MAPA Update, May 31, 2014

Raise Up Massachusetts needs YOU to help collect registered voters’ signatures across Massachusetts to raise the minimum wage and require jobs to provide sick time.  Learn more about the issues, and sign up to join this effort and get your petition blanks!  The deadline: June 15!  Join us to collect signatures: tomorrow, June 1, at Dorchester Day; Saturday, June 7, at Cambridge Riverfest; Saturday, June 14, location TBA. 

Join Emma’s Revolution and A Besere Velt community chorus at a tribute to Pete Seeger, tonight, May 31, at the Lawrence School, 27 Francis St., Brookline.

Join Mass. Peace Action and Dorchester People for Peace at the Dorchester Day Parade on Sunday, June 1.  Meet at 11:30 am at Richmond Street between Dorchester Ave and Adams Street; we will gather signatures until the parade starts, then join the parade.  Cookout after parade!  (By T, take the Red Line to Ashmont and either take the 24 or 27 bus or take the Mattapan trolley to the Milton stop.)

Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment will hold their Annual Meeting, Sunday, June 1, 5:30 pm at the Apartment at Coolidge School, 319 Arlington Street in Watertown.  The speaker will be Kade Crockford, Director of  Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts.

What’s next for Budget for All?   Join a Strategy Brainstorm/ Potluck, Monday, June 2, 6:30- 9:00 pm at Encuentro 5, 9B Hamilton Place, suite 2A, near Park Street T in Boston.

Your Job, Your Union, Your Community: The Trans Pacific Partnership Forum will feature Rep. John Tierney and IUE/CWA labor/community coordinator Heather Atkinson, Thursday, June 5, 1pm at the IUE/CWA union hall, 112 Exchange St, Lynn.

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin will be screened, with a discussion, Thursday, June 5, 6:45pm, at the Central Square Library, Cambridge, by WILPF and the Cambridge Peace Commission.

Volunteers needed!  Our next summer tabling date will be the Cambridge RiverFest on Saturday afternoon, June 7, from 12-6pm.  We’ll be at University Park on Sidney Street,  talking to passersby and gathering  signatures for RaiseUp as well as on our new petition, “Funding for Education – or for Nuclear Weapons?”  in cooperation with Boston WILPF. Contact the office to help out!   

We’ll also be going to New Bedford on July 12, Lowell Folk Festival on July 26, Boston Green Fest on August 16, and Lawrence on September 1.  Can you join us at one of these great events?   Or, bring MAPA’s exhibits and literature table to your community’s Town Day or festival!  Call the office if you have an idea!

Author Chris Hedges will speak on “ Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt” at Jamaica Plain Forum, 6 Eliot St., JP, on Monday, June 9, 7pm.

“Whatsoever We Do…” Bearing Witness- Taking Action: An Evening of Testimony will call for support of those who are seeking political asylum in the U.S. based on their sexual or gender identity.  John Abdallah Wambere, gay activist from Uganda, and Pastor Judy Hanlon of the LGBT Asylum Support Task Force of Central Mass.  Thursday, June 12, 7pm at Christ Church Cambridge, Zero Garden St.

Mass. Peace Action will sponsor a lobby day in support of a permanent nuclear deal with Iran on Monday and Tuesday, June 23-24, in Washington, DC and at district offices in Massachusetts.   Call or email the office to let us know you can join us!

“Mainstreaming Torture” is the title of a new book by author Rebecca Gordon of War Times.   She’ll give a book talk at Porter Square Books on July 29 at 7pm.

Boston Remembers Hiroshima: Moving from Violence to Unity will be a memorial procession with music, dance, talks and action, Wednesday, August 6, from the Back Bay to Government Center.   Ask your church or organization to endorse, and join a planning committee meeting June 12 at 4pm.

The People’s Climate March is scheduled for Sept. 20-21 in New York City.  Let us know if you’d like to go with Mass. Peace Action’s contingent.

Lights, Camera, Action! We have videos!  We have posted a web page linking to a variety of videos featuring MAPA sponsored events or projects MAPA is involved in.  Check it out at http://masspeaceaction.org/videos .

We rely on our members, both for financial support and for political power.  Have you paid your 2014 dues?  Don’t forget to renew at masspeaceaction.org/donate!

Check our events page at masspeaceaction.org/events for more details and more events!