Red Emma’s

Moderated by Marc Steinerwith Lester Spence + representatives from: CASA in Action • ATU • Right To Housing Alliance  UNITE HERE Local 7 • Baltimore Algebra Project • Out for Justice

From the Chokwe and Chokwe Antar Lumumba victories in Jackson, Mississippi to the successful campaign by decarceration activists in Philadelphia to elect Larry Krasner as the city’s new DA, radical movements across the country are showing what happens when we take elections seriously and run the candidates we want, rather than settle for what the neoliberal establishment wants to put on the ticket.Being realistic about the limits of electoral politics means also being realistic that elections do  matter, and that policy is the way movements can make victories permanent. If we want Baltimore City’s schools funded, if we want the quality public transit we need, if we want a plan for rebuilding Baltimore that isn’t just about demolition and displacement, if we want a rollback of police power, if we want living wages across the state, we’re going to need lots of organizing—and we’re going to need someone in the governor’s office who will be receptive to our organizing. Hogan killed the Red Line, spent $35 million to build a jail for children, is pushing for racist mandatory minimums that will expand mass incarceration, and has kept Baltimore City schools underfunded & unheated. We can’t spend another four years playing defense against a governor pandering to a Republican base in the suburbs.And if a status quo Democrat wins the primary in June, that’s just what’s going to happen, because when the Democrats take Baltimore for granted, Baltimore doesn’t mobilize. Remember Anthony Brown and his “Vote for the Democrats” campaign signs? That’s the kind of politics that gets us another four years of Hogan.So what would it take for Baltimore City grassroots to mobilize behind a candidate that supports our priorities? What would it take to build the organizing coalition that makes sure electoral gains translate into real solutions for our city and state?