Invitation to an Organizing Meeting for the VPA
Phil Wilayto
aren't likely to get any attention in the 2009 Virginia General Assembly:
You are invited to attend an Organizing Meeting for a Virginia People's Assembly,
to be held from 1-4 p.m. this Saturday, Nov. 15, at Asbury United Methodist Church,
324 N. 29th St., Richmond, Virginia 23223. (That's at the corner of 29th and
East Marshall streets in Church Hill.)
We'll discuss the concept of the People's Assembly and then get down to
the brass tacks of putting it together. The plan is to hold a statewide Assembly
in Richmond on Jan. 10, the Saturday before the General Assembly opens. Unlike the
General Assembly, our People's Assembly will be an opportunity for everyone
to raise their issues - stopping the layoffs and home foreclosures, making it easier
for workers to organize unions, defending the rights of prisoners, restoring voting
rights for those convicted of felonies, expanding health care for the uninsured,
stopping and reversing the attacks on women's reproductive rights, on the rights
of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, on the environment, on
education -- and all the issues that you bring to this effort. And we'll be
raising this demand: end the wars, bring the troops and the money home, and let
us solve problems here at home instead of causing them overseas.
We'll put all these demands together into a People's Agenda, and then bring
it to the General Assembly when it opens on Jan. 14. And we'll back up this
People's Lobbying with a big march and rally.
This is no time to be silent. It's a new day in Virginia politics, but it'll
be politics as usual unless we stand up to those who want to balance the state budget
on the backs of Virginia's poor and working people.
Join us this Saturday, and join us Jan. 10 for the Virginia People's Assembly!
(For more information, see the attached Call for a Virginia People's Assembly.)