Click on the headline to link to updates from the Occupy Boston website. Occupy Boston started at 6:00 PM, September 30, 2011. I will post important updates as they appear on that site.
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We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It Back! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
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#TomemonosBoston
Somos la Sociedad conformando el
99%
Dewey Square
Cercerde South Station
ASAMBLEA GENERALTODOS LOS DIAS
6:00PM
vvww.occupyboston.com
Tomemonos Boston se reuniarin en el Dewey Square en Downtown Bostona discutir cambios que la ciudadania puede hacer en el gobierno que afecte un cambio social positivo.
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Markin comment October 1, 2011:
There is a lot of naiveté expressed about the nature of capitalism, capitalists, and the way to win in the class struggle by various participants in this occupation. Many also have attempted to make a virtue out of that naive, particularly around the issues of effective democratic organization and relationships with the police (they are not our friends, no way, when the deal goes down). However, their spirit is refreshing, they are acting out of good subjective anti-capitalist motives and, most importantly, even those of us who call themselves "reds" (communists), including this writer, started out from liberal premises as naive, if not more so, than those encountered at the occupation site. We can all learn something but in the meantime we must defend the "occupation" and the occupiers. More later as the occupation continues.
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Markin comment October 11, 2011:
Around two o’clock in the morning Boston Police swooped in on a second occupation site established to handle the growing number of people who waned to camp out. The city, Mayor Menino, decided to draw the line at that second site. The Occupy Boston movement decided, after meeting in a democratic General Assembly, to defend the right to use that new space. As a result the police came and arrested about one hundred defenders. Today’s headline in this space says it all. Defend The Occupation Sites And The Occupiers! Drop The Charges Against The Occupation Defenders!
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Markin comment October 12, 2011:
Someone commented to me yesterday on my calling Boston Mayor Menino, after he had unleashed his Cossacks on peaceful demonstrators in the dead of night, a Czar. Well, what else do you call one who decides when and where we can exercise our free expression rights and otherwise acts in an arbitrary and capricious manner in curtailing them. The distance from the actions of the Czar on the Ninth of January (the date of the event which started the Russian revolution of 1905) and the mayor is, after all, not that far. An Injury To One Is An Injury To All! Defend The Occupation Sites And The Occupiers! Drop The Charges Against The Occupation Defenders! Czar Menino Hands Off Occupy Boston!
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Markin comment October 13, 2011:
Apparently, for now, after early Tuesday morning’s police raid of a second Occupy Boston site, cooler heads in Mayor Menino’s office have prevailed and the Mayor has backed off on naming a time when the Dewey Square Occupy Boston site must be vacated. Still Tuesday’s, uncalled for and unnecessary, actions by the city should be etched in our brains for future reference. And certainly our slogans remain the same in this blog space. An Injury To One Is An Injury To All! Defend The Occupation Sites And The Occupiers! Drop The Charges Against The Occupation Defenders! Czar Menino Hands Off Occupy Boston!
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Markin comment October 14, 2011:
Over the past two weeks of the Occupy Boston struggle most of my comments have centered on the need to defend the site and the movement. Especially so over the past few days when the struggle intensified with the police raid on the second site early Tuesday morning and the possibility that the city, under Czar Menino’s direction, was ready to close the whole encampment down. For the moment, and we should treat it as such, we are holding out under an “armed truce” declared by the mayor himself and so I have some time to reflect on the past period.
On the first full day of the occupation, October 1, 2011, I commented (see above) that
while I was very happy to see the occupation, particularly the participation of young people who had been absent from many of the local actions of the past few years, there was an inordinate amount of goodwill toward the police and a fuzzy attitude toward capitalism. Tuesday morning’s police raid has quieted some of the naivete about the police, although not all of it, and their role in enforcing the rule of the one per cent. The question of what to do about capitalism- tweak it by reform, or throw the bums out, still seems fuzzy. But we will learn, learn before long about that.
The most important development though for our side, and that has occurred in the other Occupy movements throughout the country and world as well, is that the spark has been lit to reunite the labor movement and the left that had been broken, broken really since about the 1950s with the “red scare” of my parents’ generation. The struggles of the 1930s that created the modern organized labor movement led mainly by leftist workers drew in many progressives and other allies. This time the spark came from the other direction, and labor has begun to see the Occupy movement as their ally. This new fact was demonstrated visible on several occasions over the past two weeks, most recently yesterday, October 13, 2011, when several hundred unionists and leftists marched together in support of the Verizon workers struggle for a decent contract. Many people are beginning to realize that black, white, brown or red, native born or immigrant, skilled or unskilled, we are all in the same boat. Capitalism has had its day and failed-move over and let us reorder society. This is our time-labor and the oppressed must rule.
Oh yes, and just to make sure that everybody knows we are not wide-eyed rubes and believe everything the city says just because we have a momentary truce- An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend The Occupation Site And The Occupiers! Czar Menino Hands Off Occupy Boston !
This blog came into existence based on a post originally addressed to a fellow younger worker who was clueless about the "beats" of the 1950s and their stepchildren, the "hippies" of the 1960s, two movements that influenced me considerably in those days. Any and all essays, thoughts, or half-thoughts about this period in order to "enlighten" our younger co-workers and to preserve our common cultural history are welcome, very welcome.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Greetings From Occupied Boston (#TomemonosBoston)-The Latest From "Occupy Boston"-Day Sixteen Round-Up- An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend The Occupation Site And The Occupiers! – The Spark Is Lit- Labor And The Left Unite To Fight!- All Out Today In Solidarity With Occupy Wall Street!- End The Endless Wars
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