Massachusetts Socialist Party prepares for November

By Nicole Jones

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The Socialist Party of Massachusetts (SPMA) held its annual State Convention in Worcester on Saturday. Seven members showed up at the Stone Soup Community Center, where they discussed the agenda for 2008.

The group encircled a pamphlet-covered coffee table to discuss the anti-war movement, International Women's Day, universal healthcare, this year's presidential election and how to expand the party's modest base (as of 2006, there were 176 registered Socialist voters in Massachusetts).

David Schaich is a soft-spoken Ph.D. student at Boston University and secretary of the Boston local, Socialist Party USA. "Our peak was in the teens and 20s," he says, referring to the 1920 presidential election when Socialist hero Eugene Debs ran his campaign from prison and received almost a million votes. "Then there was the whole Cold War. That kind of put a damper on socialism ... But I think we're making progress. To be honest, there's nowhere to go but up."

The SPMA's strategy for drumming up support revolves mostly around local protests and demonstrations. "We mix politics with grassroots activism," Schaich explains. "Despite how difficult it is for third parties, Massachusetts is one of the states where we can register as Socialists."

"Ballot access laws are totally crazy," says Susan Dorazio, an activist from Western Massachusetts who joined the party in 1995 after becoming "totally disillusioned" with the Democratic Party.

Vermont recently became the first state to officially recognize the Socialist Party's presidential ticket, Brian Moore and Stewart Alexander, which excites the SPMA. They will need to gather 10,000 signatures to have Moore/Alexander on the ballot in Massachusetts.

"We may not win this election. It's possible there may not be a Socialist president in 2008," concedes David Flynn, a chair on the Boston Local. "But Moore and Alexander have a lot of things to say."