Town Meeting members will have the opportunity to vote “Yes” on Article 16 at the special Town Meeting on Oct. 22, to declare the town of Montague to be an apartheid-free community, and stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine by affirming a town-wide commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for all people.
The town will pledge that we affirm our commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for all Palestinians and all people; we oppose all forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression; we declare ourselves an apartheid-free community, and to that end, we pledge to join others in working to end all support to Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation.
Why is this pledge important to Montague? We took a moment to ask Town Meeting members to share their thoughts about what this resolution means to them, and how it is important to Montague right now and in the future.
We asked Kaia Jackson, Precinct 6 Town Meeting member, on Oct. 12, for their perspective about why this resolution is important to them.
“As a Jewish resident and someone who has worked in service of individual and collective healing for years, I want to see my hometown take a stand for human rights near and far. While specific local action steps are yet to be determined, we need to start from a place of shared understanding: we collectively value human life, dignity and sovereignty. I believe that the Apartheid-Free Community Pledge takes us one step closer to where we need to be locally and globally.”
On Oct. 11, Maddox Sprengel, Precinct 4 Town Meeting member considered the quantifiable and material impacts of this type of resolution, and what the material impacts are of not supporting this resolution. Supporting this resolution, “can improve the mental health of community members with an increased sense of empowerment to create the communities we want to live in. Having a public commitment to shared values for the physical, emotional, and material well being of all people, can increase a sense of safety and belonging. These are foundational pillars needed for the health of any community.” It is also “a starting point for our community to create practices and procedures to ensure human rights are upheld in our community for issues related to: working conditions, affordable housing, access to aging resources, childcare, food security, education, etc.”
The material impacts of not supporting this resolution, he continued, “U.S. complicity in domestic and global human rights violations: genocide, apartheid systems, military occupations, colonization, illegal deportations, mass poverty, wage theft of the working class, environmental destruction, voting disenfranchisement,, etc.”
Finally, on Oct 12, Ian Tapscott, Town Meeting member of Precinct 6, spoke eloquently when answering why he supports this resolution, “Because nothing justifies genocide. Because I often feel powerless, and this resolution seems like just maybe a first step towards actually doing something … anything! Because all these atrocities are committed and perpetuated at the behest of powerful men, but the poorest among us and those already most vulnerable suffer the lion’s share, and I refuse to accept that is simply the nature of things. Because I want so desperately to believe that together we can do something to influence the trajectory of our flailing civilization;
That my decades-nurtured cynicism can be proven wrong; And that maybe the insatiable greed and relentless cruelty masquerading as justice can serve as the most immediate common denominator, in this moment, to force us out of our siloed lives, join hands and voices and declare, ENOUGH! There has to be a better way. Because none of us are truly free until we are all free. Because I want nothing more than to love and to survive together.”
This resolution, if passed, targets the foundation of oppression, racism and apartheid. It challenges the community to come together around fundamental principles of morality and values so that it can create a roadmap for its future pursuits and priorities. As a North Star, it is a guide toward freedom, justice, and equality for all, without dictating the specific steps to get there. We hope you will join your neighbors in voting “Yes” for this important initiative. Contact Heather Hutchinson infoapartheidfreewesterma@gmail.com to learn more.
Heather Hutchinson of Leverett is an organizer with Apartheid-Free Western MA. AFWM develops community programming and municipal action targeting the roots of interlocking systems of oppression and racism locally and globally, with education, discussion, one to one conversations, and public events.