The Party's in Harlem-East Harlem (press release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 24, 2006

WORKING FAMILIES PARTY CELEBRATES
NEW HARLEM-EAST HARLEM CLUB

NEW YORK, NY – The Working Families Party celebrated the founding of a new local club last week. The Harlem-East Harlem club held a founding celebration on Tuesday evening at the James Varick Community Center.

“The WFP Harlem-East Harlem Club was formed to focus on the issues most important to working families in our community – jobs, housing, education and health care,” said Ramona McFarlan, a leader who helped form the club.

“We’re going to use the strength of the Working Families Party and our membership to hold politicians accountable on our issues,” said Roxane Rosario, another club leader.

The club’s electoral priorities this year are likely to include the State Senate seat being vacated by David Paterson, and the WFP’s statewide priority of collecting 200,000 votes on its line for Eliot Spitzer.

Seventy-eight members gathered to celebrate the club’s formation. Local politicians including Councilmember Robert Jackson and former Councilmember Bill Perkins attended, as well as a representative of Borough president Scott Stringer.

“Harlem and East Harlem have always been important political bases for the Working Families Party,” said WFP state co-chair, Bertha Lewis. “The growth in the party has given our Harlem and East Harlem members critical mass to form a local organization that is committed to holding politicians accountable for advancing a progressive agenda for the community.”

The WFP is a grassroots, community and labor based political party with chapters throughout New York State. Its affiliated organizations, principally labor unions and community organizations like ACORN and Citizen Action, include more than 1.2 million members. The goal of the Working Families Party is to more forcefully inject the issues of working-class, middle-class, and poor people—like jobs, health care, education, and housing—into the public debate, and hold candidates and elected officials accountable on those issues.

For more information about the Working Families Party, please visit www.WorkingFamiliesParty.org

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