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Progressive News & Notes Following news about Progressive Parties in various parts of the country is an archive of statements and press releases issued to date by American Progressives United Party.
American Progressives United Party Supports American Progressives United Party and its affiliated Progressive Parties support Occupy Wall Street and similar actions around the country targeting big banks, multinational corporations and the corrupt politicians and parties that they control. We stand with our fellow citizens in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and other places who are committed to social and economic justice, creating jobs for all, ending unnecessary wars and closing the growing gap between the rich and the rest of us.
Occupy Wall Street, Liberty Plaza, Manhattan —
The following article was published
Democrats and Their Excuses Stepping aside from the sudden Washington obsession with debt and deficits, we should remind ourselves as to who has been in charge of the federal government, at least pro forma, since 2008 and what real outcomes have been achieved.
The Democratic Party and President Obama always seem to have excuses for their performance, whether they control both houses of congress and the presidency, as during
They continually find some reason why they can't implement a New Deal jobs program, pass Blue Dog Democrats in the House, 60 votes allegedly required in the Senate, Tea Party Republicans, you name it, the list of excuses is long and contemptible.
People forget that President George W. Bush used the reconciliation process in the Senate many times to ram through legislation he wanted. It was most notably employed in 2003 to pass huge tax cuts on capital gains and dividends benefiting the rich. The vote was
No need for 60 votes when you really want to get something
Next year, we will be once again be subjected to the Following are some examples from recent news reports of what happens when Democrats are in office these days:
"Companies churn out profits but jobs don't follow"
"GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, The Head Of Obama's Jobs Council, Is Moving Jobs And Economic Infrastructure To China At A Blistering Pace"
"Layoffs Deepen Gloom"
"Wealth Gap Gets Even Wider - Crash in housing prices takes toll on blacks and Hispanics, while stocks help whites"
"Summer Cuts Launch Lunch Scramble"
"New Stable of Wealthy Donors Fueled Obama Campaign's Record Time for real progressives to look beyond the two major parties and get busy! George H. Strauss is active in the Progressive Party movement in New York and nationally. He can be reached via www.americanprogressivesunitedparty.org ("Contact Us"). National Nurses United Rally on Wall Street
National Nurses United, an outgrowth of California Nurses Association, has a broad vision of what needs to be done to improve the lives of all struggling Americans as well as to work for better conditions for its members. On June 22, the group held a rousing rally in New York with the theme, "Make Wall Street Pay for the Damage Done to Main Street," in front of Federal Hall on Wall Street. George and Annie Strauss along with other members of American Progressives United Party participated in the event.
Speakers at the rally called for a The protest was part of the union's national campaign, The Main Street Contract with the American People, which calls for job creation and more just education, healthcare, retirement, housing and taxation systems. The Main Street Contract slogan is "RNs Chart a Better Life for All Americans." For more information about National Nurses United and its affiliated state chapters, go to: www.nationalnursesunited.org Linde Knighton, chair of the Progressive Party of Washington, reports the following recent actions by the Party:
Current News about Vermont Progressive Party:
American Progressives United Party activists George and Annie Strauss participated in a New York City protest march as part of National Day of Action Against Wage Theft on November 18. The local action was organized by the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York and took the form of orderly demonstrations in front of restaurants owned by celebrity chef Mario Batali. He is facing a lawsuit filed by 27 workers who say they have not been paid a legal wage and the tips due them. Archive of Statements and Press Releases
Remembering Martin Luther King: New York, NY - April 4, 2011
April 4, 1968 - the date of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination - was a tragic day in American history. Exactly a year earlier, on The title was "Beyond Vietnam," delivered before 3,000 people at Riverside Church in New York City. It was a riveting speech whose reverberations should still stir us today. For both the audio and text of King's speech, click on: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm
On this day, please join us in remembering the great loss our country suffered on American Progressives United Party was formed in January 2010 as a national framework to support and expand Progressive Parties across the U.S. Our inspiration comes from the Progressive reform tradition extending back to the 1870's and from the life and work of leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. We appreciate your forwarding this email to anyone who might like to hear Dr. King's 1967 speech for the first time or revisit it now. In Solidarity,
George Strauss
American Progressives United Party New York, NY - March 3, 2011 On behalf of American Progressives United Party, we stand with our Progressive brothers and sisters fighting to maintain unions in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states where they are under attack.
We share with them a commitment to the values and accomplishments of the Progressive reform tradition: right of unions to organize, the
These and other gains for both unionized and This Progressive tradition must be maintained. The forces seeking to crush unions and Progressive reforms must be defeated by concerted action. In Solidarity,
Bernadette Buddington, Regional Coordinator
Morgan Daybell, Executive Director
Dave Ecklein, Chair
Pam Ellison, Chair
Linde Knighton, Chair
Dr. Marcosa J. Santiago, Advisory Board
George Strauss, Chair
Contact us at:
Testimony before the 2010 New York City
By George H. Strauss The nonpartisan election zombie lives on in New York City.
The 2003 New York City Charter Revision Commission proposed a top two electoral system to replace party primaries before the general election in November. There would be a nonpartisan open primary election, and the top two It was not sufficient that 70 percent of the voters in New York City voted against the top two proposal in 2003. Various interests behind it are once again attempting to bamboozle the public about the mystical virtues of nonpartisan elections and persuade them to pass a ballot resolution instituting a top two system in this November's election. While supportive of the top two proposal, the 2003 Charter Revision Final Report was candid enough to state that academic studies on nonpartisan elections up to then were far from conclusive. Since 2003, there has been new research, and the current Charter Revision Commission reports that academic studies on the effect of top two continue to be inconclusive at best.
The Preliminary Staff Report of the 2010 Commission touts the According to the 2010 Charter Revision Staff Report, "Citizens Union points to the further sharp decline in voter turnout in the 2005 and 2009 elections and the increasing number of voters who register as independents as reasons for supporting this (top two) system." What Citizens Union fails to address, however, are the real reasons fewer New Yorkers are voting and more are registering as independents. One major reason is the uninspiring candidates and bogus campaign promises that the major parties have been offering at election time and then forgetting about once elected to office. The 2010 Staff Report cites political scientist Richard Clucas, who has found that both nonpartisan elections and top two elections in which party identification is permitted do not yield the promised results. According to Professor Clucas, nonpartisan elections do not significantly increase overall turnout. Although they do increase turnout among independents, they also depress turnout among the poor and less educated. Many top two proponents consider "Independents" to be the gold standard for voters. In reality, they are a very small part of the electorate and often a fairly elite segment of it. According to Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, "There are an awful lot of people who call themselves independent because it's fashionable in some circles. But their voting behavior is predictable. They are not swing voters." There is also substantial evidence that low and declining voter turnout is in part a result of the weakening of political parties. This trend has been underway for many years, and the drying up of grass roots party activity in New York reflects two factors. First, people are disenchanted with what political parties promise compared with what they actually deliver. Second, the cost of campaigning has increased exponentially, and only candidates with big bucks are taken seriously by the media and can afford to wage expensive TV campaigns. This hunger for money will not change under a top two system, and there is every reason to believe it will get worse as "independent" candidates increasingly appeal to voters through costly television advertising. As a former Democratic activist and Manhattan County Committeeman years ago who has joined the Progressive Party movement, I can personally attest to the decay of Democratic Party organization in New York and voter disenchantment with what the party today promises and actually delivers. The fact that California just recently adopted by referendum a top two system does not necessarily recommend it as electoral progress. The State of California has a history of adopting all kinds of bad ideas, and this one was based on a turnout of just 33 percent of registered voters - hardly an indication of massive voter interest in the virtues of top two primaries.
More to the point is what a colleague of mine in Washington State reports on the impact of top two voting there in recent years. Linde Knighton, chair of the Washington State Progressive Party, observes that the top two system there has favored the wealthiest candidates, those with The other secret that proponents of top two don't want broadcast is that it is clearly designed to kill off pesky third parties, which at times threaten the hegemony of the Democrats and Republicans. There is a grand tradition in New York City politics of third party agitation for reform, justice and a better world here. If third parties fail to make the top two and are thus prevented from being on the ballot in November, more than a little democracy and voter choice will have been killed in the process. The answer to uninspiring major party politics in New York is not to cut off access to the ballot in November for third parties, but rather to make it easier for them to challenge the two major parties and give the voters a real choice, not an echo in the general election. Let us put aside the tinker toy theory of government and focus on making it feasible for candidates who are not rich or who are not backed by big monied interests to gain ballot access and campaign on a more level playing field. This, I guarantee you, will increase voter turnout and enthusiasm for elections. The electoral process in New York will then be viewed as a means for the expression of the people's interest and not a periodic slight of hand that provides crumbs from the table for the so-called "little people." I thank the Charter Revision Commission for the opportunity to testify today. George H. Strauss is founder and chair of American Progressives United Party, an umbrella organization for existing and emerging Progressive Parties throughout the United States. For information about them, please go to the APUP Web site: www.americanprogressivesunitedparty.org. You can email George Strauss through the Contact Us form on the Web site.
Progressive Party Movement Opposes New York, NY - June 6, 2010 American Progressives United Party and the Progressive Parties in Vermont, Minnesota and Washington State urge California voters to vote no on Proposition 14 on June 8.
Proposition 14, the
The result of the We therefore urge California voters to vote NO on Proposition 14 if they wish to retain their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote for the candidate of their choice in each and every election.
American Progressives United Party
Minnesota Open Progressives
Vermont Progressive Party
Progressive Party of Washington |
