Truth and Justice Radio
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LOCAL EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS |
Special Marriage Equality Issue of Peacework MagazinePeacework Magazine announces an offer to pre-order FREE copies of its special April issue on Marriage Equality organizing! See below for a few highlights. A great teaching and organizing resource not only for your community's work on marriage equality, but also for grassroots efforts on other issues as well, with experienced leaders and activists sharing frankly their thoughts on strategy, principles, and visions in the LGBT civil rights movement. To pre-order bulk copies, send an e-mail to sburke@afsc.org with your name, address, and how many copies you would like. We will charge you only for shipping, at twenty cents per copy. We will ship orders by UPS starting on April 1. Orders received by March 23 guaranteed, and after that will be handled in order until we run out of copies. Make checks payable to AFSC-Peacework, put "April issue" in the memo line or an accompanying note, and send to AFSC, 2161 Mass. Ave., Cambridge MA 02140. If you wish to use a credit card (to pay SHIPPING), please call us at 617/661-6130. |
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CONTINUING EVENTSback to top |
12:30 - 4:00 pm EVERY SUNDAY"Bostonians For The Overthrow Of King George" weekly vigil
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Harvard's Palestine Solidarity Committee will be holding a vigil for Gaza from 11:45 am to 12:15 pm on the steps of Memorial Church in Harvard Yard. All who care for Palestine are invited to attend. Please wear black and spread the word widely.
MEETINGS WILL CONTINUE EVERY MONDAY PRIOR TO THE EVENT ON MARCH 24th.
PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS DEMONSTRATION.
Meet briefly at the statue to exchange thoughts,
then walk silently around the Yard and nearby streets,
returning to the statue by 12:30pm.
Southeast corner of Rt 27 and 30 (nearest to Brooks Pharmacy).
Come for all or part. Bring a candle, lantern, or flashlight.
Organizer: Sandy Coy.
This is an invitation to join the Boston Tea Party Conference call,
should you wish to join in. Participant call in: 402-756-9100; Access code: 680903#
Socialist Alternative Radio is live on 91.5 FM in the Boston area, or listen anytime on the Web at WMFO.org. A democratic socialist, working-class view of politics and culture, including solidarity announcements, interviews, music, and more. Write to us at BostonSAradio@aol.com.
Join a Friday fast and/or protest in solidarity with illegally detained, often tortured prisoners at Guantanamo and other post 9/11 gulags around the world. The fast began about a year ago when Nobel Peace Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Adolpho Esquivel, (Argentina), along with others around the world, chose this method to seek the release of our unjustly detained and tortured brothers and sisters.
Here in Boston, local activists Susan McLucas and Phoebe Knopf have joined the Friday fast and will protest every Friday in front of the JFK Building from noon to one. The action, which is rooted in nonviolence, includes speakers, music, hand-outs and petitions to create public pressure to shut down the gulags and to try those responsible for illegal, brutal treatment of thousands of detainees, most of whom are Arab and Muslim men. Susan and Phoebe will be wearing orange jumpsuits. It would be great if folks would join us. There are four more suits people could wear.
Please consider signing the petition calling for a Filibuster to end the war. It takes only one Senator and 40 more abstentions (not even a yes vote) to stop funding for the war. The Republicans have used this tactic three times in the last month.
MIRA members, staff, and allies are responding to the devastation of families caused by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's raid on workers at a defense contractor in New Bedford, MA. ICE rounded up and incarcerated around 350 textile workers, mostly women, leaving many children stranded. [About 60 have been released for humanitarian reasons, mostly related to child care. About two dozen are being held at the Fort Devens detention center, and the rest have been taken to detention centers in Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, and possibly others across the country.]
Bi-lingual attorneys or mental health workers who can help with this crisis pro bono, please call MIRA central number: 617-350-5480 x210
Call Mon. 3/12 to find out what goods are needed and how to donate them: Helena Marques, Immigrant Assistance Center (508) 735-1953
"Emergency" legislation proposed by the Patrick administration will roll back community planning rights and environmental protections for tidelands - a key gem among the lands that make up the public trust. Specifically, the bill privatizes a portion of these invaluable lands by legislating a new category- landlocked tidelands - and removing it from the public domain. This eliminates environmental permitting for developers and removes requirements for community input, public benefit, and preserved public access to any such development.
The bill would also retroactively legalize permits - recently deemed illegal by the Supreme Judicial Court - for the massive NorthPoint project in Cambridge. The Patrick administration, which is rushing to the aid of the project, now includes several highest-level appointees with recent direct ties to the NorthPoint developers. Gregory Bialecki, the attorney who led NorthPoint's fight against the citizens' lawsuit to stop the illegal permitting, is now permitting czar. Dan O'Connell, former top executive of the managing partner of NorthPoint - Spaulding and Slye Colliers - is Secretary of Housing and Economic Development. This is insider influence on steroids.
The bill is the latest in a series of attacks on community planning rights and environmental protections, reflecting the growing muscle of the real estate development lobby. As a hedge against pre- emptive legislative action, we encourage concerned citizens to call their legislators as soon as possible. Our grassroots coalition has already been key to stopping several such lobbyist-driven bills. Our voices can help make the difference once again.
PLEASE URGE YOUR LEGISLATORS TO:
* OPPOSE THE TIDELAND PERMITTING BILLS filed by the Patrick Administration and the similar Rodrigues bill, H847.
* INSIST ON FULL PUBLIC HEARINGS FOR ANY TIDELANDS LEGISLATION, INCLUDING FULL DISCLOSURE of campaign contributions from developers to proponents.
* KEEP TIDELANDS - & PUBLIC LAND IN GENERAL - INTACT AS A PUBLIC TRUST.
Mass. Coalition for Healthy Communities 617-852-4727
Action Alert: The Alliance for Democracy warns us to oppose Holt bill (HR 811). We call for a ban on the use of Direct Recording Electronic voting equipment (DREs) and to require the use of paper ballots.
AFD urgently calls upon all citizens to call their Representatives to demand amendments to rectify the defects in HR 811, specifically to ban the use of DRE voting machines and require the use of paper ballots in all elections in the United States. Proponents of HR 811 expect the bill to come for a vote during mid- March 2007.
1. DRE systems must be banned.
2. All voting must be by voter marks on a paper ballot.
3. All recounts must be by hand counting of paper ballots.
4. All elections must have a statistically significant verification.
5. All recounts at every level of government must be by hand counting.
6. All software must be subject to public disclosure.
7. No connections to the Internet should be allowed.
8. All election records should be available to the public.
Go to for on-line information and a link to a printable flier.
An excellent bill was introduced on Wednesday by Progressive Caucus leaders Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters. This bill, H.R. 508: The Bring the Troops Home and Iraq Sovereignty Restoration Act, is the first comprehensive exit plan and includes these major provisions:
--withdrawal of US forces and military contractors within six months of
the bill's enactment;
--repeal of authorization for the use of force;
--prohibition of permanent military bases in Iraq;
--provides economic aid to the Iraqi people; and
--fully funds health care for U.S. veterans.
Read more about HR 508
Congressional Switchboard toll-free numbers
Grass Roots Activists for Peace suggests the following:
*** Call your Congressperson today and ask them to support HR 508.
*** Call and ask for the office of the Speaker of the House; ask aid for
Nancy Pelosi's leadership support on this bill.
Co-Sponsors of H.R. 508:
Rep Frank, Barney [MA]
Rep McGovern, James P. [MA]
Rep Brown, Corrine [FL]
Rep Carson, Julia [IN]
Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [MO]
Rep Cohen, Steve [TN]
Rep Conyers, John, Jr. [MI]
Rep Davis, Danny K. [IL]
Rep Ellison, Keith [MN]
Rep Farr, Sam [CA]
Rep Fattah, Chaka [PA]
Rep Filner, Bob [CA]
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ]
Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. [NY]
Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX]
Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH]
Rep Lee, Barbara [CA]
Rep Lewis, John [GA]
Rep Nadler, Jerrold [NY]
Rep Payne, Donald M. [NJ]
Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. [IL]
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA]
Rep Waters, Maxine [CA]
Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA]
Read the bill and follow its progress (Search for "HR 508").
US Rep. Barney Frank indicated yesterday by phone with a member of Newton Dialogues that he is planning to vote FOR the supplemental appropriations bill, thus continuing funding the war.
Please call Barney Frank at
Congressman Barney Frank
2252 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515-2104
(202) 225-5931
or any Congressperson: 1-888-851-1879
To email Frank your opinion on this matter: house.gov/frank/contact.html
From Steve Iskovitz (Green party member and concerned person who is working in southern Louisiana):
I'm down here in southern Louisiana working with Emergency Communities, providing relief to Katrina victims.
If you have any of the following items which you're looking to give away, there are people down here in Plaquemines Parish who can use them:
Warm clothes: it doesn't get as cold down here as it does in Boston, but with the dampness and winds, it can get cold in the winter, toys, sports equipment-- a lot of kids down here whose lives have been disrupted, looking for things to do. Today after dinner I played hockey with a little boy in the dining area, with a broken hockey stick and a plastic disk of some sort that was lying around.
Tools: Since virtually all buildings were ruined by the flood, many people are involved in rebuilding. There was talk of setting up a tool-lending operation, but someone pointed out that this could be quite inconvenient, and why not utilize the extra tools people probably have lying around in areas not affected by disaster?
Here are some of the tools people have suggested:
hammers
nails
hack-saw blades
wood files, metal files
screwdrivers-- phillips or flathead
crowbars
drywall tape
drills and bits
nailguns
If you have these items and would like to donate them, you should package them tightly in boxes, label the contents, address them to:
Steve Iskovitz
Emergency Communities
36342 Highway 11
Buras, LA 70041
For Boston area drop off: Cambridge Senior Center (617) 349 6043.
806 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
We're also looking for someone who's willing to help deliver the boxes from the Senion Center to the local shipping point in Carlisle.
For more information:
Email terra or call Christy Barbee at (978) 369 4343
www.reliefdatabase.org
www.citizenactionteam.org
A call for all people of conscience
to donate to its Lebanon Palestine Emergency Relief Fund.
All donations will be used to help Palestinian and
Lebanese victims of the latest Israeli aggression.
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail link
“Olive Branch” Extra Virgin Olive Oil is raised without pesticides or sprays and First-Cold-Pressed. This year we are importing the oil directly from the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC), a non-governmental, non-profit organization in Ramallah which has been on the forefront of supporting Palestinian agriculture since the 1980’s. PARC buys its olive oil from 85 different small farmer cooperatives in the West Bank. It takes care of testing, quality control, bottling, labeling and marketing. Available in 750ml bottles, by the case (12 bottles), or more. Now more than ever, important to Palestinian farmers.
For ordering and other info, please email us at palestinebostonoliveoil@yahoo.com or call Susie at 781-648-6307.
After 2.5 years, No Censorship Radio is making a one-time return to WMBR this Sunday (tomorrow) for a 3-hour extravaganza.
Chuck and Linda will be together again to bring you the best in Art, Activism and Anarchy. Although Linda says to be a true revival, we should have the entire staff, including Nancy, Mark, and Aimee. That’s a good one. Especially with at least 2/3rds of them being out of state, so it’s not likely on such short notice. (however, they’ve all been notified).
In fact, not likely that many of you will hear the live broadcast on such short notice, But it will be on the archives for 2 weeks.
Featured tomorrow will be much footage from today’s massive, inspiring rally on the Boston Common. I was TOTALLY energized by this event.
We will air Howard Zinn’s comments in their entirety, as well as most of Cindy Sheehan’s, plus a short interview I did with Cindy after the fact. She might even be joining us live on the air (still working out those details).
Bojah of the Insurrection, whose band performed at the rally, will be an in-studio guest as well. We’ll hear some of his band’s set, as well as the music of Presente.
And the march – with a full New Orleans style marching band leading the way, had great ambience and fun interviews.
A presentation by Sheila Provencher: " Come to the Table: Nonviolent Peacemaking in Iraq" is a story- based talk. It focuses on stories of suffering of war but also of hope based on the courage of unsung heroes, ordinary people in Iraq who continue this day to risk their lives in nonviolent efforts to build bridges and seek resolutions to conflict.
Lay minister, human-rights worker, and writer Sheila Provencher is a Catholic member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, an ecumenical organization which places teams of trained peacemakers to work with local partners to work with local peacemakers in situations of violent conflict around the world.
An event sponsored by CSID, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. This is anCSID-Mars Hill Forum Event on Interfaith Dialogue.
The 4th annual Social Theory Forum will soon be held at UMass Boston on March 27-28, 2007. The event is free and open to the public and requires no pre- registration. If you teach on campus or in the area, we encourage you to bring your classes to various keynote speeches or panels of the two-day conference.
To download the pdf files of the event's final program, posters, directions and other information please visit the UMB Sociology website.
A conversation with 2 members of the organization Israeli Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace, moderated by Fr. Thomas Fitzpatrick. Israeli Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace is organized on the conviction that the grief of an Israeli mother upon the death of her son is no different from the grief of a Palestinian mother upon the death of her son. Through this shared grief Israelies and Palestinians have come together to console and support one another and seek peace.
Thomas Fitzpatrick, S.J. is the Director of the Pontifical biblical institute of Jerusalem. Nella Cassouto is an Israeli women who lost her husband while he was serving in the Israeli Air Force. Ali Abu Awwad is a Palestinian man from Hebron who lost his brother in the conflict.
Freewill offering of $10 suggested to maintain high quality programming Program open to all, regardless of ability to pay.
Handicap Accessible Parking validation available Convenient access by MBTA via Park Street Station
Lucy Parsons is proud to host the Boston book launch for Ben Dangl's book The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia, just published by AK Press. Ben Dangl recently won a Project Censored award for his website www.upsidedownworld.org, one of the best English language newsources on Latin America.
Ben will read from his new book, discuss the latest developments, and answer questions.
ABOUT THE PRICE OF FIRE
New social movements have emerged in Bolivia over the "price of fire" access to basic elements of survival like water, gas, land, coca, employment, and other resources. Though these movements helped pave the way to the presidency for indigenous coca-grower Evo Morales in 2005, they have made it clear that their fight for self-determination doesn't end at the ballot box. From the first moments of Spanish colonization to today's headlines, The Price of Fire offers a gripping account of clashes in Bolivia between corporate and people's power, contextualizing them regionally, culturally, and historically.
Cubans are among the world’s healthiest people, despite the United States’ 48-year embargo against the Cuban population -- an embargo even of food and medical supplies. In 2006, for the 15 consecutive year, the United Nations General Assembly, by a vote of 183 to 4, (voting against were the U.S., Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palua) condemned the embargo and called upon the United States to end it.
In addition to a healthy population, 28,000 Cuban health professionals serve in 68 countries. At the Latin American Medical School (ELAM) in Havana, now the largest medical school in the world, 12,000 low- income students from 27 countries—including nearly 100 from the United States—receives a free medical education in exchange for pledging to return to poor communities when they graduate.
Since 2004, Cuba has carried out Operation Miracle, through which almost 400,000 patients from 28 countries – not including about 100,000 Cubans – received operations free of charge and recovered their sight. In 2005 the Bush administration refused a Cuba offer of 1,500 specially trained disaster relief doctors for New Orleans.
How are Cuba’s health care accomplishments and world- wide contributions possible? ¡Salud! explores that question. See this documentary, join in the discussion, and ponder the answers for yourself.
“We have a different type of nuclear weapon: it’s our ideas. We possess a weapon as powerful as nuclear power and it is the immense justice for which we are struggling.”– Fidel Castro, November, 2005
"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today. Not one of them is Cuban." (A sign in Havana, photographed March 1997)
LexGWAC 2006-2007 Environmental Film Series
Admission is free
Snacks will be served, discussion to follow film.
Running solely on electricity, General Motors' fleet of EV1 electric vehicles were so efficient, they were on the brink of altering the future of driving in America, perhaps even the world. So why were they all destroyed?
Labor actions campaign March 28th thru April 4. Sponsored by Student Labor Action Project.
Community Change Inc. Brown Bag Anti-Racism Discussion Series 2007 Changing the Public Discourse around Race
In Boston, as in most large metropolitan areas in the U.S., the issues of ³gentrification² and ³displacement² have become major issues. This comes about through a combination of government-supported development and the ³normal² working market forces. This has a profound effect on the class and racial make-up of our cities and the stability of its communities.
Presenter: Steve Meacham: Tenant Organizing
Coordinator, City Life/Vida Urbana
Building solidarity to put people before profit
Creando solidaridad para que la gente sea primero
Please bring your lunch. Beverages will be provided. $5 contribution requested. RSVP (617) 523-0555 or email Ernestine.
The current public discourse around race assumes that we live in a color-blind society where the American Dream is attainable by all individuals who work hard enough. This deeply flawed discourse obscures the racial disparities in employment, education, criminal justice, housing, health care, etc. and provides a powerful but faulty rationale for leaving our systems and institutions the way they are. The issues presented at the Community Change Brown Bag Discussion Series are concrete examples of the structural racism that affects the lives of all, most acutely communities of color. The 2007 Series places these issues in their social/historical context and gives attendees a truthful discourse, as well as ways to put that discourse into action, in order to challenge institutional and systemic racism.
Join Jeremy Sarkin, visiting law professor at Tufts, former anti-Apartheid activist in his native South Africa, and co-author of "Reconciliation in Divided Societies: Finding Common Ground" (U. of Penn. Press, 2007); and Mari Fitzduff, Professor of Coexistence, Director of the Master's Program in Coexistence and Conflict at Brandeis, and internationally recognized mediator whose work began with the conflict in her own Northern Ireland, for a discussion of how ordinary people have addressed reconciliation even during the worst times of chronic conflicts. What challenges have they encountered, what processes have they found their way to, and what impacts have their reconciliation efforts had on eventual peace in their communities?
Moderated by Maria Green, Assistant Professor of Human Rights and Development at the Heller School.
Light refreshments will be served.
On Wednesday, March 28, the Boston hotel workers' union, UNITE-HERE Local 26, will be holding a mass rally in Boston to show support for the workers at Boston's Starwood hotels. The Starwood hotel workers are in the midst of an ongoing struggle to get the pay, benefits and working conditions that they deserve. Come show your support! The rally starts at 4 pm, but you're welcome to come as early as 3:30.
DIRECTIONS: The rally is in front of the Sheraton Boston: to get there, take the Green Line to Hynes/ICA; when you leave the T, turn left onto Mass. Ave, walk a block and a half and then turn left onto Belvidere Street. The Sheraton Boston is at the intersection of Belvidere and Dalton Street. For more information, call Matt Shuman at 617-515-5591, email Andy Shawhan at ashawhan@brandeis.edu, or email Tom Charging Hawk at gatztopher@yahoo.com.
WANT TO HELP BUT CAN'T GO TO BOSTON?? You can bring non-pershible food items and baby products like diapers to BLC's supplies drive to support striking workers and their families-- Usdan Cafeteria (Brandeis U), Tuesday thru Friday (27- 30th).
A presentation by Sheila Provencher: " Come to the Table: Nonviolent Peacemaking in Iraq" is a story- based talk. It focuses on stories of suffering of war but also of hope based on the courage of unsung heroes, ordinary people in Iraq who continue this day to risk their lives in nonviolent efforts to build bridges and seek resolutions to conflict.
Lay minister, human-rights worker, and writer Sheila Provencher is a Catholic member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, an ecumenical organization which places teams of trained peacemakers to work with local partners to work with local peacemakers in situations of violent conflict around the world.
Chaplins last 'silent' film, filled with sound effects, was made when everyone else was making talkies. Charlie turns against modern society, the machine age, (The use of sound in films ?) and progress. Firstly we see him frantically trying to keep up with a production line, tightening bolts. He is selected for an experiment with an automatic feeding machine, but various mishaps leads his boss to believe he has gone mad, and Charlie is sent to a mental hospital... When he gets out, he is mistaken for a communist while waving a red flag, sent to jail, foils a jailbreak, and is let out again. We follow Charlie through many more escapades before the film is out.
Justice Now, the country's only teaching law clinic dedicated to the needs of women in prison.
Women, Action, and the Media hosts a new series of briefing sessions for journalists to hear from national and international experts about the latest trends, information, and thinking on select issues which have a specific impact on women.
WHY: There is a dangerous new national policy trend threatening to radically expand the reach of imprisonment and its harms on women and transgender people from communities of color and low-income communities. In a political climate where public opinion increasingly is opposed to prison construction and spending, this trend exploits the needs of people in women's prisons by using a theory of "gender responsiveness" purportedly aimed at improving women's lives to foster public support for prison expansion via mini prisons spun to the public as "community-based" and "alternatives to incarceration."
PHOTO OP: 34 foot long scroll containing signatures
of over 3,000 people in women's prisons opposing this
policy trend.
Contact: Vanessa Huang 510-508-9106
Official registration deadline was March 15, 2007. Cannot be certain whether registration still open. 200 person capacity. Upon registration, an informational packet will be sent including directions, lodging suggestions, and other pertinent information.
To view the entire weekend program go to the website and click on agenda.
Because there is a limited capacity for this event, we recommend you register early. You can register on-line
The The Alliance for Democracy is one of the organizations making presentations at two of the workshops. You can reach the alliance at afd@theAllianceForDemocracy.org
Program:
“The Forum and the Bamako Appeal” – Thomas Ponniah
“Transnational Unity in the Struggle for Migrant
Workers Rights in the World” – Jeanne Koopman, Dorotea
Manuela, Sergio Reyes
“Uhuru sasa!” Video about the Forum and the Boston Delegation
Professors Peter Balakian of Colgate University and Halil Berktay of Sabanci University in Istanbul will head a panel discussing Armeno-Turkish Relations: Pitfalls & Possibilities Following Hrant Dink’s Assassination.
The event will cap off a day-long "Armenians and the Left" symposium devoted to a range of contemporary issues. Earlier panels will address other vital themes: The Media and Social Injustice in Armenia and Environmental Politics in Armenia.
The Women's Fightback Network invites you to join us for "Women Still Rising:
An Evening in Solidarity with the Struggles of Women from New Orleans to Iraq to New Bedford"
Women and their families are under attack!
How do we organize and fight back?
Come share your experience and bring your ideas on building a stronger fightback movement!
Speakers and Cultural Presentations
Refreshments and childcare provided
Wheelchair accessible/Donation requested
Directions by public transportation: from Forest Hills T stop, take #30, 34-37 or 50 bus to Archdale Rd. stop (less than 1 mile), walk back one block to Colgate Rd.