Did Pro-Palestine Protesters Get Paid April 16 At State Capitol? Should They Go F*** Themselves?

Photo credits: Jim Anderberg

Yesterday we followed up tax day demonstrations for defunding Israel's genocide on Palestine with a STOP ARMING GENOCIDE action at Maine's state capitol. A smaller crew than when we staged a similar action February 23 as there were and are numerous actions for Gaza this week all over our sprawling and lightly populated state.

We saw several friendly faces there as citizen lobbyists had turned out for Tribal rights, educator rights, and gun control as the legislative session scrambles to a close today. People let me know afterwards how much they appreciated the chant, "From Wabanakiya to Palestine, occupation is a crime."

A paid lobbyist in a mint green blazer did not appreciate the chant, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

A few of us heard her say "Go f*** yourself" as she passed by. I thought she might be a legislator but, as the bell tolled for those folks to return to chambers and vote, mint green blazer was in the cafeteria across the way. She had removed her name tag by then, wouldn't say who she was, and told some other folks that they should study history. Zionist history, presumably. 

I wanted to give her employer some feedback on her interaction with us but a security guard stopped me from asking her name as she exited the building saying that swearing would get me kicked out of the state house (I was quoting her i.e. "You said to me...). Trying to guess  what issue she was lobbying for: gun industry? genocide profiteers General Dynamics or Pratt & Whitney? Doubtful, because those lobbyists usually wear expensive suits and shoes that stand out in Maine. I got more of a school administrator vibe, possibly there to lobby against a guaranteed minimum wage for ed techs.

Some of the gun control citizen lobbyists approached our group and expressed admiration for our die-in protesting other kinds of violence that the U.S. supports.

I stopped to speak with educators who were there with my union, the Maine Education Association. I told them I'm a retired teacher and I believe educators haven't been paid because the lion's share of spending year after year is on wars and weaponry. Several of them agreed with that. (Too bad that decades of advocating for the MEA to push back against military spending falls on deaf ears in an organization dominated by the Democratic Party.)

One funny thing that happened is a tv reporter who caught some of our die-in on video wanted to know if any of us were paid to be there. Also, were our expenses covered by our press guy's organization or any other group? Our press guy got a kick out of that and answered "no" to both on our behalf.

Under capitalism, apparently it's hard to understand that people would engage in direct action of their own volition and on their own dime. Case in point about why our group yesterday was so small: most people are at work on Tuesdays at 11am. I'm thankful for our hardy band of retirees and teachers on spring break, and for the work of activists who couldn't be there yesterday but who created this strong handout explaining Maine's role in arming the Gaza genocide.

House Minority Leader Still Slinging S**t (As In Bulls**t)

Here's my second post on yesterday's action in the Maine capitol building (first post is here) with an update on our interaction with a legislator who I did not recognize at the time.

(Sorry, I won't be sharing how we got the banner, t-shirts, or "bloody" sheets through security. Because: security.)

But, I can now share the awesome flyers we distributed.

And I can share my observation that Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, a Republican from Winter Harbor who is House Minority Leader, shouted a couple of times at us, "Do you support Israel's right to exist?" and was ignored. Then a solitary voice answered "No." (I'm unsure if this was one of the die-in folks, one of our supporters, or just someone in the considerable crowd that had gathered to watch.)

This gave him the perfect opening to shout: "That's genocide! That's genocide!" as he stormed off. (I caught just this portion on video which you can see here.)

It's unclear whether Faulkingham had seen our flyers. Since he didn't address any of the fiscal points raised (e.g. $200 million in tax breaks General Dynamics has received from Maine over the years) I'm going to assume not. Instead he recited some AIPAC talking points for a reporter who interviewed him after the fact.

All photos courtesy of Jim Anderberg

Coalition organizers and media crew have clapped back with a statement addressing his misinformation. An excerpt:

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” said Lisa Savage, an organizer with the coalition, who is a long-time anti-war activist and former candidate for U.S. Senate. “The people of Maine are ill-served by legislative leaders who cloak themselves in purposeful ignorance.”

Reporter Corey Bouchard subsequently interviewed Faulkingham, who expanded on his misconceptions. After viewing the interview, Savage pointed out, “‘From the river to the sea’ is actually a Zionist slogan used to push for displacing indigenous Arab — that is, Palestinian — people from the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

“Also, Jerusalem is the site of the al-Aqsa mosque, where apartheid policies of the occupation have been in full force, with resistance mounting over the years.”

I suspect the Israel lobby, which for years has falsely claimed to speak for all Jews worldwide, has contributed to Faulkingham’s misunderstanding of this key point. Maine deserves better from its elected officials.”

Paige Milligan, an activist who has lived in Palestine and holds a PhD in Arabic literature, commented: “Israel as a state and Zionism as a political project and ideology are fascist, genocidal, racist, and Jewish supremacist. Rep. Faulkingham’s claim that any call to dismantle Israel is ‘genocidal’ shows his ignorance and his own racism, as it conflates the settler-colonial apartheid ethno-state of Israel with all of Judaism's many, diverse cultural traditions and histories, and all Jewish people. This is deeply offensive. 

Judaism, taken as a religion, a culture, a history, and/or an ethnicity that one is born into, is part of one's identity. Zionism, a supremacist, racist, settler-colonial ideology with roots in 19th century European anti-Semitism and colonialism, is not an identity. It's a cult.”

Faulkingham is a well-known Trump (or maybe LePage?) wannabe whose fish stories were deconstructed here, and who the record shows pleaded guilty to throwing human shit on people in 2003. 

Now, I have a new research project: exactly how much AIPAC money has he taken?

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Finally, here is media coverage from two tv channels and that seems to be about it. The Portland Press Herald was there and interviewed me, but published nothing. Someone else who was with us as a photographer noted that Maine Public (aka NPR) didn't cover the event despite being in the state house covering legislation. But participant Kristen Salvatore advises that she will be interviewed by the Maine Morning Star about yesterday's action. Yay!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/palestinian-rights-activists-hold-rally-inside-state-house-and-demand-a-ceasefire/ar-BB1iJwX5

https://www.foxbangor.com/news/state/protester-hold-die-in-at-state-house/article_6fa5530c-d1d8-11ee-93f0-6f0ccd5753e2.html

https://wgme.com/newsletter-daily/palestinian-rights-activists-stage-protest-inside-state-house-maine-gaza-israel-hamas

Maine Tax Breaks For Genocide Profiteers Called Out

Great acoustics in the Maine State House for activists at a Maine Coalition for Palestine event today. The Chamber of Commerce was hosting in the Hall of Flags offering the opportunity to confront General Dynamics and stage a die-in directly in front of them. 

An older guy with GD was angry at our presence and he "accidentally" grazed my head with his shoe and then yelled that I had tried to trip him. He seemed especially aggravated by the chant, General Dynamics you can't hide / we charge you with genocide, yelling, "We're not hiding! We're right here!!" 

So that part alone really made my day.

Overall a great day. The amazing solidarity of our group felt good and our STOP ARMING GENOCIDE t-shirts and strong chanting carried a clear message: Tax breaks for genocide profiteers must go! 

Everyone doing this work has a heart breaking for Gaza, and the children and their families in Palestine, and this is one thing we felt that we could do in response.

After holding the space for about a half hour, we cleared out as requested and headed upstairs to the legislative floor where many more lawmakers and lobbyists were present. I'm sure they had heard us down in the Hall of Flags, and now they could see us. The journalists who had started covering us downstairs followed us. Eventually we let ourselves get kicked out of there, too, and headed downstairs to the exit where there is a waiting area we filled with chanting and clapping for several more minutes. Security guards watched but took no action.  

I was impressed by how broad a swath of the state we drew participants from: MDI, Calais, Deer Isle, Biddeford, Bangor, and Brunswick to name just a few. It was again a multi-generational crowd with college students at one end and boomers at the other. I love that.

Our banner leaders were extraordinary. Our support people were extraordinary. As we exited the legislative floor someone called, "We'll be back." May it be so.

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Some mainstream media coverage will follow. Here's the first one:

https://www.wabi.tv/2024/02/22/pro-palestine-protesters-have-taken-over-maine-state-house/

Hundreds Rally At General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works To Kick Off Stop Arming Genocide Campaign in Maine

Photo credit: Robin Farrin

Yesterday a mass rally took over the street in front of General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works shipyard and a die-in held the space for about an hour. Especially gratifying: seeing my old activist friends, many of whom came from far away to lay down and risk arrest, together with the much younger demographic of the Maine Coalition for Palestine. 

While Penobscot speaker Lokotah Sanborn drew parallels between land theft in Palestine and land theft in the unceded territories of Wabanakiya, a small handful of counter protesters modeled settler colonialism shouting "Get off our lawn!" from the union hall steps adjacent to the protest. There is no line of demarcation between the post office side lawn where speakers were gathered and the AFL-CIO property, and a scuffle that broke out when someone strayed onto the union's lawn was the only police intervention witnessed by legal observer Mark Roman yesterday. No one was injured, and no arrests were made.

Photo credit: Robin Farrin

There was considerable outreach to the union prior to the event and not all workers at BIW were hostile, but some predictably disagreed with our analysis on Palestine and/or were angered by our presence at their workplace. Also, it's hard to be told that your work supports the slaughter of infants.

Happily, no basketball bats were observed.

I did witness some protesters chastising a t.v. cameraman and reporter for interviewing the two very vocal counter protesters who spent most of the rally inexplicably chanting "Gaza to the sea!" or calling protesters "commies" and "Nazis" in the same breath. The reporter told those objecting that newscentermaine wanted to give coverage to "both sides" but the ratio of  250 pro-Palestine voices to about 10 pro-Israel voices wasn't clearly reflected in any of the mainstream news coverage I saw. The camera operator ended the confrontation by snarling, "How about you get out of the way and let us do our fucking job?"

Local police attempting to do their job simply closed the street for a couple of hours and declined to arrest anybody. The Chief told our police liaison Bruce Gagnon that the Bath PD was short staffed and when Gagnon asked if he planned to call the county sheriff for backup he replied, "They only have a couple of guys, too."  I did see the (warm) sheriff's van often used to transport arrestees from BIW but eventually it departed without being used.

Here's news coverage we've seen so far:

'Die-in' held outside Bath Iron Works to protest US military support of Israel | WGME

More than 100 protest at BIW over support for Israel's war in Gaza (bangordailynews.com)

Pro-Palestine Protestors Block Road Outside Bath Iron Works, Demand Shipyard Stop Arming "Imperialist Genocide" - The Maine Wire

Hundreds rally outside Bath Iron Works to protest U.S. military aid for Israel (pressherald.com)

The Maine Coalition for Palestine is waging an extensive campaign to support people in Gaza and the West Bank right now, with many more events and actions planned. Today, folks can join Bowdoin SJP on campus in Brunswick to demand alumnus Sen. Angus King support a permanent ceasefire now.

As a Bowdoin alum myself, I am happy to see our mascot wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh. Go Polar Bears!

REVISED: Updated to include photos just in from Robin Farrin.