Comrades,
It was so lovely to see some of your shining faces at this past General Meeting, and shout out to those that stuck it out on discord through the technical difficulties!
Here’s a recap from the General Meeting held on 8/2:
Earlier that day, some comrades were able to get their boots to the ground in solidarity with the BLM rally organized by Tormel Pittman. Eric Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, made an appearance.
Mike Romosh was so kind as to provide our group with CJS flags. Thank you, Mike! According to one comrade, another demonstrator recognized us as a group and gave us a shout out!
Some takeaways from this demo experience:- we need to present ourselves within a march with more organized formation- rallies are an excellent place for outreach! Let’s do our best to see who’s interested in joining us when we have boots on the ground.
The Mutual Aid Committee held their meeting on Tuesday, 7/27. The Riverwalk clean up & gardening project was to begin, but unfortunately we were met with a construction crew and their equipment at the Riverwalk entrance and the start of this project has been delayed. As of 8/2, this project has not begun.
Mutual Aid has pitched some new projects for CJS to consider!
– Take a book, leave a book boxes
– Group Library
– Physical library and mass resource document
Food Pantry Donations and Inventory Update:
More Ramen!
Razors, shaving cream packets, individually packaged toothbrushes, toothpaste packets, hotel toiletry stuff.
Pears Bar Soap – great for sensitive skin
Irish Spring Bar Soap
A coffee maker and kettle were added to household goods
Menstrual products
Check out the inventory sheet (below) for more details.
Next Mutual Aid meeting: Tuesday, 8/11 via discord. Time TBD at tomorrow’s general meeting.
The Theory and Education Committee conducted their first meeting on 7/29 via the Discord server’s Meeting Room section. They have proposed a few projects for members of CJS to consider:
– read The Communist Manifesto. Please have read the whole thing by the 8/10
– Putting together a pamphlet, flyers, literature, etc to hand out at demos and new members
– writing up a “know your rights” document
– finalizing our 8 point program
– Creating CJS audio recordings of reading material
Next Theory & Ed Meeting is on Monday, 8/10 at 8 PM via the Discord meeting room. The notes from the last meeting are available in the Theory & Ed server for anyone that would like to catch up. Please have read The Communist Manifesto before this meeting!
David has pitched an idea for a BBQ to occur on/after the General Meeting in which we review our Constitution and sign it. This meeting will take place on Sunday, 8/30. Ideas for the BBQ, including meeting time and location, potluck/no potluck, etc, will be discussed as the date gets closer.
Also, a member of Bergen County Socialists reached out to us via Instagram. How exciting!As per usual, some proposals to be added to the constitution were voted on during the last meeting. See results below:
———————————————————-
CONSTITUTION PROPOSALS 8/2
No endorsements, no political campaigning
In favor: 16 unanimous
PROPOSED CHANGE TO 8 POINTS PROGRAM
Use LGBTQIA+ inclusive acronym
In favor: 16 unanimous
DEMO MARSHALL PROPOSAL
Role fulfilled by a volunteer on an action-by-action basis
In favor: 16 unanimous
Marshall on an individual basis
In favor: 0
To be determined during closest prior general meeting
In favor: 16 unanimous
DEMO DRESS CODE
Something red – shirt, handkerchief, etc
In favor: 16 unanimous————————————————————-
As we are making progress this summer with composing our constitution, please propose anything you’d like to see in the finalized document during the next general meetings. We’ve made some decent progress so far. See link below for the working document (right now it’s just a compilation of passed proposals from meeting notes, to be formatted). We can always amend this document after it’s passed.
Links:
Constitution Rough Draft
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LogyUgswlHoNgYPI9wBHIVWdkTVf9tWpmtIusnLuZiI/edit?usp=drivesdk
8 Point Program
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11L190zNE8i5OBngP3TiGDBVRU8k-wpP7/view?usp=drivesdk
Food Pantry Anonymous Request Form
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EPzbGEW4_0Xf4v-FUNpddrEHPm2AZbPqFyFBfRK4LIQ/edit?usp=drivesdk
Food Pantry Inventoryhttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12ZpBV4QLZOh7SPawrO4fBctjNm6jqnCph7smNGPemIk/edit?usp=drivesdk
Thanks y’all. Can we get a “heel yeah?”
– Trina
Central Jersey Socialists 