Resolutions for your Precinct Convention

Submitted by Bill Crosier on March 3, 2006 - 5:29pm. ::

(updated Feb. 29, 2008)

For those people voting in the Democratic primary (in early voting or on primary election day):

Thanks to a great group of volunteers from the Progressive Action Alliance, Oil Patch Democrats, Helping Democrats Get Elected, Democracy for Houston, and the Progressive Populist Caucus, and others from groups like the Environmental Initiative of the Houston Region Democrats, we have some new resolutions (and updated ones from two and four years ago) that are ready for you to take to your precinct conventions Tuesday evening at 7 pm, March 4, right after the primary.

You can find all the resolutions, based on progressive issues, at http://progressiveactionalliance.org/resolutions/

More information on precinct conventions and other resolutions is at http://www.paa-tx.org/node/2893

Click on the title of any resolutions of interest to read them.  Below each one is an attachment with a PDF version that is formatted for printing.  Please download those PDF versions for resolutions that you like, print several copies (minimum of 3) of each, and take them to your precinct convention after the polls close after the primary on Tuesday, March 4.

Resolutions on progressive issues serve several very important functions:

* They help educate people attending the conventions, or others who read them, about issues they may not know much about.
* They allow people to promote their favorite issue(s).
* They help you identify other people who feel similarly about issues you care about, so you'll know who to encourage to go to the next (Senate District or County) conventions.
* Perhaps most important, they encourage progressive folks to attend the precinct and later conventions.  This is the way we're going to get more progressive leadership in the Texas Democratic Party.

Note that you MUST vote in the primary (either during early voting or on primary election day) in order to participate in your precinct convention and vote on resolutions or be a delegate to your Senate District or County Convention (on Mar. 29).  We encourage ALL progressive Dems to please be a delegate to your SD/Co. convention.

If you want to sign a ballot access petition for the Texas Green Party, you may not vote in any party's primary nor participate in their conventions.  However, Democrats who vote in the primary and go to their precinct convention can still distribute (but not sign) Green Party ballot access petitions.  A personal note:  I feel that progressive Dems and Greens need to consider themselves as allies and that we should support each other more, in our common goals of promoting progressive issues.  The Greens may help push the Democratic candidates in a more progressive direction, too.  For more information on the Green Party ballot access project, see http://hcgp.org/

You can bring copies of as many resolutions as you wish to your precinct convention.  To save time and avoid the potential problem of attendees voting to adjourn before all the resolutions are voted on, be sure to bring extra copies and hand them out to people as they arrive for the convention, right after the polls close at 7 PM next Tuesday, and ask them to read them before things get started.  If everyone has had a chance to read them before they come up for a vote at the end of the convention, then it won't take too much time and you'll have a better chance of passing all of them.  If some of the attendees get tired of discussing resolutions and want to go home to eat dinner or watch their favorite TV show, point out that they can leave at any time after the SD/County convention delegates have been selected.  It's better to encourage them to go home if they aren't interested rather than voting to adjourn and prevent you from presenting all your resolutions.

Four years ago, I brought copies of all 19 resolutions that we had written them, and we passed every one of them at our precinct convention, where we all knew each other and supported all those issues.   Two years ago, I brought copies of all 40+ resolustions we had, and we passed all of them and sent them along to the Senatorial District convention.  Most were passed there, went to the state convention, and many were included in the state Democratic party platform.

Please ask your progressive friends to come to their precinct convention, too, armed with at least one or two resolutions on issues they care about!  It helps a lot for the same resolutions to be passed in multiple state Senate Districts and multiple counties.

Here's more great information prepared by the Progressive Populist Caucus:

Participating In Or Chairing Your Democratic Precinct Convention (Mar. 4)
http://www.texaspopulists.org/committees/precinct_training/participate

Participating in Your Senate District Convention (Mar. 29)
http://www.texaspopulists.org/node/899

If you want to write your own resolution on a topic we didn't cover, you can find some guidelines/suggestions on how to write a good resolution that's likely to be passed at http://www.paa-tx.org/files/Resolution_Guidelines_051209.pdf

Let's continue working towards moving the Democratic party in the correct direction, to represent the people rather than the interests of multi-national corporations and their CEO's. 

Bill