SAT Sept 7 When They See Us: Organizing Conversation — 1:00 PM, ATU 689, 2701 Whitney Pl, District Heights, MD 20747 — Join Progressive Maryland’s Justice Task Force, Former NAACP President Ben Jealous, and other special guests for a discussion about our criminal legal system and learn about our plan for action to end mass incarceration here in Maryland.
SUN Sep 8 #UnitedAndFree Community Meeting 5-8 PM Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax, 2709 Hunter Mill Rd, Oakton, VA 22124 – Hosted by La ColectiVA and 10 others:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1376729179153686/
Join community members and organizations to demand migrant children remain #UnitedAndFree with their families and communities! The federal government is attempting to open another migrant youth jail in Virginia and it’s up to us to oppose this plan.
Follow link for more information.
MON Sept 9 Listening Sessions: Are you in the know about Paid Family Leave 12:30 -2:30 PM at Busboys and Poets 2021 14
th St. NW Wash, DC 20009 Hosted by Restaurant Opportunities Center of Washington DC (ROC-DC): See Aug 26 entry.
MON, Sept 9 BOOK TALK
New York Times journalist Steven Greenhouse discusses his new book,
Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor. 12:30 -2 PM at Economic Policy Institute 1225 Eye St. NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx — Greenhouse chronicles the rise (and decline) of unions in the US and explores models for rebuilding worker power, including the #RedforEd teachers strikes, the Fight for $15, and bargaining for the common good.
RSVP
MON Sept 9 September DC Climate Coalition Meeting 6:30– 8:30 PM, 50 F St NW, Washington, DC 20001-1525 (Sierra Club office) Agenda will include the climate strike, bylaws, and continuing CEDC implementation. Hosted by DC Climate Coalition and 6 others.
https://www.facebook.com/events/2389210128008244/ Volunteer signup form
TUES Sept 10 Book Event: Living and Dying on the Factory Floor 4-5:30 PM, Institute for Policy Studies 1301 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 6
th Floor Washington, DC 20036 co-sponsored with Economic Policy Institute. Moderated by Sarita Gupta, former Executive Director of Jobs With Justice — David Ranney’s vivid memoir describes his experiences between 1976 and 1982 in the factories of southeast Chicago and northwest Indiana.
WED Sept 11 Greenbelt Climate Action Network
A Just Transition from Coal in Maryland 7:00 – 9:00 pm conversation with Matt Dernoga, Maryland Sierra Club Beyond Coal rep, about Maryland’s six remaining coal fired power plants. We will discuss their impacts on public health and the climate, and how we can lead the way in Maryland with a just transition to clean energy. Greenbelt Community Center, Room 114 15 Crescent Road, Greenbelt, MD
https://www.facebook.com/events/878344449197887/
THU Sept 12 Empower DC Happy Hour Fundraiser 6-9 PM Saloon, 1205 U Street Northwest Washington, DC 20009
RSVP
THUR Sept. 12 Poor People’s Campaign MoCo planning meeting 6:30-8:30 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Rockville – 100 Welsh Park Dr., Rockville, MD.
SAT Sept. 14 – 350MoCo town hall on climate action, 11 AM t 1:30 PM, Silver Spring Civic Center
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-emergency-montgomery-countys-response-tickets-66570745893
MON Sept 16 Billy Bragg talks about his book Three Dimensions of Freedom at Politics and Prose
https://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/billy-bragg-three-dimensions-of-freedom-in-conversation-david-weigel
TUE Sept 17 In Defense of American Democracy – day-long session at the GWU Marvin Center with a star-studded guest list and some surprises; organized by Shanker Institute, AFT and Forward Together.
Follow link for more information.
TUE Sept 17 DC United Against Hate panel/discussion on the fight against eco-fascism, 6:30-8:30 PM at The Potter’s House in DC (1658 Columbia Rd NW) part of the run-up to the worldwide Climate Strike Sept. 20-23.
https://www.facebook.com/events/379457396050453/
WED Sept 21 Deep Canvass with SURJ 11 AM – 5 PM Sponsored by SURJ Northern Virginia and Showing Up for Racial Justice – SURJ – DC: at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Rockville, in Maryland. The registration form is coming soon.
Follow link for more information.
THURS Sept 26 DC Stand Up Against “RIA” Displacement at Brookland Manor 8 AM
District of Columbia Government DC Court of Appeals 430 E Street, NW, Washington, District of Columbia 20001 Hosted by LinkUp and Brookland Manor/Brentwood Village Residents Association:
8 AM rally; 9:30 AM pack the courtroom to protest DC’s intrusive, tax-subsidized “Rhode Island Avenue” project and its potential for displacing Brookland Manor residents. More info:
linkupitsofficial.org/dc-stand-up
SAT Sept 28 Poor People’s Campaign Prince George’s Co planning meeting, 12-2 PM Oxon Hill Library 6200 Oxon Hill Rd, Oxon Hill, MD 20745
SUN Sept 29 –
The path to single payer health care in Maryland, 1:30 – 4:30 PM at Elkridge Library – 6450 Washington Boulevard, Elkridge, MD 21075 — Join Senator Paul Pinsky, Chair of the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee in the Senate, and Delegate Terri Hill, of the Health and Government Operations Committee in the House, for a discussion of the road map to Single Payer in Maryland.
Follow link for more information.
https://www.facebook.com/events/361641874764169/
MON Sep 30 ROC DC Monthly Meeting! 1-3 PM Restaurant Opportunity Center DC, Second Floor, 1100 Florida Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009
https://www.facebook.com/events/2261435187446709/?event_time_id=2261435204113374
Come together and meet other restaurant and tipped workers in DC who want to build worker power in order to improve wages and working conditions in the DC restaurant industry!
Follow link for more information.
THURS Oct 3 The Epiphany Power Hour: ONE DC 12:10-1 PM at The Church of the Epiphany 1317 G St NW, DC xxxxxx Claire Cook and Kelly Iradukunda of ONE DC teach us about organizing in our city. Hosted EVERY THURSDAY by The Church of the Epiphany and
ONE DC:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2543087422378554/
SAT Oct 5 Street Law 101: Know Your Rights Training 1-3 PM – Dorothy I. Height/Benning Neighborhood Library, 3935 Benning Rd NE, Washington, DC 20019, Hosted by Black Lives Matter DC and Keep DC 4 Me:
https://www.facebook.com/events/705926619821385/
The people most targeted by police MUST have critical information about their rights during police interactions.
Follow link for more information.
GOOD READS
>>A long but thoughtful discussion of labor strategy decisions like those of DSA and how they might actually fit into the struggle when community factors enter the equation and “organizing at the workplace, however critical it may be, must concern itself with more than workplace issues.” Making the rounds among national caucus pages…
https://portside.org/2019-08-31/clock-and
>>The Guardian columnist Gary Younge is reporting from a tour of the US about folks on the identified left as compared to his experience reporting on previous US presidential campaigns: “What is different about this moment is that the momentum on the left seems to be propelled by a potentially combustible combination of both sentiments: an urgent need to prevent the rapid and deep degradation in national politics that has escalated since the [2016] election; but also an inspiration that something better and more robust must also follow. There is an acute sentiment that getting rid of Trump is insufficient…” That’s from the second of a promised five columns:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/03/democrats-progressives-trump-2016-election
Here's the first one, revisiting voters and activists whom Younge covered before the 2016 election:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/03/democrats-progressives-trump-2016-election/
And the third, on the number of women moved from anger to politics by Trump’s defeat of the first female Presidential candidate
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/05/american-left-progressives-women-inspiration-drive-trump/
>>Several members, including local comrades, have been commenting on and sharing around this article from the NYC local – a discussion of caucuses, their pluses and minuses in the ongoing work of building the organization. A productive discussion, certainly with more to be said.
https://www.socialists.nyc/red-letter/2019/8/30/a-critical-examination-of-caucus-organizing-within-the-dsa?fbclid=IwAR0GPC0z0QUU0fFU1sWJKOHOWQfo2OlLaPEhW_jOYo6AP6C57m1UE6vvmpI
>>Here's a useful (?!)
WAPO article by an old hand on regional issues that summarizes a longer, nerdy report. Our comrade Alex at our #regionalamazon campaign posted it. The headline rather blandly hints at the actual crisis:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-regions-leaders-face-big-challenges-as-they-tackle-affordable-housing-shortage/2019/09/03/8d155496-ce77-11e9-8c1c-7c8ee785b855_story.html
And here is the longer, nerdy report, frequently favored by our readers:
https://www.urban.org/research/publication/meeting-washington-regions-future-housing-needs/view/full_report
>>An article from the
Virginia Mercury by a law professor outlines how very out of date labor law is when it comes to dealing with modern workplace, automation and employment conditions
https://www.virginiamercury.com/2019/09/02/worker-protection-laws-arent-ready-for-artificial-intelligence-automation/
>>What this author calls “triangulating the truth” (which also could be called “playing the odds”) got the attention of an old comrade of the Update compiler who lives in Upstate New York, former Special Forces (where paying attention to evidence is dogma) who has become quite savvy-left as we have aged in our respective places. He recommends this piece (which made its way up to an Upstate NY free weekly from our local Carroll County [Md.]
Times!) as a model of how to make our arguments about the climate crisis (and on to ecosocialism) by establishing common facts and discourse first. “Far too often,” the old friend says, “we try to change the opinions of conservatives with vocabulary, style, and references that turn off the intended readers instead of swaying them.”
https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll/opinion/cc-op-community-voices-082619-20190826-a4shg3vsizb5davwsrwklccqbu-story.html
>>An appreciation of the sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, who died just before Labor Day: “Wallerstein was a sociologist fully committed to the fate of the world and, above all, to the fate of the more vulnerable populations, whose liberation, he believed, would be possible only in a post capitalist, socialist society. … His scientific stance made him question Western, Eurocentric thinking as a whole.”
https://popularresistance.org/immanuel-wallerstein-an-obituary/
