2025-01-02 General Meeting
Meeting Minutes
- Meeting Notes
- Recording
- [Transcript]
- Drive Folder
Attendance
Campaign Coordinator: @chima
Membership Coordinator: @HipGnosis
Education Coordinator: @Englishpete08
Treasurer: @Turcotte
Secretary: @Bozzii
Other Members: , @Tanner, @Adri_Martinez, @Raiken_202, @Robert_H, @SeanHun
Unfinished Business
Tenant Union Campaign Updates :
- Code enforcement follow up next Thursday in the afternoon
- Strategy for WhatsApp group recruitment
– Assign follow-up calls/texts, track in spreadsheet, be consistent
Next Steps:
Tenant union Workshop
- Vote on postponing it until March
– vote for date will occur during March meeting - Local Landlord Research Meetings :
– Monday Feb 10 6-7pm
– Saturday Feb 15 10-12pm - Review TU 101 outline
– Thread for tenant union 101 can be found here
CalVilla TU
- Review the Tenant Union 101 with a tenant rights expert
- Spanish speakers
- Virtual tenant union meeting
- Creating TU 101 Flier
– Monday Feb 17 6-7pm
– Putting our faces on the TU flyers
Whatever Happened to Medicare for All? :
- Thread for Medicare for all Townhall can be found here
- Confirm late February event date
- Start outreach
- Meeting to organize Townhall on ** Monday Feb 10 6-7pm**
Discussion
- @chima : rework it away from just asking for people’s stories and more towards political discussion—crisis of healthcare in capitalism and how politicians use it to win over voters. Add that were not offering medical or financial advice on poster. Push people towards collective action
- @HipGnosis : if people are interested in doing something we are not currently doing we should still stay connected with them
- @Tanner : is the incentive for someone to show up simply to share collective suffering?
– @chima : wanted to avoid this instead make it similar to post election discussion
– @Tanner : if its a political gathering people may have an expectation of some action occuring after. What is the end goal that we provide them? Feels a bit misleading pulling them in from healthcare and offering something else like the TU instead - @Turcotte : can do what we did during Palestine teach-in and give a little history of the past 20 years of medicare for all to share what we’ve found
– @Tanner : worry that people see flier, think its cool, and show up and not care about the history this issue - @HipGnosis : Failures of existing system points to what we should be doing which is building local networked healthcare institutions that are able to take care of people so we don’t have to rely on the existing structure. May not be working on it right this second but offer it as a step forward for people
- @Bozzii : Don’t think people will be receptive to listen to the history when they are actively going through the failures of it. Ask people to invite anyone within healthcare system to start building our networks
– @chima : small is beautiful doesn’t work with healthcare, can only be solved on federal level. Have to be honest with people that we don’t have a plan yet and people are going to promise them ways to solve it but its always a lie, must be honest about the hurdles so people understand going forward not to be enticed by politician’s words - @Turcotte : make it a continuation of Death of the Left. Originally got quite a bit of traction
– @Englishpete08 : likes idea of a series - @Bozzii : our biggest issue is our lack of resources when it comes to connection to others so we should use this as an opportunity to get into people’s networks and familiarize ourselves with the resources people have accessible
– @chima : should heed the warning of the Sac TU where they partnered with a non-profit to get people out and it limited the what they can do/say as an org. Good idea to invite those people but have to be very careful about not relying on them or let them set limits for what we can do - @HipGnosis : if we connect with unions and worker owned businesses we would be less reliant on any one person/org. and they would be in line with out existing beliefs of worker autonomy. Should build types of relationships is we want resources
- @sean : since we don’t have anything to offer we should be explicit that the event is educational
– @HipGnosis : its also exploratory - @Robert_H : are we trying to get union workers to come out and talk to us/tell us about it and get their experiences?
– @chima : getting a union members perspective on inside scoop. The nation nurses union are honest about it being a grift. - @Bozzii : who are we inviting, how to we plan to do outreach, how far are we going to invite people?
– @Turcotte : social media and try to target people who have been disillusioned by the left - @chima : put it on a 6-week cycle and in March we’ll vote on whether or not we’re happy about the plan and actually want to hold it, promote it for two weeks, and end up holding around the third week of March.
Vote
-
@chima proposed we add 5 more minutes to the discussion
– unanimous yea; Motion Passes (A) -
@chima proposed the 6-week plan for the Medicare for All Townhall
– unanimous yea; Motion Passes (B)
Labor for Palestine :
- We need to schedule a date to plan this out. With Trump’s new plan, this is probably more urgent for some people.
– include more of the items we’re working on since it is an org introduction to these unions - PRO Act: Teamsters SOC - why did they support josh/dems this time
- Research the unions and learn about topics they care about
Discussion
- @Tanner : try to target union with high Palestinian workforce. Can post it on social media but where exactly do you post it, possibly union facebook pages
– @Bozzii : a lot tend to work in medical field
– @chima : we have contact of several hundred people and many of them are in the medical field - @Turcotte : last time we talked to unions none of them wanted to talk about Palestine
- @HipGnosis : invite left-leaning unions members instead of the unions itself
- @Bozzii : going in and telling them about massacres may turn them off and many people believe its over because of the ceasefire. Instead starting off the conversation with something that matters to their union and from there expanding the scope towards Palestine
- @chima : outreach to unions and their leadership don’t lead conversation with Palestine and with member talk about Palestine
– @Tanner : union leadership dissuaded from talking about national issues because they have to represent a huge body of people and may cause problems. We want people that will help us with our goals so organizing people that are members of unions who are sympathetic to Palestinian cause could push it forward. - @chima : have a meeting about it on Feb 20 6-7pm
- @HipGnosis : maybe modify the name
Vote
- @chima proposed that we table the vote to March and during this month we research on the unions we want to talk to, find ways to contact union members, have have a concrete plan for how we want to expand the scope
– unanimous yea; Motion Passes (C)
WCU Article: Local Working-Class History :
- Finalized-ish outline can be found here
Article Outline
- Schedule days to do the actual writing. Remember that draft has to be posted 1 week before March general
- Meeting to work on article Thursday Feb 27 6-7pm
– Important Note: This is also the deadline for the article and everyone will have a week to look at it before we do a final group reading during next month’s general meeting
Discussion
- @Englishpete08 : To answer question of if Canary leadership betrayed members, it’s complicated but the short answer is yes. Regardless of whether it was a win or not important for people to know that Stockton does have this labor history and connecting it to other labor/worker strikes. Better than the inaction/defeatist attitude people have about the city
- @Turcotte : band in the hardcore scene that has a song about it so we can engage that scene as well
– @Robert_H : have to get a few quotes from his so he can pass it along to his friends - @Bozzii : have a question at the bottom of the article asking people what topics their interested not only for future articles but events and ed stuff as well
- @HipGnosis : how will it be disseminated?
– @chima : website and we can also ask people if they would like to be writers - @HipGnosis : does the website have separate section for articles?
– @Turcotte : we will make one - @chima : references at the bottom will also offer other labor efforts here if readers are interested in
– @HipGnosis : criminal syndicalism laws
– @Turcotte : deputized civilians to carry pick axes - @Bozzii : since we have a word limit for articles we should pare it with a teach-in
– @chima : already voted and approved it
Vote
- @chima proposed the updated outline of the Voices of the Working Class Article
– 8 yes and 1 abstention; Motion Passes (D)
DSANCV: Organizing Fair v. Kids Skill Share :
Organizing Fair
- We have to pick a day and we have to answer survey questions
- What panels or talks do we want have?
- Who are we inviting?
Kids Skill Share
- idea is for it to be like Boys Without Fathers weekly skill share
– over summer
– partnered with that there would be a trip to Yosemite with the kids and their parent/guardians - reach out to unions for anyone interested in teaching high school students
- can hold it at Hatch
- needs months planning which is why we must start now
Discussion
Organizing Fair
- @Turcotte : Death of the Left Saga for the panel
- @Tanner : good for networking and members of DSA who don’t agree with what their org is doing may be enticed. As long as its on a weekend or a holiday like Labor Day it would be great for the event
- @HipGnosis : good way to reach out to people outside of Stockton even if its simply for asking how to organize an event
- @Bozzii : if we ever want to organize and host an event on our own its good to have experience and network with others. Even if we don’t get much recruitment since its not in Stockton we can exchange strategies/tactics and and help them out/they help us out (exchange resources)
- @chima : how many resources do we want to allocate? They we’re saying 50/50. Concerned about how much time we want to devote to this. Partake and be there v. us helping to organize this
- @HipGnosis : can we elect a delegate to work with them?
– @chima : actually organizing this will require actual focus campaign work - @Tanner : depends on what they plan on doing
– @chima : its contacting vendors, finding locations, flyering, outreach, etc.
– @Tanner : maybe find out how much money they expect of us and man power they need
Note: @chima explains the proposal for the Skill Share shown above between these two points
- @Tanner : fair seems more attainable and good for recruitment for an org of out size. Doesn’t think we won’t be able to do both, but leaning more towards fair
- @HipGnosis : risk of children’s skill share is higher and we have no experience. Can get skills to organize it with the fair and later do the kids skill share
- @Turcotte : just try it one time over the summer as a tester to see how it works. We can get a space at Hatch but need to demonstrate that we can do something to get a consistent space
- @HipGnosis : we can tie this in to our plans to hold coalition meeting and this could be our first event
- @chima : that not the point of it, their holding it in their own spaces, it was about during stuff here and not the fair. Supposed to be only for people here and the point is to know what people are doing in the area-intervene or work with them.
- @Bozzii : we can invite whoever we want so we can use it as a point of communication for organizations we have been wanting to contact for the coalition
- @chima : sick of recruiting leftists
– @HipGnosis : can invite non-leftists
– @chima : its a leftist centered thing and the point of the social fabric thing is non-political stuff. Pushes for kids skill share - @Turcotte : gives us legitimacy as an org. and death of the left thing can just be we need to try something new
- @Bozzii : if we just participate then we’ll be forced to go along with everything the DSA wants
- @chima : what are we going to be doing so differently
– @HipGnosis : they seemed open to modifying the fair away from just dem. organizations to skill share fair. If we join we’d have a significant impact - @chima : who are we inviting and what is the solid idea? We need to justify this other than we held a fair
– @HipGnosis : couldn’t the goal of the focus campaign should be restoring social fabric through finding other that believe the same and do more community building stuff - @Adri_Martinez : if the event is in Stanislaus it won’t help if they don’t live in our community. Kids aren’t first step to do a skill share, we have no trust with the parents for the trip. Seconds @Turcotte idea, we can’t be inconsistent for our first time
- @Tanner : doesn’t see problem knowing people w/in driving distance that align with us-may come a point where it would be valuable
– @chima : weary and whats the point of organizing fair if we can just talk to them over zoom - @HipGnosis : We are skipping steps by not building relationships first. Organizing with people is how you build a coalition and we have yet to do that
- @chima : wants to get to know them but there’s other avenues and that shouldn’t be goal of organizing the fair
– @HipGnosis : how else would we get to know them?
– @chima : we don’t even reach out to them - @Turcotte : all depends on how fair ends up because if it has draw to a wider SJ perspective.
– @HipGnosis : can we convince them to hold it here? - @Raiken_202 : has exp. in organizing fairs and main bottom line is what is the main goal/purpose? Most important goal is to get people to know who we are and what we’re doing there. There’s a lot you learn from organizing one. Kids are another level of liability
- @Bozzii : we can start off by just participating to feel it out and then helping to organize or the other way around
– @Adri_Martinez : not fair to do that and unprofessional - @hipnosis : sounded like they wanted to copy the Anarchist book fair
- nearly everyone said cinco de mayo is too soon so labor day is better option
– @Adri_Martinez will not be able to be there if it is in September - @chima : everything we’ve talked about like the panel can be done at the fair. Could turn out to be a good thing just not sure what other orgs. direction of the event will be
Vote
-
@chima proposed we add 5 more minutes to the discussion
– never actually voted on this but added 5 minutes to discussion -
@chima proposed that we table the final decision on whether or not we help organize to the following month’s meeting
– unanimous yes; Motion Passes (E)
– Note: we all agree that we will at least have a table at the fair -
@chima proposed that we contact people up North like the Anarchist book club to grasp what it means to organize this and more research for a more informed final vote next month. We will be telling DSANCV that this is what we will be doing; tentative yes.
– unanimous yes; Motion Passes (F)
Coalition Meetings :
Didn’t get to talk about this during meeting
Immigration Sidequest :
- Reach out to teachers to see if they’ve had experience with ICE in their schools or students not showing u
- Go after Harder and the Democrats
- Criticizing existing institution
Didn’t get to talk about this during meeting
Upcoming events:
- Unions for Palestine Planning February 10 @ 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Working Meeting February 10 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
- TU Research February 15 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
- TU 101 Flier Making February 17 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
- WCU Article Workshop February 27 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Voting Record
Notes:
- (*) means they did not vote; were at the meeting but did not yea, no, or abstain during the vote
| (A)Additional Time | (B)Townhall Plan | (C)Table Vote- Unions for Palestine | (D)WCU Article Outline | (E)Table Vote- DSANCV Fair | (F)Research for DSANCV Fair | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| @chima | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @HipGnosis | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @bozzii | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @Englishpete08 | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @Adri_Martinez | * | * | * | * | yea | yea |
| @Tanner | yea | yea | yea | abstain | yea | yea |
| @SeanHun | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @Raiken_202 | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @Robert_H | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea |
| @Turcotte | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea | yea |
Quorum for Meeting
[(10+9+9+9+9+10+10)/6]/2
= 5