Boston

Boston To Protestings Students: You’re Not Worth It

June 2, 2016 Jennifer C. Berkshire, www.progressive.org Resist! Boston, Education, Student Protests

By Jennifer C. Berkshire for The Progressive - The student protest outside of Boston City Hall was winding down. Of the 1,000 students who’d walked out of their schools for the second time this spring, about 100 were left, waiting to get inside in hopes of testifying before a City Council committee against proposed school budget cuts. First, though, the students had to pass through a metal detector, a process as inefficient as an airport TSA line. “This is what democracy looks like,” they chanted, a protest staple that for once felt almost true. “The whole world is watching,” they shouted, amplified by the hulking architecture of City Hall.

How Group Of Boston Teenagers Organized Massive District-Wide Protest

March 12, 2016 Allison Pohle, www.boston.com Organize! Boston, Education, Protests, Student Protests, Youth Activism

By Allison Pohle for Boston Globe - Hours before more than 3,500 of their peers would march out of their classrooms toward Boston Common, a small group of high schoolers was glued to a group chat on their phones. It was 3 a.m., and they needed to make sure everything was ready for the district-wide protest they’d spent the past week organizing. Were the posters finished? Yes. Was the meeting place finalized? Yes. Did they all promise that, no matter what, they would leave their classrooms at 11:30 a.m.?

Thousands Of Students Walked Out To Save Schools

March 8, 2016 Tom Cahill, www.usuncut.com Resist! Boston, Education, Student Protests

By Tom Cahill for US Uncut - Thousands of Boston high school students have descended onto the Boston Common and the Massachusetts State House in an unprecedented citywide walkout. Students are demanding the city rescind a controversial property tax break to General Electric and cease all budget cuts.

6 Arrested At Logan Airport In Wage Protest

January 19, 2016 Andy Rosen, www.bostonglobe.com Resist! Boston, Living Wage, Minimum Wage, Protests, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Andy Rosen for Boston Globe - State Police arrested six activists Monday at Logan Airport after dozens of activists flooded into a terminal to protest the treatment of workers at the travel hub, shouting slogans decrying “poverty wages” as some refused troopers’ orders to disperse. The event came as part of a national string of protests to draw attention to the wages paid to people who perform airport jobs like checking bags or cleaning terminals and airplanes. Though the employees have jobs at airports, they generally work for companies hired by airlines.

Boston Globe Takes Steps Towards Greater Transparency

August 26, 2015 Eric Hananoki, www.mediamatters.org Educate! Boston, Media, Transparency

By Eric Hananoki in Media Matters - The Boston Globe says columnist John E. Sununu will no longer write about cable and Internet issues because of his financial conflict of interest. Media Matters criticized the paper after it allowed the former Republican senator to complain about the "unnecessary regulation of the internet" without disclosing he has been paid over $750,000 by broadband interests. In an August 17 column, Sununu attacked the Obama administration for reaching "ever deeper into the economy, pursuing expensive and unnecessary regulation of the internet, carbon emissions, and even car loans." Sununu serves on the board of directors for Time Warner Cable, and is a paid "honorary co-chair" for Broadband for America, which has been supported by broadband providers and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

Nationwide Protests Are Bringing Issue Of Police Abuse To Forefront

December 5, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, DC, killed by police, New York (NY), Oakland, Police abuse, police brutality, Portland, Racism, San Francisco, Washington

Below are a series of headlines, photos and opening paragraphs from major media sources describing how they covered the nationwide protests against the grand jury decisions in police shooting cases in New York and Ferguson as well as police abuse which has become a nationwide epidemic. Some papers like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette where there were major protests did not cover the local protests in their communities. Others, like the Washington Post, focused more on the politics of the issue with photos of protests in DC and nationally. The Associated Press summarized the night of protests writing: "Thousands and thousands of diverse people united by anger took to the streets from New York City to San Francisco for a second straight night to protest a grand jury clearing a white police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man. Grandparents marched with their grandchildren. Experienced activists stood alongside newcomers, and protesters of all colors chanted slogans. A 61-year-old black woman was accompanied by her daughter and twin 10-year-old grandchildren, a boy and a girl. She said it was important to her that the children saw a crowd that was racially mixed and diverse in many other ways all insisting upon the same thing - that something must be done." That was the message, too, in cities across America: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis Oakland, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., among them.

DA Recognizes ‘Necessity Defense’ In Climate Protest

September 9, 2014 Ben Jervey, www.desmogblog.com Resist! Boston, Environment, Law, Protest

This morning, a District Attorney in Massachusetts made history as he recognized the “necessity defense” of climate-related civil disobedience, and reduced the charges for two activists charged in their Lobster Boat Blockade. Some quick background. Back in May 2013, Ken Ward and Jay O’Hara boarded their lobster boat, navigated to the shipping channel at the coal-fired Brayton Point Power Plant in southeastern Massachusetts, and dropped anchor. For six hours, the two climate activists and fishermen blocked the “Energy Enterprise” steam ship from delivering Appalachian coal from reaching the power plant. The “Henry David T,” Ward and O'Hara's boat, blockading the coal ship. Photo: LobsterBoatBlockade.org The two were arraigned later in the year on four charges in relation to their act of civil disobedience, including conspiracy. This morning, Ward and O’Hara were due in court, and their lawyers — along with a number of climate experts in Fall River to present testimony to the trial — had intended on using the “necessity defense” to argue that their actions were necessary to combat the greater threat of climate change. Ward and O'Hara had sought to become the first American climate activists to use this “necessity defense”, arguing that “the blockade was necessary in light of the imminent threat of climate change.” They had planned to call former NASA climatologist James Hansen and environmentalist Bill McKibben to the stand as expert witnesses. Scheduled for two days, the court proceedings were over in a less than an hour, as Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter immediately dropped the conspiracy charge, and reduced the other charges to civil infractions.

Bostonians March For End To Violence In Israel/Palestine

July 11, 2014 Jewish Voice for Peace Boston, www.boston.indymedia.org Resist! Boston, Divestment, Israel, Palestine, Protest

Hundreds of students, faith leaders, and activists from 15 local organizations marched today to protest Israel’s escalation of violence against Palestinians, citing 52 killed and 450 injured in Gaza in just the last two days. They picketed the downtown Boston locations of three companies they say are complicit in the violence: TIAA-CREF, Veolia, and Macy’s. At Park Street, Claire Gilbert from Grassroots International opened up the event by declaring that “The wrenching events unfolding in Israel and Palestine are not random; they are part of the system of occupation itself.” The protest’s tone remained solemn in honor of the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost since mid-June. Karlene Griffiths, a pastor in formation in the United Church of Christ who recently returned from a delegation to Palestine, led a moment of silence and a reading of names. “We weep, we mourn, we move forward and we fight,” Griffiths said.

What Happens When Youth Make Budget Decisions?

June 27, 2014 Hollie Russon Gilman, www.nextcity.org Create! Boston, Budgets, Education, Elections, Youth

Many young people in Boston just voted for their first time, and the results are in. The city’s “Youth Lead the Change” project, with help from the Participatory Budgeting Project, was the first youth-led participatory budgeting process in a U.S. city. The project empowered young people, ages 12 to 25, to decide where $1 million of public capital should go to best improve their communities. This is real money and real decision-making power. Boston’s young people have been engaged at every step, from designing the process to working directly with city officials to make viable project proposals. City agencies donated time to work directly with young people — often during pizza-filled, late-night events — to discuss spending priorities and current projects. Voting was open from June 14th to June 20th, and young Boston residents were able to vote for four out of 14 projects in four categories: education, community culture, parks/environment/health, and streets and safety. Projects included improving community centers, creating art spaces, and renovating parks. Voting sites were in community centers, schools and T stops throughout the city.

Boston Subway Ads Shock Commuters

June 9, 2014 Annie Robbins, www.mondoweiss.net Resist! Boston, Israel, Palestine

Bostonians have been checking out the “ONE WORD” campaign in their subway system, describing Israel’s crimes against Palestinians. The ad campaign was launched this week by Ads Against Apartheid (AAA), a local Boston-based nonprofit. The ads are currently running in Boston’s downtown State Street Station where they can be seen by upwards of 13,000 riders per day. AAA’s website states they are “challenging Israel’s commitment to peace”. here (Graphic:Ads Against Apartheid) The ads have already made headlines– in Palestine and Israel that is. Both WAFA Ads against Apartheid Launches Campaign Questioning Israeli’s Commitment to Peace and Ynet, MBTA approves pro-Palestinian ads in Boston subway quote Chadi Salamoun, the President of Ads Against Apartheid, and Richard Colbath-Hess, the NGO’s co-founder:

Boston: Police Spies Tracked Occupy JP, Whole Foods Protests

June 4, 2014 John Ruch, www.jamaicaplaingazette.com Educate! Boston, Occupy, Police, Surveillance

A controversial Boston Police spy agency tracked the local Occupy JP events, Whole Foods Market protests, and a vigil for the suicidal son of acclaimed marathon bombing hero Carlos Arredondo, recently released secret documents reveal. The Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) documents, dating to 2011, put a new context on the Boston Police’s unprecedented, widely criticized arrest of peaceful Whole Foods protestors that year. And they show a spy agency obsessed with anything it thought related to the Occupy Boston movement—even citing a benefit concert at JP’s Midway Café down to the ticket prices. JP resident Robin Jacks, one of the activists who organized the 2011 Occupy Boston camp, appears repeatedly in the files. In an email to the Gazette today, she blasted BRIC as distracted and creepy. “Why were we BRIC’s targets? What is the point of any of this? How did this monitoring help the city? BRIC’s silence on this speaks volumes,” Jacks said.

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