Massachusetts Archives

WHY NATIVISM REMAINS THE POLITICS OF THE SCOUNDREL

November 17, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS In early November, I wrote the following commentary for the third episode of the Beyond Boston video news digest that my organization produces monthly in collaboration with several Boston area public access TV stations. Given the nature of the political crisis sparked by

JASON PRAMAS November 17, 2016

DEMOCRATIZE AMERICA: THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE NATION AND THE PLANET DOESN’T STOP ON ELECTION DAY

November 8, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS This is not a dream. For your whole life, you’ve seen images on screens showing brutal political struggles in faraway places like Ukraine and Yemen. And in the rare moments you’ve paid attention to the suffering you’ve seen, you’ve asked yourself, “How could

JASON PRAMAS November 8, 2016

UMASS CAMBRIDGE: MAKING HARVARD UNIVERSITY PUBLIC WILL SOLVE ITS WORKERS’ PROBLEMS—AND THE COMMONWEALTH’S HIGHER ED CRISIS

October 24, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Three weeks into their strike, Harvard University dining hall workers are in a difficult position. Their union’s demands for better wages, benefits, and working conditions are falling on deaf ears in the Harvard administration. They cannot continue picketing indefinitely on $200 weekly strike

JASON PRAMAS October 24, 2016

THE THIRSTY GAMES CONTINUE

After failed attempt by Boston to gain control over licenses, liquor laws still stuck in last century Earlier this year, DigBoston and the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism published a two–part feature, The Thirsty Games, investigating the Hub’s antiquated liquor license quota, and the confusion and disparity the limited number of licenses has caused. The series

HALEY HAMILTON August 1, 2016

KILL SHOT 2: MASS PUBLIC HIGHER ED STILL ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK

UMass President’s Office at One Beacon Street in Boston Overlooking the Massachusetts State House July 12, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Will campus advocates spark a rebellion for proper funding or cling to failed politics as usual? Hot on the heels of the UMass Boston administration issuing pink slips to

JASON PRAMAS July 12, 2016

HOW MASS BECAME GROUND-ZERO FOR CORPORATE ED REFORM

With a statewide referendum looming in November, Massachusetts voters will have to decide just how much school privatization they’re willing to bear. What happens when charter schools begin to proliferate in traditional public school districts? In Massachusetts, where K-12 alternatives have had more than two decades to metastasize, it means

CHRIS FARAONE July 5, 2016

KILL SHOT: YEARS OF STATE AUSTERITY BUDGETS PUT UMASS BOSTON IN JEOPARDY

June 10, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Community needs to join Faculty Staff Union movement for a return to full funding There is only one appropriate response to the looming layoff of 400 unionized non-tenure track faculty at UMass Boston. Rebellion. We are well past the era of shots across

JASON PRAMAS June 10, 2016

AUSTERITY BUDGET, PART 4

June 6, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS The Worst of the Senate FY 2017 State Budget Proposal Continuing to track the worst proposed cuts at different stages of the vicious and dispiriting annual Massachusetts state budget process, it’s time for a look at the full Senate budget proposal. As with

JASON PRAMAS June 6, 2016

SPECIAL REJECTION

Election officials can’t stop this East Boston activist from running for State Senate When nine-year First Suffolk and Middlesex State Sen. Anthony Petruccelli announced his resignation last December, Latino voters in the lawmaker’s disjointed district — which includes slices of Chinatown, East Boston, and the North End in the Hub, as well as

CHRIS FARAONE June 5, 2016

STATE OF THE BOSTON COMEDY UNION

Seven comics. Two hours. One historic summit on the state of stand-up comedy in the Hub. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Governor, members of the House and Senate, our fellow Greater Bostonians: Sixteen years into this new century, you can talk to any seasoned comedy fan in Greater Boston, the ones who

DAN MCCARTHY May 25, 2016