UMarmot » Social change

Work on Waste USA, Inc.

rscox — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:46:11 +0000

In the early 1980s, Paul Connett, a chemist at St. Lawrence University, his wife Ellen, and other environmental activists in upstate New York formed Work on Waste USA to oppose the incineration of solid waste materials. Arguing that incineration was a major source of air pollution, pumping dioxin, mercury, cadmium, and lead into the atmosphere and leaving behind toxic ash and other residues, Work on Waste consulted nationally on issues surrounding incineration, coordinating with dozens of local organizations, and it became an ardent proponent of recycling as an alternative. From 1988-2000, WOW published a pro-recycling, anti-incineration newsletter, Waste Not.

The records of Work on Waste document the national struggle against the incineration of solid waste. With materials from dozens of groups opposing incineration in their communities, the collection provides insight into community activism and grassroots legal and media campaigns. The collection also includes materials relating to Work on Waste’s support for recycling and extensive data on the environmental impact of dioxin and other chemicals, medical waste, and ash landfills, and on the operation of incinerators.

Bishop, Sam

rscox — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:09:42 +0000

A new medical waste incinerator for New York city hospitals became the focal point of drawn-out controversy in the 1990s. After proposals to place the facility in Rockland County and downtown Manhattan were scotched, a site in the South Bronx was selected. Even before it opened in 1991, the Bronx-Lebanon incinerator touched off fierce opposition. Built to dispose of up to 48 tons per day of medical waste gathered from fifteen regional hospitals, the incinerator was located in a poor and densely populated area, and worse, raising charges of environmental racism. Making matters worse, during its years of operation, it was cited for hundreds of violations of state pollution standards. A coalition of grassroots organizations led an effective campaign to close the facility, and in June 1997 the plant’s owner, Browning Ferris Industries agreed. In an agreement with the state two years later, BFI agreed to disable the plant and remove the emission stacks.

Gathered by an environmental activist and consultant from New York city, Sam Bishop, this collection documents the turbulent history of public opposition to the Bronx-Lebanon medical waste incinerator. In addition to informational materials on medical waste incineration, the collection includes reports and legal filings relative to the facility, some materials on the campaign to close it, and a small quantity of correspondence and notes from activists.

Roxbury Action Program

rscox — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:24:28 +0000

The Roxbury Action Program and Black Panther Party of Boston were both founded in the Roxbury section of Boston following the riots of 1968. RAP pursued community revitalization through Black self-determination and enjoyed success in its housing initiatives and in providing social services ranging from support for Black businesses to Black draft counseling, health and legal referrals, a Black library, and community awareness program.

Although the exact provenance of this small collection is uncertain, the materials appear to have been collected by an individual, possibly a woman, associated with the early days of the Roxbury Action Program and Boston branch of the Black Panther Party. Steeped in Black Power ideology, the collection includes publications of the Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, and other organizations, as well as an insightful series of transcripts of Roxbury Action Program meetings held during its first few months of operation.

Background on Roxbury Action Program

The social and political tumult experienced in Boston during the early 1960s came to a head in 1968 when Roxbury erupted in riots for the second time in a year following the assassination of Martin Luther King. Galvanized by the effects of segregation in housing and schooling, racism, inequality, and poverty, members of the local community began to pursue a radical agenda of community defense and revitalization, fueled by the Black Power movement.

Two organizations stood out in leading the way: the Roxbury Action Program and the Boston branch of the Black Panther Party. For several years, the American Friends Service Committee had operated a program in Roxbury to address housing needs and tenants’ rights, but responding to the post-riot demands of the Black community for local leadership and control, the AFSC spun off this program in November 1968 to create the Roxbury Community Committee, which was incorporated as an independent organization, the Roxbury Community Program (RAP), on Dec. 28, 1968. Though fully independent, RAP received a significant boost from the New England branch of the AFSC, which raised $92,000 to fund the first two years of its activities in revitalizing the Highland Park neighborhood.

Under its founders George J. Morrison and Lloyd King, RAP focused on the housing and educational needs of the Highland Park community, seeking to revitalize the neighborhood by promoting economic self-development and “helping the people themselves to understand the political significance of their plight.” Central to their philosophy was the idea of Black self-determination, consciousness raising, and community control, by which they would build “the authority and skills” within the community “to immediately proceed in the solution of its own problems and in the determination of its own goals.” RAP assisted in securing land control and stabilizing and renovating structures, and they provided social services ranging from support for Black businesses to Black draft counseling, health and legal referrals, a Black library, and community awareness programs. They were instrumental, as well, in securing a new community college for the area (Roxbury Community College).

Contemporaneous with the organization of RAP, Delano Farrar and other radicals formed the Boston branch of the Black Panther Party at 375 Blue Hill Ave., Roxbury, which shared the same broad agenda as RAP. Building on the ten point plan of the national Party, the Panthers organized successfully within the community for housing, health care, political education, and employment, though within a year, the revolutionary, a Marxist-Leninist faction displaced the chapter’s early leaders and pursued an agenda dedicated more specifically to class struggle.

Contents of Collection

In keeping with the philosophy of RAP and the Black Panthers, the collection also includes materials on Black history and culture and materials relating to the Black community in Boston, most notably a notice of the imposition of a “general state of emergency” in 1968. Several works specifically address the Black woman’s role in the revolution.

Inventory of Collection

Adefunmi, Oserjeman, An African marriage. Harlem, N.Y. : Yoruba Temple	ca.1969		Box 1: 1
African American history and culture quiz	1944		Box 1: 2
African Nationalist Union, The Blackman, vol. 4:1 (photocopy)	1972 Aug.		Box 1: 3
American Oil Co., American traveler’s guide to Negro history, 3d ed. Chicago, Ill.: American Oil Co.	1967		Box 1: 4
Art Ad Corporation (letter of solicitation)	ca.1970		Box 1: 5
Black Community of Boston, General State of Emergency	1968		Box 1: 6
Black Panther, vol. 2:25	1969 Mar. 9		Box 1: 7
Black Panther, vol. 2:26	1969 Mar. 16		Box 1: 8
Black Panther, vol. 2:27	1969 Mar. 23		Box 1: 9
Black Panther, vol. 2:27	1969 Mar. 31	2 copies	Box 1: 10
Black Panther, vol. 2:30	1969 Apr. 20		Box 1: 11
Black Panther, vol. 3:2	1969 May 4		Box 1: 12
Black Panther, vol. 3:4	1969 May 19	2 copies	Box 1: 13
Black Panther, vol. 3:5	1969 May 25		Box 1: 14
Black Panther Party, Black Panther Community News Service (Roxbury, Mass.), vol. 1:2, 3 (two variant copies)	1969		Box 1: 15
Black Panther Party, Precautions for tear gas and mace	ca.1969		Box 1: 16
Black Panther Party, Questionaire for Black Panther Party	ca.1969		Box 1: 17
Black Panther Party, Ten Point Program of the Black Panther Party	1966		Box 1: 18
Black Panther Party of Boston, Black Panther Party of Boston presents 2 movies “Off the pig” and “Huey”	1969 Feb. 16		Box 1: 19
Black Students of Boston College, Black Students of Boston College and the Congress of African People present Immamu Baraka (broadside)	1973 Mar. 9		Box 1: 20
Black Students Union, Legal first aid for students	ca.1969		Box 1: 21
The Black woman in the home-family	ca.1974		Box 1: 22
Black Workers Congress, From protest to resistance: the case of Black draft resisters in New Orleans	1971		Box 1: 23
Blackness Unlimited: Circular letter offering products, including sample of decal, “Symbol of Black dignity”	1969		Box 1: 24
Browne, Robert S., “The case for Black separatism”	ca.1970		Box 1: 25
Can you relate to this? If not, call 445-9711 for draft counseling (broadside)	ca.1970		Box 1: 26
Chandler, Dana, Dana Chandler (Akin Duro) Artist in Residence, Northeastern University (signed by the artist)	1976		Box 1: 27
Code words (used in community defence)?	ca.1969		Box 1: 28
CORE booklists (list of publications)	ca.1969		Box 1: 29
Cox, Donald Lee (Field Marshall D.C.), What is ultra democracy?	ca.1969		Box 1: 30
Douglas, Emory, Revolutionary student posters (man and woman with gun)	ca.1970	2 posters	Box 1: 31
Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Cooperatives: Power for poor people. Atlanta, Ga. : Federation of Southern Co-ops	ca.1970		Box 1: 32
Golden Legacy Illustrated History Magazine, vol. 1 : Toussaint L’Ouverture	1966		Box 1: 33
Golden Legacy Illustrated History Magazine, vol. 2 : The saga of Harriet Tubman, “The Moses of her people”	1967		Box 1: 34
Golden Legacy Illustrated History Magazine, vol. 3: Crispus Attucks and the minuteman	1968		Box 1: 35
Golden Legacy Illustrated History Magazine, vol. 4 : The life of Benjamin Banneker	1968		Box 1: 36
Hamilton, Ernest, Black Power: what is it? S.l. : Scoham Publication	1966 July		Box 1: 37
Hammer: the Voice of United Community Construction Workers, vol. 1:6 (photocopy)	1973 June		Box 1: 38
Ifco News, vol. 5: 1	1974		Box 1: 39
Johnson, Edwina Chavers, Calendar of Afro-American contributions to America	1963		Box 1: 40
Khadijah, Sister, The Republic of New Africa	1969		Box 1: 41
Kilson, Martin et al., Black studies: myths and realities. New York : A. Philip Randolph Education Fund	1969 Sept.		Box 1: 42
Leader, vol. 2:24, 28, 32	1969		Box 1: 43
Lee-Smith, Hughie, To my Black sisters (A Freedomways greeting card). New York : Freedomways Magazine	1971 Freb.		Box 1: 44
Minstrels, Gr’ezi wohl, Frau Stirnimaa! (45 rpm recording). EMI	1969		Box 1: 45
Morey, James L. and Mel Epstein, Housing development: A tool for community economic development in low-income areas. Cambridge, Mass. : Center for Community Economic Development	1971 Oct.		Box 1: 46
Movement, vol. 5:3, 4	1969 Apr.-May		Box 1: 47
Muhammad Speaks, vol. 8:29	1969 Apr. 4		Box 2: 1
Muhammad Speaks, vol. 12:20	1973 Jan. 26		Box 2: 2
Muhammad Speaks, vol. 13:3	1974 Apr. 12		Box 2: 3
Muhammad Speaks, vol. 14:42	1975 June 27		Box 2: 4
Muhammad, Elijah, Progress	ca.1969		Box 2: 5
Mumininas of Committee for Unified Newark, Mwanamke mwananchi (the nationalist woman). NewArk, N.J. : Mumininas of CFUN	1971		Box 2: 6
Myers, Robin, Black craftsmen through history. New York : Institute of the Joint Apprenticeship Program	1970		Box 2: 7
The NAACP life membership story (offprint). Ebony Magazine	1967 Mar.		Box 2: 8
National Commission for Resources on Youth, You’re the tutor. New York : National Commission on Resources for Youth	1970		Box 2: 9
New African, vol. 2:1	1969 Apr. 20		Box 2: 10
New Urban League of Greater Boston, Community Survival Fund	1970		Box 2: 11
New Urban League of Greater Boston, Survival Magazine, vol. 1:3	1970 Feb.		Box 2: 12
The Onyx (fragment)	1973 Apr. 16		Box 2: 13
Path Finder Press catalog and flier	1973		Box 2: 14
Payton, Gloria, Is political freedom dead at Brandeis?	1969		Box 2: 15
People have a right: The report of the First National Conference on Rural Housing. Washington, D.C. : National Conference on Rural Housing	1969		Box 2: 16
Photograph: African American man laying wreath at statue of the Minuteman, Concord, Mass.	ca.1970		Box 2: 17
Plainfield Joint Defense Committee, Special Independence Day Issue	1971 July		Box 2: 18
Potemkin Collective, Radicals words (or) you can’t tell the revolution without a dictionary. Newport, R.I. : Potemkin Collective	1970		Box 2: 19
Potemkin Military Legal Aid Project, Little red book of military law. Newport, R.I. : Potemkin Collective	1972		Box 2: 20
Real Paper, vol. 2:36	1973 Sept. 5		Box 2: 21
Rogers, J. A., 100 amazing facts about the Negro, with complete proof, 23d ed. New York : Helga M. Rogers	1957		Box 2: 22
Rollins, Bryant, Poetry for my friends. Harlem, N.Y. : s.n.	1973		Box 2: 23
Roxbury Action Program (statement of purpose and objectives)	ca.1969		Box 2: 24
Roxbury Action Program, Buzz Session 1 (manuscript)	1969 Mar. 20		Box 2: 25
Roxbury Action Program, Buzz Session con’t #1 (typescript)	1969 Mar. 20		Box 2: 26
Roxbury Action Program, Buzz Session II (manuscript)	ca.1969		Box 2: 27
Roxbury Action Program, Buzz Session? (manuscript)	1969 Apr. 3		Box 2: 28
Roxbury Action Program, Buzz Session? (manuscript)	ca.1969		Box 2: 29
Roxbury Action Program, Finch, Arthur (typescript)	1969 Mar. 24		Box 2: 30
Roxbury Action Program, Group discussion (typescript)	ca.1969		Box 2: 31
Roxbury Action Program, Orientation, George Morrison (manuscript)	1969 Mar. 10		Box 2: 32
Roxbury Action Program, Orientation, George Morrison (typescript)	1969 Mar. 10		Box 2: 33
Roxbury Action Program, Section reading list	ca.1969		Box 2: 34
Roxbury Action Program, Session on roles and tools: Ed McClure (typescript)	1969 Mar. 27		Box 2: 35
Roxbury Action Program, Stationery	ca.1969		Box 2: 36
Roxbury Poor People’s Movement, An appeal for public support by the Roxbury Poor People’s Movement	ca.1969		Box 2: 37
Rustin, Bayard, Three essays by Bayard Rustin. New York : A. Philip Randolph Education Fund	1969 Sept.		Box 2: 38
Service Remembering and Resurrecting (memorial service for Martin Luther King, Franklin Park, Mass.)	1969 Apr. 04		Box 2: 39
Sisters of BCD, Black woman’s role in the revolution. Newark, N.J. : Jihad Productions	1969		Box 2: 40
South Vietnam in Struggle, no. 24	1968 Dec. 20		Box 2: 41
Southern Conference Educational Fund, Protest the jailing of Walter Collins and the situation of black draft resisters	1971		Box 2: 42
Southern Education Program, Teach a Brother! (broadside)	1969		Box 2: 43
Straight from the Horse’s Mouth (magazine), vol. 2:1	1970		Box 2: 44
Tenants’ rights. Boston, Mass.? : s.n.	ca.1970		Box 2: 45
We will be closed Friday Feb. 21, 1969. Malcolm X (broadside)	1969		Box 2: 46
Welty, Joel, Meeting people’s housing needs (offprint). Ottawa, ON : Canadian Cooperative Digest	1969		Box 2: 47
Workers Monthly: Organ of the Independent Trade Union Action Council, vol. 2: 2 (photocopy)	1972 Dec.		Box 2: 48
Yazid: How to oppress people in 13 easy lessons	ca.1969		Box 2: 49

Provenance

Gift of Ken Gloss, January 2013.

Processing Information

Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, January 2013.

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Cite as: Roxbury Action Program Collection (MS 765). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Construyamos Juntos

rscox — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:28:56 +0000

In May 1985, a group of activists in Western Massachusetts opposed to the interventionist U.S. foreign policy of the Reagan era formed a construction brigade to assist with basic human needs and express solidarity with the people of Central America. Modeled on the Venceremos Brigade, Construyamos Juntos, Building Peace of Nicaragua, raised over $20,000 for construction supplies in addition to funds for individual travel. Between January and March 1986, the 17 activists joined a smaller brigade from West Virginia in constructing the Carlos Armin Gonzales elementary school in San Pedro de Lovago. During their first month in Nicaragua, they witnessed a Contra assault on the town that left one assailant dead and two residents of the town wounded.

This exhibit includes 55 mounted images and 99 35mm slides taken during the brigade’s time in Nicaragua, documenting the brigade’s construction work and providing a valuable visual record of life in Nicaragua during the Contra war. Used in public talks about Contruyamos Juntos, the collection includes exhibit labels that explain the purpose and activity of the brigade, the history of Nicaragua, and the Contra attack in January 1986.

D’Annunzio, Gabriele, 1863-1938

rscox — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:39:42 +0000

An Italian poet, journalist, novelist, and dramatist, Gabriele D’Annunzio enjoyed a flamboyant career in international affairs after the First World War when he raised a small army and seized the port of Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia). Failing in his attempts to annex his territory to Italy, D’Annunzio reigned as Duce over the micro-state for over a year before being forced to relinquish control.

The fifteen imprints comprising this collection of scarce broadsides, all printed in the short-lived Free State of Fiume. During the brief period of his reign in Fiume, D’Annunzio issued propagandistic broadsides, proclamations, and leaflets almost daily, often distributing them by airplane drop over the city. Included is a rare first edition of D’Annunzio’s most famous piece from the Fiume period, Italia e vita.

Bowman, Mitzi

rscox — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 12:39:02 +0000

For years, Mitzi Bowman and her husband Pete were stalwarts of the progressive community in Connecticut, and tireless activists in the movements for social justice, peace, and the environment. Shortly after their marriage in 1966, the Bowman’s settled in Milford, Conn., where Pete worked as an engineer. In close collaboration, the couple became ardent opponents of the war in Vietnam as well as opponents of nuclear weaponry. The focus of their activism took a new direction in 1976, when they learned of plans to ship spent nuclear fuel rods near their home. Founding their first antinuclear organization, STOP (Stop the Transport of Pollution), they forced the shipments to be rerouted, and they soon devoted themselves to shutting down nuclear power in Connecticut completely, including the Millstone and Connecticut Yankee facilities, the latter of which was decommissioned in 1996. The Bowmans were active in a wide array of other groups, including the New Haven Green Party, the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone, the People’s Action for Clean Energy (PACE), and they were founding members of Fight the (Utility Rate) Hike, the Progressive Action Roundtable, and Don’t Waste Connecticut. Two years after Pete died on Feb. 14, 2006 at the age of 78, Mitzi relocated to Vermont, carrying on her activism.

The Bowman Papers center on Mitzi and Pete Bowman’s antinuclear activism, dating from their first forays with STOP in the mid-1970s through the growth of opposition to Vermont Yankee in the approach to 2010. The collection offers a valuable glimpse into the early history of grassroots opposition to nuclear energy and the Bowmans’ approach to organizing and their connections with other antinuclear activists and to the peace and environmental movements are reflected in an extensive series of notes, press releases, newsclippings, talks, ephemera, and correspondence. The collections also includes extensive subject files on radiation, nuclear energy, peace, and related topics.

Lerner, Steve, 1946-

rscox — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 19:41:08 +0000

For decades, the writer Steve Lerner has been a significant contributor to public awareness of the issues surrounding environmental justice. Immersed in the environmental movement through his work as research director at Commonweal, a health and environment research institute founded with his brother Michael in 1976, Lerner earned wide recognition for his first book, Eco-Pioneers (1998), about “practical visionaries” who developed pragmatic solutions to environmental problems. In two subsequent books, Lerner turned to an examination of the impact of environmental toxins and industrial pollutants on low-income communities and people of color and the rise of grassroots opposition within those communities. In Diamond (2006), Lerner explored the impact of a Shell Chemical plant in Louisiana as a microcosm of the broader environmental-justice movement, and more recently, Sacrifice Zones (2010) traced the organization and resistance against industrial and chemical pollutants in a dozen communities in the eastern United States. In 2007, Lerner left his position at Commonweal, but continues his research and writing on environmental issues.

The research notes, interviews, photographs and other documentation comprising the Lerner collection form the basis for Lerner’s three major books.

Henderson, Elizabeth, 1943-

rscox — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:33:53 +0000

A farmer, activist, and writer, Elizabeth Henderson has exerted an enormous influence on the movement for organic and sustainable agriculture since the 1970s. Although Henderson embarked on an academic career after completing a doctorate at Yale on the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1974, by 1980, she abandoned academia for Unadilla Farm in Gill, Mass., where she learned organic techniques for raising vegetables. Relocating to Rose Valley Farm in Wayne County, NY, in 1989, she helped establish Genesee Valley Organic CSA (GVOCSA), one of the first in the country, and she continued the relationship with the CSA after founding Peacework Organic Farm in Newark, NY, in 1998. Deeply involved in the organic movement at all levels, Henderson was a founding member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) in Massachusetts, has served on the Board of Directors for NOFA NY, the NOFA Interstate Council, SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) Northeast, and many other farming organizations at the state, regional, and national level, and she has been an important voice in national discussions on organic standards, fair trade, and agricultural justice. Among other publications, Henderson contributed to and edited The Real Dirt: Farmers Tell about Organic and Low-Input Practices in the Northeast and co-wrote Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture (1999, with Robyn Van En) and A Manual of Whole Farm Planning (2003, with Karl North).

Offering insight into the growth of the organic agriculture movement and the organizations that have sustained it, the Henderson Papers document Henderson’s involvement with NOFA, SARE, and the GVOCSA, along with her work to establish organic standards and promote organic practices. Henderson’s broad social and political commitments are represented by a rich set of letters from her work educating prisoners in the late 1970s, including correspondence with Tiyo Atallah Salah El and John Clinkscales, and with the American Independent Movement in New Haven during the early 1970s, including a nearly complete run of the AIM Bulletin and its successor Modern Times.

Diamond, Arlyn, 1941-

rscox — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 13:20:49 +0000

As a member of the faculty in the English Department at UMass Amherst in 1972, Arlyn Diamond became one of the founding members of the Program in Women’s Studies. A scholar of medieval European literature, Diamond received her doctorate from Berkeley in 1970 and became an early proponent of feminist criticism. Among other works, she was author of Authority of Experience: Essays in Feminist Criticism (1988) and editor (with Lee Edwards) of American Voices, American Women (1973). Diamond retired from the University in 2004.

This small collection consists primarily of notes for research and teaching. Of particular interest is a series of women’s studies bibliographies, readings for the Five College Women’s Studies Faculty Seminar (Autumn 1977), graduate level feminist theory courses, and notes related to the history of women’s studies. Also included among the papers are financial records from the 1977 Five College Women’s Studies Faculty Seminar.

International Fluoride Information Network

rscox — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:00:33 +0000

Founded by Paul Connett, a Professor of Chemistry at St. Lawrence University, the International Fluoride Information Network was dedicated to broadening public awareness about the issues involved in fluoridating public water supplies and organizing opposition.

The IFIN Bulletin first appeared in 1999 and over the next five years, 917 issues were published. The Bulletin was succeeded by the Fluoride Action Network Bulletin in 2004. This collection includes a complete series of the Bulletins, printed out.