Location:
AFSCRecorder:
Duncan McFarlandFacilitator:
Duncan McFarlandAttendance:
40 or so peopleMinutes:
Thanks to everyone who came to the political brainstorming meeting last Wednesday -- there was such a response that we had to split into two groups! It felt good to bring people together. Participation was excellent with everyone respectful of time so all could be heard. The unedited notes are below; the next important step is to put our thoughts into practice. -- Duncan
Next coalitionwide meeting for UJP: Feb. 13 - Saturday - 1:00-5:00 pm at the Democracy Center in Harvard Square
o Maryam will speak with the perspective of an Afghani woman on the Af/Pak War
o Boston City Councillor Chuck Turner will speak about connecting to the war at home
o Presentation of the campaign to cut the military budget/fund our communities
o Reports from committees and working groups
Notes from UJP activist discussion Jan. 13, 2010 at AFSC. There were two groups that met separately.
agenda
o introductions
o what are the new times for the peace movement?
- severe recession
- Obama administration
- Afghanistan/Pakistan "the good war"
o recommendations
themes from the two discussions most frequently repeated
- need to connect with economic issues and concerns, cutting military budget
- need to connect with new people and constituencies (environment, youth)
- need for a strategy to build organization and effective campaigns, media presence
- "traditional" concerns such as Afghanistan/Pakistan; Gaza/Palestine/Israel; nuclear weapons; drones
notes: GROUP ONE
context: 1
-Foreclosures - get on it, movement!
-Rahm Emanuel has to go/force change
-Education re damage war causes
-US in decline -- daily lives -- what do you think
-Afghanistan/Pakistan: do basic education -- $30 billion supplemental
-Integrate movements
-Unify - children=umbrella=peace
-War spreading + changing/ drones / civilians
-Movement fragmented, lost in elections
-New broader, include-everybody formations
-Don't forget Gaza and Palestine
-Use our explanation why US is...
-New: drones, mercenaries, distance war, loss of democracy
Context 2
-Connect the dots - traction - change
-How rebuild organization? three goals: 1) realistic strategy that mobilizes 50%, 2) unified x the country 3) vast resources to build local committees
-Labor focused inward; 25,000 enviro actions; US Social Forum 20-30,000 in Detroit (connect)
-Think locally - regionally - nationally - globally
-Drones campaign
-2011 mass mobilization
-Enemy = military-industrial complex; handle??
-Anti-corporate thread in our culture: connect
-Gaza/Palestine/Israel is the root - boycott, divestment, sanctions
-+condescension to Muslim culture
-compare US & China (they spend on economy, less on war)
Context 3
-$1 million/soldier - cost of war - cuts here
-stress, economic crisis, bonuses
-Turnout tonight - moment for coalitions: peace, environment, 25%, stress the positive
-Bring home the cost of war - organize nationwide
-Peace movement, needs to be part of something
-Economic issues in front for a while to reach people
-Connect dots, name what we're for
-Cut military budget is basic - nukes - don't let Obama pull back - worldwide movement
-We have to agree on...
-Must relate to 10s of millions
-More energy on organization
Echoes
-Drones
-Gaza/Palestine?Israel
-Strategy that'll build a movement
-Cost of war/Recession/stress
-Connect dots and movements
-connect with tens of millions - economy
-Nuclear weapons
Recommendations
-Mass actions crucial (connect issues, pressure + expose government) - get from small to large - MARCH 20
-Fight Afghanistan $$ supplement
-Action on campuses/seed/take off
-Call to women/leaders, 3y plan, awareness - demonstrations - nonviolence
-25% campaign: expand & transform peace movement by economic/war campaign
-Mortgages & material solidarity (runners) - walk for peace
-Send message to Dem Party: we'll let you lose. Direct action on senators & reps.
Recommendations: 2
-Prioritize helping local committees do outreach. Canvases, tabling, build organization & action
-Sustainerships - raise $$
-Cancel accounts w/ big banks
-Basic campaign on drones (moral witness)
-Cut one weapons system - bring $ home - target Kerry
- Connect Palestine - wars on terror
-Nonproliferati0on Treaty (NY action, change world policy)
-Mercenaries
-Torture
Groupings
(some campaigns exist already; campaigns we support/campaigns we move)
-Drones, mercenaries, torture
-Mass actions group many issues
-Anti-electoral/legislative
-Communications/education/connection
-25% connects issues too
-/ connects with/ targeting supplemental, cuttings weapons system, building local committees, targeting Kerry
-Organizing proposals
-Positive, reach-beyond-the-choir proposals
what do you think
-Mix of tactics/approaches can connect dots
-"Why are they for war and not for us?"
-Spend $ on climate change, not war!
-Healthcare deaths/where $ goes
-More effort on media
-Facebook and Twitter
-UJP speakers list
-Brief bios
GROUP TWO
Part 1
-Country having identity crisis. Right wing growing strength. Americans scared and in denial.
-Americans hurting economically, especially. And hard to think about bigger things, beyond personal struggle.
-Electoral finance reform important; campaign contributions
-Feels betrayed – It’s not new times, same old s…What the hell can we do. We need to stop being reactive, how do we function in a meaningful way.
-Lots of reason to see this as normal. Obama not worse or better.
-Global warming; 25% Solution; Military major polluter. Young people needed. Link global warming ….
‘I do this because we just have to keep on trying’
-There is a lot going on, but..We need to be more connected, connected to immigrant movement, students, etc. So we don’ feel a sense of power.
We don’t see each other.
-Opportunity with disillusionment with Obama. For people to see how deep this is, to understand what is really going on. War making embedded in this society, and this ties in with American way of life.
-Citizens, us are the problem. If you need a job, you go to the military. Why are we wasting our minds on destruction. Wants parents to reclaim their children from the schools.
-Identify our strengths, and play on those.
-The Obama campaign unleashed people’s positive side. It has been a huge disappointment. In watching the debates, find self in a bind, furious at him, and at the same time, it is critical that he not lose. Because the alternative, coming after him, is truly dangerous. Feels stuck…
We have not found a way to mobilize what he mobilized. It’s our problem. People are looking for something hopeful, that’s were we come in.
We need to break out into the mainstream, we need to get beyond ourselves… How to reach people in a new way, which helps them release the other side of themselves.
-Worried about Brown/Coakley.
-A grandmother, depressed. Dorchester Coalition campaign. Fabulous organizations on board.. But the organizations are a lot stuck in fundraising to survive. … We do not have enough
-Inspired by Fort Hood café, and by Evo Morales talk at Copenhagen re capitalism
-DPP a small organization. We got discouraged at some point– so went out and made friends with people throughout the community, tried to find out what they wanted. There is no ‘they’. If people go and connect, go to organizations and say we want to work with you you find out they need the same things we believe in. We are just talking to each other. The 25% strategy a great strategy but it means you gotta stop talking to each other. You got to connect, don’t slip into elitism. Maybe we should have Twitter accounts. This is where contacts are being made!
-People scared. As soon as you say to USers, the bad people are going to get you, they get lost
-People on Harvard campus very organized around climate change
-Need to make the connections
-I am here because I want to be part of an effective campaign. Have a young daughter. Organizing young families in Watertown to have them make the connections between their situation and war etc issues.
SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS
- Media – have got to break up the corporate business which have become our media ----
a)and boycott media
b)When we order our TV channels, be allowed to just get certain channels, only what we pay for. We could begin to have control over what is on television screens.
-Find a way to help support military resistance; contact Fort Hood cafe
-Do something about the contractors over there.
-Find a troubador to sing our song. Some celebrity. Something big that people react to emotionally. Need something new.
-25% campaign
-Respond to significant Blogs
-Have a workshop where new technologies can be learned by activists
- 25% Join up with other groups For one thing, we simply don’t nearly have the numbers we need to build the force we need. We need to be a major force to take on the military-industrial-Congressional complex.. The 25% campaign pushes us here, because we have to connect with those organizations in our towns, whose budgets are being cut. So joining in a real campaign which can bring these groups together – is important - those hurt by the recession, young people with no jobs or concerned about the future of the planet, people of color, environmentalists, all those worried about state and community budgets.
Barney Frank has promised to lead in the House of Representatives, to challenge US foreign policy, and to take on individual weapons systems.
-Run candidates in every Congressional district in MA. Just need 2000 signatures – with simple platform
-Major demonstration in spring against Obama war policies. (Get a known personality)
-What is our strategic message. We need one
-Follow the money
-Use our local newspapers more. Can get a lot in there. Watertown examples.
-Foreign military bases. Raising awareness of US empire.
-Go after ‘low-lying fruit’, small successes re fighting military budget
-We cannot be tone deaf. Our tone does not unite us with others.
Look at people as our allies (not someone to argue with)`
-See Invictus and see how Mandela handled things
-Chalmers Johnson – Bill Moyers recommending we read his books
-Country having identity crisis. Right wing growing strength. Americans scared and in denial.
-Americans hurting economically, especially. And hard to think about bigger things, beyond personal struggle.
-Electoral finance reform important; campaign contributions
-Feels betrayed – It’s not new times, same old s…What the hell can we do. We need to stop being reactive, how do we function in a meaningful way.
-Lots of reason to see this as normal. Obama not worse or better.
-Global warming; 25% Solution; Military major polluter. Young people needed. Link global warming ….
‘I do this because we just have to keep on trying’
-There is a lot going on, but..We need to be more connected, connected to immigrant movement, students, etc. So we don’ feel a sense of power.
We don’t see each other.
-Opportunity with disillusionment with Obama. For people to see how deep this is, to understand what is really going on. War making embedded in this society, and this ties in with American way of life.
-Citizens, us are the problem. If you need a job, you go to the military. Why are we wasting our minds on destruction. Wants parents to reclaim their children from the schools.
-Identify our strengths, and play on those.
-The Obama campaign unleashed people’s positive side. It has been a huge disappointment. In watching the debates, find self in a bind, furious at him, and at the same time, it is critical that he not lose. Because the alternative, coming after him, is truly dangerous. Feels stuck…
We have not found a way to mobilize what he mobilized. It’s our problem. People are looking for something hopeful, that’s were we come in.
We need to break out into the mainstream, we need to get beyond ourselves… How to reach people in a new way, which helps them release the other side of themselves.
-Worried about Brown/Coakley.
-A grandmother, depressed. Dorchester Coalition campaign. Fabulous organizations on board.. But the organizations are a lot stuck in fundraising to survive. … We do not have enough
-Inspired by Fort Hood café, and by Evo Morales talk at Copenhagen re capitalism
-DPP a small organization. We got discouraged at some point– so went out and made friends with people throughout the community, tried to find out what they wanted. There is no ‘they’. If people go and connect, go to organizations and say we want to work with you you find out they need the same things we believe in. We are just talking to each other. The 25% strategy a great strategy but it means you gotta stop talking to each other. You got to connect, don’t slip into elitism. Maybe we should have Twitter accounts. This is where contacts are being made!
-People scared. As soon as you say to USers, the bad people are going to get you, they get lost
-People on Harvard campus very organized around climate change
-Need to make the connections
-I am here because I want to be part of an effective campaign. Have a young daughter. Organizing young families in Watertown to have them make the connections between their situation and war etc issues.
SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS
- Media – have got to break up the corporate business which have become our media ----
a)and boycott media
b)When we order our TV channels, be allowed to just get certain channels, only what we pay for. We could begin to have control over what is on television screens.
-Find a way to help support military resistance; contact Fort Hood cafe
-Do something about the contractors over there.
-Find a troubador to sing our song. Some celebrity. Something big that people react to emotionally. Need something new.
-25% campaign
-Respond to significant Blogs
-Have a workshop where new technologies can be learned by activists
- 25% Join up with other groups For one thing, we simply don’t nearly have the numbers we need to build the force we need. We need to be a major force to take on the military-industrial-Congressional complex.. The 25% campaign pushes us here, because we have to connect with those organizations in our towns, whose budgets are being cut. So joining in a real campaign which can bring these groups together – is important - those hurt by the recession, young people with no jobs or concerned about the future of the planet, people of color, environmentalists, all those worried about state and community budgets.
Barney Frank has promised to lead in the House of Representatives, to challenge US foreign policy, and to take on individual weapons systems.
-Run candidates in every Congressional district in MA. Just need 2000 signatures – with simple platform
-Major demonstration in spring against Obama war policies. (Get a known personality)
-What is our strategic message. We need one
-Follow the money
-Use our local newspapers more. Can get a lot in there. Watertown examples.
-Foreign military bases. Raising awareness of US empire.
-Go after ‘low-lying fruit’, small successes re fighting military budget
-We cannot be tone deaf. Our tone does not unite us with others.
Look at people as our allies (not someone to argue with)`
-See Invictus and see how Mandela handled things
-Chalmers Johnson – Bill Moyers recommending we read his books
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