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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.

Posts Tagged Al Marder

Amistad Committee Events For Black History Month

Jan 29

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Events | No Comments

By Al Marder, President, Amistad Committee, Inc.

February is Black History Month and the Amistad Committee is sponsoring two outstanding events.

Please join us for an evening of song, Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. at the New Haven Museum, 114 Whitney Ave. The New Haven Museum and the Amistad Committee, Inc., are cosponsoring the concert, “Songs of Freedom,” works by African-American composers, to be performed by Dashon Burton, Bass-Baritone.

Dashon Burton is a native of Bronx, N.Y. He has been hailed as “excellent” by Akron Beacon Journal and “robust” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and has worked with artists and ensembles in the U.S., Cameroon, Canada, Italy and Germany. He began his professional career at Case Western Reserve and graduated from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. He is a member of the nationally known Cantus, a male acappella ensemble based in Minneapolis. He is now studying at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music.

Our second Black History Month event is a presentation by Yale Doctoral Candidate Joseph Y. Yannielli: “The Amistad Captives Return to Sierra Leone: The Unraveling of the Historical Lie!”  This event will be held on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 10 a.m. at Gateway Community College, Community Room No. 160, 60 Sargent Drive. 

Both events are free, and light refreshments will be served.

For more information, please contact The Amistad Committee, Inc. at (203) 387-0370.

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Hiroshima And Nagasaki Vigils Call For Nuclear Abolition

Aug 31

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Peace | No Comments

by Joelle Fishman, People’s World

New Haven, Conn Town Green vigil for abolition of nuclear weapons on Nagasaki Day, August 9, 2010. (Photo by Art Perlo)

Marking the 65th year since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, vigils were held on the New Haven Green at the time the bombs were dropped on August 6 and 9.

Al Marder, chair of the City of New Haven Peace Commission, greeted the fact that for the first time the General Secretary of the United Nations and a United States ambassador participated in this year’s remembrances in Hiroshima. The stance of President Barack Obama creates openings, he said, to build a stronger movement against continued and increased funding of nuclear weapons production. He called for movement from symbolism to concrete actions for abolition of nuclear weapons.

Participants held origami cranes given as gifts by the Japanese delegation to the thousands of participants who marched for abolition of nuclear weapons at the United Nations in May. New Haveners traveled to that march on a special peace train.

Linking the need for peace to the economic crisis, Rev. Sarah Lamar-Sterling of First and Summerfield United Methodist Church quoted Dwight D. Eisenhower’s warning that every penny spent on armaments is a penny taken from those who need food, housing and health care. The church’s weekly vigil against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan joined the event on the Green.

Referring to polls showing majority opposition to both wars, Henry Lowendorf, chair of the Greater New Haven Peace Council, called attention to the largest ever vote against funding the Afghanistan war in Congress last month, including Rep. Rosa DeLauro, whose district is centered in New Haven.

Hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians were killed in 1945 when the atomic bombs were dropped by the United States in the closing days of World War II, although Japan was already on the verge of surrender. “Even in war, the killing of innocent women, children and senior citizens is a crime,” Marder said.

On Sunday, a group bicycle ride was held around the
perimeter of the area that would have been obliterated had the bombs been dropped on New Haven.

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