Comrades,

We had two fascinating speakers at our branch meeting on Sunday - Takoma Park Mayor Kate Stewart discussed the details of Takoma Park's rent stabilization laws with us, and Sandi Williams of the Sandy Spring Slavery Museum taught us a lot we didn't know about the history of slavery in MoCo. Don't miss our next branch meeting on December 15, where we'll hear from DSA members and state delegates Gabe Acevero and Vaughn Stewart!
 
 (Mayor Kate Stewart, left; and Sandi Williams, right)

County Executive Marc Elrich has been attacked by Governor Larry Hogan and alt-right media personality Michelle Malkin (and others) for banning the MoCo Police Department from displaying a Blue Lives Matter flag. The #BlueLivesMatter hashtag and flag were created as a direct response to #BlackLivesMatter, and as such is a racist response to the campaign against systemic racism and violence against black people. This was the right thing for Elrich to do - even the Washington Post called out Hogan for his reactionary response. We encourage you to join state delegates Gabe Acevero, Jheanelle Wilkins and others in publicly supporting his stance, e.g., on social media.

Speaking of much-needed police accountability, there is a forum in Silver Spring TONIGHT to discuss policies and legislation needed to better hold police accountable in Montgomery County. More details are below.

Wondering about renewing your DSA membership? As of now, *all* membership renewals and new memberships must be done through national DSA (here). You can still make direct 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!

Upcoming events:
 TONIGHT - Wednesday, November 6 from 6:30-9 pm at Silver Spring Civic Center: Police Accountability Legislation Workshop
Join the Silver Spring Justice Coalition, DSA member and delegate Gabe Acevero and others to discuss legislative policies needed to hold police accountable. Details here.

Thursday, November 14 from 7 pm-9 pm in downtown Silver Spring: MoCo DSA Rent Control campaign planning meeting
Please join us at our next Rent Control planning meeting. We'll be discussing more specifics of the campaign, including member organizing, communications, and research. Send us an email to get the location if you'd like to attend!

 Sunday, December 15 from 2 pm-4:30 pm at Silver Spring library: MoCo DSA Branch meeting
Please join us at our monthly branch meeting to hear about state-level legislation from DSA members and state delegates Gabe Acevero and Vaughn Stewart! Details and RSVP here. 

 Check out the Metro DC DSA Meetup page to find many DSA events throughout the Washington Metro region!

Good Reads:
 From In These Times: "Chicago Teachers Didn't Win Everything - But They Transformed the City and the Labor Movement" by Rebecca Burns. "During daily rallies that drew tens of thousands of teachers, staff and supporters, the unions repeatedly made the argument that there was plenty of wealth in the city to invest in schools and public services—it was just concentrated in the wrong hands. They also touched on what’s often a third-rail for public-sector unions, criticizing the resources lavished on police at their expense."

 From Jacobin: "Neoliberalism? Never Heard of It" by Luke Savage. "The latest liberal parlor game is pretending there’s no such thing as neoliberalism. The game’s very popularity highlights neoliberalism’s enduring hegemony."

 From Democracy Now: "Emboldened by Bolsonaro, Illegal Loggers in Amazon Kill Indigenous Leader Paulo Paulino Guajajara" by Amy Goodman. "An indigenous forest protector named Paulo Paulino Guajajara was shot dead in the Amazon by illegal loggers on Saturday. It is the latest incident in a wave of violence targeting indigenous land protectors since the election of Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro last year."

In solidarity,