Good Stuff
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. "
----------------------------- Here's the Letter -----------------------------
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
