Bringing Power Back to the People
NEW YORK
It’s 1999. And, if you think all the union activists from 1998’s political campaigns have turned into couch potatoes, you’re wrong.
D.C. 1707’s are in class.
Most political campaigns take place in even-numbered years. In the past, labor’s major involvement was sporadic: all-out effort in election years, then activists would rest up — gathering strength for the next election year.
But this year organized labor has decided there will be no down time. Political activities will begin this year and will intensify during next year’s national and local races. That change means AFSCME activists will be maintaining and building their strength during 1999: looking ahead rather than looking back.
STIR FROM THE BOTTOM. D.C. 1707, which represents employees of nonprofit organizations — particularly child care and home care workers — isn’t letting its activists rest on their many 1998 victories. Council activists, along with an army from D.C. 37 and other AFSCME affiliates, helped Rep. Charles Schumer (D) defeat incumbent Sen. Alphonse D’Amato (R) in a hotly contested battle for the U.S. Senate. They also helped win races for a number of AFSCME-endorsed state and local candidates, including New York State Comptroller Carl McCall.
The council’s political action committee — looking for a new way to keep its activists interested and involved — decided to join in a pilot project with Brooklyn’s Medgar Evers College called the Civic Participation Incubator.
For seven weeks, about 40 union activists met at the council headquarters one evening a week to learn more about the nuts and bolts of the political process — ways to get things done in the city.
RISE TO THE TOP. Participants brought with them a range of backgrounds and skills. Local 205 members Camille Arthur and Jeanné Battle are two examples.
Arthur came to the United States from Guyana, South America, 11 years ago. “Back home, I worked at the polling booths,” she says.
Things are different here, and, after earning a master’s degree at the City College of New York, Arthur decided she wanted to learn more. “I’m politically minded,” she says. In 1997, she was involved in interviewing candidates for D.C. 1707’s political action committee and getting out the vote. The course will open more doors to her activism.
Battle has chosen her door. She is running for a seat on District 2’s Community School Board. The PTA president came to her decision out of frustration that, in her district, working parents are shut out from important meetings held during the day.
The course will help her develop her campaign strategy for the widespread and diverse district that includes Chinatown, Roosevelt Island, affluent Battery City and parts of Fifth Avenue.
She will also draw on her personal experience as a day care teacher. Battle plans to focus on better communication with parents. She sees the importance of universal pre-kindergarten education and believes that any new curriculum should start from the first grade.
As the pundits lament over low citizen participation in voting and politics and think tanks launch studies, D.C. 1707 is doing something to make civic life more interesting. It is giving its members the tools they need to change their communities and their lives.
Related story:
AFSCME 2000
