After the General Meeting, @Bozzii @Englishpete08 @Adri_Martinez and I ended up talking for a while. Since this was a majority of the steering committee discussing WCU business, I am going to include a brief summary of what we talked about below. This is from memory so Pete/Basma/Adri, if you think I missed something important, please include it below.
Healthcare Town Hall
Adri suggested referring people to free clinics like EMAC at our Medicare for All Town Hall. We discussed the challenge of determining whom we should invite and what we’re offering them. If we’re asking for healthcare stories, those who attend might be people facing financial hardships or other healthcare issues. There are existing solutions available: payment reduction plans, letter templates to appeal insurance denials, free clinics, and income-based payment reductions.
This raised the question of our role as a socialist organization. Should we act as intermediaries between people and these nonprofits? These organizations already receive funding for outreach. Does it make sense for us to do additional outreach on their behalf? What kind of relationship would we establish with them? Alternatively, should our focus be on building class consciousness among those who are angry, ready to be active, and have the capacity to contribute to our current efforts?
Palestine for Labor
We briefly touched on the Palestine issue and the sense of hopelessness surrounding it. When engaging with unions, are we merely reaching the activist layer? Should we focus on discussing the actual interests and challenges union workers face, such as automation? We also discussed the guilt associated with watching from afar and feeling powerless to help Palestine.
Tenant Union Work
We discussed the importance of power mapping—not just of landlords but also local elected officials and power players. Creating a comprehensive database of city council members, school boards, water councils, and other agencies would be valuable. This database would include easily searchable records of meeting attendance and statements, along with FOIA requests on emails, centralized in one place.
We commented on how while this information is available for transparency, it’s not always accessible. Expanding our tenant research phase to include political donations might be worthwhile, instead of focusing solely on the largest landlords.
Summary
No decisions were made by the steering committee members.