Thousand Flowers around the MBTA
STOP the MBTA Attacks on Seniors & People with Disabilities It seems like a thousand new partnerships and coalitions are popping up all over the place protesting the proposed MBTA cuts and fare hikes – not quite the thousand flowers Chairman Mao was encouraging but apparently that was a misquote anyway . After weeks...
The Path To Change from Mel King and “do something”
Those of us who were in attendance at the January 25 session where Mel King shared with us the lessons he learned as an organizer in Boston are still digesting those words of wisdom and trying to integrate them into their work. We are still editing the video we took that night into some 15 minute...
The Cycle of Organizing
At the Mass Leadership’s January 25 session called Organizing for Change, Lew Finfer did not have time to walk people through this particular handout called the Cycle of Organizing. As an introduction Lew writes ……….. Listen Challenge Act Organizing is about listening, challenging people to come forward on their deeply felt interest, and acting together;...
Good grass-roots organizing always beats money, no matter how much,’’ Dukakis said in an interview.
And he’s absolutely right. This Globe story describes the pressure that the volunteer town officials face as “big money out of town casino developers” move in to get the necessary permissions to build a destination casino in their town. The state’s legalization of casino gambling is putting unprecedented demands and pressures on part-time local officials, calling...
Resisting the Advocates
The folk at at Spare Change News are the ones who got the State House News story out first about the tinyest possiblity that the Governer’s budget may — just may — include some revenue measures. We particulary appreciate the image of the our good, decent hardworking Secretary of Admininstration and Finance “warding off ” advocates who want...
Lessons from Macedonia
I never would have noticed this article on the inside Pages of the New York Times “Before Macedonia”, meaning before my trip to Macedonia last month, WASHINGTON — Egypt’s military rulers privately signaled a retreat on Friday in a crackdown on organizations that promote democracy and human rights, senior American officials said, even as the authorities in Cairo...
