April 23, 2019

Workers Win

by Eesha Williams
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Hundreds of Stop and Shop workers in the Pioneer Valley went on strike and won. The strike started on April 11. On April 22, the strikers went back to work, victorious. One of the main reasons for the strike was low wages. The workers have a web site at www.ufcw1459.com.

In other news from the Valley, on April 24 in Chicopee, Massachusetts there will be a rally to stop a giant corporate bank from evicting a low-income family from the family's home. Chicopee borders Springfield and Holyoke. The group that's organizing the rally has beaten banks in Springfield in the past. A photo of one such victory is below. The group has a web site at www.SpringfieldNoOneLeaves.org. To enlarge the photo, click on it, then scroll down and click “see full size image.” This photo is by Joe Oliverio. He can be reached at joeoliverio@comcast.net.

The rally will be outside 709 Prospect Street at 6 p.m.

In other news from the Valley, on April 27 in Amherst there will be a March for Science. The first annual March for Science happened a month after Trump signed an anti-environment law. The Amherst march will start at 10 a.m. at Kendrick Park. Details are at:

www.facebook.com/events/378234076092444

In other news from the Valley, following two recent drug-related murders in a New Hampshire town that borders Brattleboro, both newspapers in Brattleboro have been dominated by crime coverage. Notably missing has been context.

Among the 50 states Vermont has the second lowest rate of violent crime. New Hampshire has the nation's third lowest rate.

The USA keep a higher percentage of its people in prison than any nation on earth. Europe's incarceration rate is a third of ours.

Vermont has the USA's most racist prison system. One percent of Vermonters are African American but 10 percent of Vermont's prisoners are black. No other state has such a disparity. Source:

www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/The-Color-of-Justic...

To save money, Vermont sends hundreds of its prisoners to Mississippi.

"Since it decriminalized all drugs in 2001, Portugal has seen dramatic drops in overdoses, HIV infection and drug-related crime." That's according to:

www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-w...

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