Occupy Boston Women’s March
March 20, 9 PM – 10:30 PM
Meet at the Parkman Bandstand in the Boston Commons
Join Occupy Boston women and our allies at a march in solidarity with the women of OWS who were brutally beaten and arrested Saturday night for the crime of peacefully protesting in Zuccotti Park. Meet at 9 PM at the Boston Common bandstand. Bring candles and signs.
Small Meetings of Occupy, Germinating the Seeds of Democracy
There is a side of the Occupy movement that does not consist of street marches and confrontations with police. It doesn’t involve the occupation of parks or shipyards. It is a side that receives little to no press, but in the end may be one of the most important aspects of the movement: The community meeting. There are scheduled meetings listed practically every night of the week on the Occupy Portland Calendar. Some are planning meetings, some are lecture meetings, some are for team-building. There are also community cell meetings that do not make it to the calendar-small groups, quietly working behind the scene to network, organize and create change.
http://tinyurl.com/8yx96z8
Occupy Northampton parlays with Northampton officials
The protesters said they wanted city money spent on items such as food for the hungry and orchards, and spoke out against tax breaks for corporations like Coca-Cola and Kollmorgen. They also said the city does not need the $20 million police facility currently being built.
Council President William H. Dwight proposed a meeting to discuss these issues and Monday night came to fruition. Lisa DePiano, an organizer with the group, started the evening by outlining the topics and going ove the hand signal the group uses to express approval, disapproval and the wish that someone would stop talking.
Those in attendance then separated into five groups to address economic development, civil iberties, public space, civic engagement and corporate accountability. Names were exchanged, hand signals reviewed and the talking was on.
http://tinyurl.com/7drkvqm
Occupy University of Rhode Island, with singing help from Rrraging Grrranies, protests rising tuition
Political theater came to the regular meeting of the Board of Governors for Higher Education Monday as Occupy URI and the Rrraging Grrrannies of Greater Westerly drove home the point that high tuition is sinking college students.
The group, including a half-dozen women wearing oversize hats, sang “Bail Out the Students,” their original lyrics set to the tune of “Beer Barrel Polka.”
http://tinyurl.com/893eutl
Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 3/20/12” »
The following announcement comes from our sisters and brothers at Occupy Harvard:
Currencies, a dis/Conference
with David Graeber
Harvard University, Northwest Labs basement (under the whales)
March 23, 2012, 12 pm -5 pmCurrencies are telling of our current time. Debt, labor, commodification, ownership, and consumerism structure and characterize contemporary life and knowledge production. From the monetization and protection of intellectual property to the debts that students accrue, from the exploitation of adjunct labor to the re-productions of class lines, this dis/Conference seeks critical engagement with what has currency and what serves as currency in education and life today.
In contrast to traditional conference formats, this dis/Conference seeks to facilitate open, horizontal education through substantive knowledge sharing, inquiry, critique, and discussion. Together with David Graeber—anarchist, occupier, and anthropologist—we will engage the economies of academia by subverting its dominant forms of knowledge production. In the process, we will participate in the purposeful creation of an alternative model for scholarly engagement, beyond mere discussion. Under this model, our primary resources will be ourselves. Everyone—inside or outside of academia—is welcome.
For more information, please visit www.currenciesdisconference.info.
Massachusetts residents stand up to oppose the Mandatory sentencing or “3 Strikes” bill in MA. Many speakers from Thursday’s rally call it wasteful and harmful warehousing of people.
The Smedley D. Butler Brigade of the Veterans for Peace hosted and organized the Saint Patrick’s Day Peace Parade in Boston this year. When its request to march with the Allied War Veterans in the ‘traditional’ St. Patrick’s Day Parade was denied, as it has been in previous years, the organizers pulled a permit, and reached out to other groups! The William Ladd Chapter of Veterans for Peace came from Maine, New Hampshire’s Chapter, and the Colonel Jeffrey M. Luce Cape Cod Chapter of Veterans for peace marched to the music of the Leftist Marching Band, with some family members carrying enlarged photos of their loved ones who had been lost to war, to honor their memories. The Military Survivors Family organization marched as well.
St. Patrick was a man of peace, and would probably not smile at the tanks bristling with guns marching in his name; but I hope the joy and life and music of the St. Patrick’s Day Peace Parade would make him smile! In fact, a stand in for St. Patrick marched, chasing the “snakes” of racism, sexism, and greed away!
Occupy Boston, Occupy Holyoke, Occupy Quincy, and Occupy Everywhere answered the call as well. Colorful banners, Occupy drummers, and giant puppets marched in the bright sun.
The LGBT community marched, the group that most closely rivaled the Veterans for Peace in size. Their joy at being in the parade, together, and marching was a joy to behold. JoinTheImpactMA had a wonderful banner and decorated trolley.
Several churches marched in the Peace Parade as well. Among them were the Wellesley Friends Meeting Quakers, The Peace Abbey, and Theodore Parker Church of Roxbury.
The only political party to join in the march was the Green Rainbow Party.
Richard Smith and his wife Ann drove at the head of the parade in an open convertible, with a joyous and very senior member of the Veterans for Peace, Severyn Bruyn, leading the way!
More than a thousand revelers marched through the streets of Boston to joyful drumming and the playing of a brass band, with most bystanders making the peace sign and applauding.
Article by Deborah Sirotkin Butler
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