Stop evictions? MD has the money PM Weekly Memo for Monday, August 9, 2021

Progressive Maryland joins our friends in the labor, civil rights, and social justice movements to memorialize Richard Trumka, the President of the AFL-CIO, who died last Thursday. He was a fierce fighter for working people and a powerful movement leader. Sadly we’ve lost him at a significant moment in the campaigns for the right to organize workplaces and for greater economic security for all Americans. Statement from the AFL . Mike Podhorzer, Special Advisor to President Trumka, lifted up this quote in his tribute to Trumka:  “There’s no evil that’s inflicted more pain and more suffering than racism--and it’s something we in the labor movement have a special responsibility to challenge. It’s our special responsibility because we know, better than anyone else, how racism is used to divide working people.” Let’s honor his legacy by staying committed to the struggle for racial and economic justice.

Maryland is still lagging in helping local governments get relief to those threatened with eviction as the moratorium on evictions expired at midnight Saturday. Gov. Hogan and the sometimes-contradictory federal program(s) do not help. Get the least confusing information and help here, in the Memo. And share it. Keep people housed in our communities.

Thank you for being part of this movement. 

Medicare For All is making more sense to more and more people (it has always made sense to us). Montgomery’s Council joined many others in backing it last week. Just in time for its birthday Friday, July 30. You can sign on too; see below.

Thank you for being part of this movement. 

Progressive Maryland and The Maryland Progressive Healthcare Coalition Celebrate the Montgomery County Medicare For All Resolution as the Montgomery County Council passes a resolution calling on Congress to enact Medicare For All. Organizations and individuals including small business owners have backed this effort. Read more below.

Medicare for All is making more sense to more and more people (it has always made sense to us). Resolutions backing the national campaign passed in Annapolis’ council last week and looks to pass in Montgomery’s council this week. The New Era project is under way and the critical needs of our communities are on the line -- including health care and the welfare of kids, in the classroom and out. 

 And we lost Rep. John Lewis, champion of civil rights and voting rights, a year ago this week. The bill named for him, which would help ward off anti-voter craziness such as the Texas GOP is up to, is struggling in Congress. Join that struggle. Check it all out in this week’s memo.

Thank you for being part of this movement. 

"The War on Drugs has been with us for more than fifty years, and hasn’t been a war on drugs at all. It’s been a war on people: people like me, and my family. Black people. The part where it was supposed to decrease drug use? That part failed."

Prince George's resident Alfrieda Hylton reminds us of the devastation Nixon's deliberate attack on his perceived enemies has brought to communities of color everywhere.

As reported yesterday in the emailed Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo, enhanced unemployment benefits provided by the Biden administration will last at least well into August despite attempts by Larry Hogan to burnish his credentials as a standard GOP oppresser of working families by unilaterally discontinuing their payment.

As reported this morning in Maryland Matters, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill issued a ruling before 10am that will maintain Maryland’s participation in enhanced federal unemployment benefits past the end of his own temporary injunction. More below.

What’s on this week? The wearying but exciting awareness that the 2022 primary is less than a year away and progressive candidates are converging on that opportunity. We will support them. The New Era project is under way and the critical needs of our communities are on the line -- including health care and the welfare of kids, in the classroom and out. Check it all out in this week’s memo.

As Frederick Douglass pointed out going on two centuries ago, the “high freedoms” celebrated on the Fourth were and are much discounted by the uneven distribution of freedoms among ALL of our people. Proceeding from the comforts of a partially renormalized holiday, we have many rocks to push uphill, just a little more every day, from Statehood for DC to a federal standard for fair elections that will pre-empt right-wing state repression to getting big corporate money out of our politics. Just a few checkmarks on a long list for real democracy. We can do it. Get started every week in the Memo.

As Pride Month comes to an end, we want to acknowledge that the fight for LGBTQ freedoms and visibility goes on. As many brands and corporations are taking down their rainbow flags after collecting their profits from colourful capitalism, we are proud to say that ours will be here for a while. We have been and will always be committed to Queer and Trans liberation. If you’d like to join us in this commitment, please contribute to our New Era PAC to support our efforts of electing LGBTQ candidates into office across the state. 

Also, we are officially one year away from the June 28, 2022 Primary!!! This and much more in the Memo.

Thank you for being part of this movement.