Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) recently had our 1776th donation to our “Makes Change” fund. This struck us as an interesting coincidence, as we’re about to hold our 5th Progressive Central, the People’s Convention in Philadelphia—the city associated with the Declaration of Independence and the year 1776.  (Click here to read a longer version of this article, and/or to share this email online).

We hope you’ll join with us declaring independence from politics as usual. PDA represents the insurgency in the Democratic Party. We challenge elected officials to live up to progressive democratic principles of peace, justice, equality, and inclusion. We hope to reach at least 2016 donations before we begin Progressive Central this Monday. Will you help? Please contribute $5, $50, $500 or whatever you can now! Signing up for monthly recurring contributions (automatically delivered from your credit card or bank account) would be extremely helpful, but we welcome any donation.

Progress Requires Independence and Strong Principles

Progressive Central 2016 will mirror PDA’s launch just after the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston, another city associated with the battle for independence. We’ve held these events in Denver, Charlotte, and Washington, D.C. Our rental, travel, housing, printing, and other costs will be very high. Please pitch in to help support our organizing in Philly with a generous donation now. Please support Progressive Democrats of America.

From July 25th to July 27th, we’ll once again gather leading progressives including members of Congress, progressive authors and media voices, rank-and-file progressives, and of course PDA nation, state, and local organizers as well as leaders from the civil rights, women’s rights, labor, environmental, and other movements.

If you can’t be with us in Philadelphia, we hope to live stream most of the events, and with your help now, we hope we’ll be able to afford those costs. If we can do so, we’ll share the link to view our programs in an email and online soon. Can we count on your support? Please contribute $5, $50, $500 or whatever you can now to keep us organizing and mobilizing!

We’re organizing on the state and local level, as well as nationally. While many organizations spend all or most of their time and effort working online, PDA is different. Please support PDA activists who are working day-to-day with our allies to achieve progress in your neighborhood, community, and state—as well as for needed change in national and international policies.

Each month, PDA partners with our sister organization People Demanding Action to deliver letters to members of Congress on Capitol Hill and in home districts and states around the country. These letters gain needed support for progressive legislation, and also mobilize opposition to bad policies such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Only your generous support keeps us going. Without you, we couldn’t accomplish anything.

In solidarity,

Mike Hersh for Donna, Judy, Mike F., Janis, Deb, Kimberly, Steve, and Conor–your National PDA team

P.S. We invite all who have joined Bernie's political revolution to come to Philadelphia for Progressive Central, the People’s Convention. If you can't make it, please donate now to help us make the People's Convention a huge success!

Please contribute $5, $50, $500 or whatever you can now to keep us organizing and mobilizing!