Scroll below to view news articles featuring Greylock Together events and members.
“The walkout was also spurred by a growing desire among faculty and staff, as well as students, to form a labor union or organization on campus, according to Arlo Varon ’29, a member of the steering committee for the Williams College Youth Democratic Socialists of America. ‘A lot of people in the labor scene at Williams are trying to gather and gain support for some kind of labor union,’ Varon said in an interview with the Record.”
“At the walkout, students, staff, faculty, and members of local activist groups spoke. Assistant Director of the Davis Center for Intergroup Relations and Inclusive Programming Firas Shennib gave a speech about the complicity of the College in what he referred to as the ‘treadmill of labor.’”
“Because of our commitment to each other; our freedoms; our fundamental human and civil rights; the rule of law; and the belief in creating a safe, peaceful and equitable world both at home and abroad, we made visible the undeniable power of we the people.”
“Moving to North Adams in 2012, my partner and I made friends in our loft building, I joined boards of directors, and she worked with an extensive arts community. But we had few ways to broaden our friends beyond our narrow connections. We are not churchgoers, bowlers, golfers or members of fraternal organizations.
But with Greylock Together and joint work against the crimes of the Trump presidency, we have befriended so many: retired teachers, a Wall Street IT project manager, a landscaper, a book editor, religious leaders, authors, artists, salespeople and so many more. Our lives are very much enriched by these new connections.
So, thank you, Donald Trump, for mobilizing our voices together and bringing us together in new wonderful and rich communities.”
“As ever, the First Amendment points the way. We’re grateful to local organizers who give their neighbors a robust chance to flex their freedoms of speech, assembly and petitioning our government for redress of grievances. Now more than ever, peaceful and principled pushback is necessary.”
Pattie Lentine: “From the teachings of Cicero, we must love one another, and we must love our neighbors so we can make one from the many. On that note, please join your neighbors on March 28 for the third round of "No Kings" demonstrations. There are several opportunities to participate in Berkshire County and in Bennington, Vt. With more than 3,000 event opportunities across the U.S., if you’re away from home on March 28, find one at NoKings.org to sign up and show up.”
Denise Fortier: “I have spent my entire career in the healthcare field. Getting into activism and speaking out is not something I ever thought I would be doing at this stage in life. In healthcare, I’ve learned that prevention is as important as treatment—you act before harm becomes irreversible. I see the same urgency in our nation today. We are moving away from kindness, away from love, away from respect for one another. Participating in organizing the No Kings protest is my way of taking action now, to protect the health of our communities and the soul of our country before it’s too late. I live in Adams.”
Matt Lewellyn: “In my talk at No Kings, my primary message is how Love will be the thing that saves us. Love does not equate to passivity, but equals the active engagement of all peoples to create a world we want to live in. To build a new world order where people are the most valuable, not profit. Love is the willingness to get into the weeds to do the hard work, so how can we build an image of love and life for ourselves? For Everyone?”
Eileen Gloster: “Our community is intentionally collaborating to push back against President Trump’s violent, undemocratic actions,” says Eileen Gloster, a retired North Adams teacher who started Eileen For Justice a year ago. “People are coming together from all walks of life to share a simple message: We don’t do dictators or kings in America.”
Massachusetts unveils portal for reporting ICE misconduct | WAMC
“Berkshire County activists like Fernando León of Berkshire Interfaith Organizing called on Democratic Gov. Maura Healey to establish such a portal during a North Adams visit last month. León said he hopes Healey will next end the state’s active 287(g) agreement with ICE through the state’s Department of Correction.
‘What it does is deputize local police to have some immigration enforcement capabilities,’ he said. ‘And that is problematic, because collaborations in this moment seems just like acceptance.’”
Letter: Oligarchy threatens the American republic
Excerpt: “The politicians, judges, institutions, infrastructure, legions of lawyers, think-tanks, political action committees and media outlets that they support and, in return, that sustain them are the enemy within. We ignore them at our own peril. Join the resistance.”
Link: Letter: Where's Neal for our health care?
Excerpt: “‘Imposing a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa petitions will exacerbate hospitals’ existing staffing challenges and could push chronically underfunded hospitals to their financial brink,’ the legislators wrote. ‘If these hospitals cannot petition for new H-1B visas to address their staffing needs without also having to pay this fee, it will further damage their financial viability. Critically needed open positions will simply go unfilled, leaving rural and high-poverty urban areas without adequate access to care.’
In our own district, Rep. Richard Neal did not sign this letter. We need his support. You can call his Washington office at 202-225-5601 to suggest he join his fellow members of Congress calling for this much-needed fee exemption.”
“Waara says the actions Healey took against ICE in January don’t match either the moment or her own rhetoric. ‘When I read Governor Healey's executive orders, I was really angry because it felt like it was window dressing and did not have teeth behind it,’ she told WAMC. ;’There was no enforcement mechanism in those executive orders to actually create change, especially because if all she's doing is preventing future 287(g) agreements, what does that do for Massachusetts now for the people who are being taken and detained and fed into that pipeline that gets them deported to countries they've never lived in before?’”
Check out the terrific LOVE/Valentine’s Day standouts in Berkshire County featured in Robert Hubbell’s newsletter today! We are all connected! (Fun fact we learned today: Hubbell’s home town is Pittsfield! He now writers with a large national audience from CA!
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Excerpt: “In sharing those perspectives, León's overarching message was one of encouragement: that the people in this room needed to be ‘courageous’ in standing up to ICE, just as immigrants were forced to be courageous in their everyday lives…
‘The last check for uncontrolled power is us: the people,’ León said.”
Link: Letter: Struggling to stay engaged in exhausting political times
Excerpt:
“Reading Judith Monachina’s Jan. 27 commentary “On Holocaust Remembrance Day, heed a historic warning: ‘Indifference’" helped me think on both past and present and the work that must be done in order that we not be judged “indifferent.” I certainly take no pride and make no excuse for my intermittent inability to continue to absorb and react to what is happening daily. I only wish for a renewal of the energy that will permit me to engage in and work toward humane solutions to the struggle for the soul of our country we find ourselves in. And I wish the same for you.” - Vivienne Jaffe
Link: Letter: A distinction with a very real difference from past deportation practices
Excerpt;
“We saw none of the following under Clinton and Obama: The Trump administration’s immigration agents use aggressive and violent methods to fulfill their daily quota. They take immigrants who are following the rules, not just the worst of the worst as told by Donald Trump. They treat the immigrants like animals, putting them in detention centers with deplorable conditions or ship them to even worse centers outside of the U.S. Pulling people from their cars, disregarding the Fourth Amendment by entering homes without warrants, spinning the truth of the killing of Renee Good, threatening and teargassing peaceful protestors — this is just a small sample of what’s happening.
I certainly hope the midterm elections show how Americans feel. It can’t come soon enough.” - Patti Lentine
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Letter: Activism keeps me going
Excerpt:
“Thankfully, I am active in our Northern Berkshires community and very politically aware. My connection to community shows me what I can do, not only what I cannot do. Noam Chomsky was asked on American Public Radio in 2020 what kept him going at age 92. He replied he believes in the "bicycle theory." This theory is that one needs to keep riding forward — being involved, doing — otherwise you fall off.
I am part of Greylock Together, a local chapter of the group Indivisible. Most of us meeting, organizing and protesting are gray-haired. The aged are in many ways leading this fight, and as we seek to find new ways to draw youth into the fight, I am so energized and alive.” - Michael Bedford, GOOD Team Captain, Greylock Together
Excerpt: “In her speech, Penner said she needed to name the ‘hard truths’ of current American politics that jeopardize the ‘legacy of Dr. King’s work…At the federal level, our democratic norms and institutions are being eroded and dismantled in plain sight,’ said Penner. ‘Voting rights are under assault, the truth is routinely distorted and perverted and the dignity of immigrants, working families, Black communities and marginalized people is being treated as expendable...
Let's use the tools that we have to find courage and community.”
More from iBerkshires.com here: North Adams, Pittsfield Mark King Day With Calls for Activism / iBerkshires.com
“The public is invited to an immigration forum focused on supporting immigrant neighbors from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 88 Walker St.
The forum, organized by the Immigrant Support Action Team of Greylock Together, a northern Berkshire–based Indivisible group, is one of several community discussions aimed at addressing fear and isolation within immigrant communities.”
Excerpt: “‘It’s all one and the same, the militarization and takeover abroad in Venezuela, the militarization in our own streets against our own people, our own citizens, for standing up for our neighbors and trying to protect them with our First Amendment rights,’ said Dils of Williamstown. ‘You know we all kept hearing and saying and warning that it was going to get worse before it got better, and this is the worst. This is what we all feared.’”
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Wendy Penner to Receive the 2026 Peacemaker Award / iBerkshires.com
“Penner is a volunteer community organizer and has previously worked in the nonprofit world on issues related to the environment and substance use. Penner is committed to the northern Berkshire Community and to the idea of "think globally, act locally." She has helped lead initiatives for the citizen-led Williamstown COOL Committee for many years, which empowers people to address climate change through local action. She is a champion for public health approaches to support people impacted by substance use, a member of Have Hope Recovery Center, and the northern Berkshire HEAL coalition. Wendy is on the leadership team of the North Berkshire Indivisible chapter, Greylock Together, and she is currently co-president of Congregation Beth Israel.”
Link: Here's why local protest leaders continue to organize in blue Berkshire County
Excerpt: “‘This past year, as we reactivated, we have grown in number, scope and demand, both here locally and across the country, in response to the horrific assault on our democracy, our institutions, our Constitution, and most importantly, the lives and livelihoods of our neighbors,’ Dils said.”
Excerpt: “Though the shooting took place more than a thousand miles from Berkshire County, demonstrators said distance didn’t lessen their distress.
‘Human rights are human rights,’ said Lois Prew, a Pittsfield resident. ‘I don’t care what the state or country is. What happens in Minnesota could happen in Massachusetts.’”
Link: Letter: The danger of 'just this once'
Excerpt: “We need accountability grounded in multilateral legal institutions and due process, not actions that replicate the abuses they claim to oppose. We must demand transparency, lawful oversight and a firm recommitment to the rule of law at home and internationally.
I urge readers to call their representative and senators and demand public hearings within seven days, the full legal justification in writing, and a vote on authorization, plus no funding for any ongoing operation without explicit congressional approval. Your voice and actions make all the difference. The line we refuse to cross next will be the precedent our children inherit.”
Excerpt: “Fernando Leon, a member of Berkshire Interfaith Organizing, said that Maduro's removal normalizes authoritarian practices by legitimizing unilateral force, extrajudicial punishment, and rule-by-might over rule-of-law.
Accountability must be pursued through multilateral legal institutions and due process, not through actions that mirror the abuses they claim to oppose,’ he said.”
Excerpt: “‘It's very upsetting,’ Wendy Penner of Greylock Together, who attended Gloster’s protest, told The Eagle. ‘Venezuela should be run by Venezuelans. This sets a dangerous precedent.’"
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Thousands Turned Out for Saturday's 'No Kings' Rallies / iBerkshires.com
Link: Thousands of people attend No Kings rallies all across Berkshire County
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Photos: 'No Kings' protests return to Berkshire County | Multimedia | berkshireeagle.com
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Letter: Still No Kings in Berkshire County
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Organizers Preview Upcoming 'No Kings' Rallies / iBerkshires.com
Excerpt: "’We are working to push back against the harms of the MAGA movement and this administration,’ said Wendy Penner, of Greylock Together.
‘The No Kings Coalition is working with the No Kings movement on events across the county. Over 2,500 events are planned nationwide and across the globe. This mass mobilization is to emphasize the moving threat of authoritarianism playing out in communities across the country, and right here in Berkshire County, we're taking to the streets for another nationwide day of protests to let Trump know that our peaceful movement to oppose his authoritarian regime is getting bigger and stronger and isn't going away.’"
Link: Berkshire County: No Kings rallies set in several communities on Saturday
Excerpt: “The country we love is in crisis,” says Eileen Gloster, organizer of I Lean For Justice, a group that holds resistance rallies weekly outside North Adams City Hall on Saturdays. “The Trump administration shows such contempt toward its neighbors, allies, constituents—even to its own supporters,” Gloster says. “The signs people bring to the rallies show that they are fed up with Trump taking from the vulnerable while giving tax breaks to the wealthy. They’re fed up with his attacks on free speech, due process, and his defiance of decisions from the Supreme Court and laws of Congress.”
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'No Kings 2.0' Will Likely Draw Thousands to Berkshire County
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North Adams 'Rises' for Elizabeth Freeman Center / iBerkshires.com
Link: Photos: Elizabeth Freeman Center holds walk in Williamstown | Multimedia | berkshireeagle.com
Excerpt: “‘We are currently facing a rising fascist regime, and I think we are all surprised at how it happened so quickly,’ Russell Freedman told the crowd. ‘We must pull this country back from the brink.’"
“Wendy Penner was one of many using buttons as a way to change the visual landscape. She said she's noticed people like to have a physical show of their stance.
‘We’re all here for the same purpose, so it’s really nice to have a community,’ she said. ‘And the turnout is great.’"
Link: Letter: America, the beautiful no more
Excerpt: “We the people are the last guardrail. Only we can prevent or overthrow tyranny. Reclaiming our democracy hinges on the awakening of the millions who slept through democracy and/or didn’t vote. Hopefully, they become radicalized in their opposition to oppression and tyranny, realize their power and exert it in revolt.”
Link: Letter: Rereading Project 2025 gives frightening context to all that is happening
Excerpt: “I was born in March 1938 when Hitler annexed Austria. My father worked for the Netherlands embassy in Berlin and was requested to stay behind to be accredited to the Swedish Protection Power. (Sweden was neutral.) I lived under the Adolf Hitler regime in Berlin until November 1944, when I was flown to neutral Sweden.
Rereading Project 2025, I am shocked at how close we are to that moment in history. The effort to restrict our freedom of speech and press has not yet happened in full, but deploying the military on U.S. soil has happened, and the Trump administration also has moved toward seizing complete executive power.”
Link: Letter: Let's make some 'good trouble'
Excerpt:
“The Good Trouble Lives On movement aims to respond to the attacks on our civil and human rights by the Trump administration and remind everyone that in America the power lies with the people. For our nation to thrive, our rights must be celebrated, practiced and protected. July 17 is not an arbitrary date; it’s the five-year anniversary of the death of civil rights icon John Lewis, a perfect day to carry forward his legacy of ‘good trouble.’
It’s easy to be inspired by the heroism of John Lewis. Let’s recall some of his words to prove yet again why he remains such an essential figure.
‘We all recognize the fact that if any radical social, political and economic changes are to take place in our society, the people, the masses, must bring them about,’ he wrote in 1963. ‘In the struggle, we must seek more than civil rights; we must work for the community of love, peace and true brotherhood. Our minds, souls and hearts cannot rest until freedom and justice exist for all people.’”
Link: English Los Angeles protesters took the stage. Now it’s our turn | Columnists
Link: Spanish Los manifestantes de Los Ángeles dieron el ejemplo. Ahora nos corresponde actuar | Columnists | berkshireeagle.com
Excerpt:
“We are choosing what kind of society we are. Do we stand by while our neighbors are funneled into for-profit detention systems with documented histories of abuse? Or do we build momentum — from local protest to statewide action — for a future grounded in dignity and decency?”
Excerpt:
“‘It’s an emergency,’ Penner said when reached by phone Sunday afternoon. ‘Our country is bombing another country. … It’s not OK… He’s putting us at risk for a terrible extended war.’
‘I’m very concerned about our ability to withstand the duration of the Trump administration.’”
Thank you, Indivisible Pittsfield!
Excerpt: “‘We’re about freedom,’ (Brian) Isaac said. ‘We’re about equality. We’re about justice for all, and Trump is against all of that.’”
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https://berkshireeagle-ma.newsmemory.com/?publink=0e63bed19_134fa1d
Excerpt:
“Protest is patriotic, and it’s encouraging to see a critical mass of our neighbors and fellow Americans willing to spend their limited time together peacefully but vigorously exercising those precious rights enshrined in the First Amendment: freedoms of speech, assembly and petitioning our government for redress of grievances. Indeed, in this moment when political grievances (legitimate and otherwise) run high, it’s incumbent on all of us to model principled expression and disciplined dissent.”
Excerpt:
“Williamstown attendees also heard a rousing speech from 15-year-old Drew Zuckerman, a student at Mount Greylock Regional School.
Zuckerman said that despite his young age, he's taking part because he's ‘fighting for the people who have it worse than me.’
‘Just because the laws enacted across the country don't affect my day-to-day life doesn't mean I won't fight,’ he said. ‘I'm fighting [so] that when I'm 18, I can vote for a candidate that believes in science, believes in democracy and believes in justice. I'm fighting because I want to call out the president of the United States of America on his bull——.’"
Link: Photos: No Kings rallies across the Berkshires | Multimedia | berkshireeagle.com
Excerpts:
“What's happening ends up getting reported as a series of discrete events, attacks on immigrants, attacks on benefits, attacks on our institutions,” said Wendy Penner, a co-organizer of Greylock Together Indivisible. “And I think people really need to have it put together for them that this is a rise of an authoritarian regime, and that our freedoms and our institutions are under assault, and we are at risk of losing them.”
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The Williamstown event will feature a Revolutionary War-era battle flag that will be driven north through Vermont, stopping at events on its way to the Canadian border. Speeches, doughnuts and cider are planned.
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What's different about this effort, organizers said, is that people who would otherwise feel powerless are finding strength in coming together for a common cause.
“We are in coalition together. We feel that it's not just a movement to be reading about in the newspapers. We're living it,” Greylock Together co-organizer Jessica Dils said. “We are directly in relationship with groups who are serving the most marginalized, the most the most vulnerable, the most attacked communities right now. ... And a lot of these relationships aren't us going out and seeking. It's organically people coming together. It is organically people saying, ‘What can I do?’”
Excerpts:
On Saturday, we hope to see what momentum this movement can truly generate. Like the “Hands Off!” rallies in April, the ”No Kings” demonstrations slated for this weekend are the result of myriad grassroots groups working together to organize regional rallies that raise a nationwide chorus of principled dissent. The more than half-dozen events scheduled throughout the Berkshires will take place amid similar protests planned in around 1,500 communities across America. These events promise some crucial data. When we get a sense of how many protesters rally together in the Berkshires and across America, we’ll also have a sense of whether the people power behind this movement to defend our democracy is growing compared to the turnout at April’s “Hands Off!” rallies.
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Fortunately, those behind the “No Kings” movement, or at least the regional organizers that The Eagle editorial board met with, appear to understand the weight and danger of this moment.
They emphasized coalition building around fundamental values rather than partisan planks. And indeed, “No Kings” events in the Berkshires are organized and supported by a diverse network of area nonprofits and grassroots advocates.
They spoke of pitching a wide tent, knowing that so many people are affected in one way or another by the many issues inflamed by this reckless administration. We know all too well that our Berkshire communities are not immune from the threats to education and health care, the demonization of immigrants and LGBTQ people, and assaults on democracy and due process.
They stressed that it is their responsibility to ensure that righteous rage is always and only ever channeled into peaceful pushback. In addition to underscoring the nonviolent protest traditions informing their mission, the organizers we met with have invested in safety, from employing marshals to maintain order to acquiring viz vests for rallies near roadways to taking de-escalation trainings.
Their efforts highlight what has always been true: Our rights and values can’t defend themselves; we the people must take up that critical work. From those concerned about the trajectory of our country and the character of its leadership, we often hear the question “What can I do?” Here is the chance to find strength in solidarity with your neighbors, so that out of many voices we might speak as one in peaceful yet forceful defense of our democracy. Our founders presciently prioritized this power and responsibility in the First Amendment. Use it or lose it.
Link: Letter: The community force driving 'No Kings Day'
Excerpt:
“More than 1,800 actions are planned spanning every state in the nation, and this will be the single largest protest of a sitting president in our country’s history. ‘No Kings Day’ is a response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from Donald Trump and his allies, including crackdowns on free speech, the detention of people for their political views, deportations without due process and defiance of the courts. It takes place the same day as a planned military parade in Washington, D.C., costing upwards of $45 million as a Republican Congress pushes to eliminate Medicaid and other critical services for the most vulnerable Americans while extending tax cuts for the wealthy. His parade and the attacks on the city of Los Angeles are all part of the same agenda of dividing, conquering and consolidating power. We work to build relationships and community together instead.” Letter from Wendy Penner & Jessica Dils
Link: ‘No Kings’ rallies set for June 14 across Berkshires | Local News | berkshireeagle.com
Excerpts:
“We, the People, know that real strength comes from those who show up — in parks, on courthouse steps and in town squares,” said Jessica Dils, co-leader of Greylock Together Indivisible. “On June 14, America will be united in saying: ‘We do not do kings.’”
Excerpts:
From protests to town hall-style meetings, Greylock Together is organizing local resistance to President Donald Trump’s administration.
The through lines that cement the group's mission are opposition and community, said Greylock Together founders Jessica Dils and Wendy Penner.
“It’s building power through collective action to resist the MAGA platform,” Penner said. “The four key organizing areas right now are to protect people from harm, to defend institutions, to build alternatives, and to disrupt and disobey. We also want to build community because people feel hopeless, isolated, alone.”
Greylock Together started in 2016, the day after Trump’s first election. What began as a meeting of concerned citizens has grown to include more than 1,000 newsletter subscribers and Facebook followers today. The group hosts frequent events, and at least 30 to 50 people attend every meeting. Recently, it hosted a large rally at the Colonial Theatre, and gathered seniors to discuss their worries about Social Security.
Excerpts:
“I would be homeless if they cut my Social Security … I’m terrified,” a Williamstown resident said at the event, which was organized by local nonprofits including Greylock Together and Indivisible.