Protestors give voice to common angst, uncertainty at CT AIG site

Ian Thomas

On Saturday March 21, the Connecticut branch of the Working Families Party (CT-WFP), in conjunction with ACORN, conducted a demonstration outside the Wilton, Conn. offices of AIG’s Financial Products division.

It was a sunny and pleasant March day in eastern Connecticut. The busload of demonstrators was due to arrive sometime around noon. They were late. I parked my truck at a gas station nearby and made my way over to where I believed the offices to be. They were easy to find, due to the orange cones, caution tape and the men in blue security uniforms with squawk boxes on their hips. Even though the gas station parking lot where I left my truck was on the same side of the road as the office park containing the AIG offices, I crossed the road to better survey the scene and figure out where the gathering of folks was most likely to occur. Any doubt I may have had, despite the yellow tape and orange cones, was removed as I noted out of the corner of my eye the security guard posted at the closest driveway to the gas station. As I crossed the street, he reached down and pulled the radio off his hip, brought it up and began speaking into it, looking directly at me. I was now an officially marked man. Guess I look like a disgruntled citizen.

I made my way down the street and to the main driveway. No demonstrators had arrived yet. I crossed back over and made my way confidently to the security guard there. I walked up and introduced myself as a press agent, so as to relieve any lurking doubts or misgivings. He was a laid back friendly guy named Jose, who has been working for the security firm – not AIG – for eight months. For the last week, he had been here, standing in the driveway receiving all the curses and middle fingers thrown out of passing cars on the four-lane Route 7. He was philosophical about the whole thing, saying he was angry at AIG too, but he needed the job.

Over the next few hours more local media and freelancers show up, but no bus. At one point there was a fairly absurd moment of media interviewing media for the lack of anyone else to talk. Around 1 p.m. or so, some demonstrators arrive, a group of about six local folk who had spent the morning at a tea party demonstration in Richfield.

The theme there was taxation without representation. The most vocal of this group was a lady named Andrea. She was most agitated with how fast the bill was passed and how little attention was paid to the language and loopholes.

I mentioned how I was reminded of how fast the Patriot Act and the Resolution to Use Force in Iraq were passed… I mentioned how curious a thing it was, that in both instances, lip service was paid to doing things slowly and right. Yet, in the end, the government told everyone the sky was falling but it was all right. They had the patch. But they had to act quickly… and without question. At times like these, I am reminded of a quote I heard somewhere a long time ago… “the best way to keep people in line is to scare the shit out of them”.

As I continued to talk to these people, I discovered that a good portion of them were affiliated with CommonCause.org and they were mostly Democratic-leaning others. Many implied they thought Dodd was getting a raw deal, even though he was a senior man on shaping the language of the final draft of the bill. Only a few of their number mentioned a disagreement with the bailout in principle. Most seemed reluctant to discuss how the percentage of total money the bonuses amount to is only a sliver of the billions being thrown at large international corporations who have shown few scruples and even less good, sound business sense.

Then the police started arriving. I had noticed the sole cruiser hanging back behind the reeds while I was talking to José when I first arrived. Now, suddenly, there were three more in the main parking lot and several puling along the side of the road. The bus was coming. The bus arrived and out came the people, slowly, held up by the spokesman for CT Working Families party, Brian Petronella, who was stopped as he was two steps away from the bus door by a swarm of local media. He disappeared into the throng of paparazzi type behavior. Standard questions were asked: “What do you hope to accomplish?”, “Are you surprised at the turnout of media?” At that last question, he replied that, in fact, he was surprised. So was I.

I found this coverage aspect fascinating and a trifle absurd. All in all, after the ACORN activists and their squad got out, they only numbered about 50 or so. They were ushered up onto the lawn of the building, between two small groves of trees. The police had stopped the bus some 300 yards shy of the stoplight and shut down one lane of traffic. The bus remained parked where it had let them off, which was also directly between the group and any line of sight from the far side of the street or from inside the passing cars, as the police were diverting cars into the sole remaining northbound lane a good quarter to half mile down the road from the building. Combined with the trees blocking either side of the group and the bus blocking them as cars came alongside, I doubt many motorists recognized it as a demonstration, rather than another pain-in-the-ass inconvenient traffic jam.

As the little group got themselves going with their chants, “give to the needy, not the greedy” and “people united will never fail” most of the media types drifted away from Mr. Petronella and I was able to swoop in for a question or two. The first one I asked was: “Granted, the bonuses are obnoxious, but what is the WFP’s stance on the bailout altogether?”

He replied that the WFP is behind whatever the Obama administration does, 100 percent.

I asked if he thought Senator Dodd was being treated unfairly or if he was bearing a fair share of responsibility for the language being changed. Mr. Petronella stated that he felt Dodd was being used as a scapegoat.

He went on to state that the WFP and Mr. Dodd were looking at the possibilities of a cross endorsement. Mr. Petronella asserted that the WFP has been building in numbers and influence over the last two years. He also asserted that in any close race, an endorsement and block voting could swing an election one way or the other. Given the upcoming election and the return of Rob Simmons, it seems that Senator Dodd can use all the help he can get.