Sun January 19 @ 9:30 am - 5:00 pm EST - in person at Roxbury Community College, Media Arts Center, 1234 Columbus Ave., Boston, MA
Arise and Resist: Organizing for Peace and Justice Under Repression
Speakers
Dr. Lara Jirmanus, press coordinator of the Vote No Preference MA campaign and a leading voice for solidarity with Palestine as well as an innovative health organizer. A Palestinian/Lebanese-American, she is an instructor at Harvard Medical School and a practicing primary care physician, community organizer and public health researcher. She co-founded the Health and Law Immigrant Solidarity Network, and during COVID, the Massachusetts Coalition for Health Equity.
Dr. Karameh Kuemmerle is a pediatric neurologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, where she focuses on epilepsy and brain injury. Her clinical research centers on improving healthcare outcomes for refugee communities around the world, with a special interest in addressing the impact of social determinants like racism. She co-founded Doctors Against Genocide, an organization dedicated to mobilizing the medical community to respond to and prevent genocide and severe human rights abuses worldwide.
Rami G. Khouri is a Palestinian-American academic and journalist whose family resides in Beirut, Amman, and Nazareth. He is Distinguished Public Policy Fellow at the American University of Beirut and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Arab Center Washington, D.C. During his 50-year career in journalism across the Middle East he was Editor of the Jordan Times and the Daily Star (Beirut) newspapers, and contributed reporting and opinion pieces from the Middle East to the Financial Times, NPR, BBC radio, and other outlets.
Jamie McGonagill is a climate activist and climate communications consultant. She is the media coordinator for Extinction Rebellion (XR) Boston and AIR Inc. She also leads the communications team for Stop Private Jet Expansion at Hanscom or Anywhere (SPJE) and assists with Climate Emergency Fund’s development team.
Khury Petersen-Smith, Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow and Co-Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. He researches U.S. empire, borders, and migration and strategizes with activists to work against the violence that the U.S. carries out and supports around the world. Khury focuses especially on U.S. militarism in the Middle East and in the Pacific, and movements that resist it. He graduated from the Clark University Graduate School of Geography in Massachusetts, after completing a dissertation on U.S. military bases in the Pacific. He is one of the co-authors and organizers of the 2023 Black Voices for Ceasefire
Harris Gruman is executive director of the Massachusetts State Council of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation’s second largest labor union; co-leader of the Raise Up Massachusetts Coalition, and former executive director of Neighbor to Neighbor MA Education Fund.
Liv Santoro is deputy director for field education and mobilization at the ACLU of Massachusetts.
Dr. Alexandra Piñeros Shields is a life-long activist and community organizer. She is an Associate Professor and directs the Master of Public Policy Program at the Heller School, Brandeis University where she teaches courses on immigration policy, economic justice, and participatory action research. Prior to joining the Heller faculty, she was the Executive Director of the Essex County Community Organization (ECCO), an interfaith network of 40 congregations working on racial and economic justice issues.
Mike Prokosch is a Dorchester climate, peace, and housing activist who leads popular economics workshops for community and union members. His latest workshop, “Who’s Afraid of Elon Musk?”, traces the US economy over the past half-century and what it’s done to workers and billionaires.
Breakouts
Attendees will join one of eight issue-oriented breakout groups, which will meet twice during the day.
Civil liberties and repression
Immigration and mass deportation threat
The genocide in Gaza and US politics
Federal, State and municipal electoral politics
A Strong Labor Movement is Democracy’s Best Defense
Climate and ecocide
Great power rivalry and nuclear war danger
War against the poor: Fighting back against budget cuts and tax cuts
More info including Agenda, Goals & Overview and to register: Arise and Resist: Organizing for Peace and Justice Under Repression – Massachusetts Peace Action
Conference registration includes morning coffee and a Palestinian style lunch catered by Zaaki (rice with lentils, salad, hummus, falafel for vegans; chicken shawarma and kofta; bread).
The conference will be in person only.
Sponsored by Massachusetts Peace Action, Boston Democratic Socialists of America, Northshore for Palestine, Our Revolution Massachusetts, Doctors Against Genocide, Communist Party of Massachusetts, Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment, and American Friends Service Committee. Cosponsored by Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, CD8 for Palestine, Extinction Rebellion Boston, Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution, Jewish Voice for Peace Boston, Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security, Green-Rainbow Party, Western Massachusetts for Palestine, and United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 9A, Cape Cod DSA, Dorchester People for Peace, SEIU Local 509 (list in formation).
Massachusetts progressive organizations are invited to sponsor or cosponsor the conference, help plan it, or to set up literature tables; organizations sign up here to do so.
To register: Arise and Resist: Organizing for Peace and Justice Under Repression – Massachusetts Peace Action