Dear Seattle Peoples Party Membership & Community -
Thank you for your patience as we strive to figure out the best way to develop a new local party that is firmly connected to grassroots movements and marginalized communities. A party which is transparent, accountable, and intersectional. A party which partners with its membership and community to effectively dismantle unjust oppressive systems and institutions while simultaneously building ones that are just and equitable. A party which partners with local candidates for elected office who share our values to amplify the voices of underrepresented communities in electoral politics.
Since the 2017 Seattle mayoral election we have continued meeting regularly as the CORE team, registered as a 501(c)(4), hosted numerous events including two general assemblies, a citywide district team training, two citywide district team zoom training sessions, partnered twice with TransparenSEA to advocate for Seattle council appointments, and joined with multiple organizations on grassroots efforts including a study for a municipal bank, the No New Youth Jail moratorium, convincing the City to file a suit against big oil, and the Green New Deal.
Currently, we have 82 members and $15,023.36 in our bank account. We have used our financial resources for space rentals, general assemblies, community trainings, and food. We do not, at the moment, have the resources to equitably pay an administrative staff member to help run the organization. Such resources would greatly increase our capacity to serve and we aim to achieve this in the coming year.
We had hoped to be better structured with a paid staff member by the 2019 election cycle to interview candidates, develop a voters guide, host an assembly, and door knock with our membership. It is important to remember that each CORE member is a volunteer. In addition to working our full-time jobs we are all individually involved in grassroots movement work with groups such as the No New Youth Jail Campaign, the Green New Deal, CID Coalition #HumbowsNotHotels, Budget for Justice, and Asians4BlackLives. Many of our CORE members are also in direct service work or community service with organizations such as Estelita’s Library, Life Enrichment Bookstore, Mazaska Talks, WA-BLOC, Corner Greeters, the Rainier Beach Action Coalition, Creative Justice, and the Youth Consortium.
Tomorrow - on August 22, 2019 - some of our members will volunteer with the first Youth Consortium Candidate Forum at Seattle City Hall. The Youth Consortium is led, coordinated, and implemented by young people who are between the ages of 16-24 and are predominately youth of color from South King County. Young people between the ages of 18-35 are in one of the largest and yet most inactive voting populations. Many young people say they do not vote because they do not feel like their vote matters and/or they do not believe the candidates represent their needs, concerns and interests. The Youth Consortium Forum aims to change this!
This fall the SPP CORE will embark on a 48 hour retreat where the primary focus will be to develop our 3, 6, 9 and 12-month mile-markers for 2020. It is of the utmost importance to us that SPP thrive as a local party. We need to figure out our goals, our intersectional and equitable democratic process, and how to increase our capacity for service and organizing--especially during local elections.
The retreat will be on September 6th and 7th. Two weeks after the retreat we will release an official 2020 mile-marker plan and the date of our next general assembly. We look forward to continuing to build with you all the vision and work of the Seattle Peoples Party. We know it is not easy waiting for this vision to come to full fruition, but it is essential that we are intentional about how we build SPP so that it can be healthy, thriving, just, and long-lasting.
In Solidarity,
SPP Board
Aretha Basu, President
Jerrell Davis, Secretary
Edwin Lindo, Treasurer
CORE Team
KL Shanon
Nikki Etienne
Yin 英 Yu
Olivia Smith
KJ Moon
Ayan Musse
Jackie Vaughn
Nikkita Oliver
