A small but enthusiastic group gathered on the fifth floor of the Chinatown community center, encuentro 5, last night to hear historian and author Paul Street talk about his new book, The Empire's New Clothes: Barack Obama and the Real World of Power. This stop on Street's book tour was hosted by Charngchi Way of the online anarchist radio show, The Authority Smashing Hour.

Eminent public health scientist and activist Richard Levins considered some of the most pressing issues facing humanity--food and water shortages, drug-resistant micro-organisms, global warming and social inequality--in light of the intellectual triumphalism that seems to accompany every claim of problem resolution. His Saturday morning talk, "Failures, Errors & the Boundaries of Our Minds" at encuentro 5 found an engaged audience in Boston and New York. It was simulcast to the Brecht Forum in Manhattan (as part of that organization's 35th anniversary celebration).

Somerville, MA - Prof. Charles Derber of the Boston College Sociology department gave a talk on his new book "Greed to Green: Solving Climate Change and Remaking the Economy" on Thursday to a crowd of 35 people at the Somerville Public Library - Central Library. The event was sponsored by the Majority Agenda Project, Somerville-Medford United for Justice with Peace, and Transition Somerville, and was chaired by Jason Pramas, Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston.

It's Democracy Day today, and Massachusetts voters have a clear choice before them. They can support the one candidate who refuses to take corporate money to fuel her campaign, or the 3 candidates who swim through lobbyist-fueled campaign coffers like Scrooge McDuck. They can support the one candidate who unequivocally stands up for justice and sustainability, or the 3 candidates who treat ill-fated and harmful get-rich-quick schemes as though they were sensible, thoughtful, and helpful policy. They can support the one candidate who is standing up for real democracy -- clean elections, open meeting and public records laws that apply to the legislature, and meaningful transparency and oversight of government spending -- or the 3 candidates who laugh at real democracy as though it were a joke.

Hundreds of telephone workers united in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) rallied for good jobs on Thursday, August 5 at Verizon's New England headquarters. The current labor agreement with Verizon expires on August 6, 2011.

Myles Calvey, Business Manager of IBEW Local 2222 and chair of the New England telephone workers' bargaining committee was the Master of Ceremonies. "A year before our contracts expire, we're sending a message to Verizon's top management that we'll fight for the preservation of good jobs, quality health care and secure pension benefits in negotiations next year," said Calvey.

On the last day of the 2009-10 formal session, the Massachusetts state legislature gave final approval to an overhaul of the state’s criminal background check system. Intended to improve access to jobs, housing and other vital services for those with arrest records, reforming the Criminal Offender Record Information—known as CORI—has been an area of interest by community and labor organizations for nearly a decade. First introduced as a state legislative proposal in 2005, a broad array of stakeholders including major law enforcement and business associations has since joined efforts to update the laws. Motivated by the budgetary and public safety consequences of leaving ex-offenders unable to work, CORI reform gained bi-partisan support in the legislature as a “smart on crime” measure.

Following weeks of street pressure and before a divided political establishment, an Arizona judge issued an injunction against some of the most odious features of SB1070, the anti-immigrant legislation passed by that state's government. Stripped of its worst aspects, including some of the racial profiling requirements, the law still targets immigrant workers and has the state's police enforcing federal legislation. Together with the expected appeal, this signals months more of grassroots resistance such as the one documented here. Members of the Student Immigrant Movement, the Boston May Day Committee, the Boston Interpreters Collective and many others, rallied at the Park Street Station at 5:30 for an hour-long rally, followed by a march to Fox News' local affiliate and then to the State House.

Gov. Deval Patrick has signed a landmark bill that ends the use of dangerous floor finishing product.

The law bans the commercial use and sale of a highly flammable wood floor finishing product linked to tragic home fires that has killed floor finishers, left families without homes and caused an estimated $1.5 million worth of damages in Massachusetts. Filed at the urging of the industry-labor-community Floor Finishing Safety Task Force, the law targets lacquer sealer – a floor finishing product that can burst into flames at the slightest trigger.

On July 8, members of Alliance to Develop Power met with Senator Scott Brown at his office in Boston. The 60 minute meeting, the first meeting of the Senator's tenure with a grassroots community organization, was largely focused on Brown's pivotal role as the 60th vote needed for passage of legislation in the U.S. Senate and his campaign promise of "Big Tent" bipartisanship. Senator Brown's announcement yesterday that he expects to vote in favor of the Dodd-Frank reform bill marks a victory for ADP and the millions of Americans affected by the economic crisis.

On the sultry summer evening of June 20, we gathered in the big hall at St. John’s United Methodist Church near Watertown Square. We numbered about 50 friends and supporters of Watertown Citizens for Environmental Safety (WCES), and we’d come together to mark and celebrate WCES’s 31st year as a voice in Watertown for peace, the environment, and social justice.

That evening we included State Representative Jonathan Hecht, Town Councilors Tony Palomba and Susan Falkoff (all of whom are WCES members; Falkoff served as President for many years and only recently retired as a member of the Planning Committee). Joining us were toddlers and their young parents, old-timers who’ve been with WCES for decades, and lots of folks in between. We brought tasty dinners, desserts, and refreshing drinks to share together. We opened the windows and doors and turned on the fans to catch and enjoy the breezes.