“We feel that her policies represent us, but we’re ready to speak our mind if we feel that she needs to change.”
AUTONOMOUS SOURCES: BOSTON’S YOUTH ORGANIZERS RETHINK VOLUNTEERING, POLITICAL ACTIVITY
organizing
CALL YOUR MA STATE SENATOR TODAY TO HELP SAVE LOCAL NEWS!
[W]e’re asking all journalists, journalism educators, journalism students, media reform activists, and DigBoston readers who agree that the state journalism commission should be created to call your Mass state senator today and ask him/her to tell Sens. Eric Lesser (D - Longmeadow), Michael Rodrigues (D - Somerset), and Patrick O'Connor (D - Weymouth), who are on the conference committee, to keep the journalism commission in the final economic development bill.
HELP SAVE LOCAL NEWS! ASK YOUR MA STATE REP TO BACK AMENDMENT #40 TODAY!
[W]e’re asking all readers who are concerned about the collapse of local news media to contact your state representative and ask them to cosponsor Amendment #40 of H. 4879. The more cosponsors the amendment has, the more likely House Ways and Means will pass it. If that happens it has a good chance of making it through the full legislative process for this session. And becoming a law. Which would be a promising outcome for the future of local news in the Commonwealth.
SOLIDARITY BUILDING, COVID-19, AND FRONTLINE WORKERS
The mission of building solidarity within the South Asian community is akin to other movements such as Black Lives Matter. How can we learn from them in order to connect our own community? For many South Asians committed to fighting state violence against Black people, it is clear that our work in being allies relies on undoing anti-Black ideologies within our own communities.
SOMERVILLE NEWS GARDEN HOLDS FIRST PUBLIC EVENT
AFTER PITTSBURGH: HOW WE DEFEAT THE HARD RIGHT
In August 2017, over 40,000 Bostonians marched on Boston Common to tell a small gaggle of nearly incoherent hard-right louts that they were not welcome in our city. Especially in the wake of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the ...
UNWILLING CONVERTS: SOMERVILLE’S LARGEST CONDO GRAB IN HISTORY YIELDS RELATIVE TENANT WIN IN TENSE MARKET
“We have to recognize, you know, people enter the building renting because the circumstances mean that renting is what works for them ... I think we have to have protections and safeguards to allow those individuals to continue getting the benefits they’re entitled to.”
BLOOD SUCKERS: CALL CENTER WORKERS BATTLE ABUSIVE CUSTOMERS, MANAGERS, BEDBUGS
This time, it was an infestation in the company’s third- and fourth-floor call centers at 294 Washington St in Downtown Crossing. The bed bugs issue, which has reportedly been a problem since April and continues to plague the company’s Boston offices, was the tipping point for SimpliSafe workers.
UNIVERSALIZING RESISTANCE
A Q+A with BC sociology professor Charles Derber on his new book
Why did you decide to publish a book on “universalizing resistance” at this particular moment in history?
Because our survival is at stake. Universalizing resistance is a path toward dismantling the militarized capitalism before it wipes us all out. Climate ...
GUEST COLUMN: ‘THIS LABOR DAY I’M GOING ON STRIKE…’
'I work two jobs not by choice but because I don’t receive enough hours at either job to cover my basic needs to support my family. With each paycheck that I earn I have to stretch.'
ICE COLD DEMOCRACY: CAN A PROGRESSIVE NEW BREWERY HELP POWER THE LOCAL LABOR MOVEMENT?
"In the traditional business model, people make bad decisions all the time and the workers pay for it. We want the people who actually make the decisions to get the good stuff and bad stuff from that.”
HOW TO FIND A DECENT PROGRESSIVE ACTIVIST GROUP
What issues are most important to you? Do you want to take on a big fight like getting Trump and his rogue’s gallery of white nationalists out of power?
BPS STUDENTS TAKE TO THE STREETS, MAYOR WALSH FEELING THE HEAT
Unions played a supporting role, but the kids organized themselves
MEET BOSTON’S OLYMPIC CURMUDGEONS
What’s the difference between #NoBostonOlympics and #NoBoston2024?
THE YEAR IN LOCAL PROTEST: FROM TRANSPORTATION TO MILITARIZATION
Mass unrest, like the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, doesn’t erupt randomly.
THE PROTESTS ARE ONLY BEGINNING; MIGHT AS WELL GET TO KNOW THE ACTIVISTS BLOCKING TRAFFIC AROUND BOSTON
Images by Chris Faraone unless otherwise noted
First some disclaimers for positive measure …
This post is not intended to suggest or imply either bonds or divisions between movements or organizations. Members of some groups we included may have ideological differences with ...
PICS & DISPATCH: HARVARD MARCHES EN MASSE IN SOLIDARITY WITH #BLACKLIVESMATTER MOVEMENT
On Friday afternoon, Harvard University students will rally in Harvard Yard to show their support to the grassroots, youth-led movement that started in Ferguson, MO and has spread to the entire country - a movement that objects to racist laws, violent police tactics, and systemic inequality.
MEDIA FARM: WHY IS THE BOSTON GLOBE PRETENDING THAT POLICE VIOLENCE DOESN’T HAPPEN IN MASSACHUSETTS?
Image of stop-and-frisk outside the Boys & Girls Club on Talbot Ave in Dorchester (Nov. ’14)
Just a few months ago, the Boston Globe informed us of an ACLU study about the epidemic of stop-and-frisk in the Hub. From their reporting:
Boston police officers disproportionately ...
FREE RADICAL: SOME WHITE PROTESTERS STILL DON’T GET IT
“All it takes is one push.”
The police were out numbered many times over last week, and that’s all it would have taken to push past them and lead the masses onto an on-ramp and beyond. The two men having this conversation, in a way pleading those surrounding them to nudge ahead, were ...
ON THE GROUND AT #ENOUGHISENOUGH, FROM BOSTON COMMON TO EVERYWHERE IT TAKES US
Images by Chris Faraone
It was inevitable that some kind of protest mix involving numerous fronts — housing, homelessness, fair wages, etc. — would culminate in the kind of HOLY FUCKING SHIT IS THIS BOSTON? moment that is currently underway downtown.
As you read ...
DISPATCH & ANALYSIS: #ENOUGHISENOUGH WAS LARGEST HUB PROTEST IN 10 YEARS, AND MAYBE EVEN BOSTON’S BIGGEST ANTI-RACISM ACTION IN DECADES
Images by Chris Faraone
You should probably ignore any individual or lone reporter who attempts to inform you about the demonstrations that snaked through Boston, Cambridge, and even a few corners of Somerville last night.
Like me, those folks may have witnessed segments of the ...
PICS & DISPATCH: PARK STREET FAST FOOD STRIKE FORESHADOWS THURSDAY #ENOUGHISENOUGH RALLY IN BOSTON
Images by Chris Faraone
This afternoon’s fast food worker strike at the Burger King across from Park Street was kind of like the slogan on those juvenile old Co-Ed Naked Tennis t-shirts: They were in, they were out, it was over.
Short as their lunchtime rally was, workers with ...
#ENOUGHISENOUGH: RALLY FOR JUSTICE SCHEDULED TO COINCIDE WITH BOSTON COMMON TREE LIGHTING
Photo By Jacob Leidolf
On Thursday, December 4, Boston’s 73rd annual official tree lighting takes place in the Boston Common from 6 to 8 p.m. But, honestly, who right now gives a shit about a glowing Nova Scotian sapling?
Yesterday marked the end of the criminal case against New York police ...
ONE WEEK LATER: LOOKING BACK ON THE MASSIVE #BOSTON4FERGUSON RALLY BEFORE LOOKING FORWARD
There’s no telling where things are headed, but there are high levels of unrest in the air, with outrage surfacing on several fronts.
FREE RADICAL: THE INJUSTICE SYSTEM WORKS
Illustration by @imfabulous13
Last Monday, hundreds of thousands of people across the country held their breath waiting for the grand jury decision on whether to indict Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown. As St. Louis prosecutor Robert McCulloch drew out the announcement and activists and ...
ONE WEEK LATER: LOOKING BACK ON THE MASSIVE #BOSTON4FERGUSON RALLY BEFORE LOOKING FORWARD
Images by Chris Faraone
Attention Bostonians: The powder keg has popped.
Due to actions addressing affordable housing, living wages, and a smorgasbord of other issues, the protest kettle was already percolating in Eastern Mass. Stir in enduring social tensions, police misconduct, ...
PICS AND DISPATCH: BOSTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WALK OUT, MARCH AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY, TURN HEADS, GAIN SUPPORT
Images by Emily Hopkins
By 1:15pm this afternoon, only a couple dozen Boston University students had gathered on Marsh Plaza for a #HandsUpWalkOut action to show support for Michael Brown and other victims of racism and police brutality. After a few chants directed at no one in particular, ...
COUNCILOR JACKSON HOLDS COURT IN THE MIDDLE OF MASS AVE DURING #BOSTON4FERGUSON PROTEST
Image by Chris Faraone
More than a few elected officials showed at the community meeting held last night at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury. From longtime State Rep. Byron Rushing, to Boston City Councilor Matt O’Malley, to Mayor Marty Walsh and Governor-elect Charlie Baker, well ...
#BOSTON4FERGUSON DISPATCH AND ANALYSIS: THE BIGGEST HUB PROTEST IN YEARS COULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED AT A BETTER TIME
Images by Chris Faraone
Last night reminded me of an Ethan Hawke film called The Purge, in which for one night every year Americans are allowed to commit homicide. Extreme, sure, and there’s obviously no need for murder. Nevertheless, the movie has a point in that we stand ...
PICS FROM THE BIGGEST PROTEST IN THE HUB IN YEARS #BOSTON4FERGUSON
We’re not even close to finished processing tonight’s protest, which is still roaring at the time of this post, with heads chanting, “Cops are not above the law” at Dewey Square. What began as a rally in Roxbury at 7pm spun into well over 1,000 people marching through Dudley ...
