Grant for $300, 000 could fund repairs for building where Communist newspaper is published, officials said.
When the state bond commission meets on Monday, they will consider granting hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funding to a project some Republican lawmakers are fighting because they say the organization has Communist ties.
The request in question is a $300,000 grant to Progressive Education and Research Associates to renovate the New Haven Peoples Center, repair masonry, replace windows, install new roofing, gutters and soffits, and improve the heating system and interior flooring.
“What we found troublesome was the fact that the building they’re seeking to renovate with this $300,000 in state money is a building which is the regional headquarters of this newspaper, which, they will tell you, has a very special relationship with the Communist Party.” State Sen. Andrew Rorabach, R-Goshen, said on Thursday.
The newspaper Roraback is referring to is “The People’s World,” which is affiliated with the Communist Party USA and Young Communist League, according to its Web site.
"The editorial mission is partisan to the working class, people of color, women, young people, seniors, LGBT community, to international solidarity; to popularize the ideas of Marxism and Bill of Rights socialism," according to the People's World Web site.
Roraback said he and State Rep. Sean Williams, the two Republican members of the state bond commission, plan to vote against granting the funds and plan to ask other members of the bond commission to vote down the proposal as well.
Local
CT Newsjunkie reports that a Wethersfield resident complained to the Bond Commission in April that two of the board members of Progressive Education and Research Associates have ties to the Communist Party.
The item was pulled from a previous agenda and is back on for the next meeting.
Malloy’s Senior Adviser Roy Occhiogrosso told CT News Junkie each project is evaluated for its individual merits and the impact it has on a community.
“Good things go on in that building and the administration thinks they should continue,” he said.
The New Haven Peoples Center commented on the matter through its blog.
“Opposition to approval of bonding funds to restore an historic building carrying out a vital mission is disturbing,” the New Haven Peoples Center posted in a blog entry. “"It is reported that an e-mail letter was distributed, employing anti-Communist red-baiting and quoting the Yankee Institute. This diversionary scare tactic has been referred to by some in the media as a throwback to the ugly witch hunts of the 1950's which set back democracy in our country for many years. From its inception the Peoples Center has never employed discriminatory tactics or policies and gladly opens its doors in keeping with our mission statement for a better community and a better world.”
There is also a petition on Change.org, supporting funding for the renovations.
Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven, told Newsjunkie that the funds would go to repair a building that’s been a part of New Haven’s landscape predating the New Haven Peoples Center.
“The building is an official part of Connecticut’s African American Freedom Trail because of its contributions toward breaking down racial segregation in Connecticut in the 1940s and the 1950s,” Harp told the Web site. “No one denies the value of preserving that link to Connecticut’s past as a reminder of the closed-minded, repressive way of thinking that perpetuated racism and segregation in our country.”
“Whatever the political views are, it’s not appropriate for taxpayer dollars to be supporting an organization which is actively political, or which houses a newspaper which is actively political. There are better ways to spend our money and we’re going to try to stop this if we can,” Roraback said.
