This article appeared in Massachusetts Peace Action’s Fall 2018 newsletter
The Pilgrim Coalition, the Boston Downwinders and several other anti-nuclear power groups sponsored Power Struggle, a full-length documentary, at the Brattle Theater on September 15th. The movie recounted the long struggle to close Vermont Yankee and inspires our work on Pilgrim. Gov. Dukakis, Rep. Ruth Balser, activist Diane Turco and movie producer/director Robbie Leppzer spoke. www.capedownwinders.org/
The Nippozan Myohoji Grafton Peace Pagoda celebrated its 25th anniversary in October and joined with the New England Peace Pagoda to walk to Hanscom Air Force Base with Mass. Peace Action to protest the nuclear command there.
The Peace Abbey held a birthday party at the Peace Memorial in Sherborn on Oct 4th for Gandhi and St. Francis and organized a six-mile Stonewalk for Victims of Violence on United Nations Day, Oct 24th, from the Peace Garden in Boston to Boston College. https://www.peaceabbey.org/
The Bedford UU First Parish Peace and Justice Committee sponsored a Lyceum talk by Chuck Collins on his new book, Born on Third Base, about economic inequality and how it damages our democracy, and hosted Hyun Lee of NYC’s Nodutol Korean community on a panel discussion about peace in Korea.
The Northampton Committee to Stop Wars showed “Two Towns of Jasper,” a documentary on the 20-year-old, horrific murder of a black man in Texas. Two different stories emerge from the storytellers of Jasper, one white and one black. www.theresistancecenter.org
Occupy Natick is back from summer vacation and resumed their Monday movie nights in Natick with the film, Stealing America, One Vote at a Time on October 15th.
Members of Jewish Voice for Peace, Mass. Peace Action, Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East, and the Alliance for Water Justice visited Rep. Kennedy’s office in Newton to ask him to vote against HR 1697, the bill that seeks to outlaw the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which some of these groups use to persuade Israel to change its policies. Kennedy was not back from D.C. at the time, and the group rallied outside with signs.