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/Boston Common - Immediately following the yes vote on Maine's Question 1, the "Maine Same-Sex Marriage People's Veto," over 100 Mass. gay marriage advocates held a protest on Boston Common next to the Park Street T stop on Wednesday evening. The question was put on the ballot by Stand for Marriage Maine - a coalition of conservative religious and social organizations - to overturn Maine's recently-passed gay marriage law. It was opposed by the progressive coalition Protect Maine Equality. Both the pro- and anti-Question 1 forces had significant support on the national and state levels during the closely watched campaign - which was widely viewed as a barometer of the prospects for the success of the gay marriage movement around the U.S.

BOSTON/Boston Common and other locations in downtown Boston - Over 1000 people - primarily members of dozens of area unions and allied community organizations - participated in a "Rally for Jobs" last Thursday around downtown Boston. The goal of the public action, according to organizers from the state's main labor federation Mass. AFL-CIO and the labor-community coalition Jobs with Justice, was to "fight against a jobless recovery and demand an economy that works for everyone." The event started with a rally on Boston Common followed by a march to another rally in front of Verizon headquarters in Post Office Square and concluded with another march to the Hyatt Regency hotel near Chinatown where the marchers met up with over 200 members of the UNITEHERE hotel workers union for a boisterous protest against Hyatt Corporation's recent firing of 100 longtime employees who were immediately replaced with contract workers.

BOSTON/Boston Common - In the parlance of journalism, the following is called burying the lead. But I’m confident you’ll understand.

Moments after his announcement event was over, and participants and press were packing up to leave, I asked a young supporter wearing an “Alan Khazei for Senate” t-shirt if I could check the label. Sure enough, the shirts worn by more than a hundred Khazei supporters gathered out on the Boston Common today were union made by members of the United Food and Commercial Union, textile division.

BOSTON/Boston Common - Over 5000 members of labor unions, Democratic Party chapters and health care advocacy organizations gathered on the Boston Common for a Health Care Rally on Labor Day. The event was called to shore up regional support for a public health care option - though not a single-payer option - in the proposed national health care reform plan being pushed by President Barack Obama and Democratic Party leaders.

Boston Common-Sept. 7, 2009
About one thousand concerned citizens gathered on Boston Common today to voice their demand for universal health care for all.

BOSTON/Boston Common - Approximately twenty members of the Free Software Foundation and supporters of free open source software gathered at the entrance to Boston Common from the Public Garden Wednesday to erect a giant trash bin into which they threw representations of proprietary software like Microsoft Windows 7, Mac OS X and the iPhone. The demonstration marked the launch of their Windows 7 Sins campaign, which identifies seven negative cultural impacts of Microsoft's proprietary software ecosystem and encourages users to use free software instead.

BOSTON/Boston Common - A rush hour picket in support of the democratic resistance movement against the Honduran coup d'etat was held on Tuesday by about 25 activists from several area organizations with connections to Central America - including Proyecto Hondureño, Centro Presente, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, and others. Participants leafleted passers-by and set up a table where people were encouraged to sign petitions to the U.S. government demanding that help reinstate elected Pres. Manuel Zelaya - who was arrested and exiled to Costa Rica on June 28th by the Honduran military - by breaking off all ties to the Honduran coup leaders and their de-facto government.

BOSTON/The Common, corner of Tremont and Park Streets – Members of the Boston area branches of International Socialist Organization, Veterans for Peace, and other activist groups gathered across from the entrance to the Park Street MBTA station on Tuesday to show support for a humanitarian aid convoy attempting to go from Egypt into Gaza.

About two dozen activists made speeches, handed out flyers, and engaged commuters, tourists, and passersby in conversation about the situation in the Middle East.

BOSTON/Boston Common - About 40 people from as far away as New Hampshire showed up on the Boston Common Saturday afternoon for a rally called by the new online activist network A New Way Forward. The event was focused on creating a local groundswell of support for a movement to partially nationalize large banks that organizers believe are responsible for the economic crisis - and was 1 of dozens of similar actions called in discussion groups on various social networking services and coordinated on the network's main website.