going to create job shortages and fields like nursing and mental health. We have some really good topics that we’re going to cover. We’re going to hear some from some great folks.”
Greenlaw said the Hartford event is rain or shine and will be held unless conditions are dangerous.
“Connecticut people are pretty hearty and people are angry, so I don’t think the cold is going to stop them,” Greenlaw said.