Eesha Williams's Blog, page 27
January 13, 2022
Peace
About 40 people attended a rally in Greenfield on January 8. The goal was to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. Paki Wieland was at the Greenfield event. She works for a group that has a web site at www.CodePink.org. She told the Valley Post that about 40 people were at the rally. The group that organized the event has a web site at http://WitnessAgainstTorture.com.
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January 6, 2022
175 at Northampton Rally
On January 6 in Northampton about 175 people attended a rally to demand Congress pass three voting rights bills. “People were somber and serious but also hopeful. It was uplifting. So many people care about getting these voting rights bills passed,” organizer Larry Pareles told the Valley Post in a voice phone interview. He said people should go to www.IndivisibleNorthampton.org for more information. The below photo shows the rally. It was taken by Pareles. To enlarge the photo click on it, then...
December 30, 2021
100 at Homeless Rally
About 100 people attended a rally to demand politicians provide good quality homes for homeless people. The rally was in Montague, Massachusetts, which borders Greenfield. It was on December 24. Cate Woolner organized the rally. In her speech at the rally she said, “Welcome and thank you for choosing to spend some of your Christmas Eve here, shining a light on the fact that on any given night, not just Christmas Eve, there are 30 – 40 community members sleeping in cars and tents, couch surfing f...
December 26, 2021
Photo: Holyoke Canal
This photo was taken in downtown Holyoke on December 26, 2021. To enlarge the photo, click on it, then scroll down and click "see full size image." Last year, hundreds of people of color attended a march in Holyoke to protest police brutality. Photos of the march are at:
https://valleypost.org/node/1593
In 2014, activists in Holyoke permanently shut down a coal power plant in the city. Every DAY it burned 1,200 tons of coal. It did that for decades.
December 23, 2021
700 Nurses Win Strike
Seven hundred nurses won a strike at a hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts. Worcester is 50 minutes by car from Springfield. Worcester is 25 minutes by car from the Pioneer Valley town of East Brookfield. On December 17, the Texas-based corporation that owns the Worcester hospital, and the elected leaders of the nurses' union, announced a deal to end the strike. The deal will be final if the 700 or so nurses vote to approve it. That vote is set for January 3.
December 16, 2021
Victory for Brattleboro Bike-Ped Activists
Activists in Brattleboro are celebrating a December 15 victory for the rights of pedestrians and bicycle riders. As of 2017, Brattleboro had the nation's highest per capita rate of pedestrian death by car. Five people were killed in the five years that ended in 2017. Brattleboro is home to 12,000 people. In 2021, two pedestrians were hit by cars in Brattleboro and taken to the hospital with major injuries.
December 9, 2021
85 March
About 50 people marched in Northampton on December 4 to protest mass incarceration. No nation keeps such a high percentage of its people in prison as the USA. Europe's rate is a third of ours. "We took over Main street from Smith college to the post office and back. We got a ton of positive honking responses and handed out lots of fliers along the way,” Yoav Elinevsky told the Valley Post. Elinevsky lives in Amherst and is on the board of Massachusetts Peace Action. That's one of the groups that...
