Organizing Community Based groups
OK, York County has almost no local branches of national groups. I think this stinks, for many of these national organizations have great positions, and a reputation that can help. For example, if there are Greens in the League of Women Voters, and they approach the Rock Hill Herald, Fort Mill Times, Lake Wylie Pilot, Clover Herald/Yorkville Enquirer and the local public TV station about sponsoring debates between the various candidates, there ain’t no WAY they are going to keep Greens out.
So, here is the beginning of a list of national organizations with no local chapters. If you’re interested in looking into setting up a local group of one or more of these folks, just drop me a line and I’ll help, or contact them directly, and let us know what’s going on.
The South Carolina League of Women Voters has no York County chapter.
Neither does Common Cause
The ACLU has no local group.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has no York County Chapter.
The National Council of La Raza has on office in West Columbia. They might be willing to help us organize in that community.
Physicians for a National Healthcare Policy doesn’t have a South Carolina Chapter but claims to have contacts in every state.
Amnesty International has an Atlkanta office responsible for covering South Carolina but I didn’t see anything about local chapters.
Union of Concerned Scientists would be cool. My wife Nancy is a scientist. That’s one already!
Veterans for Peace has one contact listed, but I can’t help but thinking that a public gathering of a new group of Veterans for Peace would get at least a few. We’ve had several vets at our anti-war vigils.
ProChoice America has no chapter in South Carolina.
The National Organization for Women has four chapters in SC, but none in York County.
One of my faves, the War Resisters League
Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, and please leave a message if you can think of other national groups we could try to build locally.