On September 5 at 4 p.m. in Springfield there will be a rally to protest the high on-the-job death rate for construction workers. The rally will be outside 122 Chestnut Street. Better enforcement of workplace safety laws could save the lives of some of the 5,000 or so people who die on the job annually in the USA. For example, workers are generally required to wear a safety harness when they are on a roof. For every worker who dies on the job, many more are seriously injured. One of the groups that's organizing the event has a web site at www.jwj.org.

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With 4 percent of the world's population, the USA spends as much on the military as the rest of the world combined. Cutting the USA's military budget is a goal of the Poor People’s Campaign. On June 11, four people from the Keene area were arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience at the New Hampshire statehouse as part of the Poor People’s Campaign, Judy Reed told the Valley Post on June 19. The people who were arrested are Keene residents Reed, Charlie Gibson, and Eleanor Vander Haegen, and Patricia Martin of Rindge, New Hampshire.

The USA is on land stolen from Native Americans. Despite the best efforts of the government for the past 242 years to kill Native Americans, they are still alive, and fighting the system. Activists are calling on politicians to raise taxes on billionaires and give the money to Native Americans. In recent weeks, several people from the Valley were arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience for Native American rights, and other issues, as part of the Poor People's Campaign.

Police in Springfield on June 4 charged 21 protesters with trespassing on state property. The protesters were using nonviolent civil disobedience to bring attention to politicians' failure to address air pollution that makes Springfield the nation's worst city for people with asthma. The same air pollution – largely from cars – causes climate change, which the world's leading scientists say is a major threat to earth's ability to support human life. Solutions include raising the gas tax to European levels, and improving public transportation, sidewalks, and bicycle paths.

In a win for activists who fight for affordable housing, downtown Brattleboro will get a new apartment building. “This project will provide beautiful new homes for folks wanting to live close to all the amenities available in downtown Brattleboro," Elizabeth Bridgewater told the Valley Post on March 8. She runs the non-profit group that will build the housing. Bridgewater's group has a web site at www.w-wht.org.

The building will be constructed at 23 Flat Street, which is now a vacant lot, and will have about two dozen apartments.

Workers in Northampton, Brattleboro, and Keene have a new union contract. They work at AT&T. Matt Arnts lives near Keene and works at AT&T. “It was a tough fight,” he told the Valley Post on January 30. “I'm proud that we stuck together to get a fair contract.”

The contract boosts wages. To win the contract, the workers went on strike for three days. They have a web site at www.cwa-union.org.

AT&T's CEO makes $28 million a year.

In Brattleboro on December 9, people held a downtown rally for peace. The focus was on Honduras and Palestine. “We speak out today at a time when the U.S. government fuels wars across the globe,” the Brattleboro event organizers said. “The longest war in U.S. history is currently in Afghanistan.” About 20 people were at the event. They will have another peace rally at the same location, Pliny Park at the corner of Main and High streets, on December 17 at noon. Details are at:

www.facebook.com/events/1550784861675928

In Northampton on August 13, hundreds of people attended a rally to protest racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. The same day in Keene, about 60 people attended a rally for the same cause. On August 14, about 80 people attended a rally for the same cause in Greenfield. On August 15, dozens of people attended another rally for the same cause in Springfield.

Workers at a factory is Greenfield won a new union contract, and environmental activists permanently protected 323 acres of land in the Valley from development. “We are very pleased with the contract we ended up with,” Jay McGrath told the Valley Post in a July 18 interview. He is one of 74 workers at the Kennametal factory on Sanderson Street in Greenfield. McGrath started working at the Greenfield factory 17 years ago. The workers have a union, which has a web site at www.UEunion.org.

Eight people who were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience to stop construction of a fracked gas pipeline in the Valley will be in court July 18 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. They are asking the public to come to court to support them. “The trial starts at 9 a.m.,” Ellen Graves of West Springfield, Massachusetts told the Valley Post in a telephone interview. She is one of the people who were arrested on June 24 in Sandisfield, Massachusetts. “There is only one court in Great Barrington. I feel good about how the protest went. We succeeded in bringing attention to this pipeline.”