Hello, Boston.
Welcome to Occupy Boston. We do not represent any one union, activist group, or organization in Boston. We are a large gathering of disaffected, angry, fed up Americans from all walks of life. We represent only ourselves- the 99%. We find it very interesting (and telling) that the mainstream media continually accuses us of being a mass of fractured, disconnected causes, yet once we come together under the Occupy banner, they call us disorganized and expect us to come up with a singular demand.
Please keep this in mind as you attend tonight. We are the 99%. There’s a 99% chance that you are, too.
Our first meeting will be tonight on Boston Common by the bandstand at 7:30 PM (see bottom of page for map). Before you attend, here are some things to remember.
1. THIS IS NOT A PROTEST. Protests will come soon. We know that you are chomping at the bit to get out there and make your voices heard; we are right there with you. We want to make sure, however, that we do this right. Tonight is our first General Assembly. We are meeting in order to get a feel of what we want and need to accomplish, and what we must have in order to make that happen. We will create working groups, and we will create small-scale strategies. Therefore, do not bring any camping materials, and do not plan on camping. However, it will be nighttime; you may want to bring a flashlight, although the Common is somewhat lit at night.
2. We have heard rumors (true or not, we’re not exactly sure) that someone was arrested at a different Boston protest last night because they were holding a bullhorn. Therefore, we will not be using any sort of a bullhorn or microphone when we speak out. We will be using a technique that the Wall Street protesters came up with at Zuccotti Park, called The People’s Microphone. Basically, it’s like a grown-up version of “Telephone.” You can read more about it here. http://www.correntewire.com/the_peoples_microphone_in_zuccotti_park
3. Because our amplification abilities will be somewhat limited and possibly time-consuming, and because attendance numbers are apparently MUCH higher than we initially anticipated, we ask that those of you who wish to speak out keep your statements directly relevant, and relatively brief. We have to be out of the park by the time it closes at 11:00 PM, and we need to allocate a certain amount of time for the nonviolence training that will happen after our meeting (more on that below) (edit 12:46 PM). Again, tonight is a planning meeting. We want to hear ideas and strategies and needs. To be respectfully blunt, in the interest of time, it is not an appropriate time for you to give speeches about the causes and organizations that you support. However, please feel very free to bring any flyers, pamphlets, etc for any pertinent (or non-pertinent!) events that you wish to spread the word about, and remember that there will be many opportunities in the future. (Edit 9/27 12:07 PM: passing out flyers and pamphlets is prohibited. Feel free to bring them, but someone must ask you for them in order for you to pass them out.)
4. We have some pretty specific needs right now.
*We need attorneys and law students who can help us research laws about camping, erecting structures, and general assembly.
*Soon we will need medics: doctors, nurses, med students, EMTs, and people who have undergone medic training.
*We need media and tech-savvy people who can report on our events and livestream them as they occur.
If any of this sounds like you, please make a point of coming out tonight.
5. The Boston Police Department are our friends and allies. We notice that at least two media outlets have pointed out that the BPD’s intelligence unit is “monitoring” our activities, and we have some concerns that because most of the media story has been about police brutality in NYC, the media may be (purposefully or inadvertently) pitting us against the BPD. Therefore, we have a few statements to make.
*We respect the fact that quite frankly, it is the BPD’s job to consistently check us out and make sure that we are on the up-and-up. We are a completely transparent group, but we are growing very quickly.
*Our interactions with the BPD both over the phone and over Twitter have resulted in entirely courteous and civil discourse.
*We recognize that the members of the BPD are fighting the same struggle that we are. We think this statement about BPD pensions and wrongful media blame on officers instead of Wall Street where it belongs, put out by the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation (a BPD labor union), puts a lot of our feelings into words pretty perfectly. A quote:
The blame for increased costs needs to lie with the Wall Street robber barons who invested our hard earned pension dollars in phony equities and securities which led to a world-wide economic meltdown.
6. Nonviolent resistance training will occur after the meeting. The Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild will be educating us (and we are so thankful to them for that!). If you plan on protesting, staying around for this training is highly recommended. (edit 12:47 PM: Somewhere some of our wires got crossed. MassNLG will apparently be conducting this training at a later date.)
7. These are the rules & regulations of Boston Parks & Recreation. Know them. Follow them. Respect your fellow Bostonians, and respect the workers who will have to clean up any messes we may leave behind.
The map below gives a pretty good idea of where the bandstand is. It’s the seven spoke wheel-looking circle a bit below the A marker, adjacent to the tennis court. It’s within easy walking distance of Boylston St. Station (green line) a relatively short walking distance from Park Street Station (red and green lines), and not too far from Downtown Crossing (orange line).
See you guys tonight.
20 Responses to “OCCUPY BOSTON: Day 1”
Horray! thanks for the info. c u tonight
We should take great care in making sure that we do not alienate people, this movement does not belong solely to the “left.” The 99% is comprised of people from all walks of life, and both sides of the political isle, we should remember that as we move forward. I have heard and read comments from disillusioned republicans which echo many of the sentiments I’ve seen made by Occupy participants.
We must move past the idea of “liberal” vs “conservative” and recognize that both ideologies have benefits and flaws. We should work to find the best of both, and forge a new path without the division we’ve seen grow over the years, the division which is used to plays us against ourselves. The American People have spent so much time arguing which flag was better, blue or red, that they’ve forgotten what being an American is all about!
Let us be the example. Let us cast off the labels of “liberal” and “conservative” and start focusing on what is right and wrong.
Good, fair point. I changed “the left” to “us.” “Us” is open to interpretation.
Well, where is the non-violence training going to take place?
Boston-based progressive groups like City Life/Vida Urbana, Alternatives for Community & Environment, Jobs with Justice, Boston Workers Alliance, MassUniting, and others have been planning a March and Rally against the big national Banks for weeks now to take place on Friday 9/30/11, beginning at the Boston Common. Occupy Boston needs to coordinate its actions with local progressive groups that have been fighting the same issues in our community for many years.
These groups have been working for YEARS to bring about economic justice in the Boston area. They are not about one time events, but have been organizing people to engage in grassroots community actions for real long-term permanent changes. The Friday rally is just the latest event in a long line of events fighting back against the monied interests now controlling our country. If you want real change — work with the people and groups in our community who have been committed to doing so for years. They need your energy, committment and hard work!!
Do they have a list of demands?
It is time, for all 99% of US, to re-educate the 1$ of them, about the rules of a DEMOCRACY!
What about “we the people” don’t they understand. See you on the Common tonight.
Do you have any idea how many people came to boston common tonight?
I would guess more like 250-300. I didn’t do a count personally, but every time someone brought it up it was usually somewhere in that range.
~150
An email list for the “food working group” has been established. This list will be used for planning logistics for food at the occupation. If you are interested in helping with food at “Occupy Boston,” please join this email list and share your ideas: http://groups.google.com/group/occupyboston-food
A general email account for donations, questions, suggestions, and the like has also been set up. Please direct those kind of messages to: occupyboston.food@gmail.com
Demand a year of national dialogue on an entirely new federal tax code. Start with NO exemptions for anyone, or thing, for any reason. At the end of the year, the only modifications will be those that can be agreed upon, via DIRECT DEMOCRACY, nation-wide in one year. This is HOW we get from here, to there.
Thank you for considering my suggestion.
A Demands Voting Page like NY’s would be great. Ditto working with the 9/30/11 coalition.
Isn’t prohibiting passing out flyers a violation of the First Amendment?
Demand: A national emergency commission to focus on the problems of the economy, and in particular on REAL financial reform, unemployment and underemployment and job creation. We should NOT let the federal government choose all the members of this commission as is usually the case with national level commissions because the federal government has shown that it doesn’t represent the 99% any longer. We need to go over the head of the federal government and maybe pick the members of this commission ourselves.
This sounds like “study the issue some more.” There are lots of great solutions out there. Occupy Wall Street could become a Constitutional Convention and implement them, starting with “disembodying” corporations, that is, denying them the status and protection of citizens.
Cornel West in concert at #OccupyWallStreet
http://www.correntewire.com/dont_be_afraid_to_say_revolution
Have you contacted the National Lawyers Guild about legal research, assistance, and observing? They are working with Friday’s protest organizers. Go to their website and send a message if you haven’t already.
I will come from Providence tomorrow and over the weekend and I will bring people with me. My biggest concern was addressed by “Give No Ground”. If this is going to work it cannot be “leftist.” We need to be inclusive. We had a mini-rally in Providence today and had people from all walks of life and across the political spectrum. Some of our group flipped the bird to Bank of America, which is great for free expression, but the old lady next to me who was concerned with social justice not teen angst was a little put off by it. Let’s invite everyone, since that is the only hope. We should fix this belief in unity as a principle in the movement.
on October 5th, 2011 at 6:49 pm #
[…] police union. “The Boston Police Department are our friends and allies,” they said in their first post at occupyboston.com:We think this statement about BPD pensions and wrongful media blame on officers […]
fyi, National Demonstration, American Dream Movement 11/17
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/10/04/american-dream-movement-announces-november-17-rising-tide-of-protest/