It would have been appropriate for Bostonians from all walks of life to call an even larger rally this week than last year’s to take up an old slogan, “Never Again,” in memory of the honored dead of Pittsburgh.
MEMORIAL DAY NOTES
After allowing the planet to breathe a collective sigh of relief for a few weeks on the Armageddon front, President Donald Trump just tossed away his Nobel prize prospects by cancelling a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over some nonsense or other.
TOWNIE EXTRA: YASER MURTAJA, PRESENTE!
The killers of the Palestinian journalist must be brought to justice April 11, 2018 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Typically, I mainly focus on Bay State issues in this column. But I’ll make an exception this time and stand with my colleagues at the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Continue Reading
YOUR MOVE, BOSTON
Only a massive protest movement can stop government giveaways to megacorps March, 2018 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Boston politics—in both its state and local variants—seems to consist largely of backroom deals between government officials and major corporations punctuated by rituals of representative democracy that are increasingly put Continue Reading
TOWNIE: MASS REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITIES FACE MAJOR BUDGET CRISIS
Gov. Baker’s proposed cuts throw gasoline on raging policy fire February 21, 2018 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS A quarter-century ago, I lived in Lawrence for a few months. Because it was the closest place to Boston that I could find a cheap apartment on short notice. Unfortunately, Continue Reading
CRISIS AVERTED
MBTA bus mechanics beat back privatization… at a cost February 14, 2018 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Unionized bus mechanics represented by the International Association of Machinists Local 264 won an important victory last week when they agreed to a four-year contract with the MBTA—effectively ending a two-year Continue Reading
BATTLE OF THE CENTURY
Photos by Kori Feener Nearly 100 years old, Frances Crowe is every polluter’s worst nightmare In June, Frances Crowe was arrested with seven others in Sandisfield, a small town in the Berkshires, for protesting the Connecticut Expansion Pipeline, a 10-plus-mile natural gas loop planned to run through three states, including Continue Reading
THAT ‘FREE SPEECH’ THING
Photo by Kori Feener Mayor Walsh and various police agencies were no friends of civil liberties at Boston’s monster protests against the ultra right August 22, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Despite the “mission accomplished” happy talk in most of the news media, Saturday’s 40,000-strong Boston protests against extremism — and the tiny ultra-right rally that Continue Reading
A PROTEST BY ANY OTHER NAME…
The best way to defeat the ultra right is to stop playing their game August 15, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Street protest is a vital part of any genuinely democratic political system. But how and when people choose to demonstrate (or counterdemonstrate) determines the tactic’s relative success or failure. Continue Reading
BATTLE OF THE NOOBS
Photo by Luke O’Neil ‘Boston Free Speech’ protesters and counter demonstrators both lose the day May 17, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Last week’s right-wing Boston Free Speech protest at the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common did not require a response from the left wing. Let’s get that out of the way Continue Reading