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Inside PDA

Vol. 1, No. 1--August 27, 2004

What do you do when you have a few spare minutes of time and want to take over the Democratic Party, reduce the military budget, take on the Pentagon, the CIA, and the State Department, revive a stagnant Congress, improve the economy, teach peace, and diminish the power of the military industrial complex? Why join PDA of course, because that's precisely what we intend to do.

Thanks to great volunteer help and financial support, PDA had a very successful launch in Boston. Representatives Barbara Lee, John Conyers, and Dennis Kucinich, Granny D, Medea Benjamin, Tom Hayden, former presidential candidate Howard Dean, and many other great progressive activists were on stage during the founding program. You can see some pictures on the PDA site. We will soon have videos and on line transcripts up and running on the web site as well.

We have already established a series of internal committees that report to the board and the Executive Director, Tim Carpenter, that are looking for volunteers. These include: database development, communication, newsletter, chapter development, fund raising, building local caucuses, political coalition-building, messaging, fieldwork, administrative/finance, communications/media. Our goal is to integrate all of the work we do into a cooperative volunteer intensive committee structure. If you want to get involved - please send a note to our Volunteer Coordinator at volunteer@pdamerica.org mentioning what your interests are and what contribution or skills you offer. Together we can make a change.

Our strategy is to build the "progressive wing of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party" and invite the other progressives to join our efforts. We are developing our longer-term work plan, garnering more endorsers and activists, and will be consulting with Congressional and progressive organizational allies to identify key legislative issues we will support. What makes us unique is our commitment to build progressive democratic caucuses in all 50 states and all 435 congressional districts.

What You Can Do

1. Volunteer on a Committee
2. Help establish local PDA chapters and progressive democratic caucuses
3. Volunteer to distribute PDA leaflets at peace rallies, union meetings, the Ani DiFranco tour, etc.
4. Tell others about PDA--urge them to "endorse"
5. Donate time and money--and urge your friends to do the same.

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