Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. For tickets and for information on advertising in the program, email joan@laborhistory.org.
Please submit copy to PAR’s e-mail address: parnewhaven@hotmail.com
No e-mail? Call Paula at (203) 562-2798 to find out how to submit your article. There is a 350 word limit.
Next Planning Meeting date is Tues., June 4, at 7:30 p.m.…all welcome…call (203) 562-2798 for location
Subscription: $13 for 10 issues, check payable to PAR, P.O. Box 995, New Haven, CT 06504
Jun 1
by Melinda Tuhus, Inner City Outings
In August, New Haven Inner City Outings will celebrate 20 years of taking hundreds of New Haven youth on all kinds of outdoor trips they otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to enjoy: hiking, biking and rollerblading on the Farmington Canal rail trail, cross-country skiing, sledding, ice skating, canoeing, rafting, camping, plus visits to nature centers all over the state and the occasional super-trip for whale-watching off the coast of Gloucester, Mass., or visiting the Bronx Zoo.
Some trips focus on giving back, such as joining in Coastal Cleanup Day or the Day of Service that’s part of the Rock to Rock Earth Day experience – all the while promoting youth development and environmental stewardship. ICO is part of the Sierra Club’s environmental justice work, which calls for equalizing access for all to clean air, clean water and outdoor spaces.
ICO is currently working with four groups, including school and after-school programs around the city. We always welcome new volunteers, and we provide free training. The only two requirements are that you love the outdoors, and you love spending time with children. This year we’ve welcomed our first second-generation ICOer, the daughter of one of our early members! For more information on upcoming trips and our monthly meetings, contact Melinda.Tuhus@gmail.com or call (203) 287-9811.
Jun 1
by Stan Heller, Friends of West Haven Library
Author Jeremy Brecher will speak on his latest work, “Save The Humans?” Monday, June 3 at 6:30 p.m. in the Sacco Room at the West Haven Main Library, 300 Elm St. The book talks about the major challenges facing humanity like disasters caused by climate change and the ways people are organizing to preserve jobs and prosperity.
Mr. Brecher has written ten books, including the labor history classic, “Strike!” and has won five regional Emmys for his movie documentaries. The event is free, sponsored by the Friends of the West Haven Library System.
Jun 1
by Henry Lowendorf, GNH Peace Council
Wednesday, June 5, Steve Ellner will lead a forum on Venezuela, the recent elections and U.S. intervention, progress and problems of the Bolivarian Revolution, 7 p.m., 20 Mumford Rd. (home of Al Marder). Coffee and refreshments. Free. Please let us know if you plan to come: grnhpeacecouncil@gmail.com or (203) 389-9547.
A recent article by Steve may be found and downloaded from lap.sagepub.com/content/40/3/5. Steve teaches economic history and political science at the Universidad de Oriente in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, and is currently an adjunct professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
Jun 1
by Lynne Bonnett, NH Environmental Justice Network
The Greater New Haven Water Works Coalition (www.gnhwwc.com) petitions the City of New Haven, GNHWPCA and State of CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to work together with the public to produce an equitable plan to reduce Combined Sewer Overspills (CSOs) in New Haven now.
Our coalition presented petitions and spoke eloquently at the sewer plant’s “public hearing” May 14, 2013.
GNHWPCA plans to raise sewer rates 5-8% each year for the next 5 years to create a “cash flow” for future projects. Phase I of their Long Term Control Plan to reduce raw sewage in our rivers includes expansion of the treatment plant at East Shore Parkway, which will cost more to pump rain water to East Shore unnecessarily. Phase I won’t reduce raw sewage in the West River, the most heavily impacted watershed in the region and is therefore not equitable. Phase I won’t reduce raw sewage at all until complete in about 5 years and then only by 26 to 30%. Total cost = $474 million.
The sewer plant has not evaluated source control as advised by EPA guidelines for CSO management. They have not reached out to the community to explain, educate, enlist support or provide incentives for public participation. Our coalition has spoken to 6 management teams and only one partially knew about the rate increase and CSO problem.
Other communities with combined sewer pipes such as Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. have successfully developed partnerships with federal and state agencies, municipal and county governments, waste water treatment plants, the public and non- governmental organizations that will cost less, promote urban green space, effectively reduce raw sewage overspills when it rains, provide for public participation and provide local jobs for green infrastructure projects.
New Haven can do the same. Talk to your state representatives and mayors. It’s not too late to sign our petition–go to www.gnhwwc.com and click on sign our petition. We want a better deal for New Haven. Thanks.
For more information, please contact Lynne Bonnett at newhavenejn10@gmail.com.
Jun 1
by Aaron Goode, Charter Revision Discussion Group
The following changes to New Haven’s city charter are currently under consideration. You will have a chance to vote on some or all of these items in this November’s election. These changes would become permanent until another charter revision commission is convened, which might not take place until 2023.
CHARTER REVISION PROPOSALS
1. Board of Education
A. Currently all of the members of the New Haven Board of Education are appointed by the mayor. The proposed charter amendments would replace two of the appointed positions with elected positions.
2. Under the proposed charter, the Board of Education would include two new non-voting student members from city high schools.
A. The Civilian Review Board for police complaints would be given a permanent status in the charter and allocated more power to conduct oversight of the actions of the police.
3. The Board of Aldermen would have the power to confirm or reject the mayor’s appointments to all city boards and commissions. Currently there are some boards and commissions that do not require aldermanic approval.
4. Changes to civil service rules – New Haven residents would be given an advantage in hiring for these positions.
5. The annual stipend/salary of the aldermen would be raised from $2000 to $3000 and indexed to inflation.
6. The charter will be completely reorganized and modernized
A. With elimination of anachronisms and inconsistencies in language,
B. Updating with gender neutral language (e.g. Board of Alders)
C. as well as minor changes to the
1. aldermanic tax abatement authority,
2. redistricting procedures, and
3. public participation and quorum requirements.
For more information, please visit Facebook.com/CharterRevisionNHV
Jun 1
The PAR Planning Committee dedicates this issue to New Haven peace activist Joe Dimow, who passed away on May 2. Joe was intensely involved with many issues of peace and justice for over 70 years, and encouraged hundreds, if not thousands, of people to join him in the struggle to make a better world. He was a mentor, colleague, teacher and friend of Progressive Action Roundtable readers.
All of New Haven’s activist community lost a friend when Joe Dimow passed on. The PAR Planning Committee extends condolences to Joe’s children Joan and Carl and their families.
The memorial for Joe will be on Sunday, June 9, 2 p.m., at Tower East, 18 Tower Lane, New Haven.
The following is from the obituary notice which can be viewed in its entirety, along with the New Haven Independent’s article and an interview Joe gave Paul Bass, at www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/joe_dimow.
Joe Dimow, 93, a political activist with a lifelong commitment to social and economic justice, died May 2nd of natural, age related causes. Joe was known for his intelligence, verbal skills, sense of humor, and warm and humane spirit – a true mensch. His wife of 67 years, Lillian Dimow, passed away in 2010.
Beyond his family and work, Joe’s passion in life was being a political and social activist. From the late ’30s to the mid ’50s, he was active with the Communist Party, working on campaigns for racial and economic justice. To a great extent, his primary interest was to get people to look at injustice in the world, and consider the possibility of change. In 1955, along with a number of other activists, Joe was arrested under the Smith Act, the primary law under which Communist Party members were prosecuted during the McCarthy era. The Supreme Court overturned the Smith Act arrests in 1958.
During this same period, Joe became disillusioned with how Communism had evolved in the Soviet Union, and stopped working with the CP. He did not, however, lose his idealism. For the next 55 years Joe worked with numerous organizations on peace and justice issues. Joe participated in countless rallies and demonstrations, including the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. He was a founding member of Veterans for Peace in the New Haven area. He supported a two state solution in Israel/Palestine and worked with a number of organizations such as J Street and Brit Tzedek to promote that goal. In 1995, Joe and Lil were interviewed for the book Aging Political Activists by David Shuldiner.
Jun 1
by Augusta Girard, Promoting Enduring Peace
Promoting Enduring Peace is pleased to announce the addition of a new board member. Stanley Heller is a semi-retired school teacher, having taught social studies and computer education in West Haven, CT. He is Executive Director of the Middle East Crisis Committee, a group he helped start in 1982. He’s host of the group’s weekly TV program “The Struggle” which is seen on many stations throughout the Northeast. He was president of the West Haven Federation of Teachers through most of the 1970s and is still a member of the Greater New Haven Central Labor Council. He’s also been president of the Friends of the West Haven Library System for the last decade. We welcome his vision and perspective on world issues and his deep commitment to peace which we feel will help us advance our mission.
Currently PEP’s board has six members and is looking to further expand to include an environmental movement representative, a youth/student representative, and a peace education representative to join its Board of Directors.
PEP is fortunate to have two new summer interns joining them. Summer Martin, a student at Gateway Community College, is working on an Associate degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences. Following that, she hopes to continue her education in the areas of Global Studies and Anthropology. She became inspired to get involved with working for peace after a course in Peace and Conflict studies. She is excited to be interning with Promoting Enduring Peace.
Sean Gomez, also a student a Gateway Community College, believes that knowledge is the first step to action and people need to know what’s going on in their world before they can make an intelligent decision on changing it or affecting it in such a way that promotes peace, justice, engagement and dissent.
PEPeace looks forward to working with both students as well as learning from them through their experiences in the peace movement.
Jun 1
by Judi Friedman, People’s Action for Clean Energy
Please join BEYOND NUCLEAR in expressing adamant opposition to a US Department of Homeland Security-commissioned National Commission On Radiation Protection proposal. This proposal would allow a one-in-six cancer incidence rate to persons living downwind or downstream of radiological events.
These events include atomic reactor catastrophes, dirty bomb attacks, radioactive waste transport disasters, food supply contamination, nuclear weapons explosions, etc.
Now the coalition which includes Beyond Nuclear is gearing up to fend off a parallel proposal by Pres. Obama’s incoming EPA administrator, Gina McCarthy. This proposal would allow for a 27,000-fold decrease in protection against certain radiological hazards which include the dumping of radioactively contaminated debris in normal landfills.
Contact the White House and your members of Congress to express your outrage at these proposed radiation regulatory rollbacks. And if you know Gina McCarthy please write to her personally.
For more information contact www.beyondnuclear.org.
To support People’s Action for Clean Energy please donate to PACE at pace-cleanenergy.org.
Jun 1
Authors, Organizations:
Anti-Racism Team, Unitarian Society of New Haven
Jeremy Brecher, John Humphries, CT Roundtable on
Climate and Jobs
Allen Brison, CT Green Party
Lynne Bonnett, NH Environmental Justice Network
Joan Cavanagh, CT Peace Coalition/New Haven,
Greater New Haven Labor History Association
Mary Compton, Henry Lowendorf, GNH Peace
Council
Tim Craine, Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba
CT Northeast Organic Farmers Association
Eric Dawson, Peace First
Terri Eickel, Interreligious Eco-Justice Network
Sarah Ellenberg, Citizen’s Oil Co-op
Joelle Fishman, New Haven Peoples Center, People’s
Weekly World
Sarah Forman, Immigration Rights Task Force, USNH
Patricia Florio, Coalition for People
Megan Fountain, New Haven/Leon Sister City
Project, Unidad Latina en Accion
Judy Friedman, People’s Action for Clean Energy
Augusta Girard, Promoting Enduring Peace
David Good, 1st Congregational Church of Old Lyme
Aaron Goode, NH Charter Revision Discussion Group
Annie Harper, Yale Carbon Fund
Alice-Ann Harwood, CT Folk Festival
Stan Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee, CT United
for Peace, Economic Uprising, Friends of the West
Haven Library
Josue Irizarry, Yale Peabody Museum
Ben Jones, CT Network to Abolish the Death Penalty
Sally Joughin, People Against Injustice
Steve Kass, GNH Labor History Association
Henry Lowendorf, City of New Haven Peace
Commission, GNH Peace Council
Deb Malatesta, ANSWER CT, Women Organized to
Resist and Defend (WORD)
Al Marder, Amistad Committee
Jaime Myer-McPhail, CT Center for a New Economy
Neighborhood Housing Services of NH
Nell Okie, Coalition of Conscience for Congo
Frank Panzarella, Paula Panzarella, Fight the Hike
People Against Police Brutality
Elaine Peters, Community Kwanzaa Committee
Chris Schweitzer, New Haven/León Sister City
Project
N’Zinga Shäni, OneWorld Progressive Institute
Seminarians for a Democratic Society
Jeff Spalter, Elizabeth Neuse, May Day Celebration
Committee
Stacy Spell, West River Neighborhood Service Corp.
Melinda Tuhus, Inner City Outings
Maria Tupper, New Haven Bioregional Group
Unidad Latina en Accion
Yale Peabody Museum
Christopher Zurcher, CT Environmental Headlines,
Center for Disability Rights (Thanks to Chris for his
help getting PAR online: http://par-newhaven.org)
Thanks to the New Haven Independent for articles reprinted in part and referenced in the PAR newsletter.
Jun 1
by Thomas MacMillan, NH Independent, May 23, 2013
Three days after the feds arrested Josemaria Islas and began the process of sending him back to Mexico, the New Havener secured “a minor triumph.” Islas, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, has become a cause celebre for immigrant advocates as he fights deportation stemming from what he calls a wrongful arrest based on a mistaken identity. He won temporary relief Thursday, when federal immigration judge Philip Verrillo issued a temporary stay on deportation proceedings against him.
Verrillo is now considering a last-minute motion by Islas’s lawyer, Danielle Briand, to stay deportation and reopen the case. Her argument, which she described as “novel,” is that the punishment of deportation is not proportionate to the crime of entering the country “without lawful admission.” Lawyers for the federal Department of Homeland Security now have 15 days to respond to Briand’s motion.
[….]
According to ICE, Secure Communities targets immigrants who are a clear threat to public safety—terrorists, violent criminals, gang members. Critics of the program say it’s used unfairly and undermines relations between immigrants and local law enforcement.
Islas had no criminal record, but ICE says he is a repeat offender of immigration laws, having been caught several times trying to cross into the United States. Islas’ detention by ICE became a rallying point for immigration activists. He received support from local and federal elected officials who petitioned the head of ICE to reconsider his case. Judge Verrillo nevertheless in February ordered Islas deported. He was arrested on Monday by ICE.
Briand had 90 days to make an appeal after the judge’s February ruling but just got her motion in under the wire. “We argued that it was a violation of his 5th and 8th Amendment rights that the judge didn’t conduct a proportionality review,” Briand said. “There was no analysis made that the penalty of removal was proportional to the underlying immigration offense.”
Islas has “so many roots” in Connecticut, including family and community connections and a job he’s held for four years at a factory in Hamden, Briand said. It doesn’t make sense to “disrupt his life and take that away from him,” she argued.
See the complete article at: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/islas_wins_a_deportation_delay/
Jun 1
by Megan Fountain, NHLSCP
Join us on Sunday, July 21, from 1-4 p.m. for the 2013 Annual Picnic & Potluck of the New Haven/Leon Sister City Project. Come hear about our current social justice projects, including the new women’s advocacy project in Goyena, Nicaragua. Celebrate the work of NH/LSCP with new and old friends! At 2:30 p.m., we’ll show a short film by Aaron Jafferis and the Goyena youth environmental brigade about the history of the peasant struggle for land in Goyena. Bring a dish or drink to share. Help us make it green: Bring your own utensils, plate, cup, napkin, and a folding chair. At the home and gardens of Allie Perry and Charlie Pillsbury, 247 St. Ronan St. RAIN or SHINE! For information, contact (203) 562-1607 or www.newhavenleon.org.
Jun 1
