Participating Organizations: Democrats.com, Progressive Democrats of America, After Downing Street, Gold Star Families for Peace, Hip Hop Caucus, Democracy Rising, Velvet Revolution, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Traprock Peace Center, Consumers for Peace, CODE PINK,

With your help, we want to organize grassroots teams in all 435 Congressional Districts plus 5 Delegate Districts (DC, PR, VI, GU, and AS). Please volunteer below!

Our Mission: to persuade each of our Representatives to support

1. Impeachment: Support John Conyers' Watergate-style investigation (H.Res. 635) of Bush's Iraq War lies - and immediately introduce Articles of Impeachment for Bush and Cheney
2. Getting Out of Iraq: Support John Murtha's bill to remove troops from Iraq (H.J. Res 73) and Jim McGovern's bill to end funding for the Iraq War (H.R. 4232)

The Problem: For a year, we have tried all of the traditional lobbying techniques including marches, petitions, emails, letters, calls, town hall forums, and even face-to-face meetings with our Representatives. Yet despite all this effort, not one Representative is willing to introduce Articles of Impeachment, while fewer than 30 have co-sponsored Rep. Conyers' Watergate-style investigation. On Iraq, John Murtha's bill has nearly 100 co-sponsors but not the 218 needed to force a floor vote; Jim McGovern's bill has fewer than 20 co-sponsors, even though George Bush just asked for $120 billion more for a war America does not support and cannot afford.

The Solution: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King faced far worse resistance from political leaders when they tried to end segregation in the South. So they took their movement to the streets and marched peacefully directly into the face of that resistance. We will take our inspiration from them, and bring our movement peacefully into the face of our resistance: the 435 Members of Congress who are supposed to represent us but refuse to do so. (We'll make an exception for the House Honor Roll - Members who support our three priority bills above. For those Members, we will focus on Member Meetings to persuade them to introduce Articles of Impeachment.) 

• Home Protests: Every weekend, we will march peacefully in front of the homes of our Representatives. (We suggest Saturday at 10:00 a.m. because that is when Members are most likely to be home, but local groups can set their own times.) We will carry signs and distribute flyers to their neighbors with our simple demands.  Here are flyers to print and hand out. If your group is really energetic, here are some "extra credit" ideas.
• Birddogging: Whenever our Representatives appear at public events in our communities, we will protest peacefully with our signs and flyers
• Member Meetings: We want to schedule face-to-face meetings with our Representatives in their district offices to get immediate action on our legislative demands. The best dates are:
  February 20-24—Presidents Day Recess
  March 17-24—St. Patrick's Day Recess
  ** March 19: 3rd anniversary of start of war ***
  April 10-21—Easter Recess

Volunteers: For each Congressional District chapter we will need volunteers with these skills:

• Protest: an experienced grassroots organizer capable of scheduling events, showing up, recruiting friends, bringing signs and flyers, and dealing with any problems (unruly activists, unwelcome pets, aggressive passers-by, inquiring or unfriendly police)
• Web: a computer user with very basic HTML (using this site's built-in WYSIWYG editor to put links onto text) and search skills to find local activists by researching our outreach links and using local networking sites like Meetup and CraigsList
• Outreach: a good networker who can contact potential local allies (identified with the help of the Web coordinator above) and persuade them to join our efforts
• Lobby: a confident speaker who can clearly communicate our simple goals to the Representative in a friendly, professional manner, and who is prepared to rebut the most frequently-offered objections
• Media: a well-organized person who can keep a list of local reporters with phone/cell/email, get friendly with them, keep them informed of upcoming events, and respond quickly to their inquiries.  Here is a sample press advisory to use.
• Email: an experienced list moderator who can create and moderate a Yahoogroup for CD chapter members
• Students: an energetic student who can reach out to college and high school students

Tasks: Our CD volunteers should aim to accomplish these tasks:

• Protest: organize peaceful Home Protests (except in AR, AZ, HI and MI and a few cities) and Birddogging. You should review your right to protest so your protests are fully within the law. (Consult a local attorney or the nearest chapter of the ACLU if you have any questions.)
• Web: create a CD home page like http://democrats.com/ny-07 following these instructions: http://democrats.com/cd-web
• Outreach: follow our links to contact local leaders of allied groups
  http://democrats.com/cd-outreach
  as well as local political party groups and other grassroots networking strategies
• Lobby: explain our mission to your Representative if you get the chance during Home Protests and Birddogging events; also schedule and lead Member Meetings at their office
• Media: contact local media to let them know about the protests and meetings
• Email: create a Yahoogroup for the CD to share info and coordinate events
• Students: identify progressive student groups at area colleges (including community colleges) and high schools, and ask them to join our protests

If you really want to organize a chapter but cannot find 6 volunteers, you can certainly take on more than 1 task.

Of course all the volunteers should work closely together so get to know each other by having non-political fun!

How to Volunteer:

1. Create or Update your Democrats.com User Account

• If you have not yet created a user account at Democrats.com, please create one now. Be sure to enter your street address so you are assigned to the right CD. You can enter the volunteer task you prefer in the "Organizer" field.
• If you already have a Democrats.com user account, click here to make sure it has assigned you to the right CD. (If not, click here, click "edit", click "Personal information," fix your address, and press "Submit" at the bottom.) Then decide which of the tasks above you want to volunteer for, click here, click "edit", click "Personal information," scroll down to "Organizer", highlight your choice, and press "Submit" at the bottom.

2. If you want to be a lead organizer in your CD, apply to be a Congressional District Point Person with Progressive Democrats of America. If your application is approved, you (and possibly one other person) will be our primary contact(s) in your CD.

After You Volunteer:

• Help us spread the word! Urge your progressive friends and relatives to visit this page and volunteer:
  http://democrats.com/cd