SFPO to Hold its Second Annual ConventionPaul Hogarthbyline‚ Sep. 29‚ 2006Last year, over 500 activists attended the Inaugural Convention of the San Francisco People’s Convention, a multi-issue umbrella organization of progressives designed to unify the city’s progressives together around a common agenda. It wasn’t a new idea. Ever since the left came together in 1999 behind Tom Ammiano’s historic write-in campaign for mayor, San Francisco progressives have talked about the need for a permanent political organization to help sustain and grow a grass-roots electoral movement – like how Berkeley Citizens’ Action helped transform local politics in the Easy Bay back in the 1970’s. Progressives tend to focus in their own separate communities around their own issues, or come together every few years around election time with fledgling outbursts of energy, but there has been no sustainable way to keep activists unified so that the movement could truly progress. |