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Honoring Mother's Day
"So you found your real parents? How did it feel to go back home?" These phrases are ones I have encountered as a Korean adoptee who has had the privilege to travel to the place of my birth and reunite with my birth family. Today I will discuss the trouble with these comments and the complicated and beautiful life I have led as a Korean adoptee who has met her birth family. Beyond giving my own take on Trans-Racial Adoption 101, I will share how art has been my method to understand what being adopted has meant to me.
JooYoung Choi is a student at Massachusetts College of Art and the Director of our Justice School. She is also a professional painter and Korean-american transracial adoptee. JooYoung has been speaking about her experience as a Korean adoptee for several years and has reunited with her birth parents. Currently, YooYoung focuses her artist talks on her actual art, transracial adoptee culture and her reunion experience.
Join us to draw or paint a picture of what’s most important to you in the face of climate change, and send a personal and compelling portrait for climate action to members of Congress.
Boston Climate Action Network sponsors events to inform the public and affect public policy about climate change initiatives, energy conservation, green jobs, and clean technology. For more information, see our website at www.bostoncan.wordpress.com or call 617-278-1885
NOON: Mother's Day Peace Vigil
Market Square, Portsmouth NH
Open to all people for peace! If you have them, please bring signs calling for peace and bells to ring.
At noon we'll gather to vigil and read Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation for Peace, which introduced "Mother's Day" in 1890 as a day for women to oppose war.
From 1:00-1:05 we will join with people around the world for silence followed by bell-ringing as part of the Standing Women project which calls on us to "stand... for the world's children and grandchildren, and for the seven generations beyond them."
For more info contact Nancy at nrgbrown@aol.com or 603-436-7861 Also see www.standingwomen.org & www.seacoastpeaceresponse.org Sponsored by Seacoast Peace Response, The Seacoast Alliance for Democracy & CodePink NH
9:30-11AM: Organizing Roundtable to Support Nurses
IBEW Local 103, 256
Freeport St., Dorchester.
Organizing Roundtable Chair, Bill Corley, (617) 436-3710
John Drinkwater (781) 324-8230
Help Nurses Protect Patient Care! HB 2059, The Patient Safety Act, will require the Department of Public Health to set a limit on the number of patients a nurse has to care for at one time. This is a common sense solution to a growing health care crisis. For more information on the campaign, click here. This bill needs support from labor and community groups if we are going to see it pass. We need YOU to send a message to our state government by clicking on the link or calling your state senator and letting them know you care about patient safety!
Massachusetts AFL-CIO Organizing Roundtable! Come join organizers and labor leaders from around the state to discuss organizing successes, current campaigns, and strategies to build our Labor Movement.
Join us for refreshments, music, and fresh copies of NEA #13!
Hosted by the Boston Local Union of NEFAC (North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists)
Step By Step: A Journey Of Hope (2007) ***Boston premiere!***
A Film By Micki Dickoff, in attendance from Los Angeles
1 hour 22 minutes
"If your child was murdered, you'd want the killer executed," is the argument made by death penalty supporters calculated to stop the debate in its tracks. Step by Step takes viewers on an emotional journey of hope with murder victims' family members on their 17 day march through the state of Texas trying to change hearts and minds with messages of forgiveness, reconciliation and appropriate alternatives to the death penalty. Their viewpoint, formed out of personal grief and loss, is difficult to dismiss even by the most ardent advocates of execution.
Members of the Journey tell their heart wrenching stories at each stop along the way, in the streets and at rallies, in churches and schools, at vigils and protests outside the death chamber, and in debates with death penalty supporters. The voices of Journey participants compel listeners to reexamine their views about the death penalty at a gut level, faced by people who have suffered the unimaginable and yet believe that killing and vengeance are never the answer. This feature-length documentary provides a provocative look into the heart of the death penalty debate, featuring the stories of many affected by violent crime and the punishment of death.
Step by Step: A Journey of Hope takes the death penalty debate to another level, giving us all a different way to look at justice and punishment, forgiveness and retribution and the value of life over death in our search for ways to end the cycle of violence. The film was selected for screening at the Non Violence International Film Festival in Canada and at the Global Peace Film Festival in Orlando.
In attendance will be director Micki Dickoff, who has dedicated her life and her art to helping others. Her films on AIDS were among the very first to address that epidemic. Since proving that her friend had been wrongfully convicted of a crime she absolutely did not commit and thus freeing her from prison, Micki has been a tireless advocate for ending the death penalty and freeing others who have been wrongfully convicted. Her production company, Pro Bono Productions, is located in Los Angeles.
"Future of the Internet," May 15-16, 2008
at Harvard Law School, Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
Huge range of topics explored on social media and the Web 2.0 revolution in the meaning of community. Who should attend? Writers, musicians, humanists, legal scholars, communicators, publishers, futurists. Learn more about the Berkman Center for Internet and Society-Harvard Law School symposium. Questions: ashar@cyber.law.harvard.edu.
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School is proud to celebrate its tenth year as a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. Running through the 2007-2008 academic year, the celebration includes an event and distinguished speaker series; major releases of books by Berkman projects and people; a culminating conference - "The Future of the Internet" - on May 15-16, 2008; and a gala on May 16.
Through research, events, and discussion, Berkman@10 considers “The Future of the Internet” - to celebrate the work we have done together over the past decade, and to look ahead to what we hope to accomplish collectively in the next.
The Berkman Center was founded at a time when the future of cyberspace seemed to be both boundless and overwhelmingly positive. Our belief was, and is, that there are values embedded in the openness of the Internet.
At the same time, we understand that new configurations give rise to new problems. The reaction of societies to these problems will determine how much of technology's potential can be realized. Mapping the open and the proprietary in cyberspace and modeling its special virtues, while being sober about its dangers, are at the heart of our shared inquiry. Our primary activities are teaching and learning, as is true of any traditional university-based research center. But we also seek to elaborate upon that tradition using the technologies that we study. We have committed to build out into cyberspace as we study it. We have developed code that supports teaching, learning, and self-expression and have participated in erecting new kinds of institutions that seek -with mixed results - to lend order to a space that appears at first glance to be ungovernable.
The promise of cyberspace is just as great as it was ten years ago, if not greater. Some of the challenges we face in studying it, and in building out into it, have changed; others persist. The more we learn, from one another and from our colleagues who study and build this space, the more our excitement for our work grows.
1-5PM: Restoring America after Bush
Ames Courtroom, Harvard Law School
A panel discussion to discuss how to restore America after the Bush Presidency.
With universally skyrocketing property values, rent and home-ownership have become unaffordable at best and impossible at worst. Thus, people all over the world continue a long tradition of circumventing the expensive price tag and reclaiming this basic human right by squatting. Shelter: a Squatumentary is a documentary film that explores the squatting movement in the East Bay from 2004 to 2007. We follow three examples of the struggle for housing in an unaffordable marketplace such as the San Francisco Bay Area. Hellarity House, Banana House, and Power Machine are stories of squatters who have found one tentative solution to the ongoing housing crisis.
The screening will be followed by a discussion on squatting as a tactic and how to use it not for lifestylist dropout culture but instead for actual community building. Squatting—a historically clandestine move—needs to come out of hiding and build a real community around its claim to free housing for all. Otherwise, this age-old tactic will continue to serve temporary ends; squatters will continue to be evicted and crack new squats in secret; they will continue to alienate each other along with the mainstream—all the while, still under the thumb of the housing market and its landlords..
Independent media super-star, Amy Goodman, and her brother, independent journalist David Goodman, visit Boston on their 2008 tour for their new book "Standing up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times." The co-authors will be sharing their experiences documenting grassroots movements for peace, justice and the environment all across the country. The book will be available for purchase at the event. For more information, visit http://www.jamaicaplainforum.org
TICKETS: Tickets are $5 and can be bought at Rhythm & Muse bookstore, 470 Center St. Jamaica Plain, (617) 524-6622. Remaining tickets will be available at the door. Proceeds for this special event go to support programming a the Jamaica Plain Forum.
Amy Goodman is an internationally acclaimed journalist and host of the daily grassroots global news hour Democracy Now!, which airs on more than 700 radio and TV stations around the world and on www.democracynow.org. Democracy Now! is the largest media collaboration in North American public broadcasting. Amy has won many of the most prestigious awards in journalism, including the George Polk Award, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting.
David Goodman is an award-winning independent journalist, the author of seven books, and a contributing writer to Mother Jones. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Outside, The Nation, and numerous other publications. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book Fault Lines: Journeys into the New South Africa. He lives with his wife and two children in Vermont.
9:30AM: The New England 9/11 Symposium:
Family Members and Researchers Speak Out
Keene High School, Keene, NH
Admission $15
Doors Open at 9:30 a.m.
A Message from Daniel Sunjata, star of FX's Rescue Me and tentatively scheduled host of the New England 9/11 Symposium:
As you'll see from the attached final flyer, the strength of The New England Symposium on 9/11: Family Members and Researchers Speak Out continues to blossom. To wit, Michael Springmann, now a member of the National Whisteblowers Coalition has recently been added to the program and will making a short presentation. Some may remember that Springmann, as a CIA veteran in the Jeddah, Saudia Arabian consulate, has had much to say of the many troubling anomalies that stem from this consulate, where 11 of the alleged hijackers received their VISA's into the US.
For the full program lineup, including an advertisement by Tony Award nominated actor and TV star Daniel Sunjata.
For questions contact:
George Corrette
Monadnock 9/11 Truth Alliance
(603) 446-3561
1PM: Protest to Reject U.S. Efforts to Silence Our Solidarity!
In front of the JFK Federal Building
(intersection of New Sudbury & Cambridge St, Boston; near Gov’t Center T)
COME OUT AND MAIL BACK A GAG TO THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, WITH A SPECIAL MESSAGE!
WE SAY: “WE DON’T WANT YOUR GAG, TAKE IT BACK!”
Lend your voice and support to this day of fiery speakers, chants, music and unhesitating political dissent!
For more information or to get involved organizing this event, please contact us!
Boston CISPES
2161 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
tel: 617.576.1709
email
Hasta la victoria siempre!
Background on this most recent targeting by the Feds: For the first time since the 1980s, we’ve been singled out for attack by none other than the Department of “Justice.” On January 9 we received a letter from their National Security Division that they suspected us of being an “agent of a foreign principal” and wanted us to register under the “Foreign Agents Registration Act.” Their justification? They claimed that the leftist political party—the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, FMLN, had hired CISPES to do public relations and fundraising support in the US for their 2009 presidential campaign.
Our response is:
-CISPES solidarity with the FMLN began in 1980 and continues today.
-It is based on a shared vision of a more just world; there is no financial or contractual agreement. We have a solidarity relationship—what we have in common is a commitment to building a cross-border movement that will unite the poor and working people of the US and El Salvador in our struggle for social justice.
-Therefore we will not register with the US government, but rather assert that we will continue our support for the Salvadoran struggle for social justice as part of our democratic right to free speech.
-Any attempt by the US government to infringe on those rights will not be to retreat one inch but rather to build the strongest, broadest resistance movement we can.
For the Department of Justice letter, CISPES’ response and press release.
6PM-1AM: 9/11 Truth Fund Raiser
Please RSVP to: Richard McCampbell
- When: Sat. May 17, 2008
- Venue: Barking Crab or Hennessey's
- Time: 6 pm-1 am
- Price: $40/person [not including drinks]
- two cash bars all night
- 7 pm buffet dinner
- 8 pm keynote speaker Richard Gage AIA, Architect and discussions
- 9 pm "LooseChange2FinalCut" or US premiere of Italian film "Zero -
Inchiesta Sull'11 Settembre"]
- 10:30 pm-1 am DJ and dancing [DJ Mix Academy]
A fundraiser
to pay-off the remaining 2007 Tea Party Conference debt.
Shirley Golub is running against Rep. Nancy Pelosi for the democratic nomination for that post.
Our so-called Democratic leadership is not only planning on lying down immediately for another $100 billion to senselessly squander in Iraq, they are talking about adding on another $70 billion of war profiteer booty, to save the White House from the trouble of throwing another foot stomping tantrum in the fall.
This is looking like the mother of all gutless
surrenders. And there is only one dynamic that can
possibly stop it. Nancy Pelosi MUST be
defeated in San Francisco in the June 3 primary, and
see it coming fast. And ONLY Shirley Golub can do it,
with contributions on the page above to run her
"Rubber Chicken" ad now.
Shirley's Rubber Chicken TV Ad
For those who many not be quite clear on this one point yet, Cindy Sheehan in running the November election in this district as an independent, but what we are talking about here is the June 3 Democratic party congressional primary.
Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace
April 16, 2008
Dr. Al-Arian Faces Shocking Abuse in New Facility
Yesterday morning, Dr. Sami Al-Arian was transported
by immigration agents to the Hampton Roads Regional
Jail in Portsmouth, Virginia. Since arriving at the
facility, he has been subjected to numerous, shocking
abuses, even worse than those he experienced at a
detention center in Maryland.
Take Action: call 757-488-7500
And if you haven't already, sign the petition.
See also:"USA vs AL-ARIAN"
To everyone in the Boston area progressive community, After months of development and testing by a few dozen folks, Open Media Boston, the new progressive news, views and arts web portal, has just launched and is now ready for your participation. (Site is still labeled "beta.")
We have quietly been working away at TecsChange in Roxbury to refurbish computers. We recently sent one of our bigger shipments of 15 computers to a series of radio stations in Oaxaca, Mexico.
We work most Thurday evenings and Saturday afternoons
(1pm to at least 4 PM, usually longer)
We have one day a week where daytime volunteers come in. Presently it's Mondays but it might change soon.
Please call if you are interested.
TecsChange Office
617-442-4456
Bush's FY2009 budget request for $2.55 billion in military aid for Israel, a proposed increase of 9% over actual spending in 2007, now rests with the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.
This proposed increase in military aid to Israel is the first installment of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the United States and Israel in August 2007 to increase military aid to Israel by 25%, totaling $30 billion over the next decade.
Can you think of a better way to spend $30 billion instead of funding Israel's human rights abuses and illegal military occupation in violation of U.S. laws?
TAKE ACTION
Send a Personal Letter to Members of Congress on the
Appropriations Sub-Committee Challenging Military Aid
to Israel.
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
Mass. House Bill #4477, if passed, would finally make it illegal for drivers of motor vehicles in Massachusetts to use hand-held phones while driving (as in NY and elsewhere). This bill recently passed the House and now is languishing in the Senate and may not come to the floor for a vote unless you phone or send a message to your friends in various towns and cities to have them urge their state senators (617-722- 5551) to vote for this bill.
According to Senate Assistant Majority Leader Marian Walsh, what needs to happen is for senators to get many phone calls from their constituents in favor of this bill. Passing House #4477 is a matter of public safety. Please call your senator and what would make a significant difference is for you to contact your friends throughout Massachusetts so House Bill #4477 becomes law.
Ed O'Reilly (PDA-endorsed candidate who advocates for single-payer health care, impeachment, stopping our current wars, and marriage equality) seeks the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat now occupied by John Kerry.
In addition to making sure that Ed's name appears on the ballot, this is a great opportunity to identify new supporters and expand our network. So we really hope you can participate by gathering signatures from your friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors.
To get on September's primary ballot Ed needs 10,000 signatures from registered Democrats and unenrolled (independent) voters. We need to file the signatures with city and town clerks no later than 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, on May 6, 2008.
Call the campaign (866-716-2008) and we will mail nomination signature forms for you to use.
U.S. war provocation against Iran: Another Tonkin
Gulf? Take Action NOW to Stop War on Iran!
The Bush Administration has initiated an extremely dangerous war provocation just off Iran's coast, in the Strait of Hormuz. With Bush on his way to the Middle East to mobilize a collection of oil-rich U.S. client states against Iran, the U.S. government is working overtime to create a phony public-relations incident to heighten tensions in the region and threaten a new war.
An aide to Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) says the Lieberman/Warner climate change bill (S. 2191) “would be the most historic incentive for nuclear in the history of the United States.” (E&E Daily, February 8, 2008)...
S. 2191 is expected to be debated on the Senate floor this Spring. Your help is needed.
For more information visit the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
Congressman Robert Wexler's campaign office says that (unlike most of our Democratic Reps) he is pushing hard to force a committee hearing on Rep. Dennis Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment, recently introduced into the House of Representatives and referred to the Judiciary Committee.
This fight is not over. We must continue the pressure on our representatives or else Congress and its fellow lackey media will take no notice. That would be a historic mistake – one we must prevent Congress from making.
We stand at a critical juncture in our efforts. Forget all of those arguments that it is too late or that we have run out of time. You can’t run the clock out on our Constitution. Those of us dedicated to this fight – Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the online community, and millions of patriotic Americans – must keep the pressure on. Please continue to spread the word and help deliver accountability to the corrupt Bush-Cheney administration.Congressman Conyers needs a huge kick in the tail.
Please sign on to Congressman Robert Wexler's petition to help push the issue.
TOLL-FREE PHONE NUMBERS FOR THE U.S. CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD
US House of Representatives Web Sites
Another Day, Another FISA Veto Threat By The Bully In The White House
Yesterday, Bush again put the self interest of himself and his giant telecom criminal co-conspirators above our national security, by threatening to veto the FISA update bill unless we gave them all get out of jail free cards. And if Congress were to bend over yet again, he would still probably veto it to demand even more changes and/or defy other major provisions with a signing statement, as he so outrageously did with the recent defense bill.
We must be just as relentless as the criminals who are working overtime to gut our constitution. We have had two successful filibusters so far, and it looks like we're going to need a third. And we need strong opposition in the House too, for that is our last bulwark.
Tell your Congressional Representative to vote against this awful legislation, which has passed the Senate and returned to the House. The House has stood up to pressure to provide telecom immunity to date, so don't let them buckle to pressure from the White House and Senate.
S 1959 "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007" must be stopped at all costs. (It's already been approved by the House of Representatives by a HUGE majority.)
Pick up your phone and contact our US Senators' offices to instruct them to vote "NO" on S.1959, titled "To establish the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism, and for other purposes".
If this bill is passed, and becomes law, your words and actions could be considered terrorism. S 1959 EVISCERATES FREE SPEECH, and empowers the govt. to declare ANYTHING they deem an "extremist belief system", instantly make you a terrorist, resulting in stripping of US citizenship, torture, and/or execution, with no habeas corpus rights, no ability to challenge even in the US Supreme Court.
What part of exercising power doesn't Harry Reid get? The Washington Post reports him "pleading" with the White House. And yet, it is his decision which version of the FISA bill to have the Senate consider, and by choosing to bring forward the bad one, he is knowingly forcing opponents of yet another "get out of jail free card" for Cheney cronies to get 60 votes to strip it out of the bill. Or filibuster yet again.
And what greater hero do we have than Dennis Kucinich, still standing strong as ever on every issue that matters. Here is his own leadership statement opposing telecom immunity.
And yet, even now, powerful corporations are pouring money into Dennis's district, to try to buy his seat out from under him by threatening him in his own primary. They are running malicious attack ads in heavy rotation. Please consider making a donation to Dennis now, to help him fight back.
At the end of January, thousands of people all over the world will march, speak, celebrate, and dialogue in villages, rural zones, and urban centers, in the context of hundreds of decentralized self-organized actions. They will mobilize over a one-week period in January, culminating in a Global Day of Mobilisation and Action on the 26th to show that another world is possible.
At the same period, the "old" world will meet in Davos for the World Economic Forum, bringing together its economists, experts, ideologies and techniques that produce violence, exploitation, exclusion, poverty, hunger and ecological disaster, depriving people of human rights and our Earth of its resources.
The World Social Forum is an open space where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organisations come together to raise issues, debate ideas, formulate proposals, share experiences, and build networks for effective action. These movements are opposed to a world ruled by capitalism and all forms of imperialism and domination.
Since the first worldwide encounter in 2001, the World Social Forum has become a permanent global process seeking and building alternatives to neo-liberal policies.
World Social Forums have taken place at the end of January at different sites throughout the world every year for the past seven years, and this spirit of diversity will continue to be reflected in the activities planned for the Global Day of Mobilisation and Action in 2008.
Our website is the main connection tool for all participants in the decentralized WSF 2008. Invite your friends to join and contribute through action spaces, present your action, upload your videos, publish news and connect your actions with those of others.
Comcast has given us a glimpse of a world without Net
Neutrality, and it's a chilling sight.
An investigation by the Associated Press caught the
cable giant secretly inspecting online communications
and crippling users' ability to share information with
one another.
On 11-1-07, Free Press filed a legal complaint
demanding that the FCC take action to protect the free
flow of information on the Internet. By joining our
complaint, you can help stop Comcast and other
gatekeepers.
The MBTA on October 10th started broadcasting
continuous [corporate] radio ads and "music" at South
Station, North Station and Airport Station with a plan
to expand the continuous radio broadcast system-wide
after Thanksgiving. This will adversely monopolize
this historic First Amendment public space:
1. Curtail and Interfere with Conversations of all
MBTA patrons
2. Curtail and Interfere with Reading of all MBTA
patrons
3. Target ads to all School Children who use the MBTA
4. Eliminate Subway Musician Performances
We, the undersigned, support the diversity of
expression of patrons and artists in the subway. We
petition Governor Deval Patrick and Massachusetts Bay
Transportation Authority Board of Directors to stop
the T-Radio broadcast.
Congress will be debating war appropriations again, and the Senate - as the Republicans have routinely demonstrated - has the power to filibuster any appropriations it doesn't like. A filibuster in the Senate would effectively force an end to the war. So if each of us does our part in exposing the filibuster option, then we can apply tremendous pressure on our senators, the likes of which they haven't felt in decades!
Doris Tennant and Ellen Lubell (of Newton) are representing a Guantanamo prisoner pro bono, so they are providing their time at no charge. However, their costs, including their own travel and that of a translator, translator fees, and Freedom of Information Act requests, are running at least $20,000 for this year, and will likely continue at that same pace or more. Most of the other attorneys who are representing Guantanamo detainees are members of large law firms that can cover these types of expenses, but in their case the two of them are the firm.
If you would like to make a contribution to help them defray costs, it would be much appreciated. Please make your check payable to "Tennant Lubell Detainee Fund." Your contribution will NOT be tax-deductible, but they promise to put it to good use to help provide fundamental legal rights to a man who remains in indefinite detention.
Doris Tennant, Esq.
Tennant Lubell, LLC
288 Walnut Street, Suite 500
Newton, MA 02460
617-969-9610, X 101
Fax: 617-969-9611
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.
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.
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
We are happy to report that a new shipment of olive oil has arrived. The most recent harvest was excellent and per case prices are less than they were last year.
As with our previous shipments, this oil comes directly from the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees, PARC, a non-profit, non- governmental organization in the West Bank. PARC works with 15 different small cooperatives. This shipment comes from the Mazare' Al Nubani/ Ramallah and the Kufr Thulth, Jayous and Azzoun cooperatives. The labels are printed in the West Bank and the oil is bottled at the PARC bottling facility in Aram. PARC is a member of the International Fair Trade Association, and is the only Palestinian organization that has received the Palestine Standards Institution certification for its olive oil.
OLIVE BRANCH OLIVE OIL DONATIONS
As with past shipments, a percentage of the proceeds of olive oil sales is donated back to organizations working directly with Palestinians. Past recipients include:
Palestinian Medical Relief Society Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions Birthright Unplugged American Friends Service Committee-Middle East Crisis Fund American Near East Refugee Aid Olive Harvest Coalition Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees Ibdaa Cultural Center International Solidarity Movement US OMEN Ta’ayush
THE IMPORTANCE OF OLIVE OIL TO THE PALESTINIAN ECONOMY
Olive oil is the backbone of the Palestinian agricultural economy. Eighty percent of cultivated land in Palestine is planted with olive trees, and the olive harvest provides between 25 to 50 percent of a farming family’s annual income. Olive trees, many of which are hundreds of years old, hold a deep significance in the culture and economy of the Holy Land. As the political and economic situation in Palestine continues to deteriorate, with increased restrictions on the mobility of people, goods and services, olive oil has become a matter of basic survival for many Palestinian families. Buying this oil is a constructive and tangible way to help alleviate poverty and build peace.
PARC assists at every stage of the olive oil production process, from helping farmers to reclaim rocky land, conserve water and implement sensible environmental practices (like re-cropping, dry-land farming and recycling of waste materials) to setting up regional labs for farmers to test their olive oil. PARC strictly monitors the quality of the oil, testing and re-testing it at its main laboratory to ensure that it meets all specifications. Extra-virgin olive oil comes from the first pressing of the olives, contains no more than 0.8% acidity, and is judged to have a superior taste. There can be no refined oil in extra-virgin olive oil.
Palestinian farmers traditionally care for their trees without the use of pesticides or sprays. PARC is currently working with international agricultural organizations to obtain organic certification for its olive oil, which should be finalized in the next few months. Because both light and heat are known enemies of olive oil, Olive Branch Olive Oil comes in a dark green glass bottle that is optimal for storage.
Available in 750ml bottles, by the case (12 bottles, $145), or more.
For ordering and other info, please email us at palestinebostonoliveoil@yahoo.com or call Susie at 781-648-6307.
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.
These are the meetings where we decide on events and discuss strategies to end the war. Anyone is welcome -- from seasoned activists to beginners and we look forward to building a dialogue with anyone opposed to the war. Our main tenent is that we are independent of both the Democratic and the Republican Party, such that we can build an anti-war movement that survives elections and continues to oppose the war, regardless of which candidate is in office.
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.
Join the Boston Tea Party Conference call,
Participant call in: 402-756-9100; Access code: 680903#
Socialist Alternative Radio, 91.5 FM Boston
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 illegal detentions. The fast began in 2005 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.
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 stop all illegal detentions and to try those responsible for the illegal treatment of thousands of detainees, most of whom are Arab and Muslim men. Susan and Phoebe will be wearing orange jumpsuits.