Wednesday, August 28:

Boston's Unfinished March for Jobs, Justice & Freedom

4:30pm on the Common.

The Boston Workers Alliance has issued a call for a mobilization on the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington. Join us on and others on Wednesday, for Boston's Unfinished March for Jobs, Freedom & Justice. We ask you to join us and others as we "re-remember, re-imagine, and relive" the March for our times and context. The trial in the Zimmerman case and its disavowal of Trayvon Martin's humanity, dignity and personhood is a strike against all of our freedom. The Supreme Court decision that invalidates Section 4 and effectively Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is a reminder of that fight for our political empowerment continues. The violence that these developments pose to our communities is significant and real. So too, is our the ongoing and persistent long-term unemployment and unemployment of people in our communities. The link between the mass incarceration and the verdict in the Zimmerman trial reinforce the message that Jim Crow, Jane Crow, New Jim Crow are alive and pose threats to us collectively - our families and communities.

DPPers are urged to meet at 4:15pm outside the Park Street T-stop

BILL FLETCHER: Claiming and Teaching the 1963 March on Washington

Teaching about the March on Washington presents a series of challenges precisely because it involves counteracting sanitized textbooks and demythologizing not only the march, but also the Black Freedom Struggle—the Civil Rights Movement, as it became known… We can all do justice to this anniversary by asking the right questions and providing the actual historical context in which the 1963 March unfolded. More so, we can also offer, as Rustin asked the marchers in 1963, our “personal commitment to the struggle for jobs and freedom for Americans. . .and the achievement of social peace through social justice. How do you pledge?” More

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Another event in South Boston that evening:

Beacon to the Dream:

10,000 lanterns to encircle Castle Island South Boston, Honoring the 50^th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s, I have a Dream speech

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can.” Martin Luther King Jr.

Wednesday, August 28^:

7-9pm, Castle Island South Boston, MA

Includes screening of Dr. Kings’ I Have a Dream Speech on the Walls of Fort Independence; Musical Program Nancy Armstrong Alan Rias Ja-Naé Duane; Lantern Walk and Community celebration of Inclusion

You are invited to take a cultural action by carrying a lantern to Castle Island in South Boston, a symbolic gesture, moving beyond diversity to inclusion, honoring the 50^th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The hope is to have several thousand lanterns encircle Pleasure Bay. The event, which we are calling “Beacon to the Dream,” is also invitation for artists from all over Boston to become part of an evening long program that will celebrate the richness and diversity of The City of Boson!

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JOBS NOT JAILS!

Boston Workers Alliance (BWA) and EPOCA (Ex-prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement) launched a new “Jobs Not Jails” statewide campaign and coalition on July 13 (more info here).

Corporate America's New Profit Center: Put as Many People in Jail as Possible

Turn unemployed Americans into criminals. Track them, punish them for any crime possible, take away their rights and throw them into for-profit prisons. Once thrown inside a for-profit prison, an inmate needs food, housing, healthcare and other services. This means huge profits for capitalists. They’re raking in tens of thousands of dollars per prisoner per year – hundreds of percent more than Roosevelt paid to simply put them back to work. And turning unemployed Americans into very profitable prisoners is a booming business. More

Two major actions are planned:

---a petition campaign, 50,000 signature goal: against the planned prison construction; for use of those resources for jobs; directed at the state legislators and the governor; signatures to be gathered between now and March 31, 2014.
---a big rally on Boston Common, 10,000 people goal, to be held in April, 2014; same message and targets.