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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250201T190000
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SUMMARY:A Midwinter Concert of Songs to Change the World
DESCRIPTION:A Midwinter Concert of Songs to Change the World \nSaturday\, February 1st\, 2025\, 7pm-9pm \nThe Friends Meeting House\, 5 Longfellow Park\, Cambridge MA\, 02138 \nDon’t miss this gathering of music and inspiration followed by light refreshments. You will laugh\, you will cry\, but you will leave renewed to face the rest of the winter and the challenges of our world that lay ahead. Welcome Charlie King back to Cambridge and revel again this year in Ben Grosscup’s topical music as they both help us mourn the atrocities of the past year\, laugh at the absurdities we confront each day\, and set us off one more time to change the world for the better. Charlie is a co-founder of the People’s Music Network for Songs of Freedom and Struggle and Ben is the executive director. Both are troubadours of our peace and justice movement. \n \nPrice: Regular Admission $20\, Student/Low Income $10\, Supporter Admission $35\, Online/Livestream option $15 \nBen Grosscup sings about the ideas and values of the revolutionary social movements he’s part of. Drawing upon activist folk singing traditions\, he brings new songs to the rallies\, strikes\, picket lines\, and virtual events where they’re most relevant. He leads purposeful group singing that raises political consciousness. https://www.youtube.com/c/BenGrosscup \nCharlie King is a musical storyteller and political satirist. He has been at the heart of American folk music for over half a century. Pete Seeger hailed him as “One of the finest singers and songwriters of our time.” He is the 2018 recipient of the Phil Ochs Award\, recognizing his music and activism for social and political justice in the spirit of Phil Ochs. Other honors include: the War Resisters League’s Peacemaker Award given to Charlie and Odetta; the Sacco-Vanzetti Social Justice Award nominated by Pete Seeger and the Joe Hill Award from the Labor Heritage Foundation. His songs have been recorded and sung by Pete & Peggy Seeger\, Holly Near\, Ronnie Gilbert\, John McCutcheon\, Arlo Guthrie\, and Chad Mitchell. Folk legend Peggy Seeger says\, “If we had more Charlie Kings in the world\, I’d be less worried\,” and Tom Paxton adds\, “Luckily\, we have him!” \nYou can learn more about Charlie at the following links: \nhttp://www.charlieking.org\nhttps://www.facebook.com/charliekingmusicalstoryteller \nAll net proceeds go to support the many projects of Massachusetts Peace Action for social justice and peace.
URL:https://masspeaceaction.org/event/a-midwinter-concert/
LOCATION:Friends Meeting at Cambridge\, 5 Longfellow Park\, Cambridge
CATEGORIES:Arts and Culture
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250129T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250129T210000
DTSTAMP:20260523T121302
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SUMMARY:Yoon’s Failed South Korean Military Coup: Implications For Korea And The World
DESCRIPTION:Register to attend. \n \nIn early December South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol announced a military coup. Given the Republic of Korea’s brutal history of military dictatorships\, thousands of Koreans and opposition parties committed to upholding democracy immediately mobilized and reversed the declaration of martial law in a matter of hours. Yoon has since been impeached and arrested\, but whether he will be forced from office remains an open question. Also uncertain are South Korea’s political future\, the political turmoil’s impacts on the country’s alliance with the U.S. and Japan\, and for the region as a whole\, including China. \nFrancis Daehoon Lee of PEACEMOMO in Seoul has been research professor for peace studies at SungKongHoe University. He served as legal advisor to the Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Sub-commission. He was the former executive director of ARENA (Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives\, Asia-wide) and worked with several other NGOs in Korea and Asia \nTim Shorrock is a journalist and writer based in Washington\, DC. He grew up in Japan and South Korea during the Cold War and has been writing about the US military role in Asia since the late 1970s. In 2015 he was given an honorary citizenship by the city of Gwangju for his reporting on the secret background roleplayed by the US government and military in the events surrounding the 1980 Gwangju Uprising in South Korea and the imposition of martial law. He was a correspondent for The Nation magazine and the author of SPIES FOR HIRE: The Secret World of Intelligence \nRegister to attend. \n \nCo-sponsored by the Campaign for Peace\, Disarmament and Security\, Massachusetts Peace Action and the New England Korea Peace Campaign
URL:https://masspeaceaction.org/event/yoons-failed-south-korean-military-coup-implications-for-korea-and-the-world/
LOCATION:Online Event
CATEGORIES:Northeast Asia
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250129T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250129T120000
DTSTAMP:20260523T121302
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SUMMARY:Launch of the “Protect Our Immigrant Communities” Campaign
DESCRIPTION:On Wednesday\, January 29th at 12 pm\, join the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA)\, state lawmakers\, and fellow advocates on the front steps of the Massachusetts State House for a rally launching the “Protect Our Immigrant Communities” campaign\, stressing the steps Massachusetts must take to defend immigrants from President Trump’s harmful and hateful policies. \nTo defend immigrants from President Trump’s anti-immigrant executive orders\, the “Protect Our Immigrant Communities” campaign is urging state leaders to pass the Safe Communities Act\, which would prevent state and local law enforcement from doing the work of ICE agents. The campaign is also calling on the state to expand legal services for immigrants facing deportation court proceedings to ensure they have a fair day in court. \nWho?  \n       Elizabeth Sweet\, Executive Director at the MIRA Coalition \n       Maroni Minter\, Political Director at the MIRA Coalition\, program emcee \n       Senator James Eldridge (D-Acton) \n       Senator Liz Miranda (D-Boston) \n       Representative Manny Cruz (D-Salem) \n       Representative David Rogers (D-Belmont) \n       Dawn Sauma\, Co-Executive Director\, Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence \n       Damaris Velasquez\, Programs Director\, Agencia ALPHA
URL:https://masspeaceaction.org/event/launch-of-the-protect-our-immigrant-communities-campaign/
LOCATION:Massachusetts State House Steps\, 24 Beacon St\, Boston\, MA\, 02108
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250126T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250126T163000
DTSTAMP:20260523T121302
CREATED:20250124T175559Z
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SUMMARY:GAZA IN CONTEXT: The Colonial History that Shaped the Modern Middle East
DESCRIPTION:  \nA 4-part online series Sundays\, Jan 5\, 12\, 26\, and Feb 2\, 2025\, all at 3pm. \nThe Israeli war on Gaza – widely considered genocide – did not begin on October 7\, 2023. This series will look at the background of Zionism and colonialism that laid the foundation for ongoing wars and today’s violence in the Middle East. Palestinian dispossession\, we will see\, began more than a century ago. \n\nJanuary 5 – CONQUEST AND COLONIALISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST DURING THE 20TH CENTURY: The roots of the contemporary Middle East go back to the First World War and its aftermath; the birth of Zionism as a political movement.\n\nVideo: https://youtube.com/live/Y_75LgjQiAg \nSlides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jTrcqiR3IZlebo5bUQHziKVeavw10VRO/ \n\nJanuary 12 – MANDATES AND REPRESSION IN PALESTINE AND BEYOND: The failure of the British colonial attempt to shape Palestine in conformance with the Balfour Declaration; Palestinian resistance and the first proposals for partition; Zionist terror; British\, French colonialism in Iraq\, Syria and Lebanon.\n\nVideo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duY-ABJP_8A \nSlides:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nhUBtaPKkUQZdInsLL7GTMbgIgnGmoK0/ \n\nJanuary 26 – THE US AND ISRAEL IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Although the US government supported the Zionist project from the time of the First World War\, and it was quick to recognize the independence of Israel in 1948\, US policies toward the Middle East centered on Oil and later Cold War interests. The US was not much involved the Middle East until the 1930s and then oil-rich Saudi Arabia\, not Israel\, was its close all — as it remains to this day. Republicans – who as a party are now firmly pro-Israel —  were skeptical in the 1950s and 1960s of unconditional support for Israel. It was only in the 1970s that Israel came to be viewed as an important strategic ally\, especially in the context of the Cold War. Since then\, the Israel Lobby also became an important player in US politics.\n\nVideo:  https://youtube.com/live/Chuz0APhZic \nSlides:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zSHbg52kYJI1Z27hx8mq-5rYGn_h4dbg/ \n\nFebruary 2 – LOOKING IN THE MIRROR: How the U.S. has shaped the contemporary Middle East from before the Cold War to the present. Indigenous nationalism and its opponents. Addressing the domestic colonial and imperial background to US support for Israel and its destabilizing interference in the region.\n\nVideo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_pdo_Q8Rpw \nSlides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13ZTXZlBuyRkkIfTFQ4aR-UConOBdpT-1/ \nSpeaker: Jeff Klein is a veteran anti-war activist\, retired machinist and local trade-union president\, who for 8 years until 2023 taught a course on “The US in the Middle East” at the UMass Boston Lifelong Learning Institute.  He is a board member of Massachusetts Peace Action and a member of its Gaza Israel Mideast peace campaign’s steering committee. Since 2004 Jeff has traveled almost every year to Palestine/Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East\, and has many close friends among veteran activists in Palestine\, Lebanon and Jordan.  He has also worked in Nicaragua and for the exiled African National Congress in Zambia.  Check out his weekly presentations on “Genocide in Gaza” and read his articles on the Middle East. \n \nRegister to attend any or all of the four sessions. Course materials: Readings and Resources on Israel/Palestine Course Outline – the US in the Middle East – This outline was prepared for an 8-session version of the course given at UMass Boston in fall 2023.  The material will be condensed for this 4-session online version.
URL:https://masspeaceaction.org/event/gaza-in-context-the-colonial-history-that-shaped-the-modern-middle-east-2-2/
LOCATION:Online Event
CATEGORIES:Palestine/Israel
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ORGANIZER;CN="Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund":MAILTO:info@masspeaceaction.org
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250125T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250125T173000
DTSTAMP:20260523T121302
CREATED:20241206T211421Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250120T141931Z
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SUMMARY:Reducing the Nation's Spending for Nuclear Weapons
DESCRIPTION:Saturday Jan 25\, 2025 Virtual Conference 2:00 – 5:30 pm (EST) \n \nThe threat of nuclear war is increasing\, rather than abating. \n\nBiden’s recent actions in the Russia/Ukraine conflict has sharply increased the danger.\nThe tragic Israel/Gaza conflict continues to expand.\nCold Warriors in high places are beating the drums of war toward Russia and China.\nEnormous public expenditures are being made on upgrading all three legs of the nuclear weapons triad\n\nResponding to these costs and dangers\, we will meet virtually  on Saturday afternoon January 25\, 2025 to call for Reducing Congressional Spending for Nuclear Weapons and discuss how to organize to meet the challenge.   Register to attend. \nProgram:  \n2:00 Welcome: Bob Redwine (MIT) – Continuing influence of the Military-Industrial Complex \n2:05 Opening Panel – International Flashpoints Chair- Joseph Gerson (Campaign for Peace\, Disarmament and Common Security); \n–       US and Russia – Hon. George Beebe (Quincy Institute); \n–       US and China – Prof. Lyle Goldstein (Watson Institute/ Brown University); \n  –      Nuclear Tensions over Israel. Gaza\, and Iran –  Sharon Gaya Dolev (Israel) and Emad Kiyaei (Iran) (Middle East Treaty Organization) \n2:50 pm Panel 2- Costs & Dangers of the US Nuclear Weapons Buildup – Chair\, Nancy Goldner (Cut Sentinel Campaign). \n– Exorbitant Sentinel costs –Richard Krushnic  (Mass Peace Action); \n– Dangers of the New ICBMs – David Borris (Chicago Area Peace Action); \n– What do we expect from Trump’s Nuclear Stances –Daryl Kimball (Arms Control Assn.). \n3:30 Break \n3:40 Panel 3 – Economic Campaigns – Chair\, Susan Mirsky (Nuclear Disarmament Working Group); \n–       Moral Budget – Shailly Gupta Barnes (Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) and Kairos Center (NY); \n–       Warheads to Windmills – Anduin Devos (Nuclear Ban.US); \n–       Divestment – Susi Snyder (ICANW); \n–       Fund People over Pentagon – Prof. Jonathan King (MA Peace Action Education Fund). \n4:20 Panel 4: No New Nukes- Campaigns Focused on Limiting Weapons: Chair\, Gary Goldstein (Campaign for Peace\, Disarmament and Common Security and Tufts University); \n–       Back from the Brink- Harry Katz (Back from the Brink); \n–       Restricting Sole Authority and First Use – Prof. Elaine Scarry (Campaign for Peace\, Disarmament and Common Security); \n–       Physicists Campaign for Nuclear Threat Reduction – Prof. Stewart Prager (Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction); \n–       Promoting the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) – Melissa Parke ( ICANW). \n 5:00 Congressional Initiatives: Chair Cole Harrison \n–       Senate action: Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) \n–       Cancelling the Sentinel -Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) \n–       Citizen’s Call to Action – Jodie Evans (CodePINK). \nProgram Committee: David Borris (Chicago Area Peace Action); Ann Fritsch (Rotary International); Nancy Goldner (Sentinel Project); Prof. Gary Goldstein (Mass Peace Action Education Fund); Cole Harrison (Mass Peace Action Education Fund); Susan Mirsky (MAPA Nuclear Disarmament Working Group); Jonathan King-Chair (Nuclear Disarmament Coordinating Committee and MIT); Prof. Bob Redwine (Nuclear Weapons Education Project and MIT). \nNuclear costs calculator – https://www.psr-la.org/nuclear-costs \n 
URL:https://masspeaceaction.org/event/reducing-congressional-spending-for-nuclear-weapons/
LOCATION:Online Event
CATEGORIES:Nuclear Disarmament
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ORGANIZER;CN="Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund":MAILTO:info@masspeaceaction.org
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250123T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250123T203000
DTSTAMP:20260523T121302
CREATED:20241216T194905Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250120T145248Z
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SUMMARY:Let This Radicalize You: MAPA Winter Common Read
DESCRIPTION:The Common Read is a great fit for MAPA members and our interns\, past and present. It is especially valuable to young organizers and instructive for all of us.  \nAuthors Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba each have decades of organizing experience and they maintain that ORGANIZING IS THE ANTIDOTE TO DESPAIR. Historian Robin D. G. Kelley says about the book- “Hayes and Kaba have turned decades of collective wisdom and experience into the text we desperately need right now.”  \nEach of the book’s ten chapters shares examples of the nuts and bolts of grassroots organizing\, where “finding common ground with a broad spectrum of people” is the goal. Chapter eight is titled “Hope and Grief can Co-exist”.  The authors’ discussion of the importance of listening skills and patience (along with Paulo Freire’s approach to political education) will resonate with many of us who have been in meetings where we find ourselves working hard to maintain relationships while navigating differences. Here are Hayes and Kaba on BUILDING A MOVEMENT THE SIZE OF THE ONE WE NEED: “it’s not as simple as handing newcomers a new set of politics and telling them\, “Yours are bad\, use these instead.” \nThe first of five 90 minute sessions will be held on Thursday\, January 23\, 7 to 8:30 PM\, covering the book through chapter two Remaining meetings will continue on Thursday evenings- February 6 and 20 and March 6 and 20\, and all will be on Zoom. Completing the book on the first day of Spring\, we’ll move forward with new knowledge and tools to resist the abandonment of our communities by corporations and government and to oppose the U.S. war machine at every turn.  \nYou can get the book in paperback\, ebook or hardcover for 40% off from Haymarket Books – copy this link in your browser to see the options: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1922-let-this-radicalize-you . FYI\, there’s a workbook which we have saved as a PDF to be printed or viewed digitally\, and other resources to access.  \nSponsored by Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund.  Register to attend.
URL:https://masspeaceaction.org/event/let-this-radicalize-you-mapa-winter-common-read/2025-01-23/
LOCATION:Zoom Online Meeting
CATEGORIES:Racial Justice and Indigenous Solidarity
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ORGANIZER;CN="Massachusetts Peace Action":MAILTO:info@masspeaceaction.org
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250120T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250120T170000
DTSTAMP:20260523T121302
CREATED:20241218T185550Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250120T142131Z
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SUMMARY:Defeat Trump's Extreme-Right Billionaire Agenda
DESCRIPTION:Build the fight back movement to defend our communities from the anti-immigrant\, anti-LGBTQ and anti-working class policies of the Trump administration. \n 
URL:https://masspeaceaction.org/event/defeat-trumps-extreme-right-billionaire-agenda/
LOCATION:JFK Federal Building\, Cambridge St at Sudbury St\, Boston\, MA\, 02108\, United States
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250119T093000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250119T170000
DTSTAMP:20260523T121302
CREATED:20241210T194119Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250120T144816Z
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SUMMARY:Arise and Resist: Organizing for Peace and Justice Under Repression
DESCRIPTION:Arise and Resist: Organizing for Peace and Justice Under Repression \nJanuary 19\, 2025\, 9:30am – 5:00 pm\nRoxbury Community College\, Media Arts Center\, 1234 Columbus Ave.\, Boston\, MA 02119 \n \nSpeakers \nDr. Lara Jirmanus\, press coordinator of the Vote No Preference MA campaign and a leading voice for solidarity with Palestine as well as an innovative health organizer.   A Palestinian/Lebanese-American\, she is an instructor at Harvard Medical School and a practicing primary care physician\, community organizer and public health researcher.  She co-founded the Health and Law Immigrant Solidarity Network\, and during COVID\, the Massachusetts Coalition for Health Equity. \nDr. Karameh Kuemmerle is a pediatric neurologist at Boston Children’s Hospital\, affiliated with Harvard Medical School\, where she focuses on epilepsy and brain injury. Her clinical research centers on improving healthcare outcomes for refugee communities around the world\, with a special interest in addressing the impact of social determinants like racism. She co-founded Doctors Against Genocide\, an organization dedicated to mobilizing the medical community to respond to and prevent genocide and severe human rights abuses worldwide. \nRami G. Khouri is a Palestinian-American academic and journalist whose family resides in Beirut\, Amman\, and Nazareth. He is Distinguished Public Policy Fellow at the American University of Beirut and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Arab Center Washington\, D.C.  During his 50-year career in journalism across the Middle East he was Editor of the Jordan Times and the Daily Star (Beirut) newspapers\, and contributed reporting and opinion pieces from the Middle East to the Financial Times\, NPR\, BBC radio\, and other outlets. \nJamie McGonagill is a climate activist and climate communications consultant. She is the media coordinator for Extinction Rebellion (XR) Boston and AIR Inc. She also leads the communications team for Stop Private Jet Expansion at Hanscom or Anywhere (SPJE) and assists with Climate Emergency Fund’s development team. \nKhury Petersen-Smith\, Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow and Co-Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. He researches U.S. empire\, borders\, and migration and strategizes with activists to work against the violence that the U.S. carries out and supports around the world. Khury focuses especially on U.S. militarism in the Middle East and in the Pacific\, and movements that resist it. He graduated from the Clark University Graduate School of Geography in Massachusetts\, after completing a dissertation on U.S. military bases in the Pacific. He is one of the co-authors and organizers of the 2023 Black Voices for Ceasefire \nHarris Gruman is executive director of the Massachusetts State Council of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)\, the nation’s second largest labor union; co-leader of the Raise Up Massachusetts Coalition\, and former executive director of Neighbor to Neighbor MA Education Fund. \nLiv Santoro is deputy director for field education and mobilization at the ACLU of Massachusetts. \nDr. Alexandra Piñeros Shields is a life-long activist and community organizer. She is an Associate Professor and directs the Master of Public Policy Program at the Heller School\, Brandeis University where she teaches courses on immigration policy\, economic justice\, and participatory action research. Prior to joining the Heller faculty\, she was the Executive Director of the Essex County Community Organization (ECCO)\, an interfaith network of 40 congregations working on racial and economic justice issues. \nMike Prokosch is a Dorchester climate\, peace\, and housing activist who leads popular economics workshops for community and union members. His latest workshop\, “Who’s Afraid of Elon Musk?”\, traces the US economy over the past half-century and what it’s done to workers and billionaires. \nBreakouts \nAttendees will join one of seven issue-oriented breakout groups\, which will meet twice during the day. \n\nImmigration and mass deportation threat\nThe genocide in Gaza and US politics\nFederal\, State and municipal electoral politics\nA Strong Labor Movement is Democracy’s Best Defense\nClimate and ecocide\nGreat power rivalry and nuclear war danger\nWar against the poor: Fighting back against budget cuts and tax cuts\n\nAgenda \n9:00am Welcome and literature tables open; coffee available \n9:30 am Welcome and introduction \n9:45 am Panel 1 – Palestine and the U.S. \nRami Khouri\, Karameh Kuemmerle\, Lara Jirmanus \n10:50 am Breakouts 1 \n12:00 pm Palestinian style lunch \n1:00 pm Organizing and coalition building – Mike Prokosch \n1:15 pm Panel 2 – Domestic issues and other international issues \nHarris Gruman\, Jamie McGonagill\, Liv Santoro\, Alexandra Piñeros Shields\, Khury Petersen-Smith \n2:30 pm Breakouts 2 \n3:30 pm Plenary – Strategy and organizing \n5:00 pm Adjourn \nVenue: The Media Arts Center\, also called building 1\, at Roxbury Community College\, features a 460-seat modern auditorium with a number of classrooms that we will use for breakouts. \nThe Media Arts Center is directly across Columbus Ave. from the Roxbury Crossing station on the MBTA Orange Line.  There is ample free parking in RCC’s lot on Cedar St. near the corner of Columbus Ave. \nConference registration includes morning coffee and a Palestinian style lunch catered by Zaaki (rice with lentils\, salad\, hummus\, falafel for vegans; chicken shawarma and kofta; bread).  Register to attend. \nThe conference will be in person only. \nSponsored by Massachusetts Peace Action\, Boston Democratic Socialists of America\, Northshore for Palestine\, Our Revolution Massachusetts\, Doctors Against Genocide\, Communist Party of Massachusetts\, Watertown Citizens for Peace\, Justice and the Environment\, and American Friends Service Committee. \nCosponsored by Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine\, Campaign for Peace\, Disarmament and Common Security\, Cape Cod DSA\, CD8 for Palestine\, Dorchester People for Peace\, Extinction Rebellion Boston\, Green-Rainbow Party\, Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution\, Jewish Voice for Peace Boston\, SEIU Local 509\, United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 9A\, and Western Massachusetts Coalition for Palestine.    \nMassachusetts progressive organizations are invited to sponsor or cosponsor the conference\, help plan it\, or to set up literature tables; organizations sign up here to do so. \n \nGoals and Overview \nThe purpose of this conference is to bring together a mass movement and situate ourselves in our political reality of repression in the US\, genocide in Palestine\, expanding US-Israeli war in West Asia\, the Russia-Ukraine war\, and the impending US confrontation with China. We must work in alliance with each other to build a society based on solidarity\, peace\, and justice. Our work here in Massachusetts will be shaped by national and international developments.  We are holding this conference before the inauguration so we can prepare for the crises we will face after January 20. \nWe aim to take meaningful steps toward creating a vigorous alliance of organizations\, unions\, houses of worship\, and other groups and individuals who pursue peace\, protection of the earth\, the well-being of working families\, gender\, sexual and reproductive rights\, economic justice\, and indigenous sovereignty\, and oppose U.S. imperialism\, militarism\, genocide\, racism\, and other forms of oppression. \nOver the past 15+ months\, we have watched a live-streamed holocaust in Gaza\, the acceleration of the ethnic cleansing and annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank\, the decimation of Southern Lebanon\, the bombings of Yemeni ports\, and the invasion and further occupation of Syria. With the complicity of U.S. cultural\, academic\, and other public institutions\, a frontal assault on our civil liberties has begun: many speaking up against genocide have lost jobs\, and university students have been brutalized on campus\, suspended\, and expelled. In Congress\, a pending bill would give the incoming Trump administration the power to arbitrarily revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofit organizations\, another would crack down on criticism of Israel. The tightly interwoven national security and surveillance programs of the U.S. and Israel used to surveil and exterminate Palestinians are already being deployed against our people at the border or in urban ghettos. \nThese challenges will intensify once Trump takes office. His top priorities include the mass deportation of up to 11 million immigrants which will require police state methods and concentration camps. The “Muslim ban” is once again on the horizon. Project 2025\, once translated into policy\, threatens civil liberties\, public funding for education\, and the rights of sexual and gender minorities.  \nTrump’s commitment to the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels presents the climate movement with its greatest challenge yet to reverse the increasingly deadly attacks on life on Earth. The transfer of wealth from the working class to the capitalist oligarchy will accelerate through more tax cuts for corporations and the ultra-wealthy and the slashing of public funding for healthcare\, public education\, and housing. Attacks on academic freedom and dissenting media will only increase. \nThese threats call for a more coordinated and strategic anti-war and pro-justice effort. We will likely face more overt repression than in most of our lifetimes. Yet this new landscape presents new openings and opportunities to build a more effective and lasting movement to create the world we envision. This is our moment to redouble our commitment to solidarity and defend ourselves\, protect vulnerable groups\, reach the disengaged and discouraged and expand our organizing to build broader constituencies and develop flexible strategies needed to survive and succeed. We must seize these opportunities together. Now!  \nOn January 19\, we will hear from movement leaders\, go deep into issues in breakouts\, brainstorm solutions\, and peruse literature tables. \n \n 
URL:https://masspeaceaction.org/event/arise-and-resist/
LOCATION:Media Arts Center\, Roxbury Community College\, 1234 Columbus Ave\, Roxbury\, MA\, 02120\, United States
CATEGORIES:Palestine/Israel,Strategy and Ideas
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