The Empire Page

In the wake of the New York City Democratic Primary, much has been written about the influence of the Working Families Party. Their endorsed candidates, John Liu and Bill De Blasio were both convincing winners in September 29th runoff and are virtual shoo-ins to be elected in November. In a low turnout election, it is assumed that the Get Out The Vote work by the WFP proved to be the difference. Whether or not this is true, both candidates had a broad range of support outside of the WFP, the WFP is getting a lot more scrutiny.

Much of the writing has been worries from entrenched members of the New York establishment (see Ed Koch and David Yassky’s column in the Daily News) on how the WFP is giving unions and other progressives too big a voice in City government. Unions though represent working New Yorkers, whose voice has been underrepresented for a long time. Over the past decades the financial, real estate and other business interests have developed and infrastructure to ensure their issues get representation.  Policy, particularly in the last 20 years, has favored these interests while working people have gotten the short end of the stick. This is one reason why we have such a large gulf between the rich and the poor and a disappearing middle class. So having a political party formed that represents the interests of working New Yorkers, can put a scare into the establishment.

Remembering our history, the WFP came into existence after the Liberal Party sold its soul for patronage in the Giuliani administration. As we have recently seen this lead to corruption on a vast scale. There was no voice on the left to put pressure on us Democrats when we strayed from our ideals. A bunch of progressives came together to give voice to their concerns. This included a lot of people from organized labor whose combined organizing strength has lead to the success of the WFP. The WFP mostly endorses Democratic candidates and its endorsement is seen as a progressive seal of approval, much as the Liberal Party’s endorsement once did.

Now I am not one to say that labor is right on every issue but for the most part they give a much needed voice to those who are traditionally underrepresented. Those that say that labor demands are bankrupting the City need only look to the give aways given to business over the past decades, to know that all sectors share the blame. It scares the old special interests to see a new power broker, as they are of the WFP. As I saw the WFP’s City Councilmember Tish James leading a tenant press conference the other day, I thought that  if the WFP helps make people who have traditionally been shut out part of the dialogue then it is all the better for New York.