Our branch meeting is this Sunday in Silver Spring! The County Council heard testimony on racial equity legislation, & community members protested ICE

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This week in MoCo DSA
Happy Halloween!

We start with a quick reminder: Our next branch meeting is this Sunday, November 3 at 2:00 PM in the Silver Spring Library! Don't miss out (and don't forget to set your clocks back an hour)!

This week, the County Council held a hearing on Bill 27-19, which would establish a racial equity and social justice office for our county. One of our comrades, Max S., testified on behalf of MoCo DSA (which is itself a member of the Montgomery County Racial Equity [MORE] Network), in support of the bill and of amendments needed to improve it. Max urged the Council to include community input in the nomination process, create a public feedback system for the community to report abuses, and more. He also did not hesitate to call out the County police on their racist abuses. You can check out his testimony here ([link removed]) , and you can learn more about the bill (including commentary from MoCo DSA-endorsed 2018 County Council candidate Brandy Brooks!) here
([link removed]) .


The MORE Network, of which MoCo DSA is a member, has urged its supporters to contact the County Council and urge them to take the following steps:
* Ensure the Racial Equity Office receives adequate resources and authority
* Create real community engagement and transparency
* Strengthen requirements for compliance with the legislation

Following up on last week's email, we are happy to report that Coach Fofo has received another two-month reprieve from ICE. As in the past, MoCo DSA stands in solidarity with Coach Fofo and our friends at CASA and other allied organizations fighting ICE's blatant abuse of power in singling out Coach Fofo for these deportation threats.


(Coach Fofo with his supporters; MoCo DSA Chair Elissa L. and MoCo DSA member and Maryland State Delegate Gabriel Acevero [D-District 39] stand in solidarity with Coach Fofo.)

MoCo DSA's field trip to Greenbelt, MD, was a rousing success this past weekend! Our members got the chance to learn about how the co-operative firms were established as part of Greenbelt's legacy as a planned New Deal community, and how the co-ops continue to thrive.

Maryland State Delegate and MoCo DSA member Vaughn Stewart (D-District 19) is making waves ([link removed]) with a letter he has organized, demanding that the County Board of Education to excuse students who miss classes for the sake of attending protests and other acts of activism. So far, over 20 elected officials have signed on!

Wondering about renewing your DSA membership? As of now, *all* membership renewals and new memberships must be done through national DSA (here) ([link removed]) . One can make donations to our Metro DC DSA chapter, but those donations can no longer be used for membership renewals. Confused? Unsure if your membership has expired? Just ask us! (mailto:[email protected]?subject=DSA%20membership%20question)

Upcoming DSA events:

Sunday, November 3 from 2 pm-4:30 pm at Silver Spring library: MoCo DSA Branch meeting
Please join us at our monthly branch meeting to continue planning our rent control fight and hear updates on other DSA initiatives and events! Details and RSVP here ([link removed]) . (Don't forget to set your clocks back!)

Check out the Metro DC DSA Meetup page ([link removed]) to find many DSA events throughout the Washington Metro region!

Good Reads:
From RentCafe: "8 Out of 10 New Apartment Buildings Were High-End in 2017, Trend Continues in 2018" ([link removed]) by Nadia Balint. "If just a few short years ago it was a sensation to see the incessant rise of high-end rental buildings in our cities, by now they are beyond pervasive. As recent as 2015, three-quarters of the new apartment construction completed that year were high-end. In 2017, the construction of luxury rental properties had risen to 79% of all apartment construction in the U.S... Nationally, about 87% of all large-scale apartment buildings completed in the first half of 2018 are high-end."

From the New York Times: "One in Four of New York's New Luxury Apartments is Unsold" ([link removed]) by Stefanos Chen. The headline says it all.

From the Washington Post: "Two families — one black, one white — shared a harrowing history. Then they met." ([link removed]) by Ian Shapira. "For much of the past year, as the nation marks the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans’ arrival to the English colony of Virginia, the Kings have embarked on an anguished family history research project — and the most unlikely of friendships with the great-great-great-grandchildren of Thomas Griffith. The Kings have always suspected that the Kings before them were enslaved. But they didn’t learn the exact site of that subjugation until February: a 190-acre farm in Gaithersburg called Edgehill, just 25 miles from John’s home in Silver Spring."

From Vox: "Bernie Sanders Released a Plan to Legalize Marijuana (At 4:20 PM)" ([link removed]) by German Lopez. "The proposal is among the most ambitious from one of the Democratic presidential candidates. It would move to legalize marijuana within 100 days through executive action. But it would also address the potential downsides and criticisms of how several states have legalized marijuana so far — by trying to limit the size and scope of the marijuana industry and taking several steps to ensure that communities of color benefit from legalization while potential bad actors, such as tobacco companies, do not."

In solidarity,
David, John and Zach, Elissa and Frank
MoCo DSA Steering Committee

Follow us on Twitter: @MoCo_DSA ([link removed])
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/DSAMoCo
{MoCo DSA is a branch of the Metro DC chapter of DSA}

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