The Howard Zinn Memorial Lectures Series (part of the Free School University) presents Occupy Film: a film and discussion series on Occupied Peoples and People’s Occupations. The first two films”Left on Pearl” and “3000 Years and Life” will be shown on Feb 16th and Feb 23rd at the Community Church in Copley square (see fliers below for more information about these exciting films).
Occupy Boston gears up for Spring revival
Although officials ended Occupy Boston’s Dewey Square encampment in December, protester Dennis Jackson said he wants to “keep up the fight.” About 30 people attended a General Assembly at Emmanuel Church on Thursday night to discuss upcoming plans.
“Keep up the fight, this is the beginning of the second American Revolution,” Jackson said to the group. “What started in Egypt is going to spread to D.C. over this upcoming election.”
http://tinyurl.com/83yrr9y
Letter to the Editor: Homeless ignored
At Occupy Boston we fed hundreds of people – many of them homeless – daily for free. Lots of the food was organic and vegetarian. The way of the future is going to be “we the people” getting together and doing it ourselves in public places like the parks. We can’t rely on government.
No matter what got these people in their position – circumstance or choice – they’re still human beings (Feb. 2). The cost of having your homeless population warm and fed is still lower than having them starving, stealing or being brought to the ER.
http://tinyurl.com/826mp58
Elite economics articulated: ‘You deserve to suffer, and suffering is good for you anyway’
[It is] the belief that recessions, and particularly tight money, represent some sort of bracing, morally essential “purging” of evil spirits in the American psyche, reminding the great unwashed that they’d better keep their heads down and not get too irrationally exuberant. This attitude keeps popping up in the pronouncements of inflation fighters, some of them powerful players in our monetary system.
. . .
It’s a habit that actually predates [Andrew] Mellon and [Herbert] Hoover, going back at least to the monetary policy battles of the late nineteenth century, during which farmers starved for credit and suffering from chronically low prices were regularly accused of moral laxity.
The flip side of this syndrome, of course, is the tendency to believe that economic success and the ability to be a creditor instead of a debtor is a sign of strong moral fiber. Today’s conservative lionization of “job creators” is an example; as is the constant baiting of relatively comfortable elderly people to resent younger and poorer people as parasites seeking to rob them of the resources their virtue has earned them.
http://tinyurl.com/7wjufra
On Saturday, February 4th Occupy Boston’s Action for Peace Work Group joined communities across the nation, with over 60 endorsing organizations, to alert people to the ominous drumbeat, that unimpeded, will lead to war on Iran. The following video was produced by Occupy Boston Media Working Group member David L.
Presenting the nights format /Photo by Matthew J Shochat
On January 27th, 2012, at 6pm, about 150 Occupy Boston and Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered at The Democracy Center at 45 Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge. The first couple hours were spent as a casual meet and greet between both parties. Food was provided by the Brookline Food Co-Op, founded fifteen years ago by Tom and Vicki Schnoes. The Brookline Food Co-Op receives donations from local restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets that would otherwise be discarded. The food they receive is used to help those who don’t have enough resources in order to feed themselves and their families, which include those who face homelessness, live in subsidized housing, and immigrants just coming to the US.
The Wall of Possibilities /Photo by Matthew J Shochat
At 8pm, everyone then got together as the presenters discussed what exactly would be happening that night. The form was described as a Non Structural Conference in which individuals place a paper on a portion of the wall with a time and place to meet, on a ‘Law of Two Feet’ format. These groups would then discuss the topic including educating others, troubleshooting issues, and expanding personal growth on socioeconomic issues. Such topics on the wall included “How Spirituality and Politics influence Occupy Movement?”, “Conversation on Facilitation Challenge”, and “Non-Violent Direct Action.”
For those who may not have found the event as engaging as others, Occupy Boston’s Screen Print Guild was located in the Library for anyone who desired to create prints. The event lasted until at least 1am before the crowd dispersed.
The below proposal reached agreement at OB General Assembly, on February 4, 2012.
Fossil fuel and nuclear corporations are some of the wealthiest interests on the planet – yet they still suck up billions of dollars in government subsidies. They buy off elected officials and corrupt our political process while sticking us – the 99% – with the bill for the health, ecological and climate destruction they cause. Their coal, oil, gas and nukes fuel our unjust economic systems, imperil our planetary future and prevent us from shifting to a clean energy economy of, by and for the people.
Occupy Boston therefore calls for:
• An end to all government subsidies to fossil fuel and nuclear energy interests;
• An end to corporate influence, including energy industry influence, on politics;
• Immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations to below the safe atmospheric threshold of 350 parts per million CO2e; starting with the rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline
• A just transition for workers currently employed in fossil fuel and nuclear energy sectors to sustainable employment.
We pledge to make personal and group choices that support these aims.”
Occupy Boston Media <Media@occupyboston.org> • <Info@occupyboston.org> • @Occupy_Boston