Protesters tell Quinn: ‘Hands off Viola Plummer’

Over the course of three hours on Aug. 9, some 75 activists held a picket line outside the office of New York City Councilperson and Speaker for the Council, Christine Quinn. The protest was called by the Brooklyn-based December 12th Movement. D12 is a revolutionary Black organization that fights for the self-determination of Black people here and worldwide.

Inez Barron WW photo: Monica Moorehead

Quinn, who is white, recently fired a D12 leader, Viola Plummer, from her job as chief of staff for another NYC Councilperson, Charles Barron. Barron is an outspoken activist and former Black Panther.

Plummer and Barron have come under fire from the white council members, led by Quinn, for advocating a street naming in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community of Brooklyn for a prominent Black activist, Sonny Abubadika Carson, who is deceased. The white council members voted against the street naming, which took place anyway on June 16 at the initiative of D12.

Plummer has filed a federal lawsuit against Quinn for her illegal termination and violation of her constitutional first amendment right to freedom of speech. An amicus (friend of the court) brief has been filed by the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn in support of an expected motion for summary judgment in favor of Plummer.

The brief, on behalf of organizations and individuals, will emphasize the following three points: that Quinn exceeded and abused her authority in first attempting to discipline and then to fire Plummer; that Plummer is employed by and serves Council member Barron, not Quinn; and that Plummer was fired in violation of her rights under the First Amendment. For more information about the brief, call Joan or Arturo at

718-270-6297/6291.

Speakers at the Aug. 9 picket line included renowned playwright, poet and activist Amiri Baraka, who recited a poem that he had written as a eulogy for Carson when he died in 2002. Nellie Bailey from the Harlem Tenants Council spoke on connections between the racist attacks on Plummer and Barron and the epidemic of gentrification by big real estate developers targeting the communities of color. Amadi Ajamu, a D12 organizer, chaired the rally with chants of “Black power” and agitational speeches. Inez Barron, spouse of Charles Barron, also spoke.

A number of LGBT activists mobilized for the protest and carried signs stating, “Christine Quinn does not speak for me.” Quinn, who has aspirations for running for mayor, is also a lesbian. A number of these activists represented a national effort of more than 100 LGBT activists who signed a letter supporting Plummer and defending self-determination for the Black community’s right to honor Carson with the street naming. Two of the initiators of the letter spoke at the rally—well-known anti-racist white lesbian activist and writer Minnie Bruce Pratt and Imani Henry, a Black performer and International Action Center organizer. Larry Holmes, an IAC co-director, spoke, along with a representative of Workers World Party. Activist Arturo J. Pérez Saad motivated signers for the amicus brief on behalf of Plummer. To read and sign on to the LGBT letter, go to www.workers.org.

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