BOSTON/State House - Declaring today the day "we start to take control of our commonwealth, our common health, and our common future," Green-Rainbow Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein announced she would run for Governor of Massachusetts this year at a rally on the State House steps.

Surrounded by supporters holding signs, Stein named some of the pressing issues on which she would focus during the campaign. "Crumbling schools, unjust and racially biased CORI and drug laws, regressive taxes, crushing costs of war, climate threats to our economy, and the list goes on."

BOSTON/State House - In the face of continued conservative resistance to immigration reform proposals nationwide, over 100 undocumented immigrant students and allies attended the Wednesday January 27th hearing of the Mass. legislature's Joint Committee on Higher Education in State House Hearing Room B-2 in support of "An Act Relative to Equal Access to Higher Education and Generating Revenue for the Commonwealth" (S. 603/H. 1175). The bill would allow undocumented immigrant students who attended at least 3 years of high school in the Commonwealth to pay for tuition and fees at public colleges at the in-state rate. Currently, undocumented students are allowed to attend Mass. public colleges, but are required to pay the much-higher out-of-state tuition and fee rate - which advocates say effectively bars most of the students from attending college at all, given that most of them are from poor families.

BOSTON/State House - After successfully pushing a reform bill through the Mass. Senate last year, over 125 advocates of changes to the state Criminal Offender Record Information system held a rally in State House Hearing Room B-2 Wednesday before lobbying key legislators that can help move the House version of the bill towards passage this year. The event was organized by the Commonwealth CORI Coalition - which represents over 90 organizations in support of CORI reform.

BOSTON/Back Bay – Following on the heels of the “First Night Against the Wars – Let Gaza Live!” New Year’s Eve Copley Square rally in support of the Gaza Freedom March, local members of CODEPINK: Women For Peace – one of the official March sponsors – were joined by the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights and other groups in a lunchtime demonstration on Wednesday outside the Israeli Consulate at 20 Park Plaza.

BOSTON – Since the creation of the Transportation Security Administration – following the attacks of September 11, 2001 – unionists have been trying to organize TSA workers; something the Bush administration and their Republican allies in Congress vigorously opposed.

BOSTON - On Tuesday, a delegation labor unionists and community activists delivered a letter to the Mexican Deputy Consul General rebuking Mexican President Felipe Calderón for his government's seizure of Central Light and Power plants, decertification of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union and firing of between 44,000 and 45,000 union workers.

Somerville, MA - More than 400 mostly immigrant factory workers of Angelica Textile Services initiated a strike on December 10 after contract negotiations between the workers' union, UFCW Local 1445, and the company stalled. The workers, who had been without a contract since December 1, formed a picket line outside the plant on the morning of December 11 and were joined by local members and officers of other unions and community organizations who spoke at a midday rally with more than 100 supporters.

BOSTON/Boston Common - Approximately 200 people gathered on the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street on evening of December 2 to protest President Barack Obama's decision to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Protesters held lit candles and waved signs reading "War is Always a Defeat for Humanity" and "No We Can't," while speakers from Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, and other Boston-area peace groups addressed the crowd.

BOSTON/Government Center - Over 25 people congregated on a rainswept City Hall Plaza Monday at a rally called by the Massachusetts Mobilization for Climate Justice. The action aimed at pressuring politicians to push for more far-reaching policies to deal with the negative effects of climate change. Organizers also commemorated the 10th anniversary of the mass protests by labor and environmental groups against the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle - which were widely-credited with effectively shutting down the proceedings and forcing a public reevaluation of corporate-driven global political and economic agendas.

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Lucine Williams wants her old job back.

“If I was given back my job [I would go back to work for Hyatt,] that’s why we’re all standing out here.”

“Out here” is next to a makeshift stage, erected by members of UNITE HERE Local 26 in front of the Boston Hyatt Regency Hotel on a chilly evening earlier this month.

“May the eyes of the Hyatt management be opened and may their hearts be softened,” intoned Rabbi Barbara Pensner of Temple Hillel B’nai Torah in West Roxbury. “May they recognize they’ve made an error in judgment. May they repent the cruelty and immorality of their acts and may they open their doors to welcome these women [and men] back into their jobs again.”