Saturday, December 15, from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
St. John Baptist Church, 9055 Tamar Dr., Columbia, MD 21045
HealthcareisaHumanRightMaryland.org
On Saturday, December 15, the United Workers and the Maryland chapters of Physicians for a National Health Program and Healthcare-Now are launching the statewide campaign “Healthcare Is a Human Right Maryland.” Local chapters have already been formed in Baltimore City and Ann Arundel, Calvert, Carroll, Frederick, Howard, and Montgomery counties. At the launch, members from across the state will share testimonies about the importance of fighting for universal health care and basic human rights. Leaders from Vermont’s successful universal healthcare campaign will also be attendance. Over the last few months, local chapter members have organized healthcare teach-ins, hosted movie screenings, and surveyed hundreds of Marylanders about their personal struggles with the current healthcare system. A substantial majority of those surveyed believe healthcare is a human right and support the creation of a universal healthcare system.
The “Healthcare Is a Human Right Maryland” campaign strives to build a strong grassroots base to win passage of the Maryland Health Security Act and broader improvements in all health-related areas, including education, housing, jobs, and the environment. The campaign builds on the long history of work for universal healthcare in Maryland and is inspired by a similar campaign in Vermont that successfully won passage of a universal healthcare bill in the Vermont Legislature in 2011.
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
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