October 2007 Local Meeting
From SP Boston
The Socialist Party of Boston met at noon on Sunday, 28 October 2007 in the Lucy Parsons Center. Coming immediately after two days of antiwar demonstrations in Boston and one week after the Socialist Party National Convention in St. Louis, we reflected on all that had happened and made plans for new initiatives and projects. For more information, check out the full minutes below.
[edit] Agenda
- Introductions and agenda approval
- Discussion and analysis of major recent events
- Sickout/Walkout (26 October)
- New England antiwar demonstration (27 October)
- National Convention (19-21 October)
- Upcoming events and actions
- Initiatives coming out of the National Convention
- Presidential ticket and campaign
- Matt #1 election -- Harvest Coop (through 15 November)
- Matt #2 election -- City Council (6 November)
- Stand-out in West Roxbury, 3 November (Belgrade Ave. & Center St.), noon
- Howard Zinn talk at BU, "Beyond the War in Iraq" (6 November)
- Initiatives coming out of the National Convention
- Approving new memberships -- Gerald I., Thomas W., John K., Dan W.
- "Promotion"
- Distribution of The Socialist and Socialist Women
- Ads in progressive publications?
- Youtube videos?
- Flags, shirts and other swag (couple with national SP fundraising)?
- Web site -- move hosting to Chris's server?
- Electronic contributions?
[edit] Minutes
- Introductions and agenda approval
- The meeting was attended by Matt A., Paul C., Chris F., Nigel K., Billie M., Angela P. and David S.
- Discussion and analysis of major recent events
- Most of those present were at one or both of the antiwar protests of the previous two days, so the only discussion of this sort was on the recent National Convention. This focused more on telling stories than discussing convention decisions and debates.
- Of special note, however, is the National Convention's nomination of Brian Moore of Florida for President of the United States, and Stewart Alexander of California for Vice President. For more information, visit the Socialist Party's Campaign Clearinghouse or Brian's campaign Web site.
- Upcoming events and actions
- We will hold an informal get-together at noon on Saturday, 10 November at Java Jo's cafe in Jamaica Plain (3710 Washington St., near the Forest Hills station). This should be a relaxed and fun opportunity to meet up and chat, so stop by and bring a friend.
- Matt proposed setting up a fundraising party or concert.
- Potential locations suggested include Encuentro5 (probably cheap, bad space), The Middle East in Cambridge (probably pricey, good space), Spontaneous Celebrations in JP (probably pricey, good space), or the JP library (probably free, bad space). Matt will look into these locations.
- Potential dates suggested were around mid-January, possibly during Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend.
- Potential bands suggested include the Sheepeaters (Nigel's band, out of Attleboro) and perhaps Mista Mayday of Connecticut, if he is able to make the trip.
- Elections for Harvest Co-op Board of Directors run through 15 November. Matt is planning a couple more flyerings outside the Harvest stores on 14-15 November, with details to be determined.
- There was one last Matt Geary stand-out scheduled for noon on Saturday, 3 November in West Roxbury (Belgrade Ave. & Center St.). It was delayed to Sunday, 4 November, because of rain. Matt lost the City Council election, finishing seventh out of nine candidates with 2.4% of the vote.
- Howard Zinn spoke at BU on Tuesday, 6 November, giving a talk titled "Beyond the War in Iraq". David helped organize the talk, and several other SP members attended.
- Chris suggested hosting educational events such as speakers on history and current events and film screenings of documentaries. No specific events of this sort have been planned, but others were open to the idea.
- New memberships
- Nigel joined the SP at the meeting. Welcome!
- David called Gerald three times but wasn't able to reach him and didn't want to introduce himself on a message. He has also emailed Gerald and Thomas a couple of times without receiving a response.
- David and Chris arranged hosting spboston.org on the binaryfreedom.info server. All is up and running. Hooray!