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Tour Takes #Occupy Movement beyond Protest
MA Campuses to Host Wisconsin Activists Focusing on How to Sustain and Expand Protest Movement
 Ben Manski |
 Damon Terrell |
 Erika Wolf |
Three Wisconsin activists who pioneered the occupation of their State Capitol Building in Madison back in February are on their way to Massachusetts.
Ben Manski, an adjunct faculty member at Madison Technical College, lawyer and UW graduate, Erika Wolf, a state-wide student government staff person and Damon Terrell, a UW-Madison student (biographies attached) will address campus groups at UMass Boston, Boston College, Boston University, Brandies University, Stonehill College, Bridgewater State University, UMass Lowell, UMass Dartmouth, and trade unions including UNITE-HERE’s New England Joint Board, and the Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM). Finally, the tour will also include appearances at Occupy Boston during the week starting October 30 and run through Friday, November 4, 2011 (schedule attached).
According to Paul Shannon, a tour organizer, “Now is the time we need to draw on the Wisconsin activists; they have shown us how to protest, to occupy, to recall and to mobilize people in their tens of thousands over a sustained period of time. They are the marathoners who have a lot to share with our campuses and unions in Massachusetts. At a time when student debt surpasses credit card debt and when unions and labor is being forced to cutback, we need to learn from Wisconsin.”
Manski, who began planning Madison state house actions in December 2010, right after the election of Governor Walker, declares that these are dire times in need of grassroots solutions: “For tens of millions of Americans economic conditions have become intolerable. This is especially true for communities of color, working people and young folks, among them the many veterans of the unending wars. This is why we have burgeoning mass movements.”
Christine O’Connell who is organizing campus events notes that, “Our students have been participating in the Occupy movement’s actions and have been long organizing in support of workers on our campuses. We are reaching out to the folks from Wisconsin precisely because they've been connecting issues and built lasting grassroots mobilizations. We are excited by this overdue tour."
The tour is being organized and sponsored by the Majority Agenda Project, UNITE-HERE International, UNITE-HERE New England Joint Board, the American Friends Service Committee, Jobs with Justice, the Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts, the UMass Labor Resource Center, and Massachusetts Global Action.
For more information, contact Paul Shannon (617-623-5288) or Christine O’Connell (630-776-3561). Tour e-mail – info@majorityagendaproject.org
Wisconsin Wave: The #Occupy Massachusetts Tour
October 30 – November 4, 2011
|
Date |
Time |
Institution |
Host/Location |
|
Sun, Oct 30 |
6:00 p.m. |
Boston College |
Appalachia Volunteers of Boston College |
|
Mon, Oct 31 |
10:00 a.m. |
UMass Lowell |
|
|
|
12:30 p.m. |
UNITE-HERE |
New England Joint Board, 33 Harrison Ave, 8th floor, Boston, MA 02111 |
|
|
3:00 p.m. |
Boston University |
University Organizing Project |
|
|
7:00 p.m. |
Liberty Tree Foundation |
Friends Meeting House, 5 Longfellow Park Cambridge, MA 02138-4816 |
|
Tues, Nov 1 |
10:00 a.m. |
UMass Boston |
Class Lecture |
|
|
12:00 noon |
UMass Boston |
Union Meeting |
|
|
1:30 p.m. |
UMass Boston |
Student Rally |
|
|
4:30 p.m. |
Brandies University |
Class Lecture |
|
|
7:00 p.m. |
Boston College |
Student Meeting |
|
Wed, Nov 2 |
10:00 a.m. |
Stonehill College |
Class Lecture |
|
|
12:30 p.m. |
PHENOM Rally (Erika) |
MA State House/Dewey Square |
|
|
2:00 p.m. |
UMass Dartmouth (Ben & Damon) |
Class Lecture |
|
|
6:00 p.m. |
Bridgewater State University |
Public Meeting |
|
Thurs, Nov 3 |
~ noon |
Central MA |
TBD |
|
|
~ mid p.m. |
Western MA 1 |
TBD |
|
|
early eve |
Western MA 2 |
TBD |
|
Friday, Nov 4 |
12 noon |
Occupy Boston |
|
|
|
3:00 p.m. |
UMass Boston |
Student Meeting |
|
|
7:00 p.m. |
UMass Boston |
Campaign for the Future of Higher Education |
Wisconsin Wave- Speaker Biographies
Ben Manski: He was the initiator of the Wisconsin Wave, a broad coalition that has played a leading role in the Wisconsin uprising, and is also the executive director of the Liberty Tree Foundation, an associate fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies, and a co-founder of the Move to Amend coalition. Politically engaged since his early childhood in Israel and Wisconsin, now in his mid-30s, Ben Manski has worked for a variety of causes, notably serving as co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. Manski was a primary figure in the student movements of the 1990s, serving then as national coordinator of the Democracy Teach-Ins in the lead-up to the Seattle WTO protests. Today is a public interest lawyer, teaches sociology at Madison College, and remains a committed pro-democracy advocate.
Erika Wolf: With 10 years as a community organizer, peer educator, and public advocate under her belt, Erika Wolf became a hub of information, strategy, and organizing in the Wisconsin mobilizations through her role in the State Capitol Occupation. Through rallies, public hearings, marches, Walkerville tent city, and many of the actions in between, she has been a trainer, adviser, facilitator, mediator, tactician, and voice of reason. Erika is the Advocacy Field Organizer for United Council of UW Students, a job which makes her privy to strategizing and planning in Madison and statewide with labor leaders, folks directly affected by budget cuts and concessions, non-profit organizations, community leaders, lawyers, elected folks, police, and everyday activists. In the fight against the rise of fascism—in Wisconsin and in the US—Erika has placed herself in both behind-the-scenes logistics teams and on the frontlines, shoulder-to-shoulder with others engaged in this struggle. Erika believes that we all the individual power to take action to move this world from human wrongs to human rights.
Damon Terrell: A student at UW-Madison and a lifelong resident of Madison. He spent all but one of the 18 days in the State Capitol. He was also there when the movement retook the building back on march ninth. Since then he helped to found the Autonomous Solidarity Organization, a local nonprofit engaged in community buiding and organizing efforts. Additionally, Terrell has been active in working with United Council of UW Students to mobilize students on a statewide level.
