Welcome to the last Weekly Memo of 2018. Our Statewide Meeting in Annapolis this Saturday, Dec. 29 will kick off 2019 on the good foot – prepping for a highly interesting General Assembly session beginning January 9 and rolling on from there to mobilize working families and activists across the state. Be there; RSVP here.

Welcome to the last Weekly Memo of 2018. Our Statewide Meeting in Annapolis this Saturday, Dec. 29 will kick off 2019 on the good foot – prepping for a highly interesting General Assembly session beginning January 9 and rolling on from there to mobilize working families and activists across the state to nurture and gain political and social power in an off-year for elections. When 2020 comes, nobody will be more ready than progressive activists and working families in Maryland.

So join us Saturday (here is the RSVP link, including car pool info) to re-engage with one another face to face at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis, 11 AM to 3 PM. Details are nearly finalized. Here is what the media around the state heard from us earlier this morning:  

Activist Alert: Progressive Maryland sets statewide meeting Dec. 29 on 2019 agenda

Annapolis – Representative members of Progressive Maryland’s 12,000-plus activists will address and shape an agenda for the next year and beyond for Maryland’s progressive forces this Saturday, Dec. 29.

Nearly 200 Progressive Maryland activists, meeting at the state capital’s Universalist Unitarian church, gather to further advances already made in progressive support of Maryland’s working families and to compose an agenda for the upcoming General Assembly session and the whole political and civil-society landscape of 2019.

Goal markers on that agenda, according to Executive Director Larry Stafford Jr., include Economic Justice – a statewide $15 wage; Health Care – ensuring Marylanders have full access; More Democracy -- Fair Elections with small-donor program options; Mass Liberation to unite communities divided by police violence and incarceration; and a Movement Politics strategy to engage communities between electoral cycles. Progressive Maryland activists and their allies plan to sharpen and articulate their goals for state law and policy and plan activist contacts with wavering legislators.

Details: Progressive Maryland’s Statewide Meeting, 11 AM to 3 PM at Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis, 333 Dubois Rd, Annapolis, MD 21401

Purpose: To bring unity and energy into the progressive movement and rally around the Progressive Maryland agenda for 2019. To get input and commitments from our base of members across the state towards our vision for progressive power, and become even more a member-focused, member-driven organization

Outcomes: Further developing successful strategies of outreach/community contact, communications pathways and issue development for a true statewide front. Showcase and build the local chapters: Lower Shore Progressive Caucus, Talbot Rising, Take Action Anne Arundel County, Progressive Prince George’s, Progressive Maryland Baltimore City, Frederick County Progressives, Progressive Montgomery and Baltimore County Progressives

The day’s work: will include breakout sessions on issues and a legislative agenda, geographic/community concerns and steady report-back activity.

Information: contact Larry Stafford Jr. at [email protected] or Alexiss Kurtz at [email protected] RSVP and meeting details at https://events.mobilizeamerica.io/progressivemaryland/event/86519/

OUR CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE

Progressive Prince George's

 PMD Montgomery

Take Action Anne Arundel County

Monthly Chapter Meeting – 2019!

Wednesday, January 9 at 7 pm at the Edgewater Community Library

Topics: State Legislative Session, Speaker Jennifer Dwyer, Progressive Maryland Legislative and Policy Director

Jen will discuss Progressive Maryland's priority bills that impact women, including paid family leave, salary history, and pregnant worker protections. Education and environmental actions planned at the state and county level will also be discussed.  Share Facebook event

Progressive Howard County

Talbot Rising

 See the latest newsletter with a post-election letter from the co-chairs https://www.talbotrising.org/newsletters31/2018/11/12/weekly-newsletter-nov-12-2018

Lower Shore Progressive Caucus

Read the Caucus chair’s post-election letter on the website.

PMD Baltimore

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

EVENTS FROM OUR PROGRESSIVE ALLIES

Sunday, January 13 Prince George’s Sierra Club group Potluck Social and Climate Change Update, 5-7 pm; Watkins Regional Park Nature Center. Guest speaker Dr. Astrid Caldas, Senior Climate Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, will provide an update on climate change and its impacts, in light of recent high-profile reports. $5 with a potluck dish, $10 without, kids free. Please RSVP so we can get a head count, and indicate what you'll be bringing. Directions will be sent to those who register. RSVP here: https://act.sierraclub.org/events/details?formcampaignid=7010Z0000027LKaQAM. Contact: [email protected]  

 OUR BLOG POSTS IN THE PAST WEEK

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:

December 21, 2018 State leaders bail on critical education needs

As the Kirwan Commission (“Innovation and Excellence in Education”) soldiered its way to completion of both policy and funding goals in nearly two years of hard work, the state’s leadership totally failed to do its part – both the Democratic-dominated Assembly and Larry Hogan’s executive branch blanched at the cost of doing the right thing by the state’s students and told the commissioners to, um, continue their work.

Few reporters in the state have devoted more effort to following the commission’s work than Len Lazarick, editor of the online Maryland Reporter. Here he outlines in an account headlined “Legislative leaders shelve new funding another year” the sorry performance of state leaders.

December 18, 2018 A "Green New Deal" must be 100 percent just, as well

What others are calling a "just transition" to a new and planet-saving energy regime MUST include everyone involved, including impacted workers and frontline populations in so-called "sacrifice zones." And, as People's Action writer-activist Ben Ishibashi here implies but doesn't explore, any corporate engagement in the green economy has to be public-managed so resources and advantages do not bleed off to Wall Street's casino, big banks and the stock buyback frenzy.

December 17, 2018 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, Dec. 17, 2018

 MISTLETOE MEMO EDITION – be sure to give a nod to the Solstice on Dec. 21 as the Shortest Day goes by. Our next Memo will be the eve of the traditional holiday, Monday, Dec. 24 – but don’t forget to get yourself ready for the Statewide Progressive Maryland meeting, coming up…. More in this week's Memo, below...

 >>REMEMBER – these blog posts are 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