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.

On August 12 in Northampton about 75 people attended a labor rally. Candie St. Jean is a nurse at the Northampton hospital. In a speech to the people at the rally she said, “Our hospital and its corporate owner are failing to protect, support, and respect nurses. The signs outside call us front line heroes. Inside, we are struggling to provide safe patient care because the hospital is not providing adequate protection, safe staffing, and transparency as to their plans for the rising number of cases.”

In Greenfield on August 1, there will be a Black Lives Matter rally at 10 a.m. at the town common at the corner of Main Street and Route 5. The organizers have a web site at www.RacialJusticeRising.org.

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In Springfield, there was a rally to call on politicians to stop landlords from evicting their tenants, and to help low-income landlords. Eleven people were at the rally, which was on July 22. The organizers have a web site at www.SpringfieldNoOneLeaves.org

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Community radio stations in Greenfield, Northampton and Brattleboro are broadcasting new editions of locally produced shows despite the epidemic. The stations are WMCB, WVEW, and WXOJ. They all play "Democracy Now," an important alternative to NPR news. Anyone who lives in the Valley can have a show on these stations.

An all-volunteer group has protected thousands of acres near Brattleboro in recent years. “We just got a state grant for $116,000,” Carolyn Mayo-Brown told the Valley Post on January 31. She is a member of the Putney Mountain Association and is leading the group's effort to save land in Dummerston, Vermont. Dummerston borders Brattleboro. “With private donations and the grant we now have about $160,000.” The group needs another $40,000 or so to buy 55 acres in Dummerston. Mayo-Brown said she is confident that will happen.

On November 13 in Greenfield workers had a victory. Teaching assistants in the Greenfield public schools held a rally for justice on November 5. On November 13 they won raises. The workers have a web site at www.nea.org.

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There will be a rally on November 20 in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts to stop a giant corporate bank from evicting a low income family from the family's home. East Longmeadow borders Springfield. The rally will be at 6 p.m. outside 137 Pleasant Street. The rally organizers have a web site at www.SpringfieldNoOneLeaves.org.

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Native Americans led a protest rally near Greenfield September 9 following a corporate acid spill that killed thousands of big and small fish in a river. The September 1 spill into the North river in Colrain, Massachusetts was from a factory owned by Barnhardt Corporation of North Carolina.

Three more people were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience August 14 at Wendell Massachusetts State Forest near Greenfield, bringing the total number of arrests to nine since August 6. The goal of the ongoing protest is to stop planned logging of 80 acres of 110 year old oak trees on publicly owned land. Logging causes climate change.

The people who were arrested on August 14 are Plainfield, Massachusetts residents Erik Burcroff and Rema Loeb; and Dennis Carr of Cummington, Massachusetts.

Four more people were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience August 12 at Wendell Massachusetts State Forest near Greenfield, bringing the total number of arrests to six since August 6. The goal of the ongoing protest is to stop planned logging of 80 acres of 110 year old oak trees on publicly owned land. Logging causes climate change.

The people who were arrested on August 12 are Wendell, Massachusetts residents Jim Thornly and Morgan Mead; Miriam Kurland of Goshen, Massachusetts; and Priscilla Lynch of Conway, Massachusetts.