[statecom-discuss] "Local Ballots 2008" update, phone conference, meeting Thursday

[Ron Francis]

Hey GRP people,

Here is an update on Local Ballots 2008 planning.   

Sunday February 17th - Friday the 23rd:
Another 2 or three people have indicated interest in the Local Ballots 2008 Plan with email comments.   

Last week the Local Organizing Initiative began and the Initiative folks report that people from 4 communities are interested in developing new or re-invigorated local GRP entities using the Nuts and Bolts Model and another 8 communities are expected soon; the folks in these communities, over the next few months, should slowly be encouraged to consider joining the Local Ballots 2008 effort (I would not want to interfere much with the Local Orgaizing Intiative's efforts to get local entities off of the ground... and so would encourage waiting before making contact with people in those local commuities; let's allow these local efforts to flourish without much outside interference)

At the request of an individual, I have provided more explanation of the genesis of the Local Ballots 2008 Plan which comes from experience on the ground organizing in Somerville where I live.  That is at the end of this email appended to the plan.

Sunday February 25th:
A one hour phone conference from 9:30 to 10:30 this Sunday the 25th for those interested in the 2-year plan.  Call 712 580-0100  code 968150 to participate.  Technical problems prevented last sunday's phone conference unfortunately but this new phone number works fine.

Thursday March 1st:
A meeting is scheduled at my house on Thursday March 1st.  6:30 food and then from 7 to 8:45 discussion.  All are welcome to come. (see directions below).

At this point some 6 to 10 people have responded in various ways and some will come to the meeting on March 1st in Somerville.  We'll see what happens.  So far I'm optimistic and believe that when outreach begins, and people understand the rationale behind the plan, the Local Ballots 2008 plan will attract many GRP people including some not as involved with the GRP right now.

Look forward to the phone conference and the meeting.

Ron Francis 617 230-2835

 Justification for Local Ballots 2008 Plan based on Somerville organizing experience:
     
 Some people are interested in how I came up with Local Ballots 2008 - a two year plan to do State Rep Ballot Questions in every district using root cause politics.
     
 It all has to do with a little experiment in Somerville:
     
 In Somerville in 2006 I helped a group do two ballot questions:  one of our ballot questions read something like " .... support the right of return for all refugees, including Palestinian refugees, to return to their homes".  Now how could you be against that !  
     
 Yet Deval, "Bomb Lebanon" Patrick and the other racists (Capuano, Healey and Somerville Mayor Curtatone) came out visibly against us ! with their photos all together.  We obviously struck a cord !   The state GRP and national GPUS supported the ballot questions of course.  We got 45 % overall and 50% in my home precinct.   Now if that 's not a set-up for the GRP then I don't know what is !!
     
 It is a perfect set-up because the ballot question, by the nature of its wording, showed the difference between GRP social justice politics and racist politics. 
  
 (Also note that The Dems and Republican racists fell into the trap we laid for them and did us a big additional favor by all coming together on one large campaign poster-board used by the zionists to campaign against us at each polling station.  Thus helping making it very clear the difference between GRP politics and racist Democratic and Republican politics.  It was a dream come true as far as a strategist is concerned ! )
     
 Among other things the 45 % percent shows concretely that the Dems and Republicans are out of step with ordinary folks sense of human rights.  The zionists (racists) are still recovering, although they won't show it and neither would I.
     
 (Also note that a Plymouth county GRP respondent noted that the ballot questions are mainly for concepts and shouldn't be too specific.  That's perfect !  It is exactly a concept that we are trying to get across by using the ballot question mechanism to have people appreciate why GRP is the way to go.)
     
 OK, so that was Somerville.
     
 Lesson learned was clear:  Craft a ballot question that clarifies the difference between Dems, Repubs and us.
     
 The next step in my thinking followed straightforwardly:  Let's just do the same thing in all State Rep districts and really draw out the distinction.   If we are lucky, and all goes as planned, then we can run candidates in 2010 based on the distinction and get big percentages.   With the Somerville work the distinction was between human rights and racism.  With the Local Ballots 2008 initiative the distinction needs to be between GRP social justice values and Dem, Repub corporate values - that's what ordinary people need: a clear difference. 
     
 The issue that we use doesn't have to be Palestine but it needs to be something that hopefully Deval and other prominent Democrats, local Progressive Democrats (who opposed us in Somerville by the way), and Republicans will all come out against !   Let's pray that they'll do us that favor.
     
 And that means that the issue has to strike right at the root and it has to be done in 3 or 4 sentences and it would be better if there was some passion behind the issue (like refugee rights).  We want a voter to say "hmmm... that makes a lot of sense..." when she/he reads the ballot question and begin to wonder why the Dems, Prog Dems, and Repubs are all against it.  (if you were against our refugee ballot question then you had to, logically, be a racist !)
     
 And thus the idea of Local Ballots 2008 was born.
     
 The main problem with Local Ballots 2008, going forward, is that we have to find the appropriate issue and the appropriate wording.  When I realized that we needed careful thinking and careful wording, I knew that there was no time to waste because it will take a lot of education and 1.7 years is not a lot of time - although I would settle for 10 or 12 districts rather than all 160 state rep districts.
     
 Realizing that time was of the essence, I drafted Local Ballots 2008 and sent it out to as many GRP lists as I could find to set up some discussions and see if people want to do it.  I'll only go forward if a critical mass wants to do it.
     
 The other parts of my thinking are this:
     
 a) We need to do more local organizing.  Too high of a percentage of GRP work is spent at the State level. If you add up the person-hours at one Statecom meeting you get about three new chapters that could have been formed.   We need a plan that strongly encourages local organizing and encourages us to meet ordinary people more often than meet with ourselves.
     
 b) Local State Rep ballot questions are easy to do (only 200 signatures !) and encourage local organizing.
     
 c) We aren't ready for a Statewide ballot question and it may not fit with the "concept" idea mentioned by the woman from Plymouth.  It also would not encourage local base-building.
     
 d) We need to rely on direct democratic means: that is use ballot questions rather than trying to lobby Dems and Republicans: the "mainstream" parties have shown their colors... I'm not going to try to get their elected officials to vote for social justice (takes too long and they'll waffle forever anyhow) - I would rather strategize to boot them out of office.  I think that single issue pressure groups are better at forcing concessions out of elected officials than the GRP would be, anyway.
     
 So that's most of the thinking.
     
 I hope it is clear, but if not I'm happy to answer questions (at conference call or individually if you prefer)
     
 Ron 617 230-2835