Join City Councilors Chuck Turner & Charles Yancey and Community Activists & Trade Unionists
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@iacboston.org