Workers Party of Massachusetts

Workers Party MA Handbook

Table of Contents

Handbook on Forming New Locals

1. Introduction to candidate handbook

2. Goals of this tactic and acknowledgement of limitations

3. Requirements for Candidacy

• Legal requirements
• Party review of candidates prior to nomination

4. Responsibilities of a Candidate

5. Nomination papers

• Local responsibilities for canvassing: assignments / scheduling / goal setting
• Expectations from all party membership
• Motivating new volunteers
• List of historic strong places for signature gathering (10+ per hour avg)

6. Accountability

• Procedure if candidates not meeting expectations

7. Our candidate is on the ballot, great! Now what?

• Events, interviews, endorsements
• Interview guidelines
• How to use mailing lists to our advantage

8. Post-Election - New Membership, Official Party Status, Assessment

• Official party status
• Review and critique of work done

Lenin (1920)- A political party’s attitude towards its own mistakes is one of the most important and surest ways of judging how earnest the party is and how it fulfills in practice its obligations towards its class and the working people. Frankly acknowledging a mistake, ascertaining the reasons for it, analyzing the conditions that have led up to it, and thrashing out the means of its rectification—that is the hallmark of a serious party

Marx (1850)- Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention. They must not be led astray by the empty phrases of the democrats. 

Handbook on Forming New Locals

What’s a Local?

The backbone of our organization and its work is Locals, as defined in article IV of the Workers Party constitution. Locals are made up of at least 3 party members, occupy a defined area, meet at least once a month, and carry out political work in a manner consistent with our principles, program, and political orientation. The SOC votes on proposals for the establishment, alteration of territory, or dissolution of locals. 

Some of the work that Locals perform is recruiting new members, raising funds for local expenses not related to electoral work, entering coalitions as representatives of the Party, issuing statements on behalf of their local organizations, publishing local newsletters, and establishing a social media presence. Neighboring locals can establish joint committees to focus on specific areas of political work and to coordinate activity between each other. 

Each Local will elect an executive committee of at least 3 people to organize monthly meetings, take notes and maintain records, handle local finances, run social media, maintain communications, and make emergency decisions between meetings. The executive committee shall elect a treasurer whose duty it is to collect dues and handle the Local’s finances.

So now that we laid out what a local is, how do we get started forming a new one?

The first step is ensuring that you have at least 3 people who are willing to commit to a monthly meeting.  These original 3 members will form the executive committee of the Local, and must perform the duties of the executive. When there are more members, executives must be elected by the members of that Local. 

Meeting Space

Once these three people are all on board with accepting these responsibilities, the SOC will work with the newly forming local to secure a meeting space where monthly in-person meetings can take place. This will be done via a secure communication channel like signal. A good meeting space will be public, inclusive, and accessible. We recommend against holding meetings in a private residence because it can discourage new members from attending and leads to unnecessary risk for the both host and the Party at large. Some examples of a suitable meeting space would be a public library, a coffee shop, activism center, maybe search local nonprofits or community centers. Make sure the members of your Local can afford the monthly meeting space costs.

Recruitment

Now that you have your meeting space, you need to fill it with more members. Advertise however you can. Establish an online presence specifically for your local–facebook, twitter, discord–whatever you can leverage to get the word out. Hand out leaflets, put up posters, spread the word to people you know and meet. The SOC will give up-to-date examples of recruitment material from any and all of the other Locals. This information includes start and end times, location, a brief call to action, and maybe some description of the party.

The Work

Locals should be prepared to educate, perform political activity, and collect signatures during election season. The foundation of this is that every member of the Local must be fully familiar with the Party Program. Locals will host text readings, share relevant news, attend protests as a group, and recruit new members together. executives will attend monthly SOC meetings where representatives from each local meet to discuss their ongoing work. Sometimes it’s useful to gather basic supplies for this work. Maybe have someone keep a running list of supplies like tables, signs, pickets, tape, staplers, flags, etc. 

Meetings

For your first in-person meeting, there are a few things you’ll need to prepare. Start with creating an agenda which you will use to create minutes for the meeting. Here’s a template we often use: 

-Intros

-Review minutes of last meeting

-State committee updates

-Reports back since last meeting

-Election work

-Convention stuff 

-Any upcoming events

-New business

-Review any decisions and plan new business

Publish the agenda using a secure method to all the members of the Local so that they can have input on what needs to be covered. 

The Local will need to decide on a chair for each meeting. The chair makes sure the meeting follows the agenda, and must do so in a respectful but assertive manner. Ensure that attendees understand that each person will be heard, but that discussion will have to remain on topic and brought up at the correct times according to the agenda. Generally allow for plenty of off-topic discussion before and after meetings, as the agenda should be designed to cover everything as efficiently as possible. Long meetings and drawn-out unproductive discussions drain organizing energy.

On odd numbered years (in between election cycles) the party holds an in person convention typically in Worcester where we review our last year’s activity, make amendments to the party program, and lay out a general plan for the coming years. 

Onboarding / Orientation

First, ensure you are familiar with the Workers Party program. We all agree to this when we join the party. Soon after joining, you should be comfortable with being able to converse about the party’s positions on the issues outlined in it. 

Every member should be able to articulate the basic principles of marxism (ex. Bourgeois v Proletariat, labor theory of value, dialectical materialism), and be able to explain our party’s strategy on electoral work. Please work with members of your Local for any questions or help with these steps. 

When we are not meeting in person, we do the majority of our organizing through secure lines of communication. Please download and register an account on Signal where we’ll add you to your Local’s chat. From there, we’ll do the majority of our organizing and post about our (usually) monthly local meetings.

Please come to meetings ready to converse–we’ll talk strategy, reports back from your individual work, upcoming events relevant to our Party’s work, etc. 

WPMA currently has locals in the following areas:

South of Boston, Cambridge, Attleboro

Your entire Local will need to collect signatures during our election runs. Please make sure to commit significant time during election season to contribute to our efforts.

Each member is expected to pay dues. Money is necessary for our party to function and we can’t do that without individual donations. Monthly donations to the PAC can be set up using the website and the max is $40 per month in order to not go over the annual limit

[End of Handbook on Forming New Locals]

Ch. 1 - Introduction to candidate handbook

Founded in 2020, the Workers Party of Massachusetts is working to build the necessary organization in order to promote socialist ideals, educate and train our party members, and to begin the transition away from capitalism. Our understanding of the current climate in the US is that left politics are too strongly concentrated in urban areas and in the ivory towers of university campuses and the intelligentsia. Our goal is to offer a way to bring the working class into the movement. The purpose of this handbook is to collect all the important information regarding our electoral work into one easy to navigate place. The Workers Party engages in a variety of tactics to agitate, educate, and organize the working class, but for the purpose of this handbook, we will keep this focused on our electoral work.

Ch. 2 -Goals of this tactic and acknowledgement of limitations

Of the types of work that we engage with, participation in bourgeois elections is the most “controversial” among certain “leftists” here in the United States. If you’ve made it this far already, then you are most likely already intimately familiar with the work “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder written by Lenin where it is written: 

...it has been proved that, far from causing harm to the revolutionary proletariat, participation in a bourgeois-democratic parliament, even a few weeks before the victory of a Soviet republic and even after such a victory, actually helps that proletariat to prove to the backward masses why such parliaments deserve to be done away with; it facilitates their successful dissolution, and helps to make bourgeois parliamentarianism “politically obsolete”. 

If you haven’t read that work at this point, do it now. I believe that Lenin quote sums up our goals succinctly. 

We acknowledge that there are large swathes of disenfranchised people in the U.S. (due to both racist immigration law and carceral system in general) who are stripped of their voting rights, amongst other significant and cruel restrictions on navigating life. This group mostly consists of minorities who have the most to gain from the disposal of capitalism and, because of their specific targeting for recruitment into supporting the system, must be reached through specific tactics.

Ch. 3 - Requirements for Candidacy

This link has the legal requirements for candidates. https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/elections/download/getting-on-the-ballot/How-to-Run-for-Office.pdf 

Party approval process begins with an assessment by the State Organizing Committee–henceforth referred to as the SOC–of the candidate(s). The SOC will discuss the candidate’s knowledge of communist theory generally, party program specifically, and the candidate’s capacity for public speaking or willingness and ability to gain a proficiency in public speaking. A candidate’s conflict resolution, intra-party communication, and leadership skills will also be evaluated. For a candidate to be considered, they must be registered under the Workers Party voter designation, and have been a regular participant in party educationals, meetings, and other events. Candidates will also be asked to submit links to their social media accounts for an evaluation, since all aspects of a candidates life will be placed under scrutiny by outsiders once our campaigns start to gain traction. It may be required for the candidate to submit a work history list, and personal references so that the SOC can have a better idea of the candidate’s consistency with responsibilities and character.

After this consideration process, the SOC will vote on approving the candidate, which is carried by unanimous approval

Ch. 4 - Responsibilities of a Candidate

Candidates are the spearhead of our election tactic. Generally speaking they should be the most highly educated and most trained members of the party and will have many responsibilities above and beyond other party members during an electoral campaign. The party will provide everything it can to assist the candidate, but to retain party support candidates must show initiative day-in and day-out, continually demonstrating their seriousness as a candidate. Seriousness is shown through effective conflict resolution, proposing and following through with plans, keeping promises, and maintaining clear communication with the party in both intentions and actions. Nothing short of complete transparency and honesty will be tolerated. We recognize that there will be mistakes and not everything will go to plan, but effective communication and trust in your fellow comrades will keep us on track. 

It should be noted that these qualities are expected of all party members, it is just doubly important for candidates who will be actively promoted as representatives of the party, and it is ineffective for the party to put either material or political support behind an unserious candidate

Candidates campaign on our program and will be expected to regularly read and reference the program during an electoral run. The program is of such importance because it represents the collective knowledge of the organization and has been developed over the course of the years since the party’s inception. 

Each candidate that is fielded must select an official treasurer who will sign off on the required official forms for the state and assist the candidate with reporting political donations and similar activities. Historically, most of this work has been done by the candidate themselves but the treasurer is still legally required. Certain campaigns will need more involvement from the treasurer, but no matter what, it is an easy role to fill. A candidate’s treasurer is not required to be a party-member, as long as they receive SOC approval.. The treasurer must complete a short online training through the OCPF found here - https://ocpf.us/municipal/treasurertrainings. 

Ch. 5 - Nomination Papers

Now that we have made it this far, it is necessary to gather signatures from people who are registered voters in the state.

It is important for each local to submit actionable goals to the SOC, schedule and assign people to high-traffic locations on at least a weekly basis, and for local members to hold each other accountable if these goals are not met. Each local will be assigned a number of historically strong locations that must be covered by members every weekend and ideally throughout the week as well. Candidates are to be held even more responsible than regular cadre members when it comes to signature gathering and if commitments are not met, if promises are not kept, or if performance is lacking, there will be a serious review done by the state organizing committee. If the candidate is not forthcoming about issues of performance or communication, support will be withdrawn. (The exact process for this will be laid out in another chapter of this handbook). 

Local leadership will also be tasked with mobilizing new volunteers as the campaign goes on. This is best facilitated by hosting small events where new volunteers can meet the candidate(s) in a casual setting  where issues can be discussed and new volunteers can have a more solid idea of who they are supporting with their petitioning efforts. The Cambridge local, for example, hosted a public meet-and-greet with our candidate at a local anti-zionist coffee house. After events like this, locals should be clearly communicative of plans for coordinated petitioning and every effort should be made to coordinate for team petitioning with new members so they can be shown the ropes and can have the opportunity to get comfortable with the process while having the support of local leadership there in person if any issues arise. Once new members have been out once or twice like this, they should be comfortable getting out on their own so that their effectiveness can be maximized and we can have coverage at more locations on any given day. 

In our 2024 election results we have shown that  we are more than capable of getting on any ballot initiative in MA requiring 10,000 signatures, though it is a concerted, party-wide effort to do so. Growing the party is therefore paramount to supporting more candidates in a more efficient way in the future. The following is a previously prepared document to aid petitioners through the process of gathering:

2024 Workers Party of Massachusetts Canvassing Advice

Intro:

In the course of gathering signatures, some of us have learned through trial and error what generally  does and does not work. This document was created to attempt to answer some frequently asked questions, help to avoid pitfalls we encountered in the past, and to offer some advice from experienced canvassers. As a collaborative document, we can use this to input good locations, types of stores/events that work well, and other strategies and tactics to maximize efficiency during these next few months of gathering.

Conduct:

We are not out here to debate people. The primary purpose of canvassing is to collect the number of signatures we need to get our candidates on the ballot. Secondarily, making our existence known is a welcome byproduct of this activity. You will interact with a wide variety of people from different political, social, and economic backgrounds. The way we conduct ourselves is an important part of being taken seriously as a political project. Here are a few points of general advice:

1. Take care to consider the community you are working in. Avoid needlessly vulgar or offensive language, and unnecessarily disruptive tactics such as yelling over to a group of people or blocking their way.
2. Most people we interact with are of a different political background than us. We are here to get candidates on the ballot, not debate socialism with passersby, or chat endlessly about current events. Develop strategies that work for you to disengage a distracting canvasee; e.g. I’d love to talk about this if you’re around later but I need to gather 100 more signatures before I can let myself commit to a conversation…
3. Assume good intent unless you have good reason to believe otherwise. Many people will say “not today”, “i’ll look into it”, or “maybe on the way out” when asked for a signature. Very often, this is a genuine response and they may actually sign later. Take no for an answer and move on.
4. Answer good faith questions honestly and to the best of your knowledge, but do not allow it to derail you from your task. It is absolutely ok to tell someone they are bothering you and ask to be left alone. When someone has a lot of questions about the party and what it stands for, it can be useful to have a link to the party program on hand to refer them to so they can research and come back once they feel informed.
5. Do not make assumptions based on appearance. Many people who may appear unwilling to sign for political or other reasons will gladly sign. We are all guilty of this, but you may be pleasantly surprised if you work to suppress these biases.

Strategies and Tactics:

• Don’t give up. Canvassing is hard, especially when starting, but it is extremely important to not get discouraged! 
• Don’t let a short period of no signatures discourage you from a location, but don't wait around for a long time with no results. 30 minutes of nothing here and there is perfectly normal.
• Always greet people as they approach the store, it is a great way to get people interested and engaged.
• Avoid addressing crowds, they will likely not hear you. Addressing individuals is far more effective. It is easy to ignore someone shouting to a big group, but more difficult to ignore a person talking directly to you, and you can sometimes get the whole group interested if you get one person’s attention
• Give the information that is necessary. Oftentimes all people need to hear is that a new independent option could be on the ballot, or that the current office holder is being challenged. It is not necessary to tell people off the bat that we’re communist or that we are against this or that other candidate. Some canvassers may develop a kind of baseline script, Hi there, interested in a quick campaign signature? or Collecting signatures for an independent candidate!
• Know when to stop talking. If someone is going to sign and isn't asking for more info, just allow them to sign. Many people will refuse or even cross out their completed signature if they hear something they don't like. When you get pen to paper, take the win. Try to stick to small talk like advice on filling out their signature. 
• Definitely be aware of the political attitude of an area. Just because an area is right leaning does not make it impossible to gather signatures. The “independent” or “running against a democrat” approach is best in this circumstance. In more liberal areas, many will be hesitant to sign as it “takes votes from democrats”. In this case telling them whether the candidate is running against a republican can work. Also asking them if it is true to their democratic values to prevent an independent from running can work. Again, mostly avoid further debate. Don’t spend too much time convincing hardline Republican and Democratic partisans however, as they are largely committed to their current stance, and unwilling to allow candidates outside the two party system onto ballots.
• Communicate with other party members constantly and develop your own tactics. Share what is working and what isn’t. Ask for advice–Where should I stand at this location? How do I deal with people who say X?--the party is here to help and we all want to get as many signatures as quickly as we can.

Regarding Locations:

-approach customer service and ask permission

-remain outside, and  >10ft from the entrances/exits

-take care to not prevent shoppers from going about their business, or to needlessly disrupt the business of the location

The following is a list of what’s worked and not worked for us:

The next page has a notice from the Secretary of The Commonwealth regarding signature gathering and may be helpful to have a copy of in case any owner or manager tries to tell you that you cannot gather signatures on their property

Ch. 6 - Accountability

In the event that a Workers Party candidate is not fulfilling their duties of:

• maintaining transparency
• showing individual initiative by collecting signatures
• communicating progress with paperwork/deadlines for filing
• helping the state organizing committee to coordinate efforts to table large events
• preparing to be interviewed by media as part of their campaign,

then the state organizing committee will have a collective right to immediate suspension of candidate support following a meeting with the candidate where a type of interview will take place. If the candidate is encountering honest shortcomings, and is able to explain why these weren’t communicated effectively, every effort will be made by the SOC to find a solution with the candidate providing they are forthcoming and willing to take on other responsibilities to make up for a certain area of inability. A unanimous vote by the SOC will be needed in order to suspend and then terminate support for the candidate if no solution is found. At this point, if the candidate is found to be acting in bad faith towards the party, a separate unanimous vote will be needed to remove them from the party

Ch. 7 - Our Candidates Are On The Ballot, Great! Now What?

We’ve done it. Just making it this far is a feat in and of itself so congratulations! But the work is not over. Just like any other political group, we have to use the platforms that we are able to access to spread our message, after all, that is the main goal of this work. Candidates should actively seek out platforms where they can be interviewed, along with regularly posting on social media accounts associated with the specific candidacy. Advertising is generally expensive but as the party grows it is something we can invest more in strategically. We should seek the endorsement of labor unions and other like-minded organizations as well. 

Talking to the Media 

When talking to the media it is important to stick to the party program, as the program is the agreed upon points that all candidates will be pulling from, thus our messaging can be consistent. Some media may be uniquely unfriendly towards a leftist candidate and may try to bait candidates with off-topic and inflammatory questions designed to create a sensational soundbite, so it is key to avoid traps and be clear and concise in your messaging. Strong knowledge of Marxist theory will be critical as a foundation of being interviewed as a socialist candidate, as well as sufficient preparation. 

Spend some time seeking out media and interviewers that would be most useful to the work. Consider audience size, a focus on local politics, etc. Avoid media platforms that will be entirely hostile to our cause if they do not have a significant audience base, this would be a waste of time and energy, however, even a hostile interview could be used to our advantage if it offers a significant platform and further legitimizes our party.

Before starting an interview, do some prep work. Find two or three key points from the program that you want to cover in the interview before it starts, and work your answers to draw the conversation back to those key points throughout the conversation. Consider who your audience is–who will be watching this interviewer’s program and what do you want to say to them? Is there an event coming up you want people to attend? Is there a donation drive? Do you want more members? Make sure to mention these in the interview if that is the case. There’s no need to be hostile yourself, and giving the media some content that makes you seem interesting will help set up future interviews, but don’t let them use you just for a clip. Avoid jargon: “Working class” is much more easily understood than “proletariat.” 

Breathe. Don’t get flustered. If you do, take a breath and steer the conversation back to comfortable talking points. You can ask the interviewer to repeat questions or say you need a second to consider your response. Speak slowly and confidently from the bottom of your diaphragm. Speaking from a strong theoretical base and personal principles will help the interviewee come off as genuine which the public will immediately recognize.

Voter Rolls

Voter rolls are a list of all registered voters and are available to candidates and PACs. Local candidates can request lists from the cities that are included in their district, usually from City hall. Statewide candidates and PACs can request a full state list. Lists can be used to understand the breakdown of voter demographics in a given area as well as leveraged for targeted mailings. Mailings can be targeted to enrolled members of the party and other political parties in the state (e.g., Socialist, Green, etc) and to Unenrolled voters in working class neighborhoods such as housing projects, low income apartments, and targeted areas based on the candidate’s personal knowledge of the area. Lists are sent in a text delimited file and need to be converted to excel for use. Labels can be bulk printed via a mail merge in a word processing program. 

Ch. 8 - Post-Election - New Membership, Official Party Status, Assessment

In order to become and then maintain official party status in MA, we must receive at least 3 percent of the entire vote cast for any statewide office. In 2010, for example, 2,319,963 votes (including blank votes) were cast for Attorney General of Massachusetts, meaning that a party seeking recognition would have needed to field a candidate for that office who won at least 69,599 votes. Alternatively, a political party can qualify for state recognition if at least 1 percent of all registered voters are enrolled as members of the party. This 3% of all votes must be maintained after that to maintain party status as it can be lost if we drop below that threshold.

Gaining official party status with the state would make it much easier for the public to register to vote with our party by placing the Workers Party with Democratic and Republican choices when registering. Also, it changes the laws under which we operate for campaign finance. It also allows us to form a state committee instead of just using the central PAC, which allows us to collect more campaign funds. Lastly, it raises the amount an individual can contribute from $500 to $5000 annually.

We probably have a significant number of people interested in joining the party which is great. This means new locals can be formed, or member request contact info can be forwarded to local leadership and onboarding. The more people involved with the party, the more candidates we can field every year, and the greater our political strength. 

The State Organizing Committee will also use this time for reflection and self criticism. What could we have done better and what did we do well? We should recognize our comrades’ exceptional work, and criticize where work was insufficient.  Above all in this process, criticism should be both given and taken with the utmost respect. It is not our goal to demean our comrades but to help sharpen their abilities so that our next step of work will be that much easier. Again, we must remember that people excel in different areas and that we are not in competition with one another, but with who we were yesterday. Constant improvement is imperative if we are to become the leadership of a serious political movement and we must take ourselves and the idea of improvement seriously. 

Reminder: This is not the end all be all of our party. This is a tactic in working towards socialist seizure of the state, appropriation of private property, and organized defense of the workers state.