Happy Juneteenth!

On this 156th anniversary of Juneteenth, FCCPR celebrates the emancipation of African Americans, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and welcomes June 19th as a federal and state holiday as it should certainly be. As welcome as this new holiday is, we must remember that there is still plenty of work to be done to eradicate racism from our society. We dedicate ourselves to that work.

Events Tomorrow, May 25

Unity Action

Please join the communities of Sunderland and Deerfield as we observe one year since the murder of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020.  We stand in solidarity with the many adults & children of color who have been violently insulted, attacked and for some, murdered at the hands of law enforcement and white supremacists.  We support the many people targetted as “other”.   We stand as one.

BEGIN WALK AT SUNDERLAND LIBRARY 4:30
30 MINUTE VIGIL ON THE BRIDGE
GATHER FOR POETRY & READINGS ON THE DEERFIELD SIDE

Fair Share Amendment Organizing Meeting

Please join us at 7:00 PM on Zoom to begin work to pass the Fair Share Amendment. Register here.

FCCPR Statement on Racism

Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution joins the chorus of millions of individuals and groups in the U.S. and around the world who have spoken out against the institutional racism that, for more than 400 years has continued to claim the lives and livelihoods of people of color. We encourage all of our members and the public at large to challenge racism in whatever forms it manifests itself. White privilege is a subtle and not-so-subtle way of dividing people who are all struggling against the degradation foisted on us by the capitalist system that places profit for a few above the needs of the many. None of us will be able to live our lives fully until all are able to do so. 

Specifically, we support the efforts of Black Lives Matter and Defund413 in their demands to:

    • End the resource officer in the public schools. This position tends to criminalize difficult behavior of children rather than looking to the underlying problems and solving them. Statistics have demonstrated that children of color are more likely to be singled out for discipline by the resource officer. We support the use of these funds to increase counseling and support services for students in our schools.
    • End the use of money bail within our court system. The cash bail system penalizes low income people, who are disproportionately people of color, by preventing them from returning home while awaiting adjudication of the legal issues at hand. This is not only a difficulty for the arrested individual, but also the individual’s family as this causes the loss of employment and greater financial insecurity. And it reverberates through the entire community. People of means, even modest means, have the ability to continue employment while awaiting trial. This system criminalizes poverty and should be eliminated.
    • Reallocate funds from the police to mental health first responders, peer supports, substance abuse services, domestic and intimate partner violence advocacy and support. The police are presently expected to respond to situations for which they are not well trained. A task force should be developed to re-imagine the work of the police and direct funds to services that more appropriately deal with the issues at hand. When that plan has been devised, funds should then be reallocated to social service organizations or to the hiring of additional appropriately trained staff to deal with the social and human service issues that are often today part of the police portfolio.
    • Create a police review board with power. Install an independent citizens complaint review board that will have authority to review all complaints including the use of force and will determine disciplinary actions for offending officers. The review board would be composed of people with direct experience of police brutality or misconduct along with others concerned about equitable enforcement of the law. The board would approve de-escalation, racial justice, restraint and other training in an ongoing manner. 

We look forward to working with Black Lives Matter, Racial Justice for Franklin County–Solidarity and Action, Racial Justice Rising and other organizations in creating a more equitable and just society.

Standouts at County Post Offices

Standouts at FC Post Offices
Standouts at Seven FC Post Offices on June 16.

On Tuesday, June 16 FCCPR members and friends massed at a number of post offices around the County to show our concern about the future of the U.S.P.S., one of the oldest institutions in the country. A push toward privatization, which would almost certainly result in closures of rural post offices (not enough profit there!), is being resisted nationwide.

FCCPR is distributing ‘Save the Post Office’ stickers that you can put on your mail. To request some, use this link.

May 17 General Assembly – The Movie!

In case you were unable to join us for Part 1 of our Zoom-based General Assembly, you can use the links below to see/hear/read what you missed:

Screen Share with Speaker View (video)

Audio Only

Chat Transcript

And to register for our General Assembly, Part 2, which will be this coming Thursday evening, May 21, at 7:00 PM, please use this link.

Hear ‘Extinction Rebellion’ Rep at the General Assembly

Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019, 2-4 p.m.

Guiding Star Grange 401 Chapman St. Greenfield

Agenda

1)   Financial report and Membership renewal

2)   Election of the Coordinating Committee. The following people were nominated. Dave Cohen, Susan Worgaftik, Patti Williams, and Doug Selwyn. You can read their statements here.

3)   Speaker from  Extinction Rebellion . This is one of the most exciting groups fighting climate change. See some of what they have been doing lately all over the world here.

Adrie Rose, Co-Chair of Extinction Rebellion Western Massachusetts, will talk with us about their take on the climate crisis and why they do what
they do.

4)   Report on the Greenfield Elections

5)   The Politics of Palestine in the Current Moment: Joe Levine is a Professor of Philosophy at UMass and an organizer with Western Mass Jewish Voice for Peace (and an FCCPR member). He will talk with us about The Politics of Palestine in the Current Moment. Here is a recent Opinion piece Joe had in the New York Times.

6)   Announcements

Global Climate Strike: From Sweden to the UN, from Boston to Greenfield

September 20, 2019 is a global day of “strikes” to highlight the need for quick and dramatic action to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Led by young people in organizations such as Sunrise and Extinction Rebellion, rallies and other strike activities will be taking place all over the country and around the world, including a very large march and rally in Boston, and our own in Greenfield. This strike will lead to ever-larger actions over the next year to force politicians to confront the realities of global warming. But it all starts Here and Now!

FCCPR is urging all our members to participate in one of two ways:

  1. Go to Boston! There will be one or two buses leaving Greenfield around 8 AM and returning by 5 PM. Sign up here for a spot on the bus.
  2. Attend the rally in Greenfield – Friday, Sept. 20, 5 PM, Greenfield Common. Hosted by FCCPR, Traprock and Greening Greenfield, this action is already endorsed by a couple dozen local organizations and area legislators.

Want to do more?

  • Come to the next planning meeting: Thursday, Sept. 12, 6:30 PM, at the FCCPR office right beneath Greenfield Coffee in downtown Greenfield
  • Donate to the MA Youth Climate Strike here.
  • Share the names of students or teachers in the area who you think would be interested. This information will go to local student organizers.

Please direct questions and other ideas to Bob Armstrong (bobarms@gmail.com) or Ferd Wulkan (ferdwulkan@gmail.com)

The Recorder – Remembering Hiroshima, Nagasaki

Members of FCCPR Peace Task Force joined with Traprock Peace Center and others  along the riverbank Tuesday afternoon at Unity Park in Turners Falls to honor the victims of the nuclear bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. STAFF PHOTO/DAN LITTLE

Source: The Recorder – Remembering Hiroshima, Nagasaki

Local Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration on August 6

For people and communities concerned with peace, August 6 and 9 are special days, as people around the world remember the first use of atomic bombs, by the US against Japan in 1945. They call for the phase-out and abolition of nuclear weapons, world-wide. The FCCPR Peace Task Force and the Traprock Center for Peace and sponsored an event in at the Unity Park Riverfront in Turners Falls.