In Attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:06 PM

1. Event Reviews – Trekkies For Justice was a bust. We fell short on promoting it, and that could’ve been the cause. We’re probably taking the summer off as far as Trekkies goes. We also tabled at Lincoln Earth Day. We don’t go with the objective to make money, but we did break even on the table. Introduced ourselves to a lot of people, a lot of people remembered us – it went pretty well!

2. Upcoming Event – We’re hosting DSA’s study group on Wednesday. We just need to straighten up the room.

3. Tabling Opportunity – We have been invited to table at a neighborhood resource fair, on May 6th from 10 am to 2 pm at the F Street Rec Center. Jackson will be available to table, and Ty thinks he will be available, so we’ll go for it.

4. May Day – The May Day committee met yesterday. There’s a pretty good chance that it might rain, so we’ll need to make sure that the room is set up nicely on Sunday for if the May Day picnic gets moved to the House. The official call will be at 8 pm on Saturday night. We’ve also committed to bringing lemonade, and maybe some other things as the need pops up.

5. Next Week – May Day is next week! Since there is a strong possibility we are going to Omaha to participate in the May Day rally there, we will cancel our weekly meeting.

6. Summer Calendar –

June:
Possibly an article discussion, though it could be swapped for the discussion in August. Jackson mentioned “10 things every white teacher should know when talking about race” but he feels the points made were general enough that they could apply to anyone. (https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/truth-for-teachers-podcast/10-things-every-white-teacher-know-talking-race/)
Late June – Something for queer pride to commemorate anniversary of Stonewall riots. “Before Stonewall” is an option.

July:
Ty mentioned “They Live” as a possible movie night. Jackson brought up that someone at DSA was also interested in showing similar films, and we will ask if they would like to potentially collaborate on an event.
Saturday, July 1st, 1-3 PM?: Discussion (maybe a panel) on capitalism’s and white supremacy’s influence on the founding of the United States.

August:
Early August – Remembrance of the atomic bombings of Japan. Suggestions to tie to Fukushima nuclear disaster. “Fukushima Uncensored” was available in full online. Jackson also brought up “White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Still considering “In This Corner of the World” and “Yunagi City, Sakura Country.”
What is Anarchism?
Monday, August 21st, 7 PM – Sama’s concert

Possible Conflicts:

Friday, June 7th (Ty’s having surgery, and will be on the mend for 2 weeks); Sunday, June 11th (Pride March); Star City Pride (a Friday/Saturday in July? Maybe 8th/9th?); June 3rd and 24th are days Jackson will be likely at work.

Discussion is tabled to next week.

Meeting adjourned: 8:21 PM

Tabled items: Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop), Summer Calendar

In Attendance: Jackson (moderator), James, Ty (secretary), Wyatt
Start time: 7:01 PM

1. Upcoming Events – There’s a Star Trek showing of Friday! That’ll be easy to set up. Then we are tabling at the Lincoln Earth Day event with Joe, and he’ll most likely give us a ride to the event. We’ll have some buttons and zines available for distribution, as well as three folding chairs.

2. May Day – There has been efforts to make an event happen for May Day. It’s still a work-in-progress, but there’s going to be another event at the Commons this Tuesday at 7 pm to talk about it further. Jackson is planning to attend, and James is going to try to attend as well.

3. Summer Calendar – Jackson proposes one open discussion and one film screening per month, plus one reading discussion to make a total of 8 events for the calendar, including the concert.

June:
Late June – Something for queer pride to commemorate anniversary of Stonewall riots. “Before Stonewall” is an option.

July:
Saturday, July 1st, 1-3 PM?: Discussion (maybe a panel) on white supremacy’s influence on the founding of the United States.

August:
Early August – Remembrance of the atomic bombings of Japan. Suggestions to tie to Fukushima nuclear disaster. “Fukushima Uncensored” was available in full online. Jackson also brought up “White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Still considering “In This Corner of the World” and “Yunagi City, Sakura Country.”
Monday, August 21st, 7 PM – Sama’s concert

Unscheduled:
What is Anarchism? Open discussion

Possible Conflicts:

Friday, June 7th (Ty’s having surgery, and will be on the mend for 2 weeks); Sunday, June 11th (Pride March); Star City Pride (a Friday/Saturday in July? Maybe 8th/9th?) — Jackson will also likely have work on one or two Saturdays in June… he’ll get back with dates next week (for real this time!).

Discussion is tabled to next week.

Meeting adjourned: 8:21 PM

Tabled items: Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop), Summer Calendar

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), James, Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – The Coming Repression and Standing Up Against Street Harassment were events we had last week. They were great events, but we wish they had better turnouts. Still had good discussions with the ~8 people that were at each event.

2. Upcoming Event – How The Democrats are Fracking the Left is coming up on Saturday. We talked about structuring the event and moderating strategies, and points that we want to discuss. We wanted to focus on real-world examples, and what to do about that Democrat co-opting movements.

3. Meadowlark Cuba Event – Joe sent us a flier for the Meadowlark panel of people who will be going to Cuba over May Day. He asked us to post it onto our Facebook page, which we’re cool with doing.

4. Book Reimbursement – Jackson bought a book, “Is Socialist Revolution in the U.S. Possible?” He’d like to donate it to the library. It cost $5, and we approve reimbursing him for it.

5. Donation – Jackson proposes donating to the Omaha GDC for legal expenses for the protesters arrested on March 25th. We going to donate $50 to them.

6. Earth Day – Jackson used the wrong email to register for Lincoln Earth Day. Ty will get in touch with them to get that registration updated.

7. Yard Sale – Due to the major construction happening on 16th street, we will likely not have any traffic hitting up our yard sale. We have determined that the sale itself will be postponed until construction gets to a point where traffic is allowed through again. Jackson proposes moving some higher end items on Craigslist, to bolster the treasury in the meantime. Further discussion on the item will be tabled. Soliciting for clothing donations for the Trans Clothing Swap, as well as the swap itself, will go on as scheduled.

Meeting adjourned: 8:39 PM

Tabled: Yard Sale

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – What is Fascism was on Saturday. We had a good turnout, but given the crowd that came, it didn’t have the approach to the topic that we intended. We figured that this was unavoidable.

2. Upcoming Event – “The Safety Pin and the Swastika” reading discussion is coming up. We’ll make 10 copies of the article for Saturday.

3. Reimbursement – Ty asks to be reimbursed for $12.87 for fliers. This was approved.

4. The Coming Repression -The presentation that the Houston speaker is going to give has been scheduled for March 28th at 7 PM. Fliers have been printed and will be posted around town. We will also send the image to Ju Ping so he can send out a good notification on the listserv. We will also put $100 into our speaker’s fund for this event.

5. Books – We ended up buying $211.93 on books from Monthly Review Press. We also approve transferring $200 from the general treasury to the library treasury to cover these costs. Jackson used his funds to pay up front, and he has been approved for reimbursal.

6. Lincoln Earth Day – The booth has been paid for! Jackson has been approved to be reimbursed $35 to cover the costs.

7. Web Events – The April discussion event is live, and the Little Red Singalong event page needs to be put up soon to start gathering interested musicians. We will postpone the sale and clothing swap events being put up until next week

Meeting adjourned: 8:16 PM

Tabled items: Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Milla, Nancy, Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:01 PM

1. Event Review: We showed the “Far Beyond The Stars” episode, and it didn’t really get a good turnout.

2. Upcoming Event: We’re going to showing Women in Red Stockings! It’s an easy setup, we’ll be ready to go.

3. Reimbursement: After fliering, Jackson will be reimbursed $20 and Ty will be reimbursed $6.

4. Fliering: Ty will be putting up fliers before First Friday.

5. Lincoln Earth Day: Lincoln Earth Day sent out an email, asking for booth registrations. Ty will send an email to make sure our continued use of the non-profit price is ok.

6. Community Center Questions: Someone emailed us some questions about how to run a community center similar to ours. Ty forwarded the email to Jackson, who was better prepared to answer those.

7. Bystander Intervention Workshop: Rae contacted us regarding the name; she agreed that the name should be something different, but proposed the more general “Standing Up Against Harassment” as the title. She also created a poster, and though we already have the calendar printed with street harassment in the name, we’ll go ahead with billing it as “Standing Up Against Harassment” from now on.

8. Discussion Article: Ju Ping sent us an article that could maybe prompt discussion. Nancy also suggested an article to read regarding America and its relation to terrorist groups. Jackson’s interested in doing further article reading groups, but wants to see if this first discussion group goes well.

9. Taiwan Marriage Equality: Tabled

10. Stuff to Buy: Tabled

11. Graphic Design: Tabled

12. Web Events: The Fascism event needs going up tonight. Other March events need going up soon, as well as our fundraiser and clothing swap.

Meeting adjourned: 8:33 PM

Tabled items: Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Taiwan Marriage Equality Fundraiser, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, whiteboard, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ju Ping, Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:02 PM

1. Event Review – We had a very good discussion on imperialism on Saturday. We still need to work on our moderation skills! Ju Ping also thinks that we can avoid putting people on the spot for discussion points if we ask for ideas ahead of times via the event pages or mailing list.

2. Upcoming Event – We have a movie coming up on Saturday! The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution will be playing and the room just needs to be set up for that.

3. Crimethinc Tour – We likely have space to put them up for two nights, and we could definitely do our traditional radical pasta feed for them. We’re also planning to donate $100 to them to help cover touring expenses.

4. Spring Calendar:

March
Saturday, March 4th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Women in Red Stockings (A documentary about the 1975 Women’s General Strike in Iceland)
Second week of March: Preparing For The Trump Era Crimethinc tour
Saturday, 1-3 PM: What is Fascism? (a community discussion)
Saturday, 1-3 PM: “The Safety Pin and the Swastika” reading discussion

April
Saturday, April 1, 1-3 PM: Bystander intervention workshop with UNL PREVENT
Friday, April 21, 7-10 PM: Trekkies For Justice: “Force of Nature” (TNG)
Saturday, April 22: Lincoln Earth Day

May
Monday, May 1: May Day/International Worker’s Day march?
Friday, May 12, 8 AM – 6 PM, and Saturday, May 13, 8 AM – 1 PM: The Black Cat House Yard Sale Fundraiser
Sunday, May 14, 12 PM – 5 PM: Trans Clothing Swap
7-10 PM: Whovians For Justice: “The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion”

Little Red Singalong: Either April or May

Not scheduled: Movie Night: Harlan County, USA, discussion on what an anti-capitalist culture looks like, discussion on stopping liberals/Democrats from co-opting direct action, Movie Night: Attack the Block, Movie Night: Battleship Potemkin, Movie Night: Strike, Movie Night: Persepolis

Future documentary to consider: Radio Kobani

Blocked out days: April 15, April 29 from 12 PM – 3 PM
Days Ty will not be there: March 11, March 25-29

Meeting adjourned:  8:16 PM

Tabled items: Spring Calendar, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, whiteboard, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

Group definitions of imperialism:
– highest stage of capitalism (as in Lenin’s book on the subject of imperialism)
– control exerted by a state against other states (outside or within its borders)
– two key words: dominance and extraction
– Revisionist, delusional “Manifest Destiny”

Dictionary definition: a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force. (Addition to this: through economics as well)

Lenin’s summary of imperialism: A capitalist nation will always inevitably seek more power outside its borders after a certain level of power. Capitalism must grow or die. But in the hands of apologists, this definition can be used to excuse actions against nations by the Soviet Union and others which were considered not capitalist.

Lenin’s response to imperialism: for the class-conscious worker (and their allies) to oppose the capitalist rulers of their own countries. Agreement on this point, but to also create alternative forms of self-governance that can resist reinstatement of capitalism.
– A leftist reclamation of “state’s rights:” smaller communities have the right to govern themselves in the way that makes sense for them. Conservative U.S. has used this to exert homophobic and misogynist policies, but the same concept can be used to resist imperialist and fascist efforts by federal governments.
– Communalism and other forms of bottom-up organization: Kurds, Zapatistas

It is debatable whether the United States is a sovereign nation, due to corporate influence. But it always was an imperialist one in its method of dominance and extraction of resources over other nations.

How do you argue against the revisionist history of United States exceptionalism?
– Talk about politics! Don’t be “polite” at the dinner table and discuss the history of U.S. imperialism. Talk frankly about Grenada, Vietnam, and the history of our own U.S. states (Texas, Hawaii, etc.), for example.
– The United States claim to fight the wars they do for “democracy” and “human rights,” when looking into the goals and actions of the U.S. suggests anything but.
– Also religion and nationalism as motivations of empire.
– Not exclusive to Western empire. Japan organized Shinto in its imperialist formation to be more akin to Christianity, and include worship to the emperor in their worship of gods.
– “Nationalism is isolationist xenophobia described as a virtue.”
– The U.S. population in general supports universal health care, not going to war, and many other progressive ideals regardless of what hate-mongering propaganda has told them to believe – so there is hope.
– Start thinking outside established capitalist parties (who are working in the interests of a small elite) and for your own interests and in the interests of your communities and other working class people.

Further reading on related subjects:
– Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by Vladimir Lenin
– The Common Cause: Creating Race and Nation in the American Revolution by Robert Parkinson
– An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
– Wobblies & Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History by Andrej Grubačić and Staughton Lynd
– Capitalism’s World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium by Jack Barnes
– Washington’s Assault on Iraq: Opening Guns of World War III by Jack Barnes
– 1945: When U.S. Troops Said ‘No!’ by Mary-Alice Waters

In Attendance: Jackson (moderator), James, Ju Ping, Ty (secretary)
Start time:  7:05 PM

1. Antifa Donation – We made a donation to the medical fund of the worker in Seattle who got shot in the stomach by a neo-nazi. It was a $120 donation, but Jackson is only asking reimbursement for $50 of it, as the rest of the funds came from direct donations. We approved this.

2. Web Reimbursement – We needed to make another payment of $27.87 to Bluehost, for a year of our domain name and domain privacy. We approved reimbursement.

3. Mailing List – Ju Ping set up our email mailing list, thank you, Ju Ping! The rest of us present signed up for it, and we have a link that we can share to encourage others to follow our news there.

4. Library Books – Jackson reports that there is money in the library treasury. He also reports four books he found that he’d like to donate to the library, one of which is a young adult/older children’s book. He’d like $19 to reimburse the cost of all of them, which we approve. Ju Ping also points out a few ebooks that are free on AK Press’s website right now for our digital collection.

5. Spring Calendar Planning –
Possible spring events:
March

April
Saturday, April 22: Lincoln Earth Day tabling

May
Monday, May 1: May Day/International Worker’s Day march

Not scheduled: “The Safety Pin and the Swastika” article reading discussion, bystander intervention workshop with UNL PREVENT, Movie Night: Harlan County, USA, discussion on what an anti-capitalist culture looks like, discussion on stopping liberals/Democrats from co-opting direct action, Movie Night: Attack the Block, Doctor Who two-part episode: “The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion,” Movie Night: Battleship Potemkin, Movie Night: Strike, Little Red Singalong

Blocked out days: April 15
Days Ty will not be there: March 11, March 25-29

Meeting adjourned:  8:44 PM

Tabled items: Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, whiteboard, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ju Ping, Ty (secretary)

Start time: 7:14 PM

1. Event Review – We showed Star Trek V, which was during very dangerous conditions outside, so we only had one guest. We might run it again, it was a good discussion with the three of us who were there. Ju Ping suggests making food to make the trip especially worth it to people.
2. Upcoming Events – This Saturday is the NoDAPL discussion. We just got the event up on the Facebook and website today. However, we’ve gotten a good response already and have a few other people who said that they’d come that have also been at the North Dakota camps. Ju Ping will also contact someone he knows who organizes the local NoDAPL rallies.

We also got a message through our Facebook group about the cybersecurity workshop. We’re going to put up the event pages for that event tonight.

The Walk For Life Counter-Protest is next week! Ju Ping will also advertise about that. We need to schedule some Facebook posts, and see about hosting a sign-making party. Ju Ping also volunteered to make curry for that as well! We also need to set up child care services for that day.

3. Laptop Update – We have another laptop that doesn’t charge. Jackson will take it into his workplace to get it diagnosed, to see whether it is worth fixing.

We also need to figure out a replacement hard drive for the public laptop. Ju Ping will send more info on getting an inexpensive one to Jackson to purchase. He’s also looking into a better router for us.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled items: Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, whiteboard, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)