Women’s March Connecticut weighs questions involving national group

As it gears up for its third annual gathering at the state Capitol in Hartford, Women’s March Connecticut is wrestling with difficult questions regarding its relationship to the national organization.

Earlier this month, the Tablet magazine published a lengthy investigation about the leaders of the national group, which included charges of anti-Semitism and mismanagement.

Since then, several state-based women’s march organizations across the U.S. have publicly denounced the leaders and severed ties with the national group. The Women’s March Connecticut is not formally affiliated with the national organization and has not called on its leaders to resign, said Sarah Raskin, an organizer with the Connecticut group.

“Our connection to national was always [to] take advantage of what they had to offer that could be helpful to us but we’ve never taken direction from them,’’ Raskin said. “What does it mean to be separated from them when we’ve never been connected?”

Even before the Tablet article appeared, the Connecticut group was “asking a lot of hard questions,” Raskin said.

In early December, it posted a note on its Facebook page “unequivocally [denouncing] all forms of bigotry” and condemning the words of Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who has ties to several of the national Women’s March leaders.

The Connecticut group is busy planning the logistics surrounding the Jan. 19 march in Hartford and a host of other issues, said organizer Kaitlyn Shake.

“First and foremost, our focus has always been on ... social justice issues,’’ Shake said. “We’ve had this shift in our state legislature in this past election and what that potentially means is these social justice

” issues we’ve been working on moving into progressive policies.’’