Happy hour on Friday & branch meeting on Sunday!

MoCo DSA members:

Please join us tomorrow - Friday - for a social event in downtown Silver Spring. We'll be at Not Your Average Joe's on Colesville Rd. from 6 to 8 pm - we hope you can join us for a casual, fun evening! (Details below.)

And, our February branch meeting is this Sunday at 2 pm at the Bethesda library. We need your help with our rent control campaign and country club tax break campaign - so please join us and be part of the discussion! (Details below.)

In some very upsetting news, a Maryland police officer shot and killed a handcuffed man this week, and the Montgomery County Council is debating legislation that will put more police in schools. More cops in schools is a terrible idea for several reasons. It will especially cause harm to Black and brown children, who are most likely to be sent through the school-to-prison pipeline. Did you know that Maryland has the highest Black youth incarceration rate in America? The Silver Spring Justice Coalition has an action alert about this bill - please take action and send a message to your councilmembers!

Upcoming DSA events:

Friday, January 31 from 6-8 pm: MoCo DSA Happy Hour at Not Your Average Joe's
We're having a happy hour in downtown Silver Spring at Not Your Average Joe's. Join us for some social time with fellow socialists! More info and RSVP here.

Saturday, February 1: Deadline for nominations to branch steering committee
We will hold our annual branch steering elections in February - please email us by Feb. 1st if you have any questions or would like to nominate yourself for steering committee!

Sunday, February 2: MoCo DSA Branch meeting in Bethesda
Our next branch meeting is Sunday, February 2 at the Bethesda library at 2 pm. We will work on our rent control campaign and hear from candidates for steering committee - Details and RSVP here.

Good Reads
In Maryland Matters: "Is Montgomery as progressive as everyone thinks it is?" by DSA's own Robert Stubblefield! "With everything that has been going on with the Montgomery County Public Schools boundary analysis study and people being shocked at the racist and classist vitriol being hurled about, I just wanted to say these attitudes have always been there. While I do not speak for the black community in Montgomery County, my experiences as a black man in the county inform my views not only on the attitudes but also my thoughts on the boundary study. There are many stories that I can pull from showing the racism and classism in the Montgomery County public school system, but I will choose only a few that still cause me to chuckle to keep from yelling."

In The Washington Post: "Democrats are ignoring a key piece of criminal justice reform - slicing police budgets" by Philip McHarris. "Cities often spend anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of their total budgets toward policing... the truth is that the escalation of mass policing — police personnel, resources and police contact — has produced persistent harassment, arrest and soaring rates of police violence in black communities. Shifting away from an obsession of pouring money into policing and directing it toward developing the health and wellness of communities through community resources and programs will do more for public safety than billion-dollar police budgets."

In Liberation Times: "A Marxist perspective on ending women's oppression" by Radhika Miller. "Sexism is so endemic today that it can be difficult to imagine a society that does not degrade and devalue women. Modern capitalist society is a form of class society, and in today’s capitalist society women face sexism everywhere we turn. But this is not the way things always have been... the oppression of women is not a part of human nature. Sexism is not natural, which means we can eliminate it."

In solidarity,