September 2006 Local Meeting
From SP Boston
The Socialist Party of Greater Boston met at 2:00 PM on Saturday, 30 September 2006, at the Harvest Coop Community Room in Cambridge. This was our first meeting in over a year, and saw the reactivation of the local after its brief hiatus.
We discussed current events, then turned to reactivating the local and planning future projects and actions. Following the meeting we headed to a local McDonald's to hand out information on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' fight for fair wages and working conditions for farmworkers in Florida.
Contents |
[edit] Agenda
[edit] Public discussion
- Brief introductions (5 minutes)
- Discussion: Islam and the Left (50 minutes)
- What should be the attitude of the left towards radical Islam and Islamism? Should it be embraced for its opposition to Western imperialism or condemned for its reactionary attitudes toward women, homosexuals, science and personal freedoms? What is the proper balance between opposing racism and Islamophobia on the one hand and the conservative, reactionary, fundamentalist and oppressive elements of radical Islam on the other? How can we strike it, communicate it, and put it into practice?
- Relevant references and resources include:
- Fred Halliday, "The Left and the Jihad"
- Manifesto of the Third Camp against US Militarism and Islamic Terrorism
- International Commission Statement on the Middle East Crisis by Eric Chester, Convener, International Commission, SP-USA.
[edit] Short break
- Anybody who doesn't care to stay for the business meeting may leave without a fuss (5 minutes or less).
[edit] Business
- Reactivating the local (45 minutes)
- Elect officers -- Chair, Secretary and Treasurer
- Form a "No War but Class War Campaign Committee" for the new YPSL Campaign, and try getting other organizations involved (see below)
- Socialist is an official political designation in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, we currently have no contact person or number listed in the official records. We should choose a contact person and/or number and notify the state. The Chair of the local would probably be a good choice.
- Web page/wiki/official email address (is it worth it, and if so, what should policies and format should be adopted)
- Plan carpooling to Brattleboro, VT for our Nov 11th New England Regional Meeting
- Plan future local meetings
- Date, time, location
- Potential discussion topics
- A workshop on democratic socialism (and implicitly the Socialist Party USA, as the only democratic socialist party in Massachusetts). Potential resources include You Don't Have to be a Saint to be a Socialist, The Two Souls of Socialism, SP USA statement of principles.
- Networking with other groups, potential collaborators and allies (15 minutes), possibly including
[edit] McDonald's demo
- Head to a local McDonald's to hand out information on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' fight for fair wages and working conditions for farmworkers in Florida.
[edit] Report
With seven attendees, we haven't yet constructed a mass movement, but we still more than doubled the turnout at our previous meeting last year. If we can keep up that pattern in the future, we'll be a force to reckon with before long!
Though we only had five members attend who are (or will soon be) in good standing (specifically Matt A., Ben F., John, Chris P., and David S.), we chose a provisional executive committee to give the local some structure and get on good terms with the national organization. Currently Chris is serving as chair, Ben as treasurer, and David as secretary. We're also planning to build up to a January local meeting at which we'll elect new officers for the whole of 2007.
We arranged carpools to the 11 November regional meeting in Brattleboro, to leave around 9:00 AM from Alewife (Matt can clarify the exact location). We also decided to have David contact the Secretary of the Commonwealth to become the contact person for the Socialist political designation.
We discussed issues around which we could organize in the community, including opposing the T fare hike, fighting for a living wage, and trying to bring Boston rents under control. Unfortunately, we didn't have any concrete proposals for events or actions we could organize around, a problem we'll fix at the next meeting. We also discussed the SP's relations with other parties, such as the Green-Rainbow Party and Socialist Alternative, which is active in opposing the T fare hike.
We scheduled our next meeting for Sunday 29 October at 2:00 PM, to be more convenient for comrades who work Saturdays. In an effort to attract a broad and not specifically socialist crowd to the public discussion, we're going to consider the upcoming elections, specifically debating what, if anything, can be accomplished through elections, through voting for Democrats, or through third parties, and what, if anything, can be done to reform the election system. We'll also get a report from the October 21-22 National Committee meeting and plan for the Stop the War Profiteers March on 18 November, among other business.
We then held an Alliance for Fair Food solidarity action outside the McDonald's in Central Square Cambridge following the meeting. We submitted an AFF letter, signed by Chris, to the restaurant manager on duty, who was receptive and said she would call corporate headquarters about our desire for McDonald's to sign an agreement with the CIW. Four of us then stood outside and handed out half-sheet flyers. There was a good deal of foot traffic and we passed out many flyers and had a couple of positive conversations.
SP Boston members live in various locations inside and around the city, so we hope to adopt McDonald's franchises in our respective neighborhoods for future actions and continue to meet on a monthly basis for debriefing and strategizing. If a boycott should be called, we want to have an already established relationship with the management at particular restaurants and their customers.