BALTIMORE MD (10/30/02) -- About 200 members and supporters of Community and Labor United for Baltimore (CLUB) rallied at Frederick Douglass High School in support of Question P. This ballot initiative proposes to restructure the representation of Baltimore City Council to 14 single-member districts of 45,000 constituents. CLUB, a coalition which includes ACORN, AFSCME, the City Union of Baltimore, the Baltimore Green Party, and the League of Women Voters, recently won a suit against the City Council for violating the open meetings act. In his ruling, the judge prevented the City Council from including their alternative initiative on the ballot for the November 5th election.

Copies of the endorsements of Question P from the Baltimore Sun (10/2/02), the City Paper (10/30/02), and The Baltimore Times (10/18/02 opinion piece) were available to participants as they entered the auditorium. Speakers included Rose Taylor, Co-Chair of ACORN in Maryland, former Maryland State Legislator (likely to be re-elected) Curtis Anderson, State Senator Ralph Hughes, Executive Director of AFSCME Council 67 Glen Middleton, and others. Supporters unable to make the rally included President of the Maryland AFL-CIO Fred Mason and State Legislator Salima Marriott.

Participants had made it to Douglass High School, in spite of the cold, rainy weather, to hear impassioned, but brief speeches. Rose Taylor spoke of ACORN's challenge to Baltimore City government's closing of schools and libraries, and its material support of predatory lenders as background to the launch of Question P. She warned the powers-that-be in Baltimore that "We'll be out there in your face." Labor leader Glen Middleton criticized ads supportive of the existing City Council which refer to "outsiders" organizing for Question P. "But," Middleton asked, "who's working on this? The workers who pick up the trash, who take care of the schools, who repair the waters pipes, all those workers who do the hardest work in the City....We're going to change this City. It's about time ...."

November 5th is next week. It will be interesting to compare the vote for Question P with the 74,000 who voted for the Rent Control referendum in 1979 (Rent Control won, but was thrown out by the courts). Will CLUB succeed in mobilizing similar numbers? If they do, we may begin to see some changes in Charm City.

From Baltimore Sun:
www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/bal-ed.quesp27oct27,0,777314.story

From City Paper:
www.citypaper.com/2002-10-30/feature.html