Political life in the city of Burlington leaves a lot to be desired. The forces of big money are laying siege to our homes, schools, hospitals, public spaces, and social expression. Like vampires, the insular cliques of entrepreneur groups intrude into our communities and suck out the social surplus. They monopolize every aspect of our lives and raise the rent. They attack us with their ideology to sanctify their exploitation.
Burlington’s Democratic Party leadership united against a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza during Monday night’s City Council meeting, two weeks after three Palestinian students were shot in Burlington. The resolution did not pass, tying on a 6-6 vote.
On Friday, roughly thirty people gathered outside Senator Bernie Sanders’ house in Burlington’s New North End, demanding that he call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire of Israel’s military bombardment and invasion of Gaza.
Below is a selection of upcoming events in Vermont relevant to the left.
Almost a hundred gathered at a vigil in front of Burlington City Hall late afternoon on Friday, November 25th to commemorate the lives lost in Israel’s wave of military and settler violence brought on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Speakers and attendees called for a true ceasefire, not a humanitarian pause, as the first step to ending decades of bloodshed and apartheid.
Watching local Vermont Jewish organizations react to the crisis in Gaza and pro-Palestinian protests in Burlington with victimization, dehumanizing language, and even the outright rejection of anti-Zionist Jews as members of the broader Vermont Jewish community, has affirmed to me, an anti-Zionist trans woman and Jewish Vermonter, that Zionism has completely hollowed out generations of Jewish values, even in Vermont.
A dozen protesters have disrupted a fundraising event for Vermont U.S. Representative Becca Balint in Burlington. The action, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace of Vermont and New Hampshire, is part of an international day of action calling for a ceasefire to end the bombing, siege, and invasion of Gaza by Israeli forces.
As Israel continues its ongoing siege and bombing of Palestinians in Gaza, and the death toll passes a grim 10,000, Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders continues to refuse to call for a ceasefire. To many inspired by Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential bids, it has been a legacy-tarnishing moment for someone who stood as the key figurehead of a growing left movement in the United States.
Over 1,000 gathered and marched from Battery Park through downtown Burlington on Saturday afternoon to support human rights for Palestinians and oppose Israeli apartheid as the ongoing bombing, siege, and invasion of Gaza — and escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank — continues.
Below is a selection of upcoming events in Vermont relevant to the left.
Halloween-themed signs and chants accompanied yesterday’s rally in support of unionizing graduate student workers at the University of Vermont. Despite the rain, more than one hundred grad students and allies attended the event.
UVM administrators have abruptly canceled the appearance of Mohammed el-Kurd, a Palestinian journalist and poet, mere days before his scheduled event, citing safety and security concerns, but campus community members aren’t satisfied with that rationale.
“Free, free Palestine!” echoed across downtown Burlington Saturday afternoon as more than 200 gathered at a rally on the steps of City Hall to oppose Israeli apartheid and support justice and human rights for Palestinians.
Organizers in the movement against Cop City — the proposed police training center in Atlanta that is estimated to cost $100 million, clear cut large swaths of forest, and disrupt Black communities surrounding it — are in the midst of a nationwide tour, speaking in more than seventy cities to educate the public and encourage participation in a demonstration planned for November 10-13 in Atlanta.
Below is a selection of upcoming events in Vermont relevant to the left.
Amid chants of “Milk with dignity!” roughly one hundred farmworkers and supporters assembled on Thursday for an informational picket and rally near the Hannaford supermarket
It’s common to think of these professions as solely within major media markets and hubs like Los Angeles and New York, but SAG-AFTRA members can also be found across New England. We spoke via email with two Vermont-based members, Marci Diamond and J.T. Turner, about their work, the strike, and how Vermonters can get involved.
Below is a selection of upcoming events in Vermont relevant to the left.
A new documentary made by a local filmmaker has ambitious aims. Bookended with words from Assata Shakur and Angela Davis, “Abolition & Revolution” attempts to ground the present political crises with their roots in history, not just to better understand our present context but to learn how to change it.
Last Thursday, in the halls of the Waterman Building on the campus of the University of Vermont, dozens of staffers across various departments — from biology to residential life — lined the hallways outside the executive offices of the school, laptops open, diligently at work. This “work-in” was held to object to UVM’s proposed implementation of new time-tracking software on roughly 700 staff.