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    • Archive: January, 2012

    Martin Luther King Occupied: An Occupy Boston Community Gathering to Explore the Radical Legacy of Dr. King

    January 14th, 2012 · · Events, News and Announcements, Press Releases 6 comments

    On Monday, January 16, 2012 at 6:00 PM, the Occupy Boston People of Color Working Group will host Occupy Boston’s weekly Community Gathering at Arlington St. Church, 351 Bolyston Street in Boston. This MLK Day gathering will encourage participants to think about what Occupy Boston and the public can learn from the ideas, campaigns, and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.


    “People of Color are disproportionately affected by the rule of the top 1%, in everything from housing, jobs, education, health, and prison incarceration,” said Brian Kwoba, an organizer of the event and a member of the People of Color Working Group of Occupy Boston.  “That is why issues of race and racism must be taken seriously by the Occupy movement. The People of Color Working Group is excited to be hosting a community gathering on MLK Day to project more of our culture, our voices, and our stories into the forefront of the movement.”

    Speakers include, Kwame Somburu, who helped to organize mass protests in the 1960’s and Harlem’s Freedom Now Party. The gathering will also feature a reading of excerpts from MLK’s beyond Vietnam speech, musical performances from Earthdrum Council, a presentation on the State of the Dream from by United for a Fair Economy, slam poets, a teach in on the 3-Strikes Bill, and a ‘fishbowl’ discussion with People of Color from Occupy Boston, and the Optimus of the Foundation Movement.

    Occupy Boston’s Community Gatherings are held every Monday evening and are open to the public. The intention of these Community Gatherings is to build and strengthen the Occupy Boston community through ongoing dialogues, presentations, workshops, and facilitated conversations, in order to build a resilient, widespread and inclusive social movement.

    This event is free and all are welcome to attend. For more information about this event, please email occupybostonmedia@gmail.com or visit https://www.occupyboston.org

    The OB Media Rundown for 1/14/12

    January 14th, 2012 · · News and Announcements One comment
    BPD arrests federal air marshal in assault on Boston Occupier

    It’s unclear why a federal air marshal, the armed undercover Homeland Security agents who accompany select commercial flights, was hanging around near the camp at 3 in the morning. According to witnesses, he entered the camp a little over an hour before the police evicted the 72-day-old camp from Dewey Plaza, after the protestors lost a court battle to get a permanent injunction against police action.

    [TSA air marshal Adam] Marshall is now being investigated by TSA’s internal affairs, according to the iPhone’s owner Robin Jacks, who says she met with DHS officials Wednesday.

    http://tinyurl.com/7u5e4og

    Michael Steele and Juan Williams voice approval of Occupy

    Michael Steele is former chairman of the Republican National Committee. When John Ford of Occupy Boston pressed Steele about why those who caused economic collapse have never been criminally investigated, Steele said “The system moves to protect itself.” When asked by Ford, “What can we do?” Steel replied, “Keep doing what you’re doing.” In regards to the protests and political birddogging the occupiers had done in New Hampshire over the previous few days, Steel said, “You did a great job. Keep it going.”

    A while later, activists including Eric Binder of Occupy Boston talked to Juan Williams, a writer and commentator appearing on Fox News Channel. When asked his opinion of Occupy, Williams said “I like it.” When Binder mentioned freedom of speech, Williams laughed in a friendly way and said “imagine what I feel about freedom of speech” (probably referring to a 2010 incident when comments he made on “The O’Reilly Factor” led to NPR terminating his contract). Williams, agreeing with many of the protestors’ gripes, said “there’s a lot to be changed.”

    http://tinyurl.com/7jo2uqo

    US Uncut: The Movement That Helped Spark Occupy Wall Street

    Back in February 2011, I started reporting on a movement called US Uncut that formed in opposition to the practice of tax-dodging. As it turns out, corporate tax avoidance is a huge, huge problem. In fact, the United States loses an estimated $100 billion in revenue every year as multinational corporations hoard their cash overseas in havens.
    .. . .

    That includes Chris Priest, who was instrumental in the founding of both Occupy Boston and Boston Uncut. “Literally every US Uncut organizer I know has been deeply involved with their local Occupy chapter since the beginning. That’s no coincidence,” says Priest. “Occupy Wall Street provided a priceless opportunity for every progressive organization to unite and fight on multiple fronts.”

    Priest sees US Uncut as merely one of many events that snowballed into Occupy. “US Uncut began in February 2011, and shouldn’t be discounted as an influence for OWS. The same can be said about Wisconsin, Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen,” he says.

    http://tinyurl.com/7fpm5yp

    Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 1/14/12” »

    OB Consents to Trial of Weekly Action Assembly

    January 13th, 2012 · · Passed Resolutions 3 comments
    The General Assembly of Occupy Boston consented to the following proposal on January 12, 2012:
    Modify Sunday GA, creating a Strategic Action Assembly

    Purpose:
    1) To help Occupy Boston develop thoughtful and powerful messages that speak to the entire 99%.
    2) To provide a time for Occupy Boston to come together, reflect on, and plan targeted direct actions and campaigns that will help maintain the occupation of the public conscience in the post-Dewey era.
    3) To provide a more appropriate meeting format for the discussion of political, economic, and societal issues.
    4) To enhance collaboration across and between working groups in movement-wide outreach and direct action campaigns and to aid the formation of affinity groups.

    Proposal:  We propose that Occupy Boston radically modify the format of the Sunday GA, creating what will be called a Strategic Action Assembly (aka Action Assembly or SAA).  The new assembly format will experiment with new forms of process in order to brainstorm, facilitate, and organize direct actions. The SAA will not seek consensus on proposals or make decisions on behalf of the Occupy Boston movement.

    Because it has the potential to reshape our GA process, we are proposing it with a 3-week trial period and an opportunity to reconsider afterwards. There will be a time to give feedback and an 80% temp check to continue this change.

    The SAA working group will continue to explore space options that will work best for this meeting type.

    OB Working Groups doing Collective Visioning with Linda Stout!

    January 13th, 2012 · · News and Announcements Comments Off on OB Working Groups doing Collective Visioning with Linda Stout!

    Come to a workshop to breathe, reflect and envision together where we want to be and how to get there (or “how to be the change we want to see” as someone once said.)

    Together, we will create a space where people can listen to one another and share ideas for “another world which is possible” Sponsored by the Anti-Oppression, Women’s Caucus and Nonviolence Working groups (and more).

    Saturday, January 14th
    11:45 AM – 3 PM
    Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston (Arlington T Stop)

    COME A FEW MINUTES EARLY BECAUSE THE WORKSHOP WILL BEGIN AT 12:00. ONCE THE PROCESS IS UNDERWAY, THERE WON’T BE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR LATE COMERS.

    The initial energy which brought OB into being generated a living community at Dewey Square with many alternative, creative institutions, a solidarity statement with OWS on the sources of inequality and violence in the culture, actions, proposals, working groups and support for grassroots and community organizations. Since the end of the encampment, actions, proposals, working groups and community-building activities have continued to be generated. With a lot of energy devoted to keeping all these activities going, there hasn’t been much time or a format to pause, assess where we want to go, and name the positive vision(s) of the world we want to create. This workshop will give people a chance to envision together what is possible in the long term and short-term, talk about how to get there and notice what we are already doing which is building our communities and our movements.

    Linda will also stay from 3:15-4:45 for a “train the trainers’ session to share ideas about strategy, movement-building, etc. For people coming to this, try to download the visioning guide from. http://www.powerupnetworks.org./occupy-the-present-change-the-future.html.

    Please let us know if you plan to attend either/both.
    RSVP to Cathy Hoffman “catherinebhoffman”@gmail.com

    Linda Stout who is a long time activist, having founded one of the first multi-racial, poor people’s organizations in North Carolina, has been building “PowerUp” networks for social change and doing visioning work. She has been asked by several Occupies to do some visioning work with them. For more information about Linda and the visioning idea, you can go to www.powerupnetworks.org

    The OB Media Rundown for 1/13/12

    January 13th, 2012 · · Daily Media Rundown Comments Off on The OB Media Rundown for 1/13/12

    Citizens United uniting citizens across the country

    [For information about actions against Citizen’s United in the Boston area Jan. 20-21, go here: http://tinyurl.com/6ueezzw]

    “The U.S. is a great place to be a corporation but increasingly a desperate place to live and work.” – A member of Occupy Boston, challenging Mitt Romney on his statement that corporations are persons.

    Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the controversial Supreme Court case decided by a narrow majority of 5 justices in 2010, may have the consequence of uniting citizens across the country at the local level – in opposition to the ruling. “Occupy the Courts” actions, sponsored by Move to Amend and other groups including various Occupy sites, are being planned to mark the 2-year anniversary of the decision which allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts to influence elections.

    http://tinyurl.com/7qdebja

    Protest foils Lynn foreclosure auction

    Sixty-one-year-old Cheryl D’Amico spent the past few months going to bed afraid. “I was fearful someone would knock on my door and ask me to leave my house,” she said on a sidewalk outside her Lynn home. D’Amico came close to that nightmare scenario Tuesday when a foreclosure auctioneer arrived at her Lexington Avenue home to sell it to the highest bidder.

    http://tinyurl.com/8yb2bnc

    Coast Guard deployed to protect grain ship that will be met by union and Occupy protesters

    The U.S. Coast Guard will escort the first ship coming to the EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview this month, and the Occupy movement and local labor groups say they are planning to greet the vessel with a massive protest.

    EGT officials say they have not scheduled a date for the ship’s arrival. The freighter is expected to haul thousands of tons of grain to Asia, but opposition groups are already marshaling their forces to support the lengthy protest by union dock workers at the grain terminal.

    The Coast Guard will deploy one or two vessels to escort the grain ship up the Columbia River, with more on call if necessary, said Lt. Lucas Elder, a spokesman for Coast Guard’s Portland-based marine safety unit. Other law-enforcement agencies will also be present, he said. Small boat captains who refuse to get out of the way of the ship could face hefty civil penalties, Elder said.

    http://tinyurl.com/6lk6qg5

    Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 1/13/12” »

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