Category: Activism

Gathering Mourns Leelah Alcorn’s Suicide

by Maya Leonardo, Justice for Jane

New Haven activists joined thousands of others across the country to mourn Leelah Alcorn on January 10. In the wake of the transgender 17-year-old’s suicide, activists have mobilized across the country to stand for trans rights and an end to so-called ‘conversion therapy.’ While trans suicides are not uncommon, the visibility of Leelah’s was widespread, including a suicide note widely reposted.
New Haven has become a hotbed of trans activism, with the Justice for Jane campaign bringing together activists from all over Southern Connecticut. Jane is a 17-year-old trans girl being held in DCF custody at a men’s facility in Middletown. Just like Leelah was, she is being denied the right to express her gender.

Attendees at the vigil and rally made promises to Leelah to help fix society. One of the most poignant came from IV, a Justice for Jane organizer.

“I want to make a promise that I will keep fighting for our community, no matter how hard the struggle gets. Jane is 17 just like you, Leelah. I promise to fight to make sure she lives the life you deserved, and to fight for all young people who are being abused like you and Jane. We will keep the struggle alive for you, and we will tear down the system that took your life, keeps our community down and discourages us from living.”

Kathy Kelly in Jail for Protest against Drones

PeaceAction.org

On Friday, January 23, Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare, began her three-month jail sentence in federal prison for a protest against drones at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. The arrest followed an attempt by herself and Georgia Walker to deliver a loaf of bread and a letter to the commander of Whiteman Air Force base, asking him to stop his troops from piloting lethal drone flights over Afghanistan from within the base.

From 1996-2003, Voices activists formed 70 delegations that openly defied economic sanctions by bringing medicines to children and families in Iraq. Kathy and her companions lived in Baghdad throughout the 2003 “Shock and Awe” bombing. They have also lived alongside people during warfare in Gaza, Lebanon, Bosnia and Nicaragua.

This will be her fourth time in a federal prison. Kelly has been involved in numerous nonviolent campaigns to end war, some of which have involved lengthy imprisonment.

If you would like to reach out to Kathy in the next 3 months I’m sure she would welcome the contact. If you feel inclined to send something, she loves novels, especially novels written by people from other countries.

Kathy Kelly 04971-045
FMC LEXINGTON, SATELLITE CAMP, P.O. BOX 14525
LEXINGTON, KY  40512

Movement Against Police Brutality Builds in New Haven

Hundreds rally at the Amistad statue in New Haven as Emma Jones tells us, "you are perfectly capable of policing yourselves." (contributed photo)

Hundreds rally at the Amistad statue in New Haven as Emma Jones tells us, “you are perfectly capable of policing yourselves.” (contributed photo)

by Chis Garaffa, ANSWER CT (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism)

New Haven students and community members are building a renewed movement against police brutality and terror. In response to the non-indictments of the officers who killed Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO and Eric Garner in Staten Island, NY, hundreds of people have demonstrated in the city to loudly proclaim that they have had enough of police terror and an injustice system that lets killer cops walk free.

On Dec. 5, despite rain, 400 took over the streets of downtown. On Chapel Street a 7-minute moment of silence was held for Eric Garner, the amount of time he was left handcuffed and dead on the sidewalk. The march also shut down the intersection of Church and Chapel for nearly 30 minutes, demonstrating that there cannot be business as usual while police get away with these killings.

Yale students also held a die-in on Dec. 5, where hundreds lay down on the sidewalk.

The movement against police brutality requires being on the street and organizing in our communities. Eighty people attended a community meeting on Dec. 14 to strategize how to build the fight-back movement. At the meeting, called by ANSWER, People Against Police Brutality, MALIK, Black Student Alliance at Yale (BSAY) and more, tactics on how to fight the NHPD’s “surge” were discussed. The surge is New Haven’s version of “stop and frisk,” targeting anyone deemed undesirable by the police for random searches and questioning. The meeting also addressed legislative and community efforts needed to win justice.

A new movement is being formed across the country and New Haven will be an important center of organizing and building solidarity against police brutality!

New Haven’s Mark Colville Sentenced for Protesting at Drone Base Near Syracuse, NY | Democracy Now!

coville-goodmanA longtime peace activist was sentenced today to one year conditional discharge for demonstrating outside the gates of New York’s Hancock Field Air National Guard Base, which is used to remotely pilot U.S. drone attacks. Mark Colville faced up to two years in jail stemming from his arrest last December. More than 100 people have been arrested over the past five years as part of nonviolent campaign organized by the Upstate Drone Coalition. Hours before he learns his fate, Colville joins us to discuss his activism and why he opposes the U.S. drone war.

via Peace Activist Sentenced for Protesting at Drone Base Near Syracuse, NY | Democracy Now!.

Dec. 3 Sentencing of Mark Colville for Protesting Drone Warfare

by Friends of the Amistad Catholic Worker

On Sept. 18, 2014, Mark Colville, of Amistad Catholic Worker in New Haven, was convicted on five criminal charges for walking peacefully to the front gate of the 174th Attack Wing at Hancock Airfield in Syracuse, N.Y., along with Yale Divinity School students Creighton Chandler and Greg Williams, to deliver a People’s Order of Protection for the Children of Afghanistan.

Mark and his family and community are preparing for his sentencing on Dec. 3 in Syracuse, in a court that has gone to extreme lengths to justify the U.S. government’s extrajudicial killing and crimes against humanity perpetrated through weaponized drone strikes.

Before the trial, Judge Robert Jokl threatened to give Mark the maximum penalty allowable, which could amount to more than two years in prison.

Note: As you who have supported us in the past know, this situation has placed a stress on the life of the Amistad Catholic Worker, and with Mark away it will continue to increase. We need people to think of ways to help us, both financially and by lending a hand to our work of hospitality. Please put some prayerful consideration into this, and join us if you can! For more information, call Frances Goekler-Morneau: (203) 676-2066; (203) 562-6165.

This article from Friends of the Amistad Catholic Worker first appeared in PAR-NewHaven.org.

Rising Tide Member Found Not Guilty for May 27 Vermont Gas Protest

by Sara Sullivan, Rising Tide Vermont, Nov. 20

The trial of Henry Harris, charged with trespassing at Vermont Gas Systems’ (VGS) headquarters in South Burlington on May 27, ended today with a not guilty verdict. Harris and other members of Rising Tide Vermont blockaded the main entrance of VGS and dropped a massive banner from the roof, demanding the company immediately cancel its plans to build the fracked gas pipeline.

Harris, a volunteer organizer with Rising Tide Vermont, said, “Today, the court ruled in my favor because the jury recognized Vermont Gas and the state of Vermont had no basis in their charges against me. The state’s prosecutor, with pressure from VGS and the Shumlin administration, was attempting to stifle future protests against the fracked gas pipeline and Shumlin’s hypocritical climate and energy policies.”

Since the May 27 protest, hundreds of Vermonters have taken part in rallies, blockades, and an occupation of the Governor’s office to demand an end to the pipeline project. The 64 activists who were arrested at the occupation on Oct. 27 are also facing charges of trespass. “We asked the Governor to revoke his support of the fracked gas pipeline,” said Stuart Blood, 63, an organizer with Keystone XL Resistance from Thetford Center, “and to recognize the need to ban all new fossil fuel infrastructure, because new fossil fuels move us in the wrong direction.”

Read the article at: http://vtdigger.org/2014/11/20/rising-tide-member-found-guilty-may-27-vermont-gas-protest.

Israeli Journalist in New Haven, Wed., Oct. 29

by Stanley Heller, MECC

Ofra Yeshua-LythOfra Yeshua-Lyth is a veteran journalist and author. She was a correspondent for Israel’s second largest news-paper Maariv in Germany and in the US. She’s a member of the Committee for One Secular Democratic State in Palestine-Israel. Her book The Case for a Secular New Jeruslaem is subtitled: “A Memoir.” Her grandmothers came to Palestine in the early days of Zionist settlement and her book is rich in personal stories.

An article about her on Mondoweiss is available at mondoweiss.net/2014/10/ofra-yeshua-israeli
Come meet her in New Haven Wednesday, October 29, at 7 p.m. in the NH Public Library, 133 Elm St.

Sponsored by the Middle East Crisis Committee

“My Name is Rachel Corrie” Nov. 1, New Haven

by Shelly Altman, Jewish Voice for Peace

On Nov. 1, 8 p.m. at Southern Connecticut State University, Charles Garner Auditorium, Engleman Hall (C112), join us for the one-night only performance of “My Name is Rachel Corrie,” a one-woman play about the American peace activist Rachel Corrie who was killed in Gaza in 2003 at the height of the Second Intifada while working with the International Solidarity Movement to prevent home demolitions. The play was a hit in London and New York. It is based entirely on Rachel’s own diary entries and emails from her mid-adolescence through her coming of age, to her untimely death.

Read more

Help Us Close the Last Coal Burning Plant in the State‏

by Stanley Heller, Bridgeport Act on Climate

On Monday, Oct. 6 bring signs to our press conference in Bridgeport City Hall just before a vote by the City Council on a resolution calling for the closing of the coal burning power plant in Bridgeport. The plant is a double menace. It excretes mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and microscopic toxic particulate matter into the local community of the South End, which is mostly low income and minority. Several years ago the NAACP reported that the plant was the tenth worst in the U.S. in terms of climate justice.

It also endangers the whole world by pouring 146,000 tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year. We’re on a path to climate catastrophe if we don’t stop those gases from warming the world much more than it already has. Read more

New Haven Citizens Protest Drone Warfares

Amistad Catholic Worker, upstatedroneaction.org

Syracuse, NY — Carrying flowers and documents to Hancock drone base can result in severe consequences. Drone resister, Mark Colville, of the Amistad Catholic Worker in New Haven, Conn., was found guilty, after a two day trial and 50 minutes of deliberation by a De Witt Town Court jury.

On Dec. 9, 2013, Colville and two Yale Divinity students brought a People’s Order of Protection to the front gate of the base to prevent further victims of drone attacks perpetrated from inside Hancock Airbase. This action was in response to a request on Nov. 25, 2013, by Raz Mohammad, an Afghan, whose brother-in law was killed by a U.S. drone strike. Gate personnel rejected the petition.

Colville, who’s not an attorney, chose to represent himself. Read more

People’s Climate March demonstrates a ‘more radical climate justice movement’

Dan Fischer, Capitalism vs Climate

In the weekend before the UN’s climate change summit in New York, some 400,000 people flooded the city for the Sept 21st People’s Climate March. It was the largest environmental march in history. Yes, the Big Green nonprofits made sure the official demands were toothless and the corporate media heaped unnecessary praise on the participating senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Bernie Sanders, champions of fracking and biomass respectively. On the ground, however, things were more exciting. The huge Palestine solidarity contingent led chants like “Apartheid, can’t greenwash that!” Wobblies, Earth Firsters and Rising Tiders injected their messages. Members of many communities brought banners from the frontlines against fracking, mega-dams, and incineration. Ours said, “Smash cap-and-trade,” referring to the 1%’s attempt to auction off the sky and maintain business as usual. Read more

Joyous Giant Climate March Shows How To Win

by Harvey Wasserman, The Rag Blog, September 22, 2014

NEW YORK — The massive People’s Climate March, the most hopeful, diverse, photogenic, energizing, and often hilarious march I’ve joined in 52 years of activism — and one of the biggest, at 400,000 strong — has delivered a simple message: we can and will rid the planet of fossil fuels and nuclear power, we will do it at the grassroots, it will be demanding and difficult to say the least, but it will also have its moments of great fun. With our lives and planet on the line, our species has responded.

Ostensibly, this march was in part meant to influence policy makers. That just goes with the territory. But in fact what it showed was an amazingly broad-based, diverse, savvy, imaginative, and very often off-beat movement with a deep devotion to persistence and cause and a great flair for fun.

The magic of today’s New York minute was its upbeat diversity, sheer brilliance and relentless charm. A cross between a political rally and a month at Mardi Gras. There were floats, synchronized dances, outrageous slogans, chants, songs, costumes, marching bands, hugs, parents with their kids and one very sweaty guy in a gorilla suit. Above all, there was joy…which means optimism…which means we believe we can win…which is the best indicator we will. Read more

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