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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan.25, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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It didn't seem possible that human voices could be so strong. But 250 anti-Nazi protesters wouldn't be denied here Jan. 15.
They shouted themselves hoarse for a continuous four hours drowning out white supremacist Richard Barrett and his militia followers who had come to the State Capitol to preach hate on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.
Ignoring 10-degree temperatures, the protesters came to confront Barrett up close, despite the state-police contingent protecting the Mississippi Nazi. Shouting, "KKK go away, KKK go away!" the crowd was relentless in its opposition--picketing, chanting and screaming at the fascist and the handful of cronies accompanying him.
Many students from Concord High School and surrounding schools joined representatives from the National People's Campaign and others who had come from surrounding states on very short notice.
Supporters of Workers World Party presidential and vice- presidential candidates Monica Moorehead and Gloria La Riva had helped organize the rally to launch the New Hampshire phase of their campaign.
The WWP candidates issued a statement "condemning the government of New Hampshire for granting racist hate monger Richard Barrett and his Nazi/Klan-style Nationalist Movement a permit to promote racism and genocide at the Statehouse on Martin Luther King's birthday."
"New Hampshire Gov. Stephen Merrill has cut $32 million in social programs while pushing legislation to force prisoners to pay rent while incarcerated in jails. These attacks are the bosses' desperate attempt to prop up their faltering profit system by stealing from the workers while giving massive tax giveaways to the rich," the statement continued.
The small group of fascists displayed a flag with a Nazi- style insignia from their podium. But they where only able to unfurl it with state-police protection. Protesters had knocked it over at one point.
Some King Day supporters stayed away from the rally, choosing to attend at separate events. But the unexpectedly large turnout at the rally proved beyond a doubt that freedom-loving people prefer to confront the Klan directly.
Bob Moody, director of Project Africahouse in Nashua, N.H., said: "If Dr. King were alive today he would be here. He wouldn't be at a breakfast honoring him. We have to understand that this is a struggle that is not over."
To followers of Martin Luther King and the socialist campaign of Moorehead and La Riva, the struggle in New Hampshire has just begun.
Others present at the demonstration included people from the United American Indians of New England, Steel Workers Local 8751, Service Employees union of New Hampshire, Citizens Alliance for Gay and Lesbian Rights, Project Africahouse at the University of New Hampshire, HOPE, the gay/lesbian/bi/trans youth group Concord OUtright, several AIDS organizations, as well as NPC chapters from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
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