NEW HAVEN PEOPLES CENTER
37 HOWE STREET, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT 06511
MEDIA RELEASE
August 25, 2012
Information: 203- 387-0370
Veterans Support Funding
for New Haven Peoples Center
A group of veterans called
on Governor Dannell P. Malloy today to restore the request
for funding for restoration of 37 Howe Street, site of the
New Haven Peoples Center.
The Governor removed the
item from the state bonding budget after an opposition group
from outside New Haven, citing their veteran status,
protested the proposed funding on the grounds that
Communists are part of the building. The bonding request
would restore brick work on the 1851 Italianate structure
which is a site on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.
The announcement was made
as the New Haven Peoples Center celebrated its 75th
anniversary with a family backyard cookout and cultural
event including music and children's crafts. After
supporters crowded on the front lawn for a group photograph,
messages of solidarity and support were delivered by elected
officials, labor leaders and community activists.
Public support for the
Peoples Center, an all-volunteer non profit institution, has
continued to increase on the basis of the activities it
hosts of benefit to the community including youth
programming, and providing affordable space for unions and
community groups including immigrant rights, peace and grass
roots organizing.
The Peoples Center has
been dedicated to social, cultural and educational
activities for labor and community since it was founded in
1937 during the Great Depression. It is the site of the
first inter-racial basketball team and first inter-racial
theater group in the City of New Haven. The Peoples Center
opened its doors to the nation's first homeless run daytime
drop-in center in the 1990s. It is now the location of
Unidad Latina en Accion which is organizing immigrant
workers. It is home to youth organizing and the New Elm
City Dream.
The letter
from the veterans reads in part: "We deplore the
manipulation of a few Veterans, for narrow political
purposes, who do not understand that the New Haven Peoples
Center is an historic building, 1851, the active center
since 1937 for organizations campaigning for jobs for
youth and against violence, for immigrant’s rights,
against racial profiling, decent jobs and medical
treatment for Veterans, and for global peace, among
others. We reject the spurious and dangerous “red baiting”
charges used to deny the Peoples Center their legitimate
request."
Signers include veterans
from WW II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the war in
Afghanistan. The letter to the Governor concludes, "We call
for the restoration of the request of the New Haven Peoples
Center for funding. "
The letter follows:
NEW
HAVEN
PEOPLES CENTER
37 HOWE STREET, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT 06511
A PETITION FOR THE BILL OF RIGHTS
IN SUPPORT OF THE NEW HAVEN PEOPLES CENTER
Governor Dannel P. Malloy
State of Connecticut
State Capitol
Hartford, Connecticut
August 25, 2012
Honorable Governor Malloy:
We are Veterans who have served in various
branches of the United States Armed Forces. We were
citizen-soldiers deeply committed, then and now, to the
protection of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of
the United States. We support the legitimate request of
the New Haven Peoples Center for State funding for
essential brick and mortar repairs.
We deplore the manipulation of a few Veterans,
for narrow political purposes, who do not understand that
the New Haven Peoples Center is an historic building,
1851, the active center since 1937 for organizations
campaigning for jobs for youth and against violence, for
immigrant’s rights, against racial profiling, decent jobs
and medical treatment for Veterans, and for global peace,
among others.
We reject the spurious and dangerous “red
baiting” charges used to deny the Peoples Center their
legitimate request. As Veterans, we know how the McCarthy
period and the charge of “communism” led to the deaths of
so many of our fellow soldiers and trashed the democratic
rights of our people. We refuse to allow our comrades to
be the instruments of intimidation and neo-fascist
tactics.
We call for the restoration of the request of
the New Haven Peoples Center for funding.
Alfred
L.
Marder, Company M. 14th Infantry Regiment, 71st Division,
Recipient Bronze Star
Fernando
A.
Ayala, U.S. Army Retired, January 1972 to March 1985
Calvin
Bunnell,
USS JFK U.S. Navy, USS FDR U.S. Navy
Anthony
Butler
(E-4), 438th MAC / 527 TAC, McGuire AFB, New Jersey, Okinawa,
Japan
Bill
Collins, Norwalk
Thomas
Connolly,
U.S. Army 2nd 68 Armor Battalion, Germany, 1962-1965
Celestino
Cordova,
U.S. Army Korean War 1951-52
Luis
Acevedo Cortez, U. S. Army Vietnam 1968
Joseph
Dimow,
World War II Veteran, 29th Armored Div.
Francis
E.
Douglass Jr. , USMC
Stephen
E.
D. Fournier, 6916th Security Squadron, U.S. Air Force Security
Service
Craig
S. Gauthier, 82nd Airborne Div. 1962-1966
Winston
Heimer,
Maj (Ret) U.S. Army, Signalcorps
James
D. Linn, Vietnam Veteran
Raymond
Milici,
USATC FA, Fourth U.S. Army
Luis
A. Muniz-Rivera, U.S. Air Force Vietnam 1969
Paul
Neal, U.S. Army, Vietnam 1970
James
Pandaru, U.S. Navy 1962-66; Seabees, 1971-91
Rafael
A.
Reyes, U.S. Army Vietnam 1967
David
W. P. Roy, SrA, USAF, Beale AFB, 100th Refueling Wing
Charles
Ruemmelez,
1st Marine Corp Div. 1966/67, 5th Marines, Head Quarters Company
Roberto
Santos,
U.S. Army Afghanistan 2010
