On June 14th I was among a delegation of 23 ESWA members and volunteers that delivered another petition (see following web log entry) to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities at South Station in Boston and conducted an informational picket line outside the building afterwards. Our group, the Boston Workers Benefit Council, was made up of members from poverty stricken neighborhoods of Dorchester as well as college students, business leaders and the usual mix of ESWA volunteers from all over greater Boston. The BWBC is a forum, to which I am a Roslindale delegate, of ESWA members from which we have a voice how benefits are disseminated and may also develop a way to communicate with the community at large. The petition signed by 852 citizens also representing a cross section of class strata, well-off and poor alike, included demands that the DPU repeal policies that enable unjustified rate increases and other demands to cancel utility shut-offs and depts for low-income households. As we chanted in the picket line, "heating or eating, we need both!" What really had us fired up to bring our issues back to the DPU was an order they put into effect around what the energy companies call "decoupling." Energy companies like National Grid have been offering information how to conserve fuel by such methods as winter weatherization. Now that the DPU has put through the decoupling order National Grid may increase their rates due to loss of profit around customers' fuel conservation. Their ability to raise rates is decoupled from the amount of energy consumed. What makes matters worse for rate-payers is the language of the order is such that their is no burden of proof on National Grid to demonstrate the loss of profit is tied to conservation.
For me it was another in a series of outstanding opportunities to fight poverty at its root, government policy, given me by the EASTERN SERVICE WORKERS ASSOCIATION. I cannot express how impowering in felt not just for me but for all 23 of us. We marched in a circle for three hours straight chanting our slogans. Even though my voice was hoarse and my shins sore for several days following the event it was such a welcome feeling to be on the right track, to actually be doing something about the injustice of poverty in America, no matter how small the scale. In the words of anthropologist Margaret Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
