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.

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.

Thousands of people marched in Northampton on January 20. They held signs that said things like "Dump Trump" and "I Stand With Planned Parenthood." The Northampton Women's March was organized by a group of people who have a web site at www.PioneerValleyWomensMarch.org. To enlarge a photo, click on it, then scroll down and click "see full size image." To zoom in more, click on the image again. photos by Eesha Williams

More than 1,400 people had RSVP'd for the Northampton Women's March as of January 16. The march is set for January 20 at 11 a.m. It will start at Sheldon Fields and end at city hall. One of the speakers at a rally after the march will be Shanique Spalding. She lives in Springfield and works as an organizer at the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund.

People who live in the Valley, eat eggs, cheese, or meat, and care about farm animals' quality of life may need to visit farms themselves. President Trump is weakening so-called “animal welfare standards” for organic food. Enid Wonnacott runs the Vermont chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association. On December 29, she told the Valley Post that Trump “has blocked the movement of the animal welfare standards that we have worked on for years.”

More than 700 people had RSVP'd for the Women's March in Northampton as of December 27. The march is set for January 20, 2018 at 11 a.m. Since the Valley Post first reported on the march, organizers have announced the route: it will start at Sheldon Fields and end at city hall.

The event is being organized by the same people who organized the January 2017 Women's March. That drew about 3,000 people to Northampton and 3,000 to a sister march in Greenfield. Photos of those events are below. The march organizers' partners included Planned Parenthood, the AFL-CIO, and 350.org.

Roomful of Blues will play at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton on November 25 at 7 p.m. In a positive review, Down Beat magazine, which has been published every month since 1934, said Roomful of Blues is “in a class by itself.” The band will play concerts next month in Washington, DC and in California in April. You can hear their music at www.roomful.com.

War tax resisters from around the nation will host a public event in Amherst on November 3 at 7 p.m. Stopping construction of fossil fuel pipelines is the goal of a march in Northampton on November 5 at 5:30 p.m.

Sam Koplinka-Loehr will moderate a panel at the peace event. “I am a war tax resister because I believe a better world is possible,” she told the Valley Post. More information is at:

https://nwtrcc.org/programs-events/gatherings-and-events/schedule

On September 5 in Northampton, about 500 people attended a rally to protest anti-immigrant action taken by President Trump earlier that day. The turnout at the Northampton event may have been higher if it hadn't been raining heavily at the time of the rally. Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protected from deportation immigrants who came to the USA when they were children. The Northampton event organizers have a web site at www.pvWorkersCenter.org.

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.