Hundreds of people attended a peace rally in Northampton on January 4. One of the groups that organized the event has a web site at www.IndivisibleNoho.com. The same day in Keene around 35 people attended a peace rally, Amy Chapin Hathaway told the Valley Post. She is one of the organizers.
On January 9, dozens of people attended peace rallies in Brattleboro and Keene. The organizers have a web site at www.MoveOn.org. A January 9 peace rally in Northampton was organized by the Resistance Center for Peace and Justice. Miranda Groux works for the group. She told the Valley Post that about 80 people were at the rally.
With 4 percent of the world's population, the USA spends as much money on war as the rest of the world combined. The USA spent $1.7 trillion on war last year.
The below photo shows the January 9 Keene rally. To enlarge the photo, click on it, then scroll down and click "see full size image." photo by Jim Murphy
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In a phone interview on January 9, the president of the union at the Brattleboro Retreat mental hospital said her union is contractually allowed to go on strike in October. Sy Creamer declined to say whether they would strike. About 830 people work at the Retreat. “The union, in arbitration, recently won an employee their job back with full back pay. He had been out a year,” Creamer said. “Another employee was awarded six months' salary due to the Retreat administration's failure to provide due process. Neutral parties are siding with the union's requests for due process to be honored. In the past 12 months, 185 workers left the Retreat because of bad management. Some of them resigned to take jobs that pay less. It doesn't cost anything for administrators to say, 'Thank you' to workers. They don't do that. Patients don't want to come to the Retreat because of bad management.”
She continued, "The Retreat administration says there are no funds, yet they spend thousands of dollars for lawyers on arbitration, for situations that could have been resolved with conversation or by following due process, neither of which cost anything."
The union has a web site at www.unap.org.
Vermont's Republican governor has failed to adequately fund the Retreat because he doesn't want to tax the rich. In the coming months it will become clear if Democrats, who have a veto-proof majority in the state legislature, will overrule the governor and save the Retreat. The CEO on January 5 said he may close the Retreat if the state doesn't come up with more money.
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The annual Northampton Women's March, which attracts thousands of people every year, is moving to Springfield. “It will be on January 18,” Rachel Maiore told the Valley Post. She's the main organizer. “What a gift it’s been to develop relationships with community leaders in the Springfield area.”
Details are at www.PioneerValleyWomensMarch.org.
The photos at
were taken in January 2019. They show the Northampton Women's March. The most frequently seen signs opposed Trump's policies and supported peace, justice, and environmental protection. 
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