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Gloria Alba Andino Lopez from El Regadio, Esteli, Nicaragua is head of a small farmers' association called "La Union". For more than 20 years she has represented organized resistance to the detrimental impacts of neoliberal economic policy, which damages small farming communities such as hers. Gloria is also involved in several women's groups, including micro-financing projects, plus education & training around marginalization, women's rights, the environment and health.
Witness for Peace-New England, sponsors tours of international human rights leaders and activists like Gloria from throughout the Americas. Last fall we hosted a woman from Venezuela. Through these tours, the speakers are able to call upon U.S. citizens to work toward reforming unjust policies that contribute to poverty and oppression.
Mexico Solidarity Network Speaker Veronica Leyva, a native of Ciudad Juarez, will speak about maquiladoras, immigration and struggles for land along the border, with particular emphasis on the Lomas de Poleo struggle. Veronica is the MSN staff person in Ciudad Juarez . She worked for seven years in maquiladoras and six years as a labor/community organizer before joining the MSN staff in 2004. She will discuss:
- Labor conditions in the maquiladoras
- Social consequences of Neoliberal globalization
- Violence, Narco-trafficking and the Femicides
$5 suggested donation to fund the work of the Mexico Solidarity Network
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Overview: The land struggle in Lomas de Poleo dates back five years when the US and Mexico announced the construction of a new international bridge. Previously ignored desert land on the Mexico side, where 53 families settled decades ago, suddenly became strategically valuable land. One of Juarez ¢s richest families is trying to claim ownership of the land, and has built a fence around the community with only one entrance controlled by guards. Guards killed two community members, one a child who died when they burned down a resident's house. The struggle is exemplary of the overall struggle for land rights in the neoliberal era..
Immigration is a fact of life for many Mexican families, particularly rural families. Ciudad Juarez is both a destination, as workers look for jobs in the maquiladora sector, and a transit point, as workers come to the US as undocumented workers. Today more than 60% of Juarez residents are immigrants, living in hastily constructed shanty towns without water, electricity or sanitation. In many ways, Juarez is the prototype urban area in the neoliberal era, boasting industrial parks with modern highways and city services, surrounded by bleak, dusty neighborhoods that house more than 400,000 workers typically earning around five to seven dollars a day.
Universal health care, serving patients over profit, will be the plan that Arnold Relman, M.D. will present to rescue America’s health care when he speaks at the Goodnow Library, Sunday, October 19, at 2:30 P.M...
Healthcare costs in the United States are the highest in the world, yet infant mortality rates are higher and life expectancy rates are lower than in most of the developed nations.
Massachusetts, where healthcare costs are the highest in the nation, has embarked on an experiment (Chapter 58) that was supposed to provide health care for everyone. More than two years into the process, although all children have been covered, only about half of the previously uninsured have been covered. More than 62,000 low-income people have been given waivers because they could not afford the insurance policies offered them. Many low-income people with insurance are finding that they cannot afford the deductibles and the co-pays associated with their policies, and so, do not get the health care they need. Patients and medical providers and their staffs are overwhelmed with paper work. And the program is already $143 million over budget.
Dr. Relman is Senior Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and former Editor- in-Chief of The New England Journal of Medicine. His book, A Second Opinion: Rescuing America’s Health Care, focuses on the impact of the commercialization of medicine, the merits of a single-payer plan, and the need to provide care that benefits patients while supporting the medical community. He is an excellent speaker and very well informed.
Bring your questions and concerns. For more information, call 978 443-8609.
5PM: Anatomy of the Iron Fist: Police Violence in
Democratic South America
*Date:* Monday, October 20, 2008
*Time:* 5:00 - 6:30 pm
*Location:* CGIS South, S-354,
1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
*Contact:* Katherine Tan, ktan@fas.harvard.edu
John Sheffield will discuss the rise of police
brutality against the poor under Latin American
democracies and how grassroots human rights groups
have begun to respond. This presentation will be based
on first hand images and testimony, followed by
discussion.
This event is the first of the new monthly series:
Human Rights Uncensored: Students Stories from Latin
America.
Sponsored by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin
American Studies, and the Harvard Human Rights
Advocates Latin American Advocacy Branch./
/Light dinner will be provided.
5:30PM: Protest Madeleine "The Price is Worth It"
Albright
Fairmont Copley Plaza, Copley Square
The Boston Anti-Zionist Action affinity group and other anti-imperialist activists will be protesting an appearance by warmongering imperialist mass-murderer Madeleine Albright this Monday October 20 in Copley Square.
Albright will be the keynote speaker at WorldBoston's 18th annual "International Citizen's Award Dinner".
This is a $250 per plate dinner that is sponsored by Senators Kennedy & Kerry, Deval Patrick, Tom Menino, etc.
Info at http://worldboston.org/ICAD%20INVITE%20PAGE.htm
Albright was the Bill Clinton administration's Ambassador to the United Nations from 1993-1997 and US Secretary of State from 1997 til 2001. Albright has played a major role in directing US warfare against Iraq, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Palestine and other countries. Further information about Madeleine Albright is below after the info about the Oct 20 event.
Please join us in Copley Square on Monday to protest against Madeleine Albright and imperialist wars.
7PM: Author Leslie Chang on Globalization
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, MA
Author Leslie Chang will address globalization and its impact on the labor economy. Do you know who makes your sneakers, that snazzy luxury handbag you've been coveting, and the mobile phone that you just can't leave home without? By and large, this work is done by young women in China who leave their homes to work in sprawling factory cities. Though we rely on cheap goods made in China, few Westerners have been inside the factories that provide us with the products we depend upon, and even fewer have penetrated the lives of the young women who leave their homes to work in China's sprawling factory cities.
In Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, former Wall Street Journal Beijing correspondent and first-generation Chinese-American Leslie T. Chang tells the story of these workers who labor countless hours to provide us with the material goods we take for granted. Factory Girls is told primarily through the lives of two young women, whom Chang follows over the course of three years as they attempt to rise from the assembly lines of Dongguan, a sweltering industrial city in the Pearl River Delta. Chang explores what these young women who leave their homes and families experience in the city: twelve-hour work days, seedy living conditions, business scams, and a total break from one's family and past. Chang vividly portrays a world where lying about your age, your education, and your work experience is often a requisite for getting ahead; where a few computer or English lessons can catapult you into a completely different social class.
Join The Center for New Words to discuss the urban/rural divide, labor justice, and China's emergence in the neoliberal market.
Contact: Ally Day, Center for New Words (617-876-5310)
7-9PM: Illegal Immigrants? Undocumented Workers? Or our Neighbors?
"Looking at Immigration Through the Lens of Faith"
Speaker: Patty Kupfer of America's Voice
ALL ARE WELCOME
A program presented by Pax Christi Metrowest MORSE INSTITUTE LIBRARY, NATICK, MA Parking behind Police & Fire Stations, E. Central St. (Rte. 135), Natick
*Ms. Kupfer is the Manager of Partnerships at America's Voice, where she supports religious leaders and organizations in building the power needed to pass fair and humane immigration reform. *America's Voice, located in Washington, D.C., is a newly founded communications and rapid-response arm of a reinvigorated campaign to advance immigration reform. Its goal is to build the public support and political power to enact immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship.
Cosponsored by the following faith communities: Catholic Charities - Archdiocese of Boston, St. Theresa Church, The Peace Abbey (Sherborn), St. Tarcisius Church, St. Stephen Church (Framingham), St. Ann Church, St. Zepherin Church (Wayland), First Baptist Church, Fisk Memorial United Methodist Church, First Congregational Church, St. Paul Episcopal Church, St. Linus Church (Natick)
SORRY, NO CONTACT INFO PROVIDED
What is the true environmental cost of living even a modest Western lifestyle? From our morning coffee to use of the computer at work to a beer at the end of the day—how do all of these normal daily activities impact the environment? And, given the far-reaching ecological consequences from this lifestyle, how can we change?
Fred Pearce is a former news editor at New Scientist. Currently its environment and development consultant, he has written for Audubon, Popular Science, Time, the Boston Globe, and Natural History. His books include When the Rivers Run Dry, With Speed and Violence, and Deep Jungle.
Co-sponsored by Tim Weiskel. Book signing, courtesy of Harvard Book Store, follows.
Cambridge Forum is taped and edited for public radio broadcast. Edited CDs are available to the public by contacting 617-495-2727. Select forums can be viewed in their entirety on demand by visiting our website at www.cambridgeforum.org and clicking on the WGBH Forum Network.
A presentation of photographic images and a narrative discussion by a 10-year veteran of relief and development work in different parts of the Middle East region. Mary Kate MacIsaac has worked in Israel- Palestine, the Balkans and Afghanistan documenting the provision of humanitarian aid and development assistance. The images she will present on Afghanistan are her latest discussion on the role donor aid has on crisis and conflict situations.
Sponsored by the Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School, the Outreach Center at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Outreach Program at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.
A US presidential election is weeks away. What's really at stake in terms of national and global security? How concerned should we be about the threat of nuclear proliferation, and what are the possibilities for nuclear arms reduction under a new administration?
Joseph Cirincione,
President of Ploughshares Fund
Joseph Cirincione joined Ploughshares Fund as
president in March 2008. He is author of Bomb Scare:
The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons and served
previously as senior vice president for national
security and international policy at the Center for
American Progress and as director for nonproliferation
at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace for
eight years. He worked for nine years in the U.S.
House of Representatives as a professional staff
member of the Committee on Armed Services and the
Committee on Government Operations, and served as
staff director of the bipartisan Military Reform
Caucus. He teaches at the Georgetown University
Graduate School of Foreign Service and is a member of
the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mark Esper,
Executive Vice President, Global Intellectual Property
Center, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Prior to this position with the US Chamber of
Commerce, Mark Esper was a Senior Scholar at the
National Institute for Public Policy and an
Independent Consultant. Until February 2008, Dr. Esper
served as the National Policy Director for the Fred
Thompson 2008 Presidential Campaign. Before joining
the Thompson Campaign, Dr. Esper was Executive Vice
President of the Aerospace Industries Association
(AIA) of America, the premier trade organization
representing the nation's aerospace and defense
industry. In addition to his duties as COO, Mr. Esper
was also responsible for AIA's defense and
international policy offices. From 2002 until 2004,
Dr. Esper served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Negotiations Policy at the Pentagon. In
this capacity he was responsible for all arms control,
nonproliferation, international agreements, UN
matters, and related issues for the Defense
Department.
Co-sponsored with the Center for International Studies
and the MIT Nuclear Weapons Abolition Initiative
For more information, contact
Patricia-Maria Weinmann
Associate Coordinator
Office: MIT Room W11-001
Phone: (617)253-0108
6PM: Can we afford another MBTA fare increase or service
cuts?
How broke is the MBTA? What can be done about
it?
Attend a Town Meeting on Public Transportation
DATE: Wed October 22, 6:00-8pm
LOCATION: Copley Branch Library Mezzanine Level
Conference Room
Hosted by On the Move: The Greater Boston
Transportation Justice Coalition
For more information, contact: Bob Terrell
617-480-3685
In December 2001, faced with a collapsing economy and a government that failed to respond to the people's needs, Argentina exploded into massive protests.
What we saw were 4 successive presidents thrown out of power, dramatic roadblocks called piquetes, and the masked protesters who organized them.
But behind some of the piquetes lay an intricate network of neighborhood organizations that had as their ultimate goal autonomy and self-sufficiency for their community.
This video is a compilation of interviews and visits with four Unemployed Workers' Movements of Argentina. Come hear about their projects: everything from bakeries and soup kitchens, to organic farms and gardens, even their own schools and neighborhood health centers. And listen to the organizers discuss their operating principles--autonomy, horizontal decision-making and direct democracy--and the day-to- day challenges they face.
7:30 – 9:00 p.m. The Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Beacon Hill
Friends Meeting (Quakers) will lead...
"There Must Be a Struggle: An Evening of Worship on Justice, Power, and Racism in America Today". The event will be held at Beacon Hill Friends House, 6 Chestnut Street, Boston. The committee invites you to: Reflect in the rich silence of Quaker Worship, celebrate the empowering strength of Justice, and share in the positive power of Truth.
We are in the midst of a national election cycle where the undercurrent of racism has been in front of us for several months. As concerned individuals, we cannot let a negative message about race overpower our will to transform our society and the world at large.
Frederick Douglass told us "...There must be a struggle." He told us "...Power concedes nothing without demand..." But there is change in the air. We are not only making demands, we as a people across a living rainbow have a unique power that racism has no power over: Justice!
The Freedom Riders were moved to act from a position of Strength and Power. It was not a struggle of weakness and fear that began to move the world when Rosa Parks refused to move on that bus so many Decembers ago. Let us join together in spiritual fellowship, and build our own power for today's struggle.
Directions: from Park St. MBTA station, walk to State House, turn left onto Beacon St., right on Walnut, left on Chestnut, meeting house is on the left.
For more information, call Greg Williams at 617-501-6258.
"Romantico" is a documentary about a Mexican musician who returns home to his beloved daughters after spending years playing at San Francisco's taquerias and hipster joints. Once Carmelo arrives in his hometown, he finds himself confronted with the struggles that led to his first border crossing.
War and Decision:
Inside the Pentagon at the
Dawn of the War on Terrorism
Douglas J. Feith -- former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (2001-2005)
with
Jules Crittenden
Boston Herald city editor and columnist
Book signing will follow lecture and discussion.
Part I Thursday, October 23 at 6:30 pm
Part II Thursday, October 30 at 6:30 pm
Light Dinner at 6:30 Movie at 7:00
It was the Cold War’s least publicized face, that of
Africa, when Soviet designs triggered a power struggle
with the United States and European powers over an
unstable continent emerging from centuries of
colonialism. How Cuba became involved in the complex
puzzle of African liberation is the subject of this
fascinating French documentary tracing Cuban efforts
from the early days of Che Guevara in the Belgian
Congo to the 1990’s. Part II features the real reason
South Africa stopped fighting and started negotiating
with the ANC and Nelson Mandela.
This is a fundraiser for Cuban survivors and
reconstruction after the 2008 Hurricanes. Dinner will
be provided.
info:
617-536-1330
tillyruth@aol.com
july26.org
1PM FRIDAY OCTOBER 24
@ UMass-Boston, McCormack Bldg, 3rd Fl, Ryan Lounge
Contact: jaunmiguel5999@gmail.com
and
7PM FRIDAY OCTOBER 24
@ SPONTANEOUS CELEBRATIONS
45 DANFORTH ST (STONY BROOK T), JAMAICA PLAIN
www.spontaneouscelebrations.org
Nat'l Co-sonsors: Haymarket Books, IVAW, Alternet, Nation Books
Local Co-sponsors: International Socialist
Organization, IVAW Boston, UMass Boston Antiwar
Coalition, Mass Peace Action, Mass Global Action,
United for Justice with Peace, Stop the Wars Coalition
Resisting Empire starts with us.
Dahr Jamail will be speaking on his new release from Haymarket:
Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded
Journalist in Occupied Iraq
The documentary follows a WV town whose coal mines have closed. The town fathers and mothers invite a for-profit corporation to site a SuperMax prision in the community.
To be followed by a group discussion
Please Join Us and Bring Friends the 4th Friday of Every Month.
Refreshments Available/ Contributions Greatly Appreciated
Through Barbed Wire was created by Arnie King to (re)establish and maintain ties to our neighborhoods and to offer and provide genuine service to society. Due to the heavy chains around our hands and feet, as well as CORI and other "stigmas", such efforts face severe restrictions. These obstacles can be lessened, and eventually eliminated, with virtues of honesty, open-mindedness and willingness flowing through barbed wire into the community.
!Salud! A Film about the Cuban Health care system with discussion by Dr. Marty Schotz and Nancy Kohn Friday, 24 October 2008 – 7:00pm to 9:00pm. * Find out what puts Cuba on the map in the quest for global health … *
Cuba has trained more than 30,000 medical doctors from over 68 countries, including 100 from the United States, for free. Now they are working with the poorest of the poor all across the globe. Learn about their battle for global health, and the complex realities confronting the movement to make healthcare everyone’s birth right.
Across the street from the Monument at: /First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, 6 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain/
*Many thanks to the Cosponsors of this event, the Mass Public Health Association and the July 26th Coalition*
Admission is FREE.
The location is handicapped accessible, close to
Lexington Center and the MBTA bus lines, and near the
Minuteman Bike Path. Lots of free parking.
Join us for a beautiful evening with distinguished guest speaker Dr. Stephen Walt, first hand accounts of the PCRF's work by founder and CEO Steve Sosebee.
Arabic dinner and entertainment.
Dr. Stephen Walt is a Harvard Kennedy School Professor and the New York Times best-selling author of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.
Tickets: $50 regular, $125 dinner & pre-reception with honored guests, $175 sit w/ Dr. Stephen Walt at dinner & pre-reception, $30 students with valid picture student ID e-mail: lailakassis@gmail.com for tickets.
PCRF is a non-political, non-profit, humanitarian relief organization providing urgent world-class medical care to children from war-torn areas of the Arab World.
Working people are losing their jobs and homes in record numbers, the cost of food and gas have skyrocketed, yet Congress and Bush have approved a $850 billion bailout for the rich on Wall St. Over $250 million a day is already spent on the illegal and unjust war in Iraq.
While they scramble to save their vacation homes, economic crisis is nothing new for poor and working families who struggle daily just to put food on the table. In Boston, 40% of adults and more than 30% of children are living in poverty. The foreclosure rate in Roxbury and Dorchester is four times the city average. The unemployment rate is five times the city average.
Instead of education health care, and job programs, working people face off against greedy real estate developers, military recruiters and racist police.
*Join us for a meeting to learn more about the Party for Socialism and Liberation's (PSL) "People over Profits" election campaign and share your thoughts on how we can build a peoples movement and fight for positive change. * Eugene Puryear is a student at Howard University and an active youth organizer in Washington D.C. He is an organizer with the anti-war coalition A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now To Stop War & Racism). He is a member of the National Committee of the PSL.
Eugene has played a leading role in many campaigns, from the movement to Free the Jena 6 to fighting racist police checkpoints in Washington D.C.
For more information, email Boston@VotePSL.org or call 857-334-5084
The Green-Rainbow Party is rooted in 10 Key values, Grassroots Democracy, Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice and Equal Opportunity, Nonviolence, Decentralization, Community Based Economics, Feminism, Respect for Diversity, Personal and Global Responsibility, and Future Focus on Sustainability. Our speakers will engage us in a dialogue about the strategic use of voting to make changes in our society.
Merelice is the co-chair of the Massachusetts affiliate of the Green-Rainbow Party. Gary Hicks is a former co-chair. Both are committed organizers in Boston's progressive communities.
Kevin Funk and Steve Fake, authors of the new book Scramble for Africa: Darfur Intervention and the USA, analyze the current humanitarian crisis in Darfur and the activist movements surrounding it, thereby taking on both the US government and the Save Darfur coalition alike. The authors present the basic information on the political and military aspects of the conflict, examine the options, and suggest ways forward, always with a concern for the broader international implications and for the hundreds of thousands of victims.
John Ghazvinian, author of Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil, calls their book: "Explosive, masterful, and impeccably fair. Consider it the thinking person's guide to Darfur."
The authors have been researching and writing about Darfur since early 2006. Their writings have been published in such media as Foreign Policy in Focus, Sudan Tribune, Common Dreams, CounterPunch, ZNet, and Black Commentator.
A quick note about why Cuba turned down US aid offer: US aid was conditioned on accepting an inspection by a USAID team. Spain, Brazil, and many other countries have offered aid without any conditions; only the US plays politics with human suffering. And all the aid that the US had to offer is $100,000 (initially) when much smaller countries like Timor Leste have offered $500,000 and without any conditions. The Cuban government rejected the aid as hypocritical and asked that Cuba is allowed to buy food and construction materials using credits offered by private business willing to do so, like any other country does (The Bush administration introduced a legislation that requires that Cuba buys from US business only with cash).
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) in Jerusalem has been informed that its request for re-funding has been rejected, in high probability because of pressure brought to bear by right-wing Israeli neo-cons who have campaigned obsessively against our funding while threatening publicly to close us down.
Tax-deductible donations needed.
In early August, 10 senators (five Democrats and five Republicans) released a “compromise” energy plan to allow for some offshore oil drilling. The group has been dubbed the Gang of 10. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated he is likely to allow a vote on an energy bill in September. However, the Gang of 10 have not yet put their compromise into legislative form, so there is no bill number or exact language. While the Gang of 10’s plan has been widely reported on, few have noticed that their plan includes $80+ to $160+ Billion in new subsidies for the nuclear power industry.
In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated she too is likely to allow a vote on some sort of energy bill in September. Again, no specific bill language has yet been announced. However, a group of predominately Republican House members have introduced what they call the “All of the Above” energy bill (HR 6384) which would include about $120 billion in new nuclear subsidies.
NIRS has suggested citizen lobbying to stop this
horrible nonsense.
Email contact: nirsnet@nirs.org
phone: 301-270-6477
Also sign on to a Simple Statement On Nuclear Power and Climate Change .
From our friends at Jobs With Justice...
Healthcare plan? Hand sanitizer.
Employee benefits package? Soda in the break room.
Welcome to a workplace that's seriously out of-whack.
Watch this video then sign our petition!
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/711dbOp1OuH4/
Let's face it. Something's out of whack when CEOs rake
in hundreds of times what their employees earn, while
workers get the boot just for talking about unions.
It could almost be a bad joke if it weren't such a
serious problem. That's why we teamed up with the
award-winning producers at Brave New Films to make
this video, hope you take a minute to sign our
petition after you watch.
Also, tell Congress to Stop the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
On Nov. 4th, you will be asked to vote on eliminating the state income tax ("Question One"). In light of that, we are asking you to choose what should be cut in the case that this reckless initiative passes. Please take a moment to give us your opinion!
I would cut….
Vaccinations for children (they are too healthy already!)
Meals for the elderly (can't they cook for themselves?!)
Wage and hour enforcement (Let's trust bosses to obey the law!)
Water purification (I like to drink my water leaded!)
Road maintenance (pothole avoidance and bridge collapses make the commute interesting!)
School funding (We is learning our kids too good now!)
Caring for the developmentally disabled (Survival of the fittest!)
EMTs (cut down on hospital waiting times!)
Public Universities (All our kids should be going to Harvard anyways!)
Snow Removal, (car sledding is fun for the whole family!)
None of the Above- Cutting our Income Tax is going to make a bad situation worse!
Fact sheet downloadable from votenowquestionone.com
A universal single-payer health plan has again been introduced in Congress by Rep. Conyers (D-MI), this time with the support of 90 other members, numerous unions, and independent groups.
HR676.org, PO Box 882122, Port Saint Lucie FL 34988
800-680-9310
info@HR676.org
We all know Cindy Sheehancan win, but how do we prove it to the rest of the world?
With the general election a mere two months off, two things are clear in the Congressional race in San Francisco, where Cindy Sheehan is bravely challenging Nancy Pelosi there.
1) Sheehan has very broad support in the district, otherwise she would not have achieved the amazing feat already of collecting and getting verified over 10,000 nominating signatures from her S.F. constituents to put her on the ballot as an independent, and
2) The corporate media will go out of its way to ignore the race unless we put it right in their face.
USALONE believes what Cindy really needs now is a serious POLL in her district, which we believe would show how strong she is running, even winning, right now. Please make a donation if you can to help finance engaging a major polling company to do this.
In one month, the Free Gaza Movement will sail on a mission of civil resistance: breaking into the prison that is Gaza.
We are students and teachers, human rights observers and aid workers, lawyers, medics, activists - parents and grandparents. We are Americans and Europeans, Israelis and Palestinians, Australians, South Africans, and more. We are of all ages and backgrounds. Collectively, we have years of experience volunteering in Gaza and the West Bank. Because of our human rights work, the state of Israel has banned many of us from re-entering Palestinian areas. Because of the ongoing blockade, the rest of us find it almost impossible to enter Gaza at all. Despite deteriorating conditions, the great need for international assistance, and the invitations of our Palestinian partners - the Israeli Government will not allow us into Gaza to help. Will you help?
We must break the siege of Gaza. Conditions there are already catastrophic. We have to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of Gaza and deeply pressure Israel and the international community to lift the blockade and end the Occupation. As people of conscience our actions must be commensurate with the crisis.
We've tried to enter Palestine by land. We've tried to arrive by air. Now we're getting serious. We're taking a ship. Please look into your hearts and ask yourselves if the collective punishment and virtual imprisonment of one and a half million human beings can ever be justified. If your answer’s “no,” then we want your help this August when we break into Gaza and try to break out of this siege.
If you’d like more information, or if you can donate money or medical supplies (such as hearing aids), please visit their website at FreeGaza.org.
Boston Palestine Film Festival
Asking for contributions now.
Festival is October 4 thru 12, 2008.
2007: With over 40 films, BPFF brought authentic
Palestinian perspectives, experiences and culture to
venues as prestigious and diverse as the Museum of
Fine Arts, Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square
Cinema, Harvard Film Archive, Harvard University and
Boston College. BPFF featured several US premieres
and included appearances by many noted international
filmmakers. Please visit BPFF online to view the
substantial coverage we received in the Boston Globe,
the Boston Phoenix and on WBUR, a local affiliate of
National Public Radio—to name just a few media
outlets.
2008: This year’s festival is every bit as exciting
and compelling as last year’s. We are now finalizing
our 2008 program for this coming fall, October 4th-
12th. We hope that we can count on your support to
build on the achievements of last year,
Carlos Arredondo has traveled thousands of miles with his pick up truck decorated as a memorial to his son Alex who died in Iraq . I remember when I first heard about his action as a distraught father who set himself on fire when he heard the news of his son's death. An article about Carlos appears in the Nation. Since then, as a member of Military Families Speak Out, I have come to know and love Carlos and his wife Melida as two dedicated activists for peace. You can read about Carlos' actions for peace on Democracy Now!.
Carlos and Melida would have certainly had every right to sit back and mourn the death of their son. Instead they have taken every opportunity and often at great personal expense to remind people of the true cost of war. They have traveled to every demonstration, vigil, poltiical rally, memorial and meeting with politicians to tell their story of loss, and the deep concern they feel for others who have suffered or daily face the possible loss of a family member to this endless occupation of Iraq.
Many of you have met Carlos or heard of him. You have seen his hopefulness in the face of grief. Now it's time for all of us to help put his (OUR) truck back on the road where it belongs. $20 collected from one hundred people should do it! If the travel weary truck cannot be repaired one more time, the money will go to the down payment on a new or newer truck.
Please make out checks to Carlos Arredondo and send them to me so I can present them in a lump sum
Sarah Fuhro, 8 Abbott Road Natick, Ma 01760
Sign petition against US missile offense in Poland
In a few days, the US government will likely sign an agreement with the Czech Republic government allowing the US to place a radar satellite system in that country. The satellite system is part of the US "missile defense" installations designed to be placed in Poland.
We can join our voices in support of the Czech people to say "no" to a US radar system in their country.
Please add your voice to support this effort by signing the petition.
Understanding that this empire-building strategy by the US could lead to a new arms race which threatens the Czech people, the majority of whom oppose this project. The opposition which began with a few activist voices now includes over 70 percent of the population who oppose any US military presence in the Czech Republic.
Even thought the Czech President may sign the agreement, it has to be ratified by the Czech Parliament. And the situation is far from clear, because the government has a very small mandate - not even have a majority. They were only able to pass a confidence vote after seven months of negotiations, and thanks to some two members of parliament that didn't vote against them. So they have a very weak mandate, and it is far from clear how the vote will go.
The Czech people have asked for support from around the world to bolster their campaign. They are looking for a million signatures on their petition to take to the parliament to defeat the agreement.
Sign petition on McCain/Obama statements to AIPAC
FROM Jewish Voice for Peace...
We are deeply concerned by statements that both Senator McCain and Senator Obama made at the AIPAC Conference. Please sign our petition calling on Senators Obama and McCain to moderate their stances in the interests of a peaceful future:
In particular:
1) Senator Obama declared that Jerusalem "must remain undivided." We believe the future status of Jerusalem must be negotiated.
2) Both Senators McCain and Obama promised enormous sums of unconditional military aid to Israel. We believe the U.S. must hold Israel accountable for using U.S. weapons against civilians.
3) Both Senators McCain and Obama continued to demand the exclusion of Hamas from the negotiating table. We believe peace agreement cannot be achieved without Hamas at the table.
Global Exchange Delegations to Venezuela. Here are planned events in 2008:
Democracy, Development, and Regional Integration- A New Vision for the Americas
August 09 - 19, 2008
Labor, Land Reform, and Agriculture
September 06 - 16, 2008
Health and Healing
October 04 - 14, 2008
Popular Democracy : Observing the 2008 Regional Elections
November 15 - 25, 2008
Democracy, Development, and Regional Integration- A New Vision for the Americas
December 05 - 15, 2008
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 farming cooperatives. 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. PARC recently received the top BIOL award for excellence in olive oil in a competition in Puglia, Italy which included 300 participants from Italy and abroad.
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. As the political and economic situation in Palestine continues to deteriorate, 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.
We hope that you will continue to support us in this endeavor, as it is more important than ever to help sustain the Palestinian economy. On our most recent trip to the region in June 2008, we found that conditions are worse than ever, with unrelenting, tightening restrictions on movement making life incredibly difficult.
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.
On this day, Friday and from there on!, we hereby declare the
establishment of a new DeMilitarized Zone where all those who wish can
congregate to denigrate and repudiate the war machine and celebrate the
growth of the new movement from coast to coast willing to oppose the war and opression in
this country and around the world. Bring your signs, and minds, let's
chalk, talk, play music, paint art with caring and sharing and declaring
that we are "chilling *against* the villins" in this zone to show our
independence!!!!!
We declare our solidarity with the people of the Middle East who share
the misfortune of living on top of the largest oil reserves on the
planet which is the reason behind the current war on Iraq. We declare
our condemnation of those who support this criminal war commanded by
criminals who promote a criminal ideology with criminal intent and
crimes against humanity. We repudiate with prejudice the general assault
on our rights: abuses, excuses, jailings, raids, lies, spies,
xenophobia, torture, extraordinary rendition, and the general police
state system that says we must stand together and support this
generalized oppression. We are no longer the silent generation but are
now willing to Stand Apart and against the mass murdering villins who
are doin the real killin. Join us in the DMZ!!
Chillin against the villin's!!!
Our *DMZ* and our Independence.