Boston Occupier Open House 5pm Sunday

by Kendra

Dear Activists, Friends, and Occupiers,

You are invited to a gathering with the staff of the Boston Occupier in order to meet the Occupier staff, eat some food, and learn how you can get involved in our alternative media project. All people are welcome and all possible contributions of time and effort are greatly appreciated.

This meeting will occur on Sunday, March 10th, starting at 5:00 PM and will be held at The Democracy Center in Harvard Square (for directions, see democracycenter.org).

Facebook Event Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/374733569301253

The staff of the Boston Occupier look forward to meeting you and, if you would like, working with you in the future. In addition to marking this event in your calendar, we would like to ask you to forward this invitation to other politically involved friends so that they may join us this weekend.

Sincerely, The Staff of the Boston Occupier: a free press

St. Patrick’s Peace Parade – Sunday, March 17

Third Annual St. Patrick’s Peace Parade, Sunday, March 17
Parade participants will assemble at: 2:00 PM
D Street off of West Broadway (Look for Blimp and Flags)
Parade will begin at 3:00 PM, one mile behind 1st parade

SOUTH BOSTON – For the third year in a row the 200 member Smedley Butler Brigade, Chapter 9 of Veterans For Peace will lead the St. Patrick’s Peace Parade through the streets of South Boston on Sunday, March 17, one mile behind the 1st parade. Once again Veterans For Peace are organizing a parade that is welcoming and inclusive on the streets of South Boston. This is in direct conflict with the policies of the organizers of the first parade that exclude veterans who have dutifully served their country, many in war, but who now work for peace and members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender (LGBT community).

Veterans For Peace were denied to walk in the 1st parade in 2011 because the organizers of the first parade “did not want to have the word peace associated with the word veteran”. Being aware of the longtime exclusionary and discriminatory practices of the organizers of the 1st parade towards the LGBT community the veterans decided to have their own welcoming and inclusive parade. The first group they reached out to was the LGBT community saying to them, “you were denied to walk in their parade eighteen years ago, how would you like to walk in our parade”. The LGBT group Join the Impact immediately accepted the offer.

In 2011 with only three to four weeks to organize the Peace Parade they had one band, a duck boat and 500 participants. In 2012 there were seven divisions, two bands, a duck boat, two trollies, one float, bag-pipers, a drumming group and 2,000 participants. In 2013, there are eight divisions (Veterans, Peace, Religious, LGBT, Climate Justice, Political, Labor-Jobs and Economic and Social Justice), six bands, Bread and Puppet Theatre from Vermont, a duck boat, two trollies, one float and the expectations of many many more participants. The peace, environment, LGBT groups and organizations are heavily promoting the parade this year. “I believe the Saint Patrick’s Peace Parade could be huge this year”, said Pat Scanlon the coordinator of Veterans For Peace and organizer of the Peace Parade. “Groups such as MoveOn.org, the Green Party, Sierra Club, 350.org, the LGBT community, peace groups and churches are mobilizing to join the parade. Musical groups from as far away as Rhode Island and New York are joining our parade, this is exciting”

“There is one big difference from previous years” added Scanlon. “For the past two years the Boston DPW had crews breaking down the barriers and cleaning the streets with street sweepers right behind the 1st parade. What did that signal to parade watchers; the party is over, go home. This year the DPW crews and the street sweepers will be behind our parade”. Lawyers from the ACLUM and LeClair Ryan negotiated with the city to guarantee fair treatment for the Peace Parade. This means that potentially tens of thousands more people will see and enjoy the Saint Patricks’ Peace Parade. The party is not over until the street sweepers sweep, please stay, enjoy and celebrate.

The website of the Smedley D. Butler Brigade of Veterans For Peace is www.SmedleyVFP.org

Contact: Pat Scanlon, Office: 978-475-1776, Cell: 978-590-4248, email PatScanlonMusic@yahoo.com

GA Summary – 5 March 2013

Reschedule March 17th GA

Our Next GA is scheduled for Sunday March 17th, which is the same day as the St. Patrick’s day parade. I propose we reschedule the GA, so that we can march with Veteran’s for Peace.

GA rescheduled for Tuesday March 19th, 7pm, Location TBD

Proposed by Steve. Passed in the consent bucket.

Donate Cots to the Harvard Homeless Shelter

Donate all the cots in storage to the Harvard Homeless Shelter

Proposed by Bil. Passed in the consent bucket.

Discussion of Occupy Boston Accomplishments

We had a discussion about Occupy Boston’s Accomplishments.

Minutes:
wiki.occupyboston.org/wiki/GA_Minutes_Tue_Mar_05_2013

Winchester Community Reinvestment Day 2013 Program on Saturday March 9th

by Vern

Innovative and Thoughtful Approaches to Balancing Money, Society and the Environment

Winchester, MA (March 1, 2013) – Against the backdrop of mounting risks to the environment, economy and society, a group of experts in socially responsible investing and three thought leaders on issues relating to a sustainable economy, environment and society will share their knowledge and ideas at a “Community Reinvestment Day 2013″ program in Winchester on Saturday, March 9th, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. It will take place in Metcalf Hall at the Winchester Unitarian Church, 478 Main Street, and is open to the general public, without charge.

A panel discussion on socially responsible investing will be moderated by Catherine Valega, CFP®, CAIA, of Green Bridge Wealth Management, LLC. The panelists will be: Margaret Arndt, Holistic Financial Consultant, of Sage Consulting, Inc., Dorothy Emerson, Co-founder of Rainbow Solutions, Inc., Eric Packer, an investment advisor with Progressive Asset Management Group, and Tim Smith, SVP and Director of Environmental, Social and Governance Shareholder Engagement at Walden Asset Management.

Three thought-provoking presentations will conclude the formal program. David Snieckus has researched money, banking and foreclosures and facilitated the formation of the Massachusetts Public Banking Advocates. He will address the relationship between “Food and Money.” Robert O. Leaver, a member of a group that believes we have to change the context of Western civilization in order to save Western civilization, will discuss the banking and monetary systems. And John G. Root, Jr., who is active in the movement for public banking, will speak on “Mutual Credit and Sociocracy.”

The program will include an exhibition area where organizations, individuals and companies will provide information about their activities and services relating to environmental, social and economic issues and socially responsible investing. During the final hour of the program attendees and participants are invited to mingle informally and discuss the issues presented over a light lunch of homemade soup.

This event is being co-sponsored by Occupy Winchester (www.occupywinchesterma.org) and Sustainable Winchester (www.sustainablewinchester.org).

Building A Debt Resistance Movement

On Tuesday Feb 26th, around 30 people came to hear George Caffentzis give a presentation to Occupy Boston’s Strike Debt working group. George is a professor of philosophy, a marxist, and a prominent figure in NYC’s Strike Debt movement.

A portion of the talk focused on the differences between debt and wage struggles. There are many examples of wage struggles (think labor movements and unions), but far fewer examples of debt struggles. The populist movement, Catiline, Shay’s rebellion, and Christianity’s rejection of usury are the more well-known examples of debt resistance; there aren’t many others, and we’ll need new movements to produce a rich history of debt resistance.

Debt struggles are unique in two significant ways: debt tends to isolate people more than it brings them together, and debt struggles typically cross class boundaries. The very poor can go to debtors prisons, but so can the middle class, and the very wealthy. This makes it challenging to decide who is in a debtors movement; for example, is a small business owner a capitalist, or are they running a business to satisfy their basic personal needs?

Finally, despite the hardship and unfairness caused by the 2008 financial crisis, we’ve been slow to develop a movement to strike out against bank bailouts, foreclosures, and indebtedness (several years passed between the TARP bailouts and the first Occupy encampment in NYC). We still have time to build a movement, but the window of consciousness may be closing.

A rough transcript of the presentation is available here:
wiki.occupyboston.org/wiki/Strike_Debt_26_Feb_2013_George_Caffentzis_Talk