Working Families Party
Bronxites are invited to participate in a discussion about forming a chapter of the Working Families Party in the Bronx. The meeting will be on Thursday, June 30, 2016, from 6:00-8:00 pm at St. Helena Church, 1315 Olmstead Avenue, Bronx, NY 10472, between Westchester and Benedict Avenues.
Organizers sent out an email urging interested persons to bring a friend or a neighbor to the meeting. “Every Bronx neighborhood must be represented,” organizers wrote.
Using the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency as an organizing tool, the people behind the meeting seek to bring out supporters of progressive politics.
The missive vowed that the “Working Families Party will be ‘all in’ to defeat Trump’s threat to democracy, and uphold important issues of income inequality, front and center.”
New York’s Working Families Party was first organized in 1998 by a collation of labor unions, community organizations, and the variety of public interest groups such as Citizens Action of New York.
The party blends a culture of political organizing with unionism main issues are jobs, health care, education and energy/environment. The Working Families Party benefits from New York’s electoral fusion voting laws that allow cross-endorsement of a single candidate by multiple parties. The WFP has also run its own candidates like Public Advocate Letitia James.
As a coalition of labor unions, community organizations and grassroots activists, the Working Families Party has been a consistent voice on issues that put working families first, and it has become a leading voice in the fight for real democracy.
Brooklyn and Manhattan have established their own Working Families Party chapter that allows them to vote and endorse their political candidate of choice. WFP members in the Bronx have only interviewed political candidates but have not been able to endorse anyone because they are not an official chapter. Their recommendations are passed on to the WFP State Committee in Albany.
The email says the WFP State Committee has endorsed every Bronx political candidate but it is unclear if that is a good or bad thing.
Organizers go on to state that “it is imperative we establish our own WFP chapter. Albany is not aware of the political problems that affect Bronx neighborhoods.”
The Bronx organizers behind the effort believe that by combining electoral politics with lobbying, grassroots activism and good old-fashioned hard work, they can consistently bring hundreds of thousands together to vote on the Working Families line and help elect progressives candidates.
The WFP promises to hold the politicians accountable and build an economy at that works for Bronx residents.
“Isn’t it time we have our own chapter here in the Bronx?” read the email in closing .
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