Tag Archives: activism

Home, Urban Studies

Decolonize This Museum: An Indigenous Peoples’ Day Action

On Monday, residents of cities and states around the country celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day. New Yorkers, meanwhile, observed a holiday with what, for many, is an offensive and outdated name: Columbus Day.

Cities like Seattle, Denver and Phoenix have all renamed the civic holiday in honor of the indigenous people on whose land America was founded, rather than the colonial conqueror who claimed it in the name of Europeans. But New York City has yet to make such a move. For indigenous activists and their allies, this failure is part of a long chain of white supremacist actions, aggressions and traumas, the symbols of which are visible throughout the city.

One such symbol is a 10-foot tall statue in front of the American Museum of Natural History. The statue features Theodore Roosevelt on a horse, flanked on one side by an African man and on the other, an indigenous man: a starkly racist image of a colonialist history. This past Monday, hundreds of activists came together to cover the statue with a parachute and “Decolonize This Place,” demanding both the removal of the statue and the renaming of the holiday. Continue reading Decolonize This Museum: An Indigenous Peoples’ Day Action →

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Remembering Grace Lee Boggs (1915-2015)

Grace Lee Boggs was no ordinary activist. A trailblazer in the civil rights, black power, labor, environmental justice and feminist movements, she formed strong and enduring relationships, reflected deeply, and contributed to the foundation on which so much grassroots innovation, exploration and resistance continues to take place in Detroit.

Boggs died yesterday morning at the age of 100 in her home in Detroit. We remember her as a leader and hero, and look to her legacy for lessons on how we can wage struggles now and in the future: with tenacity, bravery and love.

From the New York Times obituary by Robert D. McFadden:

Born to Chinese immigrants, Ms. Boggs was an author and philosopher who planted gardens on vacant lots, founded community organizations and political movements, marched against racism, lectured widely on human rights and wrote books on her evolving vision of a revolution in America.

Her odyssey took her from the streets of Chicago as a tenant organizer in the 1940s to arcane academic debates about the nature of communism, from the confrontational tactics of Malcolm X and the Black Power movement to the nonviolent strategies of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and finally to her own manifesto for change — based not on political and economic upheavals but on community organizing and resurgent moral values.

“I think that too much of our emphasis on struggle has simply been in terms of confrontation and not enough recognition of how much spiritual and moral force is involved in the people who are struggling,” Ms. Boggs told Bill Moyers in a PBS interview in 2007. “We have not emphasized sufficiently the cultural revolution that we have to make among ourselves in order to force the government to do differently.”

For the full obituary, visit the New York Times.

For video clips of Boggs throughout the years, visit Democracy Now!

Photo by Kyle McDonald via flickr (CC-BY).

Home, Murphy News

NYC Organizers Share Lessons from Spanish Anti-Austerity Movements at Murphy

This article was originally featured on The Indypendent.

By Janaki Chadha

After Greece, Spain has been one of the European countries hardest hit by the economic crisis that began in 2008. Unemployment stands at almost 25% and for young people it is twice that high. Spanish voters registered their desire for change in municipal elections on May 24 that brought leftist to power in Madrid, Barcelona and a half dozen other cities.

NYC to Spain, a diverse group of 20 mostly New York City-based activists, was on hand to witness and learn from Spain’s democratic uprising. On Tuesday evening, they gathered at the Murphy Institute to share their experiences and observations on Spain’s vibrant social movements. A crowd of about 100 people was on hand.

“We all know that the context is really different, but there are still commonalities,” said Lucas Shapiro, one of the organizers of the delegation. “Part of the importance of global solidarity is to be able to learn from other movements.” Continue reading NYC Organizers Share Lessons from Spanish Anti-Austerity Movements at Murphy →

Alumni Spotlight, Home, Labor Studies, Murphy News

Murphy Alum Featured in Public Employee Press

This past summer, Tracye Hawthorne, graduate of Murphy’s Cornell/CUNY Labor Relations Certificate Program, was featured in DC37’s Public Employee Press. The article, entitled The Making of an Activist, describes Hawthorne’s journey to becoming shop steward at Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549.

From the profile, by Gregory N. Heires:

Arkansas – (a “right-to-work” for less state that prohibits union security agreements) – isn’t exactly a hotbed of union activity. Most workers there lack the job security and workplace protections that so many in New York City have.

So when Arkansas native Tracye Hawthorne moved to New York City over five years ago, she was only too happy to find a job as a unionized civil servant.

Continue reading Murphy Alum Featured in Public Employee Press →