WOMENS MARCH BOSTON: JOIN THE GREEN WAVE FOR ABORTION RIGHTS SATURDAY 11:30AM AT PARKST. #Green4Abortion

Join with the Boston May Day Coalition, Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, and other organizations in the Green Wave Contingent.

Saturday, October 8, 11:30 AM

Park Street T Station, Boston MA

Please wear Green. We will be marching up to the Statehouse for a rally.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1577355455482863616

The Boston May Day Coalition calls on you to take a page from our sisters in Latin America who fought against their Conservative Catholic governments. They raised the Green Bandana of abortion rights and went into the streets again and again, growing in numbers and determination. Their struggle lasted years, their commitment was unstoppable, and their passion drove them on. They tore down the laws criminalizing abortion in several countries and continue fighting in many more.

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion. This seismic crime against women, girls, and working people generally executed by the highest court in the planet’s most powerful country, sent shockwaves of fury and terror across this country, and gave fascists and autocrats around the world a gift of seeing that even in the USA, abortion rights are being rolled back.

The cruelty and arrogance of this Christian Nationalist court stripping away the constitutional rights of half of this country’s population must not be accepted! If one state is not free—then all states are not free—and if one woman is not free—all women are not free!

REMEMBER the 10-year-old girl who was raped… then forced to travel to get an abortion because she was 3 days past the 6 week cut off of a “heart beat bill.”

REMEMBER the woman who “felt like a walking coffin” after being forced to carry her dead fetus for two weeks because of Texas’s abortion ban.

This DECISION is ILLEGITIMATE.

Forced Motherhood = Female Enslavement.

This must never be accepted. It must be relentlessly resisted, repudiated and reversed!

Yet, the Democratic Party and many in the pro-choice movement adjust to this “new normal” rather than call out the complete illegitimacy of putting women’s very lives up for a vote… they echo the Supreme Court which insisted that the only practical response to this assault is to “vote harder.”

We must face the truth: Voting and working for elections by itself will not stop this assault.

What we need, what the times demand urgently, vitally, and most of all – is a mass movement of women and everyone who cares about justice. A movement in the streets with righteousness and with the determination to turn this whole trajectory around. This is our responsibility, and we must now rise up to this challenge.

Your righteous fury must be unleashed to fuel massive, society-wide, nonviolent but relentless sustained protest and resistance that grows, drawing in more and more people, compelling those in power to respond to our demand:

Legal Abortion Nationwide!

On the road to achieving

Abortion on Demand and Without Apology!

Important Talk to Discuss the Themes of War in Ukraine

By: Hope O’Shaughnessy

Medea Benjamin, who co-authored with Nicolas J.S. Davies, the new book, War in the
Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict (OR Books) will speak tomorrow. She
will be joined by Rev. Karlene Griffiths Sekou on Weds. October 5, 2022, at 7 p.m. The
talk will take place at the Lothrop Auditorium at the Community Church of Boston, 565
Boylston Street, Boston. Attendees can also join by
on Zoom or YouTube. The talk is sponsored by the Community Church of Boston and
Mass Peace Action.

According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Paris
Forum website, Rev. Karlene Griffiths Sekou is an international public health
professional, speaker, preacher, culture worker, and community organizer. For over
twenty-years, she has situated her work within the realms of international human rights
and de-colonial and anti-colonial cultural regeneration and is the Founder and Principal
of the Dignity Project International, according to the ICAN site.

The OR Books website illustrates this new book as an essential primer, which is a call to
action to look at the war in Ukraine from a different perspective. According to the
publisher’s website for the new book, the authors serve to “Skillfully bringing together
the historical record and current analysis, War in Ukraine looks at the events leading up
to the conflict, surveys the different parties involved, and weighs the risks of escalation
and opportunities for peace. For anyone who wants to get beneath the heavily
propagandized media coverage to an understanding of a war with consequences that
could prove cataclysmic, reading this timely book will be an urgent necessity.”

In addition, Noam Chomsky gave this assessment of the book on the OR Books website:
“This careful, informed, judicious study is an invaluable guide to understanding Russia’s
criminal invasion of Ukraine, and most crucially, how we can act to help bring this
terrible tragedy to an end.”

Medea Benjamin and Reverend Karlene Griffiths Sekou are leading thinkers and
speakers in the field of peacemaking. Benjamin is an American political activist, best
known for being a co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the co-
founder of the human rights group Global Exchange, according to the CODEPINK
website. Medea is also the author of several books including Inside Iran: The Real
History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran (OR Books). According to
Wikipedia, she has received several awards for her work including the U.S. Peace
Prize in 2012 “in recognition of her creative leadership on the front lines of the antiwar
movement.” In 2014, she received the Gandhi Peace Award from Promoting Enduring
Peace “to honor her for her unyielding advocacy for social justice of more than 30
years.” Her newest book may be purchased at: https://www.orbooks.com/

17th Annual HONK! Festival 2022 Celebrates Music and Activism

By: Hope O’Shaughnessy

Music and activism. A great combination. The 17th Annual HONK! Festival is back
again this year from Thursday, October 6 through Sunday, October 9. The festival
involves several events throughout Somerville, Cambridge and Boston that will
showcase a variety of musical genres including unplugged DIY music. Activist events
will occur throughout including events such as the Elm Street event in Somerville on
Sat. October 8 with activists from various organizations such as Extinction
Rebellion/Boston and Beyond Plastics/Greater Boston. That day will include art
making and street theater.

All events are free admission and held outdoors (rain or shine). According to festival
literature, the aim is to “literally blast out, musically loud and rhythmically direct, a
call to come together.”

The latest roster of performers can be found at: honkfest.org. This year more than 20
activist street bands will perform throughout several neighborhoods according to the
festival’s contact person, Mary Curtin. The bands include: Somerville-based Second
Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band also founding band of HONK!, aNova
Brazil (Boston, MA), La Banda Internacional de Chelsea (Chelsea, MA), and Banda
Rim Bam Bum (Santiago, Chile). NOLA-based Young Fellaz Brass Band will also
return after a hiatus.

In 2020, according to a recent press release, HONK! United was created in response to the
pandemic and so an online collaboration that resulted in attracting bands from
Nicaragua to Antarctica to Brazil, which has resulted in 20 HONK! gatherings
throughout the world.

Since HONK! relies on volunteers to keep its event running smoothly, if you are
interested in contributing even a small amount of time, please contact:
honkfest.org/help. To learn more about the history of this event, visit:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HONK!