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    • Archive: 2011

    The OB Media Rundown for 12/22/11

    December 22nd, 2011 · · Daily Media Rundown Comments Off on The OB Media Rundown for 12/22/11
    Occupy protesters drop legal battle against city of Boston

    The plaintiffs in the Occupy Boston lawsuit against the city filed a voluntary dismissal today, putting an end to their quest for legal permission to reside on Dewey Square. The lawsuit, originally filed last month, was an attempt to ensure that the Occupy Boston protesters would not be evicted from the camp by police. Two weeks ago, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Frances McIntyre decided that the group did not have a constitutional right to live on the public park.

    According to the statement from Urszula Masny-Latos, the executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, the four plaintiffs from Occupy Boston decided not to appeal the decision because their fight for social justice would be hampered by “slow-moving long-term litigation.”

    http://tinyurl.com/6np7oor

    Occupy Wall Street: Where did all the money go?

    An evaluation of financial data provided by several Occupy movements across the country, together with an analysis by WePay, the protesters’ favored donation site, offers a picture of the kind of people supporting the movement and how the money has been spent so far.
    . . .

    In Boston – where supporters have given more than $100,000 – finance working-group member Greg Murphy said that in addition to stripping the movement of a central space to interact with the public, the movement’s Dec. 10 eviction has had a financial toll of $200 to $1,500 in daily cash donations that used to come in on site.

    http://tinyurl.com/cygg2ur

    ‘Occupy Four Corners’ keeps beating drum loudly on the foreclosure front

    Five and a half miles from Dewey Square, a small crowd gathered on Fowler Street in Dorchester on a windy Friday afternoon. The forty people represented a range of young and old, a mix of those from the Four Corners neighborhood and those from outside it.

    While the ousted occupants of a trapezoid-shaped Financial District parcel once filled with tents consider their next steps, some members of the controversial movement known as “Occupy Boston” are joining up with City Life/Vida Urbana, a tenant advocacy group that has similar aims. Bryan MacCormack, a 22-year-old Northeastern University student, is one of them.

    http://tinyurl.com/c9r86qg

    Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 12/22/11” »

    The OB Media Rundown for 12/21/11

    December 21st, 2011 · · Daily Media Rundown Comments Off on The OB Media Rundown for 12/21/11

    Homeless allies’ plight haunts Occupy protesters

    For many of those who spent their nights at the Occupy Boston encampment, Dewey Square was not just a meeting place – it was a home.

    In the nearly two weeks since Mayor Thomas M. Menino ordered the closing of the Financial District camp, the movement has scrambled to find housing for some of its most vulnerable members.

    And for many involved in Occupy Boston, the challenge of finding shelter for those people every night has opened a window onto the vast complexity of homelessness, framed by substance abuse, mental health issues, and economic forces.

    http://tinyurl.com/87p22p3

    OWS metamorphosis three months later

    (video)

    Joseph Ramsey, a member of Occupy Boston, joins us (RT) to discuss how the Occupy movement is doing nationwide.

    http://tinyurl.com/bl8huuj

    Ocupemos el Barrio: A Growing Voice Within the 99 Percent

    They marched and chanted and gave speeches, lamenting the ills of corporate greed. But these are not your typical Occupy Boston protesters.

    Meet Ocupemos el Barrio, a group comprised of Latinos from all walks of life. Its participants say they formed the group to address issues within the larger Occupy Wall Street movement, matters – namely, immigration – specific to Latino concerns. It is one of a handful of so-called affinity groups that have emerged since the Occupy protestors first hit the streets.

    Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 12/21/11” »

    The Boston Occupier needs your help!

    December 20th, 2011 · · News and Announcements One comment

    Photo: Tess Scheflan/ Activestills.org

    The latest issue of The Boston Occupier is coming out THIS WEDNESDAY (Dec 21st), We want to get out the word — all over Boston, and beyond — that our movement is growing, changing, and as urgent as ever. WE NEED HELP DISTRIBUTING. Here is the game-plan.

    * Our BIG DISTRIBUTION PUSH is the Wednesday afternoon commute. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS!! We want to hit all the busiest T stations; let’s have commuters on every line reading our papers. Volunteers should MEET AT 4 PM at “E5” (33 Harrison Ave, 5th floor). (If you can’t come until 5 or 6, that’s ok too.) It’s more fun to go out in pairs, so hopefully we’ll have enough volunteers to make that possible. Wear your Santa hats, your OB tee-shirts and buttons, whatever — and let’s get out the Occupy news!

    * Copies of the paper will be available for anyone and everyone to pick up, beginning at noon on Wednesday in the Occupy Boston cubicle of “E5” (33 Harrison Ave, 5th floor). All of the papers (all 10,000 of them!) must be gone by the end of the week. Please take a stack and commit to distributing them in your community (small stacks in cafes, libraries, bookshops, laundry mats, community centers, waiting rooms, etc). In this issue: coverage of OB since Dewey, the raid, City Life / Vida Urbana, the student debt boycott, democratizing the economy, “Occupy la Migra,” protests at Harvard, movements all over Massachusetts, & more.

    * If you are a part of another local-area Occupy movement, a union, or a community organization that is willing to distribute papers — let’s make it happen! Send questions or suggestions about distribution to Julie O (juliettejulianna@gmail.com) — or, better yet, just pick up a big pile of papers from E5.

    The OB Media Rundown for 12/20/11

    December 19th, 2011 · · Daily Media Rundown Comments Off on The OB Media Rundown for 12/20/11

    Dressed in finery, Occupy Boston celebrates an anniversary

    Occupy Boston participants aren’t known for their high-brow fashion decisions; when the objective is staying dry and warm and you’re living in a tent in the middle of a city, your clothing of choice tends to be quite the opposite of haute couture (not that we’re judging).

    So to see some of the Occupiers dressed in outfits that would be considered decidedly 1 percent-like on Saturday, Dec. 17, was a little out of the ordinary. At the same time, it was fitting, as their Day of Action activities, marking the movement’s three-month anniversary, included an “ironic ‘pro-corporate’ march” down Newbury Street and through the Prudential Center.

    http://tinyurl.com/77qo5ap

    Profile: People of Occupy Boston – Nicole Sullivan

    BLAST Magazine: What do you do?

    NS: At Occupy, I do quite a few things. I am in several action-oriented groups such as Direct Action and street teams. I believe that doing actions is the only way to create change. Its like that cliché, “actions speak louder than words.” The fact that Occupy is so action oriented is why I joined. I was sick of talking about things, I wanted change I am also in a couple of outreach groups – outreach and movement building – where we reach out into the Boston community to try to get really grounded in community issues and to bring our message out to the masses. I also do a lot of anti-oppression work. I came into activism through feminism and I see everything from an anti-oppressive standpoint. I fully believe that we need to include the full 99% percent to be a mass movement so the anti-oppression working groups I am in seek to create a space to do that. I also participate in more infrastructure related groups, such as in reach which works on internal communication. Occupy Boston keeps me pretty busy.

    http://tinyurl.com/88dgjfp

    Occupy Atlantic Avenue! The night before the Occupy Boston clearance

    Occupy Boston! It was one of the last big ones to get cleared out, as I understand. I wasn’t there for the police clearance operation-but I was there the night before, when OB chumped down Boston Mayor Tom Menino, at least temporarily.

    I’m not an occupier as such: I never camped at Occupy Boston, and I can’t claim to have been a big player in what went on. Some friends and I went to marches regularly, and made new friends at them. The Boston bunch is interesting, along with the usual cast of activists and people from the anarchist and red circuits, you get types characteristic of New England: kids with the clothes, accents, and (the most convincing elements) sallow skin and bad teeth of the local white working class talking anarchy and trans rights; WASPy late-middle-aged engineers biking in from MIT in their best windbreakers and wire-rim glasses; bro-dudes from BC, BU, and Northeastern who’ll start a chant of “OCCUPY! SHUT IT DOWN! BOSTON IS THE PEOPLE’S TOWN!” faster than they will “YANKEES SUCK!” It felt good to be a part of it, even in my limited way.

    http://tinyurl.com/8y4ta2z
    Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 12/20/11” »

    #D17 Celebrated the Occupy Movement’s Third Birthday this Past Weekend to Surprise of Shoppers!

    December 19th, 2011 · · Events 2 comments

    At the Parkman Bandstand

    On December 17, colloquially known as Twitter hashtag  #D17, the Occupy movement’s celebrated its official third month birthday. At Occupy Boston, protesters took to the streets in what is titled as the Ironic Pro-Corporate March, themed to put a satirical spin on supporting the 1% – corporations, and even banks. This march, again satirical in nature, maneuvered its way through Boston, and was in response to a statement made by Mayor Menino in which he said he wouldn’t like Boston to be an unwelcoming neighborhood for corporations.

    Occupy Boston’s #D17 activities began at the Boston Common Parkman Bandstand, moving through the Common and onto Beacon Street. From Beacon Street it went to Arlington, Newbury St and finally Boylston St., the heart of Boston’s shopping district lined with multinational chain stores, before heading back to the Parkman Bandstand in the Common. Marchers carried signs such as “Money is my life,” and “Privatize More Stuff.”

    Several known Occupy chants were changed to fit the nature of this march, including “Defeated, The People, Will Never Be United!” “Who needs Free Speech anyway? Hit us with some Pepper Spray!” and “Ignore us. Keep shopping!”

    Marching down Newbury Street

    Shoppers and pedestrians look confused as protesters marched through downtown Boston during one of the busier shopping days.

    The questions we at Occupy Boston want answered from our city officials are, “What is Boston doing to be a welcoming neighborhood to small and family owned businesses? How are city officials making sure these corporations are paying living wages, have safe and respectful work environments, provide health insurance to their employees, are not union busting, and are paying their fair share of taxes in the city of Boston?”

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