June 16th, 2013 General Meeting
Agenda
- NSA Leaks Reviews
- Committee Reports
- Event Review
- Cease & Desist, Boston, June 14th 4-6pm
- Drop off of computer for Cameron
- Scheduled Events
- 2nd Cammy Dee Probable Cause hearing - June 27th
- No NSA Spying Protests, July 4th
- Cameron D'Ambrosio Fundraiser, Lowell, July 6th, 8pm
- Art Beat, Somerville, July 19-20th
- Pirate Picnic, George's Island, August 3rd
- Conference
- Speakers & Schedule
- Logistics
- Oppose S.654 / H.3261
- Cryptocurrency Conference
- Endorsement Policy
Quick Notes / Summaries Re Proposed Bills to be Discussed:
Oppose S.654 / H.3261
The partner organizations have agreed on a petition text and a launch date of 6/18 to circulate this online petition to their members. The organizations are: ACLU of MA, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Demand Progress, Digital Fourth and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Here's the text we agreed on:
- We, the undersigned, call on the Massachusetts legislature to reject proposals to expand government wiretap powers. Listening in on phone calls and electronic communication poses "grave dangers to the privacy of all citizens of the commonwealth," in the words of our existing law. However, pending legislation would ignore that wise warning. It would permit wiretapping not just in connection with organized crime, or even for serious, violent crimes, but for a wide variety of offenses down to simple drug possession and other less serious offenses. Crime has fallen substantially, but electronic surveillance is on the rise. Now is not the time to hand our government broader powers to eavesdrop on us. We urge you to oppose S.654 / H.3261, An Act Updating the Wire Interception Law.
Cryptocurrency Conference
Conferences tend to take a lot of our time. We need to be finding and preparing candidates for 2014. Having a cryptocurrency conference in Sept. will likely be a distraction from our election plans in 2014 and getting our platform finalized. Jokeefe suggests cancelling it.
Participants
- Blue, Medford
- Dennis, Medway
- James
- James O'Keefe, Somerville
- Jason
- Joe
- Kendra: Kendra Moyer, Arlington
- Kristin
- Lucia Fiero
- Steve Revilak, Arlington
Summary
National and State Affairs
- We discussed latest news on the NSA leaks
- We passed a motion to oppose MA Bills S.654 / H.3261
Event Review
- Several of us participated in an anti-surveillance rally last Friday, which concluded by delivering cease and desist order to Verizon, Sprint, AT & T, and the MA state house.
- We delivered a computer to Cameron D'Ambrosio (his was confiscated by law enforcement officers)
Scheduled Events
- Possible Stop the Surveillance State events coming up on July 4th
Conference Speakers & Schedule
Have the following panels:
- Opening the Gates: How To Challenge Our Nation’s Two-Party Monopoly
- Copyright and Internet Architecture: Where Have We Come Since SOPA/PIPA?
- Crowdfunding
- Open Government
- Government surveillance in 2020
- Don't Agonize, Organize!
- How We Will Prevent The Surveillance Dystopia
Final schedule TBD
Meeting Minutes
Latest on NSA Leaks
Cheney claims that current surveillance program could have prevented the September 11th attacks on the world trade center. Cheney calls Snowdon a traitor. Snowdon calls this a compliment.
Capuano and others are putting fourth a bill that would make it illegal to use DVRs for surveillance. Electronic devices would have to say "You're being watched" when they're surveilling you, and you must be given the opportunity to opt out of surveillance.
The media is trying to make the leaking a personal issue about Snowdon, rather than about the issue of secret mass surveillance.
Committee Reports
We have committees, but they're not terribly active. The list of committee is:
- Welcoming and outreach
- policy and identity
- dog food and democracy
- treasury
- technology
- fundraising
Eric was dealing with policy. Sevan was welcoming. Jamie and Steve are doing dog food and democracy.
Jamie has prepared a letter to mail out to pirate party members.
Different groups are interested in organizing on July 4th.
Cease and Desist Rally
This demonstration took place last Friday, where people spoke out against the NSA's secret surveillance program. Afterwards, the group delivered cease and desist orders to Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and the State House. The demonstration sought to draw attention to companies that supported NSA's warrantless surveillance program.
There was a small turnout, and the flyers arrived late. Women, people of color, and middle aged men were on board with us. Twenty-something white guys were critical (e.g., "they weren't breaking the law").
Cameron D'Ambrosio
Lucia and Steve delivered a computer to Cameron on Saturday. He's a really nice kid.
Cam's computer is still impounded; likely that it won't be returned anytime soon.
There's a probably cause hearing on June 27th. June 6th is a fundraiser, to help them with legal expenses.
Other Events
A variety of groups are planning demonstrations on July 4th. "Stop the surveillance state" seems to be a common them. They'd like to address constitutional violations (first and fourth amendment), and the imposition of martial law in Watertown.
We're in the age of selective rights. We have rights when the government wants to give them to us; we don't have rights when the government decides to take them away.
Jamie is going to Artbeat.
There's a pirate picnic on August 3rd.
Conference
The conference will run from 10 - 6 on Saturday June 29th, at the Community Church of Boston (565 Boylston st). The lineup includes several talks, and several discussion panels. We need to check a few people's schedules before setting the final agenda.
Livestream would be nice, but we really want to have the talks recorded. We can take audio from CCB's mixer. We should find out how many microphones CCB has.
We should do another flyer run between now and the conference. Jamie will order another thousand flyers.
Maurice volunteered to do video recording.
Other Promotion: Facebook, twitter, act-ma, other mailing lists.
We still need to come up with a list of restaurants for a post-conference dinner. We'd like to stay within 2--3 blocks (i.e., short walking distance) of Copley Square.
Opposition to S.654 / H.3261
S.654 and H.3261 are state bills that would expand surveillance capabilities.
- S.654. An Act updating the wire interception law
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/188/Senate/S654
- H.3261. An Act updating the wire interception law
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/188/House/H3261
There's a motion to support statement opposing these bills.
Motion passes.
Cryptocurrency Conference
We've talked about organizing a cryptocurrency conference in the fall. Conference organizing may consume a lot of time. Instead, we should focus on finding candidates to run for office, and supporting their campaigns.
We lack policy on a range of issues. Building policies would be an important step in defining ourselves as a party.
Our chances of winning a partisan contest may be remote. However, running candidates would help build awareness of the Pirate Party.
We agree that finding candidates is more important than organizing a cryptocurrency conference.
