Popular Action in the age of COVID-19: What is it and why do we need it now?

Please register now for the first session in the series, “Beyond the Coronavirus Crisis: Popular Action for Community Solidarity”

The virus crisis has led to widespread failures in healthcare, education, housing, food distribution, and employment. While there have been some efforts to address the impacts in some areas, there’s been a lack of public discussion on the system inadequacies of the social, economic, and political structures that the virus crisis has amplified. In the meantime, many in positions of power, from government officials to corporate directors, are taking measures to impose austerity that further threaten people’s access to healthcare, education, housing, and income. Rather than working to unite people in our common humanity, government officials continue to promote xenophobic and racist ideologies and in response to the uprising against racism, police are responding to peaceful protests with violence and oppression. This forum will provide a space for community members, workers, students, and academics to share perspectives and collaborate on collective actions.

And please stay tuned for future events in this series led by MTA-UMass unions in solidarity with community organizations and students. The series will explore topics not being sufficiently analyzed in mainstream media outlets, such as: the failure of the free-market U.S. healthcare system, neoliberal capitalism, alternative economic models, racial and gendered effects of the crisis, anti-China rhetoric, and system change.

Co-sponsors: Arise for Social Justice, FCCPR, Western Mass Extinction Rebellion, Western Mass Science for the People

The Moment Was Now

A new musical by Gene Bruskin – takes place in post-civil war Baltimore in 1869, a turning point in our history when the U.S. almost did the right thing.

Please join this special Western Mass. showing on Saturday June 20 at 7 PM on Zoom, with an introduction and Q&A with the playwright, Gene Bruskin, a fabled union organizer with local roots.

Watch a 2-minute trailer here. To join this event, register here.

Juneteenth Vigil in Greenfield

On June 19th, 1865 the Union soldiers landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and Black communities were now free. 

This was announced two and a half years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Freedom for Black communities has always been delayed and at the hands of a system of oppression. That day would become known as Juneteenth in the Black community as a day that honors Black freedom and Black resistance, and centers Black people’s unique contribution to the struggle for justice in the U.S.

Join us as we join Racial Justice Rising on the Greenfield Town Common at noon.

Virtual General Assembly – Part 2

Join us over Zoom to discuss the crisis at the U.S. Postal Service, mail-in voting, and the fight against an austerity budget. We will be joined by our state senator, Jo Comerford.

To access the meeting, please download the Zoom client software at zoom.us and then register for the meeting using this link.

Canvass w/Sheila Gilmour

FCCPR member Sheila Gilmour is a candidate for Greenfield mayor.

Weekly on Sunday through September 15.