Elections

Watertown Group Celebrates Election of Biden & Harris, See the Photos

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Watertown Citizens for Peace Justice & the Environment celebrated the victory of Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential Election on Saturday in Watertown Square. While the calling the 2020 Presidential election for Joe Biden drew large celebrations in cities around the country, members of a progressive Watertown group had a smaller-scale one in Watertown. One of the signs held up by at the celebration of Joe Biden’s election on Saturday in Watertown Square. Members of Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice & the Environment gathered on the Watertown Square Delta to cheer, hold signs and bang on pots and pans Saturday afternoon. People banged pots and pans and other noisemakers at the Watertown Citizens for Peace Justice & the Environment’s celebration in Watertown Square for the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Around Town

Watertown Group Hosting Discussion of Israeli-Palestinian Land Issues

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The following announcement was provided by Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment:

Please join us at the October Monthly Meeting of Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice, and the Environment for a very special program “Israeli Annexation – Geopolitical Implications and the Future of Palestine.” 

Date: Wednesday, October 21, 6:45 PM to 9:00 PM

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86157111785?pwd=a1NJMU1qaG5jbjh5bGtmWTIrbkVVQT09

We are very excited to have as our guests Phyllis Bennis, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, one of the founders of U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, board member of Jewish Voice for Peace and author of Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer and Leila Farsakh, Associate Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at the UMass Boston, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Development Studies at Birzeit University, West Bank and author of Palestinian Labor Migration to Israel: Labor, Land and Occupation. 

The government of Israel threatened to formally annex parts of the West Bank in July 2020, while they have been carrying out de facto annexation for years, since 1967 – by confiscating land, building the wall within the Green line, demolishing homes and expelling Palestinians.  July 1 came and went without annexation – and then we learned in Sept. that the UAE, and subsequently Bahrain, agreed to normalize relations with Israel, in return for which (or so it seems) “formal” annexation has been delayed.  Our speakers will present the geopolitical context in which all this is happening and what annexation actually means for Palestinians in the occupied territories and within Israel proper (within the Green line). Jeff Klein, Coordinator of Mass Peace Action’s Israel/Palestine Committee and member of the Steering Committee of Massachusetts Against Israeli Annexation, will close the program by presenting action items that the participants can take to address the issue of annexation and occupation. 

For questions email watertowncitizens@gmail.com and visit us at watertowncitizens.org  

Co-sponsors:  Mass. Peace Action, The Community Church of Boston, Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East – MA Chapter, Jewish Voice for Peace Boston.

Around Town

Watertown Group Discussing Erasing of Indigenous History in Town, Columbus Monument

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The following announcement was provided by Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice & the Environment:

Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment will hold our September Monthly Meeting via Zoom on Wednesday, September 16, at 6:45 PM. All are welcome. Our topic this month is: Engaging Our Past For A More Truth-filled Future. Please join us for a very special monthly meeting featuring the Pigsqusset Decolonization Team, a group of Watertown citizens who organized in early 2020 to engage the public in a conversation about the erasure of the Indigenous history of the place we call home. Their initial goal is to create a conversation about the future of the monument to Christopher Columbus in the Town Square.

Around Town

Watertown Group Remembers Victims of Hiroshima, Nagasaki Bombs

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Attendees of a vigil for the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atom bombs hold a banner. The event on Aug. 9 was organized by Watertown Citizens for Peace Justice & the Environment. The following report was provided by Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice & the Environment:

On Sunday evening August 9, over sixty people gathered for an annual remembrance of the more than 210,000 lives lost in the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Organized by Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment, the remembrance was co-sponsored byMassachusetts Peace Action (MAPA), New England American Friends Service Committee and Survival Education Fund.

Around Town

LETTER: Watertown Group Commemorating Bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki

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Candleboats float on the Charles River in Watertown in memory of those who died in the nuclear bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Watertown Citizens for Peace Justice and the Environment is holding a commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Sunday, August 9, the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki. NEVER AGAIN – NO MORE HIROSHIMA and NAGASAKI – NO MORE VICTIMS – ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS

7:30 PM – Silent Vigil – Watertown Square8:00 PM – Music and Testimonials8:30 PM – Launching of the Candle boats on the Charles River

NEVER AGAIN! NO MORE VICTIMS! ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS!

Letters

OP-ED: Call to Dismantle Nuclear Weapons 75 Years After Atom Bombs dropped on Hiroshima, Nagasaki

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Candleboats float on the Charles River in Watertown in memory of those who died in the nuclear bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The following piece was submitted by Jeanne Trubek, Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin, Pam Phillips and Sue LaDue of Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment:

Seventy-five years ago, the United States opened a new era, the Age of Nuclear Weapons. In August, 1945, the US dropped one atomic bomb on Hiroshima and one atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Those two bombs killed 226,000 people — immediately. In the years that followed, the survivors — in Japanese as “Hibakusha” – suffered cancer and chronic disease as a result of the extreme radiation.

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Watertown Group Hosting Discussion on Paying for the New Green Deal

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The following information was provided by Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice & the Environment:

Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment will hold our July Monthly Meeting via Zoom on Wednesday, July 15, at 6:45 PM. All are welcome. Our topic this month is: Warheads to Windmills:How to Pay for the Green New Deal

Please join us to hear Dr. Timmon Wallis and Vicki Elson of NuclearBan.us identify the three major crises threatening the planet today: 1) the climate crisis 2) expanding nuclear arsenals 3) extreme economic inequality – and propose a solution: redirect funds and technology for nuclear weapons to the development of green energy and green jobs. Warheads to Windmills: How to Pay for the Green New Deal, written by Dr. Wallis, provides a detailed analysis of what it will take to adequately address the climate crisis and where the needed funds, scientific and engineering expertise could come from: the nuclear weapons program. To quote Dr. Timmons, “It’s not an exaggeration to say that these weapons threaten our very existence as a species, and so does the climate crisis.

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Vigil for Black Lives Draws Hundreds to Watertown Square

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Some of the hundreds of people who participated in the Vigil for Black Lives in Watertown on Tuesday evening. Hundreds of people lined streets of Watertown Square Tuesday evening for a vigil for George Floyd and other African-Americans killed by police around the nation. The event was one of many public gatherings across the nation held after Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on May 25. The local effort was organized by Watertown Citizens for Black Lives, which is part of Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment. Watertown Citizens has held vigils in the past, including for Black Lives, but none drew crowds as large as Tuesday’s event.