Occupy Boston Daily Digest for 4-26-12

Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

Stories of the Day:  If I were a cow on a factory farm, I’d be mad too: Mad Cow Disease confirmed in California. In related news, check out this story on how Big Pharma dominates meat science and how public universities have given up the pretense of serving the public interest and have instead have lapsed into research and marketing arms of large corporations. For the story, click here. For more information on factory farms, check out this informative animated short video, The Meatrix. And for a video of the Occupy the Farm action in Albany, CA,  click here. And, a weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don’t fully use their skills and knowledge. For more, click here. The Connecticut state Senate approved a bill Thursday that would allow citizens to sue police officers who arrest them for recording in public, apparently the first of its kind in the nation. And, some more good news: imagine… a world where the metric that guides our decisions is not money, but happiness. That is the future that 650 political, academic, and civic leaders from around the world came together to promote on April 2, 2012. Encouraged by the government of Bhutan, the United Nations held a High Level Meeting for Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm. For more, click here. Finally: check out Occupy humorist Lee Camp’s video message on the May 1st General Strike and why you should participate! (“You won’t be lying if you call in sick to work, because our way of life is sick.”)

Other Occupies/Protests: In calling for a general strike on May 1, Occupy LA stated: “In protest against the corruption of the worldwide marketplace, which has led to illegal foreclosures, mass unemployment, low wages, high taxes and a penalization of all those who do not own the ‘99%’ of the world’s resources, and in solidarity with the immigrant movements of May 1st … we are calling upon the people of the world to take this day away from school and the workplace, so that their absence makes their displeasure with this corrupt system be known.” Occupy LA has posted an elaborate plan to try to shut down business as usual in the city on May Day, including four “car and bike caravans through the urban sprawl of Los Angeles that will culminate in direct action in and around the Financial District of downtown L.A. People from all sectors of the city will have a chance to plug in to the routes from any corner of the city, helping to shut down the flow of capital while addressing the 99%’s major grievances.” Organizers say participants will include Occupiers, union members and community organizations, among others, who will approach the financial district via the cars and bikes from four directions in a “slow, city-paralyzing, carnival-esque descent into the center of the city.”

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” George Orwell

Upcoming Events:
  • 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.
  • Occupied Critical Mass! April 27, 5:30pm – 8:00pm, meet at Copley Square (Boylston between Clarendon and Dartmouth). Occupy joins forces with Critical mass to bring awareness to climate change and Earth Day. Bring your bikes/wheeled things and meet at Copley for Occupied Critical Mass!
  • 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. 
  • 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.orgwww.bostonnewsanctuary.org.

    1. 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.
    2. 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?  We will also ask where we find ourselves in the story, and who belongs here?
    3. Immigrant Stories in the Struggle for Workers Rights

    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 Scott. What: The Theater Offensive honors Scott with Out on the Edge award. When: Thursday, May 17 @ 6:30 pm. Where: Hibernian Hall (184 Dudley St, Roxbury). Open to the Public: Yes (with ticket purchase)
  • Sponsored by the Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series: Book launch for Truth and Revolution by Michael Staudenmaier. May 22 at 6 pm at Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave, Boston. Michael Staudenmaier speaks on the Sojourner Truth Organization/STO. STO was Founded in Chicago in 1969 from the rubble of the recently crumbled SDS, the Sojourner Truth Organization (STO) brought working-class consciousness to the forefront of New Left discourse, sending radicals back into the factories and thinking through the integration of radical politics into everyday realities. Through the influence of founding members like Noel Ignatiev and Don Hamerquist, STO took a Marxist approach to the question of race and revolution, exploring the notion of “white skin privilege,” and helping to lay the groundwork for the discipline of critical race studies. Michael Staudenmaier is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Illinois.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Event Highlights:

  • May Day Prep Sign & Banner Making Party!
    5:30pm – 7:00pm
    Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Avenue, Chinatown/Boston. 5th floor
    Join us for May Day preparations! Sign and banner making and perhaps even screen printing! Bring any supplies that you can spare!

Calendar for Thursday, April 26, 2012

5pm – 6:45pm, Facilitation WG Meeting, at City Place Food Court in the Transportation Building – Boylston, Charles and Stuart Streets

7pm – 10:30pm, General Assembly, Boston Common – Soldiers and Sailors Monument Hill,  the hill southeast of Soldiers and Sailors Monument, facing the Bandstand. Here’s a link to a Google map showing how to walk there from Park Street T. http://g.co/maps/tj4kr

Please note! Meetings and their locations are subject to change. We encourage you to check the Occupy Boston Calendar for the most up-to-date information.

Volunteer Opportunities/Announcements: 

1) Issue 7 of the Boston Occupier is out now, and we need your help distributing!!

We rely exclusively on YOU, the broader Occupy community, to get our papers out there to the 99%. So…

** We would love for you to join one of our planned outreach/distribution efforts on the T.

** ANYTIME you’re going to a progressive or Occupy-related event, try to pass out papers. These are the most effective occasions to connect sympathetic readers to our paper. Copies of the issue are stored in the OB cubicle at E5, so PLEASE remember to grab a stack.

** Get them to readers in your community. We recommend small stacks in small stacks in cafes, libraries, bookshops, laundry mats, community centers, waiting rooms, campuses, etc. Be creative!! But we’ve found that the BEST way to get papers to readers is to hand them out face to face, combining outreach and distribution.

** If you are a part of another local-area Occupy movement, a union, or a community organization that is willing to distribute papers — let’s make it happen! You can just come by E5 (between 9 am and 7 pm most days) and grab a stack, or coordinate with us if you’re not able to do so. Send questions or suggestions about distribution to Julie O (juliettejulianna@gmail.com).

** We’re also trying to raise funds so that we can continue printing the stories of the 99%! To that end, we’ve started a subscription service. Read about it online here. I hope you’ll encourage those you know to subscribe to the paper as well!!

As always, we welcome questions, suggestions, and distribution ideas — send to juliettejulianna@gmail.com. We’ve printed a gorgeous May 1st poster on the back of this issue, so we’re hoping to get all 10,000 copies out in the next week and a half, to promote the General Strike. Papers to the people!!

2)  Occupy Boston seeks RADICAL CLOWNS to participate in the May Day rally at City Hall Plaza at 12:00 noon. Will you be a radical clown? contact 617strike@gmail.com. Occupy Boston is looking for the following supplies to be donated or loaned for May Day actions. Please send an email to 617strike@gmail.com if you are able to provide any of these items in the next week or so.

microphones

guitar amps

electrical inverters  (for 12V to 110/120VAC) (cigarette lighter plug)

blank T shirts

white fabric

black fabric

neon colored fabric

spring clamps

duct tape

black paint

white paint

glow-in-the-dark paint

sharpies/markers

clamp lights

face paint

glitter

neon posterboard

blacklight bulbs (standard light bulb size)

red light bulbs (standard light bulb size)

portable lights with power source/battery pack

Beer coolers (for dry ice)

Brass bell (should ring pretty loud)

3) GA locations: 

The following proposal passed the General Assembly of Occupy Boston on April 17, 2012:

Facilitation Working Group proposes the following changes to the current General Assembly schedule:

  • Tuesdays: We propose that, effective May 1st, all Tuesday GAs be held outside. We propose the Boston Common as a temporary location with the idea that location may change in the future. We will give Arlington Street Church notice that our last night using ASC space will be April 24, 2012.
  • Thursdays: We have ended our relationship with Emmanuel Church and therefore propose that all Thursday GAs be held outside effective April 19, 2012, at the Boston Common as a temporary location with the idea that location may change in the future.
  • Saturday: We propose to continue to hold GA at Community Church of Boston on Saturdays in order to ensure that at least one GA per week is held indoors. FWG is in the process of asking CCB whether it would have space available on Tuesdays. If so we would ask the GA to decide whether that one GA indoors should be on Tuesday or Saturday.
  • Community Gatherings will remain on Mondays and effective May 14, 2012, will be held at CCB.

This schedule is subject to review by the GA at any time.

Amendments:

  • GA will be canceled Tuesday, May 1st.
  • FWG will seek access to the web banner and text service to ensure that any change in GA location or time will be widely communicated.

For a partial listing of Working Groups looking for volunteers, please click here! For a list of Working Groups with contact info, click here! For more information on Occupy Boston’s General Assembly, including passed resolutions, click here!  And if you’re interested in learning more about Occupy Boston and how you can participate, click here! For contact info for other Occupies in the area, click here! 

Contact Us: Want to subscribe to the Daily Digest? Click here to have it sent to your email inbox every morning! All Working Groups or Occupy Boston events that need placement in the Daily Digest, please email AnnaC@OccupyBoston.org. And subscribe to the Occupy Boston Media Rundown, a daily listing of Occupy-related news, by contacting JohnM@OccupyBoston.org.