ACTIVISM UPDATE Visitors sent packing BY SARA DONNELLY

Last week, 19 anti-war protestors were arrested in the hallway outside Senator Olympia Snowe’s Bangor office during an action called the Frequent Visit Program (see "A Somber Occupation", December 16, by Sara Donnelly). It was the first time Maine activists have been arrested conducting the sit-in office occupations which define Frequent Visit.

The activists were charged with criminal trespass and will stand trial on January 20. If found guilty, they could spend up to 364 days in jail, face fines of up to $2,000, or be required to do community service.

Frequent Visit is a strategy created by Maine activists to urge Maine’s US senators and representatives to hold a public forum here on the war. Visit activists stay in touch with the delegates to pressure them to this end — they eulogize the war dead for hours in their state offices, send regular e-mails and letters, and make phone calls reiterating their opposition to the war and their request for a town meeting.

This office occupation, on December 15 at One Cumberland Place in downtown Bangor, was scheduled to coincide with parliamentary elections in Iraq. It included an anti-war press conference and a peaceful rally. Bangor police estimate 75 activists were in attendance.

For the first time in Frequent Visit's year-long history, the doors to a Maine congressional delegate’s office were barred. Two activists, Bruce Gagnon and Pat Wheeler, managed to slip inside before the door closed and office staff called security to guard the entrance. They sat there and refused to leave until everyone outside was getting arrested, and then they went out "in solidarity," to be arrested as well, by police summoned by the landlord.

Why the rude rebuff? Maybe Snowe’s getting sick of saying no. Frequent Visit activists have occupied the offices of Snowe, Senator Susan Collins, and Representative Tom Allen six times since December 2004. While Allen and Representative Michael Michaud have agreed to hold town meetings, in part in response to the activists’ demands, the senators have not warmed to the idea.

"To get the senators to agree to a town hall meeting, we’ve done all kinds of typical things — we’ve written letters, we’ve visited their offices in small groups," says Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, in Brunswick, and one of the creators of Frequent Visit. "It’s come to the point where we feel we have to go this next step to show how serious we are. We will continue to do this, it’s not a one-shot deal."

"The next step," as Gagnon describes it, means activists might stay longer and rally louder, which may result in more arrests.

In a related note, on December 16 Congressman Michaud announced that his town meeting in Bangor on the Iraq War will be held on December 21, from 7 to 8 pm, in the Wellman Commons at the Bangor Theological Seminary, 300 Union Street. Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap will moderate.