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The first Thursday PDA field leadership call after the election drew over 100 activists from across the nation. We reviewed PDA’s engagement in the recent election, our successes, our disappointments, and some wide ranging initial speculation about the future direction of PDA. The range of options and issues to engage and focus our attention were vast:—a green economy, legislation such as the department of peace, coalition building, economic justice, single payer health care, election protection, free press, gay rights, Palestinian rights, Healthcare NOT Warfare groups, congressional district organizing. The issue of narrow focus versus broadly spreading our resources remains on the table.
In addition, a number of PDA activists have sent emails requesting that we focus on the Employee Free Choice Act and passing HR 676.
The various strategies PDA will try to pursue were also briefly reviewed, from chapter building and participation in PDA’s five Issue Organizing Teams (IOTs), to submitting articles for the website and spreading our message on blogs and forums. The vast range of ideas, the experience, the curiosity and political savvy of the participants in this call was truly inspiring.
Can PDA, as an organization, realistically expect to influence Obama’s cabinet choices? Probably not, but progressives are encouraged to go to www.change.gov and share their vision, particularly as they relate to Obama’s cabinet choices; read Obama’s Dream Team and check out the Backbone Campaign’s Progressive Cabinet. The Obama/Biden transition team launched the website yesterday, a first for a president-elect, and an effort that bodes well for transparency in the new administration and bottom-up grass-roots organizing.
What about closing Guantanamo on day one! Symbolic, important, doable.
Progressives seem to be in an expansive mood and are getting used to the revised political terrain on which we are operating. How do we get more people involved in issue and action groups, such as Healthcare NOT Warfare activism? How can we recruit Obama volunteers looking for a political home? This election has clearly sparked the interest of many. PDA is looking forward to the establishment of new chapters in Oklahoma and Georgia as a result of this call.
In December, PDA representatives will attend the United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ) meeting in Chicago, and is planning a national meeting and leadership conference for January—it is a forum every PDA activist should try to attend (details forthcoming).
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