Both political parties are significantly controlled by big money interests,“ Sanders said at the event.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) were keynote speakers at Progressive Central 2024, which took place on Sunday and Monday just blocks north of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
Progressive Central 2024 is a conference hosted by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). Several other progressive organizations partnered with PDA to manage the conference, including The Nation Magazine, The Arab-American Institute, and Operation Rainbow/PUSH. The event featured multiple speakers, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), former Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner (D), The Nation columnist John Nichols, and many others.
Both Jayapal and Sanders spoke on Monday afternoon. While Jayapal focused primarily on progressive accomplishments over the past few years, including how the Congressional Progressive Caucus (which she chairs) has amassed more members, Sanders discussed how there was still much work to be done — including the need to take on oligarchy in the U.S., which, he noted, has its grip on both major political parties.
Jayapal encouraged attendees not to stop their work now. “We are getting ready to win in November, and when we do, we will accomplish so much more,” she told them.
“We’ve been able, over the last eight years, to build a caucus to almost 100 members strong. That is almost half of the Democratic caucus,” Jayapal said.
There is strength in numbers, the congresswoman added, recognizing that progressives in the House were more able to use their “courage muscle” to press other Democrats to support spending measures to help millions more Americans on several issues, including education, debt, infrastructure, the environment and more.
“Thanks to progressives, we got things done in the last four years a lot of people thought were impossible,” Jayapal said, recognizing that progressives’ “Build Back Better” initiative, while watered down quite a bit, still resulted in a beneficial Inflation Reduction Act.
