Category: Activism

Time of Chaos, Time for Resistance

Leave a comment

by PAR Planning Committee

2026 has begun with many intense challenges for the peace and justice community, locally and nationally. The federal government is out of control. Checks and balances within the government no longer exist as Trump refuses to be reined in even when Congress, the judicial system and states try to do so.

All over the country people have demonstrated against the many horrors and threats to democracy. The US invasion of  Venezuela and kidnapping of its president, the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by ICE in Minneapolis, the threat to implement the Insurrection Act and unleash the military against US citizens who protest, and the approaching dissolution of US-European alliances if Trump follows through with taking over Greenland have made it clear our government does not represent the people or the interests of democracy in the United States.

Greater New Haven-area peace groups have pulled out the stops, sometimes with four demonstrations within four days. We hope in the coming weeks that activists can send PAR reports of their excellent work of resisting fascism. Also welcome are flyers, “talking points,” and transcripts of rally speeches for us to print in future newsletters. Email reports, articles, photos, etc. to parnewhaven@hotmail.com.

Avelo to Exit Deportation Biz

Leave a comment

by Thomas Breen, Jan. 7, 2026, New Haven Independent

Avelo Airlines plans to stop running deportation flights for the Trump administration later this month after deciding that its participation in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program is too complex and costly to continue.

Photo: Chris Volpe

Avelo spokesperson Courtney Goff confirmed that coming move for the budget airline in an email comment sent to the Independent on Wednesday.

“Avelo will close the base at AZA [in Mesa, Arizona] on January 27 and will conclude participation in the DHS charter program,” Goff wrote. “The program provided short-term benefits

At an April 30 anti-Avelo protest at Tweed.

but ultimately did not deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs.”

AZ Family, a local news outlet in Phoenix, first reported on Avelo’s decision to end its deportation flights, which began out of Arizona last May — prompting a New Haven-based boycott movement, condemnation from politicians and activists across the country, and frequent protests outside of Tweed New Haven Airport, where Avelo has been flying direct commercial flights (but not deportation flights) since November 2021.

“The big lesson here is that human suffering is not profitable,” said Pastor Jack Perkins Davidson of Hamden’s Spring Glen Church in a phone interview with the Independent Wednesday. “I hope Avelo and all corporations in the U.S. have learned that valuable lesson, that collaborating with injustice and collaborating with racism, though it may for them provide the allure of short-term gain, are empty promises. There is no benefit.”

[To read the article in its entirety, see https://bit.ly/3NsEIN2]

Public Forum – Trump’s Attacks on Gaza and Venezuela: A Socialist Response to US Imperialist Wars and Aggression

by Emmett Santisi – Workers’ Voice

Workers’ Voice will host a forum on Trump’s attacks on Gaza and Venezuela on Wednesday, Dec. 3 at Whitneyville Cultural Commons, 1247 Whitney Ave. in Hamden. At 5:30 p.m. we’ll have social time and food, and the program will start at  6 p.m. For more information, please email workersvoicect@protonmail.com. Cash donations are welcome.

At the same time, the Trump regime has launched multiple deadly strikes on vessels off the coast of Venezuela accusing the Maduro government of being a “narco-terror cartel,” they have also brokered a shaky rotten deal between Hamas and the Israeli government. Today Israel continues attacks on Gaza and has used the “ceasefire” as a pretext to launch attacks on Lebanon.

What is the role of US imperialism in the world and what does it have to gain from these attacks? In Gaza, what does the continued US support of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians mean for international efforts to build solidarity? What is the role of Hamas and what is the way forward? In Venezuela does US imperialism see another opportunity to transfer power to Machado’s opposition party? Is Venezuela a “narco-terror cartel”? What happened to the movement started by Hugo Chávez and is this the logical outcome of Chavismo? What way forward for the people of Venezuela?

Join Workers’ Voice/La Voz de Los Trabajadores for this forum as we discuss these important questions that are deeply impacting working people across the globe.

One to One: John and Yoko – A Collage of the Times

by Frank Panzarella, PAR reader and musician

For the last 60 years, the conservative corporate elite have used every tool to defame and compromise the legacy of the rebellions of the 1960s.  Two major pillars of that fear were embedded in the coming together of the Civil Rights movement and the social and cultural revolutions that were fueled by the war in Vietnam.

The rising tide of Black liberation inspired a generation to challenge the power of Jim Crow, and question all aspects of capitalist society in the United States and its tentacles of international involvement throughout the world.  The war in Vietnam became a funnel for many of these challenges of power.

Even on a social level these often contradictory and painful explorations challenged the norms of patriarchy and sexual relations and self-definition often embodied in the art and music of those times and the growing fight for a new kind of liberating culture.

A new quasi-documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono called One to One: John and Yoko is a fascinating, if somewhat limited, collage of that social revolutionary time.  It provides a small but rich glimpse into the maelstrom of events and the ferment of ideas of a generation seeking a new ideology and even somewhat challenging its own biases.

In today’s environment, where the reactionary forces of racist and fascist politics are attempting to reverse the modest gains since those times, this HBO feature is a welcome small window that reminds us of the complexity and dynamic energy that changed social relations in our country in those times that still reverberate today despite some of the chaotic flaws of those years.  It is those many advances that scare the most conservative in our society that the dreams of democracy, equality, and justice for all might actually happen, threatening the remnants of white privilege and corporate control of most of the wealth in our world and the health of our planet.

This is a worthwhile film.

View the trailer : https://youtu.be/oxagfYjeMV4

Some No Kings Next Steps

Some No Kings Next Steps: There was a No Kings Next Steps video conference last night [Oct. 21]. Here are some things that they talked about:

  1. A) Budget battle/government shut-down: Call senators and tell them to hold the line on asking the GOP to negotiate on healthcare. Or text “shut-down” to 30403 and they will text back what to do.
  2. B) Take control of the narrativeand share your posts on your social media of your stories of how the actions of Trump Administration are affecting/hurting you, criticism of organizations that preemptively capitulate to the Trump Administration, and to showcase stories or resistance (“social proof”).

The next meeting of the Greater New Haven Indivisible group is on Saturday, Nov. 15 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Stetson Library (2nd floor) at 197 Dixwell in New Haven.

For more info: greaternewhavenindivisible@gmail.com.

.

News from Greater New Haven Indivisible

Thanks! to everyone who attended the No Kings New Haven event this past Saturday. Across the US, it was the largest peaceful protest in American history – and it was amazing to see so many people on the New Haven Green having a good time while fighting for democracy and progressive values and against autocracy! Way to go, everyone!!

Photo: Chris Volpe for the New Haven Independent

There are Indivisible groups across the US, CT, and in the area. You can check the National Indivisible website where groups are (https://groups.indivisible.org/). Every local Indivisible group decides their own actions in order to work towards change, fight back against rising authoritarianism, and prove—action by action—that courage is contagious.

People Have the Power!

Janis Underwood, Greater Westville Indivisible

In the middle of September, a small group of neighbors were talking about the October 18 nationwide call to action put out by the national Indivisible organization. We noticed New Haven did not have a No Kings Rally in the works. We decided New Haven was not about to be left out of standing up to the authoritarian overreach of this current administration.

Over the next few weeks we mobilized an army of volunteers who came to help in droves and brought expertise, enthusiasm and themselves. We were determined to showcase unity and an action for a peaceful, action-oriented protest that resulted in the New Haven No Kings rally.

Photo: Chris Randall

Over 20 community groups came to share their organizations’ mobilization efforts with sign-up opportunities and information. Much to our joy, several thousand people came to march together with their signs, songs, slogans, puppets, umbrellas and HUGE spirit. The wonderfully diverse community of New Haven made this happen!

Did we know what we were doing? Not exactly, but we had a goal in mind and found people who shared their expertise and talents to help make it happen. Did we make mistakes…certainly. Would we do it again? After a little R & R … maybe!

People never realize their power until they exercise it. You Can Too!!!

Contact Nan to get involved. Her email is greaterwestvilleindivisible@gmail.com.

No Kings Day 2! Demonstrate on Saturday, Oct. 18

www.nokings.org

[Demonstrations on Oct. 18 will take place in many towns across the country and the world. The Hartford demonstration at the Capitol is from noon-2 p.m. The New Haven demonstration will be on the New Haven Green from 3-5 p.m. NOW IS THE TIME!!! See www.nokings.org for all locations. And check the time before you go to ensure the time has not changed.]

In June, we did what many claimed was impossible: peacefully mobilized millions of people to take to the streets and declare with one voice: America Has No Kings. And it mattered. The world saw the power of the people. President Trump’s birthday parade was drowned out by protests in every state and across the globe. His attempt to turn June 14 into a coronation collapsed, and the story became the strength of a movement rising against his authoritarian power grabs.

Now, President Trump has doubled down. His administration is sending masked agents into our streets, terrorizing our communities. They are targeting immigrant families, profiling, arresting and detaining people without warrants. Threatening to overtake elections. Gutting healthcare, environmental protections, and education when families need them most. Rigging maps to silence voters. Ignoring mass shootings at our schools and in our communities. Driving up the cost of living while handing out massive giveaways to billionaire allies as families struggle.

The president thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don’t have kings and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty.

Our peaceful movement is only getting bigger and bigger. “NO KINGS” is more than just a slogan; it is the foundation our nation was built upon. Born in the streets, shouted by millions, carried on posters and chants, it echoes from city blocks to rural town squares, uniting people across this country to fight dictatorship together.

Because this country does not belong to kings, dictators, or tyrants. It belongs to We the People – the people who care, who show up, and the ones who fight for dignity, a life we can afford, and real opportunity. No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings.

 

Know Your Rights https://undocumented.media.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3141/2025/03/Know-Your-Rights_One-Pager_Bilingual-2.pdf

Resistance Toolkit Zines

by City of New Haven Peace Commission

The Peace Commission has created a new community resource https://heyzine.com/flip-book/19c5ceb599.html for activism in New Haven in the current political moment.

Be sure to check out our website peacecommission.org for our bilingual Resistance Toolkit Zines, created by Nelani Mejias for the Peace Commission.

[To read more about the Resistance Toolkit, please see bit.ly/3IcUglQ]

 

Know Your Rights https://undocumented.media.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3141/2025/03/Know-Your-Rights_One-Pager_Bilingual-2.pdf

Dozens Participate in Pedal for Palestine Bike Tour – from the Mill River to the Sound of the Sea

by Shelly Altman, Jewish Voice for Peace New Haven

On Sept. 21, dozens of New Haveners cycled and spoke to draw public attention to the catastrophic destruction of life and civilian infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank regions of Palestine. The cyclists navigated a 7-mile route through the streets of New Haven. Speakers at six stops along the way highlighted the effects on Palestinian civil society in the areas of education, water sovereignty, press freedom and safety, health care, food sovereignty, and access to the sea. At each of the stops, professionals spoke on the effects of apartheid and genocide in their areas of expertise.

The cycling event was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace New Haven.

In her remarks, Jewish Voice for Peace member Ellen Rubin said:

Gaza is now the global epicenter of child/family suffering. It has the highest number of orphans, amputees and trauma victims on Earth. Over 700 attacks on health facilities have left more than 96% of Gaza’s hospitals destroyed or damaged. Healthcare and aid workers have been targeted, killed, detained without charge, tortured and even murdered while in prisons.

Tagan Engel and Jamilah Rasheed are two longtime New Haven food and land justice activists who work every day to protect the fundamental rights of every single human being to have food, clean water, and self-determination. They together asked: Can you imagine if four times the population of New Haven were literally dying from starvation right now, and all the people in bordering towns had nothing to eat or drink for days on end — all while food and water could easily be brought in from Milford, Cheshire and Branford if the occupying government would allow it?

The Narrative Project founder and CEO Mercy Quaye spoke to the need for activists to continue speaking truth to counter the silence and misinformation that is so prevalent in American mainstream media in reporting about Palestine.

We call on our members of Congress to sign on to H.R.3565, known as the Stop Arming Israel bill. To date, the legislation has 49 co-sponsors, but none in Connecticut. All of our members must support this critical legislation.

For more information: newhaven@jewishvoiceforpeace.org.

Jewish Voice for Peace is a national grassroots organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for a just and lasting peace according to principles of human rights, equality, and international law for all the people of Israel and Palestine. 

Connecticut Rally: Rise Up for Gaza – International Day of Action

Saturday, Oct. 4, 1:30 p.m.
New Haven Green

This October marks two years of Israeli-led US- manufactured genocide on Gaza and its people. Despite the bombs, the starvation campaign, and the devastation of nearly 90% of the Strip, Palestinians have not abandoned their homes or their land and we must not abandon them now. Raise your voice and keep the pressure on our state officials! Follow on Instagram @ampalestinect for updates.

Hartford Workers Over Billionaires Labor Day

Monday, Sept. 1, 12–3 p.m.
Connecticut State Capitol
210 Capitol Ave
Hartford, CT 06106

The billionaires continue to wage a cruel war on working people, with their cronies in the administration, ICE and law enforcement backing up their attacks. This Labor Day we will continue to stand strong, fighting for public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, shared prosperity over corporate politics.

Working people built this nation and we know how to take care of each other. We won’t back down—we will never stop fighting for our families and the rights and freedoms that ensure access to opportunity and a better life for all Americans. The billionaire’s time is up.

On Sept. 1 we will continue the movement we launched together on May 1st, standing in solidarity with all our communities under attack and fighting for real wins for all our people.

In thousands of communities around the country we encourage you to take a stand with us on Labor Day. On the streets, outside the offices of the corporate criminals who are behind the attacks on our freedoms and at congressional offices. Together we will demand a world that works for all of us.

OUR DEMANDS TO BUILD THE SOCIETY WE ALL DESERVE:

  • Stop the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration.
  • Protect and defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people.
  • Fully funded schools, and healthcare and housing for all.
  • Stop the attacks on immigrants, Black, indigenous, trans people, and all our communities.
  • Invest in people not wars.

Please note: A core principle behind all our 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. Weapons of any kind, including those legally permitted, should not be brought to events.

 

Immigrant Advocates Demand Action from CT Lawmakers as ICE Announces Arrests from 4-Day Operation

by Daniela Doncel, Aug. 20, Connecticut Public Radio
[Excerpts from article]

Around 100 community members huddled under a roof of umbrellas chanting “ICE out of Connecticut now” as rain poured down on Danbury Superior Court.

Advocates with Greater Danbury Unites for Immigrants demanded action from state lawmakers after several Connecticut cities have seen a surge in the presence of federal immigration officers.

The rally took place less than a two-minute walk from the same location where dozens of ICE officers gathered and detained two individuals on the Danbury courthouse steps earlier this month.

In a statement released on Wednesday [Aug. 20], Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Boston confirmed that 65 people were apprehended by ICE in Connecticut over four days this month.

Family members of one of these taken individuals spoke at the rally. Edwin Andres Calva-Guaman was taken into ICE custody last week at the Danbury Superior Courthouse, according to his sister Monica Apolinario.

“[Calva-Guaman’s] lawyer told him to go to the Danbury Superior Courthouse because he supposedly had a court date. I showed up in court to ask why he had to attend, but in actuality, he didn’t have a court date. We don’t know why they summoned him, and we don’t know where they took him,” Apolinario said in Spanish.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal faced pushback when he spoke at the rally in Danbury on Wednesday.

After introducing him to the crowd, organizer and co-founder of Greater Danbury Unites for Immigrants Juan Fonseca Tapia spoke to Blumenthal directly.

“We know you condemned this fascist administration and the terror inflicted on our community,” Fonseca Tapia said. “We know that. But on behalf of my community, I am asking you, what are you going to do to keep our families safe?”

When Blumenthal responded by asking the crowd if they were ready to fight, several individuals in the crowd shouted back, “Are you?”

Blumenthal said he was ready.

In response to the uptick in ICE activity, Greater Danbury Unites for Immigrants has organized a petition with demands for state elected officials. According to the petition, the group is calling on Gov. Ned Lamont and the legislature to strengthen Connecticut’s TRUST Act, a law that limits how local law enforcement cooperates with federal immigration officials.

[The entire article is at https://tinyurl.com/mr2kutbp]

Born in an internment camp, blind CT man is determined to protest at 82 years old

By Jordan Nathaniel Fenster | Danbury News-Times

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

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. .

https://www.newstimes.com/connecticut/article/ct-japanese-internment-camp-trump-no-kings-20379100.php

Schools Protest at Capitol Ends with Arrests

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.

[To read the article in its entirety, please go to www.newhavenindependent.org/article/teacher_arrests]

June 8th – Rally to Defend Civil Liberties

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.

https://tinyurl.com/46yhbza4

No Kings! National Day of Defiance! June 14

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.

[From the website www.mobilize.us/nokings/c/no-kings/event/create. Also see www.nokings.org and www.fiftyfifty.one.]

Anti-Avelo ICE Deportation Flight Protests Spread from New Haven

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.]

Update on Medicare for All CT

[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

HUSKY 4 Immigrants https://www.husky4immigrants.org

CT Health Policy Project https://cthealthpolicy.org

Public Citizen https://www.citizen.org

Thanks, everyone, for all the time, attention, and ACTION over the years.

Medicare For All CT

1 2 3 … 22