The Progressive Action Roundtable mission is to inform the greater New Haven community about the activities of many progressive groups, so that people may learn about them and become involved in discussions and actions on issues for the common good, such as peace, health, racial equity, justice, clean energy and the environment.
Stan Nishimura took a taxi to get his brand new walker. It’s cherry red, the kind with a seat installed that lets him have a rest if he gets winded. The walker will give him some more mobility, allowing him to walk the grounds of his retirement community, but that’s not the sole reason he made the trek.
Stan Nishimura, 82, of New Haven. Jordan Fenster/Hearst Connecticut Media Group
Nishimura, now 82, had been to a recent protest at Yale, but he “really wasn’t able to get around.”
“That’s part of my life,” he said. “There’s real limitations.”
Nishimura, the grandchild of Japanese immigrants, was born in an internment camp in Arizona, one of those set up after Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066, which authorized the use of military personnel for the forced relocation of Japanese-Americans. Most of the 125,000 people put in those camps, like Nishimura’s parents, were American citizens. The order referred to them as “alien enemies.”
Nishimura is legally blind and, having survived stage IV lung cancer, his lungs aren’t what they once were. He needed the walker to attend the No Kings protest in Hartford. There, he was among thousands in Hartford and elsewhere around Connecticut and the country, protesting against President Donald Trump and what organizers have said are authoritarian actions.
“That’s how I see my life,” he said. “First defeating the Trump MAGA fascists and then getting to a whole other world is a prime focus. Secondary to that is my individual concerns, because they’re doing it, not just for me, and it’s nice that I can go, but they’re doing it in terms of what is needed for humanity.”
Click here to read the rest of the story on the News-Times web site and fo more photos. .
by Mona Mahadevan, May 21, 2025, New Haven Independent
Ten public education advocates, including five New Haven teachers and one student, were arrested at the state Capitol Wednesday [May 21] afternoon during a sit-in outside Gov. Ned Lamont’s office. ….
Chief among their demands: raising the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) foundation amount and adopting a higher weight in the ECS formula for students with special needs.
The demonstration — organized by the New Haven Federation of Teachers, AFT Connecticut, and Connecticut For All — took place as New Haven Public Schools Supt. Madeline Negron considers laying off 129 employees, including 56 teachers and all 25 librarians, to close an anticipated budget shortfall of $16.5 million for the 2025 – 2026 school year. …
Included among those arrested as part of Wednesday’s act of civil disobedience were New Haven teachers union President Leslie Blatteau and Wilbur Cross student John Carlos Serana Musser, a student representative on New Haven’s Board of Education.
Come to the New Haven Green on June 8, 12:30 p.m. for a legal, peaceful, mass demonstration!
• Free Mahmoud Khalil and all targeted activists
• Hands off Rumeysa Ozturk
• Stop all attacks on the rights to protest, organize, and due
process
• Stop all deportations, return Kilmar Abrego Garcia and all
other CECOT prisoners
• Stop passport confiscations
• Stop all attacks on queer and trans people
• Stop RFK’s Autism Registry
• Protect and expand healthcare and social services
• Protect and fund our schools and universities
• Hands off our unions
Our civil liberties are clearly under attack.
The Trump Administration is kidnapping activists, revealing private information of people of color, and waging a rapidly escalating war on our most basic rights to silence its critics.
Activists and community members are building a fightback in defense of democratic rights. Union leaders, rank-and-file workers, and community organizers have formed the CT Civil Liberties Defense Committee.
Saturday, June 14, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Connecticut State Capitol, 210 Capitol Ave., Hartford.
In America, we don’t put up with would-be kings. NO KINGS is a national day of action and mass mobilization in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from Trump and his allies. We’ve watched as they’ve cracked down on free speech, detained people for their political views, threatened to deport American citizens, and defied the courts. They’ve done this all while continuing to serve and enrich their billionaire allies.
On Saturday, June 14, we’re taking to the streets nationwide. We’re not gathering to feed his ego. We’re building a movement that leaves him behind.
The flag doesn’t belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to us. We’re not watching history happen. We’re making it.
On June 14th, we’re showing up everywhere he isn’t—to say no thrones, no crowns, no kings. Check out nokings.org for more information.
A core principle behind all No Kings events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.
by Mark Zaretsky, May 18, 2025, New Haven Register
It’s not just a few dozen people in New Haven or Connecticut anymore who are upset about Avelo Airlines running deportation shuttles for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It’s grown into a national movement, with its own newly-minted national coalition, which recently held its first national online meeting.
On Monday [May 12], the day Avelo began running ICE charters from Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Ariz., more than 100 people rallied outside Tweed New Haven Regional Airport, Avelo’s oldest and largest East Coast base.
At the same time, about 30 people gathered on a road leading to the Mesa airport, holding signs that denounced the Trump Administration’s deportation efforts, according to the Associated Press.
[To read the New Haven Register article in its entirety, please go to https://bit.ly/4jeRjxz. For additional coverage and photos, please see Lucy Gellman’s article of May 13 in Arts Paper at bit.ly/4dw4mJJ.]
[Editor’s note: Medicare for All CT (M4ACT) has worked diligently in advocating for a rational and national healthcare system. Below is the notification we received from M4ACT. We wanted to share their list of other healthcare advocacy organizations, as well as the M4ACT email address, for readers who may want to contact them with their questions and concerns.]
For years, Medicare For All CT has advocated and educated around the need for universal health care in the state and the nation through canvasses, meetings with members of Congress, municipal resolution campaigns around the state, and more.
Now, however, due to relocations, health issues, and conflicting personal obligations, M4ACT’s leadership is unable to give this mission the full effort and attention it deserves.
We will therefore be on indefinite hiatus while we consider the best way to move forward.
You are welcome to contact us at our normal email address, info@medicare4allct.org, with any questions, comments, or concerns.
For those who want to remain active, check out these other health care advocacy groups:
Physicians for a National Health Plan https://pnhp.org
Many key pieces of legislation have not been decided at the time of our printing. Bills on education, labor, energy, the environment, housing, immigrants’ rights and healthcare were part of this session. To find out what passed, please go to Connecticut Citizen Action Group’s website at ccag.net.
[Editor’s note: Check the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven’s website for an update of what the federal funding cuts will mean for Connecticut: bit.ly/3SUNZg7.]
An estimated 140,000 people died in the US bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Three days later, on August 9, an estimated 74,000 people perished in the US bombing of Nagasaki. Mostly all killed were civilians.
The bombing of Nagasaki was the last time nuclear bombs were used in warfare.
The United States is the only country to have used nuclear bombs in warfare.
This year, as in years past, on August 6 and 9, the New Haven peace community will gather to remember the dead, call for an end to war, and demand the abolition of nuclear weapons. On Wednesday, August 6 at 8 a.m., the commemoration will be by the flagpole on the New Haven Green to hear a statement from the Mayor of Hiroshima, voice our concerns, and share thoughts on the horrors of war and how to effectively work for peace. On Saturday, August 9 at 10:45 a.m., we will gather at the Amistad statue in front of City Hall, 165 Church St., to hear a statement from the Mayor of Nagasaki. There will be featured speakers from the peace community and time for attendees to address the audience. Please call Henry Lowendorf of the Greater New Haven Peace Council for additional events that will commemorate the bombings: 203-389-9547.
Emilia Otte and Lisa Hagen, May 21, 2025, CT Mirror
As Coast Guard Academy cadets and their families arrived on the New London campus Wednesday morning for graduation, protesters filled nearby McKinley Park to voice their opposition to the academy’s commencement speaker, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“Congratulations!” the protesters called out to the cadets and their family members as they passed by on the sidewalk. Some of the graduation attendees thanked the protesters for their presence outside the academy.
The protesters carried signs calling out various actions by the Trump administration, including the unlawful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, the Trump administration’s cuts to veterans services, the recent federal budget proposal that includes cuts to Medicaid, the administration’s position on Ukraine and the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who played a strong role in pro-Palestinian protests.
The new War Resisters League’s annual “pie chart” flyer, Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes, analyzes the Federal Fiscal Year 2026 Budget (FY 2026 is 1 October 2025 – 30 September 2026). This FY2026 issue is being published in March 2025.
This year’s chart compares the Projected FY2026 Biden Budget based on OMB figures (March 2024) and Possible FY2026 Trump Budget based on G.O.P. stated goals (as of March 2025)
Projected FY 2026 Biden Budget based on OMB figures (March 2024)
These figures are from the FY2026 column in last year’s Analytical Perspectives book of the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2025. They are Federal funds, so do not include Trust funds
— such as Social Security — which are raised and spent separately from income taxes.
“Current military” includes Dept. of Defense ($880 billion) and the military portion ($314 billion) from other departments and agencies, including Homeland Security, Energy (nuclear weapons), State, NSA, CIA. “Past military” represents veterans’ benefits ($391 billion) plus 80% of the interest on the debt ($1,023 billion).*
Income taxes, you pay (or don’t pay) by April 15, 2025, go to the Federal funds portion of the budget. Potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds are not reflected on this flyer
Possible FY2026 Trump Budget based on G.O.P. stated goals (as of March 2025)
Because Trump has yet to release a budget proposal, presented here is a rough estimate of what the FY2026 budget (Oct. 1 – Sep. 30, 2026) might look like. The overall budget, projected to be smaller than the Biden proposal, is based on stated goals to eliminate the Dept. of Education, in addition to major cuts in Medicaid, housing assistance, food aid, energy credits, EPA, USAID, Labor, NSF, NASA, Interior, FEMA, IRS, as well as other departments and agencies, offsetting increases in military expenditures.
These cuts will not offset major tax cuts for the rich and corporations, so the debt is expected to increase.
*Analysts differ on how much of the debt stems from the military; other groups estimate 50% to 60%. We use 80% because we believe if there had been no military spending, most of the national debt would have been eliminated.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Get involved in WRL’s organizing and education work: nonviolent direct action training, counter-military recruitment, internationalist work, and more. Visit WRL’s membership handbook at warresisters.org/joinwrl. Find resources to challenge militarism, curb police and border patrol power, strengthen nonviolent action and lift up community resilience!
Write elected officials, letters-to-the-editor, and posts online. Send and share copies of this flyer. Explain your budget priorities for a better world.
Divest from war!! Refuse to pay all or part of your federal income tax. Though illegal, thousands of people openly participate in this form of protest. Whatever you choose to refuse—$1, $10, 45% or 100%—send a letter to elected officials and tell them why. Contact us for information or referral to a counselor near you. Contribute resisted tax money to groups that work for the common good.
For more about refusing to pay for war, brochures, and other resources, contact the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, (800) 269-7464 or see nwtrcc.org.
by Henry Lowendorf, Greater New Haven Peace Council
Friends,
On Saturday, April 5, I’m attending Hands Off’s events, “Hands Off! Protect our Democracy! Stand Up & Fight Back!” – sign up at handsoff2025.com to join me!
The Big One is in Hartford, 3 p.m. at the CT State Capitol, 210 Capitol Ave.
Around the country on April 5, Hands Off events can be the biggest showing ever that we will not play doormat to the destruction of our country by Trump/Vance/Musk and their lackeys in Congress to further enrich the billionaires.
We will RESIST all attacks on any of us, on our human rights.
Hope to see you there,
by Paula Panzarella, Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide
Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide (PAMAS) had the premiere showing of its film Thoughts on Medical Assisted Suicide on March 25 at the Hamden Miller Memorial Library. Many more public viewings in Connecticut will be scheduled in the months ahead.
This film raises many difficult questions and societal concerns, such as: how the cost of medical care impacts one’s choice, racial discrimination, fear of disability, denial of coverage by medical insurance companies, and prejudice against the elderly. The value of the audience discussion of these issues cannot be overestimated.
The film was produced by Progressives Against Medical Suicide and Karyl Evans Productions LLC, with partial funding from the Haymarket People’s Fund, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, and the Patients Rights Action Fund.
If any PAR readers have suggestions for future venues of film showings, or would like to help organize a showing, please contact progressivesagainstmas@hotmail.com. Possible locations include libraries, classes, community centers or organizations.
The first action of the 50501 Movement was on Feb. 5, protesting Project 2025 in front of the capitols of every state. In Hartford, a number of PAR readers joined the crowd of 500 in front of the State Capitol. The second 50501 action was on Feb. 17, Presidents’ Day.
The 50501 Movement is a coalition demanding justice, transparency, accountability, and an end to executive overreach. Despite being seen as leaderless, every individual, state, city, grassroots organization, and activist is a leader in this movement.
[The following are excerpts. To read the entire article, please go to http://bit.ly/41dh0aA]
If an ICE (federal Immigration & Customs Enforcement) agent is indeed at the door: “I don’t wish to speak with you, answer your questions, or sign or hand you any documents based on my 5th Amendment rights under the United Stations Constitution … I do not give you permission to enter my home based on my 4th Amendment rights … unless you have a warrant to enter, signed by a judge or magistrate with my name on it that you slide under the door …”
A coalition of 60 agencies and nonprofit groups is spreading those red cards, and that calm-but-ready message, to the heart of New Haven’s immigrant community, which is bracing for ICE mass deportation raids promised by the newly installed Trump administration. …
“Exactly what the Trump administration wants is just fear, to incite fear and panic and chaos,” Yenimar Cortes, New Haven organizer for CT Students For A Dream, said during a New ICE Age conversation Tuesday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” She was joined by fellow organizers Fatima Rojas of Semilla Collective, Junta case worker Jacqueline Gonzalez, and high school youth organizer Ambar Santiago-Rojas.
An estimated 100,000 undocumented people live in Connecticut.
You can call the rapid response hotline at 220-666-4472. Rojas said people can call her at 203-747-4309 for information on attending the coalition’s Saturday community engagement meetings. Cortes invited people to contact her group at 203-787-0191 for information on Know Your Rights workshops.
There’s an electronic billboard over the highway just as I-91 flows into I-95 going towards New York City. Since Feb. 10, for eight seconds out of every minute of the day and night, drivers and passengers will see the urgent message “Stop the War, Stop Arming Israel.” The billboard directs people to the website StopArmingIsrael.org. It will be on display through March 9.
A coalition of groups and individuals thought of using the method of billboard to reach people not usually seen in progressive areas. It’s expensive but at the very least we hope this billboard display will normalize the idea of stopping the guns to Israel.
The Coalition is made up of the Middle East Crisis Committee, Palestine Solidarity Committee of Danbury, Health Care Workers 4 Palestine – Connecticut, CT for a World BEYOND War, Veterans for Peace Chapter 18, Connecticut Palestine Alliance (CTPA), Justin Paglino, MD–PhD, Tree of Life Education Fund, Hassan Fouda, and Promoting Enduring Peace. A score of other people made donations.
On behalf of the Palestine Solidarity Committee of Danbury, Dr. Justine McCabe said, “The imperial and immoral actions of the US—in arming Israel’s genocide as well as in its support for autocratic regimes in the region—dangerously collide with the persistent striving for democracy by ‘decolonized’ people who overwhelmingly identify with Palestinians.” She continued, “While working as an anthropologist and psychologist in Gaza and West Bank, I witnessed the intense frustration and disgust among Palestinians for US unconditional support for Israel—long before this genocidal war. In fact, US support for apartheid Israel as its geopolitical proxy to control the Middle East makes both Israelis and Americans less safe, less secure. Tragically, in their ‘special relationship’ as hyper-militarized cultures, the US and Israel dehumanize their own citizens by their brutalizing dehumanization of Palestinians.”
Besides messaging the general public, the coalition will alert each member of the CT legislature, the governor and federal elected officials about the billboard and the need for each of them to act to stop weapons from going to Israel.
Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide (PAMAS) premieres its 35-minute film, Thoughts on Medical Assisted Suicide, which examines this controversial topic, considering its historical context, current practice, and impact on health care.
With poetry and song written and performed by a West Haven, CT-based poet, songwriter, and performance artist, Elaine Kolb, the film includes interviews with disability and social justice activists; a nationally known palliative care doctor, Dr. Diane Meier; and a retired Connecticut disability rights attorney, Nancy Alisberg, who discuss their personal and professional reasons for strong opposition to the practice. With captioning, narration, and ASL interpretation. Audience discussion and question and answer session to follow.
This program is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Registration is recommended.
Tuesday, March 25, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
Thornton Wilder Hall, Miller Memorial Library
2901 Dixwell Ave., Hamden.
A Connecticut contingent marched in opposition to the impending second term of President Donald J. Trump in Washington, D.C., Saturday [Jan. 18], carrying signs and expressing concern about the fate of racial minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, women, immigrants and the environment over the coming four years.
The People’s March, organized by a coalition of nonprofits including the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood and Time to Act, drew an estimated 50,000 demonstrators to the nation’s capital days before Trump’s second inauguration. Under gray skies and a light drizzle, a multi-generational crowd — from babies in strollers to senior citizens — marched to the Lincoln Memorial, chanting intermittently, “This is what democracy looks like!”
