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Progressives from across North Carolina came out in force to join with the NAACP and other members of the NC progrssive and civil rights community to demonstrate their support for the HK on J project and the
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From Susan Oehler, North Carolina Coordinator for the Progressive Democrats of America
The PDNC met on Saturday, January 20 in Elon, prior to the NCDP State Executive meeting. About 62 people attended the meeting, either in part or full. Guests who addressed the meeting included NCDP Chair Jerry Meek, Rev. Curtis Gatewood and Al McSurely from the NAACP, and Stella Adams.
Ms. Adams was seeking PDNC endorsement for her candidacy as 1st Vice Chair of the NCDP. Stella talked about her long record as a progressive party activist. PDNC voted not to endorse in this, the only contested race in the slate for NCDP officers.
One of the main points of discussion during our meeting centered around a proposed amendment to the NCDP Plan of Organization, which would have eliminated the State Legislative Policy Committee and made one of the NCDP chair's duties to: "Formulate and promote a legislative policy agenda, based upon the Platform and upon resolutions adopted by the State Convention, the State Executive Committee, and the State Executive Council."
The resolutions below were approved by the Progressive Democratic Meeting at the Democratic Party's SEC Meeting on January 20th.
The Executive Committee suggests the following two resolutions as updated substitutes for resolutions 14 and 15.
16. Resolution to Withhold Further Funding of the War in Iraq
17. Resolution of Opposition to US or Israeli Military Action Against Iran
The Executive Committee also suggests the following updated resolution on Campaign Finance Reform:
18. Resolution on Campaign Finance Reform
The Progressive Democrats of NC are proud to join other progressive organizations and legislators in NC as a signatory of the ACLU-NC letter calling for an official SBI investigation into Aero Contractors and their involvement in what appears to be illegal extraordinary renditions leading to torture. The PDNC believes that it is absolutely essential that the US Constitution and the rule of law itself not become casualties of the current "Dirty War", and that the US must never resort to the barbaric tactics used by repressive regimes in the past and present. Any organization involved in torture must be investigated, and, if found guilty, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Torture is terrorism. Plain and simple.
Aero Contractors is a contract air carrier that has been identified as a participant in the CIA-sponsored "extraordinary rendition" program and which uses the facilities of state-funded Global TransPark as well as the Johnston County airport in Smithfield. Working for the CIA, Aero Contractors has flown persons kidnapped in various countries to secret locations in other countries, where they were held incommunicado and tortured.
In order to ensure that our state tax dollars will no longer be used to sponsor torture flights, the ACLU of North Carolina and North Carolina Stop Torture Now have launched a campaign to gather signatures from non-profit civil rights, human rights, professional, community-based, and faith-based groups on a letter to state, federal, and Johnston County officials as well as Global Transpark Board members, demanding an investigation.
For more information on Stop Torture Now, go to: http://www.ncstoptorturenow.org/
To see the letter, and to sign as an individual, go to: http://www.petitiononline.com/Aero/
We are excited to announce the launch of our Workgroup feature comprising threaded forums designed to provide a collaborative environment for progressive action in North Carolina.
The initial Workgroup topic is for resolutions. The 15 draft resolutions posted were collected for submission to the Democratic SEC meeting on January 20th. They were not taken up for consideration due to a loss of quorum at the end of the meeting. The resolutions can be submitted at precinct meetings, county meetings, or district meetings. Please review update and modify them or even submit your own.
To download a Word document containing all of the January 20th resolutions see:
http://www.pdncpac.com/home/images/documents/2007legislativepriorities.doc
We'll be launching additional Workgroups soon. If you have a Workgroup topic you would like added please contact Michael Oder at michaeloder@yahoo.com. Make sure to note in the subject line of your email that this is for a new Workgroup topic.
