For nearly a year, a group of actvists and organizers have been working hard to create a new, statewide organization that has the potential to have a major impact on Massachusts politics. Progressive Massachusetts is the culmination of a number of meetings and conversations throughout the state. I recently joined the Progressive Massachusetts planning committee, and given this community’s commitment to progressive policies and candidates, decided to reach out to my BMG friends for a favor: Will you join us for our kick-off meeting on October 2nd, from 2pm to 6pm at Lasell College in Newton?
For those curious about who’s behind the scenes, it’s a growing and diverse group who have been meeting informally for many months. They include Sarah Compton, Tony Mack, Monica Hinojos, David Sloane, Harmony Wu, Gloribell Mota, Mac D’Alessandro, John Bowes, Michael Jacoby-Brown, Margot Barnet, Peter Smulowitz, Cheryl Crawford, John Kleschinsky, Brigid Kennedy-Pfister and myself among many others.
Much more info after the flip.
I’ve heard stories about the amazing grassroots network that Governor Patrick created for his 2006 election. I was a small part of the huge grassroots network that helped propel President Obama to the White House. Two strong grassroots networks that came together and worked productively for elections that then were allowed to lay dormant after their candidates won. I know I’m not the only one to notice this. John Kleschinsky wrote an excellent “Open Letter to the Democratic party” about just this shortly after the election last November.
Given the breadth and depth of progressive political actors and organizers in our state, this doesn’t have to happen. We have many strong grassroots organizations and activists across Massachusetts, and there is so much we need to do between elections. By joining together to stay engaged, we can ensure that Massachusetts becomes the national leader we should be in enacting progressive policies.
Progressive Massachusetts argues that to create meaningful changes in public policy, progressives in every corner of the state must work together not only to elect progressive candidates, but to hold elected officials accountable to progressive values. Progressive Massachusetts will make that vision a reality with effective, ongoing, statewide organizing. It is open to anyone in Massachusetts who wants to see their progressive values turned into action.
Let’s be clear; Massachusetts current policy and politics do not match the progressive ideals of our citizens. Do you want a progressive income tax? Universal healthcare? How about the Bottle Bill? We have to start somewhere. These are just a few policy areas where Massachusetts should be an even more progressive example for the rest of the country. So many activists and organizations share the same goals. It only makes sense to work statewide in a coordinated way towards those common goals
Progressive Massachusetts is committed to empowering, educating, training and engaging actvists on an ongoing basis, to build a powerful grassroots network unlike any other in Massachusetts. The time has come!
Progressive Massachusetts will:
- take positions on public policies through a democratic process;
- organize members to effectively pressure elected officials to support these policies;
- and help elect and support progressive candidates for public office.
Progressive Massachusetts is open to all stripes of progressives, affiliated and unaffiliated: Democratic activists, members of labor unions or other grassroots organizations, lone progressives in your community, talented volunteer campaigners for progressive candidates. Join us!
TO MAKE A PROGRESSIVE MASSACHUSETTS, WE NEED YOUR VOICE AND YOUR ACTIVISM
- To reserve your place at the meeting/RSVP, register via Eventbrite
- Also, make sure you are in the loop– subscribe to our mailing list!
- Help build/spread the word: FORWARD an invitation to any progressive friends whom you think might be hungering for an organization like this!
Questions? please contact me at chris@chrismatth.com or the group at progressive.mass@gmail.com
AND I hope for support in changing the laws so that Open Meeting Laws, fair procurement laws, and information acts apply to the legislature. I testified as to this today, and filed the letter below:
September 20, 2011
Senator Kenneth J. Donnelly Representative Peter V. Kocot
Senate Chair of the Joint Committee House Chair of the Joint Committee
on State Administration and Regulatory on State Administration and
Oversight Regulatory Oversight
Dear Senator Donnelly and Representative Kocot, and committee members:
Reforming the Open Meeting laws, G.L.c. 30a Section 18 et. seq. to ensure that the Great and General Court and Constitutional Officers are also subject to the Open Meeting laws of the Commonwealth has become a critical matter to the citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Every other governmental organ, whether it is the Boston City Council or the Arlington School Committee is subject to open meeting laws so as to protect the public against corruption, and protect those who govern from undue temptations behind closed doors.
Open meeting laws, crafted so as to protect but not unduly burden, are necessary to regain the public’s trust and confidence in government. There have been many scandals where money influences those who govern, those who spend tax payer dollars, and those who hire. A well crafted Open Meeting law would have prevented many, and perhaps all of these scandals.
The public is outraged, and rightly so. A Speaker convicted of taking money to influence contracts, a Probation Commissioner indicted for allegedly selling jobs, laundering of campaign funds, legislation drafted with no public hearings or cost benefit studies – all of these events could only happen because the legislature and Beacon Hill are 100% exempt from any and all open meeting laws and regulations.
To regain taxpayer and voter confidence, Beacon Hill must include itself in G.L.c. 30A, with the definition of “Public Body” being amended to insert the words “General Court and all constitutional officers” after the word “town”.
Respectfully submitted:
Deborah Sirotkin Butler, Esquire
cc: Sen. James T. Welch, Rep. James M. Murphy, Sen. Susan Fargo, Sen Michael J. Rodrigues, Sen. John F. Keenan, Sen. Bruce F. Tarr, Rep. David M. Nangle, Rep. Michael D. Brady, Rep. Jason M. Lewis, Rep. James J. Lyons, Jr., Rep. Kevin Aguilar, Rep. Kate Hogan, Rep. Edward F. Coppinger, Rep. Steven L. Levy
That our Ernie.
guffaw guffaw
just don’t shave, you’ll fit right in
and arrive all hopped up on drugs they might be mistaken for Brietbart.
that nut job was a mess. Couldn’t tell from the grainy video, did he have any stains on his t-shirt? It was t-shirt right?
That should do the trick.
Progressive Massachusetts will:
take positions on public policies through a democratic process;
organize members to effectively pressure elected officials to support these policies;
and help elect and support progressive candidates for public office.
Yeah, ok, take positions on whatever you are able to, have your meetings and come to your conclusions, and ok, help elect whoever you feel like, but please don’t “pressure elected officials to support these policies” if that means sending millions of emails or pummeling their phone lines. Let’s just elect them and let them govern, then decide if we should re-elect them or elect someone else.
My boss only communicates with me once every two years. My wife only gives me, ahem, feedback on our anniversary.
Oh wait. No, that’s not right. Never mind.
of progressive heavy-hitters! I’ll put it on my calendar. I can’t promise anything right this second though. But a very intriguing concept.
…not least because I’d like to meet you!
I’m really hopeful about this. I am a relative newcomer to politics/political organizing, and if Obama 08 was my Awesome Freshman Year, then OFA was the hard first seminar in my major, and Scott Brown was my “Rocks for Jocks” gut course that went wrong.
Progressive Mass can be–with all of your/our engagement, organization and activism–the, uh, crap I have to extend this bad metaphor, the Really Good community project that comes out of a senior thesis? Maybe?
Forget the college metaphors. Progressive Mass. has the potential to really shift the political molecules, I think. There is a disconnect between the energy and activism (and candidates) of Campaigns and the actual grind of Getting Stuff Done policy-wise.
We have incredible organizations and organizers, but what we are missing is a coherent strategy of working together, when and where it makes sense, keeping coordinated on the important issues as they bubble up, and so on.
I’m excited about this. I hope to meet many of the people here whom I read as I lurk.
Sign up!!
And please do spread the word.
I’m going to stick with the uncool kids, but I do feel like the party has moved right, so good luck.
cool kids make me nervous.
Looking forward to it.
n/t
There is something about using the word “progressive” in lieu of “liberal” that turns me off. Avoiding the term “liberal” is admitting we have lost the rhetorical battle to the conservatives who have derided the term for decades. For me, “liberal is a respectable and honorable word that more properly describes what we stand for than “progressive”. “Liber” is the Latin word for “free”. Isn’t that the underlying basis of what we stand for?
Sorry for omitting the title because the title is important.
I find the term “progressive” to be more apt, and find the term “liberal” annoying because, here, it has come to mean something like its opposite. That’s why American “liberals” identify with European “labor” and not so much with European “liberals.”
This is America where football is an entirely different game than it is in Europe. There is a great tradition of liberalism in this country that is quite different from the more anti-governmental libertarianism of Europe. I suggest that what people refer to as liberal in Europe is irrelevant. Your confusion about “liberal” is one of the reasons I don’t like the word “progressive”. Everyone – even the conservatives – think of themselves as “progressive”, which is clearly more desirable than being considered “backward”. So, the term “progressive” to me has much less meaning than “liberal”.
All depends on context. It’s what we do with it that matters.
I’m Liberal and Loving it.
I’m bringing Liberal back.
But i’m also fine w/ being “progressive”. I get what you’re saying though.
I just registered and shared it on Facebook – see you there!
and thanks!