The Progressive Action Roundtable mission is to inform the greater New Haven community about the activities of many progressive groups, so that people may learn about them and become involved in discussions and actions on issues for the common good, such as peace, health, racial equity, justice, clean energy and the environment.
Calling all clean energy supporters. We will be selecting 10 lucky winners to receive a copy of Bill McKibben’s landmark book, Here Comes the Sun.
by Ann Froines, Back from the Brink
Are you concerned, even frightened, that the regional wars involving nuclear powers in these perilous times could spark an exchange of nuclear weapons? The result of such an exchange could result in the deaths of millions over time—from the explosions themselves, radiation contamination, and a “nuclear winter” resulting in vastly lowered food production. Prominent scientists and medical personnel have warned for decades of this possibility because nuclear weapons are on hair-trigger alerts. One mistake in a complicated system could result in devastation to the planet.
You can help avert this catastrophe by participating as an individual in the grassroots campaign launched by the coalition Back from the Brink. (See preventnuclearwar.org.) At this readable website you will find this campaign’s common sense approach to nuclear policies that will secure a safer future for all the world. You can easily join as an individual, provide financial support, and use its advocacy tools to help prevent a nuclear war.
The approach argues for actively pursuing through diplomacy verifiable agreements among nuclear powers to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons. Furthermore, it advocates, among several other measures, the cancellation of the one trillion dollar plan to replace the current U.S. nuclear arsenal with “enhanced weapons.” Such expenditures will not make us safer but instead prioritize an arms race that deprives our nation of much needed programs for health care, housing and education.
Fifty members of the House of Representatives, including three of the five Connecticut representatives, have endorsed House Resolution 317, a bill that describes Back from the Brink’s objectives (Reps. DeLauro, Hayes, and Larson). Connecticut citizens are also trying to arrange a meeting with Senator Chris Murphy, who would be an important voice advocating for the companion resolution, Senate Resolution 323.
Please won’t you consider joining in the citizens’ campaign for a sane nuclear policy and the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons?
Sincerely, Ann Froines, Hamden, CT
Many PAR readers who, from the 1980s on, attended peace rallies and demonstrations in Groton and New London against war, nuclear weapons, and the production of the nuclear submarines, met Cal Robertson, who earned their admiration and respect. Stephen Vincent Kobasa, New Haven writer and activist, wrote this article originally for the Hartford Catholic Worker at https://bit.ly/4t9c6YJ.
by Stephen Vincent Kobasa
(Htfd Catholic Worker ed. note: Cal Robertson was born unto eternity on January 3. Cal was universally known to residents of southeastern CT for his decades long daily vigil for nonviolence at the Sub base in Groton, the Sailor and Soldiers monument in New London, and elsewhere. Cal was a soft-spoken man of very few words – in part because of a head injury, but more so out of humility. If you ever met him he undoubtedly greeted you with “solidarity in the struggle,” and handed you a poem. Cal vigiled for peace in penance for his time in the Vietnam War.)
“Purity of heart is to will one thing” was a claim made by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Until my first encounter with Cal Robertson, I never had a clear proof that anyone I knew possessed that quality. But Cal did, passionately.
He was a wounded healer, a veteran, full of grace, who carried memories that most of us would be afraid to imagine. He was one of the few human beings I have ever known who was simply incapable of arrogance. Humility was in every one of his gestures, along with compassion. His laughter was explosive, always accompanied by a single loud clap of his hands, an audible punctuation that was also a sign of both his affirmation and his pleasure.
He had a sincere curiosity about every person he encountered, intent upon finding the questions that would reveal what mattered most about them, and to them. His fidelity to the practice of nonviolence was unfailing, with even his smallest gestures carrying a touch of peace.
There was a kind of penance to his life, but it led him to joy. Everyone who knew him was led there, too. In the traditional Jewish phrase, his memory will always be a blessing.
by Lynn Stoddard, Third Act CT
Bill McKibben’s talk, Back to the Wall, Face to the Sun: The Climate Crisis and the Renewable Answer is the UConn Teale lecture on April 2 at 4 p.m. This in-person lecture is FREE and takes place at the UConn Student Union Theater (2110 Hillside Rd., Storrs). No registration required. Parking info for the Storrs campus: https://park.uconn.edu/visitors/storrs/ . More info is here: https://environment.institute.uconn.edu/teale-lecture-series/.
Bill McKibben is the founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages.
McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign.
by Women’s & Gender Studies Department, SCSU
The 25th Women’s & Gender Studies Conference at Southern Connecticut State University April 17–18, 2026, Southern Connecticut State University, School of Business Building, 10 Wintergreen Ave., New Haven
We are excited to welcome you to join us for our 25th Women’s & Gender Studies Conference at SCSU featuring our keynote speaker, Dr. Nirmala Erevelles, as well as three of our plenary speakers, Jen Deerinwater, JuPong Lin, and Souksavanh Keovorabouth.
Dr. Erevelles is a professor of social and cultural studies in education at the University of Alabama. Her work focuses on disability studies, critical race theory, transnational feminism, sociology of education, and postcolonial studies to examine how disability intersects with race, class, gender, and sexuality, particularly in relation to students in U.S. public schools and disabled people in transnational contexts.
Jen Deerinwater is a bisexual, Two-Spirit, multiple-disabled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and an award-winning journalist and organizer who covers the myriad of issues their communities face with an intersectional lens.
JuPong Lin is an independent artist, practice-led researcher, writer, and cultural worker who dances with horseshoe crabs and makes ceremony with cranes. Her mission is to hospice the dying colonized world, serving as a death doula through the arts and poetics to create futures of joyful interspecies co-becoming. JuPong was a faculty member in the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College for nearly 20 years before the College closed in 2024. She recently completed her doctorate in Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England.
Souksavanh Keovorabouth is from the Diné (Navajo) Nation and second-generation Laotian, Queer, Trans, Two-Spirit, and Nadleeh. They come from a lineage of survivors of the Navajo Long Walk, Native Boarding Schools, Relocation, Indian Placement Program, and Urbanization. They call Chinle, Arizona home and work as an Assistant Professor at Northern Arizona University in Women and Gender Studies & Applied Indigenous Studies.
Please register for the conference by visting: https://inside.southernct.edu/womens-and-gender-studies/conferences/2026.
Unidad Latina en Acción is calling on activists to help plan this year’s May Day event. Come to the meetings and share your ideas for international solidarity and justice. Meetings are every Sunday through April at 4 p.m. at 37 Howe Street. For questions or info, call John at 203-606-3484.
by Paula Panzarella, PAMAS
Thoughts on Medical Assisted Suicide, produced last year by Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide (PAMAS), will be featured at Southern Connecticut State University’s Women’s & Gender Studies Conference.
After the film viewing, there will be a presentation via Zoom by Anita Cameron and audience discussion.
Anita is a disability justice activist who has been involved in social change activism and community organizing for 44 years. As a Black disabled lesbian, Anita has dealt with racisim, sexism, ableism, and homophobia – sometimes combinations of these.
As of this printing, the workshop “Medical Assisted Suicide: A Threat to the Vulnerable” is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, April 18, 1:45-3 p.m. More information is at https://inside.southernct.edu/womens-and-gender-studies/conferences/2026, or call 203-392-6133.
by Connecticut For All
When our families are under attack and costs are pushing people to the brink, silence is not an option. We stand united to protect ourselves and our communities against Trump’s billionaire agenda and constant acts of violence. The solution in Connecticut is the Stand Up CT agenda which, if passed, will ensure stability for all working people in our state through funding and policies that protect our civil rights and public services. Enough is enough.
Our goal is to collect 1000+ postcards and deliver them to our Governor & Legislative Leadership on April 15 during a Tax Day action at the CT State Capitol.
Our Postcard Teams are going to be at No Kings protests in Danbury, Hartford, New Haven, and Stamford.
Want to join the fight? Please register at
For details about the Tax Day action, please email info@connecticutforall.org.
by Frank Panzarella, New Haven activist
It’s vital for mayors to let voters know they’re serious about responding to challenges, even those that they cannot completely control. “When you do that, when people see that you are prepared to manage something like that, it gives you credibility on everything else,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders. “People see you’re there to work for them” (a quote from Sen. Sanders in The Nation).
Those considered politically left are under a large umbrella with often widely differing ideologies. Trump and his extremist allies love to vilify the left and imply that all trends are extreme left and violent, partly out of ignorance but also as a deliberate attempt to weaken the left.
Today, in New England, right here in New Haven, we have a mayor, Justin Elicker, who sees himself as a progressive Democrat, and next door in New York City we have Democratic Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Both mayors face the increasing dilemma of a self-destructive capitalist economy driven by profit despite their desires to improve the well-being of all. Capitalism is incapable of solving the problem of homelessness. It is up to the people to demand housing for everyone. Other problems challenging the mayors are stagnant wages for working-class employees, housing costs and shortages driven by a parasitic real estate market controlled by banks and corporate landlords, and skyrocketing insurance and medical costs.
In New Haven, while the state legislature guards Yale’s corporate elite privileged status from having to pay real taxes on its properties, small businesses and renters are being drowned by big box corporate competition and outrageous rents. Included in this are small working-class landlords caught between skyrocketing taxes and insurance rates and tenants who can’t afford increased rents.
All this is being amplified by a whack job national administration stacking the deck in favor of the billionaire class. So-called liberals like Governor Lamont still favor oil and gas expansions, even wanting to expand the toxic nuclear industry while they cut back on desperately needed support for low-income communities.
This system is supposed to function with checks and balances but corporate capitalism has rigged the game and now under Trump is allowing the rules to be changed, even destroying environmental protections and gutting free speech.
World capitalism fuels wars, climate change and extreme poverty forcing millions to migrate to the wealthier countries. Only when we face these challenges with organized united mass movements can mayors who aspire to change things succeed.
Thank You, Activists, for Your Organizing!
by Progressive Action Roundtable Planning Committee
In this sadly historic time of a US president’s dismantling of democracy and the impending imposition of fascist rule and takeover of other nations, activists all around the country have upped the level of their resistance.
As we go to press, people throughout the US are planning thousands of massive demonstrations and rallies for March 28, No Kings Day 3, in which millions in the country will join in. They (and we at PAR) are determined to put a halt to the racist, anti-immigrant, cruel, war-mongering, nationalistic, misogynistic, LGBTQIA+-hating, genocidal, imperialistic policies of the controlling forces of the federal government that threaten humanity and the environmental balance of the entire planet.
Thank you! You are mobilizing an event that can help turn this country around by raising awareness, multiplying resistance, bringing optimism and forging plans to halt this country’s slide into authoritarianism and the continuation of degradation and impoverishment of its citizens and the people of the world.
If this April issue reaches you before Saturday, March 28, we hope you find a No Kings protest to attend. New Haven’s No Kings rally is on the New Haven Green, 3-5:30 p.m. Other CT rallies will be in Danbury, Hartford, Guilford, Branford, Greenwich, Waterbury, New Britain, Killingly, New London, Mystic, Granby, and many more towns. For details on these protests and to find others, please go to nokings.org.
We look forward to seeing your reports and photos of the various demonstrations and actions you’re involved in for our May Progressive Action Roundtable newsletter. Email them to parnewhaven@hotmail.com.