Verizon Strike: A Teachable Moment?
Why Health Care Strikes Should Demand “Health Care For All,” Not Just “Hands Off My ‘Middle Class’ Benefits”
Why Health Care Strikes Should Demand “Health Care For All,” Not Just “Hands Off My ‘Middle Class’ Benefits”
On July 28th in Jamaica Plain, a heavily populated neighborhood of Boston, MA, a surprise military exercise took place involving a helicopter landing and a commando raid. As a resident of JP I cannot begin to express my outrage and shock that this could be thrust upon us. JP is a diverse, cultural, and politically progressive community and this is an affront to our security and dignity. The supreme irony of the event is that it took place at a shuttered school. It shines truth on the simple fact that we live in a society where the military is valued more than education.
On August 6, the contract between Verizon and their unionized employees in the northeast region expired, unleashing one of the largest labor strikes in years. Despite numerous attempts at the bargaining table with union leaders, Verizon is persistent with their agenda that harms tens of thousands of their middle class employees. While this is nothing new on the American corporate stage, Verizon is further contributing to a dangerous trend that harms the majority of Americans while benefiting a select few.
Since he took office February 4, 2010, US Senator Scott Brown has yet to host a public town hall or open forum. His schedule has included more than 250 stops for ribbon cuttings, groundbreaking ceremonies and photo opportunities – even a slew of book signings to market his autobiography. But Brown has yet to offer a single opportunity for Massachusetts taxpayers to gather in an open, public setting and ask questions of their senator.
To the Editor and Viewers of Open Media Boston,
This year's HONK! Festival is just around the corner (Sept 30 - Oct 3, a week earlier than last year) and, in addition to our regular nine hours of free performances by two dozen bands on Saturday and the Sunday parade down Mass Ave, we have also initiated some new features for this year's HONK! that are guaranteed to please: A Friday night showcase at Johnny D's; A Sunday evening boat cruise with all the bands invited; a HONK! conference at Harvard on Monday; and more.
Dear Everyone,
Solidarity is urgently needed for two union members at Harvard who are under the gun right now! Please take a moment & send a quick email protest.
Verizon’s third attempt to undercut local authority over cable and broadband operations in Massachusetts has ignited a spirited defense of franchising procedures that have served the state for nearly thirty years. Senate bill 1687, known to opponents as the Verizon bill, was introduced on Verizon’s behalf earlier this year by state senator Michael Rodrigues of Westport.
I am slated to be one of some 60 people aboard the U.S. boat setting sail for Gaza next month as part of a larger flotilla seeking to symbolically break the siege of Gaza and put political pressure upon Israel to lift the blockade. You can learn more about it here.
Here's a great example of why citizens must transform the way news media work. By ignoring the substance of recent remarks by Newt Gingrich about right- and left-wing “social engineering,” the mass media further enabled party politics to conduct ideologically driven behavior mod experiments on the nation without adult supervision.
The misleadingly named “Secure Communities” is a secretive deportation program launched in 2008 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under this deeply flawed initiative, the biometric fingerprints of everyone who is arrested – not convicted - for any offense whatsoever are automatically matched against FBI and ICE databases. ICE then decides who should be detained and deported.