Convention Report: Boston Harbors Activism Outside Fleet Center
A convention report from the Kucinich website:
With the Democratic National Convention (DNC) serving as the centerpiece, the city of Boston is in store for the most politically “unconventional” week since the Boston Tea Party.
While thousands of delegates, Party members, supporters, and spectators gather at the Fleet Center for the formal nomination of the Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees, thousands of other political activists will be gathering elsewhere throughout the city to express political opinions that will be signifi- cantly, even drastically, different.
In recent years, national political conventions— both Democratic and Republican?have lacked drama, suspense, and surprise, but they’ve not been lacking in celebration. This time around, there’s an unprecedented and well-coordinated effort to provide delegates, media representatives, and other interested parties with a broad array of external events that are more substantive than party-like.
While City officials were hosting a gala reception for DNC delegates Sunday night throughout Boston, the Fund the Dream campaign, Project Hip Hop, the Jamaica Plain Action Network, United for Justice with Peace, the Kucinich for President Campaign, and other community- based organizations threw a People’s Party hosted by members of the Jamaica Plain community? a diverse, mixed income neighborhood in Boston.
Last Friday, even before the main event got underway at the Fleet Center, progressive activists from around the country and the world came together at the University of Massachusetts for the Boston Social Forum (BSF), a three-day series of workshops, cultural events, and plenary sessions where progressive organizations networked, debated, and dialogued on global issues ranging from politics and economics, to science and technology, to culture and faith.
The Backbone campaign, an artist-generated “campaign to rescue the Democrats from irrelevance” through the use of humor, beauty, and old-fashioned organizing, performed at the Boston Social Forum, displaying their progressive agenda with vertebra containing different issue slogans.
Other artists are taking advantage of the high volume of traffic in the city, and the artwork is carrying a strong political message. From now through Sunday on the campus of Emmanuel College, space is available for art-making to be used at rallies. The American Friends Service Committee’s (AFSC) Eyes Wide Open, described as “a multimedia, multisensory journey through the words, images, and sounds of the Iraq war,” is on display at various locations throughout the week. The Zeitgeist gallery in Inman Square, Cambridge is showcasing galleries, poetry, music, and theatre and accepting submissions.
Peace activists from Boston-based United for Justice with Peace and Boston Mobilization are performing street theater in Copley square Wednesday at noon as part of their rally against torture called What have we become? Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib. Also on Wednesday, Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE), together with the Roxbury Safety Net and a coalition of other groups, will hold a rally to protest Boston University’s proposed bioterrorism laboratory. The lab would be built in the South End/Roxbury area, near Boston Medical Center, and house some of the world’s deadliest agents. Local activists who oppose the lab believe it is yet another example of environmental racism, imposed on a neighborhood that will reap little benefit yet bear grave risks.
Today at St. Paul’s Church at noon, the Kucinich campaign is sponsoring the first of two forums: Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, and Justice. Con- firmed panelists including Rep. Dennis Kucinich; Rep. John Conyers (D-MI); Dr. James Zogby, Founder and President of the Arab American Institute (AAI); and Margaret Prescod, Co-coordinator for Global Women’s Strike; and others will discuss voting rights, reparations, the Patriot Act, women’s Rights, and LGBT rights. Reverend Jesse Jackson, Executive Director Rainbow/Push Coalition has also been invited.
Actress and activist Mimi Kennedy will moderate a second forum, Building the Peace Movement: Ending the Occupation of Iraq & Creating a Department of Peace and Non-Violence, tomorrow at noon at the Paulist Center. Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies; Actor/Activist Sean Penn (invited); Tom Hayden, Author/Former Senator (CA); Steve Cobble, Political Strategist; Medea Benjamin, Code Pink and Global Exchange Co-founder; and Dennis Kucinich will also speak.
Rock the Vote, the ground-breaking youth registration drive turned election-year staple, will also be in town targeting potential young Dems by bringing in popular musical acts: the Black Eyed Peas and Gavin DeGraw will perform Tuesday at 10 pm at the Avalon Nightclub. Also, two Democratic youth organizations?College Democrats of America and Young Democrats of America?will be holding their own conventions.
The week of activism culminates in a progressive Democratic Convention at Roxbury College. Beyond Boston: Building the Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party is hosted by Progressive Democrats of America, a newly-founded organization that intends to build the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Speakers will include: Cynthia Peters of the Fund the Dream DNC Coalition; Congressman Kucinich; Howard Dean; Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan); Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.; Dorris “Granny D” Haddock, Senatorial Candidate (D-NH); Rev. Jesse Jackson; Dr. James Zogby; Tom Hayden; Medea Benjamin; Marianne Williamson, Global Renaissance; Kevin Spidel, Progressive Vote; Boston Councilman Chuck Turner (District 7); and Bill Moyer, Project Director for the Backbone Campaign.
Tim Carpenter, Kucinich Deputy National Campaign Manager, said "The progressive base has been more mobilized than ever this election year. At the Progressive Democratic Convention, we’ll discuss ways to continue injecting progressive values into the Party. We’ll leave Boston with an energized, organized progressive wing."
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