(source)

PRESS RELEASE: Activists Shut Down Interstate Highway 93 North and South During Morning Rush Hour Traffic into Boston

January 15, 2015

Contact Megan Collins at (617) 942-1867 or email january15action@gmail.com for more information, interviews, and photographs.

Somerville/Milton/Boston Massachusetts — Activists have shut down Interstate 93 Southbound and Northbound during morning rush hour commute into Boston to “disrupt business as usual” and protest police and state violence against Black people.

Two different groups of activists linked their bodies together across the highway in coordinated actions north and south of Boston. This action was in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. This diverse non-Black group of Pan-Asians, Latinos, and white people, some of whom are queer and transgender, took this action to confront white complacency in the systemic oppression of Black people in Boston.

“Today, our nonviolent direct action is meant to expose the reality that Boston is a city where white commuters and students use the city and leave, while Black and Brown communities are targeted by police, exploited, and displaced,” said Korean-American activist Katie Seitz.

In the past 15 years, law enforcement officers in Boston have killed Remis M. Andrews, Darryl Dookhran, Denis Reynoso, Ross Baptista, Burrell “Bo” Ramsey-White, Mark Joseph McMullen, Manuel “Junior” DaVeiga, Marquis Barker, Stanley Seney, Luis Gonzalez, Bert W. Bowen, Eveline Barros-Cepeda, Daniel Furtado, LaVeta Jackson, Nelson Santiago, Willie L. Murray Jr., Rene Romain, Jose Pineda, Ricky Bodden, Carlos M. Garcia, and many more people of color. We mourn and honor all these lives.

“We must remember, Ferguson is not a faraway Southern city. Black men, women, and gender-nonconforming people face disproportionately higher risk of profiling, unjust incarceration, and death. Police violence is everywhere in the United States,” said another protester Nguyen Thi Minh Thu.

The two groups of activists organized these actions to use their collective voices to resist and disrupt the overarching system that oppresses Black people and to expressly accept the responsibility of white and non-Black people of color to organize and act to end racial profiling, unjust incarceration, and murder of Black people in the United States and beyond. Black lives matter, today and always.

Quotes from Participants in the Action

“As an Afro-Indigenous woman I feel the affects of white supremacy on my people. Being involved in this action has shown me where the participant’s hearts are at in the movement. Without collaboration of all people, no one can be free.” – Camille

“As Pan-Asian people in the United States, we refuse to perpetuate anti-Black racism. We will not allow our communities to serve as a wedge to divide us and jeopardize our struggle to end racism and achieve our collective liberation,” said Nguyen Thi Minh Thu.

“As non-Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer people in the United States, we refuse to allow increasing acceptance of our sexuality and several marriage equality victories to end our commitment to advancing social justice. We recognize that this movement has been spearheaded by Black queer women and gender-nonconforming people.” said Monica Majewski.

“As white people in the United States, we refuse to align ourselves with a state that carries out violence against Black people. We are taking direct action to challenge white complicity and amplify the demands for an end to the war on Black communities,” said Katie Martin Selcraig.

“As a white person, my only options are to act against white supremacy or to be complicit in it. I’m here today because I refuse to be complicit” said Emily O.

“As a white man, I know I benefit and am protected by a racist society. I am participating today because it is necessary for those who are the least vulnerable to step up and put our bodies on the line if we ever want to build a just world,” said Eli C.

“As a white feminist, I take part in this action because anyone who claims commitment to equality must take action to dismantle intersectional oppression. Idling is a privilege afforded only to those who genuinely do not care,” said Nelli.

“As non-Black undocumented immigrants in the United States, we refuse to perpetuate the erroneous idea of earned citizenship. We honor the path set before us by Harriet Tubman by advancing civil and human rights for everyone regardless of legal status,” said a protester involved in the action.

“As non-Black women, including transgender and gender-nonconforming folks in the United States, we refuse to allow our commitment to gender justice to distract us from racial justice. We understand that gender and racial justice are intertwined,” said one of the organizers of the action.

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Boston Globe (1)
Boston Globe (2)
Guardian
BLM Boston
Dig Boston
Rebecca Hains

(from UJP)

When: Monday, January 19, 2015, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Where: Old State House Boston, State Street & Washington St., Boston

4 Mile March to protest police repression of black community and related issues. 1 pm on Monday, January 19 at Old State House (Boston)

One demand calls for end of US interventions/imperialism abroad.

The group is responding to a national call named after the time (4 1/2 hours) Michael Brown’s body lay in the street. There was a long discussion of demands.

The group agreed with the following national demands for the march:

1. civilian oversight committee to review incidents of police brutality;
2. fear is not sufficient reason to use deadly force;
3. body cameras for all uniformed officers;
4. special independent prosecutors of police crimes;
5. extend federal ban of racial profiling to local law enforcement;
6. end prison industries that profit off prison labor;
7. police always choose life over death, capture suspects alive for judicial proceedings;
8. police must report illegal actions of other police;
9. police have communications and diversity trainings appropriate to precinct;
10. study sentencing based on race, gender and sexual orientation and set standards; skewed sentences to be reviewed.

The group agreed to the following locals demands for the march:

1. jail killer cops;
2. enact a living wage;
3. defund prisons, fund communities;
4. end mass incarceration;
5. no to Boston Olympics, use money to fund communities;
6. end US intervention around world, stop US imperialism

PRESS RELEASE — Activists Stop Commuter Rail before AFC Playoff Game

Contact Saif Rahman at (860) 966-2473 for more information and interviews

January 10, 2015

Dedham, MA — Activists from across New England delayed an MBTA commuter rail train at the Dedham, MA station traveling to the New England Patriots game in order to interrupt “recreation as usual.” This peaceful demonstration was organized to continue lifting up the message of the Black Lives Matter movement and in honor of the “2015 Year of Resistance.”

Organized by a diverse group of white, non-black people of color, and black activists, the action was meant to highlight white complicity that allows police and state violence to be carried out against Black people.

“As white allies, we are taking direct action to challenge white supremacy and amplify the demands for an end to the war on Black communities across the county,” said one of the organizers, Mallory Hanora of Boston, MA.

“As non-Black people of color, we know that the struggle for our autonomy starts with the liberation of Black people in the United States,” said Sherrie’ Anne André of Providence, RI.

The train was delayed for four and half minutes to represent the four and half hours Michael Brown’s body was left lying in the street; this span of time has become symbolic within the movement. Protestors quietly replicated the sound of a beating heart during that time.

“As a black woman, I agree that these actions are important, they demonstrate solidarity with our liberation and challenges white complacency with this racist system,” said Seneca Joyner of Boston, MA.

In Boston, Black people experience racial disparities at every point of the justice system, from unnecessary and unconstitutional stops by police, to overrepresentation in prisons, to the murder of unarmed Black people. The ACLU of Massachusetts released a report in October that found 63 percent of Boston police-civilian encounters from 2007 to 2010 targeted Blacks, even though Black people make up less than 25 percent of the city population. Even after controlling for crime, the study showed that police officers were more likely to initiate police encounters with Black people. Police gave no justification for 75 percent of these stops.

While white New Englanders celebrate our region as one grounded in principles of freedom and liberty, in reality white supremacy continues to impede the safety and well-being of Black people and their families. New Englanders continue to live under intense segregation and violent policing. At this game many white fans will cheer and celebrate Black athletes in the stadium while ignoring the racism Black people face in daily life. The AFC Division Playoff Game required us to insist that Black lives matter all the time, everywhere, on and off the field.