PDA Activists Spur Historic Call to Exit Iraq / By: WRP [View All]

[Kevin Spidel]

Original Link here: http://www.pdamerica.org/articles/news/exit-iraq.php

By: William Rivers Pitt

This past weekend, at the California State Democratic Party Convention in Los Angeles, the largest gathering of state-party Democrats in the nation, activists with Progressive Democrats of America led by PDA Executive Director Tim Carpenter successfully lobbied 2,000 delegates to pass a resolution calling for the termination of the occupation of Iraq. The resolution included specific language demanding the withdrawal of American troops from that country. "The California Democratic party," reads the resolution in part, "calls for the termination of the occupation.of American troops in Iraq."

This victory is a powerful statement not only to the national Democratic party but to the Republican administration and the majority in Congress.

Carpenter and his tireless crew spent the weekend working all corners of the convention to create a coalition of delegates large enough and strong enough to support the proposed resolution. Elements of the convention attempted to water down the language of the resolution, but the PDA activists successfully beat back the challenge. Meeting and overcoming this challenge was significant in and of itself, because it resoundingly demonstrated the ability of grassroots activism to overcome the go-along-to-get-along inertia of machine politics.

The resolution passed in California this weekend is more than mere words on a piece of paper. The document itself, along with the activism that created it, is a starting point, a blueprint for future action that must be taken in every state in the nation. PDA, with your help, intends to take the work from this weekend and duplicate it in legislature after legislature, until our combined voices carry our soldiers out of Iraq and home to their families.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this weekend in California was the emergence of so many new faces in the ranks of the PDA-inspired activism. Of the dozens of people who contributed to the effort that led to this resolution, most had never before been involved in this kind of political action. Carpenter and his crew shepherded them through the process, showed them how to get it done, and gave them the chance to be a part of positive history.

After the gavel came down and the resolution passed, most of the convention went their separate ways. Not so the PDA activists, new and old, who met in a large gathering to strategize on how to carry this great work to all points on the compass. They had completed their task for the weekend, but were not at all interested in stopping. Following this meeting, these activists committed themselves to convincing their own congress members to sign on to Rep. Lynn Woolsey's call to end the occupation.

To read Rep. Woolsey's call to end the occupation, please go here.

This is a victory to build on. If the energy and passion demonstrated by Tim Carpenter is any indication, if the energy and passion demonstrated by the activists who stood with him is any indication, if the effectiveness of PDA in overcoming all obstacles to achieve this victory is any indication, the winds of this action promise to blow great and necessary changes across this nation and the world.

Second star to the right, and straight on 'till morning.