We spent much of the meeting talking about how to host the event with Arnie Arnesen, the second-district congressional candidate who is challenging Charlie Bass, and who is not afraid of the labels Liberal and Socialist. Since the meeting we decided that the meeting would be at the Unitarian Church in Milford, but Arnie has had to reschedule, so the event will not be on the 14th. Chris Esposito of Arnie's campaign will help us pay the hall rental and will mail out invitations to addresses we provide. We will use our own mailing list plus the Common Ground mailing list. We need to turn out at least 100 people (capacity is 200). Get ready to go into high gear as soon as we know the date!
We also discussed campaign finance reform, DSA finances, the bank account
(to be set up any time now) , and
how to find a young person with enough time to be a DSA Organizer.
Ken plans to stay on at Treasurer. Next Meeting August 18, and we expect to have an
interesting speaker.
We discussed progress toward getting a bank account for NH-DSA.
We got a lot of positive feedback about the Mayday party. 35 people attended and heard some excellent speakers on the present and future of socialism.
The date to have Arnie Arnesen speak to us is likely to be July 14, and we are going to try to contact a lot of NH leftists of all stripes so as to get her a good turnout. Let us know if you think of anyone we might have missed. Keep in touch!
Don Taylor has settled in in Iowa city and is plenty busy.
We discussed many issues, including the far right agenda for the schools and the new edition of the IWW's Little Red Songbook. Mostly we talked about the nuts and bolts of the chapter's future.
We heard Don had gotten a job with UE union, organizing in Des Moines. We'll be needing a new organizer. We resolved that we really will get around to opening a bank account for NH-DSA, so we don't have to make out personal checks to the officers.
Please come to the May Day celebration (see calendar) on the fifth, and please let me (Jim jgidding@mv.mv.com) or one of the officers know you're coming!
OLDER NOTES BELOW THIS POINT
We heard from Lois Booth of New Hampshire Peace Action re: arms sales abroad and the US military budget. I will try to write more later.
Seven of us braved the hazardous driving conditions to attend the Sunday night meeting; Don couldn't make it.
We heard a brief history of the Granite State Coalition, which was formed in 1987 to elect progressives to the state Senate. It brought together 20 diverse groups in the state to work on this: abortion rights activists, labor unions, state employees, social workers, conservationists, etc. The coalition was mainly composed of groups whose charters allowed them to lobby and campaign for candidates without tax penalties.
There was some bickering between the constituent groups (labor vs. environmentalists, pro-choice groups vs. unions), but on the whole the group succeeded at its task and elected a cohort of senators that made the 1992 biennium remarkably progressive. GSC fell apart in 1994 as a result of the conservative takeover nationally, and the makeup of the Senate reverted to a less progressive pattern.
Money was something of a problem for the group, which asked $250 from each constituent group. It was started with seed money from the Unied Auto Workers and modelled on an earlier Connecticut effort.
We discussed lessons that might be learned from GSC and other coalition movements, such as the Iowa Progressive Coalition, as we attempt to unite to confront the right.
PAW and its "Expose the Right" campaign have opened an office on Elm Street in Manchester opposite the Gramm campaign office. Former Maine congressman Tom Andrews is the president of the organization (see calendar), and their new emphasis on grassroots organizing could be a boon to our coalition-building efforts, but their presence in the state is limited to a few weeks until the Primary (Feb 20), so DSA members are urged to take advantage of their excellent collection of literature and publicity materials while they are here. Their office number is 603-626-8828, and they will be open until at least 7 p.m. every night until the Primary. DSA officers will be consulting with them over the next few weeks.
Cressinda volunteered to monitor the rally (to "congratulate NH for not having a MLK day holiday) by a white-supremacist group on the steps of the capitol in Concord last Monday. She reported to the DSA meeting that, while the 12 monitors (working under guidance of the state council of churches and the AFSC) remained silent, the hate-mongers were literally drowned out by a hundred or so pro-King-day demonstrators who gathered in a circle outside police barricades. The main speaker, who spoke for 45 minutes just after 10 a.m., surrounded by a few skinheads (from Manchester high schools?), had no PA system, and some of the demonstrators did. There was some minor scuffling at one point, but nothing seriously violent. The protesting crowd included union members, members of the Workers' World Party, Concord High School students, at least one Native American woman and others whose affiliation was not readily identifiable. We discussed the validity of the tactics recommended by the council and those of the demonstrators.
MEETING DATES AND TIMES
See Calendar for events and meetings. Possibly Arnie Arnesen at at a jointly-sponsored event in Summer.