It’s an interesting alliance, to say the least, but with the recent uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere, the anti-capitalism momentum here in the U.S. appears to be building and bringing more of these factions into the mainstream left.  As Democrats fear more discontent in the next election, one can’t help but ask:  is the Democratic party more involved in the movement than the protesters are willing to admit?

It starts with October2011.org, a movement that aims to “Stop the Machine” and “Create a New World.”  Organizers talk of ending the wars in the Middle East, creating a single-payer health system, and tearing down the current capitalist order of society to institute a new economic system.  From October2011’s statement:

We call on people of conscience and courage—all who seek peace, economic justice, human rights and a healthy environment—to join together in Washington, D.C., beginning on Oct. 6, 2011, in nonviolent resistance similar to the Arab Spring and the Midwest awakening.

A concert, rally and protest will kick off a powerful and sustained nonviolent resistance to the corporate criminals that dominate our government.

October2011.org was registered on May 22^nd, 2011, just seventeen days before AdBusters posted its call on June 9^th for a Tahrir Square. On June 10^th, several of October2011’s steering committee members posted their launch announcement to Veterans for Peace, an organization run by several October2011 committee members.  Suffice it to say, the posting was none the lacking in drama, albeit lacking in evidence to support its claims.  It also introduces the same “Tahrir Square” and anti-corporate rhetoric of the prior day’s post from AdBusters.

There comes a time when one can no longer shut out the atrocities of U.S. foreign and military policy: trade agreements that destroy farming; mass unemployment; especially among communities of color; illegal detention and torture; increasing drone attacks resulting in mass civilian deaths; and once again a President who lies the United States into another war for oil and bankers.

A time comes when one can no longer close one’s eyes to the atrocities of a U.S. domestic policy that steals from the people to add to the already hideously bursting pockets of the wealthy, that kicks people out of their homes, denies needed medical treatment and drives families into bankruptcy so that CEOs can dine on gold-lined plates in their personal jets as they travel from gated mansions to leather seats in penthouse offices.

A time comes when one cannot help but realize that the path is unsustainable and one must make a choice. History is knocking, and each of us must choose how we will answer. What do you want to say you did when history was at your door?  […]

October 6 is the 10^th anniversary of the Afghanistan invasion, and the beginning of the new federal budget year—an austerity budget for everything except for war and the corporate security state. On this day, we are calling for sustained and nonviolent mass resistance in Washington, D.C. The action, Stop the Machine! Create a New World!, portends an American Tahrir Square at Freedom Plaza between the White House and Congress, a block away from the National Press Club and a few blocks from the Chamber of Commerce and K Street, the stomping ground of corporate lobbyists.

October2011 and OccupyDC joined together on the event, as organizer Kevin Zeese explains in this video.

“We heard about Occupy Wall Street in July, when AdBusters put out their story, and then we immediately endorsed it?” What an amazing coincidence then that so much of the messaging between October2011 and AdBusters is exactly the same…in June.

Zeese also contributed this opinion piece to Al Jazeera in June, appealing to the revolutionaries across the globe.

Inspired by the courageous, nonviolent uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Greece, Spain and elsewhere, people in the United States have come together to form the October 2011 Movement. This fusion of peace, social justice, environmental, student, and immigrant rights organisations is in solidarity with all who seek a peaceful, just, and sustainable future and stands ready to engage in its own campaign of nonviolent resistance – beginning in Washington, DC, this October. We recognise that your revolution is our revolution, that the US empire prevents you from achieving self-determination and economic justice, and that only together can we achieve our shared goals.

To be sure, this is not the first time some of these anti-war organizers and their affiliated groups have utilized the tactic of “Occupation.” It became mainstream with “Camp Casey” in 2005, when Cindy Sheehan protested outside President’ Bush’s Crawford, TX ranch over the death of her son Casey, killed in the Iraq war.  Sheehan and Zeese have done various political fundraisers and activist events together, and today, they serve together on the board of Voters for Peace.

In 2007, anti-war activist groups CODEPINK, Declaration of Peace, and Veterans for Peace teamed up with Voices for Creative Non-Violence to launch, in an obvious play on words, “The Occupation Project.”  Participants demanded their representatives “publicly commit to voting against any funding for the Iraq war or we will nonviolently occupy your offices.”  The campaign spread to cities in 25 states and was embraced by Democrats.com (Zeese can be seen on video participating in one of the MD events).

October2011 and the Occupation (OccupyWallStreet) movement take many cues from the early days of The Occupation Project. By launching the movement on a much bigger scale in 2011, however, it’s more feasible for protesters to sustain their occupation until their demands are actually met.

Expanding the activism element today, October2011 also appeals to revolutionaries from across the globe, as Zeese indicates in this post, “October2011 Movement and Egyptian Revolutionaries Unite:  Call for Genuine Democracy, End of U.S. Empire, Equitable and Sustainable Economies, and Human Rights”. October2011 has also published a statement of solidarity with the U.S. Day of Rage.

To get a sense of the groups involved and the issues on which they focus, you can review the core activists’ bios, which also help to illustrate the networks through which October 2011 can reach so many activists and groups.

Kevin Zeese is an attorney who ran for the Maryland US Senate in 2006 as a Green Party candidate against Michael Steele and Ben Cardin. Prior to that, he was the press secretary for Ralph Nader, Green Party.  Zeese is the Executive Director and co-founder of Voters For Peace.  He also served as a director of Democracy Rising and is on the board of Velvet Revolution, among many others.  Zeese is a member of the Steering Committee of WikiLeaksIsDemocracy.org and the Bradley Manning Support Network, which endorses October2011. As mentioned in a prior BigGovernment post, Zeese has also been listed as an attorney on various press releases from the hacktivist collective Anonymous.

David Swanson began working for RootsAction.org in March 2011.  Prior to that, he was a press secretary in 2004 for Dennis Kucinich’s presidential campaign, and spent three years as a communications coordinator for ACORN.  Swanson is also a board member of Progressive Democrats of America and Voters for Peace, and is the Washington Director of Democrats.com.  He works with many other groups as well.

The October2011 website domain was registered by Swanson, himself a director of Democrats.com. He has covered the October2011 movement there in a post, The Occupied Turn Occupiers. Meanwhile, many Congressional Democrats are embracing the movement.

The other day, when I wrote about the potential collision course that may lie ahead for the Occupation movement and the hacktivist collective Anonymous, I also had some of these details in mind. Organizers of the October2011 movement are anti-war activists, globalists, environmentalists, and members of the Green and Socialist parties – usually considered outside the mainstream left. Add to the equation the relatively new phenomenon that is Anonymous. The face of the left is changing. What used to be on the fringe is now becoming mainstream, as is evidenced by the growing number of “Occupiers” at these protests. All of the organizers and all of the politicians have been precise in their statements that this is an entirely spontaneous grassroots movement. But all of the breadcrumbs leading up to this, from the days of Camp Casey, to The Occupation Project, to October2011 – they seem to suggest otherwise.

When Democrats embrace a movement run by organizers who, for years, have tried to pull them further to the left, you can’t help but wonder – is the Democratic Party co-opting the globalist activists, or are the activists co-opting the Democratic Party?

Our current system features a primary process in which various partys, Green and otherwise, participate.  The nominees of those partys then square off in November throughout the state along with “write in” candidates.   Prop 14, which is opposed by The California Republican Party, and is pushed by some of the proponents of the failed 2009 Prop 1A tax increase, would end that system in favor of a Top 2 Primary.  Under Prop 14, all of the parties and candidates are forced into a single primary in June and then only the Top 2 vote getters square off in the Fall – no one else has a voice.

1. The End of 3^rd Parties in California.  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Prop 14 would put a literal an end to third parties.  Third parties already have a difficult challenge to be heard under our present system.  Lack of money makes it very hard for them to compete with the major parties.  Even so, over time, third parties have made an enormous contribution to our system in their minority role.  For instance, it was the Reform Party of the 1990’s that focused America on the perils of deficit spending while the two major parties failed to lead on the issue.

Their candidates ran throughout the country and throughout California in the Fall elections.   In doing so, their message against runaway spending and deficits was heard throughout the election process all the way to Election Day.  Their contributions had an obvious impact on the candidates of the major parties.

Under Prop 14, however, future Reform Partys will be no more.  The voice of any such challengers to the establishment will be silenced as of June primary.  Likely unable to bankroll a candidate to finish in the Top 2, all of the third partys, and their “unwanted” challenges to the establishment, will be silenced because they will not be able to participate in November election.  Keep in mind, that overall voter participation, in California primaries, is less than half of that in November.  Voters simply pay more attention in November than June.   As a result, the voice of minority party candidates will effectively silenced long before November when precious few are focused on the great issues of the day.

2. No More Write-In Candidates.  Adding insult to the injury of our system, write-in candidates will no longer exist under the Prop 14 system.  Imagine that: certain politicians want to end your right to mount a write-in campaign – they want to end our right to challenge them in the November election.  On its face, that alone should be reason to vote against this measure.

According to Jefferson, “When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality.”  The well-funded proponents of Prop 14 want to silence third party voters and write-in candidates. They want to take away your rights.  It is up to all voters to resist that take-over and defeat Prop 14 for the sake of Liberty.

** Join the California Republican Party’s Effort to STOP Prop 14 @ The CRP Wants You to FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

I first met up with Tom Tresser when I went to my first Olympics townhall event in the summer. Tresser lead the citizen activist group, No Games Chicago. They opposed the bid, as most have probably figured out. Tresser represented No Games, and their position, in the forum. Here’s how I described Tresser’s best argument that night:

Tresser, on at least five occasions, referred to Daley by the moniker corrupt. No one supporting the bid ever challenged this characterization. Instead, their defense was that the bid was a private non profit effort that is separate from the mayor’s office

The corruption in Chicago’s City Hall was the number one reason to oppose the Olympics coming to this city. While the Olympics aren’t going to be here, the corruption is a major reason, the corruption hasn’t gone away with it. In fact, it’s a part of daily political life in the city of Chicago, the County of Cook, and the state of Illinois in its entirety.

Tresser announced his candidacy for Cook County Board President back in October. With several scandals hanging over the head of Todd Stroger, the current County Board President, the issue of corruption was going to be a major part of the campaign. It is, however, the central part of Tresser’s campaign. In fact, Tresser first made a name for himself, politically, here in Chicago fighting against privatization. Privatization and corruption are now mentioned in the same breath here in Chicago ever since the parking meter debacle. It was this debacle that gave all Chicagoans a first hand taste of the corrosive power of government privatization. Back in 2007, privatization was still being done at the margins. That was when the Chicago Park District tried to give away one of its parks to the private Latin High School. Tresser lead a group of citizen activists to stop this and he succeeded. He also got a first hand taste of Chicago corruption.

As such, I sat down with Tom Tresser recently  for a sweeping interview all about Cook County corruption, its roots, and what a politician dedicated to ending it could do. To understand how serious Tresser, who’s running under the Green Party ticket, takes corruption, you only needed to look at the table we had the interview on. On this table lay three manilla folders stuffed with paper work: folder 1) Chicago corruption folder two 2)Cook County corruption and folder 3) Illinois corruption.

I first asked Tresser how Chicago’s city hall machine is connected to the machine at the County level. Tresser first pointed out that John Stroger, the father of current Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, got his own political muscle when he supported then candidate Richard M. Daley for mayor over then Mayor Harold Washington in the mid 1980’s. That would have been something near scandalous then since both Stroger and Washington are African American and Daley is white. Second, Tresser pointed out that the most powerful Cook County Commissioner is John Daley, the brother of Richard M. Daley. Daley heads the finance committee on the Cook County Board. Through this chairmanship, John Daley is able to wield all sorts of power.

The connection between the Chicago machine and the machine of Cook County needs to be viewed through much of the levers of both its powers: patronage and contracts. Patronage refers to the cushy jobs that those in the machine get. Contracts are doled out by the billions and tens of billions by the city, county and state government in Chicago, Cook, and Springfield. So, if you’re a patronage worker, you can count on a cushy job not only with the city, but with the county if an opportunity arises. Furthermore, a business ally of Mayor Daley can not only count on the city getting them a sweetheart contract, but one with the county. As an example, Tresser showed me this article from the Sun Times:

A consulting firm headed by former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr.’s stepson John Sterling has been paid more than $787,000 under a Cook County contract funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, despite failing to provide required weekly reports — for 21 months.

That’s the key finding of a Chicago Sun-Times and NBC5 News investigation of the contract for the troubled Project Shield program, a $40 million federal initiative born of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Sterling’s company, Synch-Solutions, was hired by Cook County in March 2008 to maintain quality assurance for the program, which aims to place enough video cameras in police cars and at stationary locations throughout the county to be able to provide a web of live video to a central command in case of disaster, attack or other emergency.

Emil Jones is the former President of the Illinois Senate. This story details how his step son got a sweetheart contract from the County and the step son’s company appears to have done no work. Jones was a part of the state government in Springfield. Yet, he’s able to use his clout to give his stepson a sweetheart deal with the County government. That’s how all three operate because all three are littered with corruption.

The other reality is patronage. That’s the process by which machine activists, cronies if you will, get cushy jobs. Tresser told me that he volunteered for Dick Simpson’s campaign in the early 1990’s when he ran against Dan Rostenkowski for the U.S. Congress. Tresser visited a handful of polling stations as part of his volunteer work. At each station there were a handful of Rostenkowski “volunteers”. In fact, they weren’t volunteers at all. These were government workers, from Chicago’s city hall or some County office, that were out campaigning for Rostenkowski. So, county workers are often asked to help out the campaigns of the machine on any level of government.

To put the corruption on the county level into context, Tresser next opened up the minutes to a recent Cook County Board meeting held on December 2nd. The major news out of this meeting was the roll back of a sales tax increase. What was of interest to Tresser was found in the first fifteen minutes of the meeting. According to the minutes, there was an approval of settlements of no less than eleven different court cases against the county.

Five of these settlements had to do with Shakman suits. What are Shakman suits? They’re named after Michael Shakman. Shakman fought a vicious battle in the 1960’s to make sure that city hiring and firing wasn’t politically motivated. There was little explanation of the settlements in these five cases but we can assume that someone was passed over for a crony of the machine, they sued, and this is the settlement. The other six settlements were for injuries that were job related. In one case, an individual received $1000 for spilling coffee on himself. Because John Daley runs the Finance Committee, he has great power in authorizing these settlements. When Cook County Commissioners Tony Peraica and Bridget Gainor each asked for explanations of these settlements, they were quickly summarized in two minutes and the meeting moved on.

This too is symptomatic of Cook County. Because hiring is often done with patronage, Shakman suits are a part of political life. We can all assume that there’s exponentially more patronage hiring than there are suits to stop such hiring. So, if five were settled in this one meeting, we can all only imagine how much patronage hiring there is. In fact, just in the city of Chicago, the city settled $136 million worth of lawsuits last year.

What is the end result of having a series of patronage workers in the County government? Tresser showed me this report from the local Fox affiliate:

In the report, one County worker was caught napping. Another roads supervisor was followed and for three hours the supervisor never actually stopped to inspect any of the highway workers he’s supposed to supervise. Who is the government worker caught napping? His name is Alex Moreno and his brother is Cook County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno. In fact, according to the report, there’s 137 employees of the highway department that are “pushing paper” in the downtown office.

Finally, there’s the issue of TIF’s, tax increment financing. This is the method by which Mayor Daley, especially, is able to create a slush fund for his political needs. TIFs were originally meant for development in low and moderate income areas, but Daley has created them in such places as the posh South Loop area of the city. They’re now simply a means of securing financing for contracts for friends of Daley and to hide the money.

So, that’s how the corrupt city, county and state governments function, in a nutshell. How does Tresser propose to fix things? He would start with a forensic audit of the entire county government to see where each and every penny is going. That’s the only way to root out each and every corrupt contract. Next, Tresser would order a desk audit. By this he means that he would order a review of all the employees of the Cook County government. He would start with the top level managers, those making six figures. In the second year, he would look at the middle managers and in the third year he’d look at the “line employees”, the plumbers, construction workers, and contractors. Only with such an audit, in Tresser’s estimation, can the government root out the cronies, waste, and inefficiencies in hiring. The cronies would be replaced, the fut cut, and the inefficiencies combined. That’s a process that would take up to three years.

From there, the County government would look at strategic planning for the future. Once the waste and corruption were rooted out, Tresser would look to set goals for the government so that it’s again functioning on behalf of the people. He would implement simple things like a suggestion box and the so called secret shopper. The secret shopper is used by businesses who send in spies to check out their retailers to see how the staff provides service. Tresser would do the same thing only these “secret shoppers” would attempt to get property tax information, stamps, and other county related services. Tresser would also beef up the Inspector General’s office and give that office more support. Tresser would also use the so called power of the purse to lean on other departments of the county government. For instance, Democratic nominee for Cook County Board President Dorothy Brown is currently the Clerk of the Circuit Court. The Cook County Board President can’t force the Clerk to do a similar audit of their department, but the President can withhold funds from any other lever of the county government that they believe isn’t functioning properly. That’s what Tresser told me he intends to do.

Finally, I asked him what an honest and truly anti-corruption crusading Cook County Board President could do to disrupt the power of the Chicago machine. Tresser said that there would be no more sweetheart contracts to Daley’s friends. Furthermore, Daley wouldn’t have the county workers to count on to do campaign work. Not only would this starve the Daley machine of its power to line their friends pockets, but this could open up much of city hall to challenges from insurgent candidates. Furthermore, if Daley is no longer to be counted on to deliver the votes to an ally, his own power diminishes.

Finally, we talked about some of Tresser’s potential opponents in the general election. We didn’t speak about Stroger since Stroger’s reputation preceeds him. Dorothy Brown is the current leader in the Democratic primary polling. Brown has made a name for herself in opposing Stroger, but in Tresser’s view, she’s still a part of the machine. She’s had her own taints of corruption. Another individual making a name for themselves is Toni Preckwinkle. Preckwinkle has made a name for herself taking on Daley. Tresser pointed out that Preckwinkle supported the Olympics after first opposing it. Furthermore, Tresser said that he knows of no TIF that Preckwinkle has opposed.

The candidate that Tresser thinks will come out of the Democratic primary is Terry O’Brien. O’Brien is currently head of Chicago’s Water Reclamation District. He also runs a private consultancy on environmental issues. Here’s how Andy Shaw of the Better Government Association explained this conflict of interest:

It’s an outrageous conflict of interest and a dereliction of duty for the head of an agency responsible for ensuring that we have clean water to drink and play in, to work for a company that protects the polluters. It’s ‘dirty’ politics, literally and figuratively.

O’Brien has promised to divest himself from the company if he’s elected Cook County Board President, but doesn’t see his current dual role as a conflict. Tresser scoffed at this notion. Tresser said he didn’t know any of the Republican candidates and didn’t give them much chance to win. Given the Republicans track record recently in Cook County, his assessment has historical backing.

Tresser ended the interview by pointing out what he feels is an inherent conflict of interest of Cook County politicians taking money from PACs and corporations. For instance, Todd Stroger received several thousand dollars from Ariel Capital LLC. How much, Tresser asked rhetorically, did Ariel receive in contracts from the county? Tresser pledged to take money only from individuals. This puts him at a decided disadvantage compared to the other candidates. He also pointed out that refusing to take corporate and PAC contributions is also a platform of the Green Party. In Tresser’s view, the only way to serve the people and not the special interests is not to take money from the special interests.

When a candidate of the Democratic or Republican parties is successfully elected President of the United States, it is widely accepted that by virtue of being the highest elected office holder in the party, they are the “leader” of their respective party.

Why would it be any different when it comes to President Obama’s leadership role in his other political party, the Working Families Party?

If the President and his other party are to be held to the same standard as the Republicans, Greens, and Democrats, etc.. then by all rights he should be considered the leading force or figure within the Working Families Party.

In reality, no matter how one chooses to define the President’s relationship to his other party, the relationship itself demands a close examination of its platform, background, and history, all of which the President would appear to have endorsed by accepting their nomination.

As to their platform, that topic will be covered in greater detail in future posts. This entry is going to focus on the historical roots and background of the Working Families Party.

Very briefly, though, on the platform – you can read it here.

One pervasive theme is an attitude of class warfare. For a specific example, see (1:20) in this video produced by the Working Families Party, where the woman on camera exclaims “Tax The Rich And Give It Back To The Poor”.

Another example can be found here [emphasis in original]:

Over the last 25 years, the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers have seen their taxes cut in half. When the rich don’t pay their fair share, everyone else has to pick up the tab – often in the form of higher property taxes.

There are other examples of their class warfare tactics, like this video of WFP members busing around to AIG homes in CT. These are the very same pitchfork brigade the president said he wanted to be angry. Little did anyone know he was simply representing his other party in those remarks.

What motivates such a divisive movement? For that, we need to examine their founding, history, and affiliations of the Working Families Party.

To help illustrate some of the relationships that we will be discussing, I have created what I call the Hexagon of Progress [HOP] pictured above. (Cue scary Star Wars, or CNN Gulf War I theme music)

You will notice that the Democratic Socialists of America is featured at the top of the HOP. An important point needs to be made here. President Barack Obama and the Working Families Party are Democratic Socialists.

This is not meant as a judgment. It is simply a fact which the politicians involved with the Working Families Party group should be made to own.

As I have written previously,  this is not some kind of neo “Red Hunt”. Not only is that not the point, there is nothing much to hunt. These relationships are out in the open. The point is that the American people have a right to know about the background of a political party to which the President of the United States belongs, and the so-called mainstream media have completely failed the nation in this simple task.

Caution: This is a lengthy post, but, it’s easy to follow and there’s a delicious party favor at very end.

Let’s simply review the facts:

The following clipping can be found in the Summer 2000 publicaiton of the DSA publication Dem Left.

Back in 2005, the Working Families Party website used to reveal a little bit more about its organizational ties to the DSA than it does now.

The image below is taken from the Working Families Party December 2005 affiliates list.

The image below was taken from the WFP site today. At some point in 2006, the Working Families Party disappeared the Democratic Socialists of America from their website.

There is no indication that DSA ever stopped supporting the WFP, but, given the other two affiliates highlighted in the image above, it could hardly matter.

From the website of the Long Island Progressive Coalition:

The LIPC was born at the initiation of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (since become Democratic Socialists of America) and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, seeking to realize DSOC Chair Michael Harrington’s vision of being “the left-wing of the possible.”

The other organization circled above, Citizen Action, was founded by Heather Booth. The DSA was so proud of her accomplishments in promulgating the Alinsky school of organizing, they honored her with their highest honor, the Eugene V. Debs Award for 1987.

Heather Booth

You have dedicated yourself to enabling people to develop a sense of their own power and alter the relations of power in order to build a more just and humane society.

Through the Midwest Academy, you have inspired and trained thousands of new activists in the Citizen Action movement, the peace movement, and the women’s movement.

You have reached across the generations to connect with and maintain the best traditions of the old radical movement while reaching out to upcoming student activists with a new vision and strategy for a better future.

By work and by deed your energy and commitment inspire us all.

For this, the Norman Thomas – Eugene V. Debs Award is hereby presented to you on this 9th day of May, 1987.

Heather Booth was also the training director for the Democratic National Committee during the Clinton administration. She co-founded the Midwest Academy as a project of Citizen Action. Reportedly SEIU’s Andy Stern is a graduate of the Academy, and Barack Obama trained ACORN organizers there.

The Academy’s other co-founder is Heather’s husband, Paul Booth. Paul was a founder of the radical 1960’s protest group, Student’s for a Democratic Society, (SDS), which spawned the Weather Underground domestic terrorist group led by Bill Ayres.

This is not the first time the media has failed to report on the Democratic Socialist background of a party to which Barack Obama has pledged himself.

Some readers might already be aware that when President Obama ran for the Illinois State Senate back in 1996, he ran as a member of the New Party.

The New Party was ACORN’s party in the 1990s, exactly like the Working Families Party is ACORN’s party. The extent of their connection is evidenced by two letters pulled from the Internet Archive, written about 1 year apart, both authored by the same person.

First, a 1998 letter from New Party Executive Director, Dan Cantor:

SPECIAL APPEAL FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

To: Members and Friends

From: Dan Cantor, Executive Director, New Party

RE: WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP, AND I DON’T MEAN MONEY

Here’s the deal.

The New Party is deep into an effort to establish a “qualified” new political party in New York State. It’s called the “Working Families Party,” and we’re one of the driving forces behind it .

The state law requirement for a new party is 50,000 votes on our own ballot line in the November election.

It’s safe to say that this is the most serious effort to build a progressive ballot-line party in New York since the demise of the American Labor Party in the 1950s. It is backed by the United Auto Workers, Communications Workers of America, Citizen Action, ACORN, and dozens of other local unions and community groups. Prominent individual supporters include David Dinkins, Ruth Messinger, Sal Albanese, and Nydia Velazquez.

This is going to take some real and sustained work.. We’ve got our usual small amount of money, and need to spend it on organizers, targeted mail pieces, and African-American radio buys.

But we also think there’s a very cheap, very powerful way to reach a large number of good people in New York — namely, e-mail. THERE HAVE GOT TO BE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO WOULD BE VERY HAPPY TO VOTE ON THE WORKING FAMILIES PARTY LINE, IF THEY HEAR ABOUT IT.

Here’s where you come in – whether or not you live in New York.

We’d like you to send us the e-mail addresses of ANYONE and EVERYONE you know who lives in New York State who considers themselves a Democrat, a progressive, a leftist, an independent or even a bored and disgusted non-voter. We will send them a polite, totally non-obnoxious message describing the Working Families Party and its values. And we’ll ask them to make their vote REALLY count this November by casting it for our Gubernatorial candidate — a fusion candidacy with the Democrat, so not a spoiler run — in November. Send two names or two hundred, it doesn’t matter.

Our message to your friends will be straightforward. Vote for Vallone and McCall (the Democrats), but vote for them on the Working Families Party line so that we can send the Democrats (and the Republicans) a message.

It will NOT be a PERMANENT list, and it will NOT be cluttered up with lots of messages. You have my word on this.

This will take you a few minutes, but only that. PLEASE — look through your e-mail list or address books right now, and PLEASE send us the e-mail addresses of your favorite New Yorkers. If that’s too much hassle, send us your entire e-mail list and we’ll make it “For New Yorkers Only” in the subject line.

Please send your lists to Adam Glickman or call us at 800-200-1294.

+++ If you actually live in New York, you can also help a bit more by joining the WFP “COMMITTEE OF 1000″ – a core group of citizen activists who will contact 5-20 other voters and urge them to vote on the Working Families Party line on November 3.

But no matter where you live, we KNOW that you probably know someone who lives in New York — friends, relatives, colleagues, admirers, you name it — who you think might support a political party that stands for living wage jobs, universal access to health care, better public schools, and real campaign finance reform.

With your help, we can make history this fall!

Second, just over a year later, this communication from Working Families Party Executive Director, Dan Cantor:

January 3, 2000
To: WFP Members, Sustainers and Supporters
Fr: Dan Cantor, Executive Director

RE: THE WFP’S FIRST YEAR

The Working Families Party is now officially a year old. And like a toddler taking those first wobbly but wonderful steps, the party’s first year has been shaky and exhilarating and full of promise.

The WFP has three basic activities. We build chapters. We run election campaigns. We promote our issues. All of these build and depend on each other, of course, so separating them out is a little artificial. But I thought it would be helpful to offer just a few words on each, as it will give you a pretty good sense of the remarkable growth accomplished by the party over the last year.

ELECTIONS…

On November 2nd, 226 candidates ran on the WF line in our first state-wide election since achieving official ballot status in 1998. Slightly MORE than half won their races. County legislators, town supervisors, city councilmembers, sheriffs, county executives, town clerks, you name it.

There were some terrific outcomes, a few tough defeats, but most important the general sense among everyone – and by everyone I mean our leadership, membership, the press, friendly Democrats, not-so-friendly Democrats, downright hostile Republicans, intellectual allies and others -is that we took another step on the road to becoming a legitimate and creative player in state politics.

Perhaps the most amazing outcome in November was in Nassau County on Long Island. 100 years of uninterrupted Republican rule came to an end as the candidates backed by the local Democratic and Working Families Parties rode of tidal wave of voter discontent. It would be misleading to say that either the Democrats or the WFP was primarily responsible. This was an anti-Republican vote, pure and simple. But it opens the door and the WFP activists in Nassau are determined to take advantage of it.

If you want a full set of returns on a race-by-race basis, just say the word. On the assumption that you have better ways to spend your time than poring over election returns, here’s the most important (and heartening) data on the electoral front.

In 1998, the party “qualified” by getting just over 50,000 votes. Of that vote, we got 60% in New York City, 9% in Erie County, 5.5% in Nassau, 4% in Suffolk and Westchester, and 1-2% of our total vote in each of Albany, Monroe, Onondaga, Rockland and Tompkins counties.

In 1999, we got 53,000 votes (in a year when many fewer votes were cast). But the geography of our support changed dramatically. Because there was almost nothing on the ballot in New York City, overall turnout was very light. The WFP got just 14% of its total (7000 votes) in NYC. The remaining 86% of WFP votes – 46,000 levers pulled – were pulled outside NYC.

In other words, we not only got more votes this year than in 1998, we also got them from new people. That bodes very well for the races in 2000.

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WFP

88 Third Avenue
4th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Man, that Dan Cantor gets around! In a previous era, Dan organized labor for the Jesse Jackson presidential campaign.

By the way, that WFP address is the same as SEIU and ACORN.

And just as a total aside, one of the instrumental early supporters of the New Party was DSA co-chair Frances Cloward Piven, co-author of the infamous Cloward-Piven Strategy. What a co-inkydinky.

Democratic Socialists.

P.S. You’ll notice that in the center of the Hexagon of Progress™ is the Tides Foundation. We’ll poke that hornet’s nest in another post, but suffice to say, they fund many of the components of the HOP.

And now that promised party favor:  A couple of days ago we posted two robo-calls from the Working Families Party archive, of John Edwards espousing their shared Progressive values. Today we bring another installment from the way back archive.

It turns out the Working Families Party and Eliot Spitzer have been in love for a very long time. You see, they also share the same Working Families Progressive values.

From 2006