On July 8, in Brattleboro dozens of home healthcare workers announced their union had a major win. “We voted to ratify a new agreement with the state of Vermont regarding the minimum hourly rate paid. The two-year agreement went into effect on July 1, and includes a 5 percent increase to the minimum base rate each year as well as a retention bonus based on time worked,” the workers said in a press release. The 5,000 or so home health care workers in Vermont save taxpayers millions of dollars every year by keeping people out of nursing homes.

On October 25 in Amherst, 57 people were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience and about 600 marched. They were demanding UMass cut its ties with military contractors, and that Biden and congress stop funding Israel's war against Palestine. The protest organizers have a web page at www.instagram.com/umassdissenters/

Twenty people attended a peace rally in Greenfield on August 5. “We stood for peace and a ban on all nuclear weapons, just one day before the 78th anniversary of the US atomic bomb ‘test’ that destroyed Hiroshima. A second, plutonium, bomb was 'tested' on another civilian target three days later, destroying the city of Nagasaki on August 9,” Anna Gyorgy told the Valley Post. She works for a group that has a web site at www.traprock.org. The bombs killed about 200,000 people.

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The Indigo Girls are Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. In Amherst on May 13, Ray performed an excellent concert at the Drake nightclub. She had a full band, and the show was sold out. The Indigo Girls have sold more than 14 million albums and won a Grammy award. Ray and Saliers live near Atlanta, Georgia. You can hear Ray's solo music at www.Amy-Ray.com.

In Brattleboro on March 1, about 25 people attended a peace rally. The protesters were "calling for an end to the blockade of Yemen.... The bombing and blockade of Yemen have contributed to the largest humanitarian atrocity on earth.... Congress has voted to stop U.S. participation in the war but has failed to hold the president accountable." The organizers have a web site at:

www.actioncorps.org/yemen.html

The above quote is from that web site.

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On November 30 in Amherst, about 110 people attended a rally for human rights in Iran. The event was organized by the Persian Student Association at UMass, and other groups. A spokesperson for the Association did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment. The Valley Post will publish their response in a future article.

In 1953, to get cheap oil, the USA's CIA organized riots in Iran's capital, Tehran. The democratically elected leader of Iran was forced out.

The USA overthrew democratically elected leaders of Guatemala (1952), Congo (1961), and Chile (1973).

About 200 people attended rallies in favor of abortion rights on the Fourth of July in the county that's home to Greenfield. Susannah Whipps is a member of the Massachusetts legislature and she was at the rally in Orange. “A quick count of folks in Orange was over 90 participants,” she told the Valley Post. Other rallies on July 4 were in Greenfield and Shelburne Falls.

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About 40 people attended a rally in Springfield on May 31. The goal was to stop a proposed fossil fuel pipeline that would go about six miles from Springfield to Longmeadow, Massachusetts. The pipeline would cost around $40 million.

Naia Tenerowicz is a spokesperson for the two groups that organized the rally. On June 1, she told the Valley Post that the groups were the Longmeadow Pipeline Awareness Group, and the Springfield Climate Justice Coalition.

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About 50 people marched in Northampton on December 4 to protest mass incarceration. No nation keeps such a high percentage of its people in prison as the USA. Europe's rate is a third of ours. "We took over Main street from Smith college to the post office and back. We got a ton of positive honking responses and handed out lots of fliers along the way,” Yoav Elinevsky told the Valley Post. Elinevsky lives in Amherst and is on the board of Massachusetts Peace Action. That's one of the groups that organized the march.

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On October 31 a land trust announced 150 acres of open space in Amherst has been permanently protected from development. The USA is losing 6,000 acres of open space to development every day. Kestrel Land Trust said the town of Amherst had saved the land. The land is along West Pomeroy Lane.