For the last few weeks I’ve been meaning to find a moment to write a brief editorial on the poll numbers that the Occupy movement has been generating since its inception in September. Today’s boston.com piece on the just-released Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll on Occupy Boston impels me to say something on the subject at last.
There has been a great deal of interest by progressive unions, labor federations, community-labor coalitions, and non-profits of many kinds in the rise of the Occupy movement. A lot of this interest is positive, and represents the leadership of existing progressive organizations understanding the importance of expanding their efforts at this particular moment in history - and reaching out to the new movement in the best spirit of mutual aid and solidarity.
It's always important to read between the lines of any official document coming from any significant societal institution - especially during times of crisis. So when the following missive from the Harvard University administration crossed our screen earlier today, we thought it was a good idea to do a line-by-line commentary in the public interest. We also thought it proper that we should do so with tongue at least partly in cheek. Because we get bored easily when reading stuff like this, and we're sure you do too.
The Occupy movement entered a new phase today in Oakland, CA by holding a one-day general strike that shut down the Port of Oakland. The importance of the action, in my estimation, is not the number of people that turned out to support the multi-faceted series of protests that went on throughout the day - although the 5,000+ participants that credible sources are reporting is a fine turnout for a mid-sized American city in this era.
Just a note to thank everyone who participated in the Social Movements/Digital Revolutions conference over the weekend. Myself and the other organizers were gratified to have 120 people at our Friday night panel at MIT - "A Robot Sent to Destroy Me": The New Media Invasion and the Future of News" - and 80 people at the Saturday conference events at Lesley University. We all hope that everyone had a nice time and learned a lot. We certainly did.
And now for some specific shout-outs.
Well, it's almost time for our Social Movements/Digital Revolutions conference! And we've got great stuff happening on Friday night (10/21) with our opening conference panel on media and democracy "A Robot Sent to Destroy Me": The New Media Invasion and the Future of News starting at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30), and on Saturday (10/22) the conference proper is starting at 10 a.m. (doors open at 9 a.m.).
Here's all the info you'll need … come on down!
So, ok, the official title of the event is the Town Hall Meeting on Media and Democracy. But we thought that sounded too low-key; so we decided to zip up our promotions a bit this week.
A very short editorial this week. Please spread it widely.
I'll be blunt. Open Media Boston supports the fast-growing call for an #OccupyBoston movement to join with their sisters and brothers in the #OccupyWallStreet movement born 10 days ago in New York City. We therefore - as is our fashion from time-to-time - encourage all people of good conscience to join the Boston General Assembly that is being organized on the Boston Common at the Parkman Bandstand tomorrow (Tues. 9/27/11) at 7:30 p.m.
All Open Media Boston viewers are invited to attend the Social Movements/Digital Revolutions Conference on Oct. 21-23, 2011 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. The event is being organized by this publication, Massachusetts Global Action, the Organizers' Collaborative and TecsChange in cooperation with a growing list of sponsors including the Boston Media Reform Network, Free Press, Lesley University, MIT Center for Civic Media, and MIT Comparative Media Studies.
