Barrett and his supporters made their annual pilgrimage that day to the Morris County Courthouse. They staged an "Independence from Crime Day" in support of New Jersey state troopers and their systematic harassment of Blacks on the highways--a practice known as racial profiling.

The New Jersey cops have been the object of many protests over repeated incidents of racist conduct, including a 1998 incident where two white troopers fired on four Black and Latino youths on the New Jersey Turnpike. In the face of widespread outrage, the state decided to pay $13 million to settle that case in February.

Barrett, leader of the Mississippi-based Nationalist Party, attracted two supporters. Shortly before he began speaking, two others who were posing as his backers suddenly turned over sound equipment and tore down his flags before being arrested.

The hundreds who participated in the loud and spirited counter-demonstration ignored efforts by the authorities to keep protesters away. Many Morristown public officials and religious figures had advocated that people abstain from the protest. Rev. Phillip Wilson of the Church of the Redeemer argued, "Barrett wants an audience, he wants a good fight. People should stay home and not play into his hands."

Police barricades separated groups of antiracist demonstrators from each other, and enforced strict regulations limiting protesters' rights. Cops prohibited protesters from carrying common items such as purses and bags, and required each participant to be scanned with a metal-detector wand.

A range of groups and individuals joined the protest. The organizations that brought contingents included the National Organization for Women; People's Organization for Progress, a Newark-based group that organizes actions against police brutality; Wind of the Spirit, a Morristown-based immigrant rights group; and the Progressive Labor Party. Members of the Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters participated with T-shirts and signs designating their unions.

A large group of young people from the Bergen Action Network in Bergen County participated. Some handed out leaflets to workers in the area surrounding the courthouse, encouraging them to join the action.

The majority of the demonstrators were high school and college students and other youth. Jon, 18, from Reading, Pennsylvania, found out about the action on the Internet. Several students from the local rabbinical college were part of the crowd.

A Lebanon Township woman who heard about the demonstration through the media and brought her husband along was appalled at the discrepancy between the treatment received by the ultrarightist and the counterdemonstrators. "We'd like to know how [Barrett] can get a permit for the steps of the courthouse! And I can't believe how blocked in we are by the cops," she said.

About 1,000 people attended a candlelight vigil the previous evening at a local church to protest Barrett's message.
 

NEWARK, New Jersey--Kari Sachs, the Socialist Workers candidate for governor of New Jersey, participated with her supporters in the candlelight vigil and protest action in Morristown. Sachs recently submitted 1,553 petition signatures--almost double the 800 required by state law--to place her name on the ballot in the November governor's race. Supporters of the socialist campaign collected the signatures during an intensive one-week effort.

The socialist campaign received a warm response from participants in the Morris-town antiracist actions. Many of the young people there purchased copies of the Militant or Perspectiva Mundial, or stopped by the campaign literature table to find out more about the socialist alternative. Sachs was interviewed by a local news station.
--S.H. AND A.H.  
 
 
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