Author: centraljerseysocialists

Good afternoon folks!

Yesterday’s rally was awesome, as always. Brother Tormel Pittman is a great speaker, but Zayid Muhammad and Larry Hamm knocked it outta the park – even directly quote Marx and Malcolm X. Zayid even went so far as to call for socialism as a response to our oppressive system, and I was able to hand out Theory’s awesome pamphlet to a lot of interested folks. Hopefully some of them will make their way to tonight’s meeting.

The meeting tonight will be back at Cookie’s Jar(my place; reply individually if you need it, or hit up the Discord) – please make sure that you bring your monthly membership dues. Cash is preferred but if you need to do it digitally, let me know. We’ll work something out. 
Also be sure to wear layers or bring a blanket or something – it’s gonna be kind of chilly tonight! Maybe I can get a fire going.

For presenters who are going tonight – just remember that we do not have to capture all of the nuance of the political situations in the places we’ve chosen. The reason why we chose these places is for their revolutionary tactics. There are a lot of things we can learn, even from our ideological enemies.

In solidarity,
Nishad

Good afternoon comrades!

First of all, let me start off with an apology – it’s been quite some time since my last correspondence with you all. Things have been super crazy, not only in my home and professional life, but also in regard to our group! We’ve been doing a lot of stuff lately, but finally, we were able to finalize the details on and solidify the first edition of our group’s constitution! This is a document that we created from scratch in a fair and democratic way. We received input from each of our members and created something that is far greater than just the sum of our ideas – this was the synthesis of something that goes beyond all of us here in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, or even New Jersey for that matter.
We created a document that will guide our work as a group and serve as just one of the many ideological vertebrae that we are constructing for ourselves. By considering the unique conditions of our environment and our values as socialists, communists, and radical leftists, we made something that when each of the individuals who is in our group now fades away, we will be able to pass on to the next generation of revolutionaries. And we did it together. May we remain committed to refining it by making additions, redactions, and corrections as we continue to move forward as a group. Mark every September 6th down in your calendars moving forward as “Constitution Day”(or just every Sunday before Labor Day lol).

On our August 30th meeting, we discussed Theory & Education‘s reading of Wage Labour and Capital, which they have since concluded and have decided to, combined with their reading of the Communist Manifesto, begin work on creating a glossary of theoretical terms, which we all hope to contribute to further as we do more group readings. There was also discussion of creating a pamphlet on the exploitative nature of capitalism and the Manifesto as well as taking Spanish lessons so we may more adeptly unify the working class in Central Jersey.

Mutual Aid gave us more updates on their cleanup project for the riverwalk in New Brunswick. They found a solid amount of spots and had discussions with a bunch of people who live and hang out down there. They received a big donation of various things, including 100 masks, from a friend. We should look into getting a bunch of weatherproof containers for clothing storage because that seems to be a big issue, which will probably get worse as the winter sets in.

David gave us a presentation on Belarus, Nick presented on the Yellow Vests, and Pat presented on the Zapatistas. We will resume our presentations at our meeting next week with speakers discussing the situations with Rojava, Bolivia, the FARC in Colombia, and we will enjoy a presentation on New Urbanism as well.

Coming up soon:

• Saturday, September 19th – there is a BLM rally in New Brunswick being led by family members of George Floyd. 230PM at Feaster Park
• Saturday, September 26th – an action at the warehouse that they are going to be using as a “school” in the continued fight for the Lincoln Annex School, details forthcoming

As always, keep your eyes peeled in the Discord. If you’re not on there yet, you are missing almost ALL of the organizing that we do as a group when we are not at our meetings.

In solidarity,
Nishad S. Datta
General Secretary
Central Jersey Socialists

Good evening comrades!

We had an extremely productive meeting this weekend due in part to the use of our new general meeting rules of order. David and I made a pamphlet that details how the general meetings might work from here on out, and I have included that pamphlet as a PDF attachment to the email version of this message in case you want to print yourself a copy.

Mutual Aid met up before the general meeting to begin the cleanup of the riverwalk. It went off without much incident apart from a truck crashing into the walkway at one point, running over some of our trash bags. A few of the folks who hang out there and inquired about our work there seemed to be excited about it. It should be noted that if anyone has any grabbers, they would be very helpful. We made good progress and are looking to send staggered groups down there to continue to maintain it. Mutual Aid’s next meeting time will be hashed out on the Discord, and will occur in our Meeting Room channel.

Theory and Education examined passages from the Communist Manifesto. We will be reading the Manifesto more closely in the future as well so that we can know it as well as possible before we try to teach it. For this week’s meeting, we will be reading Wage Labour and Capital. The reading is available on both our Discord server and our website. Please have it read by this Thursday(tomorrow) at 8PM so that we may discuss it at the Theory and Ed meeting on the Discord Meeting Room channel. Don’t worry, it’s short! We will also have to decide what our next reading will be and will be making more pamphlets to summarize our readings and make them accessible for mass consumption.

Due to the recent Patriot Front sightings, and the increasing presence of armed right-wing paramilitary groups, we passed a proposal to gather intelligence on potential ideological adversaries on a new Discord channel, #intelligence. It’s up now, so please post anything you see that is unsettling. We can use what info we gather here to aid ourselves and other similar groups.

We also passed proposals to work with Philly Socialists and Bergen County Socialists. We all agreed that we could learn a lot from the former group about organizing workplaces and tenants, strategies for mutual aid, and resources for printing materials for actions. Our outreach officer Arly has a paid version of Zoom so we could do it over that. We can then open the floor to questions from other members.

We agreed that working with Bergen County Socialists would be more of a mutual collaboration sort of thing. This is a much newer organization that claims lineage from the Silk City Socialists. David and I will schedule a call with them.

Next meeting we are going to be taking a look at other resistance movements happening globally right now – this was an idea suggested by Kate and David then suggested that these presentations take the format of our proposal time. The six presentations are as follows:

1. David will present on Belarus
2. Nick will present on the Yellow Vests
3. Pat will present on the Zapatistas
4. Arly will present on Hong Kong
5. I(Nishad) will present on Bolivia.
6. Lance will present on Rojava at a later meeting – he has to be elsewhere this coming Sunday but will be able to present at the general meeting after our BBQ. 

Additionally we will be discussing alternative meeting places, how we will continue to meet as it gets colder out and meeting outside is not always possible, etc, as well as vote on formally adopting the rules of order, and finalizing the details for our BBQ(which will fittingly be the Sunday before Labor Day)! Arly has already assembled this handy little spreadsheet for it!

In solidarity,
Nishad
General Secretary

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

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

Good evening comrades,
There’s a lot of news this week! First off let me apologize for the barrage of emails. We are solidifying and diversifying our web presence, and it was done all in one night thanks to the hard work of our new General Secretary, Trina! And at the last general meeting we were about to solidify some of the group’s elected positions. They are as follows:
Central Committee
Trina – Gen Sec
Myself – Gen Sec
Arly – Outreach Officer
Theory & Education
Matt & David – Co-chairs
Mutual Aid
Kate & Eric – Co-chairs
Labor Relations
Chris & Liam – Co-chairs

Thus far, we still need someone to take on the position of Treasurer for the Central Committee, but for right now, Trina and I are taking care of that.

At Tuesday’s Mutual Aid Meeting, we gathered some more supplies for the Pantry and care packages. We’ve got a good amount of sundries coming in. I attempted to show the group my preferred access point for the riverwalk, but we were met by a work crew that seemed to be patching the hole in the fence. Albany Street entrance it is – from now on! We were unable to complete any cleanup work thus far because as I’m sure you’re all aware, this week has been struck by a terrible heatwave. Not to worry, it’s supposed to subside tomorrow and it should be a more comfortable working temperature next time we try to go down there. The Mutual Aid Committee will decide their next meeting time on Discord.

At Tonight(Wednesday)’s Theory & Education Meeting we had some good discussion on where we’re headed. We’re asking those who want to be members to read the Communist Manifesto in full(don’t worry – it’s short) in time for the next committee meeting. The group will present its findings and the official ‘party line’ in the subsequent general meeting. If you are interested in this sort of thing, make sure to do the required reading and then report back to our Discord Meeting Room on Monday, August 10th @ 8PM.

We passed a resolution on membership dues as well. We agreed upon a base amount of $2 per month. This is more of a symbolic gesture than an intention to actually pay for anything or fundraise for any of our projects, but ultimately it will add up. Your dues are expected from the first of the month until the date of the month’s first general meeting. If you want voting privileges, they come with dues payments. If you are currently unemployed or need any sort of assistance with making your membership dues by that deadline, there were plenty of members who shared an enthusiasm for spotting anyone, but please make sure to make your arrangements by the end of that first general meeting if you want voting privileges for that month.

We also passed a proposal to permanently ban anyone who commits any unspecified act of violence upon a member of the group. This will be in our final charter/constitution/whatever you wanna call it.

Finally, we added an anti-war and anti-imperialism clause to our 7-Point Program! Therefore, it’s now an 8-Point Program! I’ve included them as an attachment to this email, so please take a look. If you want me to print you a copy so you can have one to keep at home, please reply to this email and I’ll have it ready for you.

I think that’s about it. In summary:

• Mutual Aid is having another meeting this upcoming week, details on Discord
• Theory & Education is having another virtual meeting Monday, August 10th @ 8PM
• We are meeting up at Cookie’s Jar this upcoming Saturday, August 1st @ 4PM in order to paint signs and stamp our masks for the BLM rally the next day, Sunday, August 2nd @ 2:30PM. This meeting has Gwen Carr, Eric Garner’s mother, as a special guest speaker. It will be a great opportunity for meeting like-minded people.
• We have our next general meeting at the Pussy Palace at the same time as usual, Sunday, August 2nd @ 8PM. We will debrief after the rally, allow Mutual Aid and Theory & Education to present their findings from their individual committee meetings, and continue the work of structuring our organization, our constitution, and our ideology. Remember to bring your membership dues or make arrangements either prior to, or at the meeting.

That’s about it! If I’m missing something please let me know. Otherwise, I will see you all Saturday afternoon.

Red salute,
Nishad D.
General Secretary
Central Jersey Socialists

Join our Discord server here

Good afternoon comrades,
The fourth meeting was the first of several of our weekly meetings that we will be having for the duration of the drafting process of our constitution. It was an anemic turnout, but there were many taking notes for those who couldn’t make it and there are still more new members showing up every meeting.

We started off by touching base with Kate and the rest of the gang because they went out onto the riverwalk to look for spots for guerilla gardening. There are a lot of houseless folks who frequent that area, so it would be a good place to plant fruits and veg that are resilient and do well in the New Jersey climate as well as require as little maintenance as possible.

Then we presented a first draft of a mission statement by David. We went around the circle and had people read one of each of the 7 points. I’ll get a copy of the file and send in a follow-up email since David’s currently at work. If you have any ideas to add to the, currently, 7-point program, just drop this email a line.

The bulk of the meeting was then spent discussing the structure of the Central Committee. We passed votes on establishing three positions: two General Secretaries, a two member Treasury, and one Outreach Officer. Lindsay and I were nominated to be general secretaries, Arly was nominated for Outreach Officer. The treasury positions are still open for nomination. Since Arly accepted her nomination and she was unopposed, we did not have to bring it to vote, and she is now officially our Outreach Officer! Congratulations!

We also decided to have a chair and co-chair for each other committee. Nominations for these committees are as follows:
Theory & Education: Matt, David, LiamMutual Aid: Kate, TrinaLabor: Chris, David
The final vote for the night was us agreeing on simple majorities when it came to the appropriation of funds for projects, regardless of what committee is in charge of the project.

What is to become the Mutual Aid Committee is meeting for the first time ever TOMORROW at 25 High Street at 12PM! If you can make it, please do. Next week’s meeting is at the same place, same day, and same time as yesterday’s. There will be a lot of votes proposed, so be sure not to miss it! Also, we had some ideas for a logo specific to the group. Here’s an amalgamation of the different proposals so far:

Red salute,Nishad

Good afternoon comrades,
We had another productive meeting this past Sunday! We were able to establish a few soft requirements for the early stages of the membership process in our constitution. Through popular vote, we were able to establish the following as our requirements for membership:

• An active member is a member of CJS who is granted voting privileges. Votes can be given for yes/no/abstain. Abstention does not count toward final vote counts in establishing either simple or qualified majority.
• Active membership is voted upon at meetings after an observing member meets the following criteria:

1. 50% meeting attendance, or at least once a month(whichever is less).
2. is a member of at least one committee or commission.

Additionally, it is important for prospective active members to strive to be ideologically consistent and be vouched for by an existing active member. The ideological consistency bit is something that will ultimately become the work of our Committee of Theory and Education, one of the five Committees that we voted upon.

The five core committees that we voted upon as part of the body that makes up our organization are as follows:

• Central Committee(does the administrative work of handling emails, social media and group paperwork)
• Labor Relations(the primary contact for unionizing workplaces)
• Theory and Education(does the work of contextualizing Marxist ideology for popular consumption – both to spread awareness of radical leftist politics and to guide our work as a group)
• Mutual Aid(does the work of collectivizing our talents and resources to make change in the society we live in so that it may one day look like the society we want to live in)
• Outreach(pushes initiatives to recruit new members)

We established that there will be a few commissions that are established temporarily to accomplish a goal that is time sensitive and will not act as a permanent structure within the body of the group. An example of this would be to set up a commission to aid in the fight for the Lincoln Annex School.

Finally, we decided to have weekly meetings until we are able to finish the drafting process of our constitution. Therefore, our next meeting is this upcoming Sunday, July 19th. We will be discussing the roles of each committee with a primary focus on the Central Committee, and we will be voting on leadership and other roles for the committees as well.

Please write down any ideas you might have and bring them to the meeting! It’s important that one writes everything down ahead of time in order to organize one’s thoughts before presenting them. We are trying to accomplish something monumental and we only have so much time to do it, so it’s important that we make the best possible use of that time.

Once again, the meeting is Sunday, July 19th at 8PM. Same place as last time. Also remember to bring items for the Food Pantry!

Red salute,Nishad.

Good afternoon comrades!

I think we can all agree that we had a pretty productive meeting on Sunday! We discussed capitalism, we set out an agenda for the next meeting, we discussed the next steps in our aiding the fight for the Lincoln Annex School, and we set up our official CJS food pantry! 
For the next meeting, Sunday July 12th at 8PM, we are going to be discussing what our official constitution will consist of. Please come with notes and ideas about how we should organize the group moving forward. This is going to be a gradual process, so don’t expect that we’ll just be able to share ideas, vote, and then call it a day. This is going to be an important guiding document, so this should be a gradual process with lots of deliberation.

Additionally, we are going to be talking about how we can throw our weight behind and support the fight for the Lincoln Annex School. Something we can do in the immediate future is attend the rally they’re having at the school TOMORROW (July 1st) at 4PM! Address is 165 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ. There we can meet with some of the organizers of the rally and members of the 5th and 6th Ward Neighborhood Association.

Finally, we donated a bunch of stuff to the CJS Food Pantry. We have to pool our resources together in order to make our projects work – and this is just one of the first steps we are taking in order to do so. Our third congress and beginning of the constitution drafting process will also serve as a food drive – so please bring canned and/or non-perishables to contribute. We’ve even got some appliances for people that need them. This isn’t just for needy people, but also for members who fall on hard times, as well as to eventually exist as assistance for workers during the general strike.

So here’s a rough agenda:TOMORROW 7/1 – Attend Lincoln Annex School Rally at 4PM
SUNDAY 7/12 – Meeting: Draft constitution, Food drive, and discussing future actions to aid the movement to save the Lincoln Annex School
I can’t wait to see your faces again!

Red salute,
Nishad