The African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) recently hosted the interest meeting for the African Internationalist Student Organization (AISO) in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Feb. 27 meeting consisted of a series of workshops aimed at equipping members of the AISO interim committee with the skills to better win students over into the AISO organization in preparation for the organization’s official founding conference to held in November.
The session began with a Political Education period in which attendees were presented with a video of Chairman Omali Yeshitela speaking about the role of students in the African Revolution today as well as in the past.
The first presentation of the day was made by Chimurenga Waller of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM), on various methods of community outreach. In this presentation, Waller explained the various methods of community outreach, like soap boxing, their pros, cons, and precautions that should be followed when implementing these methods. The objective of this workshop was to equip attendees with the knowledge needed to make outreach efforts more effective.
Following the outreach presentation, Sandy Thompson of the African People’s Solidarity Committee (APSC) gave a presentation on the media. Thompson explained the importance of understanding how the media could improve or inhibit the organizing efforts of an organization.
Due to the media’s influence on public opinion it is important that representatives of an organization take precautions to protect the image of the organization, as well as their own. If used properly, an organization can spread propaganda that will win over community support as well as other forces who can aid in the organization’s cause.
Students are often informed by various forms of media, especially electronic media. In terms of AISO, the media could be an invaluable tool in spreading propaganda for the organization to win over new members as well as other organizations within the Uhuru movement.
Other workshops and presentations included a review of the progress made by the interim committee’s internet and propaganda committees.
In this portion of the meeting, committee members discussed changes and updates to be made to improve the AISO web site and social networking sites in order to win more students to the organization.
AISO currently has profiles on Twitter, Facebook, Blackplanet, Myspace, and Ning, along with its own official web site. Supporters and students interested in joining AISO are encouraged to visit the official AISO web site and send friend invites to the AISO profiles on each of the social networking sites for updates leading up to the founding conference.
