The Groundwater Approach: Building a Practical Understanding of Structural Racism, March 27 9 a.m.-noon

As part of its ongoing work to advance racial equity throughout the region, The Foundation is offering free community access to The Groundwater Approach, a racial equity workshop that builds an understanding of systemic racism and racial disparities through data and historical analysis.

The Groundwater metaphor is designed to help people internalize the reality that we live in a racially-structured society, and that is what causes racial inequity. The metaphor is based on three observations:

  • Racial inequity looks the same across systems,
  • Socio-economic difference does not explain the racial inequity; and,
  • Inequities are caused by systems, regardless of people’s culture or behavior.

The workshop is provided by the Racial Equity Institute, a national alliance of trainers, organizers and institutional leaders devoted to creating racially equitable organizations and systems.

Note: Workshop sessions are not recorded.

Wherever you are in your journey to understand the roots and persistence of racial inequality, the Confronting Racism planning group at CMI, who have all attended this workshop, can attest that you will find participation worthwhile.

There is no charge for participants. Please see Leon Bailey’s invitation and more information below

https://www.cfgnh.org/events/the-groundwater-approach-racial-equity-workshop

 

4th Annual Judith Ann Schiff Women’s History Program: A Wonderful Struggle: Local Jewish Women in the Labor Movement, March 1, 2026

by Rhoda Zahler Samuel, Jewish Historical Society

The 4th Annual Judith Ann Schiff Women’s History Program will take place at the New Haven Museum, on Sunday, March 1 at 2 p.m.  In A Wonderful Struggle: Local Jewish Women in the Labor Movement, we will hear in person and on video from women who participated in the massive New Haven teachers strike of 1975 and in the historic victories of Yale University clerical and technical workers in 1983-84. They will describe the issues that motivated them to join the “wonderful struggle,” the difficulties they encountered, what helped them succeed, the results that followed the strikes and creation of new unions, and the ways these activities influenced their future work experiences. The program will be streaming on Facebook Live. In the case of inclement weather, the event will be recorded for social media. For more information and to register, please go to https://bit.ly/4ruFsQJ.

In the words of Edie Bartman Fishman, who was active in unions ranging from electrical workers to teachers: “Life is a struggle. But it’s a wonderful struggle when you’re fighting for the right things.” Our speakers include Joelle Fishman, talking about her mother, and Barbara Greenwood and Helene Sapadin who participated in the 1975 Teachers Strike in New Haven.

The New Haven Museum is located at 114 Whitney Ave. and is wheelchair accessible.

In the case of inclement weather, the event will be recorded for the Museum’s YouTube channel.

Register

 

Film & Panel Discussion: ‘The Day Iceland Stood Still’, 5-7:30 p.m. March 11

The Psychology Department at SCSU invites you to a viewing of the documentary, The Day Iceland Stood Still, followed by a panel discussion about gender equity and women’s rights at 5 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at the Adanti Student Center – Theater.

Panelists include the writer/director of the film, the chair of the Women’s & Gender Studies Department at SCSU, and a local woman who attended the strike in 1975. Moderated by Adjunct Professor Laura Noe, who teaches the Psychology of Women.

The Day Iceland Stood Still tells the story of the Oct. 24, 1975, strike when 90% of the women in Iceland did not go to work to demonstrate the impact they have on the economy. For 50 years, they have led the world in gender equity, and their government leaders are all women, as are 48% of their parliament.

After we watch the documentary, we will have a panel discussion. Three panelists will join us: Pam Hogan, writer and director of The Day Iceland Stood Still; Dr. Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, Taiwanese feminist scholar and chair of Women’s & Gender Studies at SCSU; and Hanna Luden, who attended the strike with her mom in 1975.

Groups to Honor Dr. Abu Safiya for Nobel Peace Prize 2026 Nomination

by Stanley Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee

On Sunday, March 1, groups will honor Gaza doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, who has been in Israeli custody since Dec. 2024, and who has been nominated for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. The event will take place at the Palestine Museum US, 1764 Litchfield Turnpike in Woodbridge, starting at 3 p.m.

The main speaker at the event will be Dr. Karameh Kuemmerle, one of the co-founders of Doctors Against Genocide. Also speaking will be Rabbi Abby Chava Stein. Stein is an active member of the rabbinical group T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the abducted director of the now forcibly-closed Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has been imprisoned by Israel for near 14 months. He has not been formally charged with anything, no evidence of wrongdoing has been advanced, but it is claimed he is an “unlawful combatant.”

Dr. Abu Safiya was nominated by Dr. Carol Gray, Assistant Professor of Public Law, Department of Political Science at the University of Fairbanks in Alaska. Dr. Gray noted that “Choosing Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya would spotlight the horrific genocide in Gaza as well as the incredible courage of the Palestinian people who have endured so much. It might also save his life.”

For more information and for tickets: https://pmu.betterworld.org/events/abu-safiya. Other contact info: see FreeDrAbuSafiya.org, phone 203-444-3578, or email mail@thestruggle.org.

Newsletter Readers: Please Copy and Distribute Food Pantry Information

Here you will find information about food pantries and soup kitchens in the Greater New Haven area: https://bit.ly/4u6SQwn.

We’re asking our readers to print copies of this two-sided page to leave at various public places and put on bulletin boards. The information is also online at https://bit.ly/4u6SQwn.

Please, when you give a few dollars to people on the street asking for money, also hand them a food resource page.

 

Food-Assistance-Resource-Guide-ENG

Join the No Pipeline Expansion Northeast Coalition to Learn About a Proposed Pipeline Under the Connecticut River in Middletown

by Sena Wazer, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator, Sierra Club CT

Eversource, the electric and gas utility for much of Connecticut, has proposed to build a new interconnection pipeline under the Connecticut River. This expansion would impact Middletown, East Hampton, and Higganum, in particular the Connecticut Valley Railroad State Park Trail, Hurd State Park, and Higganum Meadows Wildlife Management Area.

Eversource wants to complete this expansion using a practice called horizontal directional drilling. When this practice was used in 2024 for a pipeline in Rhode Island, the company spilled 50 gallons of drilling fluid into the Sakonnet River. Connecticut doesn’t need more methane gas, we don’t need more pipelines, and we certainly don’t need them drilled under the Connecticut River.

In addition to the potential harm that projects like this do to our ecosystems, they are also bad for our climate, health, and costs. Two recent publications have shown that methane gas reliance and pipeline expansions raise our bills.

A study in Maine, which is on the same regional electricity grid as Connecticut, found that methane gas is the primary driver of rising electricity prices in Maine, while clean energy would lower bills. A recently published primer from The Future of Heat Initiative found that Connecticut customers are paying more for gas pipes and their expansion, than for the actual gas we use.

Are you interested in learning more and taking action? Join Sierra Club Connecticut, the No Pipeline Expansion Northeast Coalition, and Sunrise Movement Wesleyan for an educational forum in Middletown titled “Pipelines Under Our River: Safety, Costs, and What Residents Should Know.” The forum will be hosted on Wednesday, March 25, at 6 p.m. at the Russell Library. Find more information and RSVP here: tinyurl.com/middletownforum. Email sena.wazer@sierraclub.org with questions.

Connecticut Isn’t Making Right Choices. We’re Being Gaslit by the Methane Industry

by Susan Moynihan, Feb. 15, 2026, Hartford Courant

The fossil fuel company, TC Energy, is proposing to double the size of a compressor station in Brookfield, Connecticut. The compressor station is located only 1,900 feet from Brookfield’s only middle school. Compressor stations release methane and other toxic air pollutants into the community, and pose a risk of explosion. In the environmental assessment submitted by TC Energy, the company stated that the added gas capacity is designed for ConEdison and National Grid in New York. That means that while the project would pollute Connecticut’s air, the added energy capacity is for New York, despite the state’s greenhouse gas reduction and building electrification laws…I call on Connecticut to put our safety and climate first, and stand up against fossil fuel expansion. We are being gaslit by the methane industry.

[Reprinted from CT Green Energy News, Feb. 20, 2026. To get a free subscription to this weekly online newsletter, visit www.pacecleanenergy.org.]

CT Treasury Buys Half-Million More Elbit Shares

by Stanley Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee

For a decade, activists have been asking the CT Treasury to tell us what investments it has in Israeli apartheid and to dump those investments. The Treasury holds the pension money of teachers and state and city employees. We’ve made moral arguments, legal arguments and appealed to their business sense. So far, we’ve failed. As of last June, Connecticut had $106 million invested in Israel. This month, we’ve learned that there are now $141 million in those tainted investments! They include $6 million in State of Israel Bonds. Israel can use that money for any purpose, for military, tractors to knock down Palestinian houses, prisons (that the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem calls “torture camps”), anything at all.  There’s also $250,000 in Cellebrite, which makes hardware and software for surveillance, that is, for spying. Another investment is in ZIM, a company that ships parts and supplies to Israel and exports Israeli weapons to other countries. $600,000 is invested in ZIM.

The worst investment, though, is in Israel’s biggest weapons maker, Elbit. The investment went up from $2.4 million last year to $4 million now. Lest you think that Elbit’s value nearly doubled in 6 months, realize that the Treasury’s fund managers bought 500,000 more shares in Elbit over that short time period.

On April 1, 2024, a World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy of three cars drove on a route pre-approved and coordinated with the Israeli military in central Gaza. One car after another was targeted with missiles from a Hermes 450 drone and all seven WCK workers and volunteers were killed. Hermes is made by Elbit. This wasn’t the first time that an Elbit drone was connected to a human rights abuse. In 2014, a Hermes drone attack killed four children playing on a Gaza beach in front of dozens of journalists. Those are the massacres we know about. Palestinians are killed daily by drones. 85% of them are made by Elbit.

Officials at the Treasury have two excuses. They say they have a “fiduciary” responsibility to make money for the pension funds. They also say that they don’t pick stocks directly. They employ companies whose managers make the actual investments. Someone should tell them to read about Pontius Pilate and the washing of hands. Erick Russell is our Treasurer. Maybe you could tell them via state.treasurer@ct.gov.

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