Occupy Boston will have a march in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street today, November 15, at 5 pm starting in Dewey Square. We stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in New York City and around the world. We are the 99%, and we are everywhere.

Harvard University custodial workers from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615 will be rallying outside the Harvard Management Company’s office—located on the top floor of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, directly across the street from Occupy Boston in Dewey Square—tomorrow, November 15, at 4:30 pm. The custodians are currently in difficult negotiations with the University over parody, wages, educational benefits, and healthcare, and their union contract ends at midnight tomorrow.

First, the bad news.

A recently released report “points to concentrated need in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury, where 42 percent of children live in poverty, the densest cluster of childhood poverty in the state.”  According to the Boston Globe (11/9/11), the study also indicated that “in 1990, 24 percent of African-American children across the city lived in poverty. Nearly two decades later, that figure has risen to 35 percent.”

And now, the good news.

Occupy the Hood – Boston is focusing on organizing people of color to challenge these social injustices in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury. The project has been continuously active since its launch three weeks ago and has already collected an impressive list of accomplishments. In only three weeks, it has

• organized a protest against Police brutality
• helped re-elect the only Black city council woman in Boston through a get-out-the-vote effort to “occupy the polls”
• mobilized for a rally to kill the 3 Strikes law S.2054 which would intensify  the prison-industrial complex
• launched a community food drive to serve the neediest Boston residents
• helped inspire the launch of Ocupemos El Barrio, which is taking root in East Boston and conducting its meetings in Spanish with real-time translation available for those who don’t speak Spanish

This Monday 11/14, Occupy the Hood is putting on a Town Hall Meeting at the Dudley Library (65 Warren St. in Roxbury) at 6pm.

The objective will be to discuss issues of concern to the community, and to share updates on Occupy Boston, Ocupemos El Barrio, and various other activist and community organizations. Come one, come all!

WEB: www.blackstonian.com/occupythehoodTWITTER: https://twitter.com/#!/OTHBoston
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/occupythehoodboston
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/user/occupythehoodboston
GOOGLE GROUP / MAILING LIST: http://groups.google.com/group/occupy-the-hood-boston | occupy-the-hood-boston@googlegroups.com
CALENDAR:  https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=occupythehoodboston%40gmail.com&ctz=America/New_York

HASHTAGS / @S: #occupythehoodboston | #OTHB | #blackupyboston | #blackstonian|
@OccupyTheHood | #occupythehood | #POCcupy | @POCworkinggroup