Category: Activism

Resisting the War on Gaza: An Appeal from the New Haven Sunday Vigil

Joan Cavanagh, vigil participant

We are witnessing, in real-time, ongoing genocide against the people of Gaza. It could not occur without US military aid and financial support. We urgently appeal to you to join the New Haven Sunday Vigil for Peace and Justice as part of your other efforts to end this atrocity.

The vigil began in May of 1999 as a project of the Connecticut Peace Coalition/ New Haven in response to the US bombing of Kosovo. Similar to the postal service before privatization, defunding, and DeJoy, we’ve vigiled most Sundays since, in sun, rain, snow and sleet, in temperatures ranging from several degrees below zero to 95 degrees above. Our message is simple: Resist this Endless War. By this we mean, resist our permanent state of war and preparations for it, overseas and at home.

Participant numbers have fluctuated from a “high” of 15 to 20 during the initial post-911 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 war on Iraq to a “low” of three to four in recent years. Occasionally, we’ve been told by a dismissive passerby that the US is “at peace.” Not exactly. Consider our ongoing nuclear weapons buildup; our drone bombings against many countries of the world; our “covert” operations and global regime change maneuvers; and our funding of wars conducted by client states. Consider our government’s war on poor and vulnerable populations to benefit a smaller and smaller number of global ultra-rich. Remember that these are ongoing, bipartisan issues.

When our regular vigil participants dwindled to a new low at the end of last summer, we figured we’d had a good run and considered ending it. Then came the terrible October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, followed immediately by an orgy of collective punishment supported by US funds and materiel against civilians in Gaza. It has, as of this writing, taken the lives of over 25,000 people, an estimated two-thirds of whom are children.

We continue with more urgency than ever. We need your help. For more information about the content of the vigil and how to join, please call 203-668-9082 or contact joan.cavanagh@gmail.com or  monicaxavieramcg@gmail.com.

300+ Walk Out of Harvard-Yale Football Game to Demand Ceasefire in Gaza

by Yale Harvard for Palestine, Nov. 18, 2023

At least three arrests have been reported by witnesses in the stadium … multiple student activists holding posters were detained and escorted from the premises. As part of a disruptive action for the “Free Palestine” movement, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and demanding Yale and Harvard divest from weapons manufacturers arming the Israeli Defense Force, 100+ Yale and Harvard students and alumni engaged in a mass protest in the midst of the Yale-Harvard football game.

These demonstrators waved flags, held up banners, and led nonstop chanting for an estimated 1.5 hours before they called upon attendees at the game to “Walk out for Pales-tine.” An estimated 300+ joined the demonstrators in walking out of the game in protest, before gathering outside the gate and participating in further chants calling to attendees as they exited the game. A 50-minute march followed with this crowd of 300+ supporters, leading all the way from the Yale Bowl down to the heart of Yale’s campus.

An unprecedented volume of police presence was ordered for this game, anticipating such disruptive action. Yale Police, Harvard Police, Yale Security, New Haven Police Department, State Troopers, and a private security force hired by Yale were all assigned target locations within the stadium. Students reported racial profiling, as a surplus of officers … came to swarm and stand with predominantly Black and brown presenting students, seemingly anticipating disruptive action based on these radicalized identities. At the start of the game, and at regular intervals throughout, the game announcer broadcasted a message, and displayed it on the scoreboard, warning students (paraphrased) not to interfere with the game or to risk removal and immediate arrest. Such a message has never been broadcast in the documented history of the Harvard-Yale Game, the most famous and highly anticipated sports contest of the year for both universities. Students raised concerns of targeted censorship from universities and rising suppression of freedom of speech for student activists for Palestine across the nation. Multiple student demonstrators reported physical and verbal assault from attendees in the stands, “mostly older alumni,” one student reported, as they exited the premises. Demonstrators did not engage.

This action was not affiliated with any registered undergraduate student groups at either university. For updates and social media coverage, see @yaleharvardforpalestine on Instagram. CONTACT: Yale and Harvard Students and Alumni, email: yaleharvardforpalestine@proton.me.

Phone:
202-905-2577 – Yale Alum
508-603-8159 – Yale Student
617-902-0499 – Harvard Student
908-864-7971 – Harvard Med Student]

Cop City Protest Tear-Gassed as Activists Face ‘Unprecedented’ RICO and Domestic Terrorism Charges

Excerpts from Democracy Now!, Nov. 17, 2023

AMY GOODMAN: Protesters in Atlanta held a week of action to stop the construction of the massive $90 million police training complex known as “Cop City” in the Weelaunee Forest. …

On Monday, police attacked peaceful protesters with tear gas, pepper balls, flashbang grenades as over 400 marched toward the sacred Weelaunee Forest, the proposed site for Cop City. Participants included the parents of the environmental defender Manuel Esteban Terán, known as Tortuguita, who was fatally shot by Georgia state troopers during a raid on the Stop Cop City protest encampment in
January.

This comes as activists have been organizing for a citywide referendum on the project which officials have tied up in court. Meanwhile, 61 people facing RICO, or racketeering, and domestic terrorism charges appeared in court this month as the state tries to characterize them as militant anarchists.
For more, we’re joined by two guests. Sharif Abdel Koud-dous, correspondent for this Al Jazeera Fault Lines report. And Kamau Franklin is joining us, founder of the organization Community Movement Builders, who’s been part of the now two-year movement to stop Cop City…. Kamau, for the latest news of this week, over 60 people in court, many of them charged with domestic terrorism. Can you talk about the significance … and how it affects their whole lives?

KAMAU FRANKLIN: …This issue goes to the heart of the militarization of the police and the criminalization of movements. What we’re witnessing in Atlanta is a rebirth of the COINTELPRO movement to stamp out organizers and activists, to scare people into not speaking up and participating in movements. You have people who came to Atlanta who previously were not involved in any Cop City activity, but who happened to get rounded up by police. And the police looked at IDs. And if they had Georgia IDs, they let them go. If they had out-of-state IDs, they arrested them and charged them with domestic terrorism and later added on the charge of RICO.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the range of opposition? … It’s people who are deeply concerned about police brutality. It’s also religious leaders, Indigenous leaders. Talk about the area where it’s being built.

KAMAU FRANKLIN: Yeah, one of the things about this movement has been, since the very beginning, it’s been vast in its outreach, everything from community organizers like myself, environmentalists, religious leaders, voting rights activists, yes, including anarchists, other people who are community members, who have been engaged in this because they see two things happening.

One … is the continued overpolicing of Black and Brown communities that will be happening if Cop City is built. Two is the attack against movements, which is the very reason why this vast militarized facility is even being proposed….

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: …Well, I think what’s important to note about the movement to stop Cop City and defend the Atlanta forest is its resilience. You know, it’s brought together … a multifaceted resistance movement against this massive planned police training center. And the movement’s lasted well over two years now. It’s still going, despite this massive amount of state repression against it….

There’s a crackdown on even lawful political activities. And lawyers say this is unprecedented, that it’s basically criminalizing political association. The indictment, where 61 people are charged in this wide-ranging racketeering case, the ACLU called the theory in the indictment shocking and
unprecedented. And it basically relies on people’s beliefs and community organizing as the basis for the sweeping criminal liability. And just finally, as we’re talking internationally, too, you know, there’s protests by the Stop Cop City movement in support of Palestine, as well, and against what’s called the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, or GILEE, where law enforcement officers from Atlanta, from across the state and the U.S. travel to Israel to receive training from Israeli police forces. And, you know, Israel has long taken these strategies and techniques that are honed on the Palestinian body and then exported them abroad. And so we see these ties … between Israel and police forces in Atlanta.

[The entire report can be viewed at democracynow.org/2023/11/17/cop_city_week_of_action]

National Protest in Atlanta to Block Cop City

Melinda Tuhus, Stop Cop City Connecticut

Block Cop City will take place in Atlanta on Nov. 13, when hundreds of people from the city and beyond will attempt to peacefully occupy the Atlanta (Weelaunee) Forest. It’s the site of the proposed Atlanta police training facility known to its opponents as Cop City.

The forest was occupied for two years in an effort to stop the project, which has the support of the City Council and the Mayor, all Democrats. A forest defender, Manuel Este-ban Paez (“Tortuguita”), was killed by police back in January; in March, 41 people at a music festival in the forest were arrested with no proof of wrongdoing and charged with domestic terrorism, a felony carrying decades in prison upon conviction; in September those 41 and 20 more were charged under RICO (the Georgia organized crime law).

An effort to put the issue on the ballot garnered 116,000 signatures over the summer, twice the number needed, but city officials refused to verify them so the earliest it can be on the ballot is next March, when construction will be well underway.

Some CT residents are heading down for the Days of Action Nov. 10–13, including two days of non-violent direct action and de-escalation training culminating in the occupation. Others will be providing support like cooking and child care. If you are interested in going or have questions, text or call Melinda Tuhus at 203-623-2186. If you would like to take action locally (being determined, but all legal actions like a rally, vigil, etc.), email stopcopcityct@gmail.com.

‘Anatomy of a Crime’

Melinda Tuhus, Sept. 11, 2023 blog

We four grannies deployed before dawn on a road near the Mountain Valley pipeline right-of-way across the Green-brier River, each with one foot inside a concrete barrel, sitting in our famous rocking chairs, holding a banner that said Rocking Chair Rebellion. Ahead of us was another rocker holding a sign in bold red letters, STOP ELDERS AHEAD, so cars coming our way would have plenty of notice to stop. Another two women locked down to the drill that was preparing to bore under the Greenbrier – a beautiful river I’d walked along last year as part of the Walk for Appalachia’s Future that, at 162 miles, is the longest undammed river in the eastern U.S….

We stopped work for a total of five hours, and were charged with trespassing, obstructing an officer, and violating West Virginia’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, which had just gone into effect. All misdemeanors, although the cops said we’d be charged with domestic terrorism felonies if we didn’t leave, and that was a possibility. These new laws in many states around the country are meant to intimidate folks from taking action to protect the real critical infrastructure – the pure, delicious drinking water, clean air and beautiful mountains. The MVP is being built across the steepest terrain in the country, threatening landslides. Thanks to the blog Heated, I learned that a peer-reviewed study in 2021 found that the MVP has the highest landslide risk out of all the long-distance gas pipelines in the U.S. ​
And then there is the karst, which makes the river one of the worst possible places to drill. …This green “moonscape” of collapsed craters is a unique problem for development as … it is impossible to tell how large a cave system is by looking at the surface, and developers often build their structures too close to the open spaces beneath the ground.

There’s also a big problem with the coating on the pipes having deteriorated after they sat in the sun for five or six years. Best practice is to recoat them at the factory, but the company is just burying some of them without recoating at all, increasing the risk of ruptures and explosions.

So, building the pipeline is the real crime, and could only finally go forward when the US Congress, at Sen. Joe Manchin’s bidding (with full backing from Sen. Chuck Schumer and President Biden), took the matter out of the hands of the Fourth Circuit appeals court (which had consistently ruled against the MVP, for its many violations). Then the US Supreme Court approved all the remaining permits…

What is the role of nonviolent direct action (NVDA) in campaigns to stop the fossil infrastructure that’s killing the planet and ruining the lives and livelihoods of local residents? … One local woman told me we have to keep disrupting because we can’t just let it be built without doing everything in our power, nonviolently, to stop it. … Sitting on the wide porch, looking out over the beautiful mountains, the fog and the nighttime stars, I felt very much a part of a wonderful community where people love and support each other. Also, I haven’t laughed so much maybe ever. It gives us the strength to go on.

Read the article in its entirety: www.melindatuhus.net/blog.

Preserving Kensington Playground: Why it Matters

Jane Comins, Friends of Kensington Playground

Kensington Playground will continue to be a playground! Thanks to everyone who supported this effort. Our focus now shifts to making it a great space for the children of Dwight. This summer we planted shrubs and perennials in the park with our URI [Urban Resources Initiative] intern. We are surveying community members to set the agenda for major improvements to the playground. We continue to host family-friendly events in the park, such as our upcoming Pumpkin Festival on October 28. We will also continue our campaign to make sure the City has at least one fully equipped public playground in every neighborhood, as more than half of New Haven neighborhoods are missing equipment.

Please join Friends of Kensington Playground on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023, from 6-8 p.m., at St. Paul’s UAME Church’s Fellowship Hall, 150 Dwight Street, for a conversation about “Preserving Kensington Playground: Why It Matters.” Speakers for the event include Attorney Keith Ainsworth, Dr. Robert Dubrow of the Yale School of Public Health, and Walker Holmes of The Trust for Public Land. Look for details of our event in the calendar.

If you can, please help us retire our debt for the cost of the lawsuit. You can learn more about our efforts here:  https://www.kensingtonplayground.org.

The Freedom to Read, Speak and Dissent Is Essential to Our Democracy. Take action 4-5:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29

If you’re concerned about censorship and the curtailment of the free flow of ideas in the United States, please join this action:

Friday Sept. 29, 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Yale’s Sterling Library, The New Haven Free Public Library and Yale’s Beinecke Plaza

Current threats to libraries and librarians are a sign of democracy in peril. This project is a participatory expression of the Freedom to Read statement originally written by and for librarians and publishers in 1953 and updated in 2023. This project is a rally presenting selected fragments from this timely manifesto.

The event will begin in the vicinity of Yale’s main Sterling Memorial Library, continue to the New Haven Free Public Library and culminate at the Beinecke Library, to coincide with a reception for the exhibition Art, Protest, and the Archives, a collection of artifacts documenting myriad voices of dissent throughout the past century.

4 p.m. Participants congregate at the Women’s Table fountain near the entrance to Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library (120 High St.), pick up signs, each containing a word from selected fragments of the Freedom to Read statement. These words combine to make short statements about censorship, free expression and Democracy.

Participants display their signs in a march — led by local drummers — from Sterling Library to the New Haven Free Public Library (133 Elm Street) and finally to Beinecke Plaza (119 Wall Street).

At the Public Library and then at Beinecke Plaza, participants compose their choice of phrases using the texts provided.

5 p.m. With a drum roll, the participants use supplied prompts to compose the actual phrases from the Freedom to Read statement. The event ends with participants silently encircling Beinecke Library, then placing the signs as readable texts against the Noguchi wall.

Over the next few days, the public can re-order and alter the placards in whatever manner they choose, thereby creating new messages from new voices; an exercise in free speech.

5:30 p.m. Event ends; Beinecke reception continues until 7 p.m.

Conceived by Class Action Collective

Pamela Hovland pamela@pamelahovlanddesign.com
David Comberg dpcomberg@gmail.com
Tom Starr t.starr@neu.edu
Jackie Thaw thaw@thawstudio.com

Park Saved; New Housing Plan Dropped

Thomas Breen, NH Independent, June 15, 2023

A Boston-based affordable housing developer (TCB) has dropped its plans to buy the Kensington Street public park between Chapel Street and Edgewood Avenue in the Dwight neighborhood to construct 15 new apartments in its stead — prompting the Elicker administration to move to end a related years-long lawsuit on the grounds that the contested public greenspace will remain public and green.

On Thursday afternoon, city spokesperson Lenny Speiller announced via an email press release that The Community Builders (TCB) no longer plans to build 15 new income-restricted apartments atop the Kensington Playground site.

Kishaun Jenkins celebrating “the coolest spot to be.” (Thomas Breen photo)

The upshot: After nearly three years of political and legal debates on the matter, Kensington Playground will remain a public park. TCB will not be building any new apartments atop the site. And the city will not be selling the park to any other developer.

Patricia Wallace, a long-time Dwight neighbor and the lead plaintiff in the state lawsuit, welcomed the news of TCB dropping its park-to-housing development plans and of the city moving to end the court case.”Housing can be built on other City-owned land in neighborhoods with ample green space.”

Wallace’s group, https://www.kensingtonplayground.org, is still raising money to cover the legal costs of pursuing the lawsuit, and also plans to fundraise for a new playscape to be built at the park.

Local attorney Keith Ainsworth, who has represented the friends group in its years-long legal challenge to the city’s sale of the park to TCB, also heralded this latest turn in the case as ending up with the right result.

Read the article in its entirety: https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/park_saved_new_housing_plan_dropped

Director of Christian Community Action Praises work-ready program STRIVE

Excerpts from Rev. Grubb’s speech at recent STRIVE (a work-ready program) Graduation, of which three CCA residents took part.

I’m here because I believe in the opportunity that all of us have to grow, to develop, to find purpose, to try new things, to be excited about life and to think about that better future. Each and every day, all of us make choices—large ones and small ones. Small ones like “What am I going to have for breakfast?” Large ones, “Ok. I’m going someplace special today so I need to dress up.” Significant choices and even insignificant choices. Life-changing and life-sustain-ing. Sometimes, those choices are temporary—like a living situation—and sometimes they are permanent. Sometimes, the choices are “the best under the circumstances.” Sometimes positive. And sometimes, not so positive. We even make choices that are based on selfishness. And sometimes, particularly parents, make choices that are selfless, for the betterment of their children, their growth and development, opportunities and their best future.

left to right: Sandra Plessinger, Dir. of Workforce Development CRI; Dawn Staton, STRIVE Trainer CRI; Tirra Jones, Graduate; Wanda Lary, Sr. VP of Workforce Development CRI; Rev. Bonita Grubbs

Aspirations—all of us have them. But unless they move to action, they are simply things in the cloud. Our choices are [not only] to live…but to be alive. You know what it means to feel alive—you’ve got purpose and meaning…To work and to prepare for work—in many ways that is what the STRIVE Program has attempted to do and will continue to do.

To be a person of hope even in the midst of challenges. Because all of us have our ups and downs in life. But, to hold on to that hope is critical to taking any future step, whatever that step may be, especially one that is in a positive direction. To play for fun…but also, to play to win—that takes determination. To work to win. That requires aspiration—you gotta want it. If there’s something right in front of you that you really want and it’s yours to possess, the only required [thing] is the action to receive that which is in front of you.

And all of the graduates today and graduates of STRIVE in the past—who have been able to make it through to the end—had a plan, had a purpose, had a desire, and yes, were encouraged to take the step, knowing full well that you are not walking this road alone. The evidence for me is here today.

Next Deadline for Newsletter Articles: Friday, August 18, 2023

Please submit copy to PAR’s e-mail address: parnewhaven@hotmail.com

No e-mail? Call Paula at (203) 562-2798 to find out how to submit your article. There is a 350 word limit.
Next Planning Meeting date is Tues., Aug. 1 at 2 p.m….all welcome…call (203) 562-2798 for location.
Subscription: $13 for 10 issues, check payable to PAR, P.O. Box 995, New Haven, CT 06504.

Local Bus Riders Express Frustration with Return of Bus Fares

by Megan Vaz and Yash Roy, Yale Daily News, April 6, 2023

Connecticut buses bore a new message for riders this weekend: “Fares restart April 1.” After almost one year of free public buses across the state due to a surge in oil prices and record-high costs of living, travelers across the state had to resume paying fares for buses on Saturday. Connecticut legislation to extend free public bus fares stalled as New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar, who co-chairs the state legislature’s transportation committee, argued the state did not have enough funding to pay for the program.

Proponents of extending the state’s free public bus system have argued that the program helped alleviate cost-of-living worries as Connecticut residents have faced inflation of six to eight percent, an average rent increase of roughly 20 percent and stagnating wages. Moreover, local bus riders have expressed frustration over the state’s decision to deprioritize accessibility while managing one of its largest budget reserves in state history.

“Statistically, this also translates to disproportionately punishing poor people, women, young people, seniors, and Black and brown people,” said local bus rider Stasia Brew-Kaczynski. “We need authority figures to stop thinking with car-brains and start looking for every opportunity to reward and incentivize people moving without private cars and trucks.”

Now that the fare-free program has expired, most travelers must pay $6.40 for an All-day 2 Zones pass, with prices increasing for each additional zone. Riders may also purchase 31-day passes, which range from $108.80 to $204 based on the traveling zone range…

According to the nonprofit Datahaven’s 2023 Community Wellbeing Index for the greater New Haven area, about 34 percent of local adults making under $30,000 per year experience “transportation insecurity” without reliable access to a vehicle. Black and Latino households are far more likely to lack access to a personal vehicle, especially in those without any employed adults.

Some bus riders told the News that they are experiencing homelessness and heavily relied on the fare-free program for access to food, job opportunities and medical appointments.

King Latif Manns, an unhoused person who rode the bus regularly before fares were announced, told the News that he thinks fares will hurt those of lower socioeconomic classes most. Latif Manns has stopped riding the bus since the change.

“I feel they should think about how many people they were helping and how many people suffer at the fact that the buses started faring people,” Latif Manns said. “It’s tax money, but also, we, the people, are the taxpayers.”

[Article can be read in its entirety at  yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/04/06/local-bus-riders-express-frustration-with-return-of-bus-fares/]

Tax Day Lesson Takes On Austerity

by Laura Glesby, New Haven Independent, April 18, 2023

Connecticut is the wealthiest state in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, Wilbur Cross junior Dave John Cruz-Bustamante told a crowd of educators gathered across the street from their school. “But you wouldn’t know that from looking at our desks.”

On Tax Day Tuesday afternoon, Cruz-Bustamante joined 50 educators and allies at a rally to call on the state to tax the rich — and pour more funding into public education. The rally featured unions representing New Haven teachers (New Haven Federation of Teachers, or NHFT), paraprofessional educators (AFSCME Local 3429), and community and state college professors (AFT Local 1942 and SEIU Local 1973) — all of whom called for the state to address aging facilities, low wages, and rising tuition across public education institutions in the state.

Ahead of the deadline to file taxes, ​“I scraped together my pennies to pay what I owed,” said Eric Maroney, a Gateway Community College English professor and union leader, as attendees began to gather. ​“I don’t mind paying my share, but I’d like it go to toward helping people in my community.”…
NHFT President Leslie Blatteau and 4C’s faculty union President Seth Freeman offered a Tax Day ​“lesson” to rally supporters.

They started with two vocabulary words: ​“austerity,” or severe restraint in government spending, and ​“equity,” or fair and just opportunities. After Blatteau and Freeman defined the terms, the speakers who followed illustrated their own experiences of what austerity looks like.

For Cruz-Bustamante, an elected student representative on the Board of Education, ​“austerity” means leaky roofs and broken bathroom locks in the Wilbur Cross building.

For Wilbur Cross teacher and counselor Mia Comulada, it means overcrowded classrooms and growing teacher burnout.

For paras [paraprofessional educators] union President Hyclis Williams, austerity means ​“low-wage exploitation” of her colleagues, many of whom live below the federal poverty line….

At Wilbur Cross, Comulada said, an influx of immigrants from Central America and the Middle East has led to more English language learners and more students recovering from stress and trauma.

Meanwhile, at Southern, Bonjo described, more than half of students are people of color, many are parents, and a large number are the first in their families to attend college. And at Gateway, ​“many of our students work two, three jobs,” said Maroney….

In a state as wealthy as Connecticut, Cruz-Bustamante said, ​“We deserve schools that look like palaces.”

[Article can be read in its entirety at https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/in_tax_day_lesson_educators_call_for_funding]

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