The Political Education Working Group was officially chartered on 3/24/2019.
Charter
We as members of Silicon Valley DSA, propose the creation of a
- Political Education Working Group
- to report to Silicon Valley DSA as a chapter,
- to fulfill the objectives listed as follows:
- Make political education a part of our chapter’s culture. 📚🌹
- Provide accessible, consistent introductory material. For example: new member orientation sessions, reading lists, and guiding questions.
- Build towards a shared understanding and analysis of the political situation. We will develop a coherent lens that our members can use to understand current events and the world, and serve as a foundation of knowledge for internal conversations.
- Expose people to different perspectives within the DSA “big tent”. We will strive to represent the variety of perspectives that exist in the chapter and the broader left intellectual tradition.
- Empower members to share their knowledge, perspectives, and analysis with their comrades. We will learn and teach collectively.
- Satisfy the political educational needs and interests of everyone in the chapter. Members have different experiences and backgrounds, and we want to provide a space for all.
- Support working groups and ongoing campaigns. We will create an inviting educational space that connects with the chapter’s organizing work.
- Act as an “on-ramp” for potential future members. We will coordinate both inward- and outward-facing content for an education program.
- Foster organizing skills of chapter members. We will build a framework for taking action in pursuit of a socialist future.
- This working group will pursue the aforementioned objectives with this initial strategy:
- Any member of Silicon Valley Democratic Socialists of America can be involved in running our group. We want all comrades to become readers, facilitators, teachers, and organizers, filling the roles they want to fill and learning the skills they want to learn.
- Rotating facilitation and other roles; co-facilitation. Sharing labor and taking on roles outside our comfort zone is part of our educational praxis. We need to avoid putting burdens on too few people. In a deeper sense, this is how we train each other.
- Diversity of texts and writers. We will track demographics and background of authors we read, to help us avoid replicating structures of ableism, racism, imperialism, and patriarchy in our educational work. The socialist tradition is one of many voices.
- Diversity of media for education. We want to accommodate a variety of learning styles and media preferences.
- We will value and acknowledge comrades’ labor and participation. We will track past readings and facilitators so they can help act as a resource for the group.
- To last until the objectives are met (or when we can proudly declare that we have “socialism meow!”).
- As of the creation of this charter, we anticipate requiring approximately $100 per year for the copying of printed materials.
- This Working Group will be led by two Co-Chairs and additional Vice-Chairs so that all Branches are represented