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Advisory Board


Felix Arroyo

former City Councilor
Boston

Kathy Casavant

former Secretary-Treasurer
Mass AFL-CIO

Jackie Cefola

Nonprofit Center Program Coordinator
Third Sector New England

Noam Chomsky

Author & Linguist
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Joseph Gerson

Program Director
American Friends Service Committee

David Himmelstein

Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Co-founder
Physicians for a National Health Program

Richard Krushnic 

Department of Affordable Housing
City of Boston

Dorotea Manuela

Co-Chair
Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Coalition

Betsy Rueda Gynn

Operations Director
The City School

Chuck Turner

City Councilor
Boston

Ellen Wallace

Attorney at Law

Stephanie Woolhandler

 

Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Co-founder
Physicians for a National Health Program

Noam Chomsky's 11/19/08 Talk

Visit our event page for video, audio, print resources & the transcript.

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environmental justice

Derber: Marx's Ghost - Midnight Conversations on Changing the World sticky icon

Thursday, February 9, 2012, 7:00 p.m. Author, activist and BC sociologist Charlie Derber speaks to his most recent book, Marx's Chost: Midnight Conversations on Changing the World. He will be joined by Alexandra Pineros Shields, Brian Kwoba and Genevieve Butler. From the publisher: An American sociologist (Derber) travels to London's Highgate cemetery, where Karl Marx is buried. A surprise encounter with Marx's ghost, which reveals insights into the great revolutionary’s personality and biography, leads to a night-long conversation between Derber and the ghost on important issues of the day: the economic crisis, globalization; climate change, war, racism, left- and right-wing politics, the future of capitalism, new economic models emerging in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia, and revolutionary activism by citizens in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya—even Wisconsin. The ghost reconsiders his theories as he speaks eloquently about American labor, environmental, peace, social justice, civil rights, immigrant, and gender and anti-racist struggles. Their engrossing, funny, and provocative conversation, interrupted by appearances from ghosts such as John Maynard Keynes, offers a new vision of the stunning relevance and tragic flaws of the historical Marx, who now reveals a surprising Great Transition to a transformed future. Watch this space for a review coming soon!

Rosen, et al: Principles for a New Economy

PRINCIPLES FOR A NEW ECONOMY

Preamble
 
The purpose of an economic system is to help organize human activities in ways that create healthy and resilient human communities and ecosystems for both present and future generations.
 
To achieve these purposes, deep system-wide change is urgently needed to reverse conditions typical of contemporary global, regional, national and local economies that exhibit one or more of the following serious flaws. They are:
 
·      Unsustainable: They over-consume and degrade the resources upon which their long-term prosperity depends.
·      Unfair: They multiply financial advantages to those already advantaged at the expense of those most in need. 
·      Unstable: They lack resilience in a time of growing volatility and rapid social, political and technological change.
·      Undemocratic: They operate with inadequate democratic control and accountability on the part of their most powerful economic organizations - corporations, financial institutions and governments.
 
At the root of these conditions is an implicit, dominant theory of economic purpose: namely to achieve continuous economic growth, as measured principally by GDP, by relying on “free markets”, without regard to the impact on overall human and ecological well-being. At the core of a New Economy is the need to decouple the achievement of well-being from limitless economic growth, by structuring economies that:
·      Fully realize individual potential through the advancement of human rights, including the right to thriving livelihoods, freedom from unjust persecution, quality education, effective social safety nets, affordable nutritious food, clean water, secure health care, and adequate shelter. 
 
·      Protect and nurture the richness of the natural world in ways that confront and rectify intensifying threats to humans and other species, including those associated with climate change, biodiversity loss, eco-system degradation, and polluted air and water
 
 The following Principles are designed to guide the actions of all economic actors and organizations whose decisions and actions affect, or are affected by, the pursuit of a New Economy.
 
Principles
1. Measuring progress - Economic progress shall be measured in terms of the well-being of all living species and ecosystems.  
2. Respecting natural limits - The economy shall draw from, and inject into, ecosystems only what is compatible with maintaining a sustainable healthy and resilient natural world. 
3. Democratizing the economy – All institutions that manage, regulate and execute economic activity, including private corporations, shall be democratically controlled in order to serve long-term societal goals.
4. Ensuring economic progress - Governments shall work to ensure prosperous and resilient economic outcomes by making adequate investments in research, education, physical infrastructure, and technology, whenever markets fail to do so. .
5. Localizing control - Economic policy shall favor subsidiarity, i.e., the localization of economic decision-making and control to the greatest extent possible consistent with democracy, equity, and efficiency.
6. Taming finance - All monetary systems and financial institutions shall be regulated as essential public utilities for the benefit of society as a whole.
7. Reducing inequality - Increasing economic inequality shall be understood to be inherently and profoundly antithetical to achieving human and ecological well-being, and shall be rapidly reversed.
8. Providing adequate livelihoods - Individuals shall be ensured of opportunities for decent paid work, employee ownership and the right to organize, and accorded recognition for work performed outside the formal wage economy that is fundamental to enriching  community and family well-being.
9. Re-defining globalization - International economic relations that impinge upon human and ecological well-being shall rest upon the same principles as those applicable to economic activities within nations so that economic justice becomes enshrined in such relations.
10. Fostering new values - Economic values shall be diverted, by all fair and reasonable means, away from the materialism fostered by promoters of a consumer society, and shifted toward values that prioritize flourishing communities, individual happiness, and a healthy and resilient natural world.
The editors of the Principles for a New Economy are Neva Goodwin, Richard Rosen, and Allen White. Principles for a New Economy was co-authored by the Core Principles Working Group, with the support of the New Economy Network. The members of the Working Group are: Gar Alperovitz, David Brodwin, Peter Brown, John Cavanagh, John Fullerton, Neva Godwin, Richard Heinberg, David Korten, Asher Miller, Noel Ortega, Richard Rosen, Gus Speth, Sarah Stranahan, Stewart Wallis, Allen White, and Susan Witt.
For questions and comments please contact: neva.goodwin@tufts.edu; rrosen@tellus.org or awhite@tellus.org
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Health: Agricultural Workers in Nicaragua

Saturday, October 8, 2011, 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. Join filmmaker Jason Glaser for a conversation about agricultural workers and Chronic Kidney Disease in Nicaragua. For more information, see the website of the La Isla Foundation.

Securing Justice for Waste/Recycling Workers

Thursday, September 22, 2011, 6:00 p.m. The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and the Boston Recycling Coalition (BRC- an emerging campaign between community, environmental and worker groups in Boston to dramatically improve the recycling system in Boston) co-host a gathering of inspiring grassroots waste/recycling movement leaders from around the world. Following a panel, there will be a wide-ranging discussion between local recycling workers, international guests and members of the Boston community interested in improving dismal conditions in Boston's waste/recycling sector. Come join us! This event is organized by the Boston Recycling Coalition.

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Social Adapting & Sustainability

Round Table Discussion on Portland's 5 Ecodistrict Pilots

Location: Institute for Human Centered Design
200 Portland Street

Wednesday, September 21st, 7:00pm Join us for an engaging talk about the challenges of adapting to climate change. Systems Science student, Garry Sotnik, visiting from the hub of environmental innovation, Portland, Oregon will present his paper on Portland's five Ecodistrict Pilots (Read More below), an initiative launched in 2009 in the City of Portland to catalyze the city’s transition process towards sustainable development. What does it mean to adapt? What is required for adaptation? And what can be done to assist human systems (e.g. households, communities, regions, etc.) in our process of adaptation? An open discussion will explore the role of community organizing within the environmental movement, the ideas of connectedness and resiliency in the face of climate change, what could movements in Boston learn from the large-scale and well-subsidized efforts in Portland, similarly, what can the Ecodistricts Initiative learn from grassroots and multi-focus social change organizing in Boston?

Community & Resistance Tour

Friday, September 10, 2010, 7:00 p.m. The Community and Resistance Tour seeks to communicate about current struggles for justice and liberation, from the current BP Oil Drilling Disaster devastating the Gulf Coast to nooses hung in the northern Louisiana town of Jena. From women organizing inside prisons to cultural resistance. The tour also seeks to connect communities of liberation, and to build relationships between grassroots activists and independent media. This tour is for anyone interested in issues of health care, education, criminal justice, housing, or the ways in which systems of racism, patriarchy and other forms of oppression intersect with these struggles.

Cochabamba Climate Summit - Boston Interactive Workshop

April 20, 2010, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Join organizers and activists in Cochabamba, Bolivia and New York City for a live interactive conversation as part of the Climate and Mother Earth Rights conference (hosted by the people of Bolivia).  This global interaction is part of the Cochabamba Expanded conversation organized by May First/People Link.

 

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Training for Transition

How to Launch a Transition Town/Transition Initiative in Your Community

Saturday & Sunday, November 21 - 22, 2009, Starting at 9:00 a.m. The Transition Network and Transition US (www.transitionus.org) are offering the two-day Training for Transition course as developed by Naresh Giangrande and Sophy Banks of the Transition Network in Totnes, England (www.transitiontowns.org). The course is an in-depth experiential introduction to Transition for those considering bringing Transition to their community. It meets the training requirement for local initiating groups to become an internationally-recognized Transition Town.

Mining Resistance in Central America: An Evening with Grahame Russell

Thursday, October 22, 2009, 7:00 p.m. Grahame Russell of Rights Action, recently returned from Honduras and Guatemala, speaks about popular resistance to mining and the coup in Honduras. The event is a kickoff for the Committee in Solidarity with People of El Salvador (CISPES)'s anti-mining campaign. Contact the organizers, Boston CISPES [e-mail bostoncispes speakeasy net], for more information.

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Organizing the Climate Change Movement

Friday, July 24, 2009, 7:00 p.m. The e5 forum returns with Thomas Ponniah hosting Maggie Zhou (Secure Green Future) and John Andrews (Green-Rainbow Party) on the future of the Climate Change movement. Victor Wallis (editor, Socialism and Democracy) will join as a discussant.

Sign Making, Rally Prep - Solidarity with Indigenous Peruvians

Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. Activists in solidarity with Peruvian indigenous struggles for sovereignty will be meeting to prepare posters and banners for the 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, June 17, 2009, protest outside the Peruvian consulate in Boston.

The Indigenist provides background information on this struggle.

The Polluter-Industrial Complex in the Age of Globalization

Author Presentation with Daniel Faber

Thursday, March 5, 2009 7:00 - 9:30 p.m. Join us for a conversation with author Daniel Faber based on his book, "Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice: The Polluter-Industrial Complex in the Age of Globalization" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008). "Capitalizing..." is a comprehensive assessment of the environmental justice movement, examining the achievements and challenges confronting the movement, along with an emphasis on new strategies of environmental problem-solving and innovations in environmental policy. Download flyer here.

A Majority Agenda for Our Times

Final Event Video by Mark Quevillon

Tuesday, February 3, 2009, 6:30 - 8:50 p.m. Major economic, environmental and global security crises are upon us! They demand our movements’ full engagement. At the same time, majorities of the public support the effective solutions to these crises being offered by our social movements: a single-payer universal health care system; bring all the troops home; a stimulus package based on investing in the lives and economic security of our people; debt relief to homeowners and families; and confronting climate change head-on, renewable energy and green jobs.

DATE CHANGED: The Polluter-Industrial Complex in the Age of Globalization

Author Presentation with Daniel Faber

Thursday, January 15, 2009, 7:00 - 9:30 p.m. NEW DATE: Thursday, March 5, 2009 (same time) Join us for a conversation with author Daniel Faber based on his book, "Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice: The Polluter-Industrial Complex in the Age of Globalization" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008). "Capitalizing..." is a comprehensive assessment of the environmental justice movement, examining the achievements and challenges confronting the movement, along with an emphasis on new strategies of environmental problem-solving and innovations in environmental policy. Updated flyer coming soon.