Category: Peace

Commemorations of the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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by Manuel Camacho, Chairman of the City of New Haven Peace Commission

The City of New Haven Peace Commission, in conjunction with the Greater New Haven U.S. Peace Council, organized the 81st Commemorations of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 respectively. Attendees and speakers, including State Representative Pat Dillon, former Mayor Toni Harp, and Alder Amanda Martinelli among others, gathered on the New Haven Green to commemorate Hiroshima, and in front of the Amistad Memorial next to New Haven City Hall, to commemorate Nagasaki.

On Aug. 6, Manuel Camacho, Chairman of the City of New Haven Peace Commission, read two statements to participants gathered on the New Haven Green. One statement was from Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, a former mayor of Hiroshima, Japan. Akiba wanted Manuel to read his Peace Declaration from 1999, which Akiba says is still the closest statement to his heart he has ever delivered. Read the statement here: bit.ly/4zqMvhK.

The second statement came from the Secretary-General of the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities and was read on both days. New Haven is a member city of the IAPMC and is one of only seven in the entire United States. The Secretary-General, Mayor Tilen Klugler of Slovenj Gradec, sent his remarks to be read at the commemorations.

Below is an excerpt from the letter:

The International Association of Peace Messenger Cities remains deeply grateful to the City of New Haven and to the New Haven Peace Commission for the vision, commitment, and leadership you have shown over the years. Your support during those formative years helped lay the foundations of our Association, and your continued dedication to promoting peace, dialogue, and international understanding has kept those founding ideals alive. It is through the commitment of communities like yours that the Peace Messenger Cities movement continues to grow and inspire cities around the world.

 

On behalf of our member cities across the world, the IAPMC expresses its sincere appreciation to the people of New Haven for carrying forward this important tradition of remembrance and peace. May your commemoration serve as a source of inspiration for all who believe that peace is not only an aspiration, but a shared responsibility. Together, through the efforts of communities around the world, we can continue to build a future shaped by dialogue, cooperation, and hope.

The Nuclear Arms Race Has to Stop!

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by Ann Froines, Back from the Brink

August 6 and August 9 were the anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States Army Air Forces just days before the end of World War II. Our national and local media gave little attention to this anniversary, even as the Hibakusha—Japanese survivors of these bombings—still tell their stories in their international campaign for nuclear disarmament and world peace. NHK World – Japan, the international public television station of Japan, carried the film, The Pursuit of Peace, which describes the decades of worldwide peacemaking by the Hibakusha. Their goal is to make the Nagasaki bombing the last atomic explosion humankind will ever face.

Back from the Brink-CT Hub offers readers this update on media resources in the campaigns to prevent nuclear testing, for nuclear diplomacy (treaties) and the eventual abolition of nuclear weapons.

1. Back from the Brink website (preventnuclearwar.org) now has a series of podcasts from experts and activists discussing nuclear abolition. One podcast features Tina Cordova, a co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (trinitydownwinders.com) which advocates for those affected by radiation as a result of the first atomic explosion at the Trinity Nuclear Weapon Testing Ground in New Mexico, other tests in the Solomon Islands and elsewhere in the Pacific.

After a 20-year campaign directed at the U. S. Congress, $8 billion was appropriated for compensation to the victims who suffered from radiation poisoning, many cancer deaths, and increased infant mortality. See the website for information about the 2023 documentary film, First We Bombed New Mexico.

2. An Ordinary Insanity is a 30-minute film of Daniel Ellsberg’s final plea for nuclear disarmament, made freely available to all by the Ellsberg family as his final legacy before his death. Ellsberg, well before the Pentagon Papers reveal and controversy, started his career at the Rand Corporation developing nuclear weapon strategy. His plea argues that “national security” cannot be obtained by nuclear weapon superiority or an arms race, but instead guarantees just the opposite: the end of civilization in a nuclear Armageddon. Search for “anordinaryinsanity’ to find the film available on YouTube.

Readers, please join this campaign by writing to U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy urging him to support Senate Resolution 323, an act urging the United States to pursue a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals. These unstable times show the urgency of taking nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert.

Back from the Brink-CT preventnuclearwar.org
ann.froines@gmail.com

Port Elizabeth NJ Shut Down by Anti-Genocide Activists

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by Mark Colville, Amistad Catholic Worker

There are two major international shipping companies (Maersk and Zimm) operating out of Port Elizabeth, NJ, which handle the bulk of arms shipments to the rogue nation of Israel for its relentless genocidal campaign of terror in the West Bank and Gaza. In October, 2025, and again on May 22 of this year, the entrance to the port was blockaded by local activists at significant physical and legal risk, in the attempt to terminate our nation’s criminal collusion in this unmitigated evil. The loading of the ships was interrupted for several hours, and apparently at significant financial cost to the shipping companies engaged in this criminal behavior. Both groups of activists were originally charged with multiple felonies, carrying the risk of several years in prison upon conviction. Subsequently, that was shown to have been a vacuous threat: in response to their collective refusal to accept any plea of guilty to a lesser “crime,” all of the serious charges in both cases were reduced to misdemeanors, and the matters have now been remanded to municipal court.

On August 4, the five indicted activists who had performed the first blockade, most of whom hail from upstate New York, journeyed several hours by car in order to appear at trial in Elizabeth municipal court the following day. This is a trial that they have insisted upon by refusing to take any plea to a lesser charge. They’d made the exact same journey less than thirty days previously, taking two days away from work and family responsibilities, only to be told at the hearing that the prosecution was not ready, and a postponement was necessary. But then, once again, at approximately 4:45 p.m. on October 5, the court sent an email to one of the accused, indicating that the state was still not prepared to go forward, and therefore the trial would, for the third time in 10 months, be postponed again. By the time anyone was informed, they’d already arrived in New Jersey. The ongoing duplicity of the court is on full display here: they show no compunction about arresting people for constitutionally protected public action, and then charging them beyond the realm of sanity and proportionality, simply as a cynical method of coercion in service to keeping the U.S. government’s status quo of criminality beyond the scrutiny of the public. At this writing, the judge has still refused to dismiss the case based on the violation of their constitutional right to a speedy trial.

Inspired by the October ’25 activists, I chose to join the second direct action this past May. (See a filmed report on this action as it happened, here: bit.ly/45HTghK.) On August 6 (the eighty-first anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima), we ten accused were finally brought to court for our first hearing – not in person but by a Zoom link! You can stay tuned for updates on the legal progress of this saga if you like. Just don’t expect anything to come from the courts that even pretends to be about the pursuit of justice. The law is simply being used as a bureaucratic weapon by these duplicitous and overburdened legal functionaries, for the purposes of institutionalizing government impunity and keeping those of us engaged in responsible citizenship in a constant state of instability and fear.

International Day of Peace Event Sept. 19

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by Manuel Camacho, Chairman of the City of New Haven Peace Commission

The City of New Haven Peace Commission invites you to save the date for this year’s Peace Tree planting in observance of the International Day of Peace. This year, the Commission will be planting the tree at Alderwoman Honda Smith’s community center, The Shack. The community center is located at 333 Valley St., New Haven, CT 06515. The date is Sept. 19 and the time is TBA.

Come join us and others as we gather to observe the International Day of Peace and to thank Alder Honda Smith for all that she has done for her community and youth, and for being a supporter of the Peace Commission.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to reach out to the Chairman of the Peace Commission, Manuel Camacho. Email manueldcamacho52@gmail.com.

West River Peace Garden News

by Friends of the West River Peace Garden

The West River Peace Garden hosted a special gathering and planting on May 9, the day before Mother’s Day, to pay homage to mothers who have passed on. You can read about it here: bit.ly/4f63Bde.

We are planning to have another gathering on August 6 by the Gingko tree in our garden to commemorate the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to remember the victims, and to publicly call for peace, an end to all war, and for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Email us at friendsofwestriverpeacegarden@gmail.com for updates on this gathering, or check our Facebook page Friends of the West River Peace Garden or our website westriverpeacegarden.org.

Interested in volunteering in the garden? Email us with the time and day you’d like to join us each week, and we’ll schedule a volunteer shift for others to join you then!

The West River Peace Garden is by Ella Grasso Blvd. between Legion Ave. and MLK Blvd.

SCSU Rally Calls For ICE-Detained Student’s Release

Thomas Breen, April 6, 2026, New Haven Independent

More than 100 students, teachers, and immigrant rights advocates gathered outside of Southern Connecticut State University’s (SCSU) Buley Library Monday [April 6] to speak up for a classmate who was detained by federal immigration agents off campus last week.

photo: Thomas Breen

photo: Thomas Breen

Speaker after speaker on Monday — including co-emcees Justin Farmer and Sam Morrison, students and faculty from SCSU, and organizers from UNITE HERE 217, the New Haven Immigrants Coalition, and Unidad Latina en Acción, among other groups — called for the detained student to be released, for the university to support undocumented students, and for a mass mobilization against the Trump administration in response to the federal government’s immigration crackdown.

[More at https://bit.ly/4tpkTpM.]

 

 

Mother’s Day Tribute Garden News

by Paula Panzarella, West River Peace Garden

On Saturday, May 9 at 11 a.m., we invite you to take part in the first Mother’s Day Tribute in the expanded area of the West River Peace Garden. In case of rain, the gathering will be on Sunday, May 17, at 2 p.m.

The West River Peace Garden features blooming native perennials, a magnolia tree, and a Ginkgo tree (grown from a cutting of a Ginkgo that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945). Now we have a circular garden to the north side (near MLK Blvd.), developed through the initiative of a neighbor who felt the need for Mother’s Day to include paying homage to mothers who have passed on.

We hope you’ll bring a plant for the garden in memory of your mother. Share a story about your mom, listen to music, decorate a stone to put in the garden, and meet the neighbors.

The West River Peace Garden is by Ella Grasso Blvd. between Legion Ave. and MLK Blvd. We work in the garden every Friday from 9:30-11:30 a.m. and welcome all volunteers. For info, call 203-350-3795. Our website is westriverpeacegarden.org.

An Urgent Call to PAR Newsletter Readers

by Ann Froines, Back from the Brink

Are you concerned, even frightened, that the regional wars involving nuclear powers in these perilous times could spark an exchange of nuclear weapons? The result of such an exchange could result in the deaths of millions over time—from the explosions themselves, radiation contamination, and a “nuclear winter” resulting in vastly lowered food production. Prominent scientists and medical personnel have warned for decades of this possibility because nuclear weapons are on hair-trigger alerts. One mistake in a complicated system could result in devastation to the planet.

You can help avert this catastrophe by participating as an individual in the grassroots campaign launched by the coalition Back from the Brink. (See preventnuclearwar.org.) At this readable website you will find this campaign’s common sense approach to nuclear policies that will secure a safer future for all the world. You can easily join as an individual, provide financial support, and use its advocacy tools to help prevent a nuclear war.

The approach argues for actively pursuing through diplomacy verifiable agreements among nuclear powers to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons. Furthermore, it advocates, among several other measures, the cancellation of the one trillion dollar plan to replace the current U.S. nuclear arsenal with “enhanced weapons.” Such expenditures will not make us safer but instead prioritize an arms race that deprives our nation of much needed programs for health care, housing and education.

Fifty members of the House of Representatives, including three of the five Connecticut representatives, have endorsed House Resolution 317, a bill that describes Back from the Brink’s objectives (Reps. DeLauro, Hayes, and Larson). Connecticut citizens are also trying to arrange a meeting with Senator Chris Murphy, who would be an important voice advocating for the companion resolution, Senate Resolution 323.

Please won’t you consider joining in the citizens’ campaign for a sane nuclear policy and the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons?

Sincerely, Ann Froines, Hamden, CT

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