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.

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.

Stand up for the post office by standing with us at your local post office on June 16 at noon.

Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution (FCCPR) is joining a national movement to save the US Postal Service.

Why is this rally necessary?  

The US Postal Service says it will run out of money by the end of the summer if it does not get support from Congress, and the president threatens to veto any bill that contains money for the post office.  Why would the president not want to support the most popular agency in the government, an agency that employs more than six hundred thousand people and that facilitates more than one trillion dollars of business each year?

There are two main reasons for the president wanting to shut down the post office.

1. The president and many of his supporters in Congress want to replace it with a private, for-profit entity owned by corporations that would profit from our mail service. This would mean that postal rates would increase because corporations would take profits from the business.  Mail service would get worse especially in locations where there is not a great deal of mail activity (small towns like the hill towns in our area, resulting in less service to them).  There would no longer be any public oversight into the postal service since it would now be a private business.

2. Second, with public post offices shut down, the push to have vote-by-mail this coming election season would be in doubt, and this is crucial.  Trump has suggested that if voter turnout is large, then he and other Republicans will lose their elections. Making it difficult or impossible for people to vote during this pandemic will help their chances in November. If the post office is shut down, people will have to decide whether to risk illness or death in order to vote, or whether they will just stay home, and the more who stay home, the better for Trump.

Why is the post office in financial trouble?

First, Congress passed a law in 2006 that required the post office to put aside billions of dollars to fund retirement benefits for the next seventy-five years, a burden that no other agency or program carries. There is no reason for this except politics; the Republicans wanted to drive the post office out of business and hoped this financial pressure would help make that happen. 

The second reason is the impact of Covid 19; the postal services are carrying less mail so making less money, like lots of businesses during this crisis. 

Why does this matter?  

• The postal service exists to serve the public.  It uses no tax dollars and does not make a profit.  The money it raises through stamps and other fees goes into paying for itself and is the cheapest option for sending letters and packages around the country and the world since they are not taking profits.
• It is vital to rural areas that do not have reliable (or any) broadband such as many of the towns in Western Massachusetts.  It helps people in those towns to stay connected.
• It provides small business owners with an essential connection to clients, vendors, and potential customers
• It provides 630,000 government jobs—80 percent of them good-paying career positions.
• It is the largest employer of African Americans in the country.  37% of its employees are African American, and 37% are women.
• It distributes census forms, online purchases, letters, parcels, books, magazines, stimulus checks, and medical supplies.
• It is a place that serves the entire community, providing universal service to all
• It will enable all voters to vote by mail in upcoming elections so that they don’t have to risk being exposed to the Covid 19 virus in order to take part in our democracy
• It has in the past served as a place to do banking, providing a non-profit alternative to payday loan type businesses that charge large interest rates, and it could serve that function again.

We need a public post office, with expanded services, that serves us, not a particular politician, party, or profit-seeking corporation. 

Stand up for the post office by standing with us at your local post office on June 16 at noon.

FCCPR is also offering “save the post office” stickers to place on mail: contact info@fccpr.us if you want them.

Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution P.O. Box 216 Greenfield Ma. 01302

FCCPR.US

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.

Our FCCPR General Assembly which was originally scheduled for May 3rd at the Grange Hall is being rescheduled. It will be an on-line meeting. We will let you know very soon when it will be.

Last night about 15 people converged on Zoom to discuss the current state of affairs. We talked about a variety of issues including food shortages, rent strikes, Medicare for All, the importance of letters to the editor and using social media more effectively.   In case you missed it and are interested in the discussion, you can watch the recording.

We will continue this discussion at our next General Assembly, which will be scheduled in the near future. Watch for an announcement in our next newsletter.

These are hard times but together we will get through this. Please take a look at our Coronavirus Resource Page for resources that may be helpful.

“We echo the demands laid out by Bernie Sanders…, as he calls for state and national hotlines for residents to use for resources, information, and updates. We agree that this level of transparency must be relayed by scientists and health experts and not politicians. A vaccine, when developed, must be free, and that any medicine developed to help with the crisis must be sold at cost. The ICU and ventilator shortage must be addressed, and medical residents, retired medical staff, and other medical personnel should be mobilized, staffed with proper instruction and personal protective equipment, to ensure adequate staffing. We also agree with his call for emergency unemployment assistance at 100% of a worker’s income for ALL people, including those who work off tips, gig workers, domestic workers, and independent contractors. There must be emergency shelters erected, complete with healthcare and food, for the unhoused, domestic violence survivors, and college students.

Finally, all of this social spending should be paid for by taxing the rich. The American working class has repeatedly bailed out the same massive corporations and billionaires that cause and exacerbate crises…..”

Now is the Time for Solidarity from DSA

The depth of the COVID-19 crisis and the rapidity of the changes that are occurring in all of our lives have left us all feeling a bit off balance and with more than a few questions. Here in Franklin County we are just beginning to have confirmed cases. We want to share with you some comments and ideas that will help keep have come across our desks in the last few days that we thought were valuable in keeping us focused on the key issues at hand.

Taking Care of Ourselves

Please heed the CDC and DPH directives on social distancing, washing your hands, etc. These are the best tools we have now to prevent this from being a worst case scenario. 80% of the cases of COVID-19 will be minor, but we need to follow the directives of health officials to make it possible that everyone will be medically treated appropriately. If you feel sick, please call your medical provider (doctor, hospital, health center) before you arrive there. Some may not have test kits and may need to send you somewhere else.  

Want more information? https://mass211.org/

Information from Senator Jo Comerford

Jo has been sending out state information regularly. Here is the most recent one Jo Comerford’s news blog. Sign-up on the website to get them regularly.

(If you wish to discuss your concerns with Jo and her staff, check out the schedule of community conference calls here: COVID-19 Conference Calls with Jo Comerford) or contact Jo directly at Jo.Comerford@masenate.gov

Local Political Action Needed

There are several things that we need to keep an eye on and we should contact our State Representatives to get them to support these demands.

Jo.Comerford@masenate.gov

Paul.Mark@mahouse.gov

Natalie.Blais@mahouse.gov

1. Education – All School employees should continue to be paid, even if they are no longer working due to school closings. The state government should provide financial assistance to school districts to ensure this. We think that they should be paid at their full salary level.

We have learned that the Greenfield School Committee has voted to continue paying school personnel throughout the crisis. What are other school departments doing?

2. Health and Human Services – Childcare should be provided and paid for, to healthcare workers and others who have to work.

3. Public Safety – Department of Correction and House of Correction (county jail) employees and prisoners must be provided with adequate soap and water, hand sanitizer, and disinfected work and living conditions (prison cells) to not be vulnerable to the Coronavirus.

4. Labor and Workforce – Twenty thousand people in Massachusetts filed for unemployment this week alone. Workers who are no longer working, due to their companies or businesses being closed or having reduced economic activity should receive 100% of their pay through unemployment insurance.

5. Housing and Economic Development -There should be a Statewide moratorium on evictions, and foreclosures due to people being out of work or earning less because of the corona virus.

6. Local Services – The state government must provide financial support to towns and cities, to ensure that municipal and school employees continue to be paid, and local services maintained

7. Water and electricity– There must be a moratorium on any disconnecting of any utilities because of non-payment during this crisis. this includes water, electricity, internet and gas.

What we can do here in Franklin County

NEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR PROJECT RESPONDS TO COVID-19 VIRUS

Western Mass Mutual Aid

An online group called Western Mass Mutual Aid has developed. It covers a fairly large geographic area, but may be helpful for some people. If you are going to use this, check the tabs on the bottom of the pages. When you click onto those tabs, the page will come up for the particular services being offered.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L2ULs-Faf9cJ2eYU5xgc6ieXqsbpSrsH1BG7Hhl_2Gs/edit#gid=1727309836

What we can do more broadly

We need to ensure that all workers are receiving as much support as possible. This is going to be a protracted issue. We are going to need multiple sources of assistance for workers. In light of that we ask you to contact Senators Markey and Warren and Congressmen McGovern and Neil to ask them to support two proposals supported by Bernie Sanders:

• $2,000 monthly cash payments to every U.S. household to combat coronavirus.
• a moratorium on evictions, more robust unemployment insurance and a waiver on student loan payments.

See Bernie’s address to the nation here: https://berniesanders.com/issues/emergency-response-coronavirus-pandemic/?akid=7738.165537.55WYLX&rd=1&t=3&utm_campaign=em200318-1-15

An example of how things should work

Berea College is a small liberal arts college outside of Lexington, Kentucky.   100% of its students are low income with 95-98% of its students Pell eligible. 70% come from Appalachia or Kentucky and 40% are people of color. Most of these students do not have access to internet services when they are at home. All students work at least 10 hours per week to cover college related expenses.

For information about what they did and how they did it Berea College Coronavirus Response.

Help get Alex Morse Elected to Congress

Given the changed state of the world, it is getting very difficult for Alex to get the word out about his campaign for Congress. We can use all the help we can get. If you’re willing to make a few phone calls, please contact Sara at sara@alexmorseforcongress.com.

The primary election is this coming Tuesday, March 3rd. Here are our actions leading up to the vote.

Standouts:

Greenfield: Saturday Feb. 29th 10 am to noon, downtown

Monday March 2nd 3pm to 6pm downtown

Montague: Saturday Feb 29th, 10am to noon. Meet in the Discovery Center parking lot.

Election Day Standouts

We need people at as many polling places as possible on March 3rd. Please contact the following people if you can standout on election day.

Sunderland: Jeff Carol jeffrey.m.Carroll@hotmail.com

Turners Falls: Peter Hudyma peterhud82@gmail.com

Greenfield: Patti Williams MsPWilliams007@gmail.com

Shelburne Falls: Mike & Penny Novak  stepbystepfarm@comcast.net

Colrain: David Greenberg   david.greenberg3@gmail.com

If you don’t see your town above, take your lawn sign and do your own standout for Bernie.  The best times are in the morning 8 am -10 am and evenings 4 pm-8 pm.  But any time that you can go would be great!

Canvassing

There will be canvassing going on until election day.

Saturday Feb. 29th, Sunday March 1st and Monday March 2nd

10am to 6pm 345 Main St Greenfield

I f you can go to Holyoke or Springfield, please contact Zack Hecht hechtizaak@gmail.com or at (510) 849-7373

Phone Calling for Bernie

If you would like to do some phone calling for Bernie they need help making calls to the Springfield/West Springfield area. Here is the link. You can do this from your home.

Virtual Phone Banking (VPB) for Springfield/western MA volunteers

Election Day Party at the Peoples Pint in Greenfield from 8pm until Bernie wins.

Follow up meeting. Let’s get together and talk about the results of Super Tuesday and where do we go from here.

Thursday March 5th 7pm FCCPR office 345 Main St Greenfield.