January 2009 Local Meeting
From SP Boston
The Socialist Party of Boston met at 1 pm on Sunday, 25 January 2009 in the Lucy Parsons Center. With a number of new faces, we had a good deal of spirited discussion on both organizing and outreach as well as recent and upcoming events, including the new administration, the crisis in Gaza, and antiwar actions coming up later this spring. We also made plans of our own for the coming weeks, featuring an informal get-together in two weeks, a Massachusetts state meeting the following weekend, and an International Women's Day event in March. For more information, check out the full minutes below.
Minutes
- Introductions and agenda approval
- In attendance were Liz B., Jason F., Jean F., Alexi G., Maureen H., Kelly M., Billie M., Maryam S., and David S.
- Matt A., Emily F., Val G., Donald J., David K., Lynn M., Barry M., and Corey M. sent regrets.
- Roundtable discussion
- We discussed the importance of working in coalitions and cooperatively with other allied organizations, as well as the importance of local work in the community.
- David recommended act-ma as the best central repository of information on activist events and organizations.
- David and Billie discussed some of the coalitions in which the Socialist Party of Boston has been active, including the Greater Boston Stop the Wars Coalition, New England United, Boston May Day Committee, Mass-Care Coalition, and Rising Tide.
- Billie reported on the recent networking meeting organized by Rising Tide, the Boston Workers Alliance, City Life/Vida Urbana, and others.
- The group also discussed other local community groups, their goals and how we can work with them, including Food Not Bombs, the local Green Party, the Boston Workers Alliance, Vida Urbana and Rising Tide.
- Jason and Alexi emphasized the need to reach out to students and youth, to challenge negative stereotypes of socialism in popular culture.
- David discussed the difficulty socialists can have participating in grassroots campaigns "as socialists" (as opposed to simply individuals), as well as the Socialist Party's relatively unusual structure as a democratic member-run grassroots organization (as opposed to a "vanguard" party, or a staff-run organization with paper membership).
- Organizing for upcoming events and actions
- We discussed how to celebrate International Women's Day; the idea of a film festival, perhaps with a speaker mixed in, was popular.
- Jason recommended a film on Emma Goldman.
- David mentioned the Brattleboro Women's Film Festival, a ten-day festival of this sort, which has an extensive list of films, recent and classic.
- Jason will look into the possibility of holding this at his school.
- David will get in touch with the Socialist Party Women's Commission to see if they can recommend a speaker.
- Break Up With Bank of America
- Billie mentioned that Rising Tide is organizing an action against Bank of America on 14 February, Valentine's Day. It will focus on both BoA's support for mountaintop-removal coal mining, as well as their continuing foreclosures and evictions.
- We agreed to endorse the event, without opposition.
- Antiwar movement
- David shared his notes from the 17 January meeting of the regional antiwar coalition New England United. Among other things, NEU reconstituted its Palestine Working Group, and endorsed both the 21 March demonstration in DC and the 4 April demonstration in NYC.
- Liz reported that the Emergency Gaza Coalition would continue to meet on Tuesday evenings, though nobody present could make the upcoming meeting.
- The Socialist Party is part of coalitions which are supporting both spring mobilizations, in New York and DC. We voted to explicitly endorse both mobilizations ourselves, passed without opposition.
- Alexi and Jason asked for information about March 21 flyers and bus tickets, David will help them get in touch with local organizers.
- In anticipation of continued poor DMZ weather in February, we will try holding an antiwar forum/discussion at the Lucy Parsons Center on Friday, 20 February. David discussed two possible themes, one a socialist perspective on war, the other challenging the myth of the surge's success. We will need to submit a space request to the Lucy Parsons Center before their next collective meeting.
- State and regional SP meetings
- David reported on discussions with the Tom Mooney Local in western Mass. regarding timing and location.
- On that basis, we scheduled a Massachusetts State Socialist Party Meeting in Boston for Sunday, 15 February.
- David will contact the AFSC to reserve space for that afternoon, 1-4 pm. (Done.)
- We discussed how to celebrate International Women's Day; the idea of a film festival, perhaps with a speaker mixed in, was popular.
- Outreach/education
- Alexi and Liz encouraged events with broad draw and appeal, contrasting them with the more specifically socialist events David had in mind.
- The importance of outreach at schools and universities was re-emphasized.
- Barry, by email, encouraged the SP to make health care a priority and develop "new media" outreach over the internet.
- The venue search committee didn't have anything to report.
- Billie proposed holding one of the social get-togethers we last had in August. We scheduled it for Saturday evening, 7 February. David will look into venues, and solicit ideas over email.
- Hoodies have been tabled for the time being. Instead, we will lay some groundwork with t-shirts, which should be easier to set up. Once the design is finalized, we may be able to try it out on the new zazzle.com/spusastuff site as well.
- Local Executive Committee election
- Billie is the new chair of the SP Boston
- Matt and David will continue as treasurer and secretary, respectively.