If there is one event that encapsulates what the Center for Popular Democracy Network is, it’s the People’s Convention. Last week, 1,800 grassroots leaders, organizers, elected officials, movement artists and leading national progressive voices made the trip to Detroit, Michigan for two days of transformational learning, action, and collective power-building. CPD Network affiliates and their members boarded buses, planes, and trains to unify and animate our bold and imaginative commitment to a popular democracy— collective decision-making, conversations across differences, and fearless visioning of a future where we all have the freedom to thrive. Read about the event in Michigan Advance, Detroit Metro Times, Fox 2 Detroit, and The Detroit News. Check out photos of the event here!

During the convention, CPD’s sister organization CPD Action worked with our network to unanimously ratify a network-wide federal platform that, for the first time, leverages the state and local power of the CPD Network into a combined issue-based platform for federal advocacy. It includes visionary policies and principles designed to stop the extraction of wealth from our communities and the corruption of our democracy, and calls for redress for historic policy decisions that maintain and reinforce structural inequality, and to guarantee fundamental human rights for all. 

CPD organizers and affiliate leaders conducted intense workshops and skill-building sessions with top experts around campaign themes and communications practices, and we took to the streets in Detroit with a peaceful and powerful march and canvass operation. Together, we built community to create the fiercest organizing force this country has ever seen. we will need it to meet and beat the historic challenges we face.

CPD is grateful to all of our affiliates for joining us in Detroit. We especially want to thank Detroit Action for welcoming the CPD Network to their hometown. CPD would also like to thank our generous sponsors: JPB Foundation, Communications Workers of America, Resource Generation, Democrats.com, Working Families Party, ActBlue, United Automobile Workers, Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector, and People’s Action. 

The People’s Convention demonstrated that popular democracy is beautiful. We’re making shared decisions about how we build a future of collective liberation and modeling the world that we want to create: one where all people can participate fully and freely in our economy, government, and society. Join us to support our network—53 affiliates across 131 cities in 34 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia—to center and activate the communities most impacted by injustice and inequity. Please make a meaningful donation today!