General Membership Meeting: Dec. 9, 2018

East Bay DSA General Membership Meeting, December 9, 2018, 1–3:30 p.m.

This is a general meeting of the East Bay DSA membership. Abigail G.-G. and Zach M. chaired the meeting. The recording secretary was present and documented the minutes.

The meeting was called to order at 1:10 p.m.

Settle In and Welcome

Abigail G.-G. opened the meeting with announcements for how the meeting will run and welcoming all in attendance.

Committee Reports and Announcements

Abigail G.-G. invited committee representatives to present oral reports.

• Jamie G. reported on behalf of the Electoral Committee.
• Dominic D. reported on behalf of the Communications Committee, which included a preview of forum.eastbaydsa.org.
• Allie L. reported on behalf of the Social Housing Committee.
• Matt S. reported on behalf of the Medicare for All Committee.
• Sean M. delivered a report as the treasurer.
• Andy C. reported on behalf of the Meetings Committee.
• Dan D. reported on behalf of the Political Education Committee.
• Ashley P. reported on behalf of the Labor Committee.
• Hannah E. reported on behalf of the Membership Engagement Committee.
• Mark G. reported on behalf of the Steering Committee.
• Shane R. and Nestor C. reported on behalf of the Racial Solidarity Committee.

OEA Update

Tim, an East Bay DSA member and member of the Oakland Education Association (OEA), delivered a report on the progress of the OEA in their contract negotiations.

A strike vote is likely to be put forward and the OEA is organizing in preparation for a strike. There is a petition online available regarding Kampala, a rank-and-file leader of the OEA workers who was recently punished by the district for her involvement in union activity.

Canvasses have been going on for the past couple of weeks, distributing signs and gathering support for the teachers. DSA members are encouraged to attend these canvasses.

Following the report, a solidarity photo was taken with the members in attendance.

Member Announcements

Member announcements were opened by Abigail G.-G.

Maura delivered an announcement regarding direct actions coming up for housing justice issues in the East Bay.

Rex delivered an announcement for the Socialist Feminist Caucus and their efforts to organize for the upcoming Women's March.

Jamie delivered an announcement regarding an upcoming opportunities for solidarity with anti-fascist organizing in the East Bay.

Karl delivered an announcement regarding the East Bay DSA Peace Caucus, which meets on the afternoons of the second Mondays of the month. The caucus can be reached at [email protected].

Mike delivered an announcement regarding environmental justice organizing that will be taking place on the coming Thursday.

Isaac delivered an announcement about upcoming direct actions regarding the Green New Deal and no bail-out for PG&E. For more information, reach out to the Eco-socialist Caucus.

Sandy delivered an announcement about upcoming events for the Save Alta Bates campaign.

Resolutions

Following member announcements, Zach M. introduced the resolutions portion of the meeting.

Resolution for Improving the Resolution Drafting and Submission Process

Submitted by Rachel R., Rosa A., Karina S., Graham D., Hasan C., Lawrence L., Tavy S., and Sergio G., motivated by Rosa A., Rachel R., and Graham D.

Whereas our chapter's most recent Priorities Resolution declares that, “In order to continue growing, East Bay DSA must become more diverse, continue to cultivate our members' political capabilities, and engage a higher percentage of our membership in political and democratic participation,”

Whereas General Membership Meetings are a cornerstone of internal democracy in EBDSA,

Whereas the Resolutions Subcommittee, by virtue of its experience, understands best the common pitfalls and difficulties members face in drafting resolutions,

Whereas members will be more successful in drafting clear and orderly resolutions and navigating those difficulties if the chapter makes available resources to assist in writing resolutions,

Whereas new members in particular need support and guidance in learning how to be effective participants in our democracy,

Whereas providing guides and open fora will result in more highly polished and proofread resolutions, which will require less correction and reconciliation to bring into order,

Whereas we have the organizational capacity and institutional knowledge among our membership to effectively train others on how to craft effective resolutions,

Whereas members need ready access to previous resolutions in order to reconcile new ones with existing chapter policy,

Whereas the current submission deadline—two days after a General Meeting—leaves insufficient time for the membership to discuss and respond to the results of a meeting, meaning that resolutions that properly address one meeting's events are effectively left for a meeting two months later,

Whereas members need sufficient time after the agenda for an upcoming General Meeting has been set to discuss agendized resolutions, do research, and prepare for deliberation,

Therefore be it resolved that the Meetings Committee will prepare the following online materials to facilitate the writing of resolutions, which will be reviewed, adapted and approved by the Resolutions Subcommittee, within one month of the passage of this resolution:

• A template and checklist for writing resolutions.
• A selection of exemplary resolutions that have been passed by the chapter.
• A space on the forthcoming online forum dedicated to discussing and workshopping draft resolutions.

Therefore be it resolved that, following the publication of the template, checklist, and example resolutions, the deadline for submitting resolutions to the General Meeting agenda shall be three weeks before the meeting is held,

Therefore be it resolved that the agenda of the meeting be emailed to the general membership with copies of the resolutions to be considered no later than two weeks before the meeting is held, and at that time be posted on the chapter's online fora.

Therefore be it resolved that the Resolutions Subcommittee will explore the creation of an open and searchable database of all prior resolutions and standing rules of the chapter, for their use and use by members.

Following motivation, there was a period of question and answers from the motivators.

The resolution PASSED by acclamation.

Resolution for an EBDSA Campaign for Public Power and a Green New Deal

Submitted by Keith B. B., Katie H., Emily A., Eric R., Dan E., Megan S., and Miguel D., motivated by Keith B. B., Eric R., Emily A., Katie H., and Dan E.

Whereas the profit-driven management of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), our region’s investor-owned energy utility, has created severe disasters for the health and safety of California’s working class,

Whereas corporations exercise enormous control over our political system, and corporate-backed politicians have repeatedly used billions of dollars of public funding to address disasters caused by PG&E, and limited its liability so as to protect the profits of the company’s investors and executives,

Whereas certain liberal forces in California have considered, as responses to this crisis, both public ownership, and a privatized break-up of PG&E into a “competitive market” of smaller for-profit utilities,

Whereas socialists reject further privatization or market competition as a capitalist exploitation of the crisis they have themselves created,

Whereas public control of PG&E has been fought for by past movements, and could bring together a working-class political movement to fight against corporate polluters and for an ecologically sustainable and socially just society,

Whereas socialists stand for democratic control of the economy, especially essential goods like energy,

Whereas public and worker control of energy utilities would be a critical step to build our movement and increase the capacity for working-class control of all energy companies, including the powerful fossil fuel corporations who must be dismantled to stop catastrophic climate change,

Whereas public and worker control of energy utilities would be a critical step towards a Green New Deal, a massive public program of economic transformation and ecological restoration, based on expansion of union jobs and a just transition for workers in existing dirty industries. This program is needed to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as the threshold for extreme climate catastrophe.

Therefore be it resolved:

a) That East Bay DSA will initiate a Campaign calling to make PG&E a public utility and win a Green New Deal.

b) That this Campaign will aim for these goals:

1.    To popularize democratic socialist demands for transforming our economy, including for public and worker control of PG&E and a Green New Deal. and ensuring access to power regardless of ability to pay, and to ensure no public liability for private mismanagement

2.    To build a coalition for these demands with unions, DSA chapters, environmental justice groups, and progressive organizations.

3.    To research strategic pressure points through which these demands could be realized by mass working-class action.

c) That this Campaign will carry out activities to achieve these goals, including propaganda, public demonstrations, and educational events,

d) That the Campaign will pursue these goals across the next six months, to align our agitation work with the 2019 California Legislative and Public Utilities Commission calendar. Following six months or any time prior, the campaign organizers will conduct a review and consider potential further development of the campaign, for approval via resolution by the Steering Committee or general membership.

e) That East Bay DSA members participating in this campaign will develop a proposed structure to carry out this campaign work, for approval by the Steering Committee.

Following motivation, a period of questions and answers was opened.

After debate and amendment, the resolution PASSED by a majority vote.

Resolution Calling on Bernie Sanders to Run for President in 2020

Submitted by Jack M., Sandy B., Ashley P., Miguel D., and Frances R., motivated by Sandy B., Jack M., Ashley P., and Frances R.

Whereas Bernie Sanders’s 2016 Democratic primary campaign and his continued campaign for issues of social and economic justice have transformed US politics and helped put democratic socialism squarely in the political mainstream. Sanders offered an alternative to corporate control of our politics and to a deeply unequal and unjust society. Sanders has been a nationally visible champion of workers’ struggles, supporting picket lines and using his bully pulpit to amplify workers’ grievances, attack corporations, and encourage unionization. His platform of Medicare for All, tuition-free college, a $15-an-hour minimum wage, a Green New Deal, an end to big money in politics, an end to the disastrous wars, cutting the wasteful and toxic military budget, demilitarization of the police, and an end to mass incarceration put bold, working-class demands on the table and inspired 13 million people to vote for a democratic socialist for president. Due in part to his 2016 campaign and ongoing efforts, 70% of American voters, including a majority of Republicans, now support Medicare for All and 60% of voters support tuition-free college.

Whereas Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has grown astronomically since 2016, in part because of Bernie Sanders’s call for a “political revolution,” which inspired a sustained political movement for ambitious reform and mass political participation among the working class. Since 2001, the US has seen many left-of-center protest movements, some of them short-lived. It was not until Sanders’s run in 2016, though, that these tendencies cohered into a broad program, critical of capitalism and the political establishment and willing to fight for an alternative. Millions of workers and young people who supported Sanders in 2016 were disillusioned with the Democratic Party, represented by Hillary Clinton, and horrified at the election of Donald Trump. After Trump won the election, many of these people joined DSA in hopes of advancing this political revolution. Equally important is the number of people who now consider themselves democratic socialists, a huge change after decades of Left and labor movement retreat. DSA’s prescient, independent support for Sanders starting in 2014 helped to establish the organization as the political home for many politicized in 2016.

Whereas Bernie Sanders was the only Democratic primary candidate in 2016 who consistently beat Trump in the polls and to this day is the only candidate for president who could defeat him in 2020. Sanders is the most popular politician in America and has been for the last two years. He polls particularly well among young and nonwhite voters. On his recent nine-day midterms election tour, Sanders reportedly reached five to six million people each day on his own social media. And Sanders’s program and style of politics will be more far more effective than that of mainstream Democrats in taking on Trump in 2020. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party establishment learned all the wrong lessons from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss to Trump. While in many ways Trump is trying to appeal to workers who have lost economic standing since 2008, the Democrats are actively abandoning working people to court professional and wealthy “moderate” voters. Meanwhile, the party is raking in ever greater corporate donations — more than Republicans in the historically expensive 2018 midterms — at a time when nearly two-thirds of American voters believe big donors exercise too much influence and want to limit money in politics. While Trump and the Republicans have only harmed working people and divided workers along lines of identity, the Democrats — fixated on Trump’s personal behavior and the Mueller investigation — have offered very little that might inspire working people and unite them against the GOP and the reactionary and capitalist interests they represent. Sanders is the only antidote to this problem: unlike the Democratic Party establishment, he is of the working class and a popular champion for transforming our political and economic system so that it works for all of us, not just the wealthy few.

Whereas though Sanders will no doubt run in the Democratic Party’s Presidential primary, his anti-corporate campaigning helps to undermine support for the billionaire-funded Democratic establishment from a massive national platform. While we don’t believe that it is possible for socialists to take over the Democratic Party and transform it into a mass, working-class party independent of capitalist interests, it is essential that Sanders run in the Democratic primary in order to be a viable candidate and serious challenge to the political status quo.

Whereas the California primary has been moved up to March 3, 2020, AKA “Super Tuesday”, and in 2016, more than 5 million votes were cast in the California Democratic primary, approximately 16% of the total popular vote nationwide. California’s early 2020 Democratic primary will therefore have a huge role in determining the Party’s nominee for President. Success in the California primary would not only dramatically tip the vote count in that candidate's favor but also exercise major influence over public opinion and the outcomes of primaries across the country. Because of this, East Bay DSA and other DSA chapters across California have a critical role to play in shifting the balance of power and securing a win for Sanders. Along with thousands of DSA members across the state, our 1200 members can have a huge impact talking to hundreds of thousands of working people about Sanders’s program and democratic socialism, at the doors, on the phones, and out in the streets. Additionally DSA can provide sharper socialist political messaging, and train hundreds of new democratic socialist activists to be effective organizers for Sanders’s campaign and for DSA’s broader political agenda.

Whereas DSA’s early involvement in the 2016 Democratic primary campaign resulted in tremendous growth for the organization, we can assume that our participation in 2020 would only increase membership, strengthen relationships among chapters, and train organizers, as thousands of Sanders supporters participate in our campaign. While our goal should be to do everything we can to help Sanders win, we should also run an independent campaign that is not absorbed into Sanders’s or other progressive Democrats’ operations. A Sanders presidential campaign would, more than any other opportunity, advance East Bay DSA's political program and organizational priorities by agitating millions of Californian's around Medicare for All, tuition-free college, fully-funded public education, decommodification of housing, criminal justice reform, progressive climate action, and anti-militarism and peace all while strengthening ties to the most progressive elements of organized labor. Moreover, such a campaign would also help to elect democratic socialist and labor-backed progressive candidates in down-ballot races all across California.

Whereas Bernie Sanders is likely to announce his 2020 candidacy in early 2019, and the Democratic Party primary will be hotly contested, Democrats and the liberal establishment will do everything they can to undermine Sanders and put forward faux progressive alternatives, especially in California where Kamala Harris represents the future of the Democratic political establishment. In order for DSA to have a large impact, DSA should endorse and begin campaigning as soon as possible. It will take months for DSA, at both the national and chapter level, to develop and begin implementing a strong, independent campaign to support Sanders. We should also make sure that DSA is known as the organization that supports Sanders and that our independent political program has an impact on shaping political consciousness around Sanders’s campaign. If we want to have a meaningful impact on the outcome of the race, and for the race to have maximum benefits for our organization and for the growth of the democratic socialist movement, we should not wait until later in 2019 to begin. The sooner we endorse, the more we can guarantee that we will make these gains a reality.

Therefore be it resolved East Bay DSA calls on Bernie Sanders to run in the 2020 Presidential election through the Democratic Party’s primary.

Be it further resolved East Bay DSA Steering Committee will direct a committee to develop a Bernie 2020 campaign plan to be brought before the general membership for debate and endorsement in early 2019.

Be it further resolved East Bay DSA calls on DSA to organize an independent campaign, and promptly endorse Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign if and when he announces his candidacy. Such an endorsement should be made by a referendum of the whole membership of DSA — following a democratic discussion — and ratified by the National Political Committee (NPC). East Bay DSA calls on the NPC to prepare for such a process so that an endorsement can be made promptly after Sanders announce his campaign.

Following motivation, there was a period of questions and answers.

During debate, amendments were made and a motion was passed to extend time by 10 minutes.

Following debate and amendment, the resolution PASSED by a majority vote.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:05 p.m.