Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

Stories of the Day: The winners of the Boston Occupier’s Haiku Contest have been announced, and second prize went to – well, me! But here’s one I wrote that didn’t win: Democracy blooms/Dissent is patriotic/Love, evolve, revolt! Congratulations to all the winners! To read the winning entries, click here! In other news: In an effort to uncover the source of bomb threats sent to the University of Pittsburgh, the FBI seized an entire server on Wednesday that is used by anonymous remailing service Mixmaster as well as several progressive rights groups. The server was seized from a co-location facility in New York with a search warrant served by the FBI. … the server was [also] used by the Seattle-based digital activist group Riseup Networks, as well as May First/People Link, a politically progressive internet service provider. The server was operated by European Counter Network, an ISP based in Italy. For more, click here. And check out this informative website: HowToCamp/HowToOccupy is conceived to promote and spread the methods, techniques and knowledge about peaceful occupation of public spaces while developing sustainable ways of living based on participatory democracy … Our goal is to establish an universal and accessible database made up of documents related to peaceful civil disobedience and grassroots practices, spreading it physically and on-line to the very assemblies, occupations and groups around the whole world. And: two days before the NYPD’s eviction of the Occupy Wall Street encampment from Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, Brookfield Properties’ security was in direct communications and sharing information with the U.S. Park Police in Washington, D.C., and communicating with other cities around the country, according to newly released internal documents from the National Park Service. The documents were released late Friday to the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) in response to the civil rights legal group’s FOIA demands to the NPS, FBI, CIA, DHS and other federal law enforcement agencies seeking information about the role of Federal agencies in the coordinated nationwide crackdown that led to the eviction of Occupy encampments in cities throughout the United States. The request was made also on behalf of author and filmmaker Michael Moore and the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee. For more, click here.  And here’s another great update on a song from West Side Story, by Occupy Wall Street – The Debt Song (“when you’re in debt, you’re in debt all the way…”)

Other Occupies/Protests: TENTS ALONG THE ALEWIFE MONDAY – CALLING ALL OCCUPIERS! Occupy Arlington occupies Alewife Brook: No more development in the Alewife Watershed, no more sewage in the Alewife Brook. In honor of Earth Day, Monday April 23, set up 5:30am, action begins at 6am. Bring pop-up tents if you own them. If you are so moved dress up as silver maples or alewives. Meet at the benches in the passenger drop-off area and be ready to occupy some of the area of Alewife to protest the dumping of sewage in Alewife Brook and the threatened development of the Silver Maple Reservation. For additional information or to RSVP,  contact Occupy Arlington: https://www.facebook.com/events/277301135692232

“The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.” Karl Marx

Upcoming Events:

• Tuesday, April 24, 10am-8pm, Occupy Brandeis is hosting The Great Teach-In on the Great Lawn. For the schedule of events, click here.
• The Occupy Boston Media Working Group has dissolved. To try to help us explore how the entire community can be empowered to create its own media, we invite /urge you, the community, to participate in a conversation about the future of media work at Occupy Boston next Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 7pm at Encuentro 5 (5th floor, 33 Harrison Ave, Boston). We will discuss the best way to reallocate existing resources in a way that is equitable and consistent with OB’s values.
• What is Occupy Wall Street? A film screening. Occupy HCC (Holyoke Community College) is hosting a film screening of short films produced by Occupy Wall Street in the Forum at HCC, April 27, 3pm-5pm. Come and find out about the Occupy Movement that started on Wall St. and has spread across the globe! There will be a Q&A session following the films with activists from different Occupy groups across the Northeast. This event is sponsored by the Holyoke Community College Student Senate.
• 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!
• Boston New Sanctuary Movement Presents A Return to A Faithful UnderstandingAn 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. 
• • 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 4-22-12” »

Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

Stories of the Day: New England’s longest-running “Occupy” encampment, Occupy New Haven, was evicted Wednesday. For more, click here. And three Occupy New Haven members have gone underground. For an interview with them [written in a slightly condescending tone], click here. And although Walmart claims to be monitoring its factories’ compliance with environmental and labor rules, its auditing system is plagued by corruption. What’s more, many factories outsource more than half their work to “shadow” factories—unregulated operations that auditors never visit at all. For more, and for infographics on how big Walmart really is, click here. And: the wealthiest Americans believe they’ve earned their money through hard work and innovation, and that they’re the most productive members of society. … [But] they’re not nearly as productive as middle-class workers. Yet they’ve taken almost all the new income over the past 30 years. For more, see Five Reasons Why The Very Rich Have NOT Earned Their Money. And Do the Wealthy Lie, Cheat, and Steal More Than the Rest of Us? The simple answer appears to be “Yes.” For more, click here.

Other Occupies/Protests: Announcement posted in solidarity on behalf of the Mental Health Movement by the Occupy Chicago Press Committee: The Mental Health Movement occupation at the Woodlawn Mental Health Clinic is demanding that the city:

1. Keep all 12 city mental health clinics public, open, fully funded and fully staffed
2. Stop plans to privatize Chicago’s 7 neighborhood health centers
3. Hire more doctors, therapists, nurses, social workers and other clinic staff
4. Reinstate the drug assistance program
5. Expand the public mental health safety net to cover unmet community need

This occupation is a part of an going campaign, led by patients from all 12 clinics facing closure, to defend Chicago mental health clinics from closure and privatization. The Mental Health Movement has been organizing around this issue, using a diversity of tactics including writing letters, meeting with politicians and health boards, taking direct actions, occupying their own clinic and now occupying a lot outside of the clinic. Two of the patients who used to be served by Woodlawn have already been admitted to the psychiatric ward because they could no longer get the help they needed in their neighborhood.  Money being taken away from clinics while Chicago corporations get tax cuts is directly related to the Occupy movement’s main issues. For more info directly from the mouths of Woodlawn’s patients, check out their press releases at:http://www.facebook.com/PressCOMM/notes

“You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul.” Mohandas K. Gandhi

Upcoming Events:

• Tuesday, April 24, 10am-8pm, Occupy Brandeis is hosting The Great Teach-In on the Great Lawn. For the schedule of events, click here.
• The Occupy Boston Media Working Group has dissolved. To try to help us explore how the entire community can be empowered to create its own media, we invite /urge you, the community, to participate in a conversation about the future of media work at Occupy Boston next Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 7pm at Encuentro 5 (5th floor, 33 Harrison Ave, Boston). We will discuss the best way to reallocate existing resources in a way that is equitable and consistent with OB’s values.
• What is Occupy Wall Street? A film screening. Occupy HCC (Holyoke Community College) is hosting a film screening of short films produced by Occupy Wall Street in the Forum at HCC, April 27, 3pm-5pm. Come and find out about the Occupy Movement that started on Wall St. and has spread across the globe! There will be a Q&A session following the films with activists from different Occupy groups across the Northeast. This event is sponsored by the Holyoke Community College Student Senate.
• 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!
• Boston New Sanctuary Movement Presents A Return to A Faithful UnderstandingAn 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. 
• • 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 [redacted]). 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.
  • Keep Immigrant Families Together! Stop the Raids and Deportations! Prayer Vigil for Immigrant Detainees, Sunday, May 6th, 2 p.m.Suffolk County House of Correction, 20 Bradston St., BostonFor more information about the vigil, contact our Facebook page, or email SocialAction@ascboston.org. www.bostonnewsanctuary.org. Immigration through Faith: Faith through Immigration – Personal experiences of immigration as a moral and religious issue. A facilitated panel discussion exploring personal experiences of faith and immigration. This session is designed to help participants articulate and claim religious language and relevancy in a conversation dominated by secular and political messages. The panel discussion will be followed by an open period for questions and reflections.U.S. Immigration History and Your Faith:  We will look at who came and why?  What laws were enacted as barriers?  What role have people of faith played in this history?  Immigrant Stories in the Struggle for Workers Rights:  We will also ask where we find ourselves in the story, and who belongs here? To register, go to www.bostonnewsanctuary.org, or call Newell Hendricks at 617 876-5038. $10 suggested donation
• Occupy New England – M12 Day of Action and Regional Gathering. 9am-5:30pm, May 12: Come join Occupy groups from all around New England as we converge in Worcester for a day of action and networking! The day will have four core key components to it: getting as many Occupy groups and participants in one centralized location at the same time for a day of networking and planning, direct actions and public visibility, continued actions against corporations backing ALEC, and finally the flared up “War on Women” – discussion on women’s issues (rights, health care, etc…)Preliminary timeline of events:
  (Please note the following is a rough draft discussed by Occupy Worcester and the M12 working group. More details will be released later on, and times/actions are subject to change.)
  9 am: Begin gathering at Worcester Common
  10 am: Second New England Solidarity March
  Late morning: Direct Action (w/ CD potential)
  Midday: Occupy New England gathering. Have lunch and talk a lot to each other.
  Mid afternoon: Occupy Worcester’s Women’s Caucus event, details TBA
• MAY 17 – Nationally recognized transgender activist and member of Occupy Boston Gunner Scott will be honored with The Theater Offensive’s Out on the Edge award. As Executive Director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, Scott led the battle for passage of the Massachusetts Transgender Equal Rights Bill in November. The Transgender Equal Rights Bill, also known as An Act Relative to Gender Identity, makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity in the areas of employment, housing, public education and credit & lending.Who: Transgender activist Gunner ScottWhat: The Theater Offensive honors Scott with Out on the Edge awardWhen: Thursday, May 17 @ 6:30 pmWhere: Hibernian Hall (184 Dudley St, Roxbury)

  Open to the Public: Yes (with ticket purchase)

  Continue reading “Occupy Boston Daily Digest for 4-21-12” »

Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

Stories of the Day: Federal immigration officials granted a one-year stay of deportation Tuesday to Lessy Noelia Ramos, a Honduran woman suffering from postpartum depression, more than five years after she was arrested at a massive factory raid in New Bedford. For more, click here. Activists see homeless teens as growing problem in Massachusetts. State officials and those who advocate for the homeless say there is an alarmingly large population of so-called unaccompanied homeless young people, ages 14 to 22, living on the streets and in shelters across Massachusetts. The figure is growing, and too big to get a grasp of because homeless teenagers often hide their plight, and go uncounted, advocates say. Massachusetts was one of the first states to include a question about homelessness in the student risk behavioral study school districts conduct for the federal government every two years, according to homeless advocates. Read more here. And: the financial fraudsters, the One Percenters, fleece the most vulnerable — military families, minorities, low-income people — to generate their fast riches. See “Murder, Suicide and Financial Ruin: How the Class War Is Destroying Americans’ Lives.” And: Occupy Wall Street has been about more than just corporate greed and income inequality. Occupy protesters around the globe may not realize it but, at various points in the past six months, many have been fighting for the same cause as the peasant communities of rural Vietnam during the 1930s – the moral economy. For more, see “What Are Occupiers Really Fighting For?” And Holman Jenkins, like any good upper class white male member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, is absolutely perplexed by America’s “Inequality Obsession.” See “Ruling Class Spokesman Can’t Understand America’s ‘Obsession’ With Inequality.” And check out this great satirical website: Your Bank of America.

Other Occupies/Protests: Occupy Oakland and Occupy SF plan to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge on May 1. The Facebook event for Occupy the Bridge states: Unite in solidarity with Golden Gate Bridge workers and the international call for a general strike on Mayday as we occupy the bridge, and show the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District that fair wages and benefits can not be ignored. This action has been called for by the Golden Gate Bridge Labor Coalition and endorsed by Occupy Oakland, Occupy SF, Jobs with Justice, and the Occupy SF Action Council.

“The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” Thomas Paine

Upcoming Events:

• Union Busting is Disgusting: Defend the MFA Guards Rally, Saturday, April 21. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is seriously considering OUTSOURCING their guard union. Some have been working there for 10-20-30 years. They would lose their status as museum employees and would be forced to apply for jobs to an outside contractor with a bad reputation — IF they get re-hired. The museum would have non-union workers doing union jobs! Let’s give the top 1% our 100% effort in stopping these attacks! DON’T SUBCONTRACT UNION JOBS! Saturday, April 21 from noon to 2 pm at the Huntington Ave. sidewalk in front of MFA. For more info, contact John at rennipsmj@yahoo.com. Facebook event page is https://www.facebook.com/events/325005734232758/  
• Tuesday, April 24, 10am-8pm, Occupy Brandeis is hosting The Great Teach-In on the Great Lawn. For the schedule of events, click here.
• The Occupy Boston Media Working Group has dissolved. To try to help us explore how the entire community can be empowered to create its own media, we invite /urge you, the community, to participate in a conversation about the future of media work at Occupy Boston next Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 7pm at Encuentro 5 (5th floor, 33 Harrison Ave, Boston). We will discuss the best way to reallocate existing resources in a way that is equitable and consistent with OB’s values.
• What is Occupy Wall Street? A film screening. Occupy HCC (Holyoke Community College) is hosting a film screening of short films produced by Occupy Wall Street in the Forum at HCC, April 27, 3pm-5pm. Come and find out about the Occupy Movement that started on Wall St. and has spread across the globe! There will be a Q&A session following the films with activists from different Occupy groups across the Northeast. This event is sponsored by the Holyoke Community College Student Senate.
• 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!
• Boston New Sanctuary Movement Presents A Return to A Faithful UnderstandingAn 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. 
• • 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 [redacted]. 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.
  • Keep Immigrant Families Together! Stop the Raids and Deportations! Prayer Vigil for Immigrant Detainees, Sunday, May 6th, 2 p.m.Suffolk County House of Correction, 20 Bradston St., BostonFor more information about the vigil, contact our Facebook page, or email SocialAction@ascboston.org. www.bostonnewsanctuary.org. Immigration through Faith: Faith through Immigration – Personal experiences of immigration as a moral and religious issue. A facilitated panel discussion exploring personal experiences of faith and immigration. This session is designed to help participants articulate and claim religious language and relevancy in a conversation dominated by secular and political messages. The panel discussion will be followed by an open period for questions and reflections.U.S. Immigration History and Your Faith:  We will look at who came and why?  What laws were enacted as barriers?  What role have people of faith played in this history?  Immigrant Stories in the Struggle for Workers Rights:  We will also ask where we find ourselves in the story, and who belongs here? To register, go to www.bostonnewsanctuary.org, or call Newell Hendricks at 617 876-5038. $10 suggested donation
• Occupy New England – M12 Day of Action and Regional Gathering. 9am-5:30pm, May 12: Come join Occupy groups from all around New England as we converge in Worcester for a day of action and networking! The day will have four core key components to it: getting as many Occupy groups and participants in one centralized location at the same time for a day of networking and planning, direct actions and public visibility, continued actions against corporations backing ALEC, and finally the flared up “War on Women” – discussion on women’s issues (rights, health care, etc…)Preliminary timeline of events:
  (Please note the following is a rough draft discussed by Occupy Worcester and the M12 working group. More details will be released later on, and times/actions are subject to change.)
  9 am: Begin gathering at Worcester Common
  10 am: Second New England Solidarity March
  Late morning: Direct Action (w/ CD potential)
  Midday: Occupy New England gathering. Have lunch and talk a lot to each other.
  Mid afternoon: Occupy Worcester’s Women’s Caucus event, details TBA

Continue reading “Occupy Boston Daily Digest for 4-20-12” »

Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

Stories of the Day: Keynesian economics suggests deficit spending as a means of jump-starting a waning economy, and it only proved itself by ending the Great Depression. There is no polite way to say this: the imposition of austerity at this moment in economic history is stupid. Not just a little stupid, staggeringly stupid. And not just staggeringly stupid, but on a human scale, just plain old cruel. Read more about The Cruel Stupidity That is Economic Austerity here. And across the United States more than 2,700 companies are collecting state income taxes from hundreds of thousands of workers – and are keeping the money with the states’ approval, says an eye-opening report published on Thursday. For more, click here. [Note: Michael Moore talks about this in his excellent film “Capitalism: A Love Story.”] And a surprising coalition of unions, social justice organizations, Occupy Atlanta, the Tea Party Patriots, and others beat back what was meant to be an easy test case for repressive legislation. This is how they did it: check out How to Slay a Dragon.

Other Occupies/Protests: Per Occupy Chicago: Police force Mental Health Movement Occupation off lot across from Woodlawn Clinic. No arrests were made. The patients, healthcare workers, and advocates will sleep in their cars with their banners visible. Protest at Mayor Emanuel’s House Being Planned. And, coming in August: the Everything for Everyone Festival is a free, two-day music, art, and politics festival scheduled to take place in Seattle, Washington, on August 11th and 12th. In 2011, the rule of the 1% began to be challenged in brand new ways. A wave of discontent with the old older of things began in Egypt and Tunisia in the Spring. This wave gained strength and momentum into the Fall with the Occupy movement. Now in 2012, there is a desire coming from everywhere on the planet to continue that spirit of resistance of 2011, and to develop it in new and meaningful ways. This desire for change is not manifesting itself in the traditional forms of opposition to the current system, nor is that desire seeking just to “fix” the old oppressive order to make it seem “fairer” to the relative few on the planet. Initial endorsers: Occupy Seattle, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Portland, Kali Akuno-Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Black Orchid Collective, Student Anarchist Study Group, Red Spark (Kasama Project), Rising Tide. For more information, click here.

“The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands — the ownership and control of their livelihoods — are set at naught, we can have neither men’s rights nor women’s rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease.” Helen Keller

Upcoming Events:

• Union Busting is Disgusting: Defend the MFA Guards Rally, Saturday, April 21. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is seriously considering OUTSOURCING their guard union. Some have been working there for 10-20-30 years. They would lose their status as museum employees and would be forced to apply for jobs to an outside contractor with a bad reputation — IF they get re-hired. The museum would have non-union workers doing union jobs! Let’s give the top 1% our 100% effort in stopping these attacks! DON’T SUBCONTRACT UNION JOBS! Saturday, April 21 from noon to 2 pm at the Huntington Ave. sidewalk in front of MFA. For more info, contact John at rennipsmj@yahoo.com. Facebook event page is https://www.facebook.com/events/325005734232758/  
• What is Occupy Wall Street? A film screening. Occupy HCC (Holyoke Community College) is hosting a film screening of short films produced by Occupy Wall Street in the Forum at HCC, April 27, 3pm-5pm. Come and find out about the Occupy Movement that started on Wall St. and has spread across the globe! There will be a Q&A session following the films with activists from different Occupy groups across the Northeast. This event is sponsored by the Holyoke Community College Student Senate.
• 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!
• 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 [redacted]. 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.
• Occupy New England – M12 Day of Action and Regional Gathering. May 12: Come join Occupy groups from all around New England as we converge in Worcester for a day of action and networking! At Worcester City Hall and Common. More information to be announced.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Please note events are subject to change; check https://www.occupyboston.org for the latest information!

Continue reading “Occupy Boston Daily Digest for 4-19-12” »

Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

Stories of the Day: Members of Occupy Boston engaged in a “sleepful protest” on the night of April 16, sleeping on the sidewalk in front of Bank of America, before being evicted late in the morning on April 17. Watch the video of the eviction here. And the ACLU of Massachusetts is carefully reviewing the Boston Police Department’s conduct during the Tea Party rally at the Boston Common on April 15. But, even as the police investigation gets underway, a police spokeswoman has already claimed that officers are “getting assaulted” by people holding cameras. If that claim is meant to imply that a Boston police officer was assaulted by those who photographed the officer with his hand on a counterdemonstrator’s neck, it appears that the BPD has predetermined its conclusion. [Note: the counterdemonstrator and the other people who were shoved by the police are members of Occupy Boston.] For the ACLU press release, click here. For a video of the policeman shoving the counterprotesters, click here. And on a lighter note: the latest issue of Spare Change News features another one of our own: check out All The News That’s Fit to Occupy: Back to Dewey Square with the Boston Occupier’s Dan Schneider! And still more thoughts on the 99% Spring: Rather than arguing about whether the 99% Spring is co-option or not — spoiler alert: it is — Occupiers can be strategizing about how to co-opt it back even more. How can all these newly-trained troops be mobilized into Occupying? See story here. And check this out: Occupy West Side Story!

Other Occupies/Protests: From Occupy Honolulu: Kea‘au (Makaha) Beach being forcibly relocated [happening at this writing, on April 17]. The city and county of Honolulu is forcibly relocating the residents of Kea‘au Beach. Upwards of 200 houseless people live on the undeveloped portion of Kea‘au beach on the western side of Oahu. Pushed there by the state, the residents have no safe place left to go on the island. Years of raids, bullying, and shuffling of the houseless population on Oahu have sought sanctuary in this beautiful beach. The undeveloped lands at Kea‘au are protected under the state constitution as a public access area for all residents of Oahu. In direct violation of established law of the state constitution, enacted by king Kamehameha and adopted by the Hawaiian state government, The Honolulu Police Department with the aid of the Department of Facilities Maintenance is evicting the 200 plus homesteaders from these grounds. Kea‘au beach has been occupied for 40 years by the islands residents. Set along the west coast of Oahu, it has been home to multiple generations of  people. After numerous raids and shuffling of the housless people on the island, many sought refuge at Kea‘au beach, a secluded sanctuary on the west end of the island. Families have lived on this beach for over 10 years since the state refuses to address the underlying social and economic issues that forced them there. There is nowhere left to go on the island for the houseless peoples of Kea‘au beach. The city is violently running them out of their homes with bulldozers and garbage trucks rather then help them. Occupy Honolulu condemns the City and County of Honolulu’s violent oppression of the peaceful residents of Kea‘au beach.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Upcoming Events:

• A public hearing on the third and latest risk assessment for the NEIDL (the Boston University bioweapons lab) has been scheduled for Thursday, April 19, 2012, from 6:30-9:30 PM at Roxbury Community College,  Media Arts Building, 1234 Columbus Avenue, Boston. The closest T stop is Roxbury Crossing. 

For almost 10 years, the Safety Net (a Roxbury-based community group) and the Stop the BU Bioterror Lab Coalition have successfully fought to prevent this dangerous high containment  biological laboratory from being opened in the densely populated Roxbury/South End neighborhood.  High-level containment laboratories do research on pathogens that can cause severe illness and death. The highest level (BSL-4) labs study lethal diseases that can be transmitted by air and for which there are no vaccines or treatments.  The lab is located in an Environmental Justice neighborhood which already faces significant health and environmental hazards.

 Two previous risk assessments have been severely criticized by the courts and by a National Research Council panel of experts.   This latest 1700-page effort can be viewed at http://nihblueribbonpanel-bumc-neidl.od.nih.gov/,   The National Institutes of Health have scheduled the April 19th hearing because they are required to offer  community members and other concerned citizens an opportunity to comment on the risk assessment. We must make it clear to BU, NIH, and the political establishment that this lab is not acceptable to us.   It is essential that we turn out in large numbers. Please plan to attend! A large turn-out could have an impact on the final disposition of the research done in this lab. For more information, please contact Ridgely Fuller, ridgelyfuller@gmail.com.
• April 19. The Stop Mass Incarceration Network has called for rallies and demonstrations across the country to protest the huge imprisonment numbers in the United States, some 2.4 million people, of whom 60% are African American or Latino. Major activities, including teach-ins and street actions, have been scheduled for New York City, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area, among others. The protests will also focus on conditions in prisons, including the use of long-term solitary confinement; racial profiling; police stop-and-frisk practices against minority youth; and post-incarceration discrimination against former prisoners. The organizing group includes numerous civil rights and social justice organizations, academics, clergy, civil libertarians and actors. Organizers say that such a protest is especially important now, in a presidential election season, when “the horror of racially targeted mass incarceration is hardly being mentioned. And when it does come up, it is raised only to call for even harsher measures.”
• Union Busting is Disgusting: Defend the MFA Guards Rally, Saturday, April 21. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is seriously considering OUTSOURCING their guard union. Some have been working there for 10-20-30 years. They would lose their status as museum employees and would be forced to apply for jobs to an outside contractor with a bad reputation. (IF THEY GET RE-HIRED) The museum would have non-union workers doing union jobs! Let’s give the top 1% our 100% effort in stopping these attacks! DON’T SUBCONTRACT UNION JOBS! Saturday, April 21 from noon to 2 pm at the Huntington Ave. sidewalk in front of MFA.Facebook event page is https://www.facebook.com/events/325005734232758/   Continue reading “Occupy Boston Daily Digest for 4-18-12” »