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Several members are in Artists Equity and undertook to work in that organization and others were to see about joining. This was not done. Artists for Cultural Change was also slated for attention - and was virtually ignored. In addition there is a new Graphics Guild which many of us are eligible for. The time is now to reevaluate the feasibility for working in these orgs.

We have touched on the contributions the club has made to the Party as a service organization and, to a lesser extent, as contributors to to our paper and journals. In addition, individual members have made contributions as individuals to their unions, in their job situations, even in mass organizations. But there has been a minimum of club discussion about these activities, and not all of us are involved in extra-club, extra-Party work. We must have greater involvement by more of us in mass and interim orgs and there should be full idscussion [[discussion]] in the club of these activities. We should again go over the activities each of us engages in and evaluate our effectivenss.[[effectiveness]] And we should also discuss ways of working with and building relationships with other clubs.

And now we come to the question of club problems. I mentioned Gus' pinpointing discussions that wander from the agenda and the non-functioning of the exec so that meetings have not always been interesting and productive. Also previously mentioned was the fact that members do not have a sense of responsibility towards the club, its functioning and its activities. Not all members, of course -- you know who you are.

In addition, and of prime importance -- the club has not been successful in recruiting Black artists. We must seriously discuss why and how we can remedy the situation. We had a lengthy discussion about this, which we can go over at another time because the issue is a complex one. But several suggestions were made, among them and a priority is a meeting with the leadership of the State plus some Black comrades who are in cultural work.

3. We must try to bridge the feeling of disconnection with the rest of the Party, aside from our service work. We cannot condone the tendency on the part of some artists toward bourgeois elitism, the attitude that artists are special people with special needs, due special regard and should not be involved in collective or routine jobs. On the contrary, we must continue to strive for recognition by the Party, for the role cultural people can play in furthering the development of the Party graphically, visually, as theoreticians on cultural issues, as Party builders.

Which brings us to the project we have been working on for the past two years and which is more urgent now that ever. That is, to correct the lack of communication among the cultural forces of the Party and to stress the need for a cultural coordinator. In other workds [[words]], the Party needs a cultural commission. And since we are totally frustrated in our attempts to get any response from our contact on 26th Street, the exec has suggested that we approach the State leadership and offer to take the initiative in forming a group to go over cultural affairs. We see this group as a cultural section, and its function would be to help formulate policy on all programs from their inception so that culture (our area would be graphic art, but music, mass media, drama, etc. would be included) will be an integral part of them, not just a banner on the wall or a musical interlude between the second speaker and the pitch. There was an abortive attempt in this direction during the campaign, and even that had some positive results.