[act-ma] 10/27 - Join City Hall Press Conf./Rally to Restore ALL Utility Shutoffs Now!

[Women's Fightback Network]

*Join City Councilors Chuck Turner & Charles Yancey*
*and community activists & trade unionists in a*

*PRESS CONFERENCE - RALLY*
*Monday October 27- 4pm *
Curley Room, Boston City Hall

*National Grid and NStar:* Restore Heat and Light to all those who have 
been cut off NOW!

*Governor Patrick:* Declare an Economic State of Emergency and issue an 
executive order to insure that no one goes without heat or light this 
winter!

*Mayor Menino:* Declare a State of Emergency in Boston and ensure no one 
is without heat and light in the city!

Poor and working people face a humanitarian crisis this winter: 
thousands are without heat and light as the winter cold season begins. 
Last May, when the annual November to April moratorium on utility 
shutoffs ended, over 100,000 in Massachusetts received utility shutoff 
notices, as reported in the Boston Globe. 
The growing economic crisis is devastating Boston as well as communities 
throughout Massachusetts resulting in an untold number of people unable 
to pay their utility bills and who have been shut off or, in many cases, 
not had their utilities turned back on.  How many of these shutoffs are 
in communities of color?  How many are women and children, elders, and 
the disabled?

National Grid and NStar must open their books and reveal exactly who has 
been and remains shut off, and restore power to these families immediately!

Governor Patrick should utilize his powers under state law (Chapter 639) 
to declare a Gubernatorial State of Emergency, and issue an executive 
order insuring that no one is left in the cold and dark this winter.

The Winter of 2008 is predicted to be very severe.  We will not stand by 
while people freeze, or go without lights while NSTAR ($7.8B in assets) 
and National Grid make millions in profits. $150M a day is going to the 
war in Iraq, and Bush bails out the banks to the tune of over a 
trillion, while poor and working families are homeless, jobless and 
children are going hungry - we need to bring this money back here to our 
communities.  Youth need education and jobs, NOT jails.  Heat, Housing, 
Food and Fuel are a Right! Together we have the power to build a 
movement to turn this around.

This press conference / rally is part of nationally coordinated local 
protest actions demanding *"Bail Out the People, Not the Bankers"*. 
Actions will occur in over a dozen cities around the country on October 
24-27 saying:

/*IT'S TIME FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO DECLARE AN ECONOMIC STATE OF EMERGENCY 
AND GIVE DIRECT HELP TO THE PEOPLE--NOT THE BANKS */
The following are some of the growing list of emergency measures that 
people across the country will be raising at protests during the Days of 
Action:

    * Emergency moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions
    * No budget cuts in education, healthcare and all social services
    * No layoffs, extend unemployment benefits
    * No utility shut-offs
    * Debt relief for students, poor and working people
    * Protect public and private pensions
    * Jobs at a living wage

*Local Endorsers (partial list):* City Councilor Chuck Turner; City 
Councilor Charles Yancey; Frantz Mendes, President, USW Local 8751 
(Boston School Bus Union); Bishop Filipe Teixeira, OFSJC, Diocese of St. 
Francis of Assissi, CCA; Tony Hernandez, Organizer, District Council 35, 
Painters and Allied Trades; New England Human Rights for Haiti; Women's 
Fightback Network, FIST (Fight Imperialism, Stand Together)

Initiators of the national days of action include:
Ad-hoc National Network to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions, Bail Out the 
People Movement, Women's Fightback Network (Massachusetts), Frantz 
Mendes, President, USW local 8751 (Boston School Bus Drivers), Bishop 
Filipe Teixeira, OFSJC, Moratorium Now Coalition To StopForeclosures and 
Evictions (Michigan), Labor/Community Coalition to StopForeclosures and 
Evictions (California), Service Employees International Union, Local 
721, Latino Caucus, SEIU Local 721, Gloria Saucedo, Hermandad Mexicana 
Nacional, BAYAN USA, NY May 1 Coalition For Workers and Immigrants 
Rights, Chris Silvera, Secretary Treasurer, Teamster local 808, Brenda 
Stokely, New York Solidarity Coalition with Katrina/Rita Survivors, La 
Peña Del Bronz, Trabahadores Por La Paz, Rebel Diaz, Queers for Peace 
and Justice, Action Center for Justice (North Carolina), FIST (Fight 
Imperialism, Stand Together), Troops Out Now Coalition (partial list)


*For more information contact:*
Councilor Turner's office - 617-635-3510
Women's Fightback Network - 617-522-6626 - wfn at iacboston.org - 
www.iacboston.org/wfn

**
-- 
*******************************************
*Women's FightBack Network*

*Boston:*
617-522-6626
wfn at iacboston.org <mailto:wfn at iacboston.org>
www.iacboston.org/wfn <http://www.iacboston.org/wfn>

*National Office:*
212-633-6646
www.iacenter.org <http://www.iacenter.org>


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