Progressive Mass 2023 Annual Meeting (Virtual)

Progressive Mass is turning 10! Join us for our 2023 annual meeting where we will review accomplishments from the past year, talk about our legislative agenda for the new session, and host a variety of breakout sessions focused on building skills and digging deeper into policy and action.

~Agenda~

1:00 – 1:25: Welcome & Business Segment

1:25 – 1:30: Announcement of new Legislative Agenda

1:35 – 2:20: First round of breakout sessions

  • How to Take Action at the City Level, with panelists City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, City Councilor Helen Moon, and City Councilor Vincent Piccirilli
  • How to Take Action at the Town Level, with panelists Select Board Member Raul Fernandez, School Committee Member Melissa Pearrow, and Select Board Member Hanna Switlekowski
  • Organizing for Progressive Causes in Purple Areas, with panelists State Sen. Becca Rausch, Crisayda Belén (campaign manager for Yes on 4), and Liz Speakman (South Shore coordinator for Yes on 1)
  • How to Do Effective Digital Organizing, with panelists Maia Baker (former digital director for Yes on 1), Paul Bologna (former digital director for Ed Markey), and Kaitlyn Solares (former digital director for Yes on 4)
  • Next Steps for Improving Democracy in MA, with panelists Vandinika Shukla (advisory board member) and Brittany Buford (managing partner for partnerships) from Partners in Democracy

2:20 – 2:25: Special Guest: Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley

2:25 – 3:05: Plenary session on Multi-Racial Organizing and Coalition-Building, facilitated by Mystic Valley Progressives co-chair Zayda Ortiz with panelists Carolyn Chou (executive director of the Asian American Resource Workshop), School Committee Member Andre Green, Kristen Halbert (political strategist and community activist), Dálida Rocha (executive director of Renew US and former field director for Yes on 4)

3:05 – 3:50: Second round of breakout sessions

  • Fair Share: What We Learned & What’s Next?, with panelists Phineas Baxandall (policy director of Mass Budget) and Shanique Spaulding (executive director of the Massachusetts Voter Table)
  • A Transformative Bill to Empower Students & Schools to Thrive; Time to Stop State Takeovers, with panelists Jeremy Shenk (member engagement coordinator at AFT-Mass) and Vatsady Sivonxay (executive director of the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance)
  • Mass Power FORWARD into Climate and Environmental Justice, featuring Claire Karl B.W. Müller (movement builder director at UU Mass Action)
  • Toward Housing for All, with panelists Jesse Kanson-Benanav (executive director of Abundant Housing Massachusetts) and Mark Martinez (staff attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute)
  • Putting Justice into the Criminal Legal System, featuring Criminal Justice Reform Working Group co-chair Caroline Bays

3:50: Closing & After-party

Progressive Mass Trivia Night 2022

Progressive Mass Trivia Night 2022
Saturday, December 3, 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Zoom

Who’s ready to play?! We’re looking forward to some time to unwind and enjoy the company of fellow advocates and allies after another busy election cycle.

Join us for a night of trivia and show off your knowledge of pop culture and politics while competing for fun prizes!

Reserve a ticket today!

Play trivia!

  • $15 per person
  • $45 per team of 4 people

Sponsor a question!

  • $100 to sponsor 1 question
  • $150 to sponsor 2 questions

*Sponsor name & logo will appear on question slide

Click here to reserve tickets or to sponsor a question!

If you have questions, please email Melanie O’Malley at: melanie@progressivemass.com.

MPAOC Conference: Facing our Challenges in Dangerous Times

Saturday, December 3, 2022 @ 9:00 AM
Online

MPAOC virtual conference: Facing our Challenges in Dangerous Times

We live at a time characterized by numerous dire threats to justice, peace, and the very stability of our country. Among these threats are rampant militarism, galloping climate change, growing inequality, an ongoing and divisive pandemic, and the emergence of a dangerous right-wing extremist movement.

The goal of this Conference is to explore with activists and thought leaders how to address these enormous obstacles to the fulfillment of a progressive vision. 

Click here to RSVP

Speakers:

  • John Nichols, National affairs correspondent for The Nation. His most recent book is Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis.
  • Jamie Eldridge, State Senator representing the Middlesex and Worcester District.
  • Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. The seventh edition of her Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict : A Primer was published in 2018.
  • T. J. Jackson Lears, American cultural and intellectual historian with interests in comparative religious history, literature and the visual arts, folklore and folk beliefs. He is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers and Editor in Chief of Raritan. He is author of Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920.
  • Lindsay Koshgarian, Program Director for the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. She is an expert in dissecting the Federal budget including the contrast between Pentagon spending and domestic needs.
  • Jordan Berg Powers, Executive Director at Mass Alliance. In his over a decade there, he has helped elect new progressive leaders across the state, recruited progressive champions to run, and trained hundreds of grassroots organizers. Jordan is active in campaigns for saving public education, environmental justice, and a more progressive tax system for the Commonwealth.
  • Jean-Luc Pierite, President of the Board of the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB). A member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana and originally from New Orleans, he resides in Jamaica Plain.
  • Mallory Hanora, Executive Director of Families for Justice as Healing, a Roxbury based prison abolitionist organization led by incarcerated women, formerly incarcerated women, and women with incarcerated loved ones, which works to move Massachusetts towards community based solutions rather than constructing a new women’s prison.

Sponsored by the Massachusetts Progressive Action Organizing Committee, whose constituent groups are Massachusetts Peace Action; Our Revolution Massachusetts; Progressive Massachusetts; Progressive Democrats of America; North American Indian Center of Boston; and Incorruptible Mass.

A real Halloween fright…not knowing your voting plan.

Wouldn’t it be terrifying if you didn’t having a voting plan?! Don’t worry we have all the resources you need to get your vote out, and help get your community to the polls as well!

Upcoming Election Deadlines

  • Vote by mail:
    • We strongly encourage you to submit your mail in ballot by November 1st so it reaches your town clerk or local elections office by November 8th. Your ballot will be counted as long as it’s postmarked by November 8th and arrives by November 12, but please don’t wait until then!
    • If you haven’t sent in a vote-by-mail application yet and wish to do so, you can download a form here. The deadline to receive your application is November 1st at 5 pm.
    • If you’ve already received your ballot, you can send it back via mail or via a dropbox near you. And if you want to confirm receipt, you can track your ballot.
    • If you’re unsure if you applied for a mail-in ballot, use track your ballot to check
  • Vote early in person:
    • Early voting is available across the state, and each community has their own dates/deadlines. You can find locations in your community here.
  • Vote on Election Day:
    • The deadline for registering to vote has passed.
    • You can confirm your polling place at wheredoivotema.com.

Beyond voting, you can help ensure Progressive wins on Election day by helping advocate for Yes on 1 and Yes on 4.

  • Join the Progressive Mass Yes on 1 and 4 joint phonebank next week:
    • https://tinyurl.com/Yeson1and4Nov1
  • Find a canvass near you for Yes on 1:
    • https://www.mobilize.us/fairshareamendment2022/
  • Sign up for a YES on 1 phone bank:
    • https://www.mobilize.us/fairshareamendment2022/event/476323/
  • Volunteer for YES on 4:
    • https://saferroadsma.com/events/
  • Tell 10 friends or neighbors to be sure to vote for Yes on 1 and Yes on 4, and share the accurate information on Question 1.

The Legislature’s Grade for this Session? INCOMPLETE

Earlier this week, a coalition of 79 organizations and residents across the Commonwealth sent a letter asking the MA Legislature to come back and pass key policies that were left on the table at the end of the formal legislative session.

  • Can you call your legislator today to demand they reconvene for a special session?
  • Will you join us and allies for a rally outside the State House on Friday, October 28, from 4-5pm?
Special Session Rally Outside the State House: Friday, October 28, 4 pm to 5 pm

(graphic credit: Families for Justice as Healing)

Although the formal legislative session ended on July 31, the current Legislative session does not actually end until the beginning of January.

That’s right: the Legislature has more than two months in which they could come back and finish their work, rather than let Baker’s vetoes or intra-chamber bickering doom key policies like

  • The Jail and Prison Construction Moratorium, which would enact a five year pause on jail and prison construction and expansion
  • No cost calls for incarcerated people without amendments that would increase pretrial detention
  • Funding for hybrid meetings so towns can make local government accessible to residents by offering virtual attendance options
  • The HOMES Act, which would allow people to seal their eviction records so they can access housing
  • Funding for VOCA (Victims of Crime Act) to prevent cuts to services for sexual and domestic violence survivors

All of these policies have broad support in the Legislature, but they didn’t make it across the finish line on July 31st because of Baker’s late-breaking vetoes or the inability of our State Senate and State House to come to an agreement on how to respond.

Let’s be clear: those are not good excuses when the need for all of these policies is so great. So let’s take action.

  • Can you call your legislator today to demand they reconvene for a special session?
  • Will you join us for a rally outside the State House on Friday October 28 from 4-5pm?

Tonight at 7 pm: Power Concedes Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections


Register here.

The November 2020 US election was arguably the most consequential since the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln—and grassroots leaders and organizers played crucial roles in the contention for the presidency and control of both houses of Congress.

Power Concedes Nothing, a new collection edited by Linda Burnham, Max Elbaum, and Maria Poblet, tells the stories behind a victory that won both the White House and the Senate and powered progressive candidates to new levels of influence. It describes the on-the-ground efforts that mobilized a record-breaking turnout by registering new voters and motivating an electorate both old and new. In doing so it charts a viable path to victory for the vital contests upcoming in 2022 and 2024.

Massachusetts progressives engage in grassroots electoral politics in a variety of campaigns. In this program, contributors to Power Concedes Nothing will present national lessons from the 2020 election cycle. They will be questioned by several Massachusetts progressive organizers.

About the book: https://www.powerconcedesnothing2022.com/

To order: https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/power-concedes-nothing/

Presenters:

Jacob Swenson-Lengyel served as the director of communications and narrative at PA Stands Up from 2020 to 2021. Previously he was a program manager at Narrative Institute, served as deputy director of communications at People’s Action, and worked at Interfaith Worker Justice. He is on the editorial board of Convergence.

Rafael Návar served as the California state director for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign starting in 2019 and was subsequently appointed to lead Sanders’ campaign in New York. He was the only Latinx state director for the Sanders campaign, and was senior advisor for Mijente and Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights’ historic outreach to Latinx communities in the 2021 Georgia runoff election. From 2012 to 2019 he served as the national political director for the Communication Workers of America, and he is a cofounder of Mijente.

Linda Burnham served as national research director and senior advisor at the National Domestic Workers Alliance for nearly a decade and co-authored, with Nik Theodore, Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work. She was a leader in the Third World Women’s Alliance in the 1970s, and co-founded, with Miriam Ching Louie, the Women of Color Resource Center, serving as the organization’s executive director for 18 years.

Moderator:

Elvis Méndez is Executive Director of Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts. He has worked as an Organizer for Warehouse Workers for Justice, Coordinator and Director of Organizing for the Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative, and Lead Organizer for the National Guestworkers Alliance among others.

Respondents:
Vanessa Snow/MassVOTE
Rand Wilson/union organizer
Beth Huang/Mass Voter Table

Sponsors: Massachusetts Progressive Action Organizing Committee, Massachusetts Peace Action; Convergence; Liberation Road; Progressive Democrats of America; Our Revolution Massachusetts; Cape Cod Democratic Socialists of America, Progressive Massachusetts, Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts, Incorruptible Massachusetts

This Week: Take Action on Juvenile Justice Reform

What do eggs, lotion, and Slurpees have in common?

All of them have been deemed “dangerous weapons” in courts that made young people ineligible for judicial diversion to community supervision instead of incarceration.

This Thursday, the MA Senate will be voting on an important juvenile justice reform bill (S.2942) to expand opportunities for judicial diversion for youth, as well as another bill (S.2943) that eliminates the requirement that youth pay an $40 administrative bail fee as a condition of being released on bail.

The Senate also has the opportunity to strengthen these reforms by including an amendment (#4 to S.2942, filed by Sen. Pat Jehlen) to preserve the right to education of students who are accused of a felony offense allowing them to remain in school as long as their case has not moved towards an arraignment and that the felony be a “serious violent felony” before a student is suspended from school.

Can you contact your state senator in support of these reforms?

TOMORROW: Fair Share Canvass with Elizabeth Warren

Join Fair Share for Massachusetts and Senator Elizabeth Warren TOMORROW at 5:30 PM to canvass voters and spread the word to vote YES of Fair Share this November!

The kickoff will be at Lincoln Commons Park, Bryant and Cross Street, Malden.

RSVP HERE.

Tell Your Legislator: Pass Child Care Legislation This Legislative Session!

In early 2021, the Common Start Coalition drafted legislation, originally filed by Reps. Gordon & Madaro and Senators Lewis & Moran, that would establish a framework for delivering increased access to affordable, high-quality early education and child care to Massachusetts families, over the course of several years. On May 18, the Legislature’s Education Committee approved a landmark bill, H.4795/S.2883, titled An Act to Expand Access to High-Quality, Affordable Early Education and Care.

Major sections of the Education Committee’s legislation are heavily based on the Common Start bill. Now, we have until the end of the current legislative session on July 31 to pass H.4795/S.2883 and make progress this year on transforming the childcare system in Massachusetts!

Contact your legislators here!

Less Than Six Weeks Before the End of the Session. But This Happens Before.

The Legislative session will be over in just under six weeks, but there’s one key deadline that’s earlier than that: the state budget deadline, which is just around the corner on June 30.

The Legislature doesn’t always meet that deadline (pushing things into July), but it still exists. And that means action has to happen quick.

Here are three key areas to contact your legislators on:

*Equitable Approaches in Public Safety: The Senate budget included language to increase funding to $3.5M for the Equitable Approaches to Public Safety (EAPS) program (line item 4512-2020). This language and funding will allow municipalities to create community-based alternative crisis response models centered around social and emotional health professionals like social workers and peer support specialists.

*Early Education and Child Care: The House and Senate both included new funding for early education and child care in their budgets. They increased funding in different ways, but, as the Common Start Coalition has argued, if the priorities of both chambers make it into the final budget, it would represent a substantial step toward implementing the coalition’s full vision of a high-quality early education and childcare system that is affordable and accessible for all families.

*No Cost Calls: Both the House and Senate budgets included language to provide persons who are incarcerated with access to free phone calls or similar forms of communication. It is unconscionable that prisons and jails have been price-gouging incarcerated individuals and their families for years, and it’s important that this provision is a part of the final budget.

Can you contact your state legislators in support of these three budget priorities?

TONIGHT: Community Forum on Suffolk & Plymouth County DA Races

We’ll be joining community partners from the Justice for Massachusetts coalition for a forum with the Suffolk and Plymouth County DA candidates TONIGHT from 6 pm to 9 pm.

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Kevin Hayden (Suffolk County)

7:00 pm – 8:00 pm: Rahsaan Hall (Plymouth County)

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Ricardo Arroyo (Suffolk County)

RSVP here.

TOMORROW: The ‘Segrenomics’ of Education

Many of the educational issues and controversies we face today — state takeovers, standardized testing, charter schools, many more — have interconnected historical roots and mutually reinforcing current impacts that result in huge gaps in school quality and huge gaps in student opportunity. Understanding that history is crucial for finding solutions.

Tomorrow at 7:00 pm, join the important discussion with Dr. Rooks about her research on segrenomics, connecting the dots between economics with segregated schooling and community organizers from across the state on their work.

RSVP here.

WEDNESDAY: Education Budget Briefing

On Wednesday at 4 pm, join the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance, MassBudget, and the Massachusetts Teachers Association for a briefing on the education budget, including discussions of the state budget, budget supplemental, the American Rescue Plan (ARPA), and the Fair Share Amendment.

RSVP here.

Education Budget Briefing

In solidarity,

What Just Happened at the State House & What’s Happening Next Week

Last week was an exciting week at the Massachusetts State House, as both the House and Senate voted to override the Governor’s veto of the Work & Family Mobility Act, making Massachusetts the 17th state to ensure that all qualified residents, regardless of immigration status, are able to get a driver’s license.

You can see how your legislators voted below.

VOTES Act Advances…But With a Big Gap

Last week, the House and Senate released their final version of the VOTES Act. The bill contains many important reforms, like making the option to vote early-by-mail permanent, expanding early voting options, and strengthening the protections for jail-based voting. Unfortunately, however, the House’s opposition to Same Day Registration carried the day, and Massachusetts will continue to lag behind our neighbors with our arbitrary and exclusionary voter registration cutoff. The bill would shorten the deadline from 20 days before an election to 10 days, but that’s still 10 days too many.

The bill passed the Senate last week and is on track to pass the House soon.

Read a full write-up of the bill here.

The ‘Segrenomics’ of Education

Many of the educational issues and controversies we face today — state takeovers, standardized testing, charter schools, many more — have interconnected historical roots and mutually reinforcing current impacts that result in huge gaps in school quality and huge gaps in student opportunity. Understanding that history is crucial for finding solutions.

Join the important discussion with Dr. Rooks about her research on: segrenomics, connecting the dots between economics with segregated schooling and community organizers from across the state on their work.

RSVP here.

Event info for "The Segrenomics of Education"

Community Forum on Suffolk & Plymouth County DA Races

We’ll be joining community partners from the Justice for Massachusetts coalition for a forum with the Suffolk and Plymouth County DA candidates on Monday, June 20, from 6 pm to 9 pm.

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Kevin Hayden (Suffolk County)

7:00 pm – 8:00 pm: Rahsaan Hall (Plymouth County)

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Ricardo Arroyo (Suffolk County)

RSVP here.

Your Plans for this Weekend (…And the Next…and the Next…)? Canvassing for Fair Share!

Find a canvass near you at https://www.mobilize.us/fairshareamendment2022/.

June 8th: Author Event with Jerold Duquette & Erin O’Brien

Join Progressive Mass for a discussion with Jerold Duquette and Erin O’Brien, the co-editors of the new book The Politics of Massachusetts Exceptionalism: Reputation Meets Reality.
About the Book:
Are claims of Massachusetts’s special and instructive place in American history and politics justified? Alternately described as a “city upon a hill” and “an organized system of hatreds,” Massachusetts politics has indisputably exerted an outsized pull on the national stage. The Commonwealth’s leaders often argue for the state’s distinct position within the union, citing its proud abolitionist history and its status as a policy leader on health care, gay marriage, and transgender rights, not to mention its fertile soil for budding national politicians. Detractors point to the state’s busing crisis, sky high levels of economic inequality, and mixed support for undocumented immigrants. The Politics of Massachusetts Exceptionalism tackles these tensions, offering a collection of essays from public policy experts that address the state’s noteworthy contributions to the nation’s political history. This is a much-needed volume for Massachusetts policymakers, journalists, and community leaders, as well as those learning about political power at the state level, inside and outside of the classroom. Contributors include the editors as well as Maurice T. Cunningham, Lawrence Friedman, Shannon Jenkins, Luis F. Jiménez, and Peter Ubertaccio. You can order a copy here. Click here to let us know if you are interested in joining a book discussion before or after the author event!