A Latina police officer in Springfield was fired for posting in support of Black Lives Matter on Instagram. Florissa Fuentes was fired on June 19, 2020. Yolanda Cancel ran for Springfield mayor last year. She won the endorsement of Planned Parenthood. Tanisha Arena runs the Springfield group Arise for Social Justice. Arena referred the Valley Post to Cancel. In a July 1 interview with the Valley Post, Cancel condemned the firing. Cancel provided the Valley Post with the below photos and comment. Also below is a photo of Cancel from her campaign web site.

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Democracy and the kind of extreme economic inequality that now exists in the USA are incompatible. Unions reduce inequality. In Brattleboro on June 15 there was a well-attended union rally, seen in the below photo. A follow up rally is set for June 22. Details are available from Sy Creamer, the union president. Her email address is at:

www.unap.org/unap-locals/brattleboro-retreat

A phone number is at:

www.unap.org/about/contact-us-2

To enlarge the photo, click on it, then scroll down and click “view full size image.” Then you can click on the photo to zoom in more.

The first labor rally in the Valley since the virus began – not including car rallies -- happened May 7 in Springfield. The below photo shows the rally. To enlarge the photo, click on it, then scroll down and click “view full size image.” Then you can click on the photo to zoom in more. The photo is by an employee of the union that has a web site at www.MassNurses.org and that organized the rally.

More than 80 people took part in car rallies in Holyoke and Springfield on May 1. The same day in Brattleboro about 50 people took part in a car rally. The rallies were for workers' rights. The Massachusetts rallies were organized by the Pioneer Valley Workers' Center. The Brattleboro rally was organized by the Vermont Workers' Center.

On May 1 there will be car rallies in Brattleboro at 12:30 p.m., in Holyoke at 2 p.m., and in Springfield at 4 p.m. The rallies are for workers' rights. All three are caravans. A similar rally in Greenfield on April 24 drew more than 100 people. The Brattleboro rally starts at the high school parking lot and will pass grocery stores and hospitals. It's being organized by the Vermont Workers' Center and other groups.

On April 9, a land trust in Keene announced it had permanently protected 37 acres of farmland in Chesterfield, New Hampshire from development. Chesterfield borders Brattleboro. The land trust is the Monadnock Conservancy. The below photo shows the land with Lucky Evans and his daughter Ingrid. photo by Monadnock Conservancy

Thanks to the work of activists in Springfield, 1.5 miles of abandoned train tracks will be turned into a rail trail. "The design for the McKnight Community Trail is in progress," Liz Stevens told the Valley Post on March 8. She is part of an all-volunteer group that has a web site at www.WalkBikeSpringfieldMA.org. "The actual construction of the trail is expected to happen in 2023.... On March 6, I walked on a section of the trail with Andy Krar, the city engineer, and saw work being done by... the company contracted to create the trail design. A crew was there to collect soil samples....

On April 22 at 3 p.m. there will be a climate march from the Brattleboro town common to the corner of Elliot and Main streets. One of the groups that's organizing the march has a web site at www.350Vermont.org.

The biggest cause of climate change is over-population. Population is growing fastest in Africa. But in 2014 (the most recent year for which data is available) the average person in the USA produced 16.5 tons of carbon dioxide. The average person in Mali produced 0.1 tons that year. That's according to:

In Holyoke on February 21 at 4 p.m. there will be a rally in solidarity with Native Americans in Canada who are fighting construction of a fracked gas pipeline. The rally will be at 12-6 Mt. Park Road. More information about the rally is available by calling Gia at (413) 512-1192. More information about the pipeline is on the web site of the tribe that's leading the fight to stop it:

www.wetsuweten.com/territory/pipelines

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In Springfield on February 5 there was a rally to protest the U.S. senate's acquittal of Trump. The rally was outside city hall. “We had about 50 people, which was great considering we just posted the event less than 48 hours before,” organizer Jackie Neiman told the Valley Post. The organizers have a web site at www.RiseUpWesternMass.com.

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On February 13 at Mount Holyoke College there be a climate rally. It will be outside Blanchard Hall at 12:20 p.m. A campus map is at:

https://map.mtholyoke.edu