Dear Representative Mike Connolly and Representative-elect Erika Uyterhoeven,
As you know better than most, the Massachusetts House of Representatives has repeatedly obstructed progessive priorities in the face of obvious popular support. The leadership around Speaker Bob DeLeo has instead been eager to give gifts to big business and corporate landlords at the expense of regular people.
Ron Mariano is the Speaker’s handpicked successor, and there has been a multi-year campaign of fear and intimidation on Beacon Hill to threaten and pressure representatives to vote for him as DeLeo’s replacement. Mariano is the most right-wing member of DeLeo’s team, the only one to vote against RaiseUp MA’s “millionaire tax”. As democratic socialists, we know that power comes from ordinary people organizing and struggling together—from the movement, not from relationships with establishment power brokers like Ron Mariano. We know that as members of the Boston Democratic Socialists of America you share these values, so we are publicly calling on you to reject Ron Mariano’s bid for the speakership and vote for an alternative candidate.
We do not believe the people of Somerville, Cambridge, and our state are served by paying our respects to the pro-business establishment. As movement leaders, it’s our responsibility to lead the resistance to corporate power and bring working people into struggle for the dignity, respect, and equity we deserve.
In Solidarity,
The Boston DSA Coordinating Committee