OCCUPY BOSTON SUMMIT
Speak Up — Add Your Voice — Join The Conversation
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 19 @ 2-6 pm
Quincy School
885 Washington Street, Chinatown
A 15 minute walk from Dewey Square
or Orange Line to Tufts Medical Center
Planning to come? Need childcare or translation? Want to volunteer? Let us know! obsummit@gmail.com
http://tinyurl.com/obsummit
Environmental advocate and civil rights activist Van Jones will be visiting us at 11 am on Thursday, October 27. Jones is a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean energy economy, as well as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and the American Progress Action Fund. He holds a joint appointment at Princeton University as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African American Studies and the Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. TIME magazine called him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2009. He is also the best-selling author of the definitive book on clean energy jobs, The Green Collar Economy. Check out the Facebook event here.
Jones would like to offer Occupy Boston a few words of encouragement and support, and we are honored to have him join us. Here’s a video of him speaking at Occupy Wall Street:
The following proposal was consented to by Occupy Boston’s General Assembly on Thursday, October 20:
The Facilitators Working Group (FWG) proposes, starting on Sunday, October 23, that Occupy Boston move to a schedule of conducting General Assembly (GA) on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, from 7 pm to 10 pm, as well as in the case of emergencies.
The FWG proposes that all working groups hold at least one publicly accessible, weekly meeting (except Legal Working Group, whose meetings are necessarily confidential). The day, time, and place of the meeting is to be posted on the Occupy Boston website and made available to both the Info Tent and the Media Tent scheduling board. The meeting will be facilitated as a horizontal democracy using a consensus decision-making process. During the non-GA evenings, there will be facilitated discussions and debates starting at 7 pm on issues that interest the Occupy Boston community. Topics for these non-GA nights should be proposed in advance by individuals or working groups during General Assembly.
The FWG offers its services to all working groups who wish to be trained in a consensus process, and, if needed, can help working groups with the facilitation of their first scheduled public meeting.
This Saturday, in recognition of the the 16th annual National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality, we will mark a historic development in our movement: on this day, activists from Occupy Boston will be joining activists from Occupy the Hood in a joint demonstration of strength and solidarity against police brutality. Not only will we be rallying against recent police repression of our movement, both in Boston and nationally; more importantly, we’ll be rallying against the police violence experienced by poor folks and communities of color every day in this country. What’s more, we’ll be rallying on the one year anniversary of a recent, unresolved case of police brutality in Boston: the beating of a 16 year old boy arrested at Roxbury Community College, just blocks from BPD headquarters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXDJvBaTTDQ).
In calling for this demonstration, we aim to use the international spotlight on our movement to illuminate the ongoing struggles against police brutality in our communities, struggles that receive frustratingly little attention despite the systemic and racist nature of the problems they’re confronting. Four actionable points coming out of Occupy the Hood in relation to this issue (points that do not represent any consensus decision of the Occupy Boston General Assembly, but rather are listed to increase awareness of some ideas community members have been putting forth to combat police violence) include:
1. The current CO-OP (Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel) must be given subpoena powers and the ability to initiate its own independent investigations.
2. There should also be a true Civilian review board with the same powers as, but independent of, the CO-OP. The CO-OP is primarily made up of criminal justice/law enforcement professionals and appointed by the Mayor. A true Civilian review board would be compromised of a cross section from all walks of life within the communities most affected.
3. We have begun work with State Officials to examine and propose a State Commission on Police Brutality. This commission would work statewide to study, examine and investigate cases of police brutality and misconduct where cities and towns have found themselves either unwilling or unable to adequately address these issues in a just manner. Local DA’s and Police Departments have shown that they cannot police themselves and some level of accountability must be established.
4. The Boston Police Department needs to reflect the diversity of the city in its command staff and other decision making positions. We recognize it is only in standing together, united in our solidarity and in action, that we will overcome police repression and succeed in creating a better world.
In the spirit of solidarity, and in recognition of the diversity of experiences of all members of the 99%, we invite all our supporters to join us in having these discussions by rallying at 12:00 Saturday behind the BPD headquarters in the southwest corridor park, near the Ruggles and Tremont Street intersection and a short walk from the Ruggles stop on the Orange line. A march is in the works for afterward (we gotta get back to see Chomsky, right?), so bring your walkin shoes!
In solidarity,
Occupy Boston
The following proposal was consented to by Occupy Boston’s General Assembly on Thursday, October 20:
Occupy Boston stands in solidarity with the Occupy the Hood rally taking place at 6pm on October 21 in Dudley Square Plaza. Occupy Boston will activate our solidarity by sending volunteers to appropriately assist and support the initiative with excitement, RESPECT, and HUMILITY. We hope to see Occupy the Hood grow into an inclusive and democratic step towards unifying ALL the 99%. We recognize that our support for initiatives like this one is part of a process of listening to, learning from, and deepening our connections to many more local community organizations.
Direct Action is organizing groups to go from Dewey Square to Dudley Square at 5pm on Friday, October 21.
Occupy Boston Media <Media@occupyboston.org> • <Info@occupyboston.org> • @Occupy_Boston