Category: Nonviolence

Money Talks, and So Does Solidarity!

by Melinda Tuhus, New Haven Stands with Standing Rock

[As this issue of the PAR newsletter went to press, we received notice about the following event. We are printing it so people can be aware of the various local banks that are funding fossil fuel projects in the U.S. and other countries. For more information about this rally and future plans for New Haven Stands with Standing Rock, please e-mail [email protected].]

Rally Wednesday, Oct. 25, 4:30-5:30 p.m., beginning on the New Haven Green, corner of College and Chapel streets. Then walk 3 blocks to visit 3 banks. The reason is that next week, 92 of the world’s largest banks are meeting in São Paulo, Brazil, to discuss environmental and social risk management policies regarding the climate and indigenous people’s rights to “free, prior and informed consent.”

Mazaska Talks (“Money Talks” in Lakota) is calling for global actions on October 23-25 focusing on banks that are funding fossil fuel projects that are endangering indigenous lands, water and cultures, and our global climate. Indigenous groups and the Fossil Free divestment movement started by 350.org have led individuals, organizations and local governments to withdraw billions of dollars from these banks. In the most recent success, in early October, BNP Paribas — Europe’s second largest bank — announced it is cutting funding to tar sands, all tar sands pipelines, fracking, LNG (liquefied natural gas), and Arctic oil projects. This kind of pressure works.

Join New Haven Stands with Standing Rock (NHSwSR) as we focus on banks in our community that are making these destructive investments. We will meet on the Green at the corner of College and Chapel streets, then pay a visit to TD Bank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank, where we will highlight our campaign asking the city to move its $3 million a day operating budget out of Wells Fargo to a bank that prioritizes investments in our community. Wells Fargo just announced a drastic 18 percent drop in its third quarter earnings related to penalties it’s had to pay for its many unethical practices, putting taxpayers’ money even more in jeopardy.

Questions? Email us at [email protected].

Mary Johnson, March 29, 1922-Aug. 13, 2017

It is with great sadness that the Progressive Action Roundtable Planning Committee informs our readers that Mary Johnson, a founding member of PAR and leader, strategist and active participant in most of PAR’s committees, has passed on.

We dedicate this issue of our newsletter to Mary. Without her guidance, ideas for informing the public and each other of rallies and events, optimism in the struggle for justice and her persistence in fighting for people’s rights throughout the years, there may not have even been a Progressive Action Roundtable. We all owe so much to her.

Frank Panzarella, “Mary was the den mother for most of the New Haven activist community.”

Mary was directly active in many of the organizations that are PAR-affiliated. She was also active in most of New Haven’s progressive organizations. She most likely was a founding member of many.
She was a great political and personal influence on many. PAR encourages our readers to send in their reminiscences of her. In the words of Frank Panzarella, “Mary was the den mother for most of the New Haven activist community.”

A memorial is being planned for her with details upcoming.

Celebrate May Day May 1 with International Workers’ Day Rally and General Strike

Call for General Strike on May 1!

For full video coverage of the May Day festivities, visit http://www.thestruggle.org/Mayday%202017%20in%20New%20Haven.htm.

The rally begins with speakers and performers on the New Haven Green from noon to 5 p.m. on Monday, May 1, and will be followed by a Solidarity March starting at 5 p.m.

New Haven joins a call for a nationwide strike to demonstrate our economic power by not going to work, not going to school and stopping business as usual. We aim to highlight the economic power of workers: immigrants, women, Muslims, LGBTQ folks, Native Americans and African Americans and every other marginalized group that is currently under attack by the Trump administration.

We are asking you to join us and show solidarity: close your business on May 1; don’t go to work; don’t go to school.

Join the rally on the New Haven Green from 12 to 5 p.m. Speakers, live music, children’s activities, and a May pole! Join local justice, peace, equality, and labor groups as well as social service organizations, educators, students, healthcare workers, artists and ALL people on the Green.

Join the international workers’ march from the Green through Fair Haven at 5 p.m.

Funded in part by a grant from RESIST, Somerville, MA; web: http://resist.org; phone: (617) 623-5110.

March Events During the 64 Days of Nonviolence

The 64 Days officially begins each year on Jan. 30, the day Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, and ends on April 4, the day we commemorate Dr. King. All events are on the campus of Southern CT State University unless otherwise noted. Women’s Studies Program, SCSU, 501 Crescent Street. (203) 392-6133, [email protected].

March 1: “Visioning” Sessions for the Reflection Garden Project. There will be three discussion/visioning sessions: Student Focus, 1-2 p.m.; Faculty/Staff Focus, 3-5 p.m.; Community Focus, 6-8 p.m. ASC Ballroom. All sessions are open to all participants.

March 2: A reading of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, with Iota, Iota, Iota, the SCSU chapter of the National Women’s Studies Honor Society. 7:30 p.m., Engleman Hall B 121.

March 3: Screening and Discussion of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. 12:30 p.m., TBA.

March 3: A reading of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, with Iota, Iota, Iota, the SCSU Chapter of the National Women’s Studies Honors Society. 7:30 p.m., Engleman Hall B 121.

March 6: Prayer Vigil for Nonviolence and Peace. 12:15 p.m., Buley Library Patio at SCSU.

March 7: Elm City Collective International Women’s Day Celebration Kick-Off at SCSU. 7 – 9 p.m., Adanti Student Center Ballroom.

March 8 (Tentative): Alex Wilson (Cree) on Two-Spirit and Queer Indigenous Feminism as Epistemology and Pedagogy.

March 21: Courageous Conversations on White Privilege. 5 – 7 p.m., Engleman Hall B 121.

March 22: An Interfaith Dialogue: “We Are All One: Interfaith Perspectives on the Diversity & Oneness of the Global Human Family.” 1 – 2 p.m., Engleman Hall A 120.

March 22: Screening of the Documentary, Adama, followed by a Q & A with Adama Bah and filmmaker David Felix Sutcliffe. 6 – 8 p.m., Adanti Student Center Theater.

March 24: Coalition of Women’s Studies in Connecticut & Rhode Island. 9 – 3 p.m., University of New Haven.

March 25-April 1st: SCSU Bike Week.

March 25: New Haven Social Justice Bike Ride: 13 mile bike ride through New Haven that celebrates current and historical social justice sites in our city. Bikes and helmets available for loan. Free! Limited to 25 people. 6:30-9:30 a.m., TBA.

March 25: The 21st Annual African American Women’s Summit, a Sisters’ Collective in New Haven. 8 – 3 p.m., Beecher School, 100 Jewell St., New Haven.

March 30: Wig and Clothing Drive for Transgender Day of Visibility. 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., SAGE Center.

March 30: Shoruq Debka and Hip Hop Theatre Performance. 7 – 9 p.m., Engleman Hall C 112.

“We Won’t Go Back!” People’s World African American History Month Celebration

by Joelle Fishman, CT People’s World

“Revisiting Frederick Douglass Two Centuries Later: WE WON’T GO BACK,” is the theme of this year’s 43rd Annual People’s World African American History Month Celebration.

The event to be held on Sunday, February 26, will feature guest speaker James M. Bradford, drumming by Brian Jarawa Gray and a performance by Ice the Beef Youth including the speech that famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave in New Haven.

The event will be held at 4 p.m. at Troup School, 259 Edgewood Ave. After filling the Peoples Center to overflow for years, a larger venue was chosen last year.

Douglass’ extraordinary leadership for freedom guides us in today’s stormy political climate with his powerful call to action: “If there is no struggle, there can be no progress….Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will….The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

In 1864 Douglass (1817-1895) addressed more than 1,200 free Black men gathered at Grapevine Point (now Criscuolo Park) in New Haven to become soldiers in the 29th Regiment of the Union Army and fight in the Civil War.

Guest speaker James M. Bradford is active in the anti-prison movement and Working America in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He chairs the Communist Party of Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Winners of the High School Arts and Writing Competition will present their essays, poems or artwork on the theme “How can we best unite against bigotry and injustice?”

Students are asked to express in artwork, poetry, essay or song: “On the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Douglass, leading abolitionist, orator and writer who fought against slavery and for women’s rights, how can we unite against hate, bigotry and injustice to continue his legacy in today’s world?” Submissions must be received at 37 Howe St. by 5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16.

Also on exhibit will be drawings from the Martin Luther King celebration at Peabody Museum created at the People’s World table on the theme, “How can we best unite against hate?”

Donation is $5 or what you can afford. For more information e-mail: [email protected].

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

Our grief was never a cry for war.

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

But more wars were already planned.

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

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

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

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

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

Our grief is a cry for peace and for justice.

100+ Attend May 1 International Worker’s Day March in New Haven

by Melinda Tuhus

may-day-2016-iiMore than a hundred people marched through downtown New Haven Sunday May 1, in the annual immigrants’ rights action. An enthusiastic crowd led by Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA) braved cold May showers on May Day this year.

The march included mostly young activists, children and college students. There were many signs and banners and robust chanting. No more deportations!

The marchers were accompanied by a lively group of very humorous and energetic “Radical Cheerleaders.” As the group walked down Chapel Street, the chants called for free education and free health care for all, as well as immigrants’ labor rights. Yale senior Sebi Medina-Tayac, a member of the Piscataway Nation as well as ULA, said the group wanted to bring attention especially to immigrant labor in New Haven, which is concentrated in construction and food service.

ULA works to create a vision for workers’ rights and freedom for all people based not only on lefty labor movements, but also to show the labor movement as something that’s diverse, changing, global and inclusive of people from all backgrounds regardless of citizen status or the color of their skin.

may-day-2016-iMarchers stopped to chant in front of restaurants that they say have mistreated their workers. They said Atticus restaurant fired a long-time worker who spoke out against a pay cut and hired a union-busting firm to thwart the mostly immigrant workers’ attempt to unionize. The owner was not available and a manager said their policy was not to comment on the charges.

The march also stopped at Calhoun College to protest the college named after an avowed racist.

Thank you to New Haven Workers Association – Unidad Latina en Acción for continuing to fight for the dignity of all our communities! Together they seek to build unity for racial, gender and economic justice, including defending the freedom and dignity of and respect for all people and the planet.

Revive the Peace Movement

Stan Heller, Administrator, Promoting Enduring Peace

Several Connecticut groups are in the forefront of a new network, RPM, Revive the Peace Movement Network. Promoting Enduring Peace and the Middle East Crisis Committee joined with CODEPINK and a number of other groups and individuals to form the group to serve as a pole of opinion and a network for discussion and suggestions. Its website is http://www.RPM.world and it is eager for groups to join it and for individuals to get on its mailing list. Its common “Statement” is as follows:

For a Renewed Anti-War Movement

At a time when wars engulf whole regions of the world we must revive the anti-war movement. The peace movement must put greater pressure on politicians and parties to end U.S. wars and to redirect military spending to meeting social needs at home and abroad.

Our primary tools are education and non-violent direct action, such as mass demonstrations, protest, civil disobedience, boycotts and divestment.

We resolutely oppose the wars of the U.S., its allies and clients, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and U.S. support for repressive regimes such as Honduras and Bahrain.

We call for an end to U.S. support for Israel and for justice for Palestinians, in all of historic Palestine and in their places of refuge.

We also recognize that there are other oppressors in the world, from ISIS to Russia, from Iran to China, from North Korea to the Assad regime. We won’t hesitate to oppose their wars, interventions and cruelties.

War and preparation for war are major contributors to catastrophic climate change. Climate change causes declining living conditions that also significantly contribute to war. We need to break this vicious cycle and work for a sustain-able economy based on social and environmental justice, full employment and one hundred percent non-nuclear renewable energy.

War and climate disruption tragically uproot millions from their home countries. We need to open the borders to refugees and meet their needs for health, safety and human dignity.

We challenge the racism and Islamophobia used to justify wars and occupations and the denial of human rights to refugees.

Seven decades after Hiroshima, the human race is still at risk of nuclear annihilation. Nuclear war is an ever present danger. We demand the abolition of all nuclear weaponry.

The militarism and authoritarianism that the U.S. promotes abroad is reflected in the militarism and attacks on civil liberties in our communities at home.

We stand in solidarity with those such as Black Lives Matter who are advocating the demilitarization of police forces.

We stand in solidarity with those who seek liberation, social and economic justice, and democracy in all countries, including the United States.

Another world is possible, free of militarism and war.

History Lessons: U.S. Government Targeting of Activists. Al Marder to speak at New Haven Museum April 14

by Henry Lowendorf, U.S. Peace Council

Following World War I the government went after leftists and anarchists with the Palmer raids.
In the 1940s and 50s, following World War II, the government passed the Smith Act to attack Communists, trade unionists, filmmakers and other progressives.

In the 1960s the government created CoIntelPro to go after the Black Panther Party and anti-war activists.

In each case assassinations, arrests and expensive trials were used to protect the establishment from dangerous ideas spreading among the people. That the government violated the Constitution it was sworn to uphold? No matter. The press shouted approval.

A leader of the peace and civil rights movement today, Al Marder, the last remaining target of the Smith Act in CT, is interviewed by historian Mary Donohue in the spring edition of Connecticut Explored. Al will also be interviewed by Judge Andrew Roraback at the New Haven Museum on April 14 at 5:30 p.m. Marder is the President of the US Peace Council, President of the Amistad Committee, Chair of the CT Freedom Trail, former Chair of the City of New Haven Peace Commission, among others.

There are recognizable lessons for today.

For more information, contact Henry Lowendorf at (203) 389-9547, [email protected].

Christian Community Action, Inc. Advocacy & Education Presents: People Empowering People (PEP) Training

Are you interested in empowering yourself and others? Do you enjoy working on community group projects? Are you interested in learning more about ways in which you can improve your community?

If your answer is yes! CCA’s Advocacy & Education Project will be offering a 10 session certified training class Mondays and Wednesdays 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Oct. 26-Dec. 2. Lunch will be provided. Location: 660 Winchester Ave.

Lower Level Community Room. Program participants will earn a UCONN PEP Certificate. For more information, contact Merryl Eaton, (203) 780-8335 or email: [email protected].

Nonviolent Direct Action Training for Climate Justice (Willimantic)

by Dan Fischer, Capitalism vs. Climate

Nonviolent direct action training will be held at the Covenant Soup Kitchen at 220 Valley Street in Willimantic, one Saturday in October (date not yet confirmed) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.. This is a training for people in Connecticut interested in taking direct action for climate justice this fall as part of Rising Tide North America’s Flood the System mobilization. #FloodtheSystem is a callout this fall to flood, blockade, occupy and shut down the systems that jeopardize our future! Read more about it here: floodthesystem.net.

The training is being organized by Capitalism vs. the Climate, a Rising Tide chapter.
Please register at goo.gl/forms/S4qHjDu36B. Share this event by emailing friends. The following agenda is subject to change based on feedback you provide us directly through the registration form. For specific questions about the training, please email [email protected].

Flood the System Training – What is Flood the System? What would an intersectional movement look like? Critique and strategic analysis. Offer the opportunity for participants to join in an existing Action Council or encourage them to start their own.

Introduction to Nonviolent Direct Action & Affinity Group Building – An introduction to the history of NVDA and implementation as well as examples of intersectionality within our community, affinity groups and their formation, consensus decision making, self-care and community care, action roles, and introduction to blockading.

Traditional Media and Social Media in Action – Training on how traditional media and social media intertwine with one another going into an action. How to create a media time line, write a press advisory and release, media action roles; how to use social media to amplify your action and create a narrative; online editing tools and social media logistics.

Continued Strategy & Research – This is an opportunity for participants to continue the conversation from the morning FTS Training and to transition into a workshop on strategy and research. Participants can talk about what they hope to see during Flood the System, how to build an intersectional movement leading into a discussion on choosing shared targets, research, and scouting.

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