Create account | Log in All sections News Commentary Announcement Review Interview All categories DNC Education Environment Gender Gentrification GLBT/Queer Globalization Human Rights International Labor Media Occupy Boston Organizing Palestine Police and Prisons Politics Race Radical Culture Social Welfare Technology War and Militarism Comment on this feature | Email this feature | Printer-friendly version News :: Occupy Boston Banner Drop Downtown Activists dropped a banner at a downtown parking garage Wednesday morning to protest Mayor Menino's recent statements concerning anarchists. The following communique was released.



Boston, MA – A group of anarchists from Boston hung a 15-foot banner from a

parking garage near Dewey Square, the site of Occupy Boston, early this

Wednesday with a message for Mayor Thomas Menino. The banner read, "Menino:

We cook meals, we provide first aid, we give legal support, we organize at

Dewey and in our communities. We live in Boston. Do not be trifling with

us." The statement is signed "we are far more than 40" (a reference to a

seemingly arbitrary number of anarchists cited by Menino) enclosed with two large circled "a"s.



The action comes in the wake of statements made by the mayor earlier

this month claiming that "anarchists" from "another country, another city"

who "move from city to city to raise the issue of civil disobedience" and

"don't care if they get arrested" were responsible for the attempted

expansion of the occupation that resulted in 141 arrests on October 11th.

Menino was insistent that the "new group" was different from the group that

had been there for the first few weeks. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis

gave the same story: "The anarchists have taken over," he told the Boston

Herald in an interview following the arrests.



Anarchists tell a different story, claiming involvement in the

occupation from its start. The group responsible for the action Wednesday

morning released the following communiqué:



"We dropped this banner to poke fun at recent statements made by Mayor

Menino and the Boston Police Department in regards to anarchist involvement

in the Occupy Boston Movement, but also to send a message: though the media

may print whatever senseless garbage you say about us, we will not just sit

back and let you go unchallenged.



Though we do find Mayor Menino's ridiculous claims humorous, we do not

think there is anything funny about the police brutality ordered by Menino

and acted out by the BPD against peaceful demonstrators on Oct. 11th. We

also find humourless the mayor's attempt to blame anarchists, who have thus

far remained peaceful in the occupation, for his own violent decisions.



We know now that 135 out of 141 arrested on the 11th were residents of

the Boston area, so Menino's conspiracy that 40 anarchists "from another

country" were behind the action need hardly be commented on.

Anarchists from Boston, however, have been active in this occupation

since day one. From facilitating meetings, to cooking meals, to providing

legal support, we have played lead and supporting roles in every aspect of

this movement. After all, as the Boston Phoenix recently pointed out,

autonomous spaces run non-hierarchically using consensus process and a focus

on direct action are kind of our thing.



And you know us, Menino. Whether we're stopping your racist biolab,

organizing against foreclosure and eviction in our neighbourhoods or serving

food to those you would see starve, we've been a thorn in your side and the

sides of all those who would defend state and capital for years. Don't

pretend we don't exist, we may surprise you by being everywhere. - An

Affinity Group of Boston Anarchists"



(Note: We do not claim that these views represent all anarchists in

and around Boston, nor do we desire to speak for anyone outside of our

affinity group. These words are our own.)"





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