Good afternoon Comrades!
It’s been an exciting(and somewhat frustrating) few weeks for us as we are ramping up the drafting process for the first edition of our group’s constitution. At the last general meeting on the 9th, we passed the following proposals:
- A mission statement from each committee
- A process for amending the constitution, which at this point includes limiting proposals to general meetings, as well as limiting voting on proposals to one per general meeting.
There were more proposals that were introduced and had votes and decisions deferred to a later point in time than were actually voted upon. We got bogged down by a lot of deliberation, as we seem to have encountered at a ton of meetings. So we’re going to start exploring what the proper rules of order for our meetings going forward will be. David suggested looking into Robert’s Rules of Order, which is how a lot of organizations operate in the United States.
On Monday night, we had the Theory & Ed meeting on our Discord Meeting Room channel, here are some notes from co-chair David:”Theory & Ed Committee’s August 10th meeting was centered around a discussion of the communist manifesto, its contents, and its relevance going forward. Section by section, we examined first how the relationship between workers and the bourgeoisie developed as the western world transitioned from feudalism to mercantilism and then capitalism. From there we discussed section 2, and the role of communists and the proletariat, and Marx’s emphasis on the essence of the communist movement being synonymous with the movement of proletarian class struggle in order to succeed. We discussed the ten point program put forward and its function, namely to use the takeover of the state as a tool to destroy the state and build a true dictatorship of the proletariat out of it. Finally, we examined section 3 and the its criticism of various socialist currents, and how a lack of understanding of both how capitalism functions and the role the proletariat play in capitalism inevitably renders these non-marxists currents incapable of achieving their goals, if their goals are even desirable at all.
We will continue our study of Marx’s work with Wage Labor & Capital, with a pdf in our channel for anyone who is interested. Anyone who would like to join our next meeting on the 24th at 8pm, please make sure to read thru Wage Labor & Capital so that we can discuss it further.”
Here is the link to Wage Labor & Capital
The following Tuesday, Mutual Aid used the Meeting Room for their own committee meeting. Here are some notes from co-chair Eric:”-For cafe packages rn the price at costco would look to be somewhere between $100 and $150. To offset price we’re gonna post a list of goods that could be donated to us on the Instagram and hopefully have everyone repost it.
+ list of things to donate
Bar soap
Body Wash
Hand sanitizer
Menstrual products
Deodorant
Non perishable food and snacks
Water
Juice/Sports drinks
Ground coffee
Gloves
Masks
-We talked about the possibility of clothes drive which doesn’t rn seem doable for us but we’re gonna look into what orgs around the area would be the best to give to in the near future.
-Katie said she has a friend who is making masks who she’s gonna talk to about possibly making a deal for us so that we can stamp them and use them ourselves as well as put them in the care packages
-As of rn we have a trash clean up at the Riverwalk for Sunday afternoon before the meeting if anyone’s interested lmk.
-Were also gonna plan future trash thru discord since we all have such different schedules but we’re looking for at least a group of 3 for every time we go down. I have a grabber and gardening gloves and I believe Trina has a couple grabbers too so if you’re planning on going but need some equipment lmk.
-Melissa’s friend Cory who has experience planting gardening has said he’d give us some help with the project so down the line once we’re a little farther on
-Katie wrote our mission statement that can be seen above
-We discussed Pats idea about a community fridge and although it’s not really feasible for just us as a group it’s possible that if we approached one of the restaurants or businesses in the area we”
A lot of stuff happened this week! And if you’re not on the Discord yet, you should get on that! It’s where the majority of our organizing work gets done.
Also, check out our website while you’re reading this!
Red Salute,
Nishad
Gen Sec
Central Jersey Socialists 