Massachusetts Archives

WHEN SLOGANS REPLACE BIRTHRIGHTS

How corporate ed reform threatens democracy April 25, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Over the last couple of decades, it has become fashionable for Americans to attack our public education system. Behind these attacks is that most un-American of attitudes: elitism. This is problematic for a number of reasons — the main

JASON PRAMAS April 25, 2017

GEORGE IS READY

The first installment of Rolling Along as Long as It Lasts, a series of profiles and interviews from inside the Massachusetts Department of Correction. George McGrath has been inside Massachusetts prisons for a very long time, due to his being convicted as the getaway driver in a Jamaica Plain drugstore

ARNIE KING April 10, 2017

ACTION CALL: SAVE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION WITH INVEST NOW MASS

Photo of giant Charlie by Chris Faraone March 21, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Over the long four months since the election of President Donald Trump, this column has focused more on national politics than usual — with special attention to the promising wave of broadly progressive grassroots activism that has

JASON PRAMAS March 21, 2017

HOW TO FIND A DECENT PROGRESSIVE ACTIVIST GROUP

Photo by Chris Faraone February 6, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS So you went to one of the recent big anti-Trump actions, and you want to become a progressive activist. Not just vote every year or two. Great. But there are dozens of major left activist organizations and hundreds of

JASON PRAMAS February 6, 2017

POWER STRUGGLE

Regulators infuriate activists with announcement that power plant will stay open About 300 residents of Cape Cod and the South Shore packed into the ballroom of Hotel 1620 in Plymouth last Tuesday, hoping to finally get some answers from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) about the future of the beleaguered operation

MIRIAM WASSER February 6, 2017

A QUESTION OF STRATEGY: WILL WOMEN’S MARCH LEADERS HELP BUILD A DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT OR JUST PUT THE DEMS BACK IN POWER?

Photo by Scott Murry January 24, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS The Boston Women’s March for America was a tremendous success by any metric. Likely the largest political demonstration in the city’s history, its estimated 175,000 attendees made it big enough to dwarf even many national demonstrations of the last

JASON PRAMAS January 24, 2017

DAKOTA DISPATCH

Mass residents participate in humility at Standing Rock WORDS AND PHOTOS BY KORI FEENER DAY 1 (Friday, Dec 3, 2016) Vehicles line Highway 1806 heading into Oceti Sakowin camp. Security stops every car passing through, counting heads and screening visitors. Up on Media Hill—the only piece of high ground with cell

KORI FEENER December 13, 2016

TRASH TO TABLE

Everything you didn’t want to know about cannibal swine and trash feeding, from Mass to the UK BY EVAN C. ANDERSON AND KATIE CAMPISI On a crisp fall day in 2007, a Massachusetts motorcyclist was headed home on I-93 North, enjoying the New England air, the light and sweet smell of the fallen leaves,

KATIE CAMPISI December 7, 2016

HOMELESS FOR THE HOLIDAYS: SAVAGE CUTS AND CRAPPY JOBS ARE WHAT GOT US HERE

December 6, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS For many people, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the only time of year that their thoughts turn to the plight of the homeless. Money, food, and presents are donated. And time is volunteered at shelters. All to make sure that people

JASON PRAMAS December 6, 2016

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