Recent instances of nooses left provocatively in our region are deeply disturbing reminders of an angry and divided world, Hal Ginsberg writes. In order to create a better America, one activist of color tells him, it is crucial for African-Americans to resist the temptation to view most whites as either complicit in the overt racism of a few or, at best, indifferent to it. But all must actively resist any normalization of words and images that dehumanize African-Americans. And we must also condemn the actions of white racists while siding unequivocally with the individuals and communities they attack.

Atop the usual problems of school systems Prince George's has management issues and potential scandals (inflated graduation rates) that push parents, students and workers to the brink and demand change. Rally tomorrow night (Thursday, June 22) to begin a process of revitalization for the civil rights issue of today.

Progressive Maryland's launch of our Maryland for Guaranteed Healthcare initiative comes as we are calling for Maryland progressives to join in a rally and lobby action Wednesday, June 21.  to protest the Senate's catastrophic attempt to make the hated House health care bill more palatable. Our health care campaign is consistent with our other progressive values and projects: social justice, anti-oppression, economic justice, and inherent human dignity. Let's get to it.

A big week for defending the health care system against the Senate's demolition derby in search of funds to cut rich people's taxes. Plus actions in our widening array of local chapters, building out into statewide action. Read on...

The UK parliamentary system and its elections seem bizarre to us sometimes. But the comeback of Labour fueled by voters' totally having had it with austerity and with the rule of the banker-backed privileged class rings true to us. As PM blogger Dylan Shelton shows, it echoes the Sanders campaign and lets us know that working peoples' demands cannot be safely ignored by even the most secure-feeling politicians.

The core of HoCo County Executive Kittleman's argument for a veto is that public financing of elections allows your tax dollars to be used in support of candidates you don't personally support.  This is a weak, erroneous, and misleading argument in a number of ways, as Progressive HoCo activist Dave Bazell makes clear. For one thing, it was passed by voters. How much more evidence of a "collective priority" does he need?

Progressive Maryland staffers and activists have returned pretty stoked from the People’s Summit in Chicago this past weekend, where progressives from around the country strategized for victory in the age of Trump. A comprehensive blueprint for progressive change will emerge organically from that event as folks go home and apply those lessons to local issues and conditions.

How will we shape that agenda for Maryland? Our own “blueprint” for change is going to be laid out at a Montgomery County social-political event this Saturday, and there’s still a place there for you and your fellow activists. It will be detailed and focus on the issues we care about and the political figures who are, or are not, on our side. See the event listing below.

For progressive activists, Rob Quist's loss in Montana's special congressional election is particularly troubling, in Hal Ginsberg's analysis. Quist followed the script that we on the left edge of the Democratic Party have been writing. He held rallies with Bernie Sanders. He supports Medicare-for-all. The Tax Reform section of his website touches all the economic populist bases. ... Democrats can only return to power, we insist, when they propose credible solutions to the privation caused by globalism and income and wealth stratification. Quist’s loss suggests that, in much of the country at least, this strategy may not bear immediate fruit.

As Maryland health care activist Dr. Margaret Flowers points out, "Polls have consistently shown that super-majorities of Democratic Party voters want single payer, but Democratic Party candidates keep telling them that they can’t have it." Centrist-dominated regular Democrats are going to have to change their stance if they are going to get needed traction for success in the 2018 election.

Progressive Cheverly issues statement in response to the U.S. pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement: "It is a strike against every American, against every person on this planet, against the future of human life as we know it."