Approved Resolution 1:

Original Proposal made by April 26th Organizing Committee

June 8th Labor-Community Civil Liberties Defense Mobilization

An attack on one is an attack on all. As workers, supporters of basic democratic freedoms, political activists, and/or members of oppressed communities, we are on the frontlines of both ongoing rollbacks of our rights and the struggle to defend and expand them. Through personal experiences and looking at historical examples, we understand that the only way to really secure our right to speech, assembly, and due process is through collective, democratic, grassroots organizing and campaigns. Furthermore, there is clear desire to mobilize along these lines across social sectors. Therefore, we are proposing to organize a labor-community civil liberties defense mobilization for June 8. Building this demonstration will help consolidate civil liberties focus of committees in unions, faith organizations, community groups, and other bodies. It should also be seen as an opportunity to bring in people outraged at the various attacks on our rights to longer-term, collective organizing in addition to the ongoing and important semi-spontaneous mobilizations like 50501.

In order to best allow participation on the broadest and most principled basis possible, the demonstration will be organized by a volunteer team meeting at least biweekly on a democratic, one-person-one-vote, non-exclusionary basis. This committee will include a subcommittee to mobilize the most oppressed and build mutual aid to assist their participation and involvement.

The proposed action will be a legal peaceful expression of our first amendment rights of free speech and assembly.

Our demands are:

Defend our civil liberties

• Free Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, and all targeted activists

• Stop all attacks on the rights to protest, organize, and due process

• Stop all deportations, return Kilmar Abrego Garcia and all other CECOT prisoners

• Stop passport confiscations

• Stop all attacks on queer and trans people

• Stop Kennedy Jr.’s Autism registry

• Protect and expand healthcare and social services

• Protect and fund our schools and universities

• Hands off our unions

Approved Resolution 2:

Original Proposal Made by Teamsters Local 1150 Pride Caucus

Build labor-civil liberties contingents at CT Pride events

Pride month is inherently political. Pride demonstrations are an expression of pushing back against an oppressive and dehumanizing social order. LGBTQIA+ people and history, especially queer Black, Latine, and Indigenous peoples and histories, are first order targets of censorship and political repression. This erasure ends with state violence against the most oppressed, particularly trans women of color like Victoria Arellano, Roxana Hernandez, and Joanna Medina who all died in ICE custody while trying to organize for other detainees’ release. Queer people and especially trans people and trans people of color have been among those on the frontlines of every movement for justice.

Today, queer communities face special threat by the same forces that are abducting immigrants and students, brutally silencing voices for justice, and destroying hard-fought civil rights. Some attacks include confiscations of trans peoples’ passports, restricting their freedom of movement, and the scrapping of protections against surveillance based on gender identity or sexuality. These attacks are being waged against trans and queer communities first, but if they are allowed to take place unchallenged they could be expanded to other communities as well – an injury to one is an injury to all.

Organized labor has a central role to play in defending civil liberties and fighting for justice against all forms of oppression, and has everything to gain by meeting all potential allies ready to take up the banner of this fight. Workers from many different sectors are caught in the crossfire of ant-queer attacks, helping make clear the importance of everyone standing together.

Teamsters Local 1150 Pride Caucus is helping lead the way to connect these struggles. By supporting this resolution, we are voting to commit to organizing labor-civil liberties contingents at local Pride events, including endorsing 1150 Pride’s plans to march at Middletown Pride, have a presence at Norwalk’s Pride in the Park, and more.

Approved Resolution 3:

Original Proposal Made by Individual Participants

A Civil Liberties Educational Mass Rally/Meeting in September

Due to the changing political landscape there is a real need to regularly update our understanding of the challenges our movement faces. We can do this by utilizing experts and activists on the front lines of the attacks by the Trump administration.

The goal of this event will be to deepen our knowledge of the legal and extra-legal methods the Trump administration is utilizing to terrorize, silence, and even disappear immigrants, students, workers, LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous, and other oppressed groups in the U.S.

Therefore, support for this resolution will mean that out of the April 26 meeting we will form a committee to begin organizing a mass educational meeting in September. This meeting will also be an organizational meeting to build future activity. There will be a workshop on researching and analyzing how religion, specifically anti-semitism and Christianity, with regard to Christian Nationalism, is being utilized to oppress free speech. This committee will identify a program, speakers, and location. The committee will attempt to have at the very least a save the date leaflet ready for the June 8th march.

The first committee meeting will take place May 8th @ 6 pm via Zoom.