“Ocupemos El Barrio” Launches in East Boston!

On Friday, there was a meeting of around 120 people in East Boston for launching of Ocupemos El Barrio. After spirited discussion and speeches from the immigrant community, the gathering developed a media, outreach, and facilitation working group to take the project forward.

As one organizer said, “I’m moved by the prospect of the Latino and broader immigrant community from various nationalities joining this movement and taking it into their hands as their own. This is a monumental development because of the potential it holds out to expand the Occupy movement.”

Take a look at this favorable coverage by no less than Univision!

What next?  We are looking to get people working on

  • Fundraising
  • Labor solidarity
  • Emergency and direct response in case of a deportation in the community
  • Housing advocacy (e.g. eviction blockades)
  • Research/statistics (we need to gather information about the state of immigrant community in MA and USA), and the Secure Communities program.

We also need translators because we want to have meetings, media releases, and our blog/website in multiple languages.

Please contact ocupemoselbarrio at gmail {dot} com  if you are interested in getting more involved.

The next meeting is this Friday at 6pm at the Maverick Landing Community Center, 31 Liverpool St, East Boston (near Maverick station on the Blue MBTA Line).

We are working on providing translation, so don’t let language be an occupation barrier!

Adelante!