Uploaded May 2016 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
Socialists have long thought that the Owl of Wisdom flies after the work of the day is done… that theory follows from practice… And then we close the circle again. Our final plenary reflects on what we have taken from the workshops and just as importantly to know how we may apply the lessons and realize the values that we have celebrated today.
But socialists don’t like to leave things to chance. Closing this celebration of our movement, we have three organizers who are daily building the broad working class movement with direct accountability to their struggles. Fittingly they represent broad issues that we address: education, transportation, immigration, global justice, antiracism, and police accountability. Even though ecological concerns are not directly represented on this panel, the global justice, transportation and immigration concerns all speak the living relationship of working people to the problems of health and of environment.
Yamila Hussein
Boston Plan for Excellence
Patricia Montes
Centro Presente
Dr. Hussein is a recent graduate of the doctoral program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on the politics of education and knowledge production. Her doctoral thesis examined the relationship between nationalism and formal education, particularly how the Palestinian search for national liberation influenced their educational discourse during the 1970s, when Palestinians had no control over educational policies. Dr. Hussein teaches on the role of schools in sustaining and/or challenging systems of oppression and privilege and the position of teachers as cultural workers, intellectuals and agents of change.
Patricia Montes is the executive director of Centro Presente, one of the longest standing immigrant-led, immigrant rights organizations in Massachusetts. Under Patricia’s leadership, Centro Presente has consolidated its charge into a membership driven organization dedicated to building the power of organized Latin American immigrants, including electoral participation. Patricia is a recognized immigrant rights leader and a tireless advocate for just economic and social policies, including a just U.S. immigration policy. She serves on the Executive Board of Alianza Américas and the Women's Pipeline for Change, a group that supports progressive women of color as they enter, navigate and move up the pipeline to political leadership. Patricia is an immigrant from Honduras, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism.
Claude St. Germaine
Boston School Bus Drivers
Claude St. Germaine is an officer in the union and also the leader of the Boston Chapter of Famni Lavalas, who deposed Haitian President Aristide's party in exile.
Nino Brown
Mass Action
Nino Brown is a native New Yorker hailing from Brooklyn. In Brooklyn he was an organizer with the People Power Movement, The Women's Press Collective, The ANSWER Coalition, and CopWatch: People's Patrol Units. This is his second year in Boston where he is going to school and teaching 2nd grade. Nino was a founding member of Mass Action Against Police Brutality, an organization that formed out of the rebellion in Ferguson and the nascent media dubbed "Black Lives Matter Movement." Mass Action Against Police Brutality (MAAPB) organizes community forums, classes, and discussions, on the origins of the police. Nino Brown has played a leading role in the essential work of an education committee. It is MAAPB intent to popularize the information not too often revealed about the police as an instrument of state power and how it is mired with racism, sexism, and exists to maintain the system of class exploitation in order to make a profit for the moneyed classes.
To learn more about the Boston Socialist Unity Project: bostonsocialistunity.org
Socialists have long thought that the Owl of Wisdom flies after the work of the day is done… that theory follows from practice… And then we close the circle again. Our final plenary reflects on what we have taken from the workshops and just as importantly to know how we may apply the lessons and realize the values that we have celebrated today.
But socialists don’t like to leave things to chance. Closing this celebration of our movement, we have three organizers who are daily building the broad working class movement with direct accountability to their struggles. Fittingly they represent broad issues that we address: education, transportation, immigration, global justice, antiracism, and police accountability. Even though ecological concerns are not directly represented on this panel, the global justice, transportation and immigration concerns all speak the living relationship of working people to the problems of health and of environment.
Yamila Hussein
Boston Plan for Excellence
Patricia Montes
Centro Presente
Dr. Hussein is a recent graduate of the doctoral program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on the politics of education and knowledge production. Her doctoral thesis examined the relationship between nationalism and formal education, particularly how the Palestinian search for national liberation influenced their educational discourse during the 1970s, when Palestinians had no control over educational policies. Dr. Hussein teaches on the role of schools in sustaining and/or challenging systems of oppression and privilege and the position of teachers as cultural workers, intellectuals and agents of change.
Patricia Montes is the executive director of Centro Presente, one of the longest standing immigrant-led, immigrant rights organizations in Massachusetts. Under Patricia’s leadership, Centro Presente has consolidated its charge into a membership driven organization dedicated to building the power of organized Latin American immigrants, including electoral participation. Patricia is a recognized immigrant rights leader and a tireless advocate for just economic and social policies, including a just U.S. immigration policy. She serves on the Executive Board of Alianza Américas and the Women's Pipeline for Change, a group that supports progressive women of color as they enter, navigate and move up the pipeline to political leadership. Patricia is an immigrant from Honduras, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism.
Claude St. Germaine
Boston School Bus Drivers
Claude St. Germaine is an officer in the union and also the leader of the Boston Chapter of Famni Lavalas, who deposed Haitian President Aristide's party in exile.
Nino Brown
Mass Action
Nino Brown is a native New Yorker hailing from Brooklyn. In Brooklyn he was an organizer with the People Power Movement, The Women's Press Collective, The ANSWER Coalition, and CopWatch: People's Patrol Units. This is his second year in Boston where he is going to school and teaching 2nd grade. Nino was a founding member of Mass Action Against Police Brutality, an organization that formed out of the rebellion in Ferguson and the nascent media dubbed "Black Lives Matter Movement." Mass Action Against Police Brutality (MAAPB) organizes community forums, classes, and discussions, on the origins of the police. Nino Brown has played a leading role in the essential work of an education committee. It is MAAPB intent to popularize the information not too often revealed about the police as an instrument of state power and how it is mired with racism, sexism, and exists to maintain the system of class exploitation in order to make a profit for the moneyed classes.
To learn more about the Boston Socialist Unity Project: bostonsocialistunity.org
