Workers at a factory is Greenfield won a new union contract, and environmental activists permanently protected 323 acres of land in the Valley from development. “We are very pleased with the contract we ended up with,” Jay McGrath told the Valley Post in a July 18 interview. He is one of 74 workers at the Kennametal factory on Sanderson Street in Greenfield. McGrath started working at the Greenfield factory 17 years ago. The workers have a union, which has a web site at www.UEunion.org.

This photo was taken on June 25 in downtown Brattleboro. It shows people waiting to get on Amtrak. The train was headed for Greenfield, Northampton, Holyoke, Springfield, and New York City. To enlarge the photo, click on it, then scroll down and click "see full-size image." photo by Eesha Williams

The 200 or so nurses at the Greenfield hospital will go on strike on June 26 unless management agrees to stop assigning so many patients to each nurse that it is impossible to provide good quality health care. The nurses want the hospital to hire more nurses. The nurses also want better health insurance for themselves.

In Northampton on June 4, dozens of people protested a plan by President Trump and the Republican-controlled congress to eliminate health insurance for poor people. The activists staged a so-called “die in” to bring attention to the fact that thousands of people will die if the Republicans' plan is approved.

According to an article that appeared in the Washington Post on May 7, 2017, “A 2009 study in the American Journal of Public Health found that 45,000 deaths annually were linked to lack of health coverage.”

On April 27 in Brattleboro, there will be a march and rally in solidarity with survivors of domestic violence. More government funding is needed to provide homes for survivors who can't afford to pay rent. The event starts at 6 p.m. at the Brattleboro town common, on Park Place between Linden Street and Putney Road. Vermont Senator Becca Balint will speak at the rally.

More information is at:

www.facebook.com/events/144625839397034

There will be a rally for world peace, and in favor of major cuts to military spending, on April 15 at 2 Main Street in Brattleboro, outside the food co-op. The rally starts at 10 a.m. and goes until 3 p.m. There will be a march calling on President Trump to release his tax returns, the same date on Main Street in Brattleboro, starting at 1 p.m. Details about the march are at:

www.facebook.com/events/1540683959275840

In its heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Fishbone was among the best bands of all-time. The group will play a free concert near Brattleboro on March 25 at 3 p.m. The concert will be outdoors at Mount Snow. Details are at:

www.mountsnow.com/events/calendar/bud-light-reggaefest

Fishbone's more recent recordings aren't as good as their albums “Truth and Soul” and “The Reality of My Surroundings.” The members of Fishbone live in Los Angeles.

You can hear an excellent Fishbone reggae song at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0ZUIcYT7zs

A risky procedure is planned for this spring at a nuclear waste dump in Vermont that's three miles from Massachusetts and a stone's throw from New Hampshire. If the operation goes wrong, thousands of people could be killed.

Thanks to the work of environmental activists, about 361 acres of open space in the Valley have been permanently protected from development. On February 24, the Kestrel Land Trust announced in an e-mail to its members it had saved 161 acres of forestland in Pelham, Massachusetts. Pelham borders Amherst. The land is open to the public for hiking.

Three protesters were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience at the TD Bank in downtown Brattleboro on February 22 as 50 or so supporters sang "We Shall Overcome." They want TD Bank to stop funding construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which would carry oil that causes climate change. The people arrested were Linda Pon Owen, Tim Stevenson, and Daniel Sicken (pronounced "SEE-kin"). The event was promoted by the Brattleboro chapter of 350.org, which has contact information for the people who were arrested. The second photo shows Stevenson in the foreground.