PEP, April 2005: Caucus unites for action

Legislators and labor leaders press for racial parity at New York’s 34th annual Black, Hispanic and Asian caucus in Albany.

Story and photos
by DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Thousands of New Yorkers of color and their allies united for action in Albany Feb. 19 through 21 at the 34th annual caucus of Black and Puerto Rican legislators.

Focusing on the difficult year ahead, state legislators vowed to retain a balance of power after a “damaging” state Court of Appeals decision skewed the budget process in the governor’s favor. Black, Latino and Asian lawmakers mingled with constituents — including a DC 37 contingent of more than 300 activists — to build coalitions and map strategies on how to combat what U.S. Congress Member Charles Rangel called “an assault on the poor, working families and seniors.”

“This is class warfare, pure and simple,” said DC 37 Political Action Director Wanda Williams. “People who need public education, Medicaid, Social Security and other government programs — and the public employees who provide these services — are under attack.” As a panelist in the state budget workshop, Williams sat with advocates, representatives of the governor and lawmakers. She and members from DC 37 locals 1549 and 420 pressed for the labor and working families’ agenda and received from legislators a commitment to restore significant funds to the budget for the Health and Hospitals Corp.

City Council members, state Senators and Assembly members, Buffalo mayoral candidate Sen. Byron Brown and city mayoral candidates C. Virginia Fields and Gifford Miller attended the DC 37 reception Saturday afternoon. DC 37 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa was named the recipient of the Harriet Tubman Award for leadership. Vowing to “send Gov. Pataki back to Peekskill in 2006,” Paterson and state Democrats agreed there is a lot of work to be done in the fight for more federal dollars for New York State and the Big Apple.

Keynote speaker Bernice King, daughter of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., challenged the caucus to “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

“For too long the Black community has been dictated to,” she said. “It’s made us content to eat at the servants’ table instead of the table of ownership. We have to fight against that mentality, find our moral compass and create our own,” she said.