Mobilize for the DREAM

This is the moment.  Major societal changes occur during time of leadership transition.  Here is an excerpt from the December 5, 2008 broadcast of Democracy Now.

link to mp3 of interview

This is Media Benjamin, of CODE PINK:

MEDEA BENJAMIN: We feel like this is the moment for us as organizers. Yesterday, there were 2,000 organizers that were brought into Washington, D.C., many of them coming from the community organization where Barack Obama was trained in Chicago, talking about how we have to be there to push this administration forward. Groups are planning, January, February, bringing thousands of people to Washington, and also to be a part of this ten million email list that has been created.

In fact, today they sent out a message from Barack Obama’s people saying we want you to organize house parties December 13th and 14th to give us your ideas, and it’s called “Change Is Coming.” We tell progressives go to those meetings, whether you voted for Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney or Barack Obama. Go to those meetings and be part of this community that’s going to have the ear of this new administration. You can go to my.barackobama.com/changeiscoming, find out where the events are, create ones in your own community, and, you know, essentially, have progressives infiltrate this vast network of organizers.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you have any sense you’ll have the ear of the administration?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: We have people we know that have been appointed or are advisers. I mean, we’re excited that some people with some progressive views are going to be in this administration. We have friends who are moving to Washington to take lower-level positions. And we feel like we cannot give up and say, just because we don’t like the cabinet positions, we don’t like a lot of the people he’s appointed, that we’re going to say, OK, you know, he’s already betrayed us. No, no. We’ve got to get in there and be in there from day one.

We’re even part of organizing an inaugural peace ball on the day of the inauguration that sold out in one week, a thousand people—Amy Goodman is going to be there; I hope Juan will be there—to say peace is on the agenda. We’re going to be at the airports. We’re going to be at Union Station in Washington, D.C. when people arrive to the inauguration with quotes of Barack Obama and other people saying, you know, this is what he stood for. He stood for getting the troops out of Iraq. He stood for talks without preconditions. We’re going to remind people as they come in that this is what we’re hoping will happen.