March 2009 Local Meeting
From SP Boston
The Socialist Party of Boston met at 1 pm on Sunday, 29 March 2009 in the Lucy Parsons Center. In the midst of nation-wide mobilizations against the war and for economic justice, we heard reports from the March on the Pentagon and presidential elections in El Salvador, and began planning for May Day and other upcoming events. For more information, check out the full minutes below.
Minutes
- Introductions and agenda approval
- The meeting was attended by Matt A., Jason F., Ayala G., Marty L., Angela M., Barry M., Billie M. and David S.
- International Workers' Day (Friday, 1 May)
- This year there will not be a May Day demonstration on the Common. Instead, there will be marches from Chelsea and East Boston to a rally in Everett.
- We agreed to try to help organize a Red and Black (Anticapitalist) Contingent for the march.
- Hopefully we can produce some red and/or black flags and make them available to marchers.
- Matt will contact Chris F. and David will contact Chris P. to see if they have made any progress organizing this so far.
- Jason suggested that the Red and Black Contingent could march from the Common to East Boston through the financial district.
- Matt will contact the Boston May Day Committee to see if they would be interested in having their entire Boston contingent join in.
- If this doesn't work out, we will instead look into a march through the Financial District later in the year, perhaps a Friday in June.
- Wake Up the Earth Festival (Saturday, 2 May)
- Matt will turn in the vendor application and fee before the 9 April deadline.
- We should invest in some awning or clear plastic to cover our table in case of rain like last year.
- Antiwar movement
- Matt reported that the National Assembly wasn't very visible at the March on the Pentagon, which was small overall. The next National Assembly will be 10-11 July in Pittsburgh, PA.
- There will be two days of demonstrations on Wall Street, 3-4 April.
- We discussed how to use the events to promote socialist economic ideas and visions.
- David reported on bus information from Boston to New York.
- Matt will contact the NYC SP local about places for folks to stay overnight in NYC.
- The next Iraq Moratorium DMZ standout will be Friday, 20 March.
- Matt will look into obtaining or making stickers to promote the DMZ.
- Billie suggested arranging a backup location or rain date in case of bad weather. We'll try to do this on the fly, if necessary.
- Party Building
- Matt proposed creating a Socialist's Guide to Boston, differing from the city guide made for the Boston Social Forum a few years ago. This would focus on organizations, institutions, resources, campaigns and media outlets of particular interest to democratic and revolutionary socialists. We agreed to continue developing it as time permits.
- Fundraising
- We agreed to go ahead and order fifty "Capitalism Is Organized Crime" t-shirts.
- Matt reported on recent activities of the National Fundraising Committee, which is focused on raising the funds necessary to increase our National Secretary's paid hours.
- Matt will set up a PayPal account for the SP Boston bank account, and David will use it to set up an online merchandise page.
- Outreach/education
- We agreed to arrange a film screening of the new documentary Capitalism Hits the Fan, on or after 12 April. Venue search:
- Billie will contact the Lucy Parsons Center.
- Matt will contact the Video Underground in Jamaica Plain, and the Midway Cafe.
- Jason will contact the Squealing Pig and the Savant Project in Brigham Circle.
- Ayala proposed making some straightforward bullet-point handouts to let people know what we stand for without having to slog through a lot of text.
- Ayala suggested tabling more often, at more locations: schools, job fairs and jazz festivals were mentioned as possible locations in the ensuing discussion.
- Barry will be our representative on next week's socialized healthcare conference call, and will report back on it.
- We agreed to arrange a film screening of the new documentary Capitalism Hits the Fan, on or after 12 April. Venue search:
- International
- Matt gave a quick report on the FMLN victory in El Salvador's presidential elections, for which he was an election observer. He commented on the feeling in El Salvador that neoliberalism had failed, and that its crisis was leading to political change.
- There will be a full report back from delegates who were in El Salvador to observe the elections on 5 April at the Paulist Center (5 Park St.), at 7:15 pm.