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Progressives Must Speak Out on the Financial Crisis

19 September 2008 - 10:09pm | jpramas
by Editor

It is the general policy of this publication to focus our news coverage and editorials squarely on issues of import to Boston and environs - a mandate we expand to include Massachusetts state politics since Boston is the seat of state government, and much of what's done at the State House has direct bearing on metropolitan politics. However, there are times when national and international politics burst in upon our normal reverie with such force that we'd be fools to ignore them.

The MBTA Needs Debt Relief

12 September 2008 - 3:41pm | jpramas
by Editor

This week's decision by MBTA leadership to renege on paying $43 million in back wages to thousands of unionized employees is but one more reason for the Massachusetts legislature to revisit the issue of debt relief for our state's main public transportation system.

Serving almost 200 cities and towns around Massachusetts, the MBTA is the transportation lifeline for over 1.1 million riders daily - in a state with a population of 6 million.

Open Media Boston Receives the 2008 Cloward-Piven Award from the New Political Science Caucus of the APSA

5 September 2008 - 5:02pm | jpramas
by Editor

Last Saturday, Open Media Boston was honored to receive the 2008 Richard Cloward-Frances Fox Piven Award from the New Political Science Caucus of the American Political Science Association at a ceremony at the Marriott Copley Hotel - site of the APSA annual convention. In his remarks prior to giving out the award, award committee char Prof.

As Poverty Grows in Boston, Progressive Solutions Are Lacking

29 August 2008 - 1:43pm | jpramas
by Editor

In Boston, as around the nation, poverty is on the rise. This is sadly unsurprising. Aside from a slight increase in gross domestic product in the second quarter of this year - due to improved export sales (courtesy of a weakening dollar) and the scant impact of the $600 "economic stimulus" checks thrown at many (but not all) citizens (but not most immigrants) by the Bush administration in the spring - there's nothing to cheer about in the American economy of late.

Massachusetts Needs a Progressive Transportation Plan

22 August 2008 - 8:33pm | jpramas
by Editor

With gas prices heading up as the value of the dollar heads down, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority flailing about in vain for neoclassical economic solutions to its growing austerity-induced budget problems, and that same authority's "stem to stern" review of the Ted Williams Tunnel determining that it is not possible to stop it from leaking permanently, it seems like a good moment to call for a progressive transportation plan for the Commonwealth.

Vote No on Question 1

15 August 2008 - 6:52pm | jpramas
by Editor

While we may not agree with everything that unions do politically - cleaving to the Democratic Party even on the occasions where there are left alternatives, for example - we certainly agree with the growing union-led movement to "Vote No on Question 1" in the November elections. If passed by statewide referendum, Question 1 would eliminate the Massachusetts state income tax. Cutting at least 40% of our state government's funding stream right off the top starting January 1, 2010.

ICE Raids are Unacceptable Assaults on Democracy

8 August 2008 - 7:24pm | jpramas
by Editor

We find it ironic in the extreme that the very week a dying man chooses to spend his last days walking in solidarity with undocumented immigrants that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement once again starts raiding local immigrant communities in the dead of night, arresting and detaining almost 100 people with little in the way of due process, and starts trying to hustle them out of Massachusetts at speed before anyone can start looking real close at what exactly is going on here.

Boston Should Become a Human Rights City

1 August 2008 - 6:38pm | jpramas
by Editor

Open Media Boston co-sponsored a 100-person "Ideas and Action: Human Rights in Boston and the United States" conference yesterday at the Boston Public Library and the Old South Church that joined a number of progressive sociologists in town for the annual conference of the American Sociological Association together with local community activists to discuss the possibility of Boston joining the growing ranks of "Human Rights Cities" around the world.

Why Support Strikes?

25 July 2008 - 5:37pm | jpramas
by Editor

As the word gets out that 9,000 Verizon workers unionized with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers across Southern New England have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike next Friday unless the company meets their contract demands, it seems a propitious moment to say a few words about why it's important for working people to support strikes and other labor actions.

Mass. Legislature Needs to Override Gov. Patrick's Budget Vetoes

18 July 2008 - 3:34pm | jpramas
by Editor

Gov. Patrick's recent vetoes to key public services earlier this week are unconscionable given the fact of the worsening economic situation in Massachusetts coupled with recent cuts to state corporate tax rates, and need to be overridden by the legislature immediately.

We are shocked that the governor could lop off over $122 million from an already tight legislative conference budget, and that he seeks to add insult to injury by demanding sweeping powers to make further unilateral cuts later this year - a feat previously achieved by former Gov. Mitt Romney in 2003.

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