The Nov 21st action against Spectra has been cancelled. Spectra has stopped construction for now.
Category: News and Announcements
Call to Action: Not Another US War!
Don’t Allow the Paris Attacks to Become a Pretext for Racism & War
We Need Healthcare, Education, and Jobs for All!
facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1089935431039761
Where are we demonstrating? Park Street and Tremont, Boston
When? Nov. 21 at 1pm
Why? The US-NATO alliance just completed its largest military operation to date in Europe – called Trident Junction – with Russia as the main target. At the same time, Washington escalated its four-plus-year proxy war against the Syrian government by sending Eagle jets to the Turkish-Syrian border and U.S. Special Forces into Syrian territory to protect the so-called “moderate rebels.”
All of this has come in response to Russia’s intervention to eliminate ISIS in Syria. The Obama administration’s campaign promise of “no boots on the ground” has once again been broken. What Washington has promised with its actions is ever-lasting war.
People all over the world have paid a price for the U.S.-NATO escalation. Hundreds have died in a recent massacre in Paris. Fifty died in Beirut just days before. Hundreds more died just weeks before in the bombing of a Russian tourist flight from Egypt. Washington and its allies have armed and empowered terrorist groups like ISIS to destabilize the Syrian government. The result of this U.S. and NATO military intervention in the region is the blowback that struck the people at home. This intervention has also led to a dangerous military escalation that brings the U.S. closer to a regional war with Russia.
The cost of U.S. war has been far reaching. Over 4 million people have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq since the “War on Terror” began in 2001. North Africa has been turned into a hotbed of chaos and terrorism since NATO destroyed Libya in 2011. And Congress has promised $80 billion more in revenue for the trillion dollar Pentagon military apparatus necessary to maintain the global supremacy of the U.S. superrich. These critical funds come from our own pockets and could be used to develop education, healthcare, employment, and housing for all.
This is especially important as the wars on oppressed people continue to wage on within the war-making nations. The racist anti-immigrant movements in Europe and the U.S. are already planning how they will use the attacks in Paris on November 13 to bolster their violent campaigns against African, Arab, and Latino immigrants. Police chiefs across the U.S. who have been pushed back by the Black Lives Matter movement are at this very movement feverishly strategizing about how they will use the Paris attacks to support the ongoing police war against Black and Brown people.Homeland Security and the Wall Street interests that it serves will try to use the Paris attacks to expand surveillance and repression against protest movements. Politicians and their billionaire backers are already plotting how they will use the Paris attacks to launch a wider war against the peoples of the Middle East, Africa and Asia — the same way that Bush used 911 to destroy Iraq. Now is the time for all of us who know this to stand up and say NO!
Join us at Park Street in Boston to speak out and demand an end to all U.S.-NATO wars! U.S. out of Syria! No to attacks on Immigrants! Divest from war, invest in the people!
Sponsors include: International Action Center, Syrian American Forum, Committee for Peace and Human Rights, Boston United National Anti-War Coalition, Community Activist Chuck Turner, Coalition for Equal Quality Education Peoples Power Assembly, Women’s Fightback Netork, Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST), Workers World Boston branch (list in formation)
UPDATE: action cancelled; Spectra stopped construction.
It’s Erin here from BC. By now you have likely received an email (or a couple) regarding direct actions taking place at the construction site of the West Roxbury lateral extension of Spectra Corporation’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) project. Despite massive resistance from the region, Spectra sued the City of Boston, won the suit, and has begun construction on the pipeline extension.
But people aren’t backing down- in the past month, waves of civil disobedience have been able to stall construction. Before construction closes for the winter, we aim to escalate resistance by bringing a large group of students together for an action that will have both arrestable and non-arrestable roles next Saturday morning.
On our respective campuses, we are doing the imperative and arduous work of building a student power movement and pressuring our universities to divest from fossil fuels. At the same time, fossil fuel corporations are continuing to trump our political processes. These are the same corporations like Spectra are continuing our extractive economy’s legacy of putting profit over people, furthering climate chaos, and taking advantaged of oppressed communities- particularly indigenous communities, communities of color, and poor communities. This is unacceptable.
We as young people and members of higher-educational communities are responding to a call to action and are uniting to fight against this infrastructure as it embodies the sacrifice of our future for the fossil fuel industry’s profit, and also as it perpetuates the systems of oppression in which we live. Through the last few months we have seen the power and the necessity of aligning the climate movement with fights against oppression throughout the current business-as-usual system. We aim to bring that narrative to this local fight.
LOGISTICAL INFO:
Action: Saturday, 21 November at the pipeline construction site (exact street TBD)
- meet at 7:30AM
- action begins around 8:30AM
- for those who are risking arrest, it usually takes an hour for police to arrest those blocking construction from taking place
- those who are arrested are not being held by police currently (more details at the training!
- the action will consist of people blocking construction equipment, in addition to people rallying around those risking arrest
Non-violent Civil Disobedience training:
Friday, 20 November 6:00-9:00pm
Theodore Parker Unitarian Church
1859 Centre St, West Roxbury, Massachusetts 02132
There will also be a pre-planning meeting early next week in the Boston area; I will follow up tomorrow with more details.
I will be checking in with folks throughout the weekend to discuss the action, recruitment throughout the next week, and any questions that you may have. (Including the legal process, transportation and lodging, etc.)
With love,
Erin
erincsutton(AT)gmail.com
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http://floodboston.wordpress.com
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Meet at the plaza near Au BonPain in Harvard Sq. at 11 am. March from Harvard Square to Boston Common.
We will march in solidarity with the people of the planet along Mass.
Ave., over the Longfellow Bridge, then down Charles Street to Boston
Common opposite the State House.*
Send a message to the world leaders meeting in Paris for climate action!
Keep fossil fuels in the ground.
*Finance an equitable transition to green, renewable, green energy! *
*Put a price on carbon. We need real domestic action in the United
States. *
RSVP and spread the word!
http://act.350.org/event/global-climate-march/11597?source=tce
It’s no secret that People of Color, religious minorities, and other “suspect communities” are targeted by criminal justice and national security agencies. From police scrutiny of Black Lives Matter activists to the Muslim-focused “countering violent extremism” (CVE) initiative, government surveillance divides communities, interferes with First Amendment protected activity, and impedes movement organizing.
This event will examine parallels and intersections between state profiling of Black communities, Muslims, and other Communities of Color in Boston and beyond, with special focus on the new federal CVE initiative.
Come engage with a panel of inspiring activists to explore how we can resist surveillance and strengthen the movement for racial justice through building solidarity across our diverse local communities.
Panelists:
- Said Ahmed, Co-Founder & Executive Director, United Somali Youth, inc.
- Shannon Erwin, Executive Director, Muslim Justice League
- Aisha Shillingford, Innovation Guru, Intelligent Mischief
- Carl Williams, Staff Attorney, ACLU Massachusetts
Tues Nov 17 @ 7 PM
First Church of Roxbury http://heyevent.com/venue/gqdfpxsbserawa
10 Putnam St
Moderator: Andrew Cohen, Boston Workmen’s Circle Center for Jewish Culture and Social Justice
This event is co-sponsored by the ACLU Massachusetts, Black and Pink, Boston Workmen’s Circle Center for Jewish Culture and Social Justice, Intelligent Mischief, Jewish Voice for Peace Boston, Moishe Kavod House Boston, Muslim Justice League, Safe Hub Collective, and United Somali Youth, inc.