State of the (Occupied) Union

Remember the protesters who commandeered New York’s Zuccotti Park and clashed with Oakland police this fall, in the name of the “99 percent”? Tuesday’s speech was arguably their greatest accomplishment yet, as the president called economic fairness “the defining issue of our time.”

http://tinyurl.com/7gpuj2h

The Cost of Commuting: MBTA’s Fare Proposals

Bostonians have been expressing their outrage about these proposals all over the online world and the topic itself is being tackled by hundreds of bloggers, journalists, and commuters all over the metro Boston area!

Twitter has been at the front of this frenzy with thousands of users tweeting their comments to MBTA of?cials (@mbtaGM), State Officials (@MassGovernor ), or just out to the Twitterverse hoping that someone out there is listening. Several groups have also formed out of the frustration, such as Occupy MBTA (@OccupyMBTA) a Twitter adopting the moniker of the Occupy Boston movement and Students Against T Cuts, (@StudentsTCuts) a group that consists of college students from around Boston who believe that the proposed scenarios are a step backwards in the development of the city’s businesses, people, and institutions of higher education.

http://tinyurl.com/7adztw7

No Layoffs for Harvard Libraries

On January 19, Harvard University Library Executive Director Helen Shenton told stunned Harvard Library staff that their numbers were to shrink. She announced that the cuts would be accomplished by July, through voluntary and involuntary means. Officials would rewrite some job descriptions and eliminate other jobs completely, and staffers would have to apply for a smaller number of reconfigured positions.
. . .

During its last wave of mass layoffs, Harvard maintained, unpersuasively, that a drop in its huge endowment made job losses inevitable. After a 21.4 percent jump in the endowment during the last fiscal year, to $32 billion, Harvard cannot possibly make any such claims today. Union activists believe the University’s plans to cut costs come at the expense of local communities. In a particularly ominous development, 15 out of 22 employees at Harvard Health Publications learned on January 11 that they would lose their jobs in March. The devastated staffers of HHP must wonder how they will find new positions in the current bleak economy. As of last week, library workers must wonder the same thing.

However, since 2008, the ground has shifted. The Occupy Wall Street movement has pointed a glaring spotlight at social inequalities, the concentration of wealth, and widespread unemployment. Harvard’s workers have actively participated in Occupy Boston and Occupy Harvard. Important links have been built, and potentially powerful networks have risen up. Employees who stayed on the sidelines of past years’ pickets now boldly advocate direct action to fight the planned cuts. No Layoffs campaigners know they will have many more allies this time around.

http://tinyurl.com/7gljdv9

Protesters stand with Malden foreclosure victim as she battles Wells Fargo

A 23-year Malden resident is claiming victory after Wells Fargo decided to repurchase her house at a foreclosure auction this afternoon, a move she said would give her leverage to re-negotiate her mortgage and keep her children in their home.

Marie Odestin was joined by 30 protesters outside of her home, with members from groups as varied as City Life, Occupy Boston and the Industrial Workers of the World, who said they were trying to send a message to banks like Wells Fargo that they should work with underwater homeowners.

“The Odestin family was mistreated, ignored and stonewalled by Wells Fargo,” City Life Lead Organizer Dominic DeSiata said, accusing the bank of giving the family the runaround as they tried to re-negotiate their loan. “Wells Fargo has been bailed out by taxpayers, and they should be working with people in our communities (to reach) a fair outcome.”

http://tinyurl.com/74ta7de

Students set up camp and occupy UMass Boston

Borrowing a page from the nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement, about 20 students on Monday occupied the campus center at University of Massachusetts Boston to protest cuts in public education spending and hikes in tuition.

“Public universities were built for the 99-percent and we intend on maintaining that,” said Amanda Achin, a 22-year-old student of political science at UMass Boston. “We need to end the wars, tax the rich and fund public education.”

http://tinyurl.com/86rxel8

The MBTA’s Proposed Fare Hikes And Service Cuts Draw Attack

MBTA officials absorbed withering attacks Monday on their proposals to hike fares up to 43 percent and slash dozens of bus routes, commuter rail hours, weekend E Line service and ferry service.

A familiar refrain – that the elimination of services would strand people in their homes, shatter a fragile economy and worsen pollution – was amplified during a hearing on the proposed fare hikes and service cuts that drew dozens of boisterous opponents to the state Transportation Building in downtown Boston.

Eliminating weekend and late-night commuter rail service, a component of one of the proposals, would prohibit visitors from the South Shore and central Massachusetts from attending Boston sports games, some of the critics argued. Others drew on the language of Occupy Boston to argue that the “1 percent” had bankrupted the T by borrowing to support the Big Dig and then foisting the fiscal burden on riders.

http://tinyurl.com/7jdn8om