Decolonize To Liberate

Decolonize To Liberate

A Working Group of Occupy/Decolonize Boston

What is "Decolonization"?    A collection of definitions and explanations assembled by the Working Group

Decolonize To Liberate resource page Links, articles, videos and 'zines!

Decolonizing Declarations from Occupies Across the Continent

To sign up on our new announcements-only list, please send an email to

Decolonize-subscribe[at]lists.occupyboston.org

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UPCOMING ACTION - THURSDAY APRIL 12 NOON - PLEASE READ DETAILS BELOW

The Anti-Oppression Working Group, Decolonize to Liberate Working Group and People of Color Working Group (and now the Occupy Boston General Assembly) have all endorsed the action planned by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers at the Stop & Shop Headquarters in Quincy, Thursday at Noon. The DtL and AOWG were very pleased to welcome their initial team, Wilson and Elena, at our meetings this weekend and see that they got to the State House to witness OB in action. Let's turn out and help in a cause of justice that affects us all! Pass the word! See the attached flyer and below for more information:

Justice for Farmworkers!

Picket, Delegation and Theater at Stop and Shop Headquarters

Thursday, April 12 at 12pm

Stop and Shop Corporate Office Headquarters

1385 Hancock Street, Quincy, MA

RSVP and Share this Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/337007819691471/ 

Just days before the Ahold (parent company of Stop and Shop) Shareholder Meeting, please join farmworkers and Fair Food allies in calling on Stop and Shop to join the Fair Food Program!

For decades, Florida's farmworkers faced poverty wages and daily violations of their basic rights — including physical abuse, sexual harassment, and in the most extreme cases, modern-day slavery — in order to harvest the food on our plates.

Today, however, a new day is dawning in the fields. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) — an internationally-recognized farmworker organization — has reached groundbreaking agreements with ten of the world's leading food retailers, including McDonald's, Subway and Trader Joe's. Hailed by the New York Times as "possibly the most successful labor action in the US in twenty years," the Fair Food Program establishes a worker-designed code of conduct in the fields and requires retailers to pay one more penny per pound for the tomatoes they buy to go directly to the workers who picked them—all of which is monitored and enforced by the independent Fair Food Standards Council.

Supermarkets like Ahold leverage their high-volume purchasing power to demand the ever-lower prices that result in farmworker exploitation. By refusing to partner with the CIW, the steps the company has taken fall far short of the substantive, verifiable and enforceable standards that the situation requires, consumers expect, and others within the industry have embraced.

Join farmworkers and Fair Food advocates in demanding that Ahold uphold human rights and join the Fair Food Program!

More information: www.ciw-online.org

Contact: elena@interfaithact.org; 650.678.9127

OB Stands in Solidarity with Coalition of Immokalee Workers

The following proposal was passed at the General Assembly of Occupy Boston on April 7, 2012:

To continue the success of groundbreaking agreements with food retailers, Occupy Boston stands with the Decolonize to Liberate Working Group, in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in their quest for adoption of the Fair Food Program by “Giant Supermarkets” to eliminate modern day slavery in the daily violation of basic human rights, including physical and sexual abuse, and exposure to pesticides, in order to harvest the food on our plates. Occupy Boston will utilize its resources to spread the word and get people to Stop and Shop headquarters on April 12, 2012 at 12:00 PM to join in the action to demonstrate our commitment to human and worker rights.

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All are welcome to our regular weekly meetings.  Half of the meeting is discussion/self-education to help us decolonize ourselves (see our resources section).  Half of each meeting is for planning events and actions to help decolonize the movement. 

Meetings held each Friday, 6:00 - 8:00 PM

First Parish in Cambridge, Unitarian Universalist

3 Church Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

(map)

Decolonize to Liberate seeks to shed the dominator ethos and systems of oppressionthat come from colonization, to stand in solidarity with indigenous resistance worldwide and to help restore our relationships to Mother Earth.

As a signal to the national “Occupy” movement and to members of First Nations (Indigenous Peoples) who have felt excluded by the colonialist language used to name this movement, it shall be declared that “Occupy Boston” aspires to “Decolonize Boston” with the guidance and participation of First Nations.

[Excerpt from the Statement of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples introduced by this working group and passed by the Occupy Boston General Assembly on October 8, 2011.  Read the full resolution, here.]

Contact decolonizeboston[at]gmail.com with any questions or to get involved.

If you would like to join the working group list-serve and have or don't mind creating a google account, please follow this link.

Otherwise, email a request for membership to the above email, and we will send you an invite.

Please Follow us on Twitter!: @DecolonizeBos

And now we have a facebook page, too!

Many thanks to everyone who joined us for the Decolonize to Liberate Occupy Boston Community Gathering.  Check out the recap of the event on OccupyBoston.org:

http://www.occupyboston.org/2012/03/06/decoolonize-99-liberate-100/

We look forward to continuing this work together.  Please join us at our weekly meetings.

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Many thanks to all who were able to join us in Plymouth for the 42nd National Day of Mourning! 

The Boston Globe produced an article and a video about our visit to Plymouth. 

You can read the article,"In Solidarity, Occupy Group Joins with Native Americans"  also a video, "Occupy Boston Protesters in Plymouth" 

A member of the working group was also interviewed in a Democracy Now! special on the event:

Native Americans Mark Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving: 'We are not Vanishing, We Are Not Conquered'

Turtle Island Initiative Reading List:

http://ti42.weebly.com/required-reading.html