Thursday, July 26, 2018

In Boston-Community Meeting: Tax the Big Universities to Fund Affordable Housing

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Community Meeting!

Joined by Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards

Tuesday, July 31st at 6:30pm
Encuentro5 - 9A Hamilton Pl.
(Downtown Boston near Park St.)

Click Here for the Facebook Event Link
Click here to sign the petition calling on City Council to Tax the Big Universities to Fund Affordable Housing!
The affordable housing crisis in Boston is getting worse and the city’s political establishment has proven unwilling and unable to fix it. The only way is to build a movement that forces their hand.

The big private universities in Boston own $9 billion of property and help drive gentrification, but don’t pay property taxes. We demand they pay their share to fund the construction of public, high quality affordable housing. We also need rent control to stop skyrocketing rents and protect our homes.

Join Socialist Alternative, other housing activists, and City Councilor Lydia Edwards for a community discussion on building a movement that can achieve this on Tuesday, July 31st at 6:30pm at Encuentro5 in Downtown Boston!
Background on the issue of taxing the big universities:

There are 58 universities in the Greater Boston area, 57 of them being private. These private universities, despite being multi-billion dollar institutions, are technically non-profits and therefore pay nothing in property taxes while working class Bostonians ours every year. The City set up a program called PILOT, Payment in Lieu of Taxes, whereby they “ask” all the private universities that own $15 million or more in property to make a voluntary payment of 25% of what their property taxes would be to give back to the city.

Unfortunately, very few of them actually make the full payments. Despite being some of the biggest landowners in Boston, last year Harvard (owns 650 buildings) paid 13% of what its property taxes would be, BU paid 19%, and Northeastern paid 6%. The universities themselves are also a leading cause of gentrification in our city.
RSVP to the Community Meeting Here!
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From The Socialist Alternative - Slumlord Haglund appeals suit against Sawant!




<watson@socialistalternative.org>
T

Friends,

Last month a federal judge dismissed 4 of the 9 complaints by the notorious slumlord Carl Haglund in his defamation lawsuit against Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant. Undeterred, Haglund has filed an appeal with the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Donate $15, $27, or $100 today to send a clear message to the corporate establishment that you oppose these intimidation tactics and stand shoulder to shoulder with Kshama!

Haglund, along with two Seattle Police officers in separate motions, filed defamation lawsuits against Sawant in an effort to strike a blow against the growing movements for affordable housing and against racist police violence.  It’s clear these lawsuits are bullying tactics, taken straight from Trump’s playbook, to pushback against movements that have won important victories against Seattle’s developers, landlords, and the police department - most notably the high profile defeat of the Seattle Police bunker, the Block the Bunker campaign, led by Sawant and Black Lives Matter. In response to this intimidation, a Kshama Sawant Solidarity Campaign has been launched (read our exciting report about the June launch rally!)

Haglund and his right-wing corporate backers, emboldened by the shameful capitulation of the majority of Seattle City Council to the extortionary demands of Amazon to repeal the Amazon Tax (a tax which would have funded thousands of affordable housing units for working people and the homeless), are determined to intimidate future movements of working people against the rapacity of developers and landlords profiting off Seattle’s affordability crisis by making an example out of Sawant.

We can defeat Haglund and the developers trying to intimidate our movement, by building the largest Kshama Solidarity Campaign as possible.

Just like we did when we built a movement of renters to force the new law - which was dubbed the “Carl Haglund law” - that prevents landlords from increasing rent in substandard, rat infested dwellings until they have addressed code violations, we’ll need to build a movement to defend political representatives like Sawant who tirelessly use their positions to challenge corporate domination and the Right.

The Kshama Solidarity Campaign will continue to support actions and events to take the fight to the landlords and police, and to stand up to all attempts to intimidate activists, tenants, and anyone who speaks out against injustice. Chip in $15, $27, or $100 to help us get the word out and build the strongest fightback possible!  Check our facebook page to get updates and how you can get involved!

In solidarity,
Emerson Johnson
Organizer

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Veterans For Peace-33rd Annual Convention In August-Reclaim Armistice Day

Veterans For Peace<vfp@veteransforpeace.org>
To  alfredjohnson34@comcast.net  


The Veterans For Peace convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 22-26, is going to be nothing short of awesome!  We know we say it almost every year, but you don’t want to miss the convention this year!  If you haven’t seen this video from last year, make sure to give it a watch!

This year’s theme is Reclaim Armistice Day - End All Wars! The Twin Cities VFP chapter has done an excellent job working with the National Office staff and the Board of Directors to bring together a great convention. For years, the Twin Cities chapter has been one of the strongest chapters ringing the bells to  “Reclaim Armistice Day.” They introduced the first ever resolution in support of Armistice Day in 2008.
The VFP convention will be held 100 years after the armistice that ended the horrific carnage of World War I, and 90 years after the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the international agreement in which countries promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them.  Frank Kellogg, who was a Minnesota senator before becoming U.S. Secretary of State, co-authored the pact with French Foreign Minister Briand in 1928, for which the two men were awarded the 1929 Nobel Peace Prize.  It is fitting then that the VFP Convention will be held on Kellogg Avenue, the location of the St. Paul InterContinental, a union hotel owned by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe (Misi-zaagan’iganiAnishinaabeg).

The weekend of plenaries and workshops will begin with a plenary on Indigenous History and the Discovery Doctrine.  The Twin Cities are home to the inspiring Indigenous Youth Ceremonial Mentoring Society, who recently traveled to the Vatican to advocate for the abolishment of the Discovery Doctrine.  

We are honored to have Christine Ahn, founder and International Coordinator of Women Cross DMZ, as our banquet speaker on Saturday evening.  Christine Ahn, has  traveled many times to Korea, bringing women from all over the world to meet with women in both the North and the South of Korea. Women Cross DMZ has had a real impact on building support in Korea and the U.S. for peace and disarmament on the Korean Peninsula.

Many women will play leading roles at the VFP convention. Aida Touma-Sliman, a well-known Palestinian journalist and member of the Israeli Knesset will speak on Friday morning about the new apartheid law in Israel.  Medea Benjamin will address the danger of a U.S. war on Iran. Colonel Ann Wright will report on her experience with the Freedom Flotilla, currently headed to Gaza.  Former National Lawyers Guild president Marjorie Cohn will be joined by Phyllis Bennis and Ellen Barfield on a plenary discussion about the potential for working within the United Nations.  Becky Leuning will facilitate a mini-plenary on the Crisis at the Border, and U.S. Policy in Latin America, to include Nellie Jo David, Tohono O’odham, environmental justice activist, and Daira Quinone, Afro-Colombian singer and human rights activist.  

Throughout the weekend we will hear speakers on a range of issues from VFP campaigns and projects, like the Korea Peace Campaign, Save Our VA and updates from the Veterans Peace Team.  We are also honored to have activist leaders from coalition partners from various organizations like About Face: Veterans Against War and CodePink.

Iraq war veteran and GI resister Camilo Mejia will speak about U.S. intervention in his home country, Nicaragua, as well as in Venezuela. Iranian-American veteran Bahman Azad will speak about U.S. intervention throughout the Middle East.

There will also be time to enjoy one another and listen to some good music!  On Thursday evening, we will enjoy a two-hour Mississippi riverboat cruise on the Anson Northrup replete with tempting finger food and music by Ali Washington.  Ali is “a refreshing twist on the soulful sounds of classic Motown and today's Pop and R&B” and is a local legend!  On Saturday night after the banquet, we will be dancing up a storm to music by a great local DJ.

At our closing plenary on Sunday, we will say our “peace” with a commemoration of the signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact for world peace 90 years ago. Author, blogger and activist David Swanson and local peace activists from VFP and from Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) will participate in the commemoration.

We can’t wait to see you in St. Paul!  As we said, you really won’t want to miss it.   Please register now, if you haven’t already done so.

END ALL WARS!
Gerry Condon
VFP Board President

P.S. If you can’t make it to the convention this year, please help a veteran attend. Please support our Post-911 veteran and VFP member fund to attend the convention. Your support will make the convention accessible to veterans who otherwise would not be able to attend. 

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