criticism Archives

AMAZON OCTAGON

Mass pols stand ready to fight each other for the right to bribe a multinational October 10, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS At least 17 Massachusetts cities and towns are now preparing to do battle with each other—and hundreds more municipalities nationwide—for the dubious “honor” of “winning” the right to

JASON PRAMAS October 10, 2017

AN AMAZON NORTH ANDOVER DEAL?

Sketch of the Merrimack Valley Works plant at North Andover while under construction in 1955 Merrimack Valley pols courting the tech behemoth have forgotten recent history Sept 26, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS A couple of weeks ago, I criticized the possibility of an Amazon Boston deal—on the grounds that most

JASON PRAMAS September 26, 2017

STOP THE AMAZON BOSTON DEAL

Locals have until Oct 19 to say ‘No Public Bribes to Corporate Scofflaws’ Sept. 12, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Fresh off of throwing tens of millions of dollars at General Electric, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker are now planning to enter the international horse race to convince

JASON PRAMAS September 12, 2017

A PROTEST BY ANY OTHER NAME…

The best way to defeat the ultra right is to stop playing their game August 15, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Street protest is a vital part of any genuinely democratic political system. But how and when people choose to demonstrate (or counterdemonstrate) determines the tactic’s relative success or failure.

JASON PRAMAS August 15, 2017

MANCHESTER DIVIDED: SEIU ‘FIGHTS FOR $15’ IN NH WHILE ITS CANDIDATE FIGHTS FOR $12

Photo by Derek Kouyoumjian February 8, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS The “protest pit” outside the Republican Presidential Debate at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire on Saturday evening was a fenced-in area in a field about a quarter mile down the road from the main entrance to the

JASON PRAMAS February 8, 2016

GO BIG OR GO HOME: TOWARDS A MASS CLIMATE JUSTICE MOVEMENT

Image by Kent Buckley December 16, 2015 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS On Saturday, one important global process ended and another began. The process that ended manifested in the form of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The process that began—or more correctly, accelerated—manifested in cities all over the world.

JASON PRAMAS December 16, 2015

GROUNDED MONKEYS: MILLIONAIRES UNLIKELY TO FLEE COMMONWEALTH IF RAISE UP MASS WINS TAX ON 1 PERCENT

Image by Kent Buckley December 8, 2015 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Boston Business Journal’s Craig Douglas made an interesting criticism of Raise Up Massachusetts last week (“Excited about the proposed millionaires tax? Cut off your nose while you’re at it,” Dec. 4). For those who missed it, RUM is a

JASON PRAMAS December 8, 2015

BARGAINING AGAINST OURSELVES: MEANS TESTING MBTA FARES WILL DECREASE PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR MASS TRANSIT

Image by Kent Buckley November 30, 2015 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS As the latest round of the ongoing neoliberal campaign to shift the cost of mass transit in Massachusetts from state government to individual riders gets in gear—a necessary step along the road to privatizing the MBTA—regular readers will be

JASON PRAMAS November 30, 2015

REMEMBRANCE AND PROTEST: THANKSGIVING THEN & NOW

November 23, 2015 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS The following passage is excerpted from a piece I wrote in 2005. It recounts the story of King Philip’s War—which was fought across southern New England 340 years ago, and started not far from where I attended a Thanksgiving dinner that year at

JASON PRAMAS November 23, 2015

MASS BAIL REFORM NOW

November 9, 2015 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Lots of innocent people are spending time in jail in Massachusetts. And unsurprisingly many of those people are poor and a disproportionate number are people of color. But they are not convicted criminals. They are people who are charged with a crime—often a

JASON PRAMAS November 9, 2015