Syrian Revolution to Be Examined June 15

Stanley Heller, Promoting Enduring Peace

Save the date Saturday, June 15 for a talk by Yasser Munif, a Syrian professor of Sociology at Emerson College in Boston.  He has been to Syria several time during the last eight years of turmoil. He’ll be speaking about reports of hideous treatment and murder of tens of thousands of regime prisoners. We’ll also be talking about the call from Amnesty International for the U.S. to pay compensation to Syria for its brutal bombing campaign in Raqqa, the Putin/Assad bombing of Idlib province and the struggles between democratic forces and the HTS extremists.

Professional singer Dylan Connor will sing some of the songs he’s written about Syria. Connor is on the Syrian-American Council and traveled to Syria just last year. We should also have some photos of Syrian political art.

Final details about location and time of the event have not been set. Look at the sites pepeace.org and thestruggle.org for details in coming days.

New Haven Documentary Film Festival May 30-June 9

The 6th annual New Haven Documentary Film Festival runs from May 30-June 9. The 11-day fest will feature over 100 films and other special events in various venues. All film screenings and workshops are free. For the full schedule, see nhdocs.com.

Michael Moore Retrospective will be at the New Haven Documentary Film Festival Friday, June 7 – Sunday, June 9 at the Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium at Yale, 53 Wall St., New Haven. The Festival will feature free showings of seven of Michael Moore’s films. The audience can discuss the films with Michael Moore and filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus and Peter Davis.

Free and open to the public.

New Haven Free Public Library Wins National Award

NHFPL Press Release

The New Haven Free Public Library is one of ten recipients of the 2019 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. This prestigious award is the highest honor given to museums and libraries across the nation. The medal recognizes libraries and museums that provide unique programming and service to make a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities.

Nilda Aponte will travel with Martha Brogan, City Librarian and Shana Schneider, NHFPL Board President, to the nation’s capital to accept the award in Washington, D.C. on June 12. Ms. Aponte serves as a community ambassador in the Fair Haven neighborhood for NHFPL’s signature partnership program with the Long Wharf Theatre.

“It is a pleasure to recognize the 10 distinctive recipients of the National Medal of Museum and Library Service,” said IMLS Director Dr. Kathryn K. Matthew. “Through their programs, services, and partnerships, these institutions exemplify the many ways that libraries and museums are positively transforming communities across the nation.”

“We are thrilled to receive this award, which honors our 132-year legacy and early attributes that still ring true today: a welcoming front door for all, a fighting spirit to serve as the people’s university, a catalyst for civic improvement, a drive to innovate tempered by fiscal restraint, and a love of humanity,” said Martha Brogan, City Librarian.

We were nominated to receive this award by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy who wrote that “NHFPL goes above and beyond in terms of community involvement, in both the quantity and quality of its programming. In the 21st century, patrons require more and different things from their libraries than they once did. NHFPL has fully embraced this reality and established itself as an indispensable hub of culture and innovation.”

This award belongs to you, our community. We look forward to sharing this honor with you when we return from Washington. As a winning institution, we will receive $5,000 to enhance our programming. Additionally, this summer StoryCorps will visit NHFPL and capture stories from our community and preserve at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

PAR PARTY – July 27

Come have fun! Meet the crew and the organizers who make the PAR newsletter happen! This is an invitation to all PAR readers to come to our PARty on Saturday, July 27, from 5-9 p.m. at the Friends Meeting House, 225 East Grand Ave. Let people know what projects you’re involved with. Meet old friends and make new ones! Bring a dish to share for the potluck. Musicians, please bring instruments for jamming.

Take advantage of this chance to have fun and meet other subscribers that share your interest in social justice, environmental concerns and activism. We’d love to have our print and online subscribers get together! Please RSVP to [email protected].

The Progressive Action Roundtable newsletter publishes from September through June. Subscriptions from many of our readers will expire with this issue. We hope you enjoy your subscription and value the PAR newsletter as a community resource. To see if your subscription is due for renewal, please look at your address label. If “201906” is printed on the label to the right of your name, your subscription ends with this issue. Please send in $13 (or what you can afford) for 10 issues (Sept. 2019-June 2020) so that you can continue to read about what local organizations are doing and you can submit articles about your own organization. We hope to hear from you soon.

The Progressive Action Roundtable was started in January 1993. After several months, this community Newsletter became the main activity of PAR, giving New Haven area organizations an opportunity for networking and for advertising their activities.

CT Green Energy News

News and events for advocates of clean energy, energy efficiency, and climate action at the state and local levels, focusing on Connecticut. Brought to you by People’s Action for Clean Energy (PACE) and Eastern CT Green Action. Sign up today to get the CT Green Energy News sent to you. Contact Peter Millman [email protected] to get on the e-list of this great resource!

A path to solar success…or failure?
CT Fund for the Environment. Send a message to CT DEEP that you want the rules governing Connecticut’s new shared solar program designed to ensure success.

Katie Dykes takes helm at DEEP in era of escalating climate change
CT Mirror. But others say that DEEP, and PURA … with Dykes at the helm, have put too much focus on electric rates and not enough on the long-term value of renewable energy.

Leticia Colón de Mejias: Green Eco Warrior
WNPR. “I try to help people understand that energy efficiency is like your mother. It’s working all the time and no one is ever thinking about it. It’s the workhorse that’s un-seen and doesn’t ask for your appreciation. It just continues to always deliver.”

Solar panels could save Brooklyn schools millions
The Bulletin. Once installed, the panels could produce 80 percent of the electrical needs for each school building– saving $90,000 a year or $1.3 million over 15 years…

Amid FuelCell Energy’s capital crunch, Doosan reports steady progress
Hartford Business Journal. For many companies, a struggling competitor would be cause for glee, but that’s apparently not the case in Connecticut’s fuel cell industry.

Cool thing: Connecticut Green Bank makes intentional effort to boost solar energy in communities of color
Solar Builder. “In 2015, when we realized that all homeowners in Connecticut did not have access to the benefits of the clean energy economy, our mission compelled us to act. This study confirms the response to our programs in under-served communities of color has been even more positive than we anticipated.”

June Newsletter Deadline Sunday May 19

Readers want to know: What is the purpose of your organization? How are you building your group? What campaigns are you organizing? What events are you planning?

We want to publicize the work groups have done and what they’re planning to do. We want to spread the word to others who will be inspired to join you, support your activism and build the struggles. Send us articles (even a paragraph or two) about what your group wants to do and any ideas for organizing!

Please send articles about your group’s recent and current activities and upcoming actions and events to [email protected].

Reminder: we do not publish in July or August. Please send us your articles and calendar items through September for our June issue.

***Help inspire others through your commitment! ***

The deadline for the June Progressive Action Roundtable Newsletter is Sunday, May 19.

GUIDELINES FOR ARTICLES

We ask everyone to limit articles to 350 words.

Please include an enticing headline/title for your article so our readers will focus on your work right away.

Be sure to indicate your name and organization as they should appear in your byline.

If you haven’t written recent articles for PAR, please include information about your group’s purpose.

Do not use different fonts or sizes in your article.

Please keep in mind that as layout space permits, we will include photos.

IMPORTANT: Don’t neglect to add your organization’s contact information such as phone number, e-mail address or website, so our readers can get more information about what your group is doing

ABOUT CALENDAR ITEMS

If you mention an event in an article, please also send a SEPARATE calendar announcement.

Please give street addresses for any events or meetings, even for “well-known” public buildings.

VERY IMPORTANT: Please indicate whether your event location is wheelchair accessible.

You can also send us SAVE THE DATE items about future events, even if you do not yet have all the details in place.

Sinking land could ground Tweed airport expansion plans | New Haven Register

Since 1931, Tweed New Haven Airport has sat on a spit of what was once salt marsh and wetlands straddling the East Haven border. It is wedged between New Haven Harbor where the Quinnipiac River empties, the Farm River mouth separating East Haven and Branford, and Long Island Sound. It is transected by other waterways — Tuttle Brook and Morris Creek.

And it floods.

Recent morning thunderstorms left water rimming the runways and pooling in adjacent residential roads.

It will only get worse.

Source: Sinking land could ground Tweed airport expansion plans – New Haven Register

Legal Escalation Against Catholic Activists Facing 25 Years for Anti-Nuclear Weapons Action | Accuracy.Org

Seven Catholic peace activists are facing 25 years in jail for entering the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia last April to protest U.S. nuclear weapons policy.

The activists are knowns as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7. They sought to “nonviolently and symbolically disarm the Trident nuclear submarine base at Kings Bay, Georgia” on April 4, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

On Friday, a magistrate moved to hinder their motion that the charges against them be dismissed under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. See the group’s statement: “Anti Nuclear Activists, Kings Bay Plowshares 7 Respond to U.S. Magistrate Cheesbro’s recommendation that our Motions to Dismiss be denied.” They are appealing this decision in the next 30 days.

Source: Legal Escalation Against Catholic Activists Facing 25 Years for Anti-Nuclear Weapons Action | Accuracy.Org

Happy May Day! Continue the Struggle for Justice!

by the PAR Planning Committee

Since the nationwide strike for the 8-hour workday in 1886, the first of May has become a historic day for the struggles of working people, and for over a hundred years May 1 has been celebrated as International Workers’ Day. Locally, in 1970, the May Day protests on the New Haven Green demanded freedom for Bobby Seale, justice for the Black Panthers, and the end of the Vietnam War. Starting in 1987 and continuing for thirty years on the Green, the annual May Day celebration each year brought together dozens of organizations to promote their work for labor rights, peace, human rights, and economic rights to the broader New Haven community. And since 2006, city-wide marches for immigrants’ rights are held on May 1. Peace, racism, police brutality, union struggles, fair wages, anti-war, immigration, a safe environment, criminal justice issues, labor history, welfare rights organizing, the right to healthcare — these are some of the struggles and issues in the celebration of international solidarity.

April was a month full of upsurge. From April 11-21, Stop & Shop workers from Connecticut, Rhode Island and

Massachusetts (31,000 workers) were on strike. The union considers the new contract a victory, preserving healthcare and retirement benefits and providing wage increases. The next strike in Connecticut will be unionized workers in nursing homes. They are scheduled to strike on May 1.

For days there have been massive protests and marches in New Haven and Hamden condemning the thoroughly unjustified Hamden and Yale police shooting in New Haven of two African-Americans in their early twenties on April 16. Thankfully, Stephanie Washington is recovering from her bullet wounds, and Paul Witherspoon was not hit. Video from the police body cameras has not yet been released. As of this writing, people will gather at 7 p.m. on Monday, May 6 at the Hamden Town Hall for the Legislative Council Meeting. We urge our readers to join in the many rallies for justice around these and other issues and be inspired by the many people at the forefront of these struggles for their lives and their livelihoods.

May Day 2019 — 100 Years of Struggle for Workers’ Rights

by Joelle Fishman, CT People’s World

The annual Connecticut People’s World rally for International Workers’ Day will highlight union organizing today and in history. Themed “May Day 2019: 100 Years of Struggle for Workers’ Rights,” the rally will be held on Sunday, May 5, at 3 p.m. at the New Haven Peoples Center, 37 Howe St. The event, held during the 100th anniversary year of the Communist Party USA, will include a brief history of labor organizing by the Communist Party since its founding in 1919 and continuing today.

The experience of organizing food service workers who won a union last year at United Airlines will be shared by Jaime Myers-McPhail who lived in Colorado for several months working on the campaign, and his colleague Charlie Delgado who participated for a shorter time. Myers-McPhail is an organizer in New Haven with New Haven Rising and Unite Here.

“May Day Around the World” slide show will show workers’ protests and actions from every continent including many demands for equality for immigrant workers. The afternoon will be capped off with labor songs led by some of those who participated in the newly formed labor chorus at the Women’s March in Hartford this year.

On May 1, 1886, thousands of workers marched in Chicago to demand relief from brutal 12- and 14-hour workdays. A few days later, a suspicious bomb killed several Chicago police and protesters in Haymarket Square. Four of the march leaders were framed and executed. In their memory, May Day was proclaimed a day of international workers’ struggle and solidarity. In the United States, May Day took on new life when immigrant workers from Latin America held mega-marches for their rights in 2006. May Day 2019 is part of the resistance against the anti-people Trump/ Republican white supremacy agenda, and the rising movements to put peace, planet and people before profits

Donation is $5 or what you can afford. A fund appeal for the People’s World will be made. For information e-mail [email protected] or call (203) 624-4254.

Yale Shot Stephanie Washington

by Joshua Caytetano, Yale Daily News, April 18, 2019

[Article below is excerpted from yaledailynews.com/blog/2019/04/18/cayetano-yale-shot-stephanie-washington]
The shooting of Stephanie Washington, a young black New Haven resident, by an officer of the Hamden Police Department and Yale University Police should produce grave concern and protest within the Yale student community.

Click to read more on the GoFundMe page

GoFundMe (click to read more)

Facts are still emerging, narratives are still changing, but one incontestable truth persists: Hamden and Yale University police shot an innocent, unarmed black woman. The University has the opportunity to take the steps toward racial reconciliation in front of a local and national audience. Yale can move from silence and complicity to solidarity with our hurting neighbors. One way is to commit to pressure local law enforcement to ensure a transparent investigation and a just outcome.

Other steps toward solidarity can include: 1) The issue of a public apology, 2) A commitment to terminate the employment of any responsible party, 3) A review and revision of YPD’s relationship to the broader New Haven community, and 4) A renewed, material commitment to these communities of need. But until the University proves itself to be a reliable partner for justice, this movement must begin with the students.

As Yale students, we must ask ourselves, “Is my safety ensured at the expense of someone else’s?” In light of this shooting, the answer should be an unequivocal yes.

Within the University’s protective bubble, we can easily ignore the uncomfortable truths that implicate our institution in injustice. We must correct our vision to include the many overlooked and under-considered people who challenge our presumption of moral superiority.

How can we be national advocates for justice if we allow the injustices in our backyard to pass unnoticed? How can we study centuries of racial oppression in our classrooms, yet not speak up when we witness it first-hand? Stephanie Washington might not have died from the bullet, but this fact in no way lightens the burden of responsibility. We must continue to #SayHerName, along with other black and brown people who have been brutalized by the police.

[editor’s note: there is a gofundme page set up for helping Stephanie get back on her feet. Visit https://www.gofundme.com/help-for-stephanie-washington

Joshua Cayetano is a first year at the Yale Divinity School. Contact him at [email protected].

Where Your Tax Money Goes…

information from a leaflet from New Haven Sunday Vigil

April 15 was the deadline for filing federal and state taxes for 2018. The oft-quoted or misquoted phrase linking “death and taxes” is apropos in a way its originator(s) did not intend. A huge percentage of our tax dollars goes to fund death-dealing in the form of endless war throughout the world, and to subsidize big corporations and 1% of the wealthiest individuals. A much, much smaller percentage goes to fund the things we all care about and desperately need — healthcare, education, housing, infrastructure, a clean environment, good jobs and good wages for everyone.

Imagine if the percentages were reversed

Imagine, in fact, a tax code where we each paid our fair share according to our income, with the wealthiest paying the most. Imagine that these taxes funded a system which produced and improved upon the things we all require to sustain our lives, instead of one which exports endless war and rewards corporate greed. Imagine what we could do for ourselves, each other, and our planet. Imagine. Act.

Resist this Endless War! Join the conversation every Sunday at the intersection of Broadway, Park and Elm streets from noon till 1 p.m. The website for more information is newhavensundayvigil.wordpress.com.

2019 Quinnipiac Riverfest Sat., May 18, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

QRiverfest is an annual celebration of the Quinnipiac River and the historic Fair Haven waterfront.

Featuring: Live music and performances:

  • Good Night Blue Moon
  • MusicHaven
  • Bregamos Drummers
  • Tai Chi Demonstration & MiniClass

    Beer tasting:

  • East Rock Brewery

    Food:

  • Anastasio’s Boat House Cafe
  • Green Wave

    Canoeing:

  • River Advocates of South Central Connecticut

    For kids and families:

  • Arts, Crafts and Games
  • Educational Activities

    You’re invited to join in this celebration of this waterfront community in our diverse, historic and scenic New Haven neighborhood!

    Rain date: Sunday, May 19. Sponsors and Supporters listed at: www.QuinnipiacRiverfest.com.

1 … 50 51 52 53 54 … 100