The Maryland General Assembly opens Wednesday and there is plenty to accomplish and plenty to guard against – the usual.

Progressive Maryland is working to advocate for and advance progress on criminal justice, override of the Hogan veto on Paid Sick Leave, and many other critical needs in Maryland, while fighting against the business-as-usual routines of high-paid lobbyists influencing legislators in dire need of corporate cash for their 2018 reelection campaigns. Not having their money, we'll just have to outwork them. And we know how to do that.

Weekly Memo for January 8-15 2018

Session Week – the Maryland General Assembly opens Wednesday and there is plenty to accomplish and plenty to guard against – the usual. Progressive Maryland is working to advocate for and advance progress on criminal justice, override of the Hogan veto on Paid Sick Leave, and many other critical needs in Maryland, while fighting against the business-as-usual routines of high-paid lobbyists influencing legislators in dire need of corporate cash for their 2018 reelection campaigns.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had real public financing for Maryland elections, and working peoples’ needs could take precedence over the corporate greed that now rules the roost? Join us, and make it so.

STATEWIDE ACTION

 Monday, January 15, Fight for $15 Coalition Rally  5:00 PM · Maryland House Building in Annapolis, MD Progressive Maryland and allies in Maryland's Fight for $15 Coalition will be participating in a Rally in Annapolis on  January 15th, 2018 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day). rsvp  here or the event page 

<> On January 27th, we will launch Progressive Maryland's Monthly Mass Canvasses! Click on this link for our event page! The following Movement Politics Team Google Form was disseminated at our 2017 Annual Membership Meeting call in December. Complete this with your preference to either host or participate in a canvass!

<> In April, People's Action is hosting the first of two WEEKLONG TRAININGS right here in Silver Spring, Maryland! This training is scheduled from April 15th-21st. Member leaders and People's Action staff from all over the country will be joining us for this agitational-type training. We will have more information and details for the training coming soon!

OUR CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE:

Progressive Prince George’s

 Be a Part of the Movement to Connect Prince George's!

Progressive Maryland and Progressive Prince George’s have launched a 75-day campaign to start a resident-led and resident-funded collective of people harnessing their own talents and skills to create a Prince George’s truly shaped by residents. Click here to find out more information and join other Prince Georgians dedicated to making a change! See the Next Steps meeting below. For technical and member support, contact Seanniece Bamiro, [email protected]

Wed, Jan 10 PG Co-Op Member Next Steps Session 6:30pm - 8pm at Clout Workspace, 9221 Hampton Overlook  Capitol Heights 20743

THUR JAN 25 Fair Elections town hall in Bowie, hosted by the Sierra Club. Save the date; location TBA.

Last Saturday, Prince George’s residents trekked through the cold to understand why residents need to be at the forefront of politics in the County. Residents also signed up to become members of the community organizing co-op. Thank you to Sistas United for partnering with us and Greater Beulah Baptist Church for hosting us! For more information, contact [email protected] 

PMD Montgomery 

Save the Date:

• January 17th Happy Hour in Silver Spring
• January 18th Chapter Meeting
• January 24th Happy Hour in Rockville

We've been blogging!

• Just a Progressive Idea: Don't We Deserve More from Our Public Transit?
• Mass-Produced Chicken and the Environment

Visit our media page to view a video from PMD Montgomery member Helen interviewing Brandy Brooks. 

Take Action Anne Arundel County

Thursday January 18 -- 2018 Legislative Preview with Progressive Maryland 7 PM, Edgewater Branch, 25 Stepney Lane, Edgewater 21037. Join Take Action AAC in a discussion with Jennifer Dwyer, Policy and Legislative Coordinator, for Progressive Maryland. Jennifer will provide an overview of the bills Progressive Maryland is focused on for the 2018 session. Join the discussion to decide which legislation Take Action AAC will advocate for in the 2018 state legislative session. RSVP here.

Saturday January 20 -- Annapolis Anniversary March  11 AM  -- begins with a rally at Lawyer's Mall in front of the State House in Annapolis where newly elected mayor Gavin Buckley will speak and community leaders and organizers will inform people about what the organizations are doing and how one can get involved. At noon, participants will march from Lawyer's Mall through downtown Annapolis to Susan Campbell Park at City Dock. RSVP here. 

Frederick County Progressives

Sunday, January 14th January 2018 General Membership Meeting 11:30 PM at Frederick C. Burr Artz Library - Community Room in Frederick, MD -- Please join us for our monthly general meeting and 2018 kick off! We will be discussing what we learned from 2017 and how we plan to train community leaders and build on that momentum to achieve greater goals in 2018.  rsvp

And we’ll have a canvass Feb. 27, January 27, 2018 at 10am - 6pm – Details to come. Google map and directions

Progressive Howard County

Tue Jan 16 We are having a chapter meeting at 7:00 p.m.  The main topic will be the Fight for $15 in Howard County.  Please RSVP here. Warfield Room (on the far left as you enter the lobby) Howard County Central Library, 10375 Little Patuxent Pkwy, Columbia MD 21044

Talbot Rising

SAT, JAN 13 - TALBOT RISING GENERAL MEETING  10 a.m. to noon, Third Haven Meeting House, Easton. Come to our first meeting of this very important year for progressives. This will be a working meeting with a brief general presentation and then breakout sessions into smaller groups.

Lower Shore Progressive Caucus

EVENTS FROM OUR ALLIES

Thursday January 11, Listening Session for the Growth Development Plan  6-8pm at Annapolis High School cafeteria -- Anne Arundel County is looking for citizen input in creating the Growth Development Plan. Facebook RSVP here.   Upcoming listening sessions at Northeast High School on Jan 29 and Southern High School on February 8.

Friday January 12, Free Movie Wasted! --7pm with the Climate Stewards of Greater Annapolis. WASTED! THE STORY OF FOOD WASTE aims to change the way people buy, cook, recycle, and eat food.

Monday, Martin Luther King Birthday, January 15, "Reel and Meal at the New Deal Cafe" will screen "Whose Streets?" about the 2014 events in Ferguson, Missouri, that helped coalesce the Black Lives Matter movement and jolt the nation into an intense dialogue about police violence and systemic racism.  The program will start at 7 pm at the New Deal Café, 113 Centerway in Roosevelt center, Greenbelt, following an optional buffet for $14 beginning at 6:30 pm. <>  If you expect to come for the meal, we will appreciate your RSVP at the R&M Facebook event

Friday, January 26 -- Progressive Cheverly's annual legislative forum for District 47A. We will hear from State Senator Victor Ramirez and Delegates Diana Fennell and Jimmy Tarlau about their legislative priorities for the upcoming Maryland General Assembly session and have the chance to ask your questions directly to your representatives. This annual event is one of our most popular forums.

Baltimore comrades, Check in on Max Obuszewski’s highly useful calendar and tip sheet at http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

To keep up with progressive events in and around DC consult the invaluable calendar at the Washington Peace Center, http://washingtonpeacecenter.org/alerts

It all happens for free… right? Not exactly. Organizing for change in our society and our high-maintenance politics requires both people and money. Keep change moving with a quick, secure impulse-buy contribution here.

Reading the Progressive Maryland BlogSpace: our blogs for the previous week are shown below, but if you want a handy way to keep track – and never miss a blog post – you can sign up to get this Weekly Memo by email. Remember this is your blogspace and your participation is heartily invited. See something going on that you don’t like – or that you do like and hope to see more of? Send us your thoughts; submit to the moderator at [email protected]

We recently posted these blogs:

January 03, 2018 As Assembly gathers, lobbyists flock around to scuffle for cash

The Maryland General Assembly deals in big bucks, and businesses, corporations and the just plain filthy rich spend money, too, to make sure they get as much benefit as they can from the session that begins next week. Highly paid lobbyists are there to pursue that goal, and the welfare of ordinary folks are often not part of their plans, as we can surmise from this account by Len Lazarick of Maryland Reporter.

 January 02, 2018 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Jan 2-8 2018

Welcome to 2018. More than ever this will be a year when solidarity matters. It is going to be top-line critical that we all, as progressives, seek our commonalities and find broad areas where we can work together. And make your voice heard. See below, and in the weeks that follow, for how.

Keeping up with the blogs is easier with the index. The blogs published in the PM BlogSpace from June 2015 through December 2016 are all available with descriptions and links here. You can follow blogs for 2017-18 starting from here