In Holyoke, people are fighting to save a 23 acre forest. “The lawn signs have been a big success,” Kerry Anne Schoeffel told the Valley Post in a voice phone interview on October 17. She is a member of the group Save Elmwood Forest. “We're asking people to put them up. They can get the signs from us. People should also contact the city council. We are not endorsing candidates in the upcoming election but we encourage people to ask the candidates about the forest.”

In Northampton on October 17, there will be a rally to support dishwashers, janitors and other workers at Smith college. The rally starts at 4:15 p.m. outside 8 College Lane. The workers who are organizing the rally have a web site at www.seiu32bj.org.

*********

About 200 people attended a rally for a farm worker who was arrested by ICE. The rally was in Springfield, Massachusetts, according to a September 19 mass email from the Pioneer Valley Workers Center. The Center did not immediately reply to an email from the Valley Post asking how many people were at the rally. Jeromie Whalen was there. He is running for congress. He told the Valley Post 150 – 250 people were at the rally. The rally was on Labor Day.

*********

On September 2 in the Pioneer Valley town of South Hadley, about 170 janitors, dishwashers, and other workers went on strike for 24 hours. “I've worked as a cook at Mount Holyoke for seven years – it will be eight years in August,” Rich Sugrue told the Valley Post in a voice phone interview on May 16, 2025. He is one of 170 workers at the college who are members of a union, SEIU Local 32BJ.

More than 300 people marched in Amherst on August 27. They were calling for jobs with justice. “For more than a year, UMass has dragged out bargaining a new contract with the 2,400 members of the Professional Staff Union, which represents staff members at both the Amherst and Boston campuses and includes social workers, residence directors, and other staff throughout all areas of campus,” Ari Jewell told the Valley Post. Jewell is one of the workers.

UMass Boston has 16,000 students. UMass Amherst has 32,000 students. The workers have a web site at:

https://umasspsu.org

On August 13 spokeswomen for two land trusts told the Valley Post their groups had helped permanently protect 2,900 acres of forest from development. The land will be logged but the trees will grow back and one day the land could be protected from logging, if enough people protest.

On July 30, the workers at the food co-ops in Northampton and the neighboring town of Easthampton announced they had a victory when they signed a new union contract with management. A total of about 240 people work at the two co-ops. “Every worker has received a $2 per hour pay bump, raising the starting wage from $18 an hour to $20 an hour,” a spokesperson for the workers said. There are other victories in the contract. Photos of picket lines that helped win the contract are at:

https://imgur.com/a/river-valley-co-op-informational-pickets-J4iqoOj

On August 6 in the Pioneer Valley town of Easthampton, there will be a march against nuclear bombs. The march leaves the food co-op at 4 p.m. and ends at Nashawannuck pond. Details are available via www.traprock.org.

********

Brattleboro's garbage goes to a landfill in the so-called Northeast Kingdom, home of Vermont's famous Jay Peak scandal. (Details are available by doing an internet search for “Jay Peak scandal” and keeping in mind that Vermont is home to just 600,000 people.)

When N.L. Dennis was singing in a recording studio with Toots and the Maytals, Bob Marley stopped by to listen. Marley praised Dennis's delivery. Today, Dennis lives in his native Jamaica and joins hundreds of Jamaicans who come to Vermont every summer in search of better paying work. Most of them work on vegetable farms and at apple orchards. Dennis works as a reggae musician.

On July 19 at 11 a.m. Dennis and the Thunderballs will play the Brattleboro farmers' market.

There will be a rally to protest Trump on July 17 at 4 p.m. at the gazebo in Park Square in the Pioneer Valley town of Westfield, which borders Holyoke. One of the groups that's promoting the event is the Women's March. In 2017, the group organized what, at the time, was the biggest one-day protest in US history. About 1 million people marched in Washington, DC and another 2 million marched in cities like LA and New York and in small towns like Brattleboro, and towns and cities throughout the Pioneer Valley. Details about the 2025 Westfield rally are at: https://GoodTroubleLivesOn.org.