VICTORIOUS FREEDOM PARTY CONVENTION

 

 
 
 
FREEDOM PARTY'S VICTORIOUS 
FIRST N.Y. STATE CONVENTION

 

The birth of a new political party in the United States is built on unity and struggle. The new Black and Latino led Freedom Party founded on June 27, 2010, held its first Convention on February 12-13, 2011 to lay out its program of action and the need for a united front. After a mere four month campaign, the Freedom Party made significant gains in the November 2010 state-wide election. According to NYS Board of Elections statistics the Freedom Party led all third party candidates in New York City who did not abandon their independence by endorsing Democratic Cuomo or Republican Paladino for governor.

 

The historic first party convention was held at the National Black Theatre on Fifth Ave and 125th Street in Harlem on February 12 and at the Nazarene Congregational United Church of Christ in Brooklyn on Sunday, February 13. Both venues held capacity crowds. Clearly, there is a movement afoot building a new direction for working class people in New York State.

 

The Freedom Party has made jobs a key issue and Ramon Jimenez, Esq., the Freedom Party candidate for Attorney General, set the tone for the convention on Saturday.  Mr. Jimenez recently held a labor and community forum in the Bronx sponsored by the Freedom Party and the South Bronx Community Congress. Union leaders from all over the city participated in the round table discussion and are building a solid coalition.

 

 “A sister of mine went to Washington to the Congress this past week and told me about all the Tea Partiers petitioning the congress members with the hope that they will be axing all social programs to the tune of $100 billion,” said Jimenez. “And I thought - whose going to save us? The republicans? The democrats? I thought about Governor Cuomo who told us what he was going to do and he is now doing it. With a $10 billion dollar deficit, he will not extend the millionaire tax, he is cutting pensions, ending seniority, and freezing wages. Who is going to save us?”

 

“Mayor Bloomberg is now trying to decide whether he is going to lay-off 9000 or 21000 teachers, cutting 100 senior citizen centers, putting less firemen and women on the trucks. Who is going to save us?” Black and Latino elected officials continue to smile and shuffle along with the program.   “How could anybody question that we need a Freedom Party? A party that includes; working class African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Arabs, progressive Whites, people from all over the Caribbean. We need to bring all these forces together! We have got to understand unity politics! We must build a new type of party under a principled United Front,” Jimenez concluded.
 
Freedom Party leaders Co-Chairs: Viola Plummer and Jitu Weusi, NYC Councilman Charles Barron, and Bob Law; also emphasized the importance of pro-active participation by everyone. Plummer said, “We can’t just talk, we have got to do our work. We have to get out into the streets and do the mobilizing and organizing that needs to be done.” Plummer directed those interested in building the Freedom Party to contact the borough coordinators:
 
Brooklyn - Omowale Clay at 718-398-1766,
Queens - Gregory Perry at 347-494-9939,
Bronx – Kamau Brown at 347-721-8606,
Manhattan – Roger Wareham, Esq. 646-730-2562.

 

Other dynamic speakers included Amiri and Amina Baraka, Nana Camille Yarborough, Kalfani Nkrumah, Esq., the phenomenal musician Mr. Donald Smith, Assemblywoman Inez Barron, and others. An intense open mic discussion was held to hear issues confronting the masses that came out to participate.
  
The Freedom Party presented a twelve point program focused of a structural transformation of the political and economic system that included: An equitable redistribution of wealth, progressive taxation, free education from pre-k to post baccalaureate, Jobs, reparations, housing, political prisoners, women’s rights, support for youth and seniors, end to police brutality and deadly force, and clean and renewable energy. 

For more information contact the Freedom Party Headquarters at 718-398-1766.

Amadi Ajamu
amadi4@aol.com
718-398-1766