Summer begins this coming weekend (time for outside activism and agitation!) and the recent legislative Session fades into memory – but our issues are still on the front burner. Get the picture here in the Memo.

Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday May 20 2019

Summer begins this coming weekend (time for outside activism and agitation!) and the recent legislative Session fades into memory – but our issues are still on the front burner. We work for environmental justice (see below), reform of the criminal justice/policing system and cutting the school-to-prison pipeline, fair elections that loosen the grip of big money on our politics, and reform of the systems that keep our families trapped in poverty in the midst of wealth. Read more about our issues here.

Don’t forget the Progressive Montgomery Member Meeting at TOMORROW, May 21 at Aspen Hill Library, 4407 Aspen Hill Rd., Rockville, MD 20853 -- Join us for the first Progressive Montgomery meeting of 2019!

Our allies in the environmental movement are in the home stretch on urging Gov. Hogan to sign the Clean Energy Jobs Act, which would boost the state’s clean energy and fund jobs and training to match. It’s a real “just transition” bill – but Hogan could veto it, putting off important work until the veto can be overridden at the beginning of the 2020 Assembly session.  Find out more here, including how to easily contact Hogan’s folks and make your voice be heard.

OUR CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE

Progressive Prince George’s

PMD Montgomery

TOMORROW Tuesday, May 21 PMD Montgomery Member Meeting

from 6:30-8:00 PM at the Aspen Hill Library. Here is the facebook event. Here is the direct link to RSVP.

Frederick County Progressives

Take Action Anne Arundel County

Progressive Howard County

Talbot Rising

Lower Shore Progressive Caucus

PMD Baltimore

EVENTS FROM OUR PROGRESSIVE ALLIES

TONIGHT Monday, May 20, the “Reel & Meal at the New Deal” features Blood on the Mountain, an historical account of the coal industry’s grip on workers and entire mining communities of West Virginia that also probes the rippling effect of environmental and economic injustice felt by many other American workers and regions. The free screening starts 7 PM, after an optional vegan meal priced at $14 and served from 6:30, all at the New Deal Café, 113 Centerway, Roosevelt Center, Greenbelt. The program is jointly sponsored with DC LaborFest. Representatives of EarthJustice and Maryland Sierra Club will co-lead a discussion of the film. 

Saturday, May 25 Maryland Poor People’s Campaign Prince George’s County Regional Meeting: 12-2pm, Upper Marlboro Library, 14730 Main St., Upper Marlboro, MD

Saturday, June 15 United Democratic Women of Maryland Southern Region Luncheon -- Sartik's , 7670 Hawthorne Road La Plata, MD 20646. Guest speaker is Del. C.T. Wilson. Info and costs, email Karen Fennell.

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

 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 published these blog posts:

May 14, 2019 One more day to stop the Payday Lending Debt Trap

We’ve come too far to let payday loan sharks win now. We need YOU to beat back Trump’s attack on rules to #StopTheDebtTrap.

May 13, 2019 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, May 13, 2019

Action items for the week: Push back against Trump-style attacks on working families; oppose predatory payday lending <> Act now to join our MOVEMENT POLITICS Training on Saturday, May 18 in Baltimore; learn how to build power in electoral politics from the ground up.

>>REMEMBER – these blog posts are frequently expressions of political opinion from our wide-ranging membership and circle of allies. They are not expressions of opinion by Progressive Maryland. Don’t be surprised if they sometimes vary in their political content. You might even disagree with them – a good reason to contribute a blog of your own. Send it to the moderator, Woody Woodruff, at [email protected].

>>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