Remembering Alfred Marder, Jan. 18, 1922-Dec. 19, 2023: A Century of Struggle for Peace, Justice and Socialism

by Henry Lowendorf, contributor to People’s World

The PAR newsletter committee is greatly saddened to inform our readers of the passing of Al Marder. Al was a member of the PAR community from its inception over thirty years ago. He was active in dozens of peace and justice organizations and instrumental in the founding of many New Haven groups. Our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and all who worked with him.

Al Marder, in his capacity as Amistad Committee President, welcoming the president of Sierra Leone to New Haven City Hall in 2019. Thomas Breen Photo.

Al Marder, a stalwart of the U.S. peace movement and prominent figure in the Communist Party USA, passed away Dec. 19, 2023, at the age of 101. In some ways, the story of his life reads like a serial thriller, with plenty of comedy and tragedy, victories and defeats.

As a teenager, he would sneak out of his parents’ house in a working-class neighborhood of New Haven, early in the morning to meet his good friend Sid Taylor, pushing the family car down the road before starting it so as not to waken his parents. They would distribute fliers and Daily Worker newspapers to workers arriving and leaving plant gates at Sargent and Co. …  Years later, his mother revealed that his parents were in fact aware of his goings-on….

Al Marder poses with New Haven peace activist and Peace Council member Mary Compton at the Peace Day celebration at the Amistad Memorial statue outside New Haven City Hall Sept. 21, 2015. The statue was built thanks to his guidance and supervision. Marder is chairman of the Amistad Committee. (photo: cjzurcher)

Al Marder poses with New Haven peace activist and Peace Council member Mary Compton at the Peace Day celebration at the Amistad Memorial statue outside New Haven City Hall Sept. 21, 2015. The statue was built thanks to his guidance and supervision. Marder is chairman of the Amistad Committee.
(photo: cjzurcher)

Al Marder entered the fight for justice and peace when he was 14 years old, the height of the Great Depression. He saw families being evicted, his own included, and he saw Communists moving their furniture back into tenants’ houses. He wasn’t alone. The nation was demanding peace. Workers were struggling for their rights and moving unionization to the fore. Peace, he said, was a central demand of the Communist Party in the 1930s.

He became an organizer for the Young Communist League (YCL), becoming a leader in the group at age 16. Al began to connect the anti-Semitism that his family, Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, experienced with the prevalent anti-Black racism. He found that Communists modeled equal treatment of everyone.

At the New Haven Peoples Center, Al found his milieu. The community center had been bought by immigrant, socialist-oriented Jewish tradesmen for their own families and the broader community. … Eventually, Al would become the president of the non-profit that runs the Peoples Center….

After the war, the U.S. turned its big guns on its former ally, the Soviet Union, and with McCarthyism, attacked the progressive movements at home. In 1954, one of eight charged in the Smith Act witch hunts in Connecticut for thinking communist thoughts, Al had to leave his family and go underground. Eventually caught, he was tried and acquitted, but not without serious consequences to many lives.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Al became a leader in the peace movement as the president of the U.S. Peace Council and vice president of the World Peace Council, positions he actively held until the end of his life.

A prime organizer of the anti-apartheid struggle in Connecticut, Marder helped create and lead the City of New Haven Peace Commission in 1988 and the years that followed….

The Peace Commission introduced resolutions into the New Haven City Council, the Board of Alders, calling for abolition of nuclear weapons and moving money from war spending to human needs. On three occasions, the resolutions became ballot initiatives that won overwhelming approval from the city’s voters.

As a result of these activities, New Haven was invited to join the U.N.-sponsored International Association of Peace Messenger Cities, of which Al Marder was president for 12 years, the only non-mayor to hold that position.

Urged in 1987 by African American school board president, minister, and friend Rev. Edwin Edmonds, Al founded the Connecticut Amistad Committee, Inc., in the spirit of the original 1839 Amistad Committee, the first integrated abolitionist organization….

With his amazing memory, wry sense of humor, and easy laugh, Al was known to all as a great storyteller, attending to detail and drawing basic lessons. He shared many of those lessons with those who knew him—lessons they will carry with them forever.

A memorial service will take place at Beaverdale Memorial Park, 90 Pine Rock Ave., on Saturday, Jan. 6 at 9:30 a.m. The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to one of these causes: Hospice Foundation of America, hospicefoundation.org/Donate; Jewish Voice for Peace, jewishvoiceforpeace.org; and US Peace Council, uspeacecouncil.org.

[Read the full article online from People’s World: www.peoplesworld.org/article/remembering-al-marder-a-century-of-struggle-for-peace-justice-and-socialism/]

[Read an article by Paul Bass for the New Haven Independent and the Marder family’s obituary: www.newhavenindependent.org/article/al_marder_crusading_true_believer_to_the_end_dies_at_101]

Golden Rule in New Haven June 2-5

With tensions so high between nuclear-armed nations, it is more important than ever to bring a message of peace. Come see the boat and learn about what you can do to support the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, and the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

All events are free and open to the public.

June 3, 1 p.m.  The city of New Haven Peace Commission will welcome the crew of the Golden Rule at the West River Peace Garden (at the intersection of Ella T. Grasso Blvd. and Legion Ave, 16 Miller St.). Contact Aaron Goode for Peace Garden 203-507-8985.

June 4, 10 a.m.  The crew of the  Golden Rule will be welcomed at the Sound School music festival at 10 a.m. at 60 South River Street New Haven.

June 4, 2-4  p.m.  Concert for peace with Fred Brown, MC

City of New Haven proclamation to the Golden Rule crew
Crew members will share their adventures on the great loop tour for peace, and the story of the original boat that sailed to stop atmospheric bomb tests in the 1950s.
Adrian Huq – New Haven Climate Movement
Nuclear Soldier – Hank Bolden, atomic test veteran and musician
City of New Haven Peace Commission message from Al Marder
Connecticut Peace Singers – Millie Grenough & singers
Inity Reggae Band – Fred Brown

For more information: Henry Lowendorf: 203-676-4138, [email protected].

New Haven Peace Commission, New HOPE Housing Program, Newhallville Neighborhood to Celebrate International Day of Peace

by City of New Haven Peace Commission

In 1981 the United Nations General Assembly declared September 21 as the International Day of Peace. The Assembly established it as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire.

To bring attention to the importance of this day, the City of New Haven Peace Commission for more than a decade has planted a tree on the grounds of a city school, library, or public space. This year, the New Haven Peace Commission, New HOPE Housing Program, and Newhallville neighborhood will join together with the international community to recognize the International Day of Peace by co-hosting a program at the new home of HOPE, 660 Winchester Avenue, New Haven.

The program has been planned jointly by Newhallville neighborhood organizations, Alder Devin Avshalom-Smith, Peace Commission members, Rev. Bonita Grubbs and staff of Christian Community Action, and new residents of HOPE. [The date of the program was not chosen before our newsletter went to print. The event will be during the week of Sept. 18. Contact the City of New Haven Peace Commission at [email protected].]

During the program, a permanent memorial to recognize International Day of Peace will be installed on the grounds of HOPE, near a specially-chosen tree, provided and planted by URI (Urban Resources Initiative) and the placement of a plaque nearby to commemorate the day. The tree is planted to remember those killed by gun violence in our communities and in wars abroad and to affirm the commitment of New Haven as a Peace Messenger City, for action toward peace and justice everywhere.

2022 Theme: End racism. Build peace. From the United Nations website for 2022 International Day of Peace: https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-peace.

Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September. The UN General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire.

But achieving true peace entails much more than laying down arms. It requires the building of societies where all members feel that they can flourish. It involves creating a world in which people are treated equally, regardless of their race.

Celebration of the UN International Day of Peace

This Ginkgo tree is a gift to New Haven from Japan.

Jim Pandaru hold the umbrella for New Haven Peace Commission representative Al Marder. (photo: Aaron Goode)

Jim Pandaru hold the umbrella for New Haven Peace Commission representative Al Marder. (photo: Aaron Goode)

It is a sapling survivor of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945, and was planted in the United Nations Peace Garden (Ella Grasso Boulevard and Legion Avenue) on Sept. 18 at the opening of the International Day of Peace celebration in the West River neighborhood.

Neighbors at the ceremony. (photo: Aaron Goode)

Neighbors at the ceremony. (photo: Aaron Goode)

 

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].