My platform as a candidate for TCDSA PEC

I am running for the position of Political Education Coordinator of Twin Cities DSA. My main reason for running is to fulfill a vision that the unbelievably tiny group of “old” DSA members had when we first devised the leadership positions that would shape the — at that time unseen—future of Twin Cities DSA. Prior to the first annual meeting of September 2016, at which time we adopted the first ever Constitution and Bylaws of TCDSA, we had not had large, formal business meetings for a while. The main way that TCDSA held together in those days was through informal social meetings, which featured free form discussion of issues of the day, informal leadership and networking, and sometimes a guest speaker, along with eating and drinking. (Somehow we did manage to occasionally do some political actions — pickets, demos, tabling at political events. But nothing like what we accomplish now.) Business meetings with proper notice and reasonable rules and lots of real democracy happening are, of course, vital to the health of a political organization. But we believed, and I still believe, that it’s somewhat ossifying to not also have a robust culture that includes broad, inclusive, yet informal social-educational gatherings of a type appropriate to the size and scope of the organization. Realizing that no matter how many branches, working groups, and committees sprang up (and really we had no idea!) such things may not happen spontaneously, we designated the PEC as the officer on the Steering Committee tasked with seeing that these happen, chapter-wide, with all the notice and accessibility factors that business meetings entail, at least four times a year. It doesn’t appear that this has been happening.

Of course, the PEC is also responsible for formal education. I have a program for that as well. My model for that is not the Socialist Night School as another comrade running for this position, although those are a good idea. Rather I am taking as a model, though scaled back a bit, the Native American Survival Schools of the 1970s and 1980s in the upper midwest. This is mainly because I feel in my heart that some serious bleak times are coming fast. I believe that most of us, possibly not me, will live to see the actual disintegration of “western civilization as we know it.” Even if that doesn’t happen, the inevitability of far worse climate chaos than we now have, and the real threat of a return of fascism and toxic patriarchy, mean to me that we need to be prepared. This will be in addition to and not instead of such proven needs and favorites as Socialism 101, reading groups, and Intro to Roberts Rules, plus a couple of teach-in modules I devised for other groups in the past. One is about alternatives to RROO: a comparative history of democratic decision making methods and rules systems. Another is a module I developed for Transition Towns about identifying what are your own key moral and political values and how you can use these to inform your meal planning, zero-waste strategies, and other lifestyle choices. I also want to look into exploring antidotes to burnout such as mindfulness for activists and organizers, for which I would recruit teachers and healers. These are just some of the ideas I am offering as a candidate for Political Education Coordinator. Please vote for me on September 21. Thank you.