The resistance started during the Iraq and Afghan wars with the Topanga Peace Alliance (TPA), which is still going strong with film nights on the first Friday of each month at the Topanga Library.
In 2005 when the Topanga Democratic Club refused to partner with Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), TPA members and others started a new club in Topanga, the Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains (PDSMM).
PDSMM is an activist club and folks from all over LA County come to Topanga to meet with us and seek our help with their issues. Candidates come for our highly-coveted endorsements. We have worked on everything from oil drilling in the Whittier Hills (we won) to the Ballona Wetlands (we won) to the Malibu Lagoon (we lost) and the Trans Pacific Partnership (we won) to fracking (we lost so far but stay tuned) and glyphosates (working on it). See article in the Messenger Mountain News (“Small Victories,” p.24, Vol. 1, No. 2, February 9, 2017) by our member, Dr. Stephen Frantz.
We worked for Bernie and lost but locally we have supported the three progressives out of our four representatives, U.S. Representative Ted Lieu, who will be at our March 21 meeting, State Senator Henry Stern and Third District Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.
As this goes to press we will have met with and endorsed Steve Zimmer for school board–every school should be a great school! PDSMM supports public schools and their union teachers.
PDSMM is ready to lead the fight against Trump and against creeping fascism. If you are scared, if you want to get involved, you don’t even have to leave your Canyon to find a political home. See you on March 21.
To learn more about PDSMM visit www.pdsmm.org for event information such as the meeting on March 21, news feeds from Truthdig.com, election endorsements and more. To get on our mailing list e-mail me at dorothyreik@pdsmm.org. with subject line Mailing List.
By Dorothy Reik, PDSMM President