TIME CORRECTION TO “PART 1”:
Thursday October 15
NEAL APPEAL & WHOLE FOODS
BOYCOTT COMMITTEE
7-8:30pm, AFSC, 140
Pine St #10 (top floor), Florence (584-8975). Planning events asking
Congressman Richard Neal to support the single-payer solution to the health
care crisis and planning Whole Foods Boycott actions too. Info: Western Mass.
Single Payer Network, 827-0301 x1, wmspn@wmjwj.org.
Tuesday October 20
PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF NEW
REPORT ON CARE WORK IN MASSACHUSETTS
4pm, The Springfield Institute, 32-34
Hampden St, Springfield (MapQuest
map). Info, copy of report: Nancy Folbre, folbre@econs.umass.edu, www.countingcare.org.
Tuesday October 20 (Third Tuesday) FRANKLIN/HAMPSHIRE
HEALTH CARE COALITION postponed to October 27
Wednesday October 21 (Third Wednesday)
MASS SENIOR ACTION COUNCIL
– WESTERN MASS
1:30-3pm, 1124 Berkshire Avenue,
near corner of Page Blvd, Springfield. Light refreshments, 50/50 raffle. MSAC
was founded in 1981 to promote the rights, well being, and dignity of all
people, particularly vulnerable senior citizens. Open to people of all ages.
MSAC has a proud history of effective community organizing and legislative
advocacy on health care, housing, transportation, and other issues. Info:
543-2334, http://www.masssenioraction.org.
Wednesday October 21 (Third Wednesday)
PIONEER VALLEY CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL
5:30pm, AFL-CIO Hall, 640 Page
Blvd, near corner of Osborne Ter, across the street from the old Westinghouse,
Springfield. Community and labor activist guests are welcome, but RSVP
to Jon at 732-7970, mail@pvaflcio.org,
or Rick at 374-1492, rbrown@pvaflcio.org.
Thursday
October 22
IMMIGRANT & WORKERS RIGHTS COALITION
6-7:30pm, Conference Room, second floor, room 234 &/or 236,
Potpourri Plaza, 243 King St, Northampton (opposite Stop & Shop, http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=243+King+St,+Northampton,+MA).
Reorganizing this coalition first formed in 2006. Help set its priorities!
Info: American Friends Service Committee, 584-8975, afsc@crocker.com.
Thursday October 22
PARTY FOR DOLLARS & SENSE
7-9pm, home of Sigrid Miller
Pollin & Robert Pollin, Amherst. Suggested donation: $50-100 (sliding
scale). Celebrate the 35th anniversary of Dollars & Sense, the nonprofit
collective that publishes Dollars & Sense magazine and books that
report on and analyze the economy. Guest speaker: Steve Early, author of Embedded
With Organized Labor: Journalistic Reflections on the Class War at Home
(2009, Monthly Review Press). Steve has been an organizer, strike strategist,
labor lawyer, educator, and freelance labor journalist. He worked for the
Communications Workers of America for 27 years, and prior to that, served as a
headquarters staffer for the United Mine Workers and staff attorney and
newspaper editor for the Professional Drivers Council. Info, RSVP (by
Oct. 16): Linda Pinkow, 617-447-2177 x204, linda@dollarsandsense.org.
Friday
October 23
FREE FILM: BLIND SPOT
7pm, Media Education Foundation, 60 Masonic Street,
same building as Woodstar Café, Northampton. Discussion following. Blind
Spot investigates peak oil – the links between the energy we
use, the way we run the economy, and the effect it has on the environment. Info: http://www.northamptoncommittee.org/.
Saturday October 24
PHYSICIANS FOR A NATIONAL
HEALTH PROGRAM (PNHP) ANNUAL MEETING
Boston Royal Sonesta Hotel, 40 Edwin Land Boulevard, Cambridge. Everyone is
invited to join PNHP to assess the status of
health reform legislation and make plans for the future. Details and
registration information are available online.
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CLIMATE ACTION
The largest grassroots
demonstration on climate change in history. Thousands of communities around the
globe will urge our world leaders to draft a more ambitious climate treaty when
they negotiate a follow up to the Kyoto Protocol this December. The focus is on
350. 350 parts per million (ppm) is the safe upper limit for
carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Right now we're at 390ppm and are
projected to hit 700ppm by century's end if we keep on with "business as
usual." To continue on that path assures catastrophe for humanity and
countless other life forms.
Local organizing: noho350@gmail.com; conant@ecs.umass.edu; emiliehamilton@yahoo.com; www.350clotheslines.afscwm.org.
Visit http://www.350.org/. View
a 2-minute animated introduction here and an 8-minute strategy briefing here.
October 24-25
CRISIS & RESISTANCE: 2009
NORTHEAST SOCIALIST CONFERENCE
Columbia University, New York
City. Every year hundreds of activists and socialists gather at the Northeast
Socialist Conference to debate and discuss the struggles before us. The world
faces urgent problems and need a vision for a different future. With the
free-market consensus in tatters and an open debate beginning about how best to
organize our society, these discussions are more vital than ever.
WESTERN MASS. ARRANGEMENTS:
Arrange registration, travel, and carpooling with local members of the
International Socialist Organization. Info: contact@isonoho.org,
www.isonoho.org, www.northeastsocialistconference.net.
NATIONAL PRIORITIES PROJECT FALL PARTY
6-10pm, Log Cabin, Rt 141, Holyoke. The event
is entirely underwritten in advance. NPP then asks us to make a meaningful
(to each donor) donation. The National
Priorities Project offers citizen and community groups tools and resources
to shape federal budget and policy priorities which promote social and economic
justice. NPP provides valuable information and tools to hundreds of
activist organizations and elected officials around the nation, including the
Obama Campaign last year. Giving to NPP is a great way to multiply the impact
of your other contributions by NPP’s support for so many organizations
and campaigns! Info: 584-9556, sara@nationalpriorities.org.
Monday October 26
NORMAN SOLOMON: SPINNING HEALTH CARE: A
CASE OF VERTIGO
7:30pm, Hooker Auditorium, Clapp Building, Mount Holyoke
College, Rt 116, South Hadley. Author and nationally syndicated columnist
Norman Solomon assesses the current national health care debate as part of the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal
Arts program, Rethinking
Health Care. Info: 538-3071, wcl@mtholyoke.edu.
Tuesday October 27 (postponed from normally Third
Tuesday)
FRANKLIN/HAMPSHIRE HEALTH CARE COALITION
7pm, Lathrop Village Community
Room, Shallow Brook Drive, off Bridge Rd, Northampton. Organizing for the
Massachusetts Health Care Trust Fund Bill - a universal health care system,
providing universal access, a comprehensive range of physical and mental health
benefits, choice of provider, quality, unified financing and cost controls,
accountable governance, and stability. A Massachusetts Health Care Trust Fund
will be a “single-payer” of all health care costs, statewide. Also
organizing for the national alternative to state action: Medicare for All
– HR 676. Info: info@fhhcc.org.
Please visit www.masscare.org and www.healthcare-now.org.
Tuesday
October 27 (Fourth Tuesday)
HAMPSHIRE/FRANKLIN CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL
7:30pm, Northampton Fire Station Community Room, 26 Carlon Drive
at King St/Route 5, Northampton (587-1148). Community and labor activist guests
are welcome, but RSVP to Pres. Fiore Grassetti, 877-725-0357, org7@comcast.net.
Wednesday
October 28
PUBLIC HEARING ON AN ACT RELATIVE TO TEMPORARY WORKERS' RIGHT TO
KNOW
10:30am, State House Hearing Room A-2, Boston. The Joint Committee
on Labor and Workforce Development will hear testimony on one of the
Massachusetts AFL-CIO's top legislative priorities, An
Act Relative to Temporary Workers' Right to Know. Thousands of Massachusetts
workers employed by temp agencies are being denied their basic rights. They are
sent off to work without any idea of where they are going, the type of work
they will be required to do, their rate of pay – even the name of their
employer, who is often referred to by a nickname. Although they work hard and
long, these workers often fail to receive their earned wages or are injured
without compensation at hazardous worksites. Info: 781-324-8230, clong@massaflcio.org.
Wednesday
October 28 (Fourth Wednesday) (NOTE TIME CHANGE)
GREENWORK: THE WESTERN MASS GREEN ECONOMY WORKING GROUP
Noon-2:30pm, Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO Hall, 640 Page Boulevard,
Springfield (732-7970). Brown Bag Lunch at Noon. This Working Group consists of
advocates for a Green Economy which serves local communities; guarantees
workers' rights to organize; and promotes community-owned sustainable projects.
On the agenda: progress report by GreenWork Organizational
Subcommittee on our Articles of Organization and By-Laws; planning for Clean
Energy Connections, November 10.
Subscribe to the GreenWork listserve at http://lists.gaiahost.coop/mailman/listinfo/greenwork
or send an email to greenwork-subscribe@lists.gaiahost.coop.
Info: Jon Weissman, 827-0301, wmjwj@wmjwj.org,
or Eduardo Suárez, 335-6224, director@echosd.org.
Thursday
October 29
LEE
BADGETT: WHEN GAY PEOPLE GET MARRIED
7pm,
Odyssey Bookshop, 9 College St (Routes 116 at 47), in the Village Commons, S
Hadley, 534-7307 or 800-540-7307; odysseybks@aol.com;
www.odysseybks.com (www.odysseybks.com/directions.html).
M.V. Lee Badgett will read from and sign her new book, When Gay People Get
Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage. In order
to find out the impact of same-sex marriage, Lee Badgett traveled to a land
where it has been legal for same-sex couples to marry since 2001: the
Netherlands. Badgett interviews gay couples to find out how this step has
affected their lives. We learn about the often surprising changes to their
relationships, the reactions of their families, and work colleagues. Moreover,
Badgett is interested in the ways that the institution itself has been altered
for the larger society. How has the concept of marriage changed? When Gay
People Get Married gives readers a primer on the current state of the
same-sex marriage debate, and a new way of framing the issue that provides
valuable new insights into the political, social, and personal stakes involved.
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