Want Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to commit publicly to support specific global justice policies? Come learn how.

Are you from Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada? You BETTER come to this workshop.

From somewhere else? You're important too! Join us to get ready -- so you can go bird-dog next week when you get home!

Bird-Dogging is a key tactic to pressure elected officials into taking more progressive stances on the issues we care about -- and into taking those stances publicly, so that they can be held accountable. Bird-dogging is always an effective tactic, but becoming increasingly effective during campaign season, and especially during primary campaigns when candidates are particularly concerned about taking the right positions. Strategic bird-dogging has changed the course of history many times. One example is the campaign in 1999 to target Al Gore over the U.S. policy on generic AIDS drugs in Africa. After an effective bird-dogging campaign, President Clinton came to Gore's rescue and changed U.S. policy -- leading to a decrease in the cost of AIDS medications from $15,000-a-year to $300-a-year in Africa.

This workshop will be a hands-on training led by the best bird-doggers in the business. American Friends Service Committee, Working Families Win, and Health GAP have pioneered effective bird-dogging techniques, and the staff representatives who will lead this workshop are very experienced trainers.

The training will cover:

"Sound Bites" - Get your sound-bite tight so you can talk to candidates, reporters, your conservative uncle.

Campaign Events -- How to frame your question so that candidates are forced to give real answers -- with real progressive consequences -- instead of the usual pop-political blather.

Radio Talk Shows -- Use the call-in segment to nail your candidate in front of a BIG audience.

Chasing them down -- See your candidate walking down the street leaving an event? What do you do?

Take away: Election season is a critical time to convince our current and would-be representatives to become leaders for progressive social change. If we play it right, it can be an opportunity to get our issues -- broadly defined -- in the the corporate media, and out the to very large audiences, to shift the national debate about what issues are significant to "the public," and get candidates to make promises that can later turn into real progressive policy gains. There will be handouts with tips and train-the-trainer how-to's.

Cross-cutting themes: The focus of the workshop will be more focused on strategies and tactics than on specific policy prescriptions, the presenting groups focus their efforts on economic inequality both within the United States and between the United States and other countries, advocacy for people living with HIV/AIDS in the US and the rest of the world, peace and justice -- but encourage participation from groups with different objectives or representing different peoples.

Language: This training will be in English.

Challenges: There will be several different movements represented, but many of our challenges are the same -- the consolidation of political power among the rich and corporate influence over the political process.

Concrete Alternatives: Specific policies will not be the focus of the event.

Strategies: The purpose of this event will be to discuss strategies related to the electoral process, and to train attendees on the specific tactic of bird-dogging so that they can go out and bird-dog the week they get home -- and can train others in their community.