The Smedley D. Butler Brigade of the Veterans for Peace hosted and organized the Saint Patrick’s Day Peace Parade in Boston this year.  When its request to march with the Allied War Veterans in the ‘traditional’ St. Patrick’s Day Parade was denied, as it has been in previous years, the organizers pulled a permit, and reached out to other groups!  The William Ladd Chapter of Veterans for Peace came from Maine, New Hampshire’s Chapter, and the Colonel Jeffrey M. Luce Cape Cod Chapter of Veterans for peace marched to the music of the Leftist Marching Band, with some family members carrying enlarged photos of their loved ones who had been lost to war, to honor their memories.  The Military Survivors Family organization marched as well.

St. Patrick was a man of peace, and would probably not smile at the tanks bristling with guns marching in his name; but I hope the joy and life and music of the St. Patrick’s Day Peace Parade would make him smile!  In fact, a stand in for St. Patrick marched, chasing the “snakes” of racism, sexism, and greed away!

Occupy Boston, Occupy Holyoke, Occupy Quincy, and Occupy Everywhere answered the call as well.  Colorful banners, Occupy drummers, and giant puppets marched in the bright sun.

The LGBT community marched, the group that most closely rivaled the Veterans for Peace in size.  Their joy at being in the parade, together, and marching was a joy to behold.  JoinTheImpactMA had a wonderful banner and decorated trolley.

Several churches marched in the Peace Parade as well.  Among them were the Wellesley Friends Meeting Quakers, The Peace Abbey, and Theodore Parker Church of Roxbury.

The only political party to join in the march was the Green Rainbow Party.

Richard Smith and his wife Ann drove at the head of the parade in an open convertible, with a joyous and very senior member of the Veterans for Peace, Severyn Bruyn, leading the way!

More than a thousand revelers marched through the streets of Boston to joyful drumming and the playing of a brass band, with most bystanders making the peace sign and applauding.

Article by Deborah Sirotkin Butler

St. Patrick’s Day Peace Parade bigger this year with addition of Occupy, other groups

The alternative parade was larger this year, with the addition of supporters of the Occupy movement, a faith group, and a labor group, said Cole Harrison, 58, a spokesman for Massachusetts Peace Action.

Steve Demetriou, 56, a member of Occupy Maine, came to the Peace Parade from Portland.

“[The Parade] is great,” said Demetriou. “A lot of solidarity and a lot of common issues is here. The establishment doesn’t want the boat rocked, and that’s what we’re here to do.”

ttp://tinyurl.com/73gbbld

Southie’s Green Day

Meanwhile, Occupy Boston occupied South Boston, marching in the alternative St. Patrick’s Day Peace Parade for the first time. A Veterans for Peace organizer said a judge has ordered that the Peace Parade must keep a mile between it and Boston’s “traditional” St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

http://tinyurl.com/7kblth9

Occupy Arlington kicks off with great weather, a good crowd, and many concerns for which to advocate

No tents. No rain and cold. But a lot of community enthusiasm, as 45 people stood in a circle in front of the Jefferson Cutter House on a gorgeous Sunday, March 18, and took turns at the mic to tell why they were part of Occupy Arlington.

The group, which marched from Town Hall to Arlington Center, was organized by Lynnette Culverhouse, a town resident who teaches math in Cambridge.

“I want have people talk to each other,” she said. “I would like to see people have a voice.”

http://tinyurl.com/6s46l98

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 3/19/12” »

OWS Is Not Over, Expect The American Spring

Occupy has been gathering steam for the American Spring. Just like our counterparts in other countries, we will continue to fight for our rights. We are not afraid to stand up to the corporate bullies and the politicians they’ve purchased. We will continue to demonstrate the power of non-violence in the face of unchecked violence; we will continue to work for healthy, self-sufficient communities; we will take a stand against injustice, inequality, and the oppressive forces that have slowly taken away our rights and stolen our government.

http://tinyurl.com/7tujp9r

Foreclosing on the commons

Call it feudalism, corporatism or the American way: the rich elite in the US have turned economic exploitation into something of an art. The top one per cent in the United States now control a quarter of the nation’s wealth, double the unhealthy share they held 25 years ago. But while their ability to control legislatures and presidents is impressive, the propertied elite may have let greed get the best of them. In their quest to redistribute wealth from the labouring classes to the idle ones, they have been a bit too successful: the exploited are waking up.

All it took for this stirring from slumber was the criminal collapse of the global economy and, for many in the US, the loss of the very roof over their heads – and the knowledge things weren’t going to be tangibly better anytime soon. Indeed, the foreclosure crisis is still sweeping the United States, with millions of people being thrown out of their homes every year. And yet, presented with a seemingly popular platform to political power – houses for working families, not bailed-out banks – the political class sides with its financiers, to the point that the fraud of electoral politics is now about as obvious as the fraud being perpetrated by the financial industry.

http://tinyurl.com/72h2gbr

Occupying Democracy: A Moral Revolution for Social Justice

The moral principle of revolutions is to instruct, not to destroy. -Thomas Paine, “First Principles of Government,” 1795.

Thomas Paine’s words, written 217 years ago, capture the core purpose of the Occupy movement.

The movement, at its heart, instructs us to honor one another and to ensure that government policy and our justice system reflect that ethic. It asks us to return to our founding principles.

http://tinyurl.com/72gktua

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 3/18/12” »

National Occupy expansion to smaller towns and cities grows with formation of Occupy Portsmouth [RI]

A group calling itself “Occupy Portsmouth” says it’s planning a meeting in town next month and intends to set up shop there as part of the national Occupy movement.

The Newport Daily News reports that the group announced this week that it will hold a “general assembly” April 3 at Patriot Park to plan what it calls “the future occupation of Portsmouth.” The group says it’s part of an expansion of the national movement into smaller towns.

The movement against corporate excess and economic inequality began six months ago with Occupy Wall Street and spread to cities worldwide, including Providence.

http://tinyurl.com/869yk5y

Boston Climate Activists Make Bank of America ATMs More Truthful

In another action targeting Bank of America for its financing of the coal industry, this one timed to coincide with Occupy Wall Street’s “Occupy Bank of America” March 15 day of action, RAN activists transformed over 70 ATMs into Automated Truth Machines, this time in and around Boston.

Activists used special non-adhesive stickers designed to look like BoA’s ATM interface. Instead of checking and savings accounts, customers are offered transaction options like investing in coal plants, foreclosing on homeowners, or bankrolling climate change.

Elite BoA executives like CEO Brian Moynihan reside in and around the city, making Boston an arena ripe for protests and ethical debate for the 99%. Targeted actions against BoA are expected to escalate between now and the company’s anticipated Annual General Meeting, where activists plan to gather en masse in May in Charlotte, North Carolina.

http://tinyurl.com/7yrrn6n

Wall Street firms face skeptical students

Wall Street firms have generated lots of controversy with their recruiting trips to universities.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has protested them energetically, and now the noisy resignation of Greg Smith, who was a key player in recruiting for the bank, has raised some related issues.

In his now famous op-ed piece, he wrote, “I knew it was time to leave when I realized I could no longer look students in the eye and tell them what a great place this was to work.”

http://tinyurl.com/82futm8

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 3/17/12” »

New Occupy forms in Arlington

Please join us on Sunday, March 18 from 2-4 p.m. in front of Arlington Town Hall for the launching of Occupy Arlington.  Make Arlington a vital part of Greater Boston’s growing Occupy movement.

If you’re interested in issues such as countering the impact of corporate greed, stopping the sellout of our democracy, finding solutions to disappearing jobs, making education and housing affordable. . .  we want to hear your voice.

http://tinyurl.com/7mej34d

Occupy! and Make Them Do It

(video)

When protest movements do emerge, the price of appeasement can rise dramatically. Protest movements raise the sharp and divisive issues that vague rhetoric is intended to obscure and avoid, and the urgency and militancy of the movement-with its marches, rallies, strikes and sit-ins-breaks the monopoly on political communication otherwise held by politicians and the media. Politicians trying to hold together unwieldy majorities and their big money backers strive to avoid divisive issues except in the haziest rhetorical terms. But movements-with the dramatic spectacles they create and the institutional disruptions they can cause-make that much harder. Movements work against politicians because they galvanize and polarize voters and threaten to cleave the majorities and wealthy backers that politicians work to hold together. But that doesn’t mean that movements are not involved with electoral politics. To the contrary, the great victories that have been won in the past were won precisely because politicians were driven to make choices in the form of policy concessions that would win back some voters, even at the cost of losing others. Thus the Democrats who finally supported civil rights legislation were not stupid. They knew that by conceding to the civil rights movement they were risking the long-term support of the white South. They tried to straddle the divide. But the movement forced their hand.

Thanks to the lunacy that has overtaken the GOP, Obama is in a good position to win re-election. But he is vulnerable to an escalating Occupy movement. In particular, minority, young and poor new voters are volatile voters, and they are susceptible to the appeals of Occupy. I, for one, hope the movement forces Obama to pay for its support, in desperately needed economic, political and environmental reforms.

http://tinyurl.com/6pzg4hs

Give up your bank for Lent

According to the progressive website ThinkProgress, “As congregations across the country observe the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter by sacrificing and repenting, religious leaders are asking big banks that have wrongfully foreclosed on homeowners and exacerbated the pain of the housing crisis to do the same.”

On Ash Wednesday, churches in San Francisco announced they were removing $10 million from Wells Fargo and called on the bank, as per the advocacy group Faith in Public Life, “to put an immediate freeze on its foreclosures and repent for their misconduct.” The March 9 New York Times reported that “The Rev. Richard Smith of St. John the Evangelist, an Episcopal church in San Francisco, likened the divestment campaign and public protests to early Christianity’s ritual of ‘reconciliation of the penitents.’

http://tinyurl.com/6o3h7af

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 3/16/12” »