December 14th, 2023 Meeting

Meeting to be held via video conference: https://communitybridge.com/bbb-room/mass-pirates-bbb-room/.

Recording:

Decisions/Endorsements

Statement on Israel/Gaza conflict

Etherpad at https://etherpad.pp-international.net/p/MAPPIsraelGazaStatement

 
Every person killed is a theft from a better future. Every person killed is a trauma those who live must suffer.

Peace for Israel/Palestine will not come from the mass death of civilians. It will not come from children shot, crushed under the remains of their home or pierced by shrapnel. It will not come from desolated Kibbutzim, burned olive trees, houses leveled by bulldozers or land stolen. 

We must stop Israel's genocide in Gaza. It was bad when the US did not lead other countries to stop the genocides in Rwanda or Nagorno-Karabkh. It is worse that our government's policy actively aids in the destruction of Gaza and the killing of tens of thousands of its people. 

Israel's desire for revenge for the abhorent deaths of 1400 Israelis and others is understandable, but it is not acceptable. Killing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in a refugee camp to get one Hamas leader is a war crime. Forcing Palestinians to flee their homes, destroying whole blocks of apartment buildings with civilians living there, or starving people to exact collective punishment is a crime against humanity.

We call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the return of hostages by both sides, the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gazans and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. This conflict must end and human life and rights must be respected by all sides.

Projects/Events

Planning for 2024

• Restart democracy committee
• Contact cities/town to get list of voters
• Put together plan for local organizing and 2024 town/legislature campaign
• Mail members/voters
  • Ask them to organize locally
  • Ask them to campaign/run
  • Ask them to give us their full contact info
• Call potential candidates/supporters
• ?

Winter Conference

Will be on-line in ~January. Need to post survey before December and add forms for signup/presenting.

Suggest it be longer than two hours.

Possible Topics:

• 2024 Campaign
• Planning for post-2024 election future

Video Newsletter/Podcast

Leader: Joseph

• Pirate news recording scheduled for Sundays, 7pm with go-live at 7:30pm. Unless changed

Participants

• jokeefe
• srevilak

Observers

• v

Summary

Reports

• Email update went out
• Restore the fourth is promoting a bill that would roll back some of Section 702 (aka the Patriot Act)
• Survey out for Winter conference date and topics
• NDAA extended Section 702 authorization. In January, will be debate on limiting what it allows in terms of surveillance, etc
• Conference page needs to be updated
• Video from previous conference to be posted soon.

Statement on Israel/Gaza conflict

• Statement adopted. Should be posted tomorrow.