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The Solution is Socialism: A One Day Conference Oct. 22, CCSU New Britain

by CCSU Youth for Socialist Action

socialism“The Solution is Socialism” conference will be held at 105 Ella Grasso Blvd. in New Britain (Central CT State University campus) on Oct. 22 from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Lunch will be served and the location is handicapped accessible. Please help us plan lunch and RSVP!

Call (203) 400-3246 or visit facebook.com/CCSUYSA.

It has never been clearer. Capitalism is the problem. It is a system built on inequality and exploitation, poverty for the vast majority of the world’s people, racism, sexism, homo-phobia, and the destruction of the planet’s life-sustaining natural systems. But what is the solution? Come to an educational conference organized around the conviction that we can build a socialist future managed and enriched by working class democracy, creativity and solidarity.

Speakers:

  • Alix Shabazz: Freedom Inc., Movement for Black Lives Today
  • David Kiely: Youth for Socialist Action, Capitalist Crisis & Revolutionary Socialist Strategy Today
  • Hannah A. Holleman: Amherst College, Method in Ecological Marxism
  • Charles Post: Borough of Manhattan Community College, Origins of US Capitalism
  • Alan Sears: Ryerson University, Toronto, Marxism and LGBTQI Liberation
  • Wendy Z. Goldman: Carnegie Mellon University, Women, the State, and Revolution
  • Edmond Caldwell: Independent Scholar, The Revolutionary Culture of the Paris Commune
  • Johnny E. Williams: Trinity College, The Carceral State as a Social Control and Profit-Making Agent

    International Guests:

  • Juan Cruz Ferre: Partido de los Trabajadores de Socialistas, The Left and Workers Front (FIT) Electoral Strategy and Victory in Argentina
  • Student Representative: Movimiento Independista Nacional Hostosiano, The Fight Against Austerity in Puerto Rico

    Special Appearance:

  • Jeff Mackler: Socialist Action candidate for President

The conference is free. Donations are appreciated.

Let’s Talk About Climate Change in October

by Chris Schweitzer, Director, NHLSCP

Climate change effects us all, so let’s talk about what it means, how we’re feeling about it and ways to respond. Healthy City/Healthy Climate Challenge (HCC) invites you to hold a discussion this October as a way to support a wider response to this new challenge. HCC has organized great resources for holding discussions.

There are many different ways that you can support climate discussions:

  • Organize a climate change talk at your organization or home.
  • Promote online discussions and blogs.
  • Watch and share videos (suggestions in our resource kit).
  • Print and hang up the posters (provided in our resource kit).
  • Create a series of Facebook posts related to climate change throughout October.
  • Get speakers from environmental organizations to come talk (HCC can suggest possible ones).
  • Participate in any of the HCC-sponsored climate change discussions this October (more details to follow).

Our resources include global warming videos, websites, articles, letters, visual tools, activity ideas, posters and graphics, so be sure to check them out! Let us know if you organize a discussion or have other ideas on how to engage people. We’re excited about this chance to get people talking…AND taking concrete steps to create a healthier future!

Contact Chris at [email protected] or (203) 562-1607.

New Haven/Leon Sister City Project works to promote social justice, education and sustainable development in Nicaragua and Connecticut. For more information see newhavenleon.org; www.facebook.com/newhavenleon; email [email protected]; or call (203) 562-1607.

Extended Hours for the Neighborhood Libraries

by Ashley Sklar, NHFPL

New Haven Free Public Library announces new hours at the four neighborhood libraries – open one more day each week! City Librarian, Martha Brogan, is pleased to announce the four neighborhood libraries will be open an additional day per week (12-6 p.m.) thanks to the Mayor, Board of Alders, and community advocates who made this possible. ALL library branches are CLOSED Sundays.

Fair Haven Library, 182 Grand Ave., (203) 946-8115 Mon 10-6 | Tue 10-6 | Wed 12-6 | Thu 12-8 | Fri CLOSED | Sat 10-5

Mitchell Library, 37 Harrison St. | (203) 946-8117 Mon 12-8 | Tue 12-6 | Wed 10-6 | Thu 10-6 | Fri CLOSED | Sat 10-5

Stetson Library, 200 Dixwell Ave., (203) 946-8119 Mon 10-6 | Tue 10-6 | Wed 12-8 | Thu 12-6 | Fri CLOSED | Sat 10-5

Wilson Library, 303 Washington Ave., (203) 946-2228 Mon 12-6 | Tue 12-8 | Wed 10-6 | Thu 10-6 | Fri CLOSED | Sat 10-5

Ives Main Library, 133 Elm St., (203) 946-8130 Mon 10-8 | Tue 10-8 | Wed 10-8 | Thu 10-8 | Fri 10-5 | Sat 10-5

The New Haven Free Public Library welcomes more than 620,000 library patrons through its doors each year. The library system includes the Ives Memorial Library on the historic New Haven Green, the 24/7 online services of our digital branch, the ReadMobile – bringing books to early childhood learning centers, and four neighborhood libraries: Fair Haven, Mitchell, Wilson and Stetson.

The New Haven Free Public Library’s mission is to ensure all New Haven’s citizens have full and unlimited access to information and knowledge so that they may meet the needs of daily living, have opportunities for self-education, and participate successfully in self-government.

For question or more information, please call Ashley Sklar (203) 946-8835 or e-mail [email protected].

SEPTEMBER 11, 2016: Flyer Distributed at New Haven Sunday Vigil to Resist This Endless War

Our grief was never a cry for war.

why-warIn the aftermath of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, “September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows” and many, many other Americans proclaimed, “Our grief is not a cry for war.” People from all countries, knowing intimately and from long experience the unbearable price of war and terrorism, stood with us in word and deed. For a moment, our shared humanity and grief knew no boundaries.

But more wars were already planned.

The Bush administration used the tragedy as a pretext for the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 and to launch the second U.S. war on Iraq in 2003, thus beginning the 21st century by escalating and deepening the state of endless war initiated in the 20th. The lies and distortions used to justify these invasions were reported by the mainstream media, our so-called “Free Press,” as if they were unquestionable fact.

Only the rest of the world seems to have known that they were lies.

The new administration escalated the Endless War agenda it inherited. The Obama administration not only continued but escalated Endless War, making drone warfare—war by remote control—and targeted assassinations key instruments of U.S. “foreign policy.” The collateral damage—aka innocent lives lost—from these attacks is never discussed. Also not discussed is the true reason for this state of endless war: to make the world ever more abundant for the 1% of its population which already controls the vast majority of our planet’s wealth and resources.

In 2016 we have a presidential election in which the issues of war and peace are not even addressed.

The state of endless war is apparently accepted as the norm. The two leading candidates for the presidency of the United States (both members of the wealthiest 1%) simply vie to prove which one of them will be the most effective (or ruthless) in carrying it out.
Is continuing the bloodshed to enrich the 1% the way to honor all who have died as a result of the endless, senseless wars?
We think not.
Can we do better in their memory, and for our future?
We hope so.

Our grief is a cry for peace and for justice.

Labor History & Related Films Available at Best Video

from the GNH Labor History Association Newsletter, Sep-Oct 2016

Best Video Film and Cultural Center and the GNH Labor History Association have worked together to make labor history films available to educators and the general public in a convenient way. The films, located next to the political documentaries shelf, are available for a small fee at the store at 1842 Whitney Ave., Hamden.

The two small non-profit organizations hope to expand the collection through grants and donations.

Let us know if you can help!

The films include:

  • The Organizer (Italian film with Marcello Mastroianni as an itinerant labor organizer)
  • The Take (Naomi Klein documentary on workers taking over Argentinian factories)
  • The Wobblies (documentary on the International Workers of the World (IWW))
  • Norma Rae (Sally Field as a woman who gets involved in organizing in a textile factory)
  • Matewan (John Sayles movie about a 1920s coal strike)
  • Bread and Roses (Drama starring Adrian Brody about Justice for Janitors campaign in LA)
  • The Molly Maguires (Sean Connery in a drama about Irish-American secret society fighting for justice in the coal mines circa late 19th century)
  • Newsies (musical about striking newsboys)
  • American Dream (documentary about the Hormel strike)
  • Harlan County USA (Oscar-winning drama about violent 1973 coal miners strike in Kentucky)
  • F.I.S.T. (1978 drama starring Sylvester Stallone loosely based on Jimmy Hoffa’s career)
  • Hoffa (Jack Nicholson stars as Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa)
  • The Devil and Miss Jones (1941 screwball comedy about a tycoon who goes underground to foil a union organizing campaign in his store)

    Hank Hoffman from Best Video was instrumental in supporting this collaborative project.

Listen Here! Short Story Reading Series at the Institute Library.

by Bennett Graff, 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 Co.  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–a different batch at each reading–and tea are available.  Admission free!  Join us every third Tuesday of the month at the Institute Library, 847 Chapel St. Our next reading will be October 18.  Our theme: “Can’t Live with ‘Em.” Our stories: “Chez Lambert” by Jonathan Franzen and “The Magic Barrel” by Bernard Malamud. Please note the Institute Library is one flight up and, most unfortunately, not wheelchair accessible. For more information, visit us at www.institutelibrary.org.

Jeremy Scahill to Keynote Between The Lines’ 25th Anniversary Forum 2-4 p.m. Saturday Oct. 8 in New Haven

Award-winning investigative journalist and author, Democracy Now! correspondent, a founding editor of The Intercept and Oscar-nominated filmmaker for “Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield” Jeremy Scahill will be the keynote speaker at Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine’s 25th Anniversary Celebration from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, 270 Temple St., New Haven, CT.

scahill-democracynowScahill’s speech, “Drones, Terrorism and The President,” will address America’s endless wars, “targeted assassinations” and the critical policy decisions facing our next president, issues largely ignored by U.S. corporate media. Scahill will also be signing his latest book, “The Assassination Complex,” with a foreword by Edward Snowden and afterword by Glenn Greenwald.

Democracy in Action awards, public forum, Q&A and booksigning with Jeremy Scahill 2-4 p.m.
at the United Church on the Green, 270 Temple St., New Haven, CT (corner of Temple and Elm Streets).

Suggested contribution: ($10 advance, $15 at the door).

Call (203) 268-8446 or email [email protected].

Ticket outlet: Best Video Film and Cultural Center, 1842 Whitney Ave., Hamden.

Online tickets: BetweenTheLines25thanniversary.brownpapertickets.com.

A reception and silent auction will be held from 5-7 p.m. ($50 each).

Call 203-268-8446 for details or visit http://Squeakywheel.net.

Co-sponsors: Progressive Action Roundtable (PAR-newhaven.org) and The Greater New Haven Peace Council.

UI Planning Rate Increase of the Distribution Charge, Hearing in New Haven tonight! Sept. 12

by Paula Panzarella, Fight the Hike

UI is now owned by Iberdrola, one of the world’s largest utility companies, with over 31 million customers. This adds to the insult that Connecticut customers, already paying the highest rates for electricity in the continental United States, are faced with even higher bills if we don’t stop the proposed increase.

According to the press release from the Office of Consumer Counsel, “If UI’s rate phase-in plan were approved as proposed, a typical residential customer on standard service generation who is using 700kWh per month would see their total bill rise by approximately $9.34, from $162.46 to $171.80, effective Jan. 1, 2017. Monthly bills would also increase by approximately $9.50 per month on Jan. 1, 2018 and by an incremental $11.00 monthly on Jan. 1, 2019.”

Note this is only the distribution charge. Should there be an increase in the generation charge, transmission, basic service or any other charge on our UI bill, we’re looking at even more.
Again, we already have the highest rates in the continental United States!

How to fight this: we have to pack the public hearings in Bridgeport and New Haven.

  • Bridgeport hearing: Thursday, Sept. 8, 6:30 p.m., City Common Council Chambers, Bridgeport City Hall, 45 Lyon Terrace.
  • New Haven hearing: Monday, Sept. 12, 6:30 p.m., Hearing Room G2, Kennedy Mitchell Hall of Records, 200 Orange St.

This proposal is identified as Docket No. 16-06-04. Please use this number when you write, e-mail or call PURA.

To mail your commentary, write to PURA,10 Franklin Square, New Britain, CT 06051. Send e-mail to [email protected].

Thank you!

For questions or more information, please call (203) 562-2798 or e-mail [email protected].

In the Sept. 9 New Haven Register there is an article about yet another increase they want to impose on us.

DOT Hearings Regarding Increase in Bus Fares, Metro North and Shore Line East

Department of Transportation Holds Hearings Regarding Increase in Bus Fares, Metro North Fares and Shore Line East Fares
New Haven Hearing is Thursday, September 15 from 4-6 p.m. and 7-9 p.m at the New Haven Hall of Records, Room G-2, 200 Orange Street.
According to Gov. Malloy’s proposal, on Dec. 1, CT Transit bus service will increase from $1.50 to $1.75 and train rides will increase 5 percent.
Written comments on the proposed fare changes must be received by September 15, 2016 at COMMENT ON FARE CHANGES, Bureau of Public Transportation, 2800 Berlin Turnpike, P.O. Box 317546, Newington, CT 06131-7546 or [email protected].
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