At UMass Amherst, police arrested 34 people for non-violent civil disobedience on April 12 and April 13. The protesters were calling on the university to divest from fossil fuels. More information is at their web page: www.facebook.com/divestUmass.

On March 7 at 1:30 p.m. in Springfield activists will hold a rally to stop a bank that wants to evict a low-income family from its home while the bank's CEO makes millions of dollars a year. The rally will be at 139 Maebeth Street. Details are available from rally organizers, who have a web site at www.SpringfieldNoOneLeaves.org. They have had a number of recent victories. Details, and photos, are at:

www.valleypost.org/node/1101

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To fight climate change, activists are organizing a march and rally in Northampton and a march in Amherst. Both are on November 29. The march starts at 5:30 p.m. at Northampton high school and goes to city hall, where a rally starts at 6 p.m. The Amherst rally will be at 6 p.m. at the town common.

More information is available at www.350.org. Phone and e-mail contact info is at:

http://350mass.betterfutureproject.org/contact_us

In Amherst on November 12, hundreds of people attended a rally to call for tuition-free public college, cancellation of all student debt, and a $15 an hour minimum wage for college and university employees. The rally was at the Student Union building at UMass Amherst. The organizers have a web site at www.phenomonline.org.

photos by Ferd Wulkan

Ten Valley residents were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience at a protest against fossil fuels in Boston October 22. “It went really well,” Gabriel Shapiro told the Valley Post in a telephone interview. He lives in Amherst and was one of the people who were arrested.

On September 19 in Springfield and Amherst, there will be marches against mass incarceration. The marches are being organized by local chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which has a web site at www.naacp.org.

The Springfield event starts with a rally at 11 a.m. at Mason Square Green. The protesters will then march to City Hall.

The Amherst march starts at 10 a.m. from two locations: Haigis Mall at UMass and Hampshire College's Groff Park. Both Amherst marches will end at Sweetser Park in Amherst, across from the police station.

There will be a march for peace from Amherst to Northampton on August 9 at 1 p.m. There will be rallies to protest an unjust employer in Springfield and nearby towns August 11 and August 12 from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m.

On August 5, President Obama said, “The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy and some form of war — maybe not tomorrow, maybe not three months from now, but soon.” In Congress, Republicans say they want war with Iran. Obama and most of the Democrats in Congress say they want peace.

On May 1, there will be marches for immigrant rights and for raising taxes on the rich to help the poor. The marches will be in Amherst, Massachusetts and Montpelier, Vermont. People will be carpooling to the Montpelier event from Brattleboro. To join the carpool, e-mail spoonagave@yahoo.com or call the phone number at the rally organizers' web site: www.WorkersCenter.org.

The Amherst event is being promoted by the western Massachusetts chapter of the group Jobs With Justice: www.jwj.org. At the event's Facebook page, more than 250 people had RSVP'd by the morning of April 30:

On average, people who live in Manhattan are much better for the environment than people who live in the Valley. That's according to an article in the New Yorker magazine. “Eighty-two per cent of Manhattan residents travel to work by public transit, by bicycle, or on foot,” David Owen wrote in the October 18, 2004 issue. Most New York City people live in apartment buildings which are inherently more energy efficient than the single family houses that most Valley residents live in. The number one lesson for the Valley? Protect open space.

At a dairy and beef farm in Hadley, Massachusetts, 123 acres of farmland has been permanently protected from development. Hadley borders Amherst. A photo of the farm is below. The farm is at 172 Hockanum Road and has a store that is open to the public. This environmental victory was made possible by www.KestrelTrust.org.

Most people who live in the Valley need a car to get to work or school, and to go shopping or visit friends.