Students, Workers Unite to Protest War and Corporate Greed in CT

- by Sam Bernstein

In an unprecedented display of grassroots solidarity between the antiwar and labor movements, members of Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) No War and UNITE HERE Local 217, which represents the seventy dining hall workers at SCSU, picketed and marched to demand a fair contract for the workers and an end to the war in Iraq.

On Wednesday, SCSU No War organized a Day of Protest on campus. Army recruiters were scheduled to table all day and former-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had a high-profile speaking event that evening.

Among orchestrating many horrific foreign policy initiatives under the Clinton Administration, Albright oversaw the disastrous economic sanctions on Iraq that killed up to 1.5 million Iraqis, including more than 500,000 children, and paved the way for Bush’s invasion of Iraq by destroying the country’s infrastructure. When asked on national television a few years ago whether the murder of half a million Iraqi children was “worth it,” she said it was. She has since declared her general support for Bush’s invasion and occupation, seeking to advise him on how to more effectively establish a pro-US regime in Iraq. SCSU No War declared that it would not accept a war criminal such as Albright on campus.

The day got off to a positive start when the Army recruiters left campus after only ninety minutes and not talking to a single interested student. Antiwar activists, meanwhile, passed out pamphlets and fliers that slammed the war, the lies recruiters tell, and the military’s bigoted “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. They also argued with students to come out to protest Albright that evening.

During the counter-recruitment action, activists learned that SCSU dining hall workers would be holding an informational picket in front of the dining hall at the same time that they were planning on convening to march to the Albright protest.

The workers, who work for Chartwells – a multinational corporation that runs the food service, have been working without a contract since it expired in February. Chartwells has consistently sought to stall negotiations and already terrible working conditions have further deteriorated. Workers complain of an utter lack of respect on the job and workers active in the union have been threatened, harassed, and even outright fired for the smallest infractions. Since January alone, Local 217 has filed fifty-eight unfair labor practice violations against Chartwells. The picket was organized to spread the word to students as well as demand respect and a fair contract.

Students in the antiwar coalition quickly decided to move the meeting spot for the march to the front of the dining hall in order to show solidarity with the workers who are battling the war at home. As Rich, a member of the antiwar coalition said, “The same people in corporate boardrooms are making profits by waging war in Iraq and slashing our wages here.”

More than forty workers and students joined the picket line, which was well received by workers inside and students passing by. The workers immediately took up antiwar chants and alternated them with their union chants. Workers and students alike led demands such as, “What do we want? A contract! When do we want it? Now! What do we want? Troops Home! When do we want it? Now!” and “Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!”

After forty-five minutes in front of the dining hall, all of the workers and students, behind the antiwar coalition’s banner, marched to protest Albright’s speaking event, where they were joined by a handful of community members and supporters. The march immediately began to picket directly in front of the hall where the event was being held until police forced the march into a protest pen across the street.

For another hour, demonstrators chanted and spoke out against the SCSU administration, Albright, Chartwells, and the bipartisan war against workers everywhere. Although SCSU claims there is no money for the dining hall workers’ contract, they forked over more than $70,000 to Albright for her two-hour appearance, according to the Southern News.

As Bransley Barnaby, an activist in Local 217 who has worked at SCSU for fourteen years, said at the event, “This solidarity is incredible! We’re here for the same reasons – to combat corporate greed. They’re stealing our health care and insurance the same way they’re stealing it from soldiers. Those soldiers just want to find a way to take care of their families – same as us and the students who go here. It’s great that we could all join in together – unions and antiwar, workers and students. This is an amazing example of people using their power in unity so that we can all get out of the same mess, whether it’s in Baghdad or New Haven.”

Student activists pledged to raise awareness of the workers’ contract campaign and the war at home. They also hope to get campus workers more involved in antiwar organizing. It will take similar grassroots solidarity in order to build a mass antiwar movement and reverse the decades long attack on workers around the world.