Sleepy Connecticut doesn’t have the flash of Columbia or UCLA, but the state is home to major arms manufacturers and some of the most aggressive U.S. warmongers. General Dynamics Electric Boat, Pratt & Whitney, and Sikorsky (a Lockheed company), all reside in the state, along with Colt Manufacturing, and all are huge defense contractors for the federal government, and provide arms to the zionist state. In fact, “sleepy” Connecticut is so defense-heavy that it ranks as the 7th highest recipient of federal defense money, and 3rd if you count it as a share of the state’s GDP. The state’s political class reflects these business interests: the ultra zionist senators Chris Murphy (who, as a sponsor to numerous Congressional anti-gun laws, appears to deplore violence at home but slaver for it abroad), and Richard Blumenthall are joined by the absolutely vile hawk Rosa DeLauro. She has blithely defined Connecticut as the epitome of the labor aristocracy in the West: “Defense manufacturers form the backbone of the Connecticut state economy,” she said in an email. “The good paying union jobs that the defense sector provides are key to the economic security of thousands of individuals and families in Connecticut and across the United States.”
The college students of Connecticut participated wholeheartedly in April’s student intifada, despite the police violence and state repression brought to bear against them. No fewer than 46 Yale and 26 UConn students are now facing criminal charges in Connecticut state courts as a result of their organizing. Prosecutors, who have wide latitude to pursue, change, or drop charges, have been clear that they have no intention of backing off.
This is a clear signal that the business interests of Connecticut want the matter concluded. They don’t want any further outbreaks of student unrest. State Prosecutors are letting the movement know that, in Connecticut, the buck stops in the courthouse. The message is that, although this first spin through court won’t hurt too much (defendants are mostly being offered a court program called Accelerated Rehabilitation, or A.R., which will result in the charges being dismissed as long as they don’t pick up any more in the next year or two), they’ll be watching for “repeat offenders.” Today, A.R.. Tomorrow, a conviction.
This is how movements are broken. The state learned this lesson in the 1960s and 70s. Repeated arrests exert a pressure that is hard to resist. They bring charges and push them, so they can eventually burn radicals out of the movement. They want college students to think twice about protesting. Sure, one arrest doesn’t seem like much… but the second arrest will violate that A.R., and now you’re looking at a conviction. The third time will be probation, or worse. This is the state playbook. They’ll turn around and give a sad-faced press conference: “These darn kids. They just aren’t getting it. We have no choice but to take a hard stance.” And then all of Fourth Reich middle America will eat it up, and cheer the prison buses as they cart kids off to jail.
We can help delay the strategy of our clever little clave of Connecticut Goebbels’ by putting pressure on them, and forcing them to reconsider whether or not they really want to pursue charges against the college students arrested for protesting genocide.
How do we do that? Well, at the end of the day, a prosecutor is just a pig in a suit, and like the pigs, prosecutors only understand force. So the time has come for us to use it, to force them to drop the charges. We need to exert the pressure of public opinion. Signing petitions is a good start, but it doesn’t stop there. The next stage of organizing and escalation must be directed against the courts where these charges are being pursued.
Here are some petitions and campaigns to get you started.
Now go out and organize.
