On October 13 in Amherst about 20 people attended a rally. “We're asking the UMass administration to disband Theta Chi (fraternity) due to the countless stories that have shown their violence towards UMass students,” Anna Morel-Paletta told the Valley Post. She organized the rally. Morel-Paletta said, “Additionally, we're asking for the Survivor's Bill of Rights to be enacted to ensure that UMass starts taking claims of sexual assault seriously. Multiple people have claimed that UMass didn't do anything when they reported an experience of sexual assault.”

In Amherst more than 300 people attended a rally on September 19 demanding that the University of Massachusetts do more to stop sexual assaults. In Amherst 200 or so people attended a rally on September 20 for the same issue.

In Deerfield, Massachusetts, near Greenfield, activists defeated a multi-billion dollar corporation on August 12. The company wanted to pave open space. “I’m relieved that Dollar General has decided not to further attempt to build in Deerfield on the site that has been in discussion for three years. There are so many positive things in the works for Deerfield, it will be a relief not to have this issue pull time and attention to it anymore,” Julie Cavacco told the Valley Post on August 13, 2021. She attended a Deerfield rally against Dollar General in December 2020.

In Greenfield on July 31 there will be a rally to protest cutting down forests in Massachusetts to put up solar panels. The panels can go on roofs of big box stores, warehouses, and other buildings, and on top of parking lots. To see a big photo of seven acres of solar panels over a parking lot in Amherst, click on the small photo of "Lot 44" at:

www.umass.edu/dcm/campus-solar

The Greenfield rally organizers said, “To date, the state has lost 4,000 acres to large ground-mounted solar, much of it pristine forest.”

They have a web site at https://savethepinebarrens.org.

On May 18 in Brattleboro about 50 people attended a rally to call on local, state, and federal politicians to do more to address the series of racist murders and assaults against Asian Americans that have occurred around the USA in the past few months. Emma Allen grew up in the Brattleboro area and is now a student at the University of Vermont. She told the crowd gathered at Plaza park, “This month, we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage....

In Greenfield, 24 workers formed a union. On April 22, they won their first union contract. “It felt great. It was a huge weight off our backs. Everyone was really happy with the contract,” Jake Waldsmith told the Valley Post in a voice phone interview on May 5. The workers are bus drivers and “monitors” employed by Greenfield public schools. “Monitors help with special education transportation,” Waldsmith said. “For students with behavioral challenges, the monitors keep order on the buses.

Two years ago, 17 people were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience at Wendell, Massachusetts state forest near Greenfield. The goal was to stop logging of 80 acres of 110 year old oak trees on publicly owned land. The USA is losing 6,000 acres of open space to development every day. Stopping logging on publicly owned land forces logging companies to buy their own land. If the loggers want to grow new trees after logging, the land can't be paved.

In Northampton, 200 people attended a rally against racism on February 24. The goal was to support the principal of JFK middle school, who is African American. Someone recently started a racist Facebook page attacking him. The rally was promoted by a group that has a web page at www.facebook.com/REALNoho

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The group Northampton Abolition Now organizes to move money from the police department into programs that make the community safe. On February 13 and 14, the group held a rally in Northampton. Dozens of people attended. A contact person for the group, Mary Jones, can be reached at (512) 413-5592 and mary.m.jones12@gmail.com.

She told the Valley Post, “We hope Mayor Narkewicz will shift the resources we now pour into policing, directly into community initiatives whose core aims are helping, healing, and sustaining people, rather than controlling them.”

The group has a web page at:

The CEO of Dollar General Corporation made $12 million last year. He pays his workers an average of $9.76 an hour. In Deerfield, Massachusetts on December 12, eleven people attended a rally to stop a proposed Dollar General store in Deerfield. Deerfield borders Greenfield. Julie Cavacco was at the rally. On December 15 she told the Valley Post the rally was organized because the new store would cause floods in the surrounding area. Cavacco is a librarian at Deerfield's public library.