Get Involved in May Day 2025! Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3

May Day 2025 will be held on Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3 on the New Haven Green and in locations at Yale. Commemorate the 55th anniversary of May Day 1970 and the Black Panther trials in New Haven.

May Day 2025 is intended to serve as a People’s Rally for the betterment of all New Haven communities. May Day 2025 seeks to again create a people’s university at Yale, which sees institutional resources shared.

Have something to say about migrant rights, police accountability, food sovereignty, community health, environmental justice, or other issues? Sign up to speak at the rally! Host a workshop! Set up an info table about your organization! Are you a performer? We’re looking to host local artists, musicians, and other creatives.

The Dwight Hall May Day 2025 Steering Committee wants YOU! Contributions to May Day 2025 can take any form. By including many voices and perspectives in these conversations, we can best reflect community sentiment. Attend our weekly planning meetings, 7 p.m. every Monday in April at Dwight Hall, 67 High St. (wheelchair accessible).

Contact allie.lopez@yale.edu and lizzie.chiarovano@yale.edu for more information.

Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride Is Set for Saturday, April 26

by Chris Schweitzer, New Haven/León Sister City Project

Rock to Rock Earth Day ride is moving ahead this spring, working with 20 partner organizations to take real action in response to the climate emergency, and raise critical support for local environmental organizations.

2025 Rides include 5, 12, 20, 40, 60-mile, and two Family Rides in East Rock Park, plus a hike in East Rock Park and West Rock Park.

All rides start and end at East Rock Park, with a Green Fair, live music and food trucks.

Participants raised over $200,000 in 2024 for local environmental projects. All of the participating organizations are continuing to work in a hundred different ways to make our community greener, healthier, more welcoming, and more connected.

We will also hold our annual Day of Service on Saturday, April 12. Sign up on the website. For more information on Rock to Rock, to register, or to donate, go to rocktorock.org. Email: info@rocktorock.org, phone: 203-479-0298.

The Latest from CT Green Energy News

by People’s Action for Clean Energy

[Excerpts from March 21 issue of CT Green Energy News]

“Eversource and Avangrid join fossil fuel lobby, undercutting climate targets”
Boston Globe.
“Last year, two major energy companies working in Massachusetts [and Connecticut] joined the ranks of an innocuous sounding group: the Consumer Energy Alliance… Its stated purpose includes “the promotion and defense of natural gas.”…Across the country, the alliance has fought the kinds of climate policies that are taking root in Massachusetts….That makes it “incredibly troubling” that both Eversource, one of the state’s largest gas and electric utilities, and Avangrid, offshore wind developer and the parent company of Berkshire Gas, became members of the alliance last year.”

CT bill would ban gas-powered leaf blowers
Connecticut Public.
“A bill in the Connecticut General Assembly would ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in the state starting in 2029. Co-sponsored by 10 Democratic state lawmakers, House Bill 6263 would first direct state and municipal agencies to begin phasing out the use of gas-powered blowers beginning in 2027. Beginning in 2029, the use and sale of such blowers would be outlawed statewide…“They are much more than just a nuisance – they are actually a very meaningful public health threat,”…the blowers emit fine particulate matter “which is respirable, which goes into the lungs, goes into the bloodstream,” as well as conventional air pollutants like ozone.”
[See the entire newsletter at www.pacecleanenergy.org]

CT Protests Over the Khalil Abduction

by Stanley Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee

A protest on March 12 in Hartford, originally called by CT Labor for Palestine, morphed into a protest over the taking by ICE of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate.

The rally took place in front of the Ribicoff Building in Hartford which. among its federal offices, houses ICE.

Several score people walked up and down in front of the building with signs with various messages. Many said, “Free Mahmoud Khalil”. Others said, “Justice for Palestine, Prosecute the War Criminals,” “I Stand Against Genocide,” “Healthcare not Warfare,” “End All US Aid to Israel,” and “We are Standing for Social Justice.” One banner (from MECC) called on unions to sell off their Israel Bonds.

Photo: Stanley Heller, Bay View Park, New Haven

There were many messages from the speakers. One warned that Khalil and Palestine rights supporters were just the first targets and that we all had to stand together. Another talked about the extensive repression at Wesleyan and Yale and other campuses. I mocked the Israeli soldier who claimed to have the proof of Khalil’s support for terrorism, whose own “evidence” showed nothing of the sort.

In New Haven a few days later, a much larger rally condemned Israeli actions. A huge banner was featured that read: “Free Mahmoud, Protect Free Speech.” Many signs were provided by the Party for Socialism and Liberation and a theme was ‘Free All Palestinian Political Prisoners.”

The rally took place on March 16 and one protester held a sign featuring a picture of Rachel Corrie. Corrie, on March 16, 2003, was deliberately run over by an Israeli military Caterpillar tractor and killed.

The park was near an I-95 overpass. At the close of the rally people went to the overpass with their signs and then draped the extra-large banner over the railing.

You can see video of both protests at the YouTube channel of “The Struggle Video News.” Go to YouTube and search for the above channel, or scan this QR code.

Our website is: thestrugglevideo.org.

IRIS To Shutter Main Office

By Laura Glesby, March 5, New Haven Independent

New Haven’s flagship refugee resettlement agency is closing its main doors at 235 Nicoll St. and shifting to remote work and satellite locations after losing millions of dollars in federal funding.

Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) has occupied the Nicoll Street office since 2006, where it has provided case management, education, job training, legal support, and health assistance to many hundreds of refugees and immigrants over decades.

In an email on Wednesday afternoon, Executive Director Maggie Mitchell Salem announced that due to funding slashes under President Donald Trump’s administration, the organization will cease operating from its East Rock home base by the end of March, with official plans to leave by April 30.

She told the Independent the organization is also “in the process of winding down our Hartford office.”

Mitchell Salem said in a phone interview that IRIS has so far laid off about half of its staff members since the start of the Trump administration. Now IRIS has a full-time staff of 45 employees.

IRIS will continue operating education programs out of the United Church on the Green’s Parish House at 323 Temple St., as well as its food pantry at 75 Hamilton St.

[To view the article in its entirety, please go to https://bit.ly/4bVJtXw]

West River Peace Garden Gets Ready to Bloom!

by Paula Panzarella, West River Peace Garden

Spring is here! And the West River Peace Garden will soon be blossoming with a wide assortment of colorful native flowers, thanks to the work of the crew and Urban Resources Initiative, who, starting April 18, will be there every Friday from 9:30-11:30 a.m. We encourage all to come help beautify this wonderful entrance-way into New Haven, bounded by Legion Avenue, Ella Grasso Boulevard, and Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard/North Frontage Road.

One of the Peace Gardens’ most significant plantings is a ginkgo tree from Hiroshima, Japan. The tree is from a cutting from a ginkgo that survived the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima.

Volunteers are always appreciated and needed to help weed, plant, mulch and water. Starting April 18, feel free to come by Fridays at 9:30 a.m. and join us for an hour or two. There is a large curb cut at the corner of Ella Grasso Boulevard and Legion Avenue where you can drive to the garden.

For more information, please contact Aaron Goode at aaron.goode@gmail.com, or phone 203-507-8985.

Please visit the website at https://westriverpeacegarden.org.

Hundreds Protest On (Not My) President’s Day

By Laura Glesby, Feb 17, New Haven Independent

Holding up a pink triangle sign — which in another time and place might have marked them for death — Patricio seized a moment of silence, cupped their hands over their mouth, and started a chant of their own among the hundreds of protesters gathered outside City Hall.

Laura Glesby Photos

Their words — “Trans rights are human rights!” — spread
through the crowd like fire.

Patricio was one of about 400 people who filled the Church Street sidewalk outside City Hall at noon on Monday, braving forceful winds. The rally emerged as part of a national effort to protest President Donald Trump’s administration on President’s Day — sparked at least in part by the 50501 Movement (standing for “50 protests. 50 states. 1 movement”), a massive online grassroots effort that originated on Reddit to coordinate mass protests of the Trump administration all throughout the country. The protests were advertised in advance as “Not My President’s Day” events.

Laura Glesby Photos

With no featured speakers or identifiable organizational leaders, random individuals like Patricio found themselves yelling out chants for the crowd to organically echo.

People called out a wide range of pithy slogans: “Lock him up!”, “Gaza is not a resort!”, “Send Elon to Mars!”, “Hands off my healthcare!”, “Support civil servants!”, “Rule of Law!”, “Black Lives Matter!”, and “Save science!”

Each chant gained traction in one corner of the crowd, then spread like a wave through the rest of the protest. Every so often, someone would start a rendition of “God Bless America,” “This Land is Your Land,” or “We Shall Overcome.” Both an American flag and an LGBTQIA+ Pride flag rippled through the windy air.

Many attendees held up signs hearkening back to Nazi Germany, featuring crossed-out swastikas, the words “Never again,” and Holocaust-inspired poetry. One protester used a bullhorn adorned with a sticker of the infamous Nazi salute by Elon Musk, the wealthiest man on earth now acting as the country’s unelected, unratified government downsizer. “Hitler dismantled democracy in 53 days,” one sign recalled.

[To read the article in its entirety and to see more photos,
please go to https://bit.ly/4i44t0a]

The 50501 Movement

The first action of the 50501 Movement was on Feb. 5, protesting Project 2025 in front of the capitols of every state. In Hartford, a number of PAR readers joined the crowd of 500 in front of the State Capitol. The second 50501 action was on Feb. 17, Presidents’ Day.

The 50501 Movement is a coalition demanding justice, transparency, accountability, and an end to executive overreach. Despite being seen as leaderless, every individual, state, city, grassroots organization, and activist is a leader in this movement.

To find out about more national days of action, visit the website https://www.fiftyfifty.one.

New ICE Age Response Team: Prepare, Don’t Panic

by Paul Bass, Feb 18, New Haven Independent

[The following are excerpts. To read the entire article, please go to http://bit.ly/41dh0aA]

If an ICE (federal Immigration & Customs Enforcement) agent is indeed at the door: “I don’t wish to speak with you, answer your questions, or sign or hand you any documents based on my 5th Amendment rights under the United Stations Constitution … I do not give you permission to enter my home based on my 4th Amendment rights … unless you have a warrant to enter, signed by a judge or magistrate with my name on it that you slide under the door …”

A coalition of 60 agencies and nonprofit groups is spreading those red cards, and that calm-but-ready message, to the heart of New Haven’s immigrant community, which is bracing for ICE mass deportation raids promised by the newly installed Trump administration. …

“Exactly what the Trump administration wants is just fear, to incite fear and panic and chaos,” Yenimar Cortes, New Haven organizer for CT Students For A Dream, said during a New ICE Age conversation Tuesday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” She was joined by fellow organizers Fatima Rojas of Semilla Collective, Junta case worker Jacqueline Gonzalez, and high school youth organizer Ambar Santiago-Rojas.

An estimated 100,000 undocumented people live in Connecticut.
You can call the rapid response hotline at 220-666-4472. Rojas said people can call her at 203-747-4309 for information on attending the coalition’s Saturday community engagement meetings. Cortes invited people to contact her group at 203-787-0191 for information on Know Your Rights workshops.

March 9: Socialist Essentials

By Possible Futures Bookspace

On Sunday, March 9, from 2-3:30 p.m., the bookspace at Possible Futures, 318 Edgewood Ave in New Haven, will be hosting members of the Connecticut chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for another meeting of Socialist Essentials, an introductory class on learnings and discussions around Capitalism, Socialism, and organizing for change. RSVP at https://bit.ly/4k7M9Fb.

More about the DSA in their own words: “Connecticut DSA is a statewide chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organization in the United States. Our members are organizers – in the streets, workplaces, and neighborhoods – where we are bringing workers, tenants, and all exploited peoples into class struggle, building power in our movement for democratic socialism.”

Contact: Possible Futures, 203-446-2070 or info@possiblefuturesbooks.com.

Grab Your Beads & Dancing Shoes—Mardi Gras 2025 Is Almost Here!

by Manmita Dutta, New Haven Free Public Library Foundation

Mark your calendars—Mardi Gras is back on Tuesday, March 4! Join us for the Annual Mardi Gras Fundraiser benefiting the New Haven Free Public Library.

Celebrate with us as we bring the vibrancy and spirit of Mardi Gras to New Haven! Enjoy a night filled with festive music, delicious food, and incredible community spirit—all while supporting programs that promote equity, literacy, and access for all.

This year, we’re excited to honor two extraordinary individuals. Alder Honda Smith (Ward 30) will receive the Library Champion Award for Community Service, and Brad Gallant—Former President of the NHFPL Board of Directors and Former Member of the NHFPL Foundation Board of Directors—is the recipient of the Champion Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Tickets are now on sale. More information: https://tinyurl.com/52utcw7c

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