[statecom-discuss] Somerville Social Justice Unity Meeting Rough Notes

[Ron Francis]

Dear all,
   
  Below is a brief preliminary report on a new effort that was initiated this past  Thursday at my house.

   
  Background:
At the last West Somerville Green-Rainbow meeting I indicated to the local chapter that I would be putting together an informal meeting at my house that would include people who work on various social justice issues in Somerville.   The intention was to explore the possibilities for joint action on the municipal electoral front as well as other non-electoral venues where a more united coherent effort of the social justice community might make some sense.

In phoning people for the meeting I was surprised at how receptive people were to the idea behind the meeting.   In total 12 people came to the meeting and 7 others indicated a desire to come to it but couldn't because of conflict - they indicated that a future Tuesday night meeting would be better for them.

The common bond of the people in the room was that each person has done and is doing grassroots organizing - on the ground in Somerville and quite a number were long-term activists.

Here are the minutes (names withheld for privacy reasons)

All were Somerville residents except person number 5 although person 5 is very active in Somerville and might as well be an honorary resident !

Person 1:
An anti-war activists at Tufts who was also involved with graduate student organizing and anti-recruitment at Somerville High School

Person 2:
Person had been involved with the living wage campaign, socialist alternative and also an anti-war activist

Person 3:
Person was active in West Somerville Green Rainbow and interested in a campaign to ban genetically modified foods and seeds

Person 4:
Person was active with West Somerville Green-Rainbow and follows local Somerville developments closely.

Person 5:
Person was active with human rights campaign in Somerville (Palestinians) and interested in a revolutionary movement that exposes the power structure in US

Person 6:
Person was interested in how this Unity Effort could be used to make changes in the Somerville Schools

Person 7:
Person  expressed an interest in tax equity, electoral reform, and schools as well.  Had experience running for statewide office in the recent past

Person 8:
Person worked in the local teachers union and had been involved in many local electoral efforts and concerned about healthcare for workers in the U.S, and MCAS, and human rights for Palestinians

Person 9:
Longtime Somerville resident.  Worked on Welfare Rights, Somerville Community news, and now working on issues regarding the buildup of the prison industrial complex including the building of a new prison Somerville, also human rights for Palestinians

Person 10:
Experience working on apartheid din 80s, active in West Somerville Green-Rainbow and also human rights in Somerville (Palestinians), teacher union negotiator.

Person 11: 
Person is active in human rights for Palestinans, anti-war organizing and has also gotten involved in some electoral campaigns but seemed regretful of working on progressive Democrat campaigns

Person 12: 
Partner of person 11 supportive of partner, social justice efforts in general and human rights for Palestinians

(Other 7 Somerville people invited and who wanted to come but couldn't included: a living wage antiwar activist, an environmental and energy usage activist, a person who coordinates a socials magazine, a person supporting human rights for Palestinians also a medical professional, a living wage activist, and a person just generally involved in social justice issues, a person working on human rights for Palestinians)

Now you might think that chaos resulted from this meeting but it did not !

The meeting started with a single question put up on the wall:  Social justice activism in Somerville: Can it benefit by participating in municipal elections ?

Each person introduced themselves.

The general discussion went on for about 2 hours and focused on possible electoral efforts including school committee and Aldermen races, some discussions about the existing candidates, discussion about an anti-war coalition that had would connect the issues, the need for a movement in which the candidate had winning as a secondary focus and exposing the system a primary focus, the tendency of electoral campaigns to focus on the person and winning rther than issues, the need to win if getting involved in electoral campaigns, the realities and cost of running a candidate at various levels, the possibilities of running for At-large Aldermen large, the desire to win the campaign with one person saying that he had only lost once in many electoral tries in Somerville, use of a ballot campaign instead to raise issues, how building a party could be done with such an effort, , need for a revolutionary movement, advantages of direct action in previous anti-MCAS effort in which
 teachers wold stop working, forming a group to pressure the existing Alderman candidates to address the issues, how these meetings were good for bonding on social justice activists, the possibility of general networking ... and that's all that I have down in my notes.

Several people talked about how they were mainly grassroots activists who did not get involved with electoral stuff that much.

I'm sure I missed some stuff and apologize in advance for omissions and errors.

It may seem like the conversation was incoherent !!,... but it actually wasn't and had a nice flow to it as different people engaged back and forth with vigor. Everyone was pleasant and made their points with passion and backing it up with reasoned argument and experience.

The meeting ended with an agreement that some folks would come up with specific proposals and see if there is enough interest to carry out a proposal (people would indicate which proposals they would be willing to pout energy in to)

A second meeting will be held on Tuesday the 27th at 6:30 again with place to be announced.

I left the meeting feeling that there was a common political bond for sure and maybe even a basis for continuing to meet.  We shall see.

The pizza was good. Thanks to all who came and special thanks to those who brought drinks.

Ron Francis