Earlier this spring, on May 21, dozens of protestors gathered just down the street from the Coast Guard Academy’s graduation ceremony to protest this year’s commencement speaker, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. For years, various Connecticut residents have gathered to protest the CGA’s graduation ceremony, whether in opposition to the commencement speaker or in opposition to the U.S. military in general– but this year, political tension and anti-Trump/anti-Noem sentiment drew a notably large crowd.
Secretary Noem’s immigration policy, which has seen a drastic and devastating increase in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across the country and has cut legal protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the country, has come under significant fire, particularly from the political left, since her term began in January of this year.
In the wake of the second Trump Administration, massive increases in ICE presence across the nation, U.S. funded war and famine in Gaza, as well as the effect of state cuts on New London Public School funding, the streets of New London have seemed louder than ever. Between ‘Hands Off’ and ‘No Kings’ rallies, NL residents have been expressing anti-Trump and anti-ICE sentiments for months now, with No Kings protests lining the streets of the downtown area with hundreds of people, named for the larger national movement of anti-Trump and anti-fascist protests.
New London has a robust history of protests stretching back decades– whether as part of national movements, by and for the people of New London, or, commonly, against more local presences such as General Dynamics Electric Boat. In recent history, hundreds of Black Lives Matter demonstrators took to the streets in 2020 for one of New London’s largest protests ever, and dedicated groups of anti-nuclear-weaponry protestors have marched to and through New London and Groton for years.
At the CGA graduation protest, demonstrators represented a large variety of political opinions– from more moderate or even centrist NL residents to prominent leftist activists and authors like Frida Berrigan, even to anti-Trump and anti-Noem Republicans, and local socialist organizers. While some protestors were primarily opposed to the actions of the U.S. military and even the CGA, other protestors yelled their thanks and congratulations to the CGA graduates. Primary issues included Trump administration attacks on immigration, treatment of veterans, then-proposed and now confirmed cuts to Medicaid, and the administration’s foreign policy, notably in Ukraine and Palestine.
One socialist organizer, who requested to remain anonymous, gave their own opinion and critique on the makeup of the protest:
“I’m a socialist organizer based in New London, and recently I attended what was billed as a protest at the Coast Guard Academy’s graduation. I heard about it through local organizers and was told it was an annual action. Naturally, I expected something with sharper teeth, something rooted in a principled opposition to U.S. militarism and imperialism.
Instead, what I encountered felt more like a liberal street rally than a protest. The main focus seemed to be Kristi Noem, and, by extension, Trump. Many attendees carried anti-Trump signs, and even one person holding a Trump head on a pike, one cheek brandishing a swastika and a tie with a hammer and sickle on it. But what really threw me off was how cadets were greeted with cheerful congratulations… No one was advocating for hostility toward these cadets, but to celebrate them felt like complicity, not critique.
Even more concerning was the atmosphere: this wasn’t an anti-war protest. Ukrainian flags and pro-NATO signs were prominent, but I saw just one pro-Palestinian sign. There was no material critique of empire, no systemic analysis, no direction for community power building. It felt like a pep rally for the lesser evil, loud, colorful, but ideologically hollow.
Kwame Ture said it best: ‘we must make clear distinctions between mobilizers and organizers. To be an organizer you must be a mobilizer but being a mobilizer doesn’t make you an organizer.’ …That said, I’m not discouraged. I’ve seen the work being done by principled socialists building movements across Connecticut. We’re organizing, not just reacting…That gives me a lot of hope.”
Protests have continued across the state and the nation as tensions have heightened since the spring, and as National Guard presence in D.C. – and proposed presence in Chicago, Memphis, and other cities– has incited massive backlash. ‘No Kings’ protests in New London have continued over the summer, and organizers across the city and across the state have continued to fight against the Trump Administration’s agenda.
