Where: Elmwood Community Center - Laurel Hall, 1106 New Britain Ave. West Hartford, CT, off street parking available, bus stop close by

When: Saturday, January 24, 2026 at 2PM

Attend virtually thru zoom: Link to be posted here ahead of meeting, check back soon

At a moment when U.S. imperial power is escalating its reach across Latin America and beyond, the fight to defend civil liberties here at home is inseparable from the struggle against repression abroad. The same week that the U.S. government kidnapped Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, I.C.E. escalated its public violence, murdering a mother of three, Renee Good, in broad daylight, while neighbors recorded the crime on their phones. From escalating U.S. aggression toward Venezuela to the continued expansion of surveillance, policing, and political repression inside the U.S., we are facing a coordinated project: an imperialist, capitalist system that protects wealth and power by criminalizing resistance, manufacturing consent, and suppressing organizing.

This project is not new; and neither are the narratives used to justify it. Claims of “democracy,” “security,” and “self-determination” have long been deployed to legitimate U.S. interventions and violence. These stories are recycled because they work. They are designed to exploit the genuine solidarity working-class people feel with oppressed communities, while obscuring a deeper reality: an imperialist system that protects wealth and power at the expense of people and democracy.

The banks raising interest rates on your mortgage and student loans are also strangling countries like Venezuela through debt and austerity. The tech companies building massive data centers are also extracting lithium, cobalt, and other critical resources across the Global South. When politicians claim to defend freedom abroad, they are silent when police harass people without warrants, when private equity firms buy up housing and raise rents, and when corporations cut wages and benefits in the name of profit. This system does not serve working people anywhere. It depends on repression everywhere.

That is why our work matters now more than ever. We must build real solidarity across borders while also fighting the growing repression of civil liberties at home. When people resist U.S. intervention abroad, they are not only fighting for themselves; they are also fighting for us. An injury to one truly is an injury to all.

This is why we ask that you join the upcoming Statewide CTCLDC Forum and Meeting on Saturday, January 24 at 2:00 PM at the Elmwood Community Center (virtual option available). Please see the attached flyer or visit our website for more details.

The meeting will kick off with a discussion led by Fatema Ahmad (she/her), Executive Director of Muslim Justice League. Fatema will ground us in an analysis of Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and how national security frameworks are used to criminalize, surveil, and repress marginalized communities. Following this, we will discuss and vote on ongoing defense campaigns and upcoming organizing actions, such as local door-to-door canvassing across Connecticut.

This is the work: building working-class solidarity, countering state lies and media propaganda, defending the right to organize, and growing a movement capable of meeting this moment.