Statewide Meeting to Defend Our Civil Liberties
A Mass Meeting to Defend our Right to Free Speech and Our Right to Organize
Saturday, April 26th
1:00pm
First and Summerfield UMC
425 College street
New Haven, CT
Our civil liberties are clearly under attack. The Trump Administration is kidnapping activists, doxxing people of color, and leading a rapidly escalating war on our most basic rights in order to silence its critics.
On March 8, plain clothes ICE agents - without a warrant - abducted Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian green card-holder married to a U.S. citizen who was then 8 months pregnant.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio and other officials admit that Khalil has committed no crime and is targeted solely because the administration disagrees with the political content of his speech - a direct and open attack on first Amendment rights.
Officials call for the mass deportation of student activists - even demanding that universities hand over names and nationalities of students who have protested - and begin by abducting Badar Khan Suri in Virginia and Rumeysa Ozturk in Massachusetts.
Venezuelans taken without charges, trial, or any due process, are sent - in direct violation of a judge’s orders - to a prison camp in El Salvador.
After ICE took Khalil to a Louisiana jail, Columbia university expelled Grant Miner, President of the UAW Columbia grad employees chapter, one day before bargaining was set to begin. The UAW national chapter has decried the anti-democratic firing of their chapter president by the Columbia administration.
Now more than ever, the links between our labor rights and free speech are clear: when speech is no longer protected, the government is free to target union advocates and disrupt bargaining.
Now more than ever, the links between immigrant rights, rights to free speech, rights to due process, and rights to organize are crystal clear.
We are at a crossroads. We can hunker down, watching as our neighbors and co-workers are terrorized into silence and inaction. Or we can take this moment to create new connections with each other and strengthen old ones to build a movement capable of turning back this wave of repression.
Activists and community members are building a fightback in defense of democratic rights. Union leaders, rank-and-file workers, faith leaders and community members are putting together a civil liberties defense meeting whose purpose will be to organize deeply rooted mass action in defense of our basic rights. The meeting will be open to participation by all who understand the importance of grassroots movements working together to defend our civil liberties. We are looking for collaborators to help organize, build, promote, and endorse this effort!
Opening Program to include:
Kathy Manley - Legal Director, Coalition for Civil Freedoms
Alyce Coleman, REACH Fund
ACLU of Connecticut, Speaker TBA
Bishop John Selders, Moral Monday CT
Endorsers:
GEU UAW Local 6950
4Cs SEIU 1973
Connecticut State University AAUP
Hartford Federation of Teachers
Teamsters Local 1150, Pride Caucus
Moral Monday CT
MARUF-CT
UUC Stamford Social Justice Committee
Sunrise New Haven
CT 50501
The REACH Fund of Connecticut
CT Palestine Alliance
Jewish Voice for Peace - New Haven
Jewish Voice for Peace - UConn
Veterans for Peace, Chapter 42
We Will Return
Greater New Haven Peace Council
Wesleyan Rights Coalition
CT Labor for Palestine
Unidad Latina en Accion
Clan Mother Shoran Waupatuquay Piper of Golden Hill Paugussett*
*(Organization of Individuals listed for informational purposes only)
For more information, to contact us, or to endorse go to https://www.ctcivillibertiesde... or email us at ct.cld2025@pm.me