By: Arnie Alpert, Active with the Activists

Arnie Alpert spent decades as a community organizer/educator in NH movements for social justice and peace.  Officially retired since 2020, he keeps his hands (and feet) in the activist world while writing about past and present social movements.

CONCORD—After hearing the news about U.S. air strikes in Iran, Concord resident Jen Berman decided she needed to speak up in opposition.  At 11:30 Sunday morning, she was on Concord’s City Plaza, in front of the State House, with a sign stating, “No War with Iran.”  With her was Tom Albright, who said he served in the U.S. Army from 1986 to 1990.  His sign said, “Veterans Against Trump.”  Before long they were joined by others.

Anna Petrova drove up to the State House from Hancock with her daughter, Lif, arriving about noon and carrying a sign that said, “Just Say No to War.”  Lif’s sign said, “Choose Peace.”   They stayed for four hours.

NH 50501, the group that’s been behind most of the major anti-Trump rallies at the State House since February, put out a call on social media at 11 a.m. for people to join a 3 p.m. anti-war demonstration at City Plaza.  In a video posted on Facebook, Chris Farrell said, “We need to get in the streets, guys.  We do not want another war in the Middle East.  I’ve been there,” the Navy veteran said, pointing his finger at his chest, “It sucks.  Trust me.” 

Above, Cindy Thorell is pictured with a “No War” sign at a protest in Concord. ARNIE ALPERT photo

By 3 p.m., about 20 people had gathered.  Over the next hour the numbers would grow.  Like other public demonstrations of the Trump 2.0 era, many of them brought home-made signs.  Others held signs provided by NH Peace Action, which said, “New Hampshire Says No to War.” 

Cindy Thorell had just gotten back to her home in Pembroke at about 2:20 pm when she looked at her phone and saw the 50501 Facebook announcement.   Hurriedly, she made a big, “No War” sign and rushed to City Plaza, where I had met her at a pre-war anti-war protest two days earlier.  “I never protested in my life ‘til April,” she told me.   Now, she says, activism is like a full-time job.  “You can sit at home and be distressed and pissed off,” she said, “or you can come down here and be uplifted” by joining your voice with others.    

Michael “Lefty” Morrill, NH Peace Action’s Organizing Director, brought a portable P/A system down from the group’s Park Street office and set it up on the sidewalk.  Taking the microphone, he said, “This is not the beginning of something new. It is the tired repetition of an old, cruel pattern: bomb first, justify later, speak of freedom while pulling a pin from yet another grenade. We’ve seen this before, in Fallujah, in Baghdad, in Kabul, where freedom was promised but rubble delivered, where weapons of mass destruction were imagined and the real weapons, ours, fell like ash from the sky.”

Channeling a 1953 speech of President Dwight Eisenhower’s, Morrill said “Each missile is a theft, a theft from the child waiting for insulin, from the mother juggling three jobs and still unable to pay rent, from the school with crumbling walls and textbooks from another century.  Trillions for war, pennies for peace and all of it, every bomb, every lie, every life cut short, is a distraction, a smoke screen for a flailing administration, clawing for approval, wagging the dog of war to mask domestic failures.”

Several times during Morill’s speech, a cannon boomed from the vicinity of the State House steps, where the American Friends of Lafayette were commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Marquis de Lafayette’s farewell tour through New Hampshire.

“No to war.  No to lies,” Morrill said, as the cannon boomed again, as if to underscore his message.  “We will not be complicit. We will not be silent. We will not let them speak in our name while they bomb in secret.  Let the war makers tremble, because the people remember,” Morrill told the crowd, which by 3:30 p.m. had grown to about 50.  

“We need to organize.  We need to call.  We need to haunt our legislators every day and let them know that we’re watching and that this is absolutely unacceptable. Again. We’re frightened and we’re angry, but right now, I want to share our heartbreak with each other,” said L.R. Berger, a poet from Contoocook.  “Just feel your heart, because it’s a good compass and it generates energy for us to care. To care, that’s why we’re here, and to care for each other as we do this work, and to lift each other up.”

Farrell said nationwide leaders of the 50501 movement met Saturday night and decided, “People need to get out on Sunday and flood the streets.”   Other New Hampshire anti-war demonstrations were organized in Nashua, Manchester, and Portsmouth, all obviously on short notice.

“We hadn’t anticipated having to throw something together this quickly, but we just couldn’t not,” he said.  Farrell, who enlisted in the Navy in 2006, said, “We’re trying to let Congress know that we do not want war with Iran or anyone in the Middle East.”

By 4 p.m., about 60 people were lined up along the sidewalk, signs facing out toward passing motorists.  One of them was Jennifer Foley, wearing a black t-shirt that said, “Resist,” and holding a sign that said, “No War. No Bombs.”   

Foley said she had been thinking of making an anti-war sign and just sitting on her front porch in Thornton, but when she saw the notice from 50501 she decided to drive to Concord.  Usually, she goes to demonstrations in Plymouth, where she said 500 massed for last week’s “No Kings” rally.  There are also weekly demonstrations on Wednesdays, she said.

“It started with three, and last week we had 30. So every week, it grows,” she said.  Based on the signs people bring, she said the big issues are local: education, protecting veterans, protecting the White Mountains.  “Last week,” she told me. “we had some young people come out, some college students. And that felt really good.”

At about 4:15 p.m., Lefty Morill packed up his P/A system so that he could bring it to the anti-war rally in Manchester.  Protesters began to trickle away, but they’ll be back soon.  

NH 50501 organizers said the next big rally they plan to organize will be on July 17, the fifth anniversary of the death of civil rights leader and member of Congress, John Lewis.  The theme will be “Good Trouble.”