Social and Political Activism

In May of 1977 I helped organize a March against Apartheid at Columbia University (That's me in the front row on the far right).  

We were demanding Columbia U. divest all of its financial investments in companies which were supporting the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Here I am with others working to disrupt a Board of Trustees meeting from which we were denied entrance.  It took several more years of student protests at Columbia before the full divestment of investments in South Africa was accomplished.

In 2006 I ran for Congress in NJ's 6th district to find out "What the hell was going on!" in our political system.

Herb Tarbous -"We have Barack Obama running under change and I think that is a certain degree of change but ultimately real change comes from a structural change"

In 2018 and 2019 I worked with Charlie Kratovil (right) who ran for the Mayor of New Brunswick and Ron Rivers who ran for the General Assembly as Progressive candidates looking to change the status quo of corrupt machine politics in Middlesex County.

In late 2018, the Democratic Machine attempted to push thru a state constitutional amendment during the holidays. We showed up at a Democratic party meeting in East Brunswick to let them know our thoughts. 

On a bitter cold day last January, in response to a power grab by the NJ political machine I joined the Working Families Party protest to oppose the pending legislation.  We later joined scores of activists testifying in Trenton against the ill-advised bill and it was withdrawn.

On my 61st birthday I accompanied members of RU Progressives to Washington were we occupied Mitch McConnell's office to protest his stonewalling of the Green New Deal. 42 of us were arrested.

In June of 2019 my good friend, Charlie Kratovil, and I challenged the power brokers in the Middlesex County Democratic Organization by running for the Chair and Vice-Chair positions.

On May 13, I joined a small march in Newark organized by Larry Hamm and the People's Organization for Progress to protest the deaths of black folks which had recently occurred in Kentucky at the hands of law enforcement officers and in Georgia at the hands of white supremacists. 

Two weeks later, on May 30, we once again marched with Larry Hamm and the People's Organization for Progress in Newark.  This time thousands of people joined us to protest the death of George Floyd, police brutality, and systemic racism.