On Monday, September 14th, Boston NAACP, in collaboration with The Berkman Center For Internet & Society at Harvard University and UMass Boston Professor Michael Johnson, will host its second conversation on planning and development processes and issues – and the need for community-led processes – highlighted by Boston’s attempt to bid to host the 2024 Olympics.

The following is a link to the FB invite: https://www.facebook.com/events/1493365124322250. We’d appreciate your help in spreading the word about this conversation.

Boston’s unsuccessful attempt to become the U.S. candidate for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games started a variety of powerful and important discussions about the future of Boston generally, many of which deserve to be continued. If we properly build on the momentum of these conversations, the legacy of Boston’s 2024 Olympic bid could be much more than regret and political division. It could instead usher in a new era of community engagement and involvement on major urban issues.

An opportunity has arisen to model a more democratic community planning process. I would therefore like to invite you to join me, Professor Johnson, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and other distinguished guests for dinner and discussion on September 14, 2015, from 6-9pm, so that together we can explore the possibilities offered by hosting the MINEPS VI conference, an international conference on youth and sport. More broadly, we will also be exploring new ways and tools with which Boston’s communities and citizens can more effectively discuss issues of significance, and make their voices heard in any related decision-making process.

The dinner will take place at Freedom House, 5 Crawford St., Dorchester, on September 14, 2015 from 6-9pm. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to Annie Pruitt (apruitt(AT)cyber.law.harvard.edu) and Nia K. Evans (economicdev(AT)bostonnaacp.org) as soon as possible.

I very much hope that you can join us as we continue this important conversation.

September 27th – Rally at 2pm near proposed pipeline, 3 pm march through W. Roxbury. More details TBD.

Event info will be updated here: https://www.facebook.com/events/429857630547805

Jobs NOT Jails Public Forum

Tuesday October 6, 2015
Worcester Public Library, Saxe Room 6-8 p.m.

Are you for Job Creation instead of Mass Incarceration?

Join EPOCA, Neighbor to Neighbor and Worcester area Jobs NOT Jails supporters to hear testimonies on why it’s time for change and to learn about the Justice Reinvestment Act.

RSVP via Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/408832645983842

Jobs NOT Jails Justice Reinvestment Act – Joint Judiciary Committee Hearing

At the State House in Boston

Show your commitment to advance racial and economic justice. Don’t miss the Joint Judiciary Committee Hearing on Jobs NOT Jails omnibus legislation, the Justice Reinvestment Act at 1 p.m.

Join us at 11:00 am for a short rally and meeting with our legislators prior to the hearing. The Justice Reinvestment Act will improve justice and safety, reduce incarceration and invest millions of dollars to create jobs for struggling families.

Your involvement is key to the success of ending mass incarceration in Massachusetts. If you are interested in submitting written testimony in support of the bill or meeting with your legislators or both, please follow this link.

RSVP via Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/711607562301715

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Summer might be ending, but the Summer of Solidarity is NOT Over!

Jobs NOT Jails is forming a network of people who are fighting to end mass incarceration and ensure living wage jobs for all people. Please join us! We are working to create powerful actions in small teams.

If you would like to get involved or if you’d like information about the next training, please click here.

The 31st annual Bread and Roses Heritage Festival is a FREE, open air, celebration of the ethnic diversity and labor history of Lawrence, Massachusetts, on the Campagnone (North) Common in Lawrence, from 11:30AM-6PM. It takes place in honor of the most significant event in Lawrence history: the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike.

Enjoy a day of musical, dance, and theatrical performances from a range of cultures. This is the region’s only true Labor Day festival. The day is full of fun, music, dancing, delicious food, helpful resources, and more!

Performers Include: Si Kahn, Bread and Puppet Theater, Angkor Dance Troupe, Squeezebox Stompers, O’Shea-Chaplin Irish Dancers, Lisbeth Perdomo, Henry the Juggler, and more!

When: Monday, September 7, 2015, 11:30 am to 6:00 pm
Where: Campagnone Common / 200 Common Street / Free / Lawrence

Sacco and Vanzetti
Remembered in Boston, Sunday, August 23, 2015
PRESS RELEASE / PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Sunday, August 23rd, in Boston, the 88th anniversary of the execution of Nicola Saccoand Bartolomeo Vanzetti will be remembered. Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian immigrants and committed anarchists whose trial is regarded as one of the great miscarriages of justice in American history. Calling attention to the continued repression of immigrants and radicals, the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Committee invites all to attend and participate in the ninth annual march and rally.

We will begin by gathering at Visitors Center (Tremont and West, Boston) at 2PM, followed by a march to the North End at 3PM, and conclude with a rally at 4PM at the Paul Revere Mall at 416 Hanover Street and will feature a number of speakers and live music at both locations.

For the last ten years, the SVCS and other organizations and individuals have sought to bring public attention to the wrongful execution of the two Italian immigrant workers and radicals in 1927. We invoke their tragedy and our local history not just to remember Sacco and Vanzetti, but also to demonstrate how little has changed in the 88 years following their execution. Nationalist fearmongering and the repression of dissidents are as prevalent today as it was during the Red Scare in the early 20th century. The way in which immigrant workers are rounded up, detained and deported today under the pretext of a War on Terror, a War on Drugs or securing our borders, is eerily similar to the Palmer Raids targeting immigrants in the 1920s. Furthermore, the repressive role of the state has been made evident by systematic of police force used in particular against people of color. And while the overwhelming majority of developed nations have abolished the death penalty, the retention of capital punishment in the United States puts the U.S.in the disgracefully bad company of countries notorious for their human rights abuses. The Boston City Council has declared August 23, Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Day in the City of Boston, for the last 8 years, under the initiative of former councilors Felix Arroyo, Chuck Turner, and currently, Charles Yancey.

The organization sponsoring this year’s Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Day are the IWW, the Black Rose Collective, Encuentro 5, and the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society.

Contact: Sergio Reyes
Email: info(AT)saccoandvanzetti.org
Web: www.saccoandvanzetti.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saccoandvanzetti