Month: April 2016

May Day on the New Haven Green Sunday, May 1, from noon to 5 p.m.

by May Day Celebration Committee

Come celebrate May Day, International Workers’ Day, Sunday, May 1st from 12 noon until 5 p.m. on the New Haven Green. Raindate: Sunday May 8.

may-day-2015This is the 30th consecutive year of May Day on the Green. May Day is a multi-cultural festival featuring live music, poetry, dance, children’s activities, speak-out time, a May Pole Dance and displays and information tables from local labor, peace, social service and social justice groups. May Day is a participatory event that is free and everyone is invited.

At a time when labor unions are being harassed around the country, we celebrate labor unions as being a worker’s best hope. At a time when immigrants are still struggling for their rights, we celebrate our immigrant heritage and culture.

Our featured performers on the New Haven Green include “Coalition Hip Hop” and “N-Finity Muzik.”

For more information visit us at #newhavenmayday or call (203) 843-3069.

Schedule May Day 2016

  • Noon Opening Remarks “May Day and New Haven’s demand for immigrant rights”
  • 12:15 Steph Serenita (Singer/Songwriter)
  • 12:45 Bread Is Rising (Poetry Collective)
  • 1 p.m. Open Mic
  • 1:15 Phil Dunlop (Clean water activist, Singer/Songwriter)
  • 1:30 Luke Rodney (Caribbean, World)
  • 2 p.m. Not Here (Jam Music)
  • 2:30 Open Mic
  • 2:45 Chris Garaffa (ANSWER Coalition –Act Now to Stop War And End Racism)
  • 3 p.m. Coalition (Hip Hop)
  • 3:30 May Pole Dance led by Bill Fischer with Out On a Whim–Mickey Koth and Kendall Alderman
  • 4 p.m. N-Finity Muzik (Hip Hop)
  • 4:45 Speak Out Time and Closing Remarks

Also: Fun activities throughout the day–Flint Ladder Circus Arts, New Haven Radical Cheerleaders, Snappy the Peas/ce Pod, Face Painting, Bubbles, Free Vegetarian Food, Graffiti Wall participatory art project, Information Tables

Admission: Free

International Workers’ Day: Fighting for Our Future, May 1

by Joelle Fishman, CT People’s World

The People’s World in Connecticut is hosting its annual celebration of International Workers’ Day on Sunday, May 1 at 4 p.m. at the King-Davis Labor Center, 77 Huyshope Ave., Hartford. The lives of workers and the 99% are on the line here and around the world and people are in motion. On May Day 2016 we are “Fighting for Our Future.”

We are honored to welcome keynote speaker John Wojcik, editor of People’s World and vice president of the International Labor Communications Association who lives in Chicago.

A panel including representatives of state workers and immigrants and those struggling for jobs in Connecticut will highlight key demands of the moment.

The program includes a presentation of May Day Around the World, music and home made buffet. Donation is $5 or what you can afford. A fund appeal for the annual People’s World will be made. For more information, call (203) 624-4254.

Victories on Earth Day

by Terry Eichel, Inter-Religious Eco-Justice Network (IREJN)

April 22 was Earth Day and the celebrations for our planet will be going on all week!

*Kinder Morgan announced on Wednesday that it was abandoning plans to build a natural gas pipeline that would have cut through Western Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire, and Merrimack Valley. A day later, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation denied a permit to Kinder Morgan to bring natural gas through New York. As a result, Kinder Morgan has cancelled the Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline from New York to Connecticut!

*SB422 won in the Senate on April 19 – now it needs to win in the House! This legislation will protect us from corporate raids on our water. It creates state oversight for the acquisition of large amount of water for bottling plants, protects us in a drought, and adds the issue of large volume discounts to the state water plan. Please urge your representative today to support the bill.

70 People Rally for Environmental Justice in Bridgeport

Dan Fischer, Capitalism vs. the Climate and Gabriella Rodriguez, Moral Monday CT

On Sunday, April 3, about 70 people attended a rally at Bridgeport’s McLevy Green to raise awareness about environmental justice. The rally was hosted by Healthy CT Alliance, a Bridgeport-based health advocacy group, Capitalism vs. the Climate, a statewide climate justice group, and Moral Monday CT, a faith-based affiliate of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

bridgeport-pseg-harbor-coalSpeakers included Bishop John Selders, founder of Moral Monday CT, and Reverend Sekou, an author and theologian active in the #BlackLivesMatter movement. They declared it unjust that low income communities and communities of color are consistently exposed to higher levels of pollution.

Selders said, “Environmental racism is bound up with Connecticut’s industrial past and continues to feed health disparities and economic injustice. Natural resources and marginalized peoples have been relegated as dumping grounds in our urban areas – five cities are home to 71% of Connecticut’s people of color and at least 20% of pollution sources. Yet, large majorities of people of color support environmental justice. That’s why Moral Monday CT supports clean power – to the people! Green is for all of us. Black loves Green!”

Toxic facilities in Bridgeport include wastewater treatment facilities, a trash incinerator, a coal-fired power plant, and a fracked-gas plant. PSEG plans to begin building a new fracked-gas plant next year, locking in decades more of pollution in the South End. Forbes Magazine has ranked Bridgeport the country’s fourth dirtiest city. Meanwhile, Spectra Energy’s fracked-gas pipeline construction near New York’s Indian Point nuclear power plant endangers Bridgeport residents and others in the New York metropolitan area, since there is a small but real chance that a pipeline rupture could trigger a meltdown at Indian Point. A recent headline in The Nation warned, “A High-Pressure Pipeline Next to a Nuclear Power Plant… What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” For photos and videos from the rally, visit http://capitalismvsclimate.org.

Unidad Latina en Acción and Rosa DeLauro Push to Stop Wage Theft

Brothers Axel and Henry Tubac worked for a company installing kitchens. For the first two years they were paid without fail. Then, for six and seven weeks, respectively, their employer stopped paying them.

When they met with U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro at New Haven Legal Assistance headquarters Tuesday afternoon, the brothers still hadn’t been paid.  They have filed suit against their former employer for wage theft.

“It was just a nightmare what happened to me,” Axel Tubac recalled. “I did not have food. I talked to my boss many, many times. He just seemed like he don’t care. He owes me about $4,000; $500 in overtime that he did not pay.”

….

Lugo was arrested on Nov. 22 for disturbing the peace during a protest outside of Goodfellas. He argued that the police are more interested in harassing him for protesting rather than going after restaurant owners that are allegedly committing the far more serious crime of stealing from their employees and thumbing their noses at the law.

To read the entire article with all the photos, visit: DeLauro Targets Wage Theft | New Haven Independent

 

New Haven Stood Up for Planned Parenthood

WORD (Women Organized to Resist & Defend) New Haven

New Haven stood strong with Planned Parenthood April 23 in a beautiful action of support and defense against hate! Over 80 people came out to stand up for healthcare and equality. We vastly outnumbered and drove away the anti-choice bigots who were threatening mass action against Planned Parenthood.

WORD and the people of CT say: we will not stand by while reproductive rights are under attack! As long as patients and workers are being attacked in the streets and legislature, we will be in the streets standing up to the bigotry.

planned-parenthood-protest

Ultimate Net Zero Energy House Tour May 21

by Judi Friedman, People’s Action for Clean Energy

The ultimate net zero energy house will be open to the public on Saturday, May 21. With a rating of -23, this South Glastonbury, Connecticut, home is the most energy-efficient house in North America. It was the 2014 CT Zero Energy Challenge winner; the RESNET 2015 Cross Border Challenge winner; and the 2015 Housing Innovations Award winner.

Tours and seminars will be held at noon and 2:30 p.m. The 2,755 square-foot house has a geothermal heating and cooling system; a rotating photovoltaic steel pole array that powers all appliances, LED lights and the hot water heater. The PV is connected to the grid but is able to get power when the grid goes down.

Other energy saving features in this home for four people include a centrally heated foundation; aluminum roofing shingles with a 70-year lifespan; an energy recovery ventilator; triple glazed windows and Energy Star appliances. The tour is sponsored by Peoples Action for Clean Energy (PACE), the only all-volunteer nonprofit public health organization in Connecticut devoted solely to clean energy education.

Reservations are accepted in order of receipt for the tour, which will be held rain or shine. The non-refundable tickets are $15.00 per person. To order tickets, go online to http://www.pace-cleanenergy.org and click on Events, indicating the choice of time for the tours and seminar. Tickets may also be ordered by sending $15.00 per person to PACE c/o Donna Grant, 128 Melrose Road, Broad Brook, CT 06016. Include the ticket holder’s name, phone number, address, email address and choice of time. For ticket information, call Judi Friedman, (860) 623-5487. For tour information, call (860) 693-4813.

Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3) Stakeholder Events in New Haven May 5

During 2016, the Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3) will be gathering input from stakeholders across the state, as part of its charge to develop a strategy/plan to meet the state’s mandated goal of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions below 2001 levels by the year 2050.

The current plan involves three rounds of stakeholder events (May, July and October) to engage stakeholders at different points in the process. For the first round — scheduled for 5:30-7:30 the evening of May 5 — the primary/central location will be in Hartford, with six satellite locations around the state. Participants at the satellite locations will view the presentation(s) via video link and then engage in facilitated dialogue at the local level.

The May 5 gatherings will provide stakeholders the opportunity to learn about and provide feedback on the technologies and measures that will be modeled in the Long range Energy Alternatives Planning System (LEAP). This widely-used software tool for energy policy analysis and climate change mitigation assessment will help us understand the GHG reduction potential of various measures and technologies (and combinations thereof).

The CT Roundtable on Climate and Jobs is helping to coordinate logistics for these gatherings.

Register for May 5! Please register at http://bit.ly/GC3_May5 in order to receive updated info and background materials prior to the gatherings.

May 5 Site—Yale University, Sage Hall, 205 Prospect St., New Haven. Refreshments available at 5 p.m.; program begins at 5:30 p.m. (Other sites are available; see http://bit.ly/1UC3pUb) Registration is not necessary, but it allows us to send you preparatory materials and help us ensure adequate food and proper room set-up.

Info: John Humphries, [email protected], 860-216-7972.

PAI investigates CT Racial Profiling Project

by Elizabeth Neuse, PAI

People Against Injustice (PAI) has obtained the raw data file and the preliminary results of traffic stops in Connecticut, compiled by the CT Racial Profiling Prohibition Project. The site http://ctrp3.ctdata.org provides access to raw traffic stop data and tables for each police district in the state for stops conducted between Oct. 1, 2013 and March 31, 2015. New data will be posted as it is released.

According to the site, here’s what you will find in Phase I on your computer:
Using the filters on the left of the screen, you can create views of descriptive statistics on traffic stop data collected by each department [e.g., New Haven] and statewide totals.

Here’s what you will NOT find:
The ability to make comparisons for multiple departments simultaneously or alongside the statewide totals.
The ability to determine in the pre-stop descriptive statistics which departments were identified as exhibiting racial disparities in traffic stop practices.
To determine whether there are racial disparities by department, read the April 2015 report issued by the IMRP [Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain] which utilized a rigorous statistical analysis. You can also read our data story which explains the methodology applied and the departments that were identified.
Here’s what is coming in Phase II:
Visualizations [e.g., charts] of the econometric analysis that identifies which departments show statistically significant racial disparities in treatment of minority drivers versus non-minority drivers.

Visualizations enabling the comparison of post-stop data

In 2016, IMRP will complete an analysis of pre-stop data at the officer level and the results will be posted at its website.

PAI is planning to investigate further the results of the study.

Institute Library Reading Series May 17

by Bennett Lovett-Graff, Publisher, New Haven Review

Join us for a night of classic short stories selected by the staff of the New Haven Review and read by cast members of the New Haven Theater Company. Reading starts at 7 p.m., with a talk back at 8 p.m. that explores the background, meaning, and dramatic interpretation of that night’s stories.  Also, freshly baked cookies and tea are available.

Admission is free!

Join us every third Tuesday of the month at the Institute Library, 847 Chapel St. Our next reading will be May 17. Our theme: “Strange Days.” Our stories: “House Taken Over” by Julio Cortazar and “The Enormous Radio” by John Cheever. Please note that the Institute Library is one flight up and not wheelchair accessible. For more information, visit us at http://www.institutelibrary.org.

Labor History Association Annual Conference and Meeting, June 5: Looking Back, Going Forward

by Joan Cavanagh, GNHLHA Archivist/ Director

This year’s annual conference and meeting of the Greater New Haven Labor History Association will honor the organization’s late President, Nicholas Aiello, showcase its 28 year history and give our members and friends an opportunity to brainstorm about the future.

Frank Annunziato, who co-founded LHA with Nick in 1988, will give a presentation about the organization’s mission and its early years, inviting contributions from others who were among its first members. The Director and current Executive Board members, including Bill Berndtson, President, and Steve Kass, Vice President, will talk about LHA’s work during the first 16 years of the 21st century.

Author Anthony Riccio, who interviewed Nick for his books, The Italian American Experience in New Haven and  Farms, Factories and Families will present “Sisters and Sweatshops: The Life of Nick Aiello” and will give this year’s Augusta Lewis Troup Award to Louise Fortin, Nick’s sister and a retired garment worker.

As always, there will be time for refreshments and socializing and our troubadour, Frank Panzarella, will serenade us with labor songs.

If you have memories to share about Nick or the organization’s history, ideas about how we should move forward in this new century, and/or simply want to learn more about LHA, please join us on June 5th to look back at what has been accomplished and to imagine and plan the future of our mission to document and celebrate working class history.

Seymour’s Public Comment Policy Discriminates Against Disabled Citizens

This article is written by Joseph A. Luciano, Disability Rights Action Group of CT about himself.

Seymour Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and elder rights advocate Joe Luciano, says his hometown treats public comments provided by citizens with disabilities differently than those given by citizens without disabilities. He has filed an ADA discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice against the Town of Seymour and its first selectman, Kurt Miller.

“Citizens who appear in person to speak their comments have an unfair advantage,” says Luciano. “Their comments are entered into meeting minutes in detail. Mine, however, are entered merely as ‘Correspondence received,’” Luciano says. “All state municipalities, including Seymour, must accommodate persons with disabilities,” he says.

Luciano is unable to travel to evening town meetings because there is no wheelchair transport when meetings begin and end. So he sends his public comment by email and snail mail. Paratransport services are not provided at night in Seymour. “While I use my wheelchair in daylight to ride to downtown places, I do so at risk of life and limb riding in streets and gutters. Absent crosswalks, an impassable sidewalk on DeForest, absent curbcuts—and unremoved snow—are mobility barriers blocking access to sidewalks. At night I cannot safely travel the block and a half to town hall to speak my public comment,” says Luciano.

According to Luciano, the pitfalls and shortcomings of the snow-removal ordinance addressed in his emailed public comment were not entered into the minutes, which show comments in detail spoken by other citizens who presented theirs. “The minutes omitted essential points of my comment. That is, the same property owners year after year flout the snow removal ordinance. They do so with impunity because town safety authorities do not monitor and enforce compliance of ordinance even though enforcement with fines of up to $100 a day is mandated. Sidewalks with unremoved snow are mobility barriers,” explains Luciano.

According to Luciano, barriers to public accommodations and public services have inflicted staggering economic and social costs on American society and have undermined our well-intentioned efforts to educate, rehabilitate, and employ individuals with disabilities. Municipalities that refuse to accommodate persons with disabilities equally in public meetings prevent society from benefiting from the knowledge, skills and of PWDs. “The ADA guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications.” [email protected] (203) 463-8323.

Come to the African American Women’s Summit

by Mary Jones, Summit Coordinator

The African American Women’s Summit will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 16, at the Immanuel Baptist Church, located at 1324 Chapel St.

The theme this year is “Enhancing Our Community and Family Life through Health, Nutrition, Housing, Insurance and Social Justice.” Experts in the areas of health, nutrition, housing, insurance and social justice will lead a panel discussion. Workshops topics will center around our theme.

This year will feature an Authors’ Row comprised of prominent authors in the community and surrounding areas. They will be discussing their latest book. Purchase a book and get it autographed by the author. Lunch will feature entertainment. There will also be vendors.

Come out and celebrate our 21 years of service in the community. For your convenience, you may park at Shure Funeral Home located at 543 George Street. You can enter the lot from George Street or Day Street. You may also park at St. Paul UAME Church at 1267 Chapel Street. The parking lot is located on Dwight Street behind the church. Please park between the white lines only.

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