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Massachusetts

Boston Rally Demands: Indigenous Peoples Day Now!

Boston, Massachusetts - Nearly 200 Indigenous protesters and their allies gathered outside Park Street Station in Boston on Oct. 12 to demand that Massachusetts immediately designate the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day. An Indigenous-led coalition of United American Indians of New England (UAINE), the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB), Cultural Survival, the New Democracy Coalition, Workers World Party-Boston and Italian Americans for Indigenous Peoples Day organized the Oct. 12 action, which bolsters the longstanding effort to demolish the cult glorifying Christopher Columbus, whose lifework was characterized by conquest, slavery and genocide.

BU Graduate Students Reach Deal End Seven-Month Strike

Boston University and its graduate student union have agreed on terms for a new contract that would raise the graduate students’ pay, benefits, and job protections and end the longest such strike in American history. The agreement, announced jointly on Friday afternoon, concludes seven months of sparring between the administration and the union that represents 3,000 graduate students. Many teach classes, grade papers, and conduct research, and argued the school severely underpaid them for essential work. Now the first-of-its-kind contract includes provisions to raise the annual stipend PhD workers receive to at least $45,000, or $20 an hour for graduate students, which would be as much as a 60 percent bump for the lowest paid PhD students.

Boston Coalition For Palestine Shuts Down Highway

Some 5,000 protesters turned out Oct. 6 on Boston Common in a massive show of support for Palestinian and Lebanese resistance to the genocidal Zionist state and its U.S. sponsor. Organized by the Boston Coalition for Palestine — whose 45 member organizations include Palestinian House of New England, Palestinian Youth Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace and Workers World Party — Sunday’s action observed the one-year anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Flood, when Hamas fighters broke out of besieged Gaza and attacked Israeli settlements on October 7, 2023. On that day, rally emcee Lea Kayali of the Palestinian Youth Movement explained the people of Gaza “broke down the prison doors” and exposed the weakness and complacency of the Zionist apartheid regime.

Nearly 50,000 US Dockworkers Strike And Flex Collective Power

At midnight on October 1, nearly 50,000 dockworkers across the US’s East Coast walked off the job, shutting down ports across the coastline across cities including Boston, New York, Miami, and Houston. This is the International Longshoremen’s Association’s (ILA) first strike since 1977. ILA dockworkers are a lynchpin of the US economy. Ports affected by the strike include the Port of New York and New Jersey, the nation’s third largest port in terms of the volume of cargo. “When my men hit the streets from Maine to Texas, every single port will lockdown,” said ILA President Harold Daggett. “Everything in the United States comes on a ship.”

Self-Charging E-Bikes Bring Mobility To Low-Income Communities

Buying an e-bike is expensive. Starting last year, a local startup is providing low-cost, self-charging e-bike libraries to low-income communities in eastern Massachusetts. Funded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center as part of a three-year pilot, the Cambridge-based company Metro Mobility provides income-qualified residents with an e-bike for as low as $1 per day. Working directly with cities, housing authorities and non-profit housing providers, the company installs e-bike docks for residents who live in subsidized housing and low-income communities. There are currently 85 docks in 10 communities across Boston, its Dorchester and Mattapan neighborhoods, and the nearby cities of Medford, Malden, Quincy and Lawrence.

MIT Divests From Israeli Arms Firm Funded Program

The MISTI-"Israel" Lockheed Martin fund has been shut down after continuous pressure from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) staff and faculty, the MIT Coalition for Palestine announced on Friday, marking a major divestment win for the university's Scientists Against Genocide (SAGE) movement. "Under pressure from students and scientists of conscience at this Institute, the MIT administration has discontinued MISTI-Israel's Lockheed Martin Seed Fund and will not renew its contract," the organization said in a statement. "This was a major target of our divestment action. The program ends after months of protest against it last fall, including letter deliveries, sit-ins, and public information campaigns," it highlighted.

Man Lit Himself On Fire Outside Boston’s Israeli Consulate

On Wednesday night a man reportedly lit himself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Boston. They were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with severe burns, and their current condition is unknown. Boston police told reporters that they are investigating the situation. A witness said the man poured gasoline over himself before lighting himself on fire and surveillance footage shows him walking back and forth covered in flames. He is the third person to self-immolate outside an Israeli consulate since Israel began its brutal assault on Gaza nearly one year ago.

Elbit Seems To Have Stopped Work In Cambridge

The Cambridge office of KMC Systems, a subsidiary of Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems, is virtually empty because “99.9 percent” of employees work from home, police say, and there are other signs that the company is leaving the city. The building at 130 Bishop Allen Drive near Central Square that houses KMC has been targeted by pro-Palestinian demonstrations for months. Despite workers going remote, protesters show up every Wednesday, Cambridge Police superintendent of operations Pauline Wells said Tuesday. They are scheduling further weekly actions at the site. “We will continue organizing until Elbit Systems leaves Cambridge.

Shut Down Elbit! No Military Tech For Israel!

Cambridge, Massachusetts - Over 100 activists, including members of Workers World Party Boston, gathered on June 29 at Harvard Square to shut down Elbit Systems. Organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement and BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement) Boston, Saturday’s action expands the campaign targeting the Israeli-owned arms maker, which continues to supply the weapons and surveillance tech Zionist occupation forces are using in their ongoing genocide of Palestine. Since these actions began, Elbit stock has fallen by over 30%. JPMorgan Chase, a major shareholder, has reduced its investment by 70%, from $54 million to $16 million.

Boston: No Cops, No Corporations, No Pride In Genocide!

In the spirit of global solidarity with oppressed people’s resistance, from Stonewall to Palestine, over 70 queer/trans, pro-Palestinian and pro-working class organizations in the greater Boston area united under the banner of “Liberate Boston Pride,” demanding “No cops! No corporations! and “No Pride in Genocide!” (liberatebostonpride.wordpress.com/) Endorsing organizations included Students for Justice in Palestine, United American Indians of New England, North American Indian Center of Boston, ACT UP Boston, BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Boston, Democratic Socialists of America Boston, the Dyke March, Jewish Voice for Peace Boston, Palestinian Youth Movement Boston, Trans Resistance MA, the Workers Party of Massachusetts and Workers World Party Boston branch.

The Threat Of Democracy On Campus At The University Of Massachusetts

Before arriving at UMass Amherst last fall, Chancellor Javier Reyes was already notorious for his cavalier approach to critics. But few foresaw what he did on May 7. Earlier that day, organizers from a coalition of campus solidarity groups had erected tents on a small section of the lawn by W.E.B. Du Bois Library. Like virtually all the recent encampments in this country, there was no hint of violence from the campers. It was the latest tactic in a seven-month campaign to end UMass’s complicity with the US-Israeli war on Gaza. The organizers had four demands: that UMass disclose its financial ties to weapons makers and corporations with links to Israel, that it divest from those corporations, that it end study abroad programs in Israel, and that it drop all charges and sanctions against the students arrested in a peaceful building occupation last October.

Over 130 Arrested At Gaza Solidarity Demonstration

At 1 p.m. on Tuesday, May 7, protesters set up an encampment on the Student Union South Lawn. Protesters were advocating for the University of Massachusetts to divest from war-profiteering companies involved in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and to drop the charges of the students arrested at the Whitmore demonstration in October. As the day progressed, dozens of police officers, many in riot gear, arrived on the scene and arrested over 130 undergraduates, graduate students, professors and community members. The protest was led by the UMass chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Teaching Each Other To Strike

Recently I heard members of the Newton Teachers Association recount the path to their 11-day January strike. The audience at the Massachusetts Teachers Association winter skills conference gave them a standing ovation. In the past 20 months, seven MTA locals have voted to strike and six have walked out. They’ve won significant raises for the lowest-paid workers, paid family and medical leave, more social workers, and educator control over planning time. All the strikes were illegal, and the courts issued fines in most cases. Newton teachers were fined $625,000, for example.

Casualties Of A Failed Health Care System

A couple of weeks ago, a good friend found herself in the emergency room at one of our world-class hospitals, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. After emergency surgery, the medical team decided to admit her for at least another day to monitor her recovery. What she encountered next was something out of a makeshift battlefield hospital, as rendered by Hieronymus Bosch. There were no beds available in the patient rooms, so “admitted” patients were being stashed in beds laid end to end in the emergency area. A bit of delay getting a bed is not unusual. But in this case, there were seriously ill admitted patients in 73 beds crammed into the emergency area.

Massachusetts Wakes Up To A Hospital Nightmare

The group of fresh medical school grads knew something wasn’t right with Steward Health Care when they showed up in Dorchester, Massachusetts to start their residencies in Carney Hospital’s inaugural family medicine residency class during the summer of 2014 and learned the president who had recruited them had already been fired. Soon afterward, a Steward administrator admitted the new family medicine clinic and the pediatric ward they had toured on their recruitment visit were never actually opening, and that the nearby hospital at which residents were supposed to learn how to deliver babies was being shuttered entirely.
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