Run for Central Committee!

By: Sasha Berkman

Are you a dues-current member of Philly Socialists? Have you ever wanted to get more involved? Have you have ever wanted to make our organization more open? More efficient? More inclusive? Then now is the time to run for a Central Committee position!

The Central Committee is the “…executive body elected and empowered by the organization to make decisions based along organizational policy lines…,” which includes ensuring that policy set by the membership at the General Assembly is enacted. While responsibilities vary depending on the specific role on Central Committee, it is the role of the body to help guide the organization whether that means directing funds to appropriate projects, proposing new initiatives, or building up comrades to become better organizers and revolutionaries.

There are currently two vacant positions:

• Secretary: responsibilities of the secretary include sending out timely minutes of meetings and keeping comrades in the organization informed of activity through monthly mass emails. The main function of the Secretary is ensuring transparency within the group and among the projects as well as encouraging a culture of reflection in committees and working groups.
• Diversity Coordinator/Intersectionalist: responsibilities include initiatives to make Philly Socialists more welcoming and relevant to and ensure retention of women, people of color, and other folks from historically oppressed groups. This includes, among other things, helping develop identity-based caucuses, creating programs with and for underrepresented groups, and ensuring inclusivity/accessibility are priorities at events/actions.

Elections for the above positions will be held at the Fall General Assembly and all other positions are eligible for election at the yearly Congress in the Spring. For more information see the newly updated Philly Socialists website (phillysocialists.org) and navigate to the constitution to read about the other Central Committee positions, their responsibilities, and the overall structure of the organization.

You don’t need to have experience to run. If you have the drive, the rest of the committee will support you and help you get a handle on your role. It’s a learn as you go kind of job. And there’s no penalties for messing up. We learn with every failure.

If you think this job might be for you, it probably is!

If members and the projects they create are the lifeblood of the organization, then the Central Committee is its heart; it keeps us honest and focused, it motivates us to reach further and try harder. The internal democracy of our organization is not outside us, it must be lived by us lest we succumb to autocracy and the cult of personality. It is prefigurative politics at its most pure: living the democracy we so dearly desire.