By TABITHA MAE

With a population of more than 27,000, the presence of Amtrak and ferry stations, two colleges, the U.S.C.G. Academy, a handful of popular nightlife locations, and swaths of Electric Boat and Pfizer employees, the streets of New London, Conn., are anything but quiet. And, many of the vehicles passing through have been tracked—both inside and outside of the small coastal city.

Since 2022, cameras installed by the New London Police Department as part of a contract with Cross Camera Controls, an Axis Communications partner, have been recording footage and data. There was little media coverage regarding their installation or the $366,000 contract. At the time, there was not much talk about what has now become a widespread source of fear and outrage—Automatic License Plate Recognition cameras, or, ALPRs.

What was shared publicly was the plan to install more than three dozen cameras, six of them being cited as “ALPR-ready.” Neighboring towns of Waterford and Groton and the nearby town of Norwich are swimming in Flock Safety cameras.

After hearing about the fight that working-class activists staged against surveillance across the state in Windsor, Conn., a few members of New London Civil Liberties Defense (NLCLD) worked to create a local branch of the group Surveillance Off our Streets CT. A FOIA was filed to obtain the contracts, data retention and storage policies, and histories on communications and the sharing of access with enforcement bodies. Shortly after the filing of the FOIA, organizers for the group became aware of ongoing discussions in the City Council—the reintroduction of an ordinance, which, if approved, would have allowed the installation of additional cameras along the New London streets. This time, they would be Automatic Traffic Enforcement Safety Devices (ATSEDs).

Delegations of group members and others sympathetic to the cause were organized, and in two city council meetings in August, dozens of public comments were delivered. The ordinance has now been tabled indefinitely. The group, originally SOS-NL, has been meeting weekly, and upon realizing the expansion of the group into workers and students from various neighboring towns, voted to expand the group under the name SOS-SECT–Surveillance Off our Streets Southeastern Connecticut.

The outreach efforts of this group were brought into better visibility on Friday, Aug. 28, when over 40 people gathered inside an independent bookstore known as The Golden Owl, located in New London’s downtown area. The anti-surveillance forum, hosted by SOS-SECT and NLCLD, featured three speakers—key members of Connecticut’s fightback against surveillance—and brought in a crowd of community members of all types. By the time that WFSB’s Channel 3 reporters entered, there had been standing room only for quite some time.

The speakers did not merely focus on the critical aspect of the cameras themselves, or on the host of companies providing them. Important discussion on this technology did occur, which is crucial when this tech is so extensive and rapidly expanding. But the forum also discussed the larger framework that permits and promotes this surveillance. As one speaker, Makenzie Metivier, stated, “No matter the company, the government is funneling massive profits to these businesses, and the government has one incentive—to feed the growth of American authoritarianism.”

Just as the cameras in New London and hundreds of locations around the state pre-date Trump’s second presidency, the issues of over-policing and oppressive surveilling are generations old. Any administration or government body can and likely will exploit the ability to track the working class and students in the absence of legislative changes preventing surveillance of this type.

This is not to detract from the recognition that Donald Trump’s regime is using the already brutal arms of the federal government—DHS, ICE, CBP, FBI—to infiltrate existing structures, like the police and judicial systems and local surveillance operations. These operations are already skewed against protections for the working class and students, to infringe on our speech and other rights, and on the ability of protest movements to organize. The Trump administration is making crystal clear the repressive nature of the post-9/11 bipartisan security state.

As forum speaker Eric Weiner—a tech expert and pivotal member of the Windsor, Conn., anti-Flock fight—aptly put it, “We cannot allow our individual liberties to be eaten away.”

Data from this tech surveillance is being used in Fusion Centers, locations for local law enforcement and government enforcement agencies to collaborate. Immigration enforcement has been widely documented to be using this data. But Fusion Centers are not the last of the major concerns, and every person who is willing to stage a fightback should make sure they are well acquainted with National Security Presidential Memorandum-7. (NSPM-7), “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.” This memorandum is being used as justification to criminalize the legal actions of the working class and students to organize, protest, and speak freely.

Speakers at The Golden Owl called for standing in solidarity with the Minnesota 15, a group of trade unionists and community members being charged with criminal conspiracy, and with the Prairieland protesters who are now facing decades in prison. Anyone willing to stage a fightback, even though their actions are legal and peaceful, could be labeled as a terrorist. And they are being tracked.

The speakers called attention to the hypocrisy of labelling working-class activists as threats when immigrants are being abducted and killed in the streets and for-profit prison corporations are being handed contracts with the federal government. Officials in these facilities force detained migrants to do slave labor, while they remain in unsafe and unsanitary living conditions. The detainees are scarcely fed, and their food is often contaminated. Meanwhile, physical and sexual assault reports grow.

Connecticut may not have a dedicated ICE detention facility, but the state is far from free of ICE oppression. The presence of ICE has been a problem in Connecticut for some time now, but an alarming escalation has recently taken place. Estimates of the number of people abducted in ICE operations over the last month range from over 100 to close to 370. Danbury, Conn., has been hardest hit, with at least 64 immigrants cruelly removed from their familiesin the last week of August. Migrants have been stolen off the streets, from outside of their homes, and outside of the schools that their children attend.

Speakers and attendees made it very clear: the working class is under attack, immigrant or not. Workers and students are being surveilled, imprisoned, and killed.  They stressed the importance of showing local governments that their actions are seen, and that the working class will not stand for their being tracked, controlled, and oppressed. They said that we must continue on the path of public visibility—through attending town and city council meetings and organizing days of action and forums, et cetera.

Equally important is the need for organizing and establishing broad connections with the community.

At the same time, we need to approach this issue at a higher political level: While cutting the contracts, removing the cameras, and changing ordinances and legislation is important, this will not alter the fact that the people in office fail to represent the interests of workers and students. Attacks on the working class have been perpetrated by both major parties for decades. Both Democratic and Republican leaders have sat idly by while human and democratic rights are whittled away.

The forum agreed that the goal must be to connect with students and the working class all around the state and the country, and to stage a fightback not just against the cameras but also against the authoritarian overreach that allows and supports them.

The influence of the fight in Windsor, Conn. [where, after strong community protests, the town council has voted to shut down its Flock camera system] was strongly noted.

Also introduced as a source of guidance and inspiration were the nationwide actions of 2006, which Metivier described as one of “the most stunning examples of working-class solidarity and fortitude in contemporary American history.” In 2005, The Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act, often referred to as the Sensenbrenner Bill, came to the table—another attack staged by members of the federal government. But, on May 1, 2006, the first nationwide political strike in American history took place. Millions of people flooded the streets. Immigrant workers, long plagued by unfair working conditions and faulty U.S. policy, had an immense impact on American politics. The bill did not pass the Senate. The immigrant working class showed that production in this country could not proceed without them.

The first SOS-SECT forum has passed, and the ATSED ordinance is not expected to be a problem for the near future, but it is clear that the work of SOS-SECT and the statewide SOS-CT is far from complete. As far as New London is concerned, group members are approaching the process of drafting a new ordinance for the city—an ordinance that protects the working class, something that ALPRs and ATESDs will not do.

And, another forum is already planned, held by the statewide group for Surveillance Off our Streets. It is scheduled to take place in Hartford on Sept. 26. The Flock Off: Public Forum & Discussion will discuss the FOIA process, fusion centers, joint task force operations, and the fights taking place against surveillance across Connecticut.

The desires for this expansion, both directed at surveillance and the broader working-class struggle are well-exemplified in a statement from forum speaker Kay McAuliffe, a union activist and SOS fighter: “The movement against ALPR cameras has the potential to spark a general political rebellion that fundamentally undermines the political authority of the government.”

In a moment that made the cohesion and spirit of the audience palpable, speaker Alyce Coleman, an abortion rights activist and member of the SOS team, led the room in a protest song she wrote. Throughout the Golden Owl echoed the words, “Too many cops, too little justice. Get rid of Flock, we don’t really trust it. Abortion patients are getting busted. Too many cops, too little justice.”

Photo: Aug. 28 forum at the Golden Owl bookstore in New London, Conn.

The post Working people in Connecticut demand: Surveillance off our streets! first appeared on Workers’ Voice/La Voz de los Trabajadores.

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