End of Year Giving....and Premiere of 80th Anniversary Video

Progressive Education and Research Associates, Inc. d/b/a

New Haven Peoples Center

37 Howe Street, New Haven CT 06511

(203) 624-8664 peoplescenter.blogspot.com/ peoplescenter@pobox.com

A site on the Connecticut Freedom Trail

December 17, 2017

Dear Peoples Center Friends,

Now more than ever we ask you to invest in our future with an end-of-year gift to the New Haven Peoples Center.

The Peoples Center's 80th year has been a big one. Phase two of our restoration project was completed even as we participated in the growing resistance and organizing in our country for democratic rights, equality and peace.

The Peoples Center organized a bus to the Hartford Women's March in January, held Resistance Thursdays potlucks through the summer, sponsored a film series in the fall, and participated in public hearings and actions for many issues including immigrant rights, health care and peace.

Unions, Dreamers, educators and neighborhood groups all filled the building with meetings and events. New Elm City Dream, Free 2 Spit, the Peace Council, People's World and Unidad Latina en Accion continued to keep the building in full use.

The Peoples Center relies on the generous contributions of those who use and appreciate this vibrant, all-volunteer center for social, cultural and educational organizing.

The Peoples Center has invested its commitment and vision to countless movements and causes. Your gift to the Peoples Center restoration fund is an investment in return to this precious resource in our community. We depend solely on the contributions of friends who share our ideals.

We hope you consider an end of year gift to this important progressive institution.

Contributions are tax deductible and can be made to PERA and mailed to 37 Howe Street, New Haven Connecticut 06511.

In solidarity,

Alfred L Marder, President

William P Morico , Treasurer

Joelle Fishman, Secretary and Coordinator

Harold Person, Building Manager

PS - We are proud to announce the premiere of "Peoples Center at 80," a video created by Neal Thomassen featuring the recent activities and organizations in our extraordinary community. You are cordially invited to the video premiere fundraising reception on Friday, January 5, 2018 at 7 pm at 37 Howe Street, New Haven. For more information contact peoplescenter@pobox.com or leave a message at 203-624-8664.

LIVE Stream -- Poor People's Campaign

LIVE Stream at New Haven Peoples Center 37 Howe St Thursday October 19, 2017 at 7:00 pm Poor People's Campaign : Moral Revival Mass Meeting in Boston

Facebook Event Page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/287003168471502/

Live Stream of the New England Mass Meeting for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Co-Convenors Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis will lead the New England Mass Meeting at Trinity Church in Boston starting at 7:00 pm. Hear about the inspiration, vision and strategy for the national Campaign and sign up to get involved.

Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival aims to build a broad and deep national moral fusion movement – rooted in the leadership of the poor, marginalized and moral agents and reflecting the great moral teachings – to unite our country from the bottom up. The call for a Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has emerged from more than a decade of work by grassroots community and religious leaders, organizations and movements fighting to end systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, environmental destruction & related injustices and to build a just, sustainable and participatory society. We draw on the history, vision and unfinished work of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.

There is a resounding call to save the very soul of this nation: We need a Poor People’s Campaign for a Moral Revival in America. It is time to become a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life.

Solidarity Movie Nights

Solidarity Movie Nights

Solidarity Movie Nights Three Fridays: Sept 8 Salt of the Earth; Sept 15 PRIDE; Sept 22 10,000 Black Men Named George.  All at 6 pm at 37 Howe Street, New Haven.  Discussion to follow.

Free.  Refreshments

Newhallville to March for Youth Jobs and to End Violence

A neighborhood march on Saturday, September 23 will highlight the need to end gun violence and create opportunities and jobs for youth in Newhallville.

The march reflects the results of a youth survey this summer in the Newhallville neighborhood. When 14-year old Tyriek B. Keyes, a leader of Ice the Beef Youth was killed, the survey campaign was dedicated to him. 

 

Organizers of the march are New Elm City Dream / YCL, Ice the Beef and New Haven Rising.

Participants will gather at Ivy and Shelton Sts at 9:30 am and begin the march at 10:00 am following brief remarks. The march through the streets of Newhallville will end at the now vacant former state welfare building on Bassett St.. 

 

A short rally will support efforts to open the building for youth needs and job placements, working with local and state elected officials, community and clergy representing the neighborhood. 

 

Six years ago with a record number of homicides in New Haven, the New Elm City Dream/YCL launched a youth survey and campaign for "Jobs For Youth, Jobs For All." Several large marches supported the priorities of good jobs, safe communities, and youth needs. 

 

This summer's door to door youth survey and the march on September 23 continue that commitment.

Contact: Jahmal Henderson 207-440-8116 

The Metacomet Cycle Club

The Peoples Center was founded 80 years ago in 1937. We are collecting stories about the things that have taken place here. If you have recollections or memories please share them. E-mail peoplescenter@pobox.com. Below is by Martin Simon.

 

In 1975, several bicyclists in New Haven, including members of the Communist Party and the Young Workers Liberation League and friends started a unique bicycle club, the Metacomet Cycle Club. 

Metacomet was a sporting and recreational organization that took a political stance. The club was multiracial and multigenerational. Men and women were among its founders and leaders. Metacomet was both a bicycle touring and a bicycle racing club. The club advocated for the rights of cyclists.

Based in New Haven, the Club was named after native leader, Metacomet, also known as Metacom and by his adopted English name King Philip. He was chief to the Wampanoag people in what is now Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

Metacomet, at first, sought to live in harmony with the English colonists. As a sachem, he took the lead in much of his tribes' trade with the colonies. He adopted the European name of Philip.

But the colonies continued to expand. In 1671, the colonial leaders of the Plymouth Colony forced major concessions. Metacomet surrendered much of his tribe's armament and ammunition, and agreed that they were subject to English law. Encroachment by the English, however, continued until hostilities broke out in 1675. Metacomet led the opponents of the English, with the goal of stopping the expansion in the struggle known as King Philips War.

Metacomet used tribal alliances to coordinate efforts to push European colonists out of New England. Many of the native tribes in the region wanted to push out the colonists because of conflicts over land use, diminished game as a consequence of expanding European settlement, and other tensions.

As the colonists brought their growing numbers to bear, King Philip and some of his followers took refuge in the great Assowamset Swamp in southern Massachusetts. He held out for a time, with his family and remaining followers until he was fatally shot on August 12, 1676, in the Miery Swamp near Mount Hope in Bristol, Rhode Island. After his death, his wife and nine-year-old son were captured and sold as slaves in Bermuda. Philip's head was mounted on a pike at the entrance to Fort Plymouth, where it remained for more than two decades.

The Metacomet Club jersey was red with black, brown, yellow, and white horizontal stripes.

The most notable events sponsored by the club were:

A cycle tour to the John Brown birth place in Torrington,

A weekly time trial series over two summers at Lake Quonipaug in North Guilford,

A 3-race officially sanctioned time trial on roads in Guilford, Madison, Killingworth, and West Brook, and

The Five Star Century, a combined 100 mile ride sponsored by five cycling clubs with 5 starting/ending points that met at the same half way point at Haddam Meadow State Park.

Metacomet was welcomed warmly and supported by the People's Center where it held its monthly meetings and pot-luck dinners. Although the club existed for only three years, it played a special part in the history of the Center and in the cycling culture in New Haven. Former Metacomets feel that we, with the support of the People's Center, lay a bit of the foundation for the today’s thriving cycling scene in New Haven.

We Won't Go Back!
RESISTANCE THURSDAYS
Every Thursday at the
New Haven Peoples Center
37 Howe Street
6 to 7:30 pm
Potluck, share information, action, solidarity

peoplescenter@pobox.com

Women's March January 21, 2017

To join the Peoples Center carpool to the Hartford Women's March e-mail to peoplescenter@pobox.com and indicate if you are a driver or would like to be a passenger.

Connecticut will be well represented at the Women's March in Washington DC on Saturday, January 21, the day after inauguration. Connecticut residents will also participate in three sister rallies in Connecticut, and rallies in New York and Boston.

The groundswell for the Women's March is an expression of outrage at threats to women's rights and democratic rights from the Republican Congress and incoming Trump Administration. "The rise of the woman = The rise of the nation.... Women's rights are human rights," says the national website.

Immediate concerns are Trump's nominations of billionaires and generals for cabinet appointments, the threats to repeal the Affordable Care Act, end funding for Planned Parenthood and mass deportations of immigrant residents. The Women's March is dedicated to winning a program of equality and justice for all in our country.

Over 60 buses are sold out for the trip to Washington, DC, leaving from 35 towns across the state. 

Sister rallies will be held in Hartford, Stamford and the Lower Connecticut River Valley. Nationally 269 sister marches are expected to draw 500,000 participants.

The rally in Hartford will be held at 1 pm on the North Steps of the state capitol on January 21. The rally is called in solidarity with the 200,000 plus expected in Washington DC.

"Like many cities and states around the world, we will join in calling for honoring EVERY voice that upholds dignity, justice, unity, and equality for all. Share your views and show support for the ideals and principles behind the Women's March," says the call to the event emphasizing that all are welcome.