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.

http://tinyurl.com/botyh9f

Harvard withdraws investments from hotel chain with poor labor practices after protests

Harvard Management Company has chosen not to reinvest in funds managed by HEI Hotels & Resorts, according to an email sent by HMC President and CEO Jane L. Mendillo to University President Drew G. Faust.

Harvard announced in December that it would review HEI’s business practices after drawing criticism from labor activists and unions for investing in the company, a hotel chain which has come under fire for repeated allegations of failure to comply with labor regulations.
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Harvard’s investment in HEI has been a major focus of Occupy Harvard and the Student Labor Action Movement’s platforms.

http://tinyurl.com/7vec7t6

Occupy Boston Returns to Dewey for April Fools’ Rally. So Do Cops.

At least one group of protest fans expects Occupy to stage a significant Spring comeback. The gushing observers were out in force yesterday, tailing rally-goers on a march through downtown and Faneuil Hall. Sure, Boston police have shown appreciation for Occupy before. But it was still impressive to see so many of them dedicate their whole Sunday to the cause, and to playing along with their very own April Fools’ stunt.

Of course cops weren’t the only ones delivering absurd spectacles – in their case, producing a police presence that would be overkill for a small sports mob, let alone to keep about 100 peaceful gadflies in check. Occupiers also brought the silly, chanting messages like “Tax the poor” and “Take a shower get a job” – the last one starting as they moved past their old neighbors at the Intercontinental Hotel.

http://tinyurl.com/7r5puxc

Occupy Pittsburgh Joins National Day of Action for Public Transportation

On Wednesday, April 4, Occupy Pittsburgh invites the people of Allegheny County to stand together with those across the country to demand public transportation for the 99%. Public transportation provides vital access to work, housing, medical care, school, and other services for citizens in our county. It is a basic human right which helps everyone reach a decent standard of living, and secures health and well-being of our families.

April 4th is the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s groundbreaking speech “Beyond Vietnam: Breaking the Silence” in which he spoke of the connections between war and poverty. He explained his understanding that “America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube”, and that he had become “increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”

In this spirit, we recognize that attacks on public transportation happening across the country, from Boston to Portland, Pittsburgh to Oakland, and DC to LA are part of a larger austerity program being enforced against the 99% of Americans. We also recognize that these and other austerity measures are a result of the military adventures that “draw men and skills and money” away from the poorest and weakest in our society and for the benefit of the richest and most powerful 1%. These are fronts of the same struggle for a humane society, in which the needs of all come before the profits of the few.

http://tinyurl.com/7qemqhq

A New Energy Third World in North America?

The “curse” of oil wealth is a well-known phenomenon in Third World petro-states where millions of lives are wasted in poverty and the environment is ravaged, while tiny elites rake in the energy dollars and corruption rules the land.  Recently, North America has been repeatedly hailed as the planet’s twenty-first-century “new Saudi Arabia” for “tough energy” — deep-sea oil, Canadian tar sands, and fracked oil and natural gas.  But here’s a question no one considers: Will the oil curse become as familiar on this continent in the wake of a new American energy rush as it is in Africa and elsewhere?  Will North America, that is, become not just the next boom continent for energy bonanzas, but a new energy Third World?
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Knowledgeable observers are already noting the first telltale signs of the oil industry’s “Third-Worldification” of the United States.  Wilderness areas from which the oil companies were once barred are being opened to energy exploitation and other restraints on invasive drilling operations are being dismantled.  Expectations are that, in the wake of the 2012 election season, environmental regulations will be rolled back even further and other protected areas made available for development.  In the process, as has so often been the case with Third World petro-states, the rights and wellbeing of local citizens will be trampled underfoot.

http://tinyurl.com/c9luogq