Our inspiration is the remarkable history of successful people's movements, reminding us that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." We strive to preserve and build on the great democratic-populist advances of the past, for which many struggled mightily and died.
Our work is to bring together activists, organizers, faith leaders, citizens, social justice leaders and legislators to advance the core solutions of promoting household stability through economic justice, climate justice and social justice, while protecting the integrity of democratic elections and voting rights.
Our strategy is to build a state-by-state network of activists who work for reform through education, legislation, mobilization and direct non-violent action.
W will catalyze, energize, and organize progressive and populist leadership conferences of activists and organizations at the local, state, regional and national levels, and facilitate the building of a populist justice movement.
PDA is both a grassroots and grasstops political network. In the coming months and through the 2016 - 2020 elections our goal is to build a coalition that will take bold steps, through a fusion of all populists and progressives, to protect the social safety net and progressive programs that have been under attack by a right wing corporatist juggernaut. Our immediate goal is to build a grassroots network that can wield political power, and support policies and opportunities that promote a healthy, prosperous and peaceful nation for all, including not just the wealthy, but the working-poor, disabled, homeless, unemployed, underemployed and middle class.
History
People Demanding Action is the civic arm of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), a populist political action committee founded in 2004 to transform the political landscape in Washington and our country. PDA successfully fought for preservation of the social safety net, climate justice, health care reform, social justice reform, constitutional pay equity (ERA), and voting rights. The mission of both PDAmerica and PDAction, working collectively, is to build a society and government controlled by citizens, not corporate elites. We will fight to preserve public education, the commons, environmental justice and social justice. Our goal is to join together with all social movements aimed at moral justice and peace, and to work arm in arm with like-minded populists and progressives at all levels of civil society and government.
For decades, both major political parties have increasingly abandoned the needs of the poor, the working class and middle class; their leadership listened less to the people and more to the voices of corporations. People Demanding Action strives to rebuild democracy in the United States from the bottom up; at every local community board; every city council and state legislature or congressional district. Our goal is a just and democratic form of government that works for all people, and embodies the goals of the populist movements that struggled for democracy and justice. Our dream is the same dream of the abolitionists, the suffragists, the civil rights and peace movements that came before us.
We are building our movement state by state, and organizing citizens living in our urban areas and rural towns where there are unacceptable high rates of unemployment, lack of affordable housing and child care, food insecurity, lack of transportation, access to affordable higher education, and household instability. Progressive individuals and communities outside the Beltway need a “political home,” and the creation of a new beloved community that connects us all together under one populist political movement of movements.