On November 23 in Hadley, Massachusetts there was a protest rally outside Whole Foods. Hadley borders Northampton and Amherst. Whole Foods is owned by Amazon. About 10 people were at the rally, organizer Jackie Velez told the Valley Post. They handed out fliers to customers. Velez works for Massachusetts Jobs With Justice.

According to a press release from the group, Amazon's “demands are so high that people working at Amazon warehouses collapse from exhaustion and some have died on the job. All the while, Amazon shareholders and executives rake in outrageous profits.”

In Holyoke on November 14 there will be a climate march. It starts at 1 p.m. at Crosier Field. The number one cause of climate change is over-population. The average American uses much more fossil fuels than the average resident of a poor nation like Mali or Afghanistan. On average, in the USA and globally, the more education, and the more money, a person has, the fewer kids they will have. One of the groups that's promoting the Holyoke march has a web site at https://350vermont.org.

Data on population and climate is at:

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.

At least six people from the Pioneer Valley, and at least one from Brattleboro, were among 655 people arrested for non-violent civil disobedience outside the White House between October 11 and October 15. The protests were to call on Biden to do more about climate change. The six Pioneer Valley residents are Paki Wieland, Priscilla Lynch, Marty Nathan, Sofia Perrotto, Sue Donaldson, and Russ Vernon-Jones.

About 950 people attended women's marches in Northampton, Brattleboro, and Keene on October 2. The goal was to protect abortion rights. About 800 people marched in Northampton. That event was organized by Deborah Pastrich-Klemer, Planned Parenthood, and a group called the Valley Women's March.

About 125 people marched in Brattleboro. That event was organized by Tracy Donahue and others.

The number one cause of climate change is overpopulation.

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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.

Shamarr Allen will perform September 23 at 8 p.m. at the Stone Church in Brattleboro. Tickets are $15. A video of him performing is at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDTcWbrcK3k&ab_channel=shamarrallenmusic

In Brattleboro on September 13 there will be a health care rally. It will be from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. outside 1154 Putney Road. The organizers said, in the USA, “over 600,000 people have died from Covid during this pandemic, many of them because our country denies health care to the poor. This pandemic has revealed more clearly than ever before that the 140 million poor and low-income people in the United States are united by the fact that we, our families, and our communities are in a life-and-death fight for health care. We take action together to say that urgent action is needed now.

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 Vermont, February 2015 broke records for coldest temperatures ever recorded. During that month hundreds of workers stood outside on picket lines, all day, every day. They were on strike for justice. They work for the monopoly landline phone company in the state. Eventually the workers won the four month strike, and a good union contract.

In 2021, when it was time to negotiate a new union contract, the company was more reasonable. On August 9, 2021 the company and the workers' elected union leaders reached a tentative agreement. The deal will be official if workers vote to approve it.