South County does its part
EDITOR’S NOTE: My compliments
to Steve Ahlquist for his great coverage of yesterday's actions. In the
interest of space, I have taken extracted some of the best shots he took of
rallies in Westerly and Richmond. There are lots more photos as well as
statewide coverage at SteveAhquist.News.
I urge you to join me in subscribing to Steve’s unique journalism. – Will Collette
WESTERLY, RHODE ISLAND
In events across the state, Rhode Islanders observed Labor
Day by demanding that the federal government put “Workers over
Billionaires.” At 3 pm in Westerly, around 150 people gathered at the corner of
Franklin Street and Airport Road, lining the sidewalk outside the CVS/Stop
& Shop Plaza.
“I think that we all need to be standing up, more and more
as time goes on, because our country is being attacked by fascists,” said Janine
Harrington, one of the Westerly organizers. “Unless the people rise up, because
there’s more of us than there are of them, nothing will be done to stop it.”
RICHMOND, RHODE ISLAND
A sister event took place further north, outside the Richmond
Town Hall. Nearly 175 people occupied both sides of Richmond Townhouse Road by
the rotary.
“Traditionally, Labor Day is to support the unions, and
we’re glad to come out and support workers’ rights,” said Chris Kona, one
of the organizers. “There’s been a lot of challenges, especially at the federal
level against workers’ rights, particularly the effort to disenfranchise the
federal workers’ unions. We’re here to show solidarity.”
“It’s important that we all do our part to save our
democracy,” said Jana Ina Stanley, another Richmond organizer. “We are
dangerously close to being in a very bad place. My sign has two sides. One side
says, ‘You don’t need to believe our signs. Do a search for the signs of
fascism, and I think you’ll see some of the things.” My other sign is important
for communities stereotypically thought to be red, but are technically purple.
It says, ‘I’m holding the sign for your rights to, regardless of how, or if,
you voted,’ because we have to work together to defeat this.”
