June 2026

Hi, happy Pride Month and happy Juneteenth!

This has been an exceptionally eventful month, so even my opening message will take a bulleted form. I’ll spare a rehashing of national headlines!

• The MAGA-led extreme right has extended its reach into Peru and Colombia, narrowly defeating left-wing candidates who drew support from broad anti-fascist coalitions. In Peru, the left-backed Roberto Sánchez has rejected the results entirely, calling for resistance to the incoming fascist regime.
• The ceasefire between the governments of Iran, the US and Israel remains incredibly tenuous, as a War Powers resolution on hostilities with Iran passed the Senate on June 23rd, but a similar resolution for the Israeli invasion of Lebanon failed one week later. The fascist Netanyahu government, facing the end of its reign as the upcoming election is set to hand the balance of power to Communists and Arab-majority parties, is looking for any excuse to intensify its genocidal campaigns.
• Under enormous pressure from a US-led, EU-backed blockade, Cuba has implemented a series of economic reforms which greatly increase the mobility and independence of foreign capital in the country. These measures do not end the blockade, as Trump continues to threaten war with Cuba and now identifies communism as the greatest threat to the United States.

In the state:

• The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) has rejected ballot petitions for both rent control and an income tax cut, dramatically reshaping the stakes of this year’s November elections. The WMCP statement on these rulings is available here. I’ll have more to say about this come next month, when ballot initiatives (and our positions on them) are finalized.

In the miscellaneous:

As you can see above, WMCP now has a website! You can visit wmcpusa.com to find our statements, learn about our work, the Smith College PILOT petition and upcoming events. And speaking of upcoming events, you can find me and/or other comrades tabling outside of the Northampton Farmer’s Market starting next Tuesday. Come say hi!

Also, starting this summer, we’ll be kicking off a discussion series on Proposition 2½, the rise of the extreme Right in Massachusetts and how we protect our public services. Our first discussion will take place on August 1st, 1-3pm in the Hadley Public Library; though geared toward the specifics of Hadley’s budget and politics, expect similar events in Northampton as we get closer to the upcoming override vote.

Recent council business

• The mayor’s FY27 budget proposal passed the council for the first time since 2023, with a 7-2 vote in favor (councilors Stratton and Robbins opposed). You can read a more detailed analysis of the budget in the May edition.
• Mayor Sciarra has formally announced the “Fiscal Assessment Community Task Force”, to which I have applied. If you’ve kept up with previous editions of this newsletter, you’ll know where this is headed: we in the WMCP are serious about stopping cuts to services, and we reject a hostage deal in which our livelihoods are put to ballot without fundamental concessions to the working-class and progressive forces who will decide this vote. Nothing about us, without us!
• With summer in full swing, swimming at the Mill River is back — and so is the NPD’s racial profiling of swimming holes. At least three NPD vehicles, and more officers, were involved in harassing a small group of predominantly Latine families swimming near Nonotuck St. on June 21st. They were first reported for having a fire (in a small fire pit, which has formed from regular use by other groups for that purpose), and then for trespassing.
  • Per councilor Davis, who assured me that there were no issues with police conduct (and did not reply to my follow-up questions), the police needed to rely on GIS data to substantiate the accusation of trespassing — i.e., they did not know the property owners. This suggests that the legal ownership of the property is strictly a pretext for police intervention, as these issues have not been raised to the NPD by the property owner. Further, the racist motivation is indisputable — this type of enforcement categorically does not take place in this public space against predominantly white social groups.
  • As we enter a brutal heatwave to start July, Northampton’s swimming holes are one of the few public recreational spaces for families to cool off. They belong to all of us (and not just Northampton residents, either!), no matter our race, ethnicity, nationality or language.
• Councilor and finance committee chair Klemer privately sought bids for municipal auditor contracts without authorization of the committee or general council, prompting a scandal which unraveled through several meetings. Informal and unilateral contracting procedures pose a conflict of interest and are unethical under state law. Without a formally neutral process, councilors (or selectpeople, or any relevant public officials) have ample ground to influence the outcome of a contract award.
  • Councilor Klemer claimed that city solicitor Alan Seewald offered an opinion which saw no ethical issue with her approach. As I’ve emphasized since the start of this newsletter in January, solicitor Seewald is a staunch opponent of Northampton’s progressive and democratic movements. The solicitor is not an apolitical role in city government!
  • The “request for proposals” (RFP) process is intended to maintain public accessibility and neutrality in contracting; though not legally mandated for auditing contracts, it is a common approach to avoid appearance of impropriety.
  • Councilor Robbins, having left the finance committee’s June 10th meeting out of concern that she could be party to an unethical practice, faced abusive and demeaning treatment from councilors Klemer and Davis at the following meeting.
    • After several attempts to prevent councilor Robbins from sharing her side of the story, councilor Maiore lodged a point of order to state that councilor Robbins had a right to share her perspective under the First Amendment.
• On the subject of the city solicitor, 30 Northampton residents have filed a request to intervene in the far-right lawsuit against the city for its divestment from Israeli apartheid.
  • This lawsuit, filed by the National Jewish Advocacy Center (a Zionist organization) in March, argues that the city has no legal authority over its own money and that its political institutions have no right to take political positions.
    • The lawsuit targets the non-binding resolution unanimously passed by the council in September of 2025, which recommended the city’s divestment from companies linked to apartheid. More than $70,000 of Northampton’s investments were targeted, and the Sciarra administration divested voluntarily at the urging of the council and Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
    • Under the surface, the suit’s main stipulations are 1) that the council does not have a right under the First Amendment to articulate political positions (the resolution is a statement of position, not a financial order), and 2) that budgeting and investments are normally apolitical, and only become political when divesting from genocide and war profiteering.
  • If granted, the request for intervention — and the leadership of the peace movement in this struggle — may help to advance the precedents set by this case, beyond the narrow grounds laid out in solicitor Seewald’s motion to dismiss.
• By another 7-2 vote (councilors Stratton and Robbins opposed), the city has approved opting in to M.G.L. 40U, an effort to more efficiently impose fines on residents and property owners who do not shovel their sidewalks in winter.
  • I am disappointed, though not surprised, to see our incumbent mayor and council majority seeking punitive and anti-social solutions to social challenges.
  • Mayoral chief of staff Alan Wolf remarked that, though effective, written notices to residents haven’t been “worth the paper they’re printed on” — if the goal of this policy is truly to ensure clearer sidewalks and ADA compliance, shouldn’t its (negligible) fiscal aspects be secondary to that?

Recent labor news

• Nine municipal unions in Easthampton signed onto a joint statement backing a “Yes” vote in the June 9th override referendum, which passed by 234 votes. Congratulations!
  • The success of the override came from a broad coalition rooted in organized labor, very different from the override environment shaping up in Northampton (see above).
  • Easthampton’s Republican City Committee and other far-right elements successfully petitioned for a recount, which produced a net change of 5 votes (from a 239-vote margin in the original count to 234 in the recount). This is a local manifestation of election denialism.
• Square One workers in Springfield have secured a strong new contract after going on strike for over a week. As I noted last month, this strike and contract negotiation have major ramifications for educators across Western Massachusetts, including at the numerous private early-education schools in Northampton. Congratulations again!
• Staff at Cooley Dickinson affiliated with 1199SEIU held a rally on June 4th to demand good-faith negotiations on wage increases and other contract issues. The union has called for a living wage for all employees and an end to egregious pay gaps between different sections of the bargaining unit; when workers in higher-paying positions have requested wage reductions to ensure parity, Mass General Brigham has refused. The company’s initial economic offer was for a 10-cent wage increase, all while the company’s CEO and investors pour millions into the Massachusetts High Technology Council.
  • Cooley’s management sent their security team out to force the union and allies out of the shade amid 90-degree heat. I walked this picket along with other members of the WMCP and witnessed the confrontation, with security demanding that a mother and her infant child either stay in the sun or leave the premises.
• Nurses at Baystate Franklin Medical Center voted overwhelmingly (98%) to reject the company’s final contract offer. The company has not set out terms that meet the needs of nurses at Franklin county’s only hospital, including for safe staffing ratios. Look to massnurses.org or @bfmc_nurses on Instagram for further updates!

Thanks for reading! As always, you can reach me at lukerotello@gmail.com or by phone at (413) 404-0405. Stay safe, stay healthy and stay in the struggle!

-Luke

This post has been amended to provide context and updated information on Easthampton’s override recount.