Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

Stories of the Day: Follow @Boston_M1GS on Twitter for updates on the Occupy Boston M1 General Strike today (and search for #M1GSBOS and #occupyboston). Planning on photographing a protest? Know your rights. Taking photographs of things that are plainly visible from public spaces is a constitutional right – and that includes federal buildings, transportation facilities, and police and other government officials carrying out their duties. Unfortunately, there is a widespread, continuing pattern of law enforcement officers ordering people to stop taking photographs from public places, and harassing, detaining and arresting those who fail to comply. For an ACLU photography fact sheet, click here. The history of May 1 as a workers’ holiday is intimately tied to the generations-long movement for the eight-hour day, to immigrant workers, to police brutality and repression of the labor movement, and to the long tradition of American anarchism. To read more, see May Day’s Radical History: What Occupy Is Fighting for This May 1st. According to Noam Chomsky, people seem to know about May Day everywhere except where it began, here in the United States of America. That’s because those in power have done everything they can to erase its real meaning. Today, there is a renewed awareness, energized by the Occupy movement’s organizing, around May Day, and its relevance for reform and perhaps eventual revolution. For more, click here. And several hundred NYPD officers have been conducting training exercises on Randall’s Island in preparation for May Day’s protests. For the story, click here. The New York Police Department is closely following the “fissures” inside the Occupy Wall Street movement in preparation for what it sees as possible violence from splinter groups, according to a leaked memo. For more, click here. Whether workers, students or banking customers, OWS is calling on all Americans to stop offering their labor and money to corporations for one day and join their local Occupy chapter for a day of resistance. For more, click here. If past coverage is any indication, corporate media will not tell the May Day story accurately or with depth or analysis. That’s why more than 25 independent media outlets belonging to The Media Consortium are collaborating to provide coordinated, national coverage of May Day events from around the country. Calling themselves “Media for the 99 Percent” (http://www.mediaforthe99percent.com), these diverse outlets will offer a live TV and streaming broadcast, an interactive map, breaking news reporting, and coordinated social media coverage across their sites, reaching a combined audience of more than 50 million Americans. And the people who created the website http://www.occupy.com created an Occupy TV ad; if you haven’t seen it, check it out. And, after filing a Freedom of Information Act request with the Richmond [CA] Police Department for police training documents, Mo Karn received much more than expected in return: homeland security and crowd control guides that show how the police target protests. And buried in the training guides are insights into three trends in law enforcement that have been occurring not just in Virginia, but nationally: the demonization of protest, the militarization of police, and turning local cops into “terrorism” officials. For the story, click here.

Other Occupies/Protests: The world’s biggest banks are working with one another and police to gather intelligence as protesters try to rejuvenate the Occupy Wall Street movement with May demonstrations, industry security consultants said. Among 99 protest targets in midtown Manhattan on May 1 are JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) offices, said Marisa Holmes, a member of Occupy’s May Day planning committee. Events are scheduled for more than 115 cities, including an effort to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, where Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) investors relied on police to get past protests at their annual meeting this week. For more, click here.

 “Dare! — this word contains all the politics of our revolution.” Louis Antoine de Saint-Just

Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

Stories of the Day: You are what you eat: Why You Should Be Worried About the California Mad Cow Case. In summary, meat and bone meal produced from  “downed cows,” who are too sick or injured to stand, is used as a protein and energy supplement in poultry and swine feed. Then “poultry litter”—poultry feces mixed with bedding, spilled feed, and chicken carcasses—is fed to cows. Then the result is fed to us. For more, click here. Farm Aid has a group called Occupy the Food System, their Facebook page is here: http://www.facebook.com/OccupyTheFoodSystem. And, is the US Army Preparing for Martial Law Scenario in US? Why is the Army Having Civil Disturbance and Mock Riot Drills In Washington? For the story, click here.  On a more local front, Is there a secret plan to evacuate some residents of Chicago in the event of protests during the NATO summit next month? CBS 2 News Chicago has uncovered some evidence that there is. It comes from the Milwaukee area branch of the American Red Cross. For the story, click here, and for information on the planned NATO protests, see the Occupy Chicago Facebook event page, http://www.facebook.com/events/327661850618904/. And several filmmakers and Occupy Wall Street supporters are criticizing the Tribeca Film Festival for its inclusion of Brookfield Properties, the owner of Zuccotti Park, as a sponsor for this year’s events. For more, click here. And check out this amusing and brief video guide to nonviolent revolution from Occupy the Movie – find your role in the revolution!

Other Occupies/Protests: From Occupy SF: Over the past year over 380 workers from 19 unions have been in tense negotiations with the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District. The coalition of unions includes workers from the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Bus service as well as the Golden Gate Ferry. When the workers’ current contract expired in July of 2011 the District gave all the non-union employees a raise, thereby punishing union members for exercising their right to collectively bargain. Negotiations have stalled because the Bridge Board of Directors is currently taking an ideological position against providing quality affordable healthcare for workers with families. The Board is also trying to reduce the vested healthcare benefits for current retirees. Over the last few months the unions have been escalating their actions in order to push the Bridge Board to do the right thing by providing affordable healthcare for their employees. They have thus far refused to budge. These employees were assured, when they came to work for the Bridge, that if they worked until retirement age, they would receive a livable retirement and decent health coverage for the last part of their life. Right now we see the Golden Gate Bridge turning its back on their employees who have worked hard (many for decades) and contributed their talents, their energy, and their lives to make sure the bridge, and the public are safe. Therefore on May 1st, International Workers Day, The Golden Gate Bridge Labor Coalition is calling for a mass rally at the Golden Gate Bridge in order to unite with community members, other unions and the Occupy movement to show the Bridge Board that we are willing to stand up for our families, our healthcare and our jobs.

Occupy SF has a full day of events planned for May 1. For more information, see their website, http://occupysf.org/.

Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

Stories of the Day: Anonymous responds to CISPA by calling for specific protests throughout May and June. For the video message, click here. And, from The Portland Occupier: In a grandstand maneuver, our president stands tall with Elie Wiesel at the national Holocaust museum to speak out against the governments of Syria and Iran and the way they control their citizens’ internet and phone access. Meanwhile, the NSA security arm of our government monitors the internet and phone usage of its citizens, while police forces across the country conspire to limit the free speech rights of American patriots. For the story, click here. For more on the ironic contrast of the statements our government makes in support of protests in other countries and the way police are treating American protesters,  and a timeline of the protests all over the world, watch this short video from the Vancouver-based filmmakers creating Occupy the Movie (who were filming us at our Media discussion on Wednesday!): I Am Not Moving. And, the House of Representatives advanced a bill Friday that funds cheaper student loans by cutting a preventive health care program, the Prevention and Public Health Fund created in President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. For more, click here. And, are you aware that in many cities, laws are being passed to criminalize feeding the homeless? For more, see A War on Homelessness or A War on the Homeless? And, here’s a creative idea: students suspended for walking out of class at Detroit’s Western International High School earlier this week to protest school closures and demand a better education, created a “freedom school.” Classes at the freedom school will be held with help from community volunteers for the duration of the students’ suspensions, including over the weekend.

Other Occupies/Protests: From Occupy Wall Street: The Free University is a collective educational experiment that will be held on May 1, 2012, from 10am-3pm. In solidarity with the general strike, the Free University offers a public space for the 99% to disengage from an unequal system and imagine a model for alternative education. Those gathered in Madison Square Park, and those meeting in other spaces in solidarity, will create a university that is open to all, without debt or tuition for students, without pre-requisites, age limits or any other disqualifying requirements. Learning can only happen through interaction, exchange, and dialogue. To create a living future together, all must be included and welcome. The Free University is an open invitation to educators around New York City to participate in May Day 2012. During the day, lectures, workshops, skill-shares, and discussions will be held — all open to the public. If you are in solidarity with the general strike but cannot cancel your class, bring it here! We also invite all educators interested in volunteering special sessions and classes for the day. We will have designated spaces for the quieter and more intimate classes. No single day, park, or effort can contain our vision; instead, we propose and will struggle to make all our universities places of free education, inquiry, and access to knowledge for all. We demand that our society put forward the necessary resources to provide such an education for all. For the full schedule of actions Occupy Wall Street has planned for the May 1 General Strike, click here.

Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

Stories of the Day: The question we should be asking is not whether domestic caregiving is more or less important than wage work—they’re both crucial, and crucially different. The question is which women have the privilege of choice, because too often, decisions of work and home are made for them, without their consent. That gender gap in personal autonomy and freedom may be more detrimental to feminist struggles than economic or employment disparities. For more about What We Still Get Wrong About Women and Work, click here. And, hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: a debt collector at bedside. This and other aggressive tactics by one of the nation’s largest collectors of medical debts, Accretive Health, were revealed on Tuesday by the Minnesota attorney general, raising concerns that such practices have become common at hospitals across the country. The tactics, like embedding debt collectors as employees in emergency rooms and demanding that patients pay before receiving treatment, were outlined in hundreds of company documents released by the Attorney General. For more, click here.  And, for more than a year, veterans groups and Senate Democrats have warned that for-profit colleges are aggressively recruiting current and former soldiers for their generous federal tuition benefits. President Barack Obama has signed an executive order aimed at rooting out unscrupulous sales tactics by schools seeking to capitalize on billions of dollars in higher education assistance for the military. For the story, click here. And: House Republicans recently proposed cuts to nutrition assistance that will kick 280,000 low-income children off automatic enrollment in the Free School Lunch and Breakfast Program. Those same kids and 1.5 million other people will also lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly food stamp benefits) that help them afford food at home. Ten years’ worth of these nutrition cuts could be prevented for the price of one year of tax cuts on 3,340 multimillion dollar estates that House Republicans are protecting in their budget. For the story, click here. And some good news: as Greece wonders whether its debt crisis will eventually spell its exit from the euro, one town in the center of the country, Volos, has formed an alternative local currency. It works through a bartering system or exchange of goods. For more information (a short video news report), click here.

Other Occupies/Protests: Here’s one way women are protesting against the “War on Women,” for information on today’s Unite Against the War on Women Rally, see below. The scarlet letter “A” is an instantly recognizable symbol of excoriation and shame. A is For is a campaign challenging the traditional meaning of the scarlet letter by encouraging women, and the men who support them, to wear the A proudly. Women are waking up to the aggressive legislative assault on their health taking place in state houses and in Congress. It is an assault that threatens our physical freedom with a force unheard of in the last 40 years. With so-called “personhood” bills and a systematic campaign of dis-information, the overriding message we’re receiving is one we thought we’d overcome a long time ago: that women are too ignorant, too confused, too selfish and too thoughtless to be trusted with the control of our own bodies. We are taking back the A by re-appropriating it’s meaning to one of dignity, defiance, and autonomy. For more information, click here. And: each year, an ever-increasing number of men, women and their families are joining the award-winning Walk a Mile in Her Shoes®: The International Men’s March to Stop Rape, Sexual Assault & Gender Violence. A Walk a Mile in Her Shoes® Event is a playful opportunity for men to raise awareness in their community about the serious causes, effects and remediations to sexualized violence. For a brief video of the march, click here. And watch this great video message from a man who explains why he is a feminist.

“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” Charles Rosner

Upcoming Events:

• May 1st Training with Occupy Boston: Sunday, April 29, 12pm-3pm, location TBA (see Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/396045130426024/). Gearing up for May 1st? Want to feel more prepared? Join Occupy Boston as we get ready for the General Strike! Direct Action and the Medics will be providing basic training this Sunday in preparation for Tuesday’s General Strike! There will be plenty of fun activities as well as training in basic safety procedures. Join us!
• Boston New Sanctuary Movement Presents A Return to A Faithful Understanding, An Interfaith Conference: Toward a More Compassionate National Debate on Immigration, Sunday, April 29, 2012, 12:30 – 5 p.m.  (12-1, lunch provided by Brazilian Immigrant Center), Church of the Covenant, 67 Newbury St., Boston, MAWorship leader:  Rev. Rob Mark, Pastor, Church of the Covenant, Boston, Presbyterian/UCCSpeakers, Reflection leaders:  Members of the Boston New Sanctuary Movement. Schedule: 12:30  Registration; 1:00 Welcome, opening reflection; 1:15  Current Immigration issues in Boston, and the Boston New Sanctuary Movement; 1:40 Workshops, period I; 3:10 Workshops, period II; 4:40 Closing reflection; 5:00    Networking. 
• Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day, Sunday, April 29, 10am – Monday, April 30, 12am. Where: Lots, medians, privatized public land, unpleasant public land. May 1 is International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day — people all over the world will be sowing seeds of optimism and planting sunflower seeds. It’s about occupying our city and promoting gardening, public space, food and habitats for all the human and non-humans who share the Boston ecosystem. Let’s plant 1,000 seeds!
• May 1 General Strike! A Day Without the 99%. NO WORK – NO SCHOOL – NO SHOPPING – NO BANKING – NO TRADING. GENERAL STRIKE AND BOYCOTT CALLED! 7am-11am: Financial District Block Party! (corner of Federal and Franklin Streets). Bring a friend and let’s party! Bring whistles, drums, noise makers. Bring street theater ! 12:00pm: Boston City Hall Rally. Can’t make it to Boston City Hall at Noon? Well how about: The Chelsea City Hall? – Gather at Noon – March at 2pm (For More information please contact La Colaborativa (617) 889-6097). 2pm: LoPresti Park Rally/March (Blue Line: Maverick Square) (For more information contact Dominic at City life/Vida Urbana (617) 710-7176). 4pm: Everett – Glendale Park (For more information please contact La Comunidad (617) 387-9996). 7pm: Death of Capitalism Boston Funeral March (Copley Square). We invite people to participate in this piece of street theater which includes puppets, a marching band, and other creative surprises. People will begin gathering at 7pm at Copley Square Park (by the steps of Trinity Church) to put on costumes, puppets and face-paint and get info on their respective role in the funeral procession. We ask that people participate as: mourners (dressed in black), celebrators (wearing neon/bright colors/glow stuff), skeleton block (bring your own skeleton costume). The funeral procession will leave Copley Square Park at 8pm and will travel through areas of wealth and commerce.    Continue reading “Occupy Boston Daily Digest for 4-28-12” »

Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

Stories of the Day: Even death isn’t an excuse not to pay your student loans: when Christopher Bryski, a Rutgers University undergraduate student, died from a traumatic brain injury in 2006, his family wasn’t thinking about his student loans. That is, not until KeyBank, a Cleveland-based institution with nearly $90 billion in assets, asked his parents to assume responsibility for his debt. For more, click here. And in another example of aggressive debt collector tactics, an Illinois woman found herelf jailed over a bill she didn’t even owe in the first place. Breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay of Herrin, Illinois was put in debtors’ prison over a $280 medical bill that was sent to her by accident. And here I thought Debtor’s Prison was only continued to exist in Dickens novels… See story here. And in protest news: a group of older and disabled public transportation riders interrupted the Massachusetts House’s budget deliberations Tuesday, leading court officers to temporarily shut down the public’s access to the House chambers. The protesters were escorted out of the public gallery on the fourth floor of the Massachusetts Statehouse while chanting “the riders united will never be defeated” and “they say cut back, we say fight back.” For the story, click here. And an Occupy Wall Street protester describes her first arrest.

Other Occupies/Protests: UC police used a megaphone late Tuesday to tell the several dozen urban-farm activists who’ve been occupying the UC-owned Gill Tract in Albany for three days that they are trespassing and face arrest and fines if they don’t leave. The group hopes to create an ongoing, sustainable farm at the site that can serve as both an educational resource and source of “fresh, healthy food” and to protest plans to pave over the land for a parking lot and a Whole Foods. UC cut off the water supply Monday. In a related development, UC officials at the last minute pulled their proposal for a Whole Foods market and senior housing at University Village (the UC student housing complex next to the Gill Tract) from the Tuesday night agenda of the Albany Planning & Zoning Commission, Albany Patch reported. For more, click here. Later that night, the Dean of Natural Resources paid a second visit to the Albany lot where protesters have set up tents and begun cultivating vegetables. A university spokesperson says Cal hopes to reach a peaceful resolution to the protest. For more, click here. Hundreds of protesters affiliated with the “99 Percent Spring” movement disrupted the start of General Electric Co’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Detroit on Wednesday, in an attack on the largest U.S. conglomerate’s low tax rate. For the story, click here.

Upcoming Events:

• MA Unite Against the War on Women Rally, April 28, 10am-2pm, at City Hall Plaza. Help defend women’s rights and pursuit of equality. Join Americans all across the United States as we come together as one to tell members of Congress in Washington DC and legislators in all 50 states, “Enough is enough!” All Americans have the right to make decisions about their own bodies, including contraception, without interference from government, business or religious institutions. Please join us as we gather together and show both state and federal legislative bodies that we won’t stand silently by as they propose and pass laws that will impact women’s choices, health, and wellbeing. We need everyone’s voice! These decisions affect all genders, races, and socio-economic statuses! Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/206965382738915/
• On April 28, 2012 from 5pm to 10pm, artists from Occupy Boston will host a gathering with artist and cultural provocateur Steve Lambert. Taking place at Samsøn (450 Harrison Avenue), this event will be an opportunity for Lambert and the greater Occupy community to connect over questions of messaging, humor, culture jamming, and creative activism as the movement heads into the coming seasons. Following the discussion, we will screen the film The Yes Men Fix the World.
• Rally for the Guards at “Art in Bloom”
  SATURDAY, April 28, 11:30AM-2PM
  In front of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Huntington side)
  465 Huntington Ave, Boston MA
  (Green Line E to Museum of Fine Arts; Orange Line to Ruggles)
  RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/275860625840007/ The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is seriously considering OUTSOURCING their guard union. Some have been working there for as many as 30 years. They would lose their status as museum employees and would be forced to apply for their jobs to an outside contractor with a bad reputation withtheir workers. (IF they get re-hired) The museum would have non-union workers doing their union jobs! Let’s give the top 1% our 100% effort in stopping these attacks!  ****This is “THE ART IN BLOOM RALLY” and is a big event for the MFA. Many galleries are fitted with flower arrangements to complement a specific piece of art. This draws thousands in three days. Their next very important negotiations are the first week of May.**** GET INVOLVED WITH THE SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE: Next meeting Sunday, April 29, 5:30pm, Food Court at the Marino Center, Northeastern University, Forsyth St & Huntington Ave, Boston MA. (Green Line E to Northeastern; Orange Line to Ruggles). For more information about any of these events, email misu-solidarity-owner@yahoogroups.com.
• May 1st Training with Occupy Boston: Sunday, April 29, 12pm-3pm, location TBA (see Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/396045130426024/). Gearing up for May 1st? Want to feel more prepared? Join Occupy Boston as we get ready for the General Strike! Direct Action and the Medics will be providing basic training this Sunday in preparation for Tuesday’s General Strike! There will be plenty of fun activities as well as training in basic safety procedures. Join us!
• Boston New Sanctuary Movement Presents A Return to A Faithful Understanding, An Interfaith Conference: Toward a More Compassionate National Debate on Immigration, Sunday, April 29, 2012, 12:30 – 5 p.m.  (12-1, lunch provided by Brazilian Immigrant Center), Church of the Covenant, 67 Newbury St., Boston, MAWorship leader:  Rev. Rob Mark, Pastor, Church of the Covenant, Boston, Presbyterian/UCCSpeakers, Reflection leaders:  Members of the Boston New Sanctuary Movement. Schedule: 12:30  Registration; 1:00 Welcome, opening reflection; 1:15  Current Immigration issues in Boston, and the Boston New Sanctuary Movement; 1:40 Workshops, period I; 3:10 Workshops, period II; 4:40 Closing reflection; 5:00    Networking. 
• Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day, Sunday, April 29, 10am – Monday, April 30, 12am. Where: Lots, medians, privatized public land, unpleasant public land. May 1 is International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day — people all over the world will be sowing seeds of optimism and planting sunflower seeds. It’s about occupying our city and promoting gardening, public space, food and habitats for all the human and non-humans who share the Boston ecosystem. Let’s plant 1,000 seeds!
• May 1 General Strike! A Day Without the 99%. NO WORK – NO SCHOOL – NO SHOPPING – NO BANKING – NO TRADING. GENERAL STRIKE AND BOYCOTT CALLED! 7am-11am: Financial District Block Party! (corner of Federal and Franklin Streets). Bring a friend and let’s party! Bring whistles, drums, noise makers. Bring street theater ! 12:00pm: Boston City Hall Rally. Can’t make it to Boston City Hall at Noon? Well how about: The Chelsea City Hall? – Gather at Noon – March at 2pm (For More information please contact La Colaborativa (617) 889-6097). 2pm: LoPresti Park Rally/March (Blue Line: Maverick Square) (For more information contact Dominic at City life/Vida Urbana (617) 710-7176). 4pm: Everett – Glendale Park (For more information please contact La Comunidad (617) 387-9996). 7pm: Death of Capitalism Boston Funeral March (Copley Square). We invite people to participate in this piece of street theater which includes puppets, a marching band, and other creative surprises. People will begin gathering at 7pm at Copley Square Park (by the steps of Trinity Church) to put on costumes, puppets and face-paint and get info on their respective role in the funeral procession. We ask that people participate as: mourners (dressed in black), celebrators (wearing neon/bright colors/glow stuff), skeleton block (bring your own skeleton costume). The funeral procession will leave Copley Square Park at 8pm and will travel through areas of wealth and commerce.   Continue reading “Occupy Boston Daily Digest for 4-27-12” »