March and Rally on Wednesday
I have to admit that I enjoyed the rally and march on Wednesday, June 30. We started at Boston Common in our green shirts with our green signs and after a few obligatory speeches we marched to City Hall to yell at the big concrete monstrosity and at the Mayor as well who had just signed a bill that will end up instituting cuts to city services including libraries, at least that is what I got out of the speeches.
Though I thought the march was rather tame it was great when we finally took the street for the last block before City Hall. We sure were a polite protest group. No arrests, no confrontation, no media. If I had not been there I would not have known that a few thousand people rallied and marched through the streets of Boston on the eve of the celebration of the country’s 234th birthday.
Next time we could partner with The Ruckus Society, the Wobblies, Earth First!, Longshoremen and pull off a banner hang and some kind of symbolic arrest action. Two or three members in green shirts rappelling off of City Hall with a big banner “Senator Brown Votes Against Jobs”, as we all came marching around the corner would send a stronger message. It would also provide a nice image for the front page of the local paper. AFSCME is here and we mean business!
Collective Witness and Solidarity
The other thing I really like is that there were so many folks who were taking part in their first AFSCME International Convention, myself included. We saw Big Boss Man Corruption first hand and even though the nasty taste is still in our mouths we will get our act together for 2012 and send Gerry into retirement with a sea change of Union Leadership.
Just like the Bushies’ stolen elections got us riled up this will do the same. Time to start writing the songs, slogans and speeches we will bring to L.A. in 2012. Time to start solidifying those relationships we made in Boston and keep organizing the campaigns that will elevate the new leadership this union deserves.
Remember Boston! It was the Boston Democracy Massacre!
No comments:
Post a Comment