Thomas MacMillan Photo
Agnew: “When is this going to stop?”
As an estimated 1,000 demonstrators rallied for jobs and public safety, 19-year-old Latoya Agnew asked whether young people like her cousin would be shot if more New Haveners had jobs. And a new member of the incoming Board of Aldermen, Tyisha Walker, vowed to support city government employees in contract negotiations.
Walker (pictured) was one of three featured speakers at rally and march Tuesday night. The event drew hundreds of people — over 1,000, according to an estimate by Assistant Police Chief Pat Redding — to walk and chant from City Hall to Wall Street for more jobs and increased public safety.
The event was organized under the banner of Occupy New Haven, but it was unlike other events put together by the local branch of the nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement. The march marks a new level of cooperation between New Haven’s occupation and organized labor.
The march was bankrolled by local labor unions including the Central Labor Council, UNITE HERE, and AFSCME. The unions paid for glossy orange mailers and signs, a stage, audio/visual equipment and red glow sticks, and even shelled out $1,000 for robocalls to 35,000 registered voters in New Haven.
Tuesday evening’s call for more jobs and less violence comes on the heels of a weekend event organized by the labor-affiliated Connecticut Center for a New Economy (CCNE). That meeting featured an identical rallying call.
Many of the labor-backed aldermen-elect who are set to be sworn in Jan. 1, including Walker, were on hand for Tuesday’s rally and march.
Mills (bottom right).
At 5 p.m., as protestors gathered in City Hall and picked up signs and glowsticks, Gwen Mills, political director for UNITE HERE, stood at one end of the atrium of City Hall, where workers were setting up a stage, sound system, and video projector. (The rally was initially planned for outside but moved indoors because of the rain.) As soul and dance music blared out of the speakers—Donna Summer, Robyn—Mills talked about the relationship between Occupy and the unions.
The two groups have a lot of “overlap” on issues, she said. “We’ve been getting to know each other.”
Part of the goal of Tuesday’s march was to “amplify Occupy themes,” Mills said. The march route went from City Hall and Bank of America, past AT&T and Chase bank, to Wall Street in the heart of Yale, Mills said. “They’re all corporations. They have a lot of money and signify the 1 percent in some way.”
The rally was in support of an agenda that all groups involved agree on: New Haven needs more good jobs and safer streets, Mills said.
Mills said the unions who organized the march paid for the robocalls. “The majority of people in New Haven are part of the 99 percent,” she said. “They need to know what’s going on.”
Before the rally officially kicked off, State Rep. Roland Lemar was in the crowd chatting with Fair Haven Alderwoman Migdalia Castro. The Hill’s Alderman Jorge Perez was also on hand, along with several aldermen elect, including Delphine Clyburn (pictured).
The rally began with a prayer by Rev. Jason Turner (pictured), who wore a rally sign around his neck. Turner is the chairman of the housing authority’s Board of Commissioners.
He was followed by Occupy New Haven’s Chris Garaffa (pictured), who spoke about the importance of unity. He said the Occupy movement owes a debt to protestors in Tunisia and Egypt as well as to organized labor. “The struggle of working people throughout the decades is an inspiration.”
Latorya Agnew (pictured at the top of the story), who’s 19, took the mic next. She was joined on the stage by other members of The New Elm City Dream, a youth organization that has been calling for more youth employment opportunities. As she began to speak, Agnew almost immediately broke into tears.
“I used to have a best friend,” Agnew said, referring to her cousin. After her cousin was shot while they were out one night, the police didn’t do anything, Agnew said. Her cousin, who survived the shooting, got arrested when he tried to take revenge, she said. “Now the only way I can talk to him is through letters and phone calls to the jail. When is this going to stop?”
“If people my age had jobs, and had hope for the future, they wouldn’t be looking forward to hanging out and selling drugs,” she said.
Alderwoman-elect Walker, who spoke next, introduced herself as a cook’s helper at Yale and the secretary-treasurer of Local 35. She didn’t mention that she’s about to enter public office. “It’s nice to see everybody ... getting ready to kick some butt!” she said, to cheers.
Walker also emphasized unity and promised to work to help win unions prevail in contract negotiations with the city. “We are going to stand together to win great contracts—here at Yale with Local 34 and Local 35, down the street at AT&T, and for all the city workers whose contracts are coming up.”
After a short video slideshow and a final revving-up by Rev. Scott Marks, the crowd streamed out into the street, where police were waiting to block traffic for the march. Led by members of The New Elm City Dream, hundreds of chanting marchers walked north on Church Street, chanting “We are the 99 percent!”
At the Chase bank building, the chant shifted to “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!”
After the turn onto Wall Street: “All day all week, occupy Wall Street!”
After a few blocks, the march stopped at High Street for another brief rally in the street, with final chants of “Thank you for coming!” and “We will win!”
A few dozen people wandered back to the Green for more drumming and chanting and “soapboxing.”
Occupy New Haven’s Tommy Doomsday (pictured) announced that there will be another march on Dec. 17. Occupy New Haven will team up with local activist organizations to protest police brutality.
Doomsday and fellow occupier Todd Sanders called Tuesday’s march a huge success. “It brought so much energy to camp,” said Sanders.
Doomsday said he hopes it’s the beginning of more cooperation with unions.
“It’s good for everybody,” he said. “We’re all on the same page.”