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FIRST HOUR
Guest: Nancy Stenberg,
Female caucus representative to the 2nd Hampden-Hampshire Senate District
Dear State Committee member,
I would like to extend my thanks to Attorney Cheryl Jacques for her thorough and transparent independent review of the actions of Democratic State Committee staff and volunteers during the Alex Morse for Congress campaign.
I would also like to thank Vice Chairs Deb Kozikowski, Leon Braithwaite, and Personnel Committee Chair Mark DiSalvo for discharging the duties assigned to them.
Mayor Alex Morse is a resident of my state committee district, the 2nd Hampden Hampshire Senate district. We have also been friends for at least 10 years. When he shared the information with me about this situation, I said “I will demand an investigation on your behalf.”
The Key Findings portion of the report clearly shows that Gus Bickford, a DSC member and our current party chair, violated DSC bylaw 2(d) which prohibits staff of the DSC from participating in a contested Democratic Primary campaign.
This portion of the report goes on to mention that our executive director, Veronica Martinez, exercised “poor judgement” in her interactions with CDMA members. We have a personnel committee headed up by Mark DiSalvo and I will leave it up to them to make a recommendation on this.
Fellow members, the Recommendations portion of the report show that we, the members of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee, have a lot of work to do to ensure that something like this does not happen again.
The first task at hand is to elect a new chair, to lead us in a new direction, on November 12th.
Democratically yours,
Nancy Stenberg
SECOND HOUR
Guest: John Prusinski,
Massachusetts Democratic Socialists of America Ecosocialist Working Group
Press Release: 11/07/20
The Ecosocialist Working Group of Massachusetts Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Proposes a Just Green Stimulus Plan for Massachusetts
Boston, MA – As our economy reels from the impact of the COVID-19 virus, the Massachusetts Legislature will be appropriating funds to address the pandemic and the resulting economic recession. At the same time, they must address the climate emergency and extreme inequality backstopped by white supremacy and racist policing.
The Ecosocialist Working Group of the Massachusetts Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) announces a Green Stimulus Plan for Massachusetts to restart our economy and combat climate injustice. The plan will create hundreds of thousands of good paying, green union jobs to build safe and healthy homes and renewable infrastructure, and increase community resilience.
The Green Stimulus that the DSA proposes directly addresses environmental racism by prioritizing environmental justice and communities of color, particularly Black, immigrant and indigenous communities, throughout recovery. (See MA bill H.4264)
The DSA’s Green Stimulus Plan embodies the “5 Principles for a Just COVID-19 Relief and Stimulus,” (https://www.fiveprinciples.org/) put forward by over 300 environmental, justice, labor, and movement organizations earlier this year. The 5 Principle are: (1) Health is the top priority, for all people, with no exceptions; (2) provide economic relief directly to the people; (3) rescue workers and communities first, not corporate executives; (4) make a down payment on a regenerative economy, while preventing future crises; (5) protect our democratic process while protecting each other.
Two bills in the Massachusetts Legislature — Senate bill S.2477 and House bill H.4912 — both environmental roadmap bills, are a focus of Mass DSA legislative efforts with a goal to ensure that after they are reconciled, they retain environmental justice language that would: mandate Environmental Impact reports for any project that is likely to cause damage to the environment and is located within one mile of an environmental justice population, and require the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) to set aside future solar energy allocations for low-income neighborhoods.
The full language of the DSA Ecosocialist Working Group’s Green Stimulus Plan is found in the petition in support of this proposal can be found at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/a-just-green-stimulus-for-massachusetts
Endorsed by Boston DSA, Berkshires DSA, Cape Cod DSA, Merrimack Valley DSA, Metrowest DSA, Pioneer Valley DSA, Act on Mass, GreenRoots, JP Progressives, Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, 350 Massachusetts Berkshires Node
Contact: Massachusetts Democratic Socialists of America Ecosocialist Working Group
Name: John Prusinski
Email: [email protected]
TLC Episode 90
