As they marched down West St. from Smith’s College Hall to L3Harris Northampton Offices, Smith students and local activists chanted “Free Free Palestine” and “What do we want? Divestment! When do we want it? Now!” The Oct. 25 protest was against L3Harris, a weapons manufacturing company that has offices in Northampton and whose weapons are used by the Israeli military. Protestors called on Smith to divest from L3Harris, the city of Northampton to shut down the location and L3Harris employees themselves to stop manufacturing weapons and distributing them to the Israeli military.
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On Saturday, April 20, Glazed Doughnut Shop closed its Northampton location. The shop had been a downtown staple for Smith students and Northampton residents for two and a half years.
On Thursday, April 11, workers at the Northampton Stop & Shop on King Street walked off the job as part of a union strike involving over 30,000 employees and spanning across Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. This strike comes after months of failed negotiation to reach a new contract between the union and company. Stop & Shop employees are represented by the larger United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. Many Stop & Shop stores across New England have been forced to close their doors due to a lack of working employees.
Effective at 4 p.m. Friday, April 5, President Miriam Nelson resigned from her position at Hampshire College. Her resignation comes during a period of financial uncertainty for the school, during which three members of the Board of Trustees have also resigned.
She spent a month in federal prison for protesting at a submarine base. She counseled 2,000 conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War. She was personally thanked by Nelson Mandela for her work on his behalf.
Every year, the Pioneer Valley Central Labor Council hosts a “Legislative Breakfast”: an event where community members discuss their concerns over labor issues with legislative leaders and lawmakers. With events like these, the Labor Council strives to become a more inclusive and representative union of all members of the Pioneer Valley.
The Hampshire College Board of Trustees announced Friday, Feb. 1, their decision not to admit a full freshman class for the coming 2019-2020 academic year amidst tensions on campus. The decision came after the announcement Jan. 15 of enormous economic challenges the college faced, causing concern in the Hampshire community.