About the Working Families Party

The WFP is a grassroots, community and labor based political party with chapters throughout New York State. 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. Our organizing strategy is to start local, think long-term, combine campaign work with organizing and education, and not waste supporters' votes on candidates with no chance of winning.

Read a timeline of Working Families Party victories since our founding.

Read our federal platform (pdf) and our state platform (pdf).

Read a great article about the Working Families Party in The Nation.

See the 2004 general election results, WFP vote totals in the Presidential and Senate races, and how other WFP-endorsed candidates fared around the state.

Our 2004 Annual Report includes information on all the major issues we worked on in 2004, and on our role in the 2004 elections.

WFP leadership and staff

The WFP's governance structure balances the interests of our affiliated unions and community groups with members of our local chapters. Both the WFP State Committee, our highest governing body, and the Executive Committee, which makes decisions on a day to day basis, include representatives of both groups.

Affiliates

We are a community-labor coalition. Bus drivers in Queens, teachers in Buffalo, auto workers in Syracuse, seniors in Brooklyn, writers in Manhattan, printers in Queens, the unemployed, the underemployed, the overworked and even a celebrity or two. More than sixty unions and community organizations have affiliated with the Working Families Party.

Chapters

The day to day work of the WFP is conducted locally by chapters and clubs all over the state. Membership in the WFP means more than signing a form or writing a check, it means being an active participant in the local party, with a full voice in all decisions. The most important thing chapters do is vote on what candidates receive the WFP line on the ballot, but they are active all year round. If you want to get more involved in the WFP, your local club or chapter is the place to go.

History

The Working Families Party was launched in June 1998 by a coalition of community organizations, unions, and individuals. We saw the need and the opportunity for a political party that would tell the truth about what is going on in our society. And we believe our initial hunch has paid off, with hundreds of thousands of working people, seniors and the unemployed agreeing with our emphasis on living wage jobs, education, affordable housing, health care, and campaign finance reform.

What we fight for

The WFP fights for New Yorkers of ordinary means - middle class, working class and poor. We fight for families, parents, children, seniors, students - all of us. We believe everyone deserves a fair shake, and right now, we're not getting one. Issues like health care, housing, investment in schools, fair taxes, campaign finance reform, good jobs at good wages are at the top of the list. But it's a long list and we have a lot of work ahead of us. We fight strategically using our ballot line as a tool. And we are in it for the long haul, organizing locally, statewide and eventually, nationally.

Strategy

New York and Connecticut are the only states in the nation where "Open Ballot Voting" is both common and legal. That means we can cross-endorse major party candidates and voters can vote on our ballot line if they feel that we represent their values. Votes on a minor party line, like the WFP, play a major role in the outcome of elections and in determining subsequent legislation.

What they say about us

Some politicians like us, some wish we would disappear, but all acknowledge our commitment to a set of core principles. The press, too, has noticed us. We've got a lot of people talking and they're saying interesting things (including the New York Post's attack on us).

Frequently asked questions

We're an unusual political party, and a lot of people have questions about us.