Next NO KINGS Protest – Saturday, March 28th New Haven Green, 3-5:30 p.m.
4th Annual Judith Ann Schiff Women’s History Program: A Wonderful Struggle: Local Jewish Women in the Labor Movement, March 1, 2026
by Rhoda Zahler Samuel, Jewish Historical Society
The 4th Annual Judith Ann Schiff Women’s History Program will take place at the New Haven Museum, on Sunday, March 1 at 2 p.m. In A Wonderful Struggle: Local Jewish Women in the Labor Movement, we will hear in person and on video from women who participated in the massive New Haven teachers strike of 1975 and in the historic victories of Yale University clerical and technical workers in 1983-84. They will describe the issues that motivated them to join the “wonderful struggle,” the difficulties they encountered, what helped them succeed, the results that followed the strikes and creation of new unions, and the ways these activities influenced their future work experiences. The program will be streaming on Facebook Live. In the case of inclement weather, the event will be recorded for social media. For more information and to register, please go to https://bit.ly/4ruFsQJ.
In the words of Edie Bartman Fishman, who was active in unions ranging from electrical workers to teachers: “Life is a struggle. But it’s a wonderful struggle when you’re fighting for the right things.” Our speakers include Joelle Fishman, talking about her mother, and Barbara Greenwood and Helene Sapadin who participated in the 1975 Teachers Strike in New Haven.
The New Haven Museum is located at 114 Whitney Ave. and is wheelchair accessible.
In the case of inclement weather, the event will be recorded for the Museum’s YouTube channel.
Film & Panel Discussion: ‘The Day Iceland Stood Still’, 5-7:30 p.m. March 11
The Psychology Department at SCSU invites you to a viewing of the documentary, The Day Iceland Stood Still, followed by a panel discussion about gender equity and women’s rights at 5 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at the Adanti Student Center – Theater.
Panelists include the writer/director of the film, the chair of the Women’s & Gender Studies Department at SCSU, and a local woman who attended the strike in 1975. Moderated by Adjunct Professor Laura Noe, who teaches the Psychology of Women.
The Day Iceland Stood Still tells the story of the Oct. 24, 1975, strike when 90% of the women in Iceland did not go to work to demonstrate the impact they have on the economy. For 50 years, they have led the world in gender equity, and their government leaders are all women, as are 48% of their parliament.
After we watch the documentary, we will have a panel discussion. Three panelists will join us: Pam Hogan, writer and director of The Day Iceland Stood Still; Dr. Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, Taiwanese feminist scholar and chair of Women’s & Gender Studies at SCSU; and Hanna Luden, who attended the strike with her mom in 1975.
Groups to Honor Dr. Abu Safiya for Nobel Peace Prize 2026 Nomination
by Stanley Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee
On Sunday, March 1, groups will honor Gaza doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, who has been in Israeli custody since Dec. 2024, and who has been nominated for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. The event will take place at the Palestine Museum US, 1764 Litchfield Turnpike in Woodbridge, starting at 3 p.m.
The main speaker at the event will be Dr. Karameh Kuemmerle, one of the co-founders of Doctors Against Genocide. Also speaking will be Rabbi Abby Chava Stein. Stein is an active member of the rabbinical group T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the abducted director of the now forcibly-closed Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has been imprisoned by Israel for near 14 months. He has not been formally charged with anything, no evidence of wrongdoing has been advanced, but it is claimed he is an “unlawful combatant.”
Dr. Abu Safiya was nominated by Dr. Carol Gray, Assistant Professor of Public Law, Department of Political Science at the University of Fairbanks in Alaska. Dr. Gray noted that “Choosing Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya would spotlight the horrific genocide in Gaza as well as the incredible courage of the Palestinian people who have endured so much. It might also save his life.”
For more information and for tickets: https://pmu.betterworld.org/events/abu-safiya. Other contact info: see FreeDrAbuSafiya.org, phone 203-444-3578, or email mail@thestruggle.org.
Greater New Haven Indivisible Weekly Emails
Greater New Haven Indivisible sends out a weekly email of events and pertinent information. This is a wonderful online resource to help people become activists and to network because it notifies people of many quickly-planned upcoming events. To request to be added to the Greater New Haven Indivisible e-list, please send an email to greaternewhavenindivisible@gmail.com.
Newsletter Readers: Please Copy and Distribute Food Pantry Information
Here you will find information about food pantries and soup kitchens in the Greater New Haven area: https://bit.ly/4u6SQwn.
We’re asking our readers to print copies of this two-sided page to leave at various public places and put on bulletin boards. The information is also online at https://bit.ly/4u6SQwn.
Please, when you give a few dollars to people on the street asking for money, also hand them a food resource page.
Join the No Pipeline Expansion Northeast Coalition to Learn About a Proposed Pipeline Under the Connecticut River in Middletown
by Sena Wazer, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator, Sierra Club CT
Eversource, the electric and gas utility for much of Connecticut, has proposed to build a new interconnection pipeline under the Connecticut River. This expansion would impact Middletown, East Hampton, and Higganum, in particular the Connecticut Valley Railroad State Park Trail, Hurd State Park, and Higganum Meadows Wildlife Management Area.
Eversource wants to complete this expansion using a practice called horizontal directional drilling. When this practice was used in 2024 for a pipeline in Rhode Island, the company spilled 50 gallons of drilling fluid into the Sakonnet River. Connecticut doesn’t need more methane gas, we don’t need more pipelines, and we certainly don’t need them drilled under the Connecticut River.
In addition to the potential harm that projects like this do to our ecosystems, they are also bad for our climate, health, and costs. Two recent publications have shown that methane gas reliance and pipeline expansions raise our bills.
A study in Maine, which is on the same regional electricity grid as Connecticut, found that methane gas is the primary driver of rising electricity prices in Maine, while clean energy would lower bills. A recently published primer from The Future of Heat Initiative found that Connecticut customers are paying more for gas pipes and their expansion, than for the actual gas we use.
Are you interested in learning more and taking action? Join Sierra Club Connecticut, the No Pipeline Expansion Northeast Coalition, and Sunrise Movement Wesleyan for an educational forum in Middletown titled “Pipelines Under Our River: Safety, Costs, and What Residents Should Know.” The forum will be hosted on Wednesday, March 25, at 6 p.m. at the Russell Library. Find more information and RSVP here: tinyurl.com/middletownforum. Email sena.wazer@sierraclub.org with questions.
Connecticut Isn’t Making Right Choices. We’re Being Gaslit by the Methane Industry
by Susan Moynihan, Feb. 15, 2026, Hartford Courant
The fossil fuel company, TC Energy, is proposing to double the size of a compressor station in Brookfield, Connecticut. The compressor station is located only 1,900 feet from Brookfield’s only middle school. Compressor stations release methane and other toxic air pollutants into the community, and pose a risk of explosion. In the environmental assessment submitted by TC Energy, the company stated that the added gas capacity is designed for ConEdison and National Grid in New York. That means that while the project would pollute Connecticut’s air, the added energy capacity is for New York, despite the state’s greenhouse gas reduction and building electrification laws…I call on Connecticut to put our safety and climate first, and stand up against fossil fuel expansion. We are being gaslit by the methane industry.
[Reprinted from CT Green Energy News, Feb. 20, 2026. To get a free subscription to this weekly online newsletter, visit www.pacecleanenergy.org.]
CT Treasury Buys Half-Million More Elbit Shares
by Stanley Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee
For a decade, activists have been asking the CT Treasury to tell us what investments it has in Israeli apartheid and to dump those investments. The Treasury holds the pension money of teachers and state and city employees. We’ve made moral arguments, legal arguments and appealed to their business sense. So far, we’ve failed. As of last June, Connecticut had $106 million invested in Israel. This month, we’ve learned that there are now $141 million in those tainted investments! They include $6 million in State of Israel Bonds. Israel can use that money for any purpose, for military, tractors to knock down Palestinian houses, prisons (that the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem calls “torture camps”), anything at all. There’s also $250,000 in Cellebrite, which makes hardware and software for surveillance, that is, for spying. Another investment is in ZIM, a company that ships parts and supplies to Israel and exports Israeli weapons to other countries. $600,000 is invested in ZIM.
The worst investment, though, is in Israel’s biggest weapons maker, Elbit. The investment went up from $2.4 million last year to $4 million now. Lest you think that Elbit’s value nearly doubled in 6 months, realize that the Treasury’s fund managers bought 500,000 more shares in Elbit over that short time period.
On April 1, 2024, a World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy of three cars drove on a route pre-approved and coordinated with the Israeli military in central Gaza. One car after another was targeted with missiles from a Hermes 450 drone and all seven WCK workers and volunteers were killed. Hermes is made by Elbit. This wasn’t the first time that an Elbit drone was connected to a human rights abuse. In 2014, a Hermes drone attack killed four children playing on a Gaza beach in front of dozens of journalists. Those are the massacres we know about. Palestinians are killed daily by drones. 85% of them are made by Elbit.
Officials at the Treasury have two excuses. They say they have a “fiduciary” responsibility to make money for the pension funds. They also say that they don’t pick stocks directly. They employ companies whose managers make the actual investments. Someone should tell them to read about Pontius Pilate and the washing of hands. Erick Russell is our Treasurer. Maybe you could tell them via state.treasurer@ct.gov.
Report on New Haven Immigrants Coalition
by Susan Bramhall, NHIC
On Saturday, Feb. 7, one of the coldest days of our current snowy winter, the New Haven Immigrants Coalition (NHIC), with support from 8 other organizations – C4D, CT Tenants Union, PSL CT, New Haven Federation of Teachers, Artists Against Apartheid, Yalies for Palestine, and Greater New Haven Indivisible – invited groups and community members who want to engage more actively in support for immigrant justice to a gathering at the First Presbyterian Church. The crowd of 210 that responded to Break the ICE! filled the sanctuary! The incredible turnout showed our shared enthusiasm to expand and strengthen our community in response to authoritarian and racist threats. A primary goal of the organizers was for everyone to meet and get to know each other and the organizations they work with and to learn about the many aspects of the NHIC work. I can testify that the initial “ice breaker” challenge to talk to three people you haven’t met before during a 5-minute period was inspiring and gave me a sense of how diverse the gathering was.
NHIC organizers gave brief overviews of the current NHIC working groups including the rapid response and hotline team, the family solidarity group providing direct aid for families with members who have been detained, the group doing outreach to communities and businesses to prepare for anticipated ICE activity, court accompaniment, food solidarity supporting families who can’t risk shopping or are food insecure. After the gathering in the sanctuary, people were treated to a delicious dinner from Mazorca and hangout sessions to connect with working groups and organizations. It was an exciting warm event, truly Breaking the ICE on a freezing night.
FUNDRAISER in April – stay tuned for the date. To learn more, apply to volunteer, get trained or donate, visit the NHIC linktree at https://linktr.ee/NHVimmigrants.
Free Tax Help Returns to the Library!
Get your taxes done for free at the New Haven Free Public Library. Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) volunteers are available at all five library locations this year. Make an appointment for help at one of our four neighborhood branches or drop in for help at Ives Library, 133 Elm Street, during their walk-in hours. For more information, visit https://nhfpl.org/vita-2026.
Why Connecticut Needs a Climate Superfund / Contact Your Legislators
by Julianna Larue, Organizer, Sierra Club CT
Connecticut families are feeling the costly effects of climate disasters. Extreme weather like floods, storms and droughts in Connecticut require clean up and rebuilding that costs millions each year. Those costs are passed on to everyday people. That’s not fair. Connecticut must start by holding big polluters accountable through a Climate Superfund that makes those who caused the damage pay their fair share.
At the core of this issue is a simple lesson we all learned in primary school — if you make a mess, you clean it up. For decades, the biggest polluters have created pollution that is making extreme weather worse. When clean-up bills for extreme weather events come due, the polluters are nowhere to be found. Who is stuck with the bill? Families, taxpayers, and local communities.
Connecticut families deserve solutions that lower costs, protect our communities, and hold polluters accountable for the mess they created. Connecticut needs a Climate Superfund.
A Climate Superfund bill would require major fossil fuel companies to assist in paying for some climate-related damages and adaptation measures. It would ensure that companies responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions contribute to mitigating the climate damage they helped create. Importantly, funds would be prioritized for projects that benefit communities hit hardest by fossil fuel pollution and climate change.
In Connecticut alone, extreme weather fueled by climate change caused $53 million in losses to Connecticut farms in 2023 and 2024. Extreme rainfall brought catastrophic flooding and is estimated to have caused $300 million dollars in damages in August of 2024. In September of 2024, during a historic fall drought, brush fires rampaged across the state. A fire in Berlin, which involved out-of-state crews and helicopter water drops, cost upwards of $5 million. According to the Center for Climate Integrity, $5.3 billion is the minimum amount needed for defense against rising sea levels in the state by 2040. All of this amounts to a grand total of at least $5.6 billion that is being put on Connecticut families.
A Climate Superfund, like New York’s $75 billion Climate Change Superfund Act, aims to save taxpayers by shifting costs for climate adaptation from public funds to fossil fuel companies, potentially saving hundreds of billions in avoided future expenses. Projections show New Yorkers could save thousands per person over decades by avoiding costs like massive infrastructure upgrades, and preventing billions in immediate, unsubsidized adaptation spending.
Connecticut families are facing a cost of at least $5.6 billion to clean up climate damages and adapt to rising sea levels. Fossil fuel companies, who long knew the consequences of burning their products, are the primary drivers of this crisis. Why should everyday people in Connecticut have to pay to dig ourselves out of a problem they created?
The Connecticut Legislature is taking up the Climate Superfund happening right now during the 2026 legislative session and your legislators NEED to hear from YOU! Send a message to your legislators here and tell them to support passing the Climate Superfund.