June 2007 Local Meeting
From SP Boston
The Socialist Party of Boston met at noon on Sunday, 24 June 2007 in the Lucy Parsons Center. We adopted a Statement of Purpose, prepared for upcoming antiwar events as well as the anti-imperialist fourth of July picnic and subsequent state meeting, and kicked off the new national campaign for socialized health care. For more information, check out the minutes below.
[edit] Agenda
- Introductions and agenda approval
- Reports on recent events
- Opt-out rally.
- Antiwar rally at the Presidential Debates.
- National Committee meeting in Florida.
- "Stop the War, Start the Music" fundraiser.
- Finances
- Finances and bank account.
- Future events and actions
- US Social Forum (6/27 - 7/1) in Atlanta.
- ACLU March to Restore Law and Justice (6/26).
- New Socialist Summer campaign promoting socialized health care -- actions around release of Michael Moore's Sicko.
- Anti-imperialist Fourth of July picnic in Western Mass (7/4).
- Assembling Peace V (7/13).
- Antiwar strategy session (7/14) -- we need to produce an abstract of our antiwar strategy to participate.
- Iraq Moratorium beginning in September.
- The National Convention in the fall, 19-21 October in St. Louis, MO.
[edit] Minutes
- Introductions and agenda approval
- The meeting was attended by Chas H., Billie M., Chris P., David S. as well as Chris F. and Angela, who arrived late. Matt A. sent his regards from the Young People's Socialist League's National Convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
- Recent events
- David reported that Greater Boston Students for Peace exceeded their goal of delivering 1000 opt-out cards to city officials at their rally; they managed to get over 1,300 cards signed.
- David later received a report of the antiwar actions at the Democratic Presidential Primaries debate in New Hampshire, which described it only as
- The National Committee meeting in Florida, among other things, initiated a new national campaign for socialized health care, chaired by Matt A.
- David later learned that the "Start the Music, Stop the War" fundraiser did not go well for United for Justice with Peace; according to reports, the organization lost nearly $1000.
- Finances
- Matt has been able to get the bank account up, but the bank wants a Statement of Purpose signed by all officers before activating it. We considered four possible Statements of Purpose of different lengths and agreed to use the longest and most detailed, the condensation of the Statement of Principles currently on the national Web site. It (and our new and hopefully temporary letterhead) can be found here.
- Breakout session
- Chris P. suggested going around the room and sharing where we saw ourselves within the organization, "left", "right" or "center". After David spoke on the history and development of some recent (and in his view relatively insignificant) factional conflict within the SP that prompted Chris's question, the discussion focused more on how and why we got involved with the Socialist Party.
- Future events and actions
- A carpool was organized to the anti-imperialist fourth of July picnic in western Mass.
- Several made plans to meet up at the ACLU March to Restore Law and Justice on Tuesday, outside the ACLU office at Congress St. and High St.
- Chris inquired into Matt Geary's City Council candidacy. David reported that he had emailed Matt asking whether he was able to get on the ballot, but hadn't yet received any response. David later learned that Matt had gotten on the ballot.
- Chris proposed setting up a concrete schedule of state meetings roughly every six months, in between the regional meetings in the spring and fall.
- The new national campaign for socialized health care sparked a discussion of Michael Moore's new film Sicko; David was in the process of drafting a flyer connecting the film and the new campaign.
- David reported on a couple of upcoming events organized by the Stop the Wars Coalition, including a party/concert/fundraiser on 13 July and a strategy session on 14 July. Although several made plans to attend, no strategy summary was created for the strategy session.