Good Morning from Occupy Boston!
In Remembrance: Sad news for many of us at Occupy Boston: we have lost one of our own. Our dear friend, Andy, from Logistics, has passed away. He was a pillar for all of us down at Dewey and continued to be helpful and nurturing as we left Dewey, and beyond. Our gratitude for everything he did for us.
Stories of the Day: Today’s theme is ecology. Chris Hayes of MSNBC advocates civil disobediance as a final resort and tells the story of protester Tim DeChristopher, an American climate activist and co-founder of the environmental group Peaceful Uprising. On December 19, 2008, he protested an oil and gas lease auction of 116 parcels of public land in Utah‘s redrock country, conducted by the Bureau of Land Management. DeChristopher decided to participate in the auction, signing a Bidder Registration Form and placing bids to obtain 14 parcels of land (totaling 22,500 acres) for $1.8 million. DeChristopher was removed from the auction by federal agents, taken into custody, and and sentenced to two years in prison. And a lawsuit in U.S. District Court filed by teen and twentysomething plaintiffs (and backed by environmental groups), calls on federal agencies to protect the atmosphere as a public resource, including from excess carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases. And the use of PSYOPs by active military personnel on U.S. citizens is illegal and a violation of the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 but the fracking industry is doing it anyway: Gas Fracking Industry Using Military Psychological Warfare Tactics and Personnel in U.S. Communities.
Other Occupies/Protests: Check out Occupy San Francisco’s declaration of ideological liberation, passed by their GA, it’s well-written and inspiring. An excerpt: “Occupy is both the conversation and the space to make meaningful change happen. Occupy is a big tent and all are welcome to help us create the solutions for a better world. Whether it’s removing money from politics, transforming the economic system, or advocating for a more just and equitable society, we have the energy and we have the ideas, but the most important thing we need is your passion! You have more power than you’ve been led to believe, and your voice is more needed than you think. These are the days when we must speak out, no matter how our voices shake.”
“Anything else you’re interested in is not going to happen if you can’t breathe the air and drink the water. Don’t sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet.” Carl Sagan
Volunteer Opportunities/Announcements:
Occupy Boston’s newspaper, The Boston Occupier, is looking for new staff members, including writers, editors, photographers, and those willing to help with fund-raising and distribution of the newspaper. Everyone is welcome to attend today’s working group meeting (see below)!
Help support Camp Charlie! Protesters need healthy food, water, hand warmers, sweaters, blankets, duct tape, and you! Also musicians needed, acoustic only. Bring friends/bands/instruments…sorry, no power. And if anyone has time to come by for any amount of time and help out by sitting at the Info table to talk to people that would be great!
For a partial listing of Working Groups looking for volunteers, please click here!
Upcoming Events:
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Justice for Farmworkers! Picket, Delegation and Theater at Stop & Shop Headquarters, Thursday, April 12 at 12pm, Stop & Shop Corporate Office Headquarters, 1385 Hancock St., Quincy.
Just days before the Ahold (parent company of Stop & Shop) Shareholder Meeting, please join farmworkers and Fair Food allies in calling on Stop and Shop to join the Fair Food Program!
For decades, Florida’s farmworkers faced poverty wages and daily violations of their basic rights — including physical abuse, sexual harassment, and in the most extreme cases, modern-day slavery — in order to harvest the food on our plates. Today, however, a new day is dawning in the fields. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) — an internationally-recognized farmworker organization — has reached groundbreaking agreements with ten of the world’s leading food retailers, including McDonald’s, Subway and Trader Joe’s. Hailed by the New York Times as “possibly the most successful labor action in the US in twenty years,” the Fair Food Program establishes a worker-designed code of conduct in the fields and requires retailers to pay one more penny per pound for the tomatoes they buy to go directly to the workers who picked them—all of which is monitored and enforced by the independent Fair Food Standards Council. Supermarkets like Ahold leverage their high-volume purchasing power to demand the ever-lower prices that result in farmworker exploitation. By refusing to partner with the CIW, the steps the company has taken fall far short of the substantive, verifiable and enforceable standards that the situation requires, consumers expect, and others within the industry have embraced.
Join farmworkers and Fair Food advocates in demanding that Ahold uphold human rights and join the Fair Food Program! More information: www.ciw-online.org, Contact: elena@interfaithact.org; 650.678.9127
- Raise Taxes on the 1% Tax Day Rally and March, Tuesday, April 17, 5:30PM, Dewey Square (South Station). Occupy JP and Occupy Boston will participate, along with many other groups, in a protest against the unfairness of the current tax regime, where people such as Mitt Romney pay at rates far lower than those earning far less, and Warren Buffet’s now-famous secretary pays at a higher rate than Warren Buffet. The Rally and March will begin at 5:30pm at Dewey Square (South Station) and the march will begin at 6pm and proceed through the city streets, pass by several notorious corporate tax dodgers, and end at the bandstand in the Commons. Things to bring: yourself (most important), signs, noise-making stuff (pots, pans, kazoos, whatever)
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Event Highlights:
Please note that new events may have been added to the website; check https://www.occupyboston.org for the latest information!
- 2pm at Camp Charlie, in front of the Occupied State House, Occupy Boston will hold a mock hearing on the MBTA. Bring/wear a suit or a reason why they should put the fares back … and a loud voice. After, we’re planning a “Back to the Future” event where we’ll try to remember what life was when we had trains.
- [Ongoing] Occupation of State House Steps for Public Transportation, April 5 – 14, 2012, Camp Charlie at the State House. On April 4, Occupy the MBTA, a working group of Occupy Boston, launched Camp Charlie, a ten-day occupation of the Massachusetts State House steps to protest fare-hikes and service cutbacks on the MBTA. Having survived the depths of the recession, the 99% now faces additional taxes in the form of escalating T fares and the loss of essential transport routes. This is a further transfer of public wealth to the banks. These are the same institutions that were bailed out by the American taxpayer after being rendered insolvent by their own, criminal recklessness. The only debt in need of servicing is their debt to us. In a country that lavishes four billion dollars in subsidies on the oil companies, the relentless assault on public transport could not make less sense – ethically, environmentally, or otherwise. Camp Charlie will be a place for public debate, conversation, and outreach – a living testament to the refusal of the people to be further abused by a clutch of corporate interests, multinational banking cartels and consolidated oil interests.
Calendar for Sunday, April 8, 2012
Please note! Due to the increasingly warm weather and the occupation at Camp Charlie, meeting locations may change. We encourage you to check the Occupy Boston Calendar for the most up-to-date information.
1pm – 3pm The Icarus Project WG Meeting, Gazebo on Boston Common (City Place Food Court in the Transportation Building if raining) Radical mental health support and activism.
3pm – 5pm People of Color WG Meeting, Encuentro 5. 33 Harrison Ave 5th Floor
These are just some of the many events at Occupy Boston. Check out our Daily Calendar for more information.
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!
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.
