[act-ma] 10/30 - 11/4 Wisconsin Wave Tours Massachusetts

[Suren Moodliar]

Contact:               Paul Shannon (617-623-5288)
*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
*                                Christine O’Connell (630-776-3561)
                                tour e-mail – info at majorityagendaproject.org

*Tour Takes #Occupy Movement beyond Protest*

*MA Campuses to Host Wisconsin Activists Focusing on How to Sustain and
Expand Protest Movement*


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 and to interview the Wisconsin Wave activists, contact
Paul Shannon or Christine O’Connell.*

*
*

**
*

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.*
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