[Sosfbay-discuss] How Did Party in Berkeley Go?

[Tian Harter]

Ray Tobey wrote:
> Brian Good wrote:
>>    Ray said that continuing to run campaigns where we get 5% of the
>> vote was just guaranteeing that we'll continue to be ineffective.  It
>> seemed that few people wanted to hear that.  It was nice to see a
>> reunion amongst the old timers, people chattering excitedly.  But it
>> reminded me of 9/11 Truth conventions where people go to have their
>> dissenting beliefs reinforced by like-minded people.  I wonder if
>> there's something cultish about continuing to convince each other that
>> it's enough just to pull in a few thousand votes.  If we are to
>> convince the mainstream that we are a viable alternative instead of a
>> perennial protest vote, we need to convince ourselves of that first.
> 
> Thank you Brian. I thought that no one had heard me say that.
> 
> I think it was a relatively pleasant social event and that everyone had
> a good time. Our candidate for Lt. Governor is Jim Castillo, a Native
> American. I enjoyed the blessing ceremony that he started the event
> with. It was also very nice to hear his associate Bill play Native
> American flutes. I enjoyed conversing with Bill and his wife Jane, both
> of whom will be helping Jimmy.

I was impressed by Jim Castillo. If somebody gave me a page to gather
signatures for him on I would. Anybody want to mail me a couple?
> 
> There was literature for a bunch of past candidates on several tables.
> Quite a few founders and past candidates attended. The event was a
> celebration of these accomplishments and how important the Party is and
> how the world needs these candidates.

I met at least one green incumbent I'd not met before, Silverdale or
something like that. I also took a bunch of pictures of one of a kind
people like the first guy to lose against none of the above.
> 
> However, as Brian alluded to, I find all these Green events very
> frustrating. We gather a couple times a year and do internal structure
> admin. We have social functions like this one.

I got two chances to stand up. The first time I talked about running,
the second time I talked about change. Then I spent all the break time
showing everybody I could that there is now a buck with "PEACE" on it.
I'd tell them "now that there is peace in the change, for only a buck
you can have peace in your change." Moved quite a few of the things.
Now there is a more distributed sprinkling of PEACE in peoples change.
> 
> However, it seems such a waste to gather all these activists together
> without working to improve our effectiveness. Hardly a word was spoken
> about how you actually run a campaign. We did not talk about how you
> accomplish any tasks within a campaign, like a mailing. We did not talk
> about how to plan and execute the different phases of a campaign, like
> base building, fundraising, persuasion or GOTV. We did not talk about
> how one campaign affects allied campaigns or subsequent campaigns.
> 
> I counted 73 people at one point. (I'll bet 100 attended, but not all at
> the same time). Everyone sat quietly while we listened to Charlene
> Spretnak and someone else talk about the old days on the phone. She
> mentioned that about 15 years ago, they determined that the Green Party
> needed to teach people how to run campaigns.
> 
> It strikes me that we all know of this need. We've known it for a long
> time. I just do not see us doing very much about it.
> 
I enjoyed what happened. I got lots of pictures for my website.
I should be trimming those instead of yammering. Excuse me...
-- 
Tian
http://tian.greens.org
Latest change: added pictures from a peace center awards ceremony.