Progressive Democrats meet in San Luis Obispo
Ventura County member describes group’s “inside/outside” strategy
By Susan Zannos 07/05/2007
As Plato noted 2,500 years ago, “Good men who do not concern themselves with public affairs will be ruled by evil men.” To end the rule of evil men in America, over a thousand progressive democrats met after the Democratic Convention in July, 2004 to hold the first convention of the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA).
Three years later, the PDA has grown dramatically. Angry with the Blue Dog Democrats in Congress who have rolled over and played dead for their Republican trainers by granting Bush a blank check for Iraq funding, California PDA leaders met in San Luis Obispo on a beautiful June weekend to plan their strategy for turning the country around.
Taking Amtrak trains from the Oregon border in the north and San Diego in the south increased the available informal meeting time by several hours as more members boarded at each station. Riding the trains also furthered the PDA aim of combating global warming by minimizing the carbon footprints from members’ travel.
The southern contingent included Dr. Bill Honigman, California PDA chairman, who had practical advice for the Ventura Country PDA members boarding in Oxnard. The basic PDA strategy that Dr. Bill outlined is “inside/outside.”
The “inside” component requires working within the Democratic Party, no matter how disgusted and disillusioned with it one may justifiably be. By attending Democratic county committee meetings and vying for seats on those committees, and by being active in local Democratic clubs such as the Oxnard Greater Oxnard Organization of Democrats, PDA members plan to revitalize the party with an active grassroots base that will challenge those incumbent members of Congress who have been content to beg for crumbs from Republican tables.
“Any Democrat who doesn’t remember the message of ’06 will pay the price in ’08,” said
Dr. Jo Olsen, a member from Los Angeles and also co-chair of the State Progressive Democratic Caucus
The “Outside” component of PDA strategy was vividly represented by enthusiastic Code Pink Police who met the trains at the San Luis Obispo station. Code Pink is an organization of women for peace. The local members wore black cardboard riot shields emblazoned with hot pink logos over black uniforms as they assisted with transportation between the train station and the hotel where the PDA meetings were held.
“Part of it is wearing costumes and having fun,” one of the Code Pink leaders said, “but what can we do? Action is not optional. It’s obligatory.”
PDA’s “Outside” strategy involves co-operation with the many activist groups — peace groups, environmental groups, social justice groups — who share the same goals. The five priority issues of PDA are actually a single crucial issue:
1. End the occupation of Iraq and redirect funding to human needs.
2. Implement universal health care.
3. Assure economic justice.
4. Guarantee clean, fair, transparent elections.
5. Stop global warming.
Activist author Norman Solomon brought his film, “War is Easy,” to the meeting in San Luis Obispo for screening on Saturday night. Based on Solomon’s book of the same title, this documentary includes footage from film archives of the last half century showing the repeated collaborations between presidents and the news media to force Americans to go to war again and again. It is a powerful and sobering film that will soon be available for showings in Ventura County.
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