By SJ Otto
Last Saturday members of the local Wichita Democratic Socialists
of America (DSA) continued organizing for the next year. The group discussed
upcoming elections and outreaching to other progressive organizations. They
also decided to build two working groups.
One of the more interesting ideas to evolve included taking
over the Sedgwick County Democratic Party. That may sound like an over
ambitious plan, but the Democratic Party in this part of the state, has been in
really bad shape for many years. This goes beyond it being a centrist party
that avoids anything controversial. It is poorly organized, week at winning
elections and lacks any real dynamic leadership. If done slowly and carefully,
it just might work.
Once again the group discussed running our own candidates as
well as supporting others who are running. Brandon Johnson met with DSA members
early in the meeting. He is running for district 1 on the Wichita City Council.
Johnson is the founder of Community
Operations Recovery Empowerment. He is also a
member of the District 1 District Advisory Board and a former member of the
Kansas Advisory Group on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Members
were impressed with his campaign and some members said they will work on it.
James Thompson also came to the meeting. He plans to run for
the seat now held by Ron Estes ("Slacker
Ron"), 4rth district US
House of Representatives.
"One thing that is going to hold you folks back is the
name (socialism)," Thompson told the group.
"We know," said a group member. "But we are
trying to change that".
Changing people's perception of the term socialism is one of
the long term goals of the Wichita DSA. It is the groups hope that future
Americans will not see socialism as such a dirty word.
Thompson explained that he is working on developing a
position on Rural Kansas. He said he is still being advised on that topic. He
said that he already knows that keeping hospitals open in the rural areas are a
problem.
"When those (hospitals) go out, people lose jobs,"
Thompson said.
Thompson told the group that he is not anti-gun. That may
help him with some conservatives, but not so much with mainstream liberals.
"I like my guns," he said. "I'm a vet."
He said he is very interested in turning some counties, in
his district, from red to blue.
During the planning part of the meeting, the group came up
with a plan to help get progressive people elected:
The basics of a
socialist campaign.
1. who is the target?
2. why can DSA win
this?
3. Steps in the plan.
4. How does it build
socialist power?
The group discussed recruiting students from the colleges
and maybe high schools. They also talked about getting kits together for students
want to organize for their future.
They will include chapter building kits, magazines and other
important items.
Another important topic discussed is outreach. They
discussed how to approach organizations that we may be able to interact with.
They discussed the need to develop different approaches to different types of
groups. There are different types of events that groups put on, including solidarity
action events, social events and educational events.
At some events DSA will have a table and distribute
information. At some events, such as parades, we may want to bring our banner
and other promotional items. At some events we will just support what they are
doing and avoid promoting ourselves.
The group also discussed social activities that are both
political and allow members to socialize. One idea is to show socialist oriented
films. Some suggested films include "13th," "Pride".
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