Fight for Our Future and Protect Our Vote

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by Frank Panzarella, New Haven activist

During the current mid-term election, securing the rights of the people to vote has never been more important. The Trump fascist administration may use several tactics to undermine the elections. These include:

  1. Alleging fraud and compromised voting machines
  2. Pressuring election officials to change or cancel results
  3. Seizing ballots or voting equipment
  4. Federal election monitors to interfere with voting
  5. ICE presence near polling sites
  6. Troops at polling places
  7. Emergency Declaration
  8. Federal investigations and charges against election officials
  9. Congress’ refusal to seat election winners

(From A Reuters Special Report: Nine ways the Trump administration could interfere with the midterms, Oct. 14, 2026.)

It is up to states and the people to protect our right to vote.

If you are at the polls and believe you may have experienced or witnessed an election official violating your rights, you should do two things: (1) Contact the Secretary of the State’s Election Day Hotline at (866) 733-2463 and (2) Report it to the ACLU-CT at https://action.aclu.org/aclu-form/ct-election-protection.

We all are the eyes and ears on the ground. The ACLU, along with others like the Secretary of the State’s office, are monitoring the election for any issues that may impact voters. While the ACLU will not be able to respond to all intake messages, it will be regularly reviewing the concerns that you flag for it and will respond accordingly.

The State began early voting from Monday, Oct. 19 through Sunday, Nov. 1. The early voting takes place in New Haven at City Hall, 165 Church St., 2nd floor, and at Southern Connecticut State University, Wintergreen Building, 1 Wintergreen Ave. The voting hours on Oct. 27 and 29 are   8 a.m. through 8 p.m., and on all other days through Nov. 1 are 10 a.m. through 6 p.m. For other towns, check at your local town hall for early voting sites and hours.

Much of this information is from the ACLU. For its guide to Plan Your Vote, visit http://planyourvotect.org.

Our democratic rights depend on all of us to not be bullied by attempts to interfere with voting. Further, voting is only the first step and beyond that we must build resistance to the failure of capitalism to provide basic necessities for the people. Housing, healthcare, human and civil rights, and a living wage income must be guaranteed by a true government of the people. We must also stop Trump’s support for fascist governments overseas, and we must provide support for all oppressed peoples and suffering of the displaced. We must end the Trump war on women, people of color, immigrants, and others. If the Democrats win but fail to implement these changes then they must also be voted out and replaced with true democrats.

No Kings Protest Pushes Early Voting

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Oct. 17, 2026, Brandon Cortes, New Haven Independent

“I feel totally betrayed by the [Republican] Party,” David Levine said on the Green on Saturday. “I was a Republican because I believed in free markets and free institutions, not the dismantlement of these institutions.”

photo: Brandon Cortes

Levine offered that personal-political trajectory as he joined dozens of people downtown for a “No Kings” rally where attendees called for early voting ahead of the midterm elections.

The New Haven rally was one of thousands to take place across the country on Saturday — and just the latest mass demonstration against President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies.

Levine, a self-described former “very partisan” Republican, said he grew troubled by the party’s denial of climate change even before Trump and that Trump’s attacks on democratic institutions pushed him away.

Levine also said his son works at the White House. “We don’t see eye to eye,” he said, but “we get along in spite of that fact.”

Saturday’s rally was organized by Indivisible Greater New Haven, led by Maggie Marcarelli. Organizers set up a table where attendees could sign up to drive voters to the polls once early voting begins on Monday, Oct. 19.

During the rally, many attendees took turns at the microphone to share their reasons for voting early. Women’s rights, veterans’ rights, the release of the Epstein files, and abolishing ICE were among the issues they raised.

[To read the article in its entirety, see https://bit.ly/48c7KY4.]

Plans for Dec. 5 Panel on Reckless Tech are Set

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by Stanley Heller, Promoting Enduring Peace

The Saturday, Dec. 5 forum is called “What Is the Tech Billionaire Agenda and How Can We Defend Ourselves.”  It will be held at the Unitarian Society of Hartford on 50 Bloomfield Ave. starting at 4 p.m.

Speakers are: Ed Hawthorne, President of CT AFL-CIO, active in crafting legislation to protect workers from AI job loss; Leslie Blatteau, President of NHFT Local 933; James Saccardo, Political Director, Amazon Labor Union, International, Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 1; Desiree Brooks, Beacon Falls Group Against the Data Centers; Kenzie Metivier, Surveillance Off Our Streets, Southeast CT; Sena Wazer, Sierra Club Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator, organizing around gas pipeline expansion & data center mapping; Stanley Heller, Promoting Enduring Peace, author of “Connecticut’s Reckless Drive for More Nuclear Power” in the Sept. 30, 2026 CT Mirror; with greetings from Seth Freeman, President of 4Cs, SEIU 1973.

On Oct. 18 there was an article in the Hartford Courant about the fight to stop a new huge data center in Cromwell. The Courant notes, “Residents are concerned that a Long Island-based energy services entrepreneur is already advertising a data center it would build off Geer Street in Cromwell. The proposal would put 1.2 million square feet of data center space (roughly the size of the Westfarms Mall) in the middle of a small suburban neighborhood adjoining schools and parks.” Think of the constant noise, the water use, and the electricity that will have to be generated for the mammoth data center. Think of the greenhouse gases that will flow into the atmosphere because of the electricity production.

Recently, film director Adam McKay called attention to a study by actuaries at the University of Exeter in Britain. It predicts 2 to 4 billion deaths caused by “changing” climates. There’s a link to his article “The Gargantuan Lie that is Collapsing the Climate” [that we have lots of time to fix things] on PEPeace.org/climate-and-nature.

People’s World Amistad Awards: Which Side Are You On?

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by People’s World Amistad Awards Committee

This year’s People’s World Amistad Awards Which Side Are You On? will be held Saturday, Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. at First and Summerfield Church, which is home to UNITE HERE unions and located at 425 College Street, New Haven.

People’s World is honored to present the Amistad Award to three wonderful allies and working-class champions. Together they represent the kind of unity, solidarity and vision needed to build the movement that can defend our rights against vicious corporate assault, fight for our future, and transform our country to put people, peace and planet before profits.

Maryam Khan, State Rep. (HD 5), is an inspiring leader, educator, fighter for working-class children and families, first Muslim woman legislator, demanding economic and social equity, environmental justice, peace and no bigotry.

Ellen Cupo, Local 34 UNITE HERE organizer, is a mother and former alder, with courage, vision and commitment for working-class power and solidarity, and, as Vice President Central Campus, leads the fight against billionaire Yale for workers’ rights and dignity.

Stuart Beckford, Vice President of Hartford Federation of Teachers, community artist and grassroots organizer and passionate educator, is dedicated to empowering all members of the community and build union power with AFT Connecticut and CT AFL CIO.

The event will stand in solidarity with Danbury Unites for Immigrants and with union workers in major contract fights at L & M Hospital (Yale New Haven Health) in New London.

A narrated concert of multi-cultural freedom songs directed by Brian Jarawa Gray will highlight the event.

The annual event is hosted on the occasion of the 107th anniversary of the Communist Party USA. A youth tribute will be presented in the spirit of building unity against racism, red-baiting and all forms of bigotry for workers’ rights, equality, peace, democracy and a better world.

Tickets are $10. The keepsake program book will be printed and in an electronic version. We invite you to place an ad in the book to honor the awardees and the occasion. The ad deadline is Nov. 20. For ad information, please email ct-pww@pobox.com or call 203-624-8664.

Nov. 4 and Nov. 18 – Affordable Housing: From Understanding to Action

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by Community Foundation for Greater New Haven

Housing affordability affects people, families and communities across Greater New Haven — but the challenges, experiences and potential solutions can look very different from one person and one community to another.

Building on conversations convened by the Foundation in 2025 — when residents and advocates from across the region identified housing as a significant concern affecting economic mobility — this three-part Civic Leagues series will bring people together. Residents, community leaders, advocates, housing practitioners and others from across Greater New Haven will come together to learn, listen, build relationships and explore what we can do collectively to advance housing affordability.

At the center of the series will be conversations among people from different neighborhoods and towns — creating opportunities to hear perspectives and experiences that may be different from our own and to consider solutions informed by the people and communities most affected.

Across three interactive sessions, we will ground our conversations in local data and lived experience, explore the factors shaping housing affordability, and learn about promising strategies and approaches being used locally and elsewhere. Facilitated small-group conversations will give participants the opportunity to share their own experiences, knowledge, questions and concerns with housing practitioners and others available.

Each session will build on the one before it — moving from understanding the challenge, to exploring potential solutions, to identifying opportunities for action. Along the way, participants will consider where they can make a difference individually and collectively, while the Foundation and other regional partners listen, learn and consider how participants’ priorities and perspectives can inform their own work.

You do not need to be a housing expert to participate. Housing touches all of our lives, and addressing affordability requires more than professional expertise. It requires the knowledge, experiences, ideas and involvement of people who live in our communities. This series is an opportunity to bring those perspectives together, learn from one another, and begin identifying ways we can contribute to stronger, more affordable communities across Greater New Haven.

The Nov. 4 and Nov. 18 workshops will be at The Lab at ConnCORP, 496 Newhall St., Hamden, from 5 – 7:30 p.m. Seating is limited. Advance registration is required. For information and to register, phone Amy Nicefaro at 203-777-7093.

For more info: https://www.cfgnh.org/events/civic-leagues-affordable-housing

 

Yale BREATHE Haven Research Study

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by Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven

Yale researchers are partnering with Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven to study home environments and develop tools to make all homes healthier. Help us understand how your home’s environment affects respiratory health.

What’s Involved:

  • Two 2-hour home visits, 3 months apart
  • Health and home surveys
  • Breathing tests
  • Dust and water sample collection
  • Thermal images of your home’s perimeter
  • Home air monitoring for 3 months

 

Are You Eligible?

  • Age 18+
  • Live in a 1-4-unit building
  • Not planning to move within 3 months
  • Not current smoker or vaper
  • English or Spanish speaking
  • Not currently pregnant

 

$200 Compensation and Personalized Home & Respiratory Health Report

 

Ready to participate?

A collaboration between Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven and Yale University

Stop Proposed Pipeline Under Connecticut River

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by Kate Donnelly, environmental activist

Please join Sunrise Wesleyan, NOPE and Sierra Club CT on Saturday, November 7 at 1 p.m. for our Walk to Stop the SERPent Pipeline. This 7-mile walk will take us from Hurd State Park—the location of Eversource’s proposed pipeline under the Connecticut River—to the Eversource facility in East Hampton.

This pipeline threatens Connecticut’s namesake river, while increasing utility costs and our reliance on methane gas, which disproportionately burdens environmental justice communities with unaffordable energy and air pollution. Furthermore, more methane gas is harming the climate. The walk will include speakers about the proposed pipeline, connection with nature, and utility justice, among other topics.

If you wish to join but don’t plan to walk, please gather at   1 p.m. at Hurd State Park entrance for inspiring speakers and a call to action. Find more info and register at tinyurl.com/eversourcepipelinewalk.

For more information, call Kate Donnelly, 860-604-4846.

CCAG Annual Awards Celebration Dec. 10  

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On Thursday, Dec. 10, from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m., Connecticut Citizen Action Group’s Annual Awards Celebration will take place. The awardees are former State Senator Marilyn Moore and Gretchen Raffa, Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. For information and to purchase tickets: natashak@ccag.net or phone 860-233-2181. The event will be at J Under the Dome, 1 Sequassen St., Hartford.

New Haven Free Public Library Upcoming Events

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Sandy Flores, Administrative Library Aide, NHFPL

Author Talk with P. Paramita

Join us for a reading and conversation with P. Paramita about her new novel APPETITE! The book features a young Bangladeshi prep cook in New Haven. We’ll talk about author life, publishing, and the book’s big themes, including the city of New Haven, featured vividly in the novel. There will be Q&A, and the author will sell and sign books.

Saturday, Nov. 7, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Community Program Room, Ives Main Library, 133 Elm St.

Dabke Workshop

Join Little Bayt New Haven and Yale Dabke on the second floor for a dabke dance workshop. Dabke is a form of dance common to the Levantine region (Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan). The workshop is open to all ages, from littles to older kids and parents and will take place right after Arabic Language Story Time.

Saturday, Nov. 7, 11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Community Conversation Room – 2nd Floor, Stetson Branch, 197 Dixwell Ave.

Mitchell Book Club – The Personal Librarian

Join the Mitchell Book Club as we discuss, The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. The book is about an extraordinary woman and the lengths she goes to in order to preserve her carefully-crafted white identity in the racist world she lives in. Copies of the book are available to borrow at the circulation desk.

Thursday, Nov. 12, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Program Room, Mitchell Branch, 37 Harrison St.

Muslim American Heritage Story Time

Listen to a bilingual story in Urdu and English. Then make a craft, get henna on your hands, and practice Arabic calligraphy! Presented in partnership with Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Baitul Aman “House of Peace” Mosque, Connecticut Chapter.

Saturday, Nov. 14, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Program Room, Fair Haven Library, 182 Grand Ave.

Humanist Association of Connecticut Book Discussion:

Join a monthly book club hosted by the Humanist Association of Connecticut and discuss great books. All are welcome! This month we are reading: JOB: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein

Saturday, Nov. 21, 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Family Place, Wilson Branch Library, 303 Washington Ave.

All of these libraries are wheelchair-accessible.

Board of Alders Presses Yale Not to Settle with Trump Administration

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by Nellie Kenney, Oct. 20, 2026, Yale Daily News

City leaders voted to urge Yale not to settle with the Trump administration at a Monday evening meeting. Following impassioned public testimony at a committee meeting last month, the Board of Alders unanimously approved a resolution that calls on Yale to mirror New Haven’s more aggressive posture towards the Trump administration.

The University is engaged in negotiations with the federal government related to allegations that the Yale School of Medicine discriminates against white and Asian applicants. The Department of Justice is also investigating the admissions practices of Yale College and Yale Law School but has not released findings related to those investigations.

The resolution claims that Yale’s decisions have “significant consequences” for the city and asserts alders’ allegiance with “students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members who have called upon Yale University to reject a settlement with the federal government and defend its institutional autonomy.”

“The settlement could not only change Yale’s admissions policies, but further embolden political attacks on Yale, other universities and other democratic institutions,” Ward 1 Alder Elias Theodore ’27, who introduced the resolution, said in a speech at Monday’s meeting. Theodore’s ward includes much of Yale’s campus.

According to the resolution, a copy of its text is set to be shared with University President Maurie McInnis and the Yale Corporation. In a statement after the introduction of the resolution last month, University spokesperson Karen Peart said it is Yale’s “longstanding practice not to discuss the specifics of any ongoing legal matter. That said, we stand firm in the university’s commitment to students’ free expression, academic freedom, and Yale’s ability to determine who is admitted in accordance with the law.”

Theodore called the resolution symbolic in a September interview. Still, it drew widespread enthusiasm at a public hearing before a Board of Alders committee last month. Around 40 students, professors, Yale union members and city residents decried what they described as opacity in Yale’s negotiating process and criticized Yale’s posture towards New Haven. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Sen. Richard Blumenthal LAW ’73, both of whom have been outspoken against a potential settlement, submitted written testimony backing the resolution.

“The message for our constituents in our city is resounding: ‘Yale, don’t cut a deal with Trump,’” Theodore said.

In an interview with the News, Theodore called Yale’s position “tough” and said he hopes the University can “lean on this outpouring of community support as it makes its decision” regarding the federal government.

[Read the full Yale Daily News article here https://bit.ly/4yVMDFk.]

No Illegal ICE Detentions at Tweed New Haven Airport!

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By New Haven Immigrants Coalition

The New Haven Immigrants Coalition, Singing Resistance, New Haven Rising, New Haven Federation of Teachers and others held a press conference on Oct. 21 at Tweed New Haven Airport Authority with the demand that Tweed follow federal and state laws and take every step within its power to stand against ICE and support immigrants.

Following are excerpts of the NHIC press release:

The New Haven Immigrants Coalition (NHIC) calls upon Tweed New Haven Airport Authority (TNHAA) to follow federal regulations and state law.

“Tweed New Haven Airport Authority should follow the law and stand firmly in support of its undocumented neighbors,” the coalition said. “ICE is constrained by CT law and may not detain a member of the public in municipal spaces without a judicial warrant. No human being should be subjected to the dehumanizing and violent tactics such as we have seen at Tweed in the past months. Furthermore, federal regulations require TNHAA to verify that ICE agents go through rigorous background checks and training before they are granted access to the airport. It is incumbent upon TNHAA to ensure these background checks have taken place and are accurate.”

In the past few months two students were detained at Tweed. Instead of studying, sports practice and spending time with friends, these students found themselves far from their friends and family, sleeping on cold concrete floors and struggling to navigate a system of detention camps designed to humiliate and dehumanize them. Additionally, two other members of our community were similarly detained and separated from their families, friends and work. These tactics harm our communities in every way.

The coalition outlined its specific demands that Tweed comply with state and federal law, including that Tweed:

  1. Ensure every ICE officer granted unrestricted access at Tweed has undergone a full background check;
  2. Maintain a comprehensive identification system for ICE agents;
  3. Administer training, including on Public Act 26-14 which prohibits civil arrests without a judicial warrant, before granting ICE access to secured areas;
  4. Maintain records of all ICE arrests at Tweed.

The New Haven Immigrants Coalition is a grassroots coalition of individuals and organizations dedicated to building power among immigrants in the Greater New Haven Area to get organized and stay safe in the face of ongoing ICE brutality. No human being is illegal!

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