Two years ago, 17 people were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience at Wendell, Massachusetts state forest near Greenfield. The goal was to stop logging of 80 acres of 110 year old oak trees on publicly owned land. The USA is losing 6,000 acres of open space to development every day. Stopping logging on publicly owned land forces logging companies to buy their own land. If the loggers want to grow new trees after logging, the land can't be paved.

Gia Neswald was one of the people who got arrested, and is still an active member of the movement. In a voice phone interview on April 7, 2021, she told the Valley Post, "Media coverage of our effort to save a tree in Sunderland (also near Greenfield) hasn't been bad, but it missed the big picture."

The big picture is that every single tree is essential to earth being able to continue being habitable for humans, and countless other species. Planting more trees, and not killing existing trees, are both critical.

Details about the Sunderland tree are at:

www.facebook.com/groups/wendellforest.org (Scroll down to posts on and around April 6.)

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In the 1990s, Al Norman led a successful movement to ban Walmart from Greenfield. In a voice phone interview on April 7, 2021, he told the Valley Post, “Today we had 20 or so people show up to a protest outside the Greenfield Home Depot. On two days' notice that was a good turn out.” Home Depot is giving money to racist politicians in its home state of Georgia. Norman has a web site at www.sprawl-busters.com.

Norman took the below photo of Joe White at the April 7 rally in Greenfield. To enlarge the photo, click on it.

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Tessa Andrews is a reliable source. On April 5 she told the Valley Post, “I would estimate close to 100 teachers attended the (April 2 Brattleboro) Pliny Park rally. A colleague of mine counted 90 at one point, so I can say 90 with confidence. It was great to see the resolve of the teachers, and there were many supportive honks as people drove by. The Vermont legislature has backed down from the proposed changes (to teacher pensions) and will establish a task force to work on solutions this summer. We feel strongly that the union and teachers need to continue to apply pressure to make sure that we move forward with the process in a way that doesn't penalize teachers and other state workers as the proposed changes would have.”

Details are at www.facebook.com/LaborAction

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The below photo by Bill Baker shows a rally in Springfield to protest racists killing and assaulting Asian Americans. The rally was on March 28. There was another rally for the same issue in Amherst on the same day. The group that has a web site at www.aaFederation.org works in New York City – partly by organizing rallies -- and it can connect people with groups around the USA that work for Asian American rights.