Follow our liveblog for updates from today’s Day of Action for Public Transportation in Boston at the Massachusetts State House.
3pm: People’s Hearing
5pm: Rally to Save the T
8pm: MLK Remembrance
At various points throughout the day, we’ll be livestreaming:
Or, try one of these feeds from one of Occupy Boston’s frequent streamers:
On April 4th at 3:00 PM, Occupy Boston, Occupy MBTA, and other advocates for public transportation, environmental justice, and labor will converge on the State House for a People’s Assembly to demand “No Hikes! No Cuts! No Layoffs!” The Day of Action will include a People’s Hearing inside the State House at 3:00 PM, a rally outside at 5:00 PM, and at 8:00 PM a remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 44th anniversary of his assassination.
“A good public transportation system works to reduce the effects of economic inequality by providing affordable access to work, school, and medical care,” said Ariel Oshinsky, an organizer for Occupy Boston. “But the MBTA is attempting to do the opposite by balancing its books on the backs of those who can afford it the least. In the MBTA’s current proposal, four of the five biggest fare increases will fall on seniors and riders with disabilities, and communities that are already marginalized will be further isolated by the fare hikes and service cuts.”
Occupy MBTA’s People’s Assembly will be a direct response to the 31 public hearings hosted by the MBTA on its proposals to slash service and raise fairs. The MBTA claims to incorporated feedback from those hearings into its most recent proposal, but the evidence suggests otherwise. For example, MBTA officials claim there is public support for raising fares, but only 2.5% of public meeting comments supported fare hikes. In addition, MBTA officials have refused to explore many of the solutions that would have allowed the agency to balance its books without fare hikes or service cuts — including, but not limited to, canceling its interest rate swaps with Deutsche Bank, U.S. Bancorp (UBS), and JPMorgan Chase.
“The MBTA’s austerity measures should be aimed at Wall Street banks, not the T-riding 99%,” said Tyson Hawk of Occupy Boston. “We’re coming to the State House to make sure our voices are heard – to present our own solutions and to exercise a “people’s veto” over the MBTA’s disastrous plan.”
With public transit under attack across the nation, the Occupy Boston General Assembly passed a Call to Action on March 3, 2012, which called on “occupations, general assemblies and people’s movements across the country and around the globe to mobilize on April 4th, 2012 to demand public transportation for the 99%.” Events are planned on April 4th in more than twenty-five cities, including Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Portland, Denver, Los Angeles and Seattle. The Amalgamated Transit Union, the largest labor organization representing transit workers in the US and Canada, has pledged its support for the April 4th National Day of Action for Public Transportation.
At 8:00 PM on the steps of the State House, Occupy Boston’s People of Color Working Group will lead a vigil for Dr. King. April 4this the anniversary of Dr. King’s historic 1967 speech linking poverty and war and then his assassination exactly one year later. Dr. King was a staunch advocate of public transportation, who stood for prioritizing social needs ahead of corporate profit margins and militarism and once wrote:
Urban transit systems in most American cities, for example, have become a genuine civil rights issue—and a valid one—because the layout of rapid-transit systems determines the accessibility of jobs to the Black community. If transportation systems in American cities could be laid out so as to provide an opportunity for poor people to get to meaningful employment, then they could begin to move into the mainstream of American life.
Occupy Boston will be observing this day and remembering a great visionary by continuing Dr. King’s fight against economic inequality.
National Day of Action for Public Transportation
People’s Assembly – State House
3pm: People’s Hearing
5pm: Rally to Save the T
8pm: MLK Remembrance
For more information, visit http://occupymbta.org/a4/
Twitter hashtag: #A4bos
Stories of the Day: “Occupy lite?” They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but buyer beware: some things that sound like Occupy might be imitation. “American Spring” is an Occupy term, but “99% Spring” is not. A coalition of groups including MoveOn.org are providing “99% Spring Trainings.” Some feel this is co-opting the ideas of the movement, and reportedly these trainings deliberately exclude the model of consensus-based, horizontal democracy. However, the newly-formed Occupy Arlington just passed a resolution to bring in a 99% Spring training for themselves. In Los Angeles on March 31, there was an art show called “All In for the 99%” with the participation of many celebrities; but the money raised went to the American Dream Foundation, also known as Rebuild the Dream, a Democratic organization – not Occupy. On the other hand, or so it seems, a new website called “Occupy.com” went live on April 3. Despite the .com domain name, it is a non-profit which describes itself as: “a new media channel that will amplify the voices of Occupy. We use media to call for social, economic and environmental justice. We seek to inspire resistance, engagement and the creation of the new world we imagine … [we are] independent and non-profit. We consist of a small but growing group of dedicated occupiers working in solidarity with the movement. We are supported by a combination of donations and volunteerism. There is no GA or Spokes Council overseeing us, but we are morally accountable to the movement as a whole.” [from the website] Co-opting, or demonstrating that Occupy is changing public discourse? You decide…
Other Occupies/Protests:
“In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.” —Mark Twain
Volunteer Opportunities/Announcements:
Have you entered the Occupier’s Haiku Contest yet? I did! Send submissions to submit@occupier.com by April 7, no more than 3 haikus per person. For rules, click here. Prizes!
For a partial listing of Working Groups looking for volunteers, please click here!
Upcoming Events:
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)
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Event Highlight:
3pm-11:30pm Occupy Boston – National Day of Action for Public Transportation, Massachusetts State House
Watch this great video put together by Occupy Boston for this event and see how many of your friends you can spot! click here!
Calendar for Wednesday, April 4, 2012
3 pm – 4 pm Icarus Project WG Support Group. Note the new location at the Gazebo at the Common
5 pm – 7 pm Boston Occupier WG Meeting at Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave., 5th Floor, Boston
5:30 pm – 7 pm Info WG Meeting at United for a Fair Economy, 29 Winter St., 2nd Floor, Boston.
6 pm – 8 pm Radio WG Meeting at Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave., 5th Floor, Boston
7 pm – 9 pm Financial Accountability WG at City Place Food Court, in the Transportation Building
7 pm – 9 pm Media WG Meeting at Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave., 5th Floor, Boston
Protesters stake out State House in advance of MBTA vote
Youths, senior citizens, and others who depend on the MBTA began a 24-hour vigil at the State House today, with more protesters scheduled to arrive before an anticipated Wednesday vote on fare hikes and service cuts.
Scheduled to last from 11 a.m. Tuesday to 11 a.m. Wednesday, with teach-ins and speak-outs throughout Tuesday afternoon, the vigil was planned to attract the attention of Governor Deval Patrick, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, and Senate President Therese Murray.
Activists hope leaders will intervene before the board of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation votes Wednesday on a plan that would raise MBTA fares an average of 23 percent and reduce some services. The plan was presented last week after tremendous public outcry against two earlier proposals that would have raised fares by either 35 or 43 percent and made more dramatic service cuts.
http://tinyurl.com/c4v6hgk
Occupy, Unions Plan 4/4 Day Of Action For Public Transportation, Blame Banks For Cuts
Last week’s “fare strike” on the New York City subway won’t be the last time Occupy turns its attention to mass transit. On Wednesday, activists in at least 18 cities are teaming up with the nation’s largest transit union for a national day of action. The day is part of a concerted effort to place the blame for rising fares and diminishing service on the same banks that got the country into the recession — and it comes just as Congress is haltingly trying to pass a major transportation bill.
In Massachusetts, where the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has proposed a range of draconian service cuts, Occupy Boston will hold a rally in front of the State House and then a candlelight vigil in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., who died on April 4, 1968. Rallies, vigils, leafleting and voter registration are also planned for other cities where public transportation has been hit hard by the recession: New York, Detroit, Milwaukee and Indianapolis, to name a few.
“Public transit is a right, and it needs to be funded,” said Ariel Oshinsky, an organizer with Occupy Boston. She noted that public transportation is disproportionately used by people of color and with low incomes. The MBTA there has proposed a number of deep service cuts which Oshinsky said would “pit communities against each other.” But “as riders and workers together, there’s real strength.”
http://tinyurl.com/dxqbpjc
Demonstrators to focus on mass transit as a civil right
The Occupy Wall Street movement and the Amalgamated Transit Union have jointly declared April 4 a National Day of Action for Jobs and Mass Transit and are staging demonstrations that day in 20 cities across the country.
They said their joint mobilization is in keeping with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaigns for good paying jobs and for accessibility of those jobs to the poor. The action comes as unions and civil rights organizations in general turn more of their attention to creation of jobs that can be accessed by people in communities hardest hit by the economic crash – communities of color and areas in the nation’s inner cities.
The ATU and Occupy Wall Street plan their joint demonstrations in 20 cities, including Chicago, New York and Pittsburgh.
Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 4/4/12” »
Stories of the Day: Big Brother is listening: The ACLU has just released the results of public records requests to hundreds of police departments around the country asking them about their cell phone tracking policies. Many of the approximately 200 law enforcement agencies that responded said they track cell phones without a warrant. Check out this brilliant chart that helps you track propaganda and manipulations of rhetoric and logic: “Rhetological” Fallacies. And Anonymous supports the May 1 General Strike: A Day Without the 99%. For their video, click here. Occupy Boston has a day of events planned for May 1, stay tuned!
Other Occupies/Protests: On March 31, countries across Europe held M31, European Day of Action Against Capitalism. Their call for action and official website is here.
“The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There’s no innocence. Either way, you’re accountable.” Arundhati Roy
Volunteer Opportunities/Announcements:
Upcoming Events:
Wednesday, April 4, 3pm-11:30pm Occupy Boston – National Day of Action for Public Transportation, Massachusetts State House
Public transportation is a right and must be accessible to all. Service cuts and fare hikes will have a devastating and disproportionate impact on low-income communities, communities of color, students, workers, seniors and the environment. We say NO TO PRIVATIZATION of our common resources and NO MORE EXCUSES! We will not accept any funding strategies that attempt to divide the 99% against each other or shift the burden onto the backs of the 99%: the poor and working classes. End the wars and tax the rich! On April 4th, we will stand together to demand public transportation for the 99%. If our call is not answered and the necessary funds redirected, it will only add to the growing body of evidence that our government no longer represents us.
For a great video put together by Occupy Boston for this event, click here!
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Event Highlight:
7:00pm – 10:30pm, General Assembly at Arlington Street Church, 351 Boylston Street (corner of Arlington & Boylston)
1pm – 2pm Occupy Harvard Think Tank, Dudley House Cafe (no ID required), Harvard Yard, Cambridge, Cafeteria entrance is at the TOP of the stairs.
Occupy Boston Media <Media@occupyboston.org> • <Info@occupyboston.org> • @Occupy_Boston