Sunday November 17, 2024

2-4 pm

Guiding Star Grange  

401 Chapman St Greenfield

Where do we go?     What do we do?

Possible agenda:

Some venting time, Why did Trump win?

What do we do? How do we fight against developing fascism?

On the National level

On the State level- How should Massachusetts protect it’s residents rights.

Greenfield Recorder

Auditor DiZoglio drums up support for Question 1 in visit to Greenfield

As part of a statewide effort to encourage voters to vote “yes” on Question 1, State Auditor Diana DiZoglio met with Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution last week at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/PAUL JABLON

Published: 10-22-2024 9:59 AM By ADA DENENFELD KELLY

GREENFIELD — State Auditor Diana DiZoglio ran on the promise of bringing transparency and accountability to the Massachusetts Legislature. Now, after a failed attempt to audit the Legislature last year, she is asking for support from voters.

As part of a statewide effort to encourage voters to vote “yes” on Question 1, DiZoglio met with Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution (FCCPR) last week. Question 1, if passed, “would specify that the state auditor has the authority to audit the Legislature,” according to a voters guide printed by the Secretary of State’s Office. Rejection would mean no change in the auditor’s authority.

DiZoglio told attendees gathered at the Guiding Star Grange that the state auditor has audited the Legislature more than 100 times since the inception of the office in 1849, “just like [in] every other state.” It wasn’t until the early 1990s that the then-Speaker of the House resisted an audit and the attorney general ruled state law was ambiguous.

“When I went to go conduct this audit of the state Legislature [last year], I was met with resistance from House and Senate leaders who pushed back and said, essentially, ‘You’re not auditing us. We audit ourselves,’” DiZoglio said.

After discussing the issue with the Attorney General’s Office, DiZoglio decided to create the November ballot measure, clarifying state law.

DiZoglio said transparency is lacking in state government — a 2019 Pioneer Institute study ranked Massachusetts near the bottom in fiscal transparency, and a 2022 article in Forbes magazine made a case for the state being the least transparent in the nation.

In March, members of a Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions recommended against “An act expressly authorizing the auditor to audit the Legislature.” Legislators who spoke at the time implied that DiZoglio’s efforts would erode the independence of the government’s three branches.

The Legislature has pointed out that legislative audits are conducted annually by the private firm CliftonLarsonAllen and typically include an overview of how the legislative process works and financial statements on budgetary accounts, but there are no line item breakdowns of spending.

While the auditing idea is largely opposed by the Democrat-led House and Senate, Pioneer Valley legislators, when contacted by a Daily Hampshire Gazette reporter in September, largely opted not to take a public stance on the ballot question.

DiZoglio also told those gathered at the Guiding Star Grange last week about her personal journey to becoming state auditor. After graduating from college, she got a job at the State House.

“I very quickly learned about all the great things our state Legislature can do,” DiZoglio said. “From investing in education to fighting against climate change to fighting for reproductive rights … I learned about all of these great things. But, I also learned about the flip side — what can go wrong when there is no accountability.”

According to DiZoglio, she experienced sexual harassment while working at the State House and was fired after reporting her experience. This inspired her to run for state representative, a position she held for six years before running for state senator representing the 1st Essex District. She was a senator for another four years.

When former State Auditor Suzanne Bump decided to not seek reelection, DiZoglio “did some soul-searching” and decided to run for the position in hopes of bringing more transparency to the Legislature from the outside.

Additionally, DiZoglio clarified some misconceptions about the state auditor’s role during her visit to Franklin County. As auditor, DiZoglio does not have enforcement authority. Rather, she creates a report based on her findings, and the Attorney General’s Office is responsible for any enforcement measures based on issues found.

In addition to her meeting with FCCPR, DiZoglio met with other Franklin County groups and officials, including the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, the Greenfield Business Association, Mayor Ginny Desorgher and Greenfield Community College President Michelle Schutt.

DiZoglio said she is grateful for the support of groups like FCCPR.

“I … wanted to come out to this wonderful group of progressive democrats who I was thrilled to hear support this initiative,” DiZoglio said in an interview. “We really have a fight on our hands, fighting against establishment rhetoric surrounding our audit initiative. But, with a powerhouse group of supporters like those … here tonight, we are confident that we are going to see success on Nov. 5, and be able to do our jobs to increase transparency, accountability and equity.”

 

If you would like to order a yard sign, please go to:

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The rightwing program spelled out in Project 2025 (www.project2025.org/policy), is written by the Heritage Foundation, always a tool of big corporations. The main thrust is to allow corporations unfettered rights to exploit workers and the environment. It details the first six months of a radical rightwing presidency.  Backed by more than 100 conservative organizations, Christian nationalists, corporate oligarchs, and militaristic authoritarians, they mean to change America as we know it, turning America into an authoritarian police state and shredding our most cherished freedoms.

It is an 887-page Right Wing plan to change our country and government in the first 180 days of a Trump administration.

• End all government programs that are anti-racist and promote equality in hiring, job promotion, housing etc.
• Ban Abortion
• Suppress the Vote
• End Marriage Equality
• Privatize Social Security
• Rescind all LGBTQ+ rights
• End the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid
• Dismantle EPA, Environmental Regulations
• Give the president total power
• Deport immigrants & round up the homeless
• Restrict Free Speech & the Press
• Tax cuts for the wealthy; higher taxes for everyone else
• No Separation of Church & State
• Dismantle Public Education
• Re-organize the DOJ, FBI, Civil Service to ensure they are under conservative control
• Deploy military in US
• Gut the National Labor Relations Act to deny workers the right to have unions

While we are not happy with tmany of the policies of the Biden administration, especially the promotion of war on Palestinians, we cannot allow a fascist to be elected.

More on Project 2025 to follow.

Everybody read project 2025. You will be amazed at its depth.

It reflects the evolution of right wing politics, the merger of classic reactionary big business with reactionary social politics of small business people which In our country is of course is based on racism and anti-women ideology.

It is a detailed plan on how to give corporations unfettered rule to increase profits and deny all rights to the working class. It is a plan to roll back the clock on all advances, however incomplete, that affect minorities and women.

For example the Project 2025 in detail lists every agency and law that collects data on racial and sexual composition. It would stop all collecting of such data. Without such data you cannot show discrimination in hiring on the basis of race or sex, you cannot show discrimination in housing, you cannot show discrimination in job distribution or anything else.

From Project 2025 Labor Laws

Eliminate EEO-1 data collection. The Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission collects EEO-1 data on employment statistics based on race/ethnicity, which data can then be used to support a charge of discrimination under a disparate impact theory. This could lead to racial quotas to remedy alleged race discrimination. (The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) also has a right to the data EEOC collects.) Crudely categorizing employees by race or ethnicity fails to recognize the diversity of the American workforce and forces individuals into categories that do not fully reflect their racial and ethnic heritage.

Eliminate disparate impact liability. With interracial marriages in

America increasing, many Americans do not fit neatly into crude racial

categories.1 Under disparate impact theory, moreover, discriminatory

motive or intent is irrelevant; the outcome is what matters. But all

workplaces have disparities.

Rescind regulations prohibiting discrimination on the basis

of sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, and

sex characteristics.

Republicans have billionaires and capitalists to fund think tanks and make detailed plans.

We have think tanks but our problem is that we have no relieable political vehicle to implement progressive policies.

The democratic party is pro-choice but pro-corporate and pro-war.

This election in nov choice appears to be between fascist policies and corporate  pro war democrats.

The real choice is under what conditions will we struggle for a better world. Under fascist rule or one that is pro-corporate but more liberal on social issues.

We know the old curse, may you live in interesting times. Well we are in interesting times. The other day the Supreme Court modified one of its numerous right wing decisions. They voted that a law that denies men who assault women the right to own guns should stand, modifying their previous decision that there should be be no restrictions on the right to own guns.

Clarence Thomas dissented, arguing that when the constitution was written women had no rights so they shouldn’t be protected now. Of course, under this logic, he would not be allowed to sit on the Supreme Court since when the constitution was written African Americans we were not considered even human.

I spent my life working in factories and organizing workers into unions. It never ceased to amaze me how many liberals operated on the principal that workers are stupid and cannot understand complicated issues. I never found this to be the case.

We can organize people to vote for Biden, not because we agree with his policies but because we do not want Trump to win. By telling the truth while campaigning we will be building the base for real progressive-politics that are for equal rights for all, that are anti-capitalist. This is the immediate task in front of us.

Before I begin, I’d like to take a moment to invite us to check in with our own bodies, our own breath. How are you showing up to this space today? What are you longing for? Perhaps some of us have come here today as an ally or an organizer. Perhaps some of us have come here today bearing our own wounds in relation to our bodies, our agency, and our own access to healthcare and reproductive justice. Many of us know the ache of being unheard deep in our bones, and many of us also know the power of speaking about that which we know to be true. 

I was honored to be invited to speak with you today about the connection between reproductive justice and the current devastation in Gaza. As a local organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace of Western MA, I have been working closely with local Jews, Palestinians and organizers of many backgrounds and lived experiences to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an arms embargo of Israel, and an end to the relentless genocide of the Palestinian people. 

This genocide in Gaza has left no civilian untouched, and yet, it is important for us to take some time today to really consider the lived realities of many women, care-givers and womb-bearers on the ground. Despite the ongoing censorship of Palestinian voices and unprecedented attacks on journalists in Gaza, many of us have still seen the images of war-torn Gaza, the apocalyptic rubble where neighborhoods once stood, the agonized faces of family members mourning their many children and beloveds, the countless images that you will find at your fingertips on your phone. As feminists, we must keep looking and we must learn to discuss this dire situation as a women’s issue, as a reproductive health issue, as a queer issue, as a disability justice issue, as a human rights issue, as an environmental justice issue, and as a moral issue.

We must also look and listen for the stories that cannot be so readily depicted. We must imagine what it is like to menstruate without any access to menstrual products, we must imagine the choice between bleeding into one’s only dress, or searching for another option, a piece of fallen tent or cloth that cannot be washed. We must imagine what it is to watch our own belly expand as we wait another week, and then another month, for food and water that never comes. We must imagine, for a moment, what it feels like to harbor life in an occupation intent on death, and the sensations of chronic grief, and chronic stress, and chronic terror in our body. We must imagine the complete and total loss of choice, whether because birth control was far from the realm of possibility, or because the conditions themselves cannot be made to support life. We must imagine so much more than any number can convey about infant mortality, stress-induced miscarriages, stillbirths, premature babies and malnourished children. We must imagine, until we know deep in our bones, that each of these bodies, like our body, is a whole universe of longing and need and desire and pain and hope. And we must imagine that we cannot look away. 

The reproductive injustice that is taking shape in countless ways before our eyes and beyond our sight is not only a byproduct of this horrific war, it is an expression of an intentional targeting of Palestinian bodies, lives and society. As we continue to work steadfastly towards securing our own rights to contraception, abortion, and healthcare in this country, we must not forget the many expressions of reproductive injustice taking shape both locally and globally. We must continue to ask ourselves whose voice is not being heard or centered within our communities, our organizations, and our movements. And to never forget the wise words of Audre Lorde: “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” May we find our strength, and our freedom together, and leave no one behind. Thank you.

The war on women is everywhere: in the home, locally, nationally and globally. Take the recent report from NELCWIT here in Franklin County: In this past year: they served 1,933 women survivors of mainly male sexual and physical violence.

In 2018, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center published that 81% of women reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault in their lifetime.  Further, the majority of violence against women is perpetrated by male intimate partners and acquaintances.

There are a myriad other misogynist wars on women worldwide – including military wars; sex trafficking and pornography; the theft of female and lesbian sexual identity by SOME IN the trans movement; female genital mutilation; child marriage, etc. – but none at this moment so intensive as Israel’s and the US’ genocidal war on Gaza: 70 percent of those killed are women and their children. Israel’s bombing of hospitals with maternity wards; the starvation of pregnant and breast-feeding women and the record-acute malnutrition among newborns and young children speak loud and clear — End Palestinian women’s potential to give life and the survival of Palestinian babies and children.

How cruelly ironic that as US weapons murder life in Gaza and elsewhere in the world with impunity, 14 US states have criminalized women’s choice of abortion as murder, not even allowing abortion for the hateful acts of rape or incest, 6 more states have early gestational limits. There were 65,000 rape-related pregnancies between July 2022 and January 2024 in those US states banning or putting extreme limits on abortion, post-Dobbs.

Today a majority of US-adults including every from every religion, race, ethnicity; moderate and liberal Republicans and a vast majority of Democrats (women and men), agree that abortion should be legal. Thus, the end of Roe v Wade in the 2022 Dobbs’ Supreme Court decision is a both a War on Women and a War on Democracy, given that the will of the majority of US citizens does not prevail nor influence government policy.

According to the Economist, the United States ranks among “flawed democracies.” Another recent, comprehensive study of democracies worldwide concluded that “only 15 percent of people globally live in places where women and lower income groups have at least somewhat equal access to power.” THE US IS NOT ONE OF THEM.

What fuels the control of women’s bodies in our country? It is MISOGNY and INJUSTICE. After all, there is no comparable moral or medical control of men’s bodies.

Yet the moralistic urgency to preserve life in the womb evaporates once a poor child is born. One in 6 children lives in poverty – the highest rate of all industrial countries; four million youth are homeless.

Clearly, controlling a woman’s right to her own body, is not about the unborn’s right to life, otherwise, all kinds of social legislation for maternal and child health, adequate housing, a living wage, and well-funded education would accompany legislation criminalizing women for abortion.

Regarding women’s loss of economic democracy: women have higher rates of poverty than men, with women of color having the highest. And why? For at least 3 reasons:

1) Domestic violence causes women victims to lose altogether an average of 8 million days of paid work per year and is a strong factor in women’s homelessness.

2)Women’s reproductive labor – giving birth, breastfeeding and caring for children is not compensated with free childcare and paid parental leave in the United States, unlike all other comparable countries. Thus, women who give birth are cheated of savings, pensions and Social Security. No surprise then that the greatest risk factor for being poor in old age is having been a mother.

3)More women than men struggle to cover everyday expenses due to the gender wage gap, which has remained stagnant for 20 years – at 82% – a significant factor contributing to the substantial disparity in poverty rates between women and men age 75 and older.

Even for College graduates in 2024: The same Economic Inequality persists: Male college graduates have been hired at an average sightly over $30/hour; women at slightly over $25/hour: a wage inequality of 82% that will follow these women college graduates ALL THEIR WORKING LIVES

SALARY IS SYMBOLIC: WHY ARE WE WOMEN WORTH 82% OF MEN IN THE WORKPLACE.

I will finish with 2 oppositional realities:

More lives were lost in the 20^th century through violence against women in all its forms in the US than during all 20^th century wars and civil strife. Yet, while thousands of monuments throughout the United States honor those who lost their lives for their country in war, only one—the first of its kind—is currently being planned for women who lost their lives giving birth to the country’s children.

The counterpoint reality is that Feminist revolutions to gain human rights and equality for women (however incomplete that goal remains) have freed and saved the lives of millions of women and girls—without weapons, without fists, and without a drop of blood spilled.

Women have more than a lot that men can learn from: men commit 90% of homicides and almost all sexual violence; men are the primary wagers of war.

Were our skills, our social and intellectual Intelligence, and our wisdom valued and welcomed in all places of social and political decision-making: from home to national governments and the UN, the world might get a chance at global peace and restoring our beautiful planet.

Ann’s Intro June 23 Bigger than Dobbs: The War on Women and Democracy Rally

1. Welcome!! I am Ann Ferguson, the MC for this event. I am a retired professor at UMass and a long time feminist, peace and social justice activist. I will be your MC and will introduce the speakers. I represent the organizing committee for this coalitional event sponsored by FCCPR (Frankin County Continuing the Political Revolution) and many co-sponsors.
2. But before I describe our organizations and the program I want to make some general announcements:

1. First ! Thanks to the Raging Grannies for their songs!
2. There are several sign-up sheets on clipboards at the table by the door. Please put your name and contact info on it if you want to receive further information about FCCPR and further events and issues we are working on that connect to the themes of the rally.
3. Buttons and Cards: There are also some buttons and cards and other material relevant to the fight for reproductive rights and justice at that table.
4. Handouts: There are event program flyers that list the speakers and their descriptions on one side along with political things to do, and the Republican Project 2025 plan on the other. There are also sheets with some chants we may use.
5. Access: There is an ADA access door in the back of the hall behind the church.
6. Time Limits! We need to be out of this space by 1:30 at the latest and we have a lot of speakers so we will try to end the rally by 1:15 at the absolute latest!! We will give each speaker 5 minutes (although our keynote speaker will get 7!) and I will have to be a strict school marm with a kitchen timer marking the 5 minutes with a ding!! And maybe then they get an additional minute to wrap up so we can be fair to all the speakers and yet get out of here in time!!
7. Parking! Please don’t park at the Funeral Hall next to the church!!

3. This rally is called Bigger than Dobbs: the War on Women and Democracy. I want to tell you more about our group and the Reproductive Justice task force that has helped organize this rally, , and I also want to mention the many other co-sponsors of this rally. But before I do that let me explain why the speakers and others of us are wearing white and green at this rally.

1. We are wearing white to honor the 19^th and early 20^th century US suffragists who won women the constitutional right to vote. This struggle was started by women abolitionists against slavery who were not allowed to speak in public to oppose slavery. The campaign to make women full citizens has only been partially successful up to the present, because although white women won the vote in 1920, US racial segregationists have continued to deny many women and people of color the vote by racial gerrymandering of electoral districts and the ERA amendment was never ratified. So feminists and antiracists have much more to do to protect even our democratic right to vote, let alone our other democratic rights!
2. We are also wearing green sashes, ribbons and scarves in solidarity with the global Green Wave movement to support abortion rights and to oppose violence against women which started in Latin America.

4. The main organizer and sponsor of this event is my organization FCCPR, which is a local group established in 2016 that promotes democracy and progressive politics. FCCPR is also a part of the nationwide progressive political organization called Indivisible.

1. Indivisible was created in 2016 to “save American democracy” and “resume the project of creating a humane America that is more like social democracy than corporate plutocracy”. It was formed after Trump was elected to organize local political actions to challenge MAGA Republican policies, both through electoral politics and events at Town Halls and other venues.
2. Indivisible is sponsoring rallies and standouts all around the country on the weekend of June 22-24 to mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision which took away the constitutional right of women to abortion. Our rally here in Greenfield is a part of 16 events at 13 locations that the Feminist Action team of MA Indivisible is co-sponsoring throughout our state this weekend.

5. So now let me tell you about the FCCPR Reproductive Task Force. We created this task force after the Supreme Court Dobbs decision in the 2022. We are inspired by the concept and history of Reproductive Justice and activism created by Black feminists in 1994. We support the definition of Reproductive Justice offered by Sister Song on their website https://www.sistersong.net/reproductive-justice which is (quote):

Reproductive Justice is the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.

We aim to work together with other sister organizations in the River Valley of Western Mass. and beyond to support reproductive justice for women and parents through legislative action, informational campaigns, political demonstrations and fundraising to support access to abortions for all who need them. We also advocate for the educational and social supports (sex education, contraceptive access, and medical care) necessary for reproductive justice for all, regardless of income or race, as well as for the rights of working parents to paid parental leave, health care, childcare and other social supports (housing, schooling, adequate income) necessary to raise healthy children.

We have a list serve for those interested in reproductive justice issues. At present we sponsor regular Zoom meetings open to all interested. Please contact us for
further information or to join our task force at www.fccpr.us/reproductive-justice-task-force (or sign up on the FCCPR sign up sheet at the table).

6. Co-sponsors: It takes a village to defend our democracy!! Besides the MA Indivisible Feminist Action Team, our main co-sponsors for the rally who helped us organize it are the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, and the WMA Code Pink Women for Peace. Some of our other cosponsors are represented by speakers on the program, and include the Western MA Jewish Voice for Peace; the Amherst Young Feminist Party, the Western MA Area Labor Federation; and the River Valley Democratic Socialists of America.

7. Finally!!! What is our rally about? The title of our rally today is Bigger than Dobbs: The War on Women and Democracy.

Although we are feminists who oppose the Supreme Court Dobbs decision, we see that decision as only one part of a broader reactionary plan not only to wage War on Women and deny us our bodily sovereignty but also to an overall attack on US democracy. This politics is Bigger than Dobbs, and connects to a MAGA Republican plan called Project 2025, some of whose aims are stated on our program flyer. This plan aims to take over our government if Trump wins the Presidency. It will have consequences not only for women and LGBT folks, but also for workers, immigrants and those working to combat climate change and to demand social justice at home. Increasing state repression of protests is a present worrying trend in the US and also connects to a War on Humanity that leaves many US citizens unable to influence the decisions of their own government in the ongoing genocide in our name in Gaza, as well as in politics that affect our lives at home. We are holding this rally to increase public awareness of how wars, the present Supreme Court and reactionary anti-democratic politics are all part of wars on most of us, and particularly on women, in a multitude of ways.

So now let me introduce you to our key note speaker, Pat Hynes from the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, who will say more about the themes in this Bigger than Dobbs rally and how they connect.

(Ann reads Pat Hynes speaker description and the program continues)

Speaker Descriptions

1. Keynote Speaker: Pat Hynes is an ardent feminist and lesbian and board member of the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice. She is a retired Professor of Environmental Health and Environmental Justice; a writer and author of many books; and co-founder of Bread and Roses, the feminist restaurant and cultural center in Cambridge. 

Chant: Abortion is a woman’s right/this is why we stand and fight!

2. John Bonifaz is a constitutional attorney and the Co-Founder and President of Free Speech for People, a national non-profit organization which defends democracy and our Constitution across the country.  It has served as a leading force in the nation fighting to protect our right to vote and our elections, challenging big money in politics and unchecked corporate power, and confronting corruption in our government, including now in the United States Supreme Court.

Chant: They say Theocracy, we say Democracy! They say Autocracy, we say Democracy!

3. Kaia Jackson (they/them) is a Core Organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace of Western MA. They are also a healing arts facilitator, storyteller and movement chaplain who is grateful to call Great Falls their home!

Chant: No More Wars!! No More Wars!!

4. Dave Cohen got his start in the labor movement organizing a union at Holyoke Wire and Cable Co. He went on to become an International Representative for the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) and retired after 38 years of building rank- &-file-run democratic unions.
5. Rosemarie Freeland is the coordinator of the Women’s Resource Center of Greenfield Community College and a member of that institution’s professional staff union’s local chapter of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. She will speak of her personal experience organizing educator union activists at Greenfield Community College.

Chant: When Women’s Rights are Under Attack, What Do We Do? Stand Up, Fight Back! When Workers’ Rights are Under Attack, What Do We Do? When Queer Rights are . .

6. Kevin Young teaches in the History department at UMass Amherst. He is active in the faculty-librarian union (MSP), in the campus Environmental and Social Action Movement (ESAM), and in Faculty for Justice in Palestine. He will speak about faculty and student protests against the war in Gaza and the implications for democracy.

7. Susan Triolo is a retired early childhood & elementary teacher; longtime anti-racist, peace & justice activist with W.Mass CodePink and FCCPR and the chair of the Sunderland Democratic Town Committee.  She will talk about how important local politics are in the fight to stop the war on women and promote reproductive justice and democracy and suggest some things that we all can do to promote these values.