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Progressive Action Roundtable: A forum for progressive groups in the Greater New Haven Area where actions and ideas may be publicized so that others are aware of peace, health, justice, energy, environmental and other issues for the common good.

Archive for March, 2010

Niger Borehole Dedicated To Dennis Hamilton Nears Completion

Mar 4

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Environment | No Comments

By Julie Snorek,Operations Manager, Amman Imman

[Dennis Hamilton was active in many New Haven peace organizations and ardently promoted the work of Amman Imman. He passed away on Sept. 16, 2008.]

This week in Kijigari, Niger, village children sang joyous songs of gratitude, knowing that soon, they would no longer have to walk an incredibly tiresome distance for water. Life-saving water is being brought to the children by Amman Imman, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing sustainable sources of water to West Africa’s Azawak Valley. Amman Imman’s most recent accomplishment was its borehole in Kijigari, which was not only the vision of Ariane Kirtley, the program’s founder and director, but also of the late Dennis Hamilton, Amman Imman’s former assistant director and passionate advocate.

However, before the locals can have access to the water that will flow from the borehole, Amman Imman must equip it with a pump and engine, water tower, troughs and faucets— essential infrastructure that Amman Imman aims to complete by the end of March.

The Kijigari borehole, which will serve 2,000 families in the village and thousands of nomads that pass through each year, is the first step toward accomplishing Hamilton’s dream: a world where no one dies simply because they do not have enough water to drink.

Amman Imman has a partnership with Montessori students, who are organizing “Walks for Water,” leading an array of creative fundraising events to help finish the borehole. To raise the $50,000 for the infrastructure, however, Amman Imman needs more support.

In Kijigari, children are forced to leave school for weeks at a time to search for water for their families. The current water source is dry and the women’s garden cooperative has closed. The price of stainless steel—necessary for the borehole’s added infrastructure —is on the rise.

Please make a donation to the new borehole in Kijigari by visiting www.ammanimman.org. You can also organize a fundraising event, like Amman Imman’s student advocates, which should take place by March 22, World Water Day. If you would like to host an event, or to match the dollars raised by a single Montessori school classroom, please email: debbie@ammanimman.org.

Amman Imman is dedicated to improving and saving lives among the poorest and most abandoned populations of the world, by supplying permanent sources of water in the Azawak of West Africa.

Coalition For People Update

Mar 4

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Human Rights, Transportation | No Comments

By Mary Johnson

CT Transit: Since the last Coalition for People (CFP) report in January, CT Transit has provided very little information about its response to the fact that two of its buses had struck and, in one case, killed a pedestrian more than a year ago. An official of the Dept. of Transportation (DOT) provided a bit more. Phil Fry (860-522-8101, ext. 222) did say that its drivers now receive “enhanced training” and the two drivers in question had been “disciplined.”

Later, we learned that an “investigation” had concluded that the driver involved in the Nov. 17, 2008 incident was not at fault when his bus hit a CFP member who was going home on her scooter after a meeting. Rendered unconscious for eight hours, she has no memory of the impact and its aftermath. Fault seems to be a slippery concept.

All of us have a right to know what our government is doing and that includes CT Transit and the DOT. The DOT, by the way, has an ombudsman (860-424-5238). Does your alderperson know about these two incidents? They might be interested enough to look into the quality of safety standards at CT Transit.

Healthcare: This year we hope everyone will redouble their efforts to bring Single Payer legislation to the floors of the U.S. Senate and the House. In 2009, unprecedented amounts of corporate money won the day. In 2010, we hope you and everyone you know will join us in the struggle to overcome the power of money. Please contact your three members of Congress on a regular basis to demand the enactment of universal, comprehensive single payer legislation now.

Also, it would be helpful to demand foolproof campaign finance reform and ask each of the three for a pledge to refuse corporate money from now on. This would not only strengthen the campaign for Single Payer, but it would be a good response to the Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to spend as much money as they want to influence members of Congress.

Power Concedes Nothing Without A Demand!

CFP’s Annual Meeting will be held on Monday, April 19 at 5 p.m. in the downtown library and we hope you will come. For information, call (203) 387-7858.

Saying Goodbye

Mar 4

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Environment, Human Rights, Peace | No Comments

By the PAR Planning Committee

In the two months of 2010, many PAR readers and the New Haven community have been greatly saddened by the deaths of Ed Grant, Howard Zinn and Bruce Martin.

On. Jan. 1, Ed Grant passed on. He was 87. Since the 60s, Ed helped bring environmental awareness into the mainstream consciousness. He was the founder of the annual Freddy Fixer Parade and was an advocate for citizens’ involvement in environmental justice and recycling. Ed organized people to clean up their neighborhoods and helped shut down the dirty power plant English Station in Fair Haven. In 2005, Mayor DeStefano presented him with the Green Award. The following websites detail his impact on people and on our city.

www.myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=Ed_Grant_HSC_07

www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2005/11/agod_gave_us_on.php

www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/freddie_fixer_passes

On Jan. 27, at age 87, historian Howard Zinn died. Activists throughout the world have read his book A People’s History of the United States.  On May 1, 2007, he spoke at the May Day Celebration on the Green, and in the evening, at Center Church.  “It’s important for young people to know the record of government telling lies to the people, especially when it comes to war,” he told New Haven Register reporter Randall Beach. More information about Howard Zinn, his books, and the causes he led and influenced is at his website http://www.howardzinn.org/default/index.php.

PAR subscriber Bruce Martin passed away in Hartford at age 84 on Feb. 6. Many PAR readers have worked with him over the years and have lost a friend as well as a colleague. He was involved in protesting the Vietnam War, the Iraq wars, and the Afghanistan war, organized against nuclear weapons, was the CT coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee, was on the Board of Directors of Promoting Enduring Peace, and was active in the Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba as well as many other organizations in Hartford and New Haven.  Memorials will be planned in both cities shortly.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/hartfordcourant/obituary.aspx?n=bruce-martin&pid=139704729.

Our condolences to all the families of these men, and to all who have worked alongside them, been influenced by them, and continue to carry on in the struggle for justice, peace, the environment and community.

Protest “English Only” At Atticus

Mar 4

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Human Rights | No Comments

By Chris Garaffa, New Haven Workers Association

Last November, just ahead of the holiday season, the management of Atticus Bookstore/Café in downtown New Haven implemented a racist and discriminatory policy on its workers. In a memo to employees, manager Jean Marcel Récapet stated, “Here we speak English: effective immediately the official and only language on the floor and behind the counter is English… Spanish is allowed in the prep area, the dishwasher area and the lower level. Let’s make our customers feel welcome and comfortable.”

The New Haven Workers Association has launched a major campaign against Récapet and the policy. A letter opposing the policy was widely circulated in January 2010, and activists and community members have mobilized to pass out leaflets explaining the policy in front of the café. Mobilizations have continued outside Atticus throughout February.

Not only does the new policy single out the many Latino workers at Atticus, it is hypocritical as the trilingual Récapet is often heard speaking English, Spanish and French on the floor, and the store’s t-shirts themselves read “Censorship Causes Blindness.”

A letter writing campaign has also been initiated. Letter writers are encouraged to add to the message, which ends, “To single out the Spanish-speaking workers with a policy like this is discriminatory and racist. We will not accept this racist policy — it must be repealed now!” Letters can be sent online via http://www.pephost.org/atticus.

The New Haven Workers Association is a new group whose aim is to organize those workers in downtown New Haven who have workplace grievances, such as: underpayment or lack of payment; abusive working conditions; labor, human and worker’s right violations and more. The Workers Association can be contacted at nhworkersassoc@gmail.com.

May Day: May 1 Is Only 2 Months Away

Mar 4

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Human Rights, Peace, Workers | No Comments

By Paula Panzarella

This year will be the 24th year that May Day will be celebrated on the New Haven Green. Many new activists have joined the May Day Celebration Committee and are ready for the challenge of continuing the annual tradition of celebrating labor solidarity, immigrant rights, justice, environmental concern, women’s rights, economic rights, etc. with speakers, information tables, music, poetry, free food and a Maypole dance on Saturday, May 1st. We hope all of PAR’s affiliated organizations will endorse May Day on the Green. Download the registration form here. Print it (on legal size for best results), and send it in.  For more information, visit http://www.maydaynewhaven.org, or call (203) 843-3069, (203) 606-2456. or e-mail maydaynewhaven@yahoo.com.

If PAR readers have video or photographs of last year’s May Day Celebration on the Green and the May Day march, please call (203) 562-2798. We would like them for our website. Thank you!

Many Events For Palestine In March

Mar 4

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Peace | No Comments

By Stan Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee

For several years now activists have declared the start of March “Israel Apartheid Week.” In CT there will be the “Israel Apartheid Week Film Festival.” March 1, “The Iron Wall” will be shown 7 p.m. at Central Connecticut State University, Marcus White Living Room, 1615 Stanley Street, New Britain.  Stanley Heller and Aram Ayalon will present background information.

Friday, March 5, “Arna’s Children” will be shown 7 p.m., at La Paloma Coffee House, 405 Capitol Ave., Hartford.
In between there will be showings of “Breaking the Silence” (Israeli army soldiers talk about the abuses they committed in Hebron.) “Art and Apathy” and “Separated Families”, but the locations have not been set. Another event is tentative for Yale on March 3, Bill Doares talking about Gaza.  For up-to-date info, check www.artandstruggle.org and www.TheStruggle.org or call (203) 934-2761.

Palestinian activist Mazin Qumsiyeh will be speaking for the first time in Connecticut this year on March 4. His talk entitled “Peace is Possible: A Perspective on Israel & Palestine” will be given at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford, 7 p.m., 20 Forest St., Stamford.

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh (formerly of Yale and Duke universities) teaches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine and chairs the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People. He is author of a number of books, including “Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle” and the forthcoming “Hope and Empowerment: Popular Resistance in Palestine.”

He will share his first-hand experience of living in a troubled land and discuss strategies for a peaceful resolution of the present conflict in the region.

At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 23, in the Greenwich Library Auditorium, people who went on the Gaza Freedom March will talk about their experiences and on the miserable life in Gaza.  The library is at 101 West Putnam Ave., Greenwich.

And for theater buffs, Najla Said, the daughter of Edward Said, will be doing a one-woman performance in March at the Fourth Street Theatre, 83 E. Fourth St., NYC.  Her show is called “Palestine”.   Tickets are just $20. There was good review of her play in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/theater/09said.html

She does a talk back after every Tuesday show (7:30 p.m.).  For details, go to http://www.twilighttheatrecompany.org/Twilight_Theatre_Company/Tickets.html

You can see Najla Said as she did a reading from her play below (she begins after Vanessa Redgrave’s statement)

and (Najla Said continues)

Alternative Afghan Policies

Mar 4

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Events, Peace | No Comments

By Nancy Ebert, GNH Peace Council

On Saturday, March 6, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., the People’s Center at 37 Howe St. will host Vijay Prashad, an expert on Afghanistan and Southern Asia, and the author of eleven books and numerous articles. He will speak about the many policies, other than war, that could be utilized in Afghanistan. His premise is that our current policies are without merit and must be replaced with more workable solutions. His most recent book is The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World and he has written articles on the Ft. Hood shooting and Africom. A discussion and reception will follow his speech.

Any questions, call Henry Lowendorf, (203) 389-9547 or e-mail grnhpeacecouncil@sbcglobal.net. The Greater New Haven Peace Council is sponsoring the event.

Join Veterans And Service Members As They Take To The Streets On March 20!

Mar 4

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Peace | No Comments

By the CT Answer Coalition

Help Anti-War Veterans Spread the Word: Send this Amazing Video Everywhere.

http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2/1451683244?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=9355

Join March Forward! and other veterans, active duty service members and military families on March 20 in DC, LA and SF as we say “No War for Empire!”

In March of 2003, I was sent to invade Iraq amidst the largest anti-war demonstrations in history, with an equally senseless war already being waged in Afghanistan. Myself, and countless other veterans, went believing the lies spewed by Washington, but saw first hand the criminal and imperial nature of that war, and every war waged by the U.S. Our experiences compelled us to stand up and fight back.  –– Mark Prysner, Iraq War Vet and founder of MarchForward.org.

For bus information from New Haven to the DC Demo:
(203) 606-0319, ct@answer.org.

Fight the Hike

Mar 4

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Fight the Hike | No Comments

By Paula Panzarella

One thousand leaflets were distributed in Hartford during January, about the need for energy reform and the necessity of Hartford residents to contact their state senator John Fonfara. Sen. Fonfara was personally responsible for no energy legislation being passed in the 2009 session. As senate chair of the energy and technology committee, he blocked the energy bills from being reviewed by the Senate. We don’t want a repeat of that this year!

The residents and businesses of CT are still paying the highest electrical rates in the continental US.  Fight the Hike will continue to demand that our state senators and representatives help get electricity prices under control, promote clean sustainable energy, and work towards undoing the damage of electricity deregulation. As of this writing, the details of proposed 2010 energy legislation are not available.

The next meeting of Fight the Hike will be Thursday, March 18, 6 p.m., at New Haven City Hall, 165 Church St., 2nd floor. For more information, call (203) 562-2798 or e-mail paulapanzarella@yahoo.com.