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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Register To Vote!
Wednesday 26 May @ 17:38:49 |
 Grassroots groups launch major election campaigns
Story by Bert Berlowe
Photos by Kristen Prideaux
In just a few short weeks, Juneteenth will spread its multicolored quilt over a large section of Theodore Wirth Park on the edge of North Minneapolis. Sewn from cross threads of oppression and hope weaving through the fabric of community, Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the ending of American slavery.
 “…There are some folks who have had it with alienation and non-voting and aim to turn things around. They are not waiting for a rulebook with instructions from above. They are building their own infrastructure as they go…”
— Dan Carol, Alternet.org
For 140 years, African-Americans have honored the date — June 19, 1865 —when Texan slaves were first told of the end of the Civil War and their newfound freedom. Originally intended as an African-American event, the Minneapolis celebration now attracts tens of thousands of diverse people to honor the spirit of Juneteenth representing freedom, revival, rebirth, creativity and above all — harmony.
This year, Juneteenth will take on a new dimension — the kickoff of an extensive bottom-up effort to help underserved Minnesotans take charge of their democracy. Juneteenth Twin Cities will launch the Freedom to Vote Project, a coalition of some 90 local organizations working to get minorities and other underrepresented groups to the voting booth and into the electoral process.
The Freedom to Vote project is one of many grassroots efforts in Minnesota and nationwide operating outside of traditional political party structures to increase voter turnout for the upcoming fall election. From established, nonpartisan groups like the League of Women Voters, to the more obscure, in-your-face League of Pissed Off Voters, these projects make up what appears to be the largest and most aggressive voter participation campaign in Minnesota history.
Some of these efforts are fueled by a burning anger at the Bush administration and/or by a lingering resentment over the disputed 2000 presidential election, while others primarily want to increase voter turnout as a way to build lasting social change. The result has been grassroots organizations — neighborhood groups, artists, social service agencies, churches, schools, park and recreation departments and media outlets — banding together around a common cause.
For one of the organizers of the Juneteenth project, longtime activist Bob Milner, Freedom to Vote represents the fulfillment of a dream he has held since 1968. Milner, who is white, was attacked (by a black man) the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated. “I vowed after that to work for peace and racial harmony,” Milner says. Last year, impressed with the spirit and 70,000-strong turnout at Juneteenth, Milner met with festival organizers and realized they shared the same vision of promoting harmony among races.
They decided that the national election would increase interest in voting and started the Freedom to Vote project. They contacted like-minded groups such as The League of Women Voters, the Urban League and the NAACP and began the job of coalition-building.
“The question was how could we get people who wouldn’t otherwise vote to do so?” Milner explains. ”Our main objective is to convince people about how valuable their vote is — that every vote does count. We need to educate people about their rights and the process of voting.”
Thus far Freedom to Vote sub-groups have been working on registering voters door-to-door, at schools, college campuses, churches, and at local festivals like May Day and Cinco De Mayo, even at immigrant citizen ceremonies.
“We are also planning our own special events,” says Milner, “For example we are working with Minneapolis and St. Paul park and recreation centers on a basketball playoff that will enhance voter registration. In order to play on a team or watch the competition you have to be registered to vote.”
Milner cites one unique event — the Kids Vote project where elementary school students actually cast ballots in a mock election to get accustomed to the process. Religious organizations are leading an effort to make felons aware that they have a right to vote in Minnesota once their crime is expunged from their record. Freedom to Vote will be tabling at a performance of the Soulistic playhouse and is planning a possible concert in conjunction with Rock the Vote and Youth Vote. Come election day, Juneteenth Soul Patrols will be at the polls helping people that have problems with voting procedures, language difficulties and handicap accessibility.
The Freedom to Vote project is strictly non-partisan. It does not promote a specific candidate or political point of view. But it does deal with issues that may make voting more difficult for those disadvantaged by race, disability, language barriers or previous criminal background.
For example, Freedom to Vote members recently met with Minnesota’s secretary of state and Hennepin and Ramsey county officials to mediate a debate over voting cards that differ from county to county under the Help America Vote Act federal legislation. They ended up facilitating a positive agreement where each party involved would accept the other’s form.
“Previously, there had been only a 40 percent completion rate on the cards that were sent out,” says Milner. “And a letter written to those who did not complete the card was not exactly user friendly. In fact, it could frighten you. That letter will be changed.”
According to Milner, some of the folks involved in the FTV are motivated by the echoes of Florida 2000, when thousands of blacks were denied their right to vote and/or did not have their ballot counted. But, says Milner, “This effort actually began last October and would have happened even if there had not been an election coming. It is about righting the wrongs of the past centuries in our country, the fact that American blacks were freed from slavery, then denied the right to vote time and again. Racism still exists. This is all about social justice and harmony.”
In some cases, Minnesota organizations have been driven to mobilize election campaigns around specific issues or concerns. The most impressive of these efforts could be Peace in the Precincts, formed by Friends for a Non-Violent World prior to this year’s precinct caucuses as a vehicle for enacting peace and justice resolutions, Peace in the Precincts is now concentrating on voter mobilization and registration throughout the state, with a focus on the traditionally conservative Twin Cities suburbs. Recently, Peace in the Precincts has partnered with the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, a coalition of some 54 social justice organizations. MAP has picked this year’s election as a focal point of its work and has formed a special election/action committee. Some of MAP’s member organizations are working on their own election campaigns: For example, the Resource Center of the Americas is targeting its electoral efforts towards youth and Latino students. And several Map affiliated churches are conducting voter drives within their congregations.
MAP is one of many groups across the country trying to reverse the traditional voter apathy among young people. One of the newest and potentially most effective ways is to appeal to young people through their music and lifestyles.
Hip-Hop and punk communities are forming their own political organizations, using concerts to raise money and interest. A new collaborative called Air Traffic Control is connecting progressive grassroots organizing and music fans.
Thousands of young people are expected to attend the national Hip-Hop Voters Convention June 16-18 in Newark, N.J. To be a delegate, you need to have registered 50 voters before the event. The idea is to build a base of young people who will exercise political power no matter who is elected to office this year.
One of the primary groups targeting the youth electorate is a new national organization with a blunt name: The League of Pissed Off Voters, an offshoot of the League of Independent Voters.
Twenty-five-year-old Minneapolis resident Mattie Weiss, Upper Midwest director of the League, has been on a hectic 90-city tour to promote the League’s new book, “How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office,” which she co-authored. Weiss, a Roosevelt High School graduate and former student organizer, named several distinctive traits of the League. For one thing, its focus is on the 15 to 18 so-called election “swing states” including Minnesota, and on youth, defined as those between the ages of 18 and 35. And it is up front about its desire to bring about radical social change.
“It is time for our generation to clean up the nitty-gritty of politics and to find fresh ways to play the game on our terms,” Weiss says.
“We want to transform thousands of young adults nationwide who have never messed with politics before into savvy political players who can shake up this country. Our aim is to revolutionize democracy through networking and to strengthen online and offline communities through sharing of information on progressive voting blocs with everyone we know, and then, foremost, to provide the tools for young people who traditionally don’t vote to be empowered to do so.”
According to Weiss, the idea for the League came from young Chicagoan William Upski Wimsatt, author of two political books aimed at youth: “Bomb The Surburbs” and “No More Prisons.”
He saw a voter guide in the San Francisco Guardian and was impressed by how it empowered people to work and vote for candidates. He wanted to mobilize voters, especially young people, to become involved in election politics.
Weiss was working on an applied research project for a progressive think tank in California at the time and had begun organizing around the country because she “wanted to get (George W.) Bush out of office. I thought that if I got up on November third and Bush was re-elected and I hadn’t done anything about it, that I would never forgive myself.” Weiss, Wimsatt and a few others formed the League and published the book through Soft Skull Press. Some 50,000 copies were printed, of which 20,000 are being donated to swing state organizers.
The League currently has five regional offices and some 4,000 volunteers across the nation, but only one actual main office and a few salaried staffers — Weiss works out of her home and is being paid with book proceeds. The League works with other organizations like Youth Vote, America Votes, Rock the Vote and Moveon.Org, along with national Hip-Hop and punk political groups, as well as the Democratic Party and the John Kerry campaign.
In an effort to attract the interest of youth, the League has been staging rock and Hip Hop concerts and registering students in school cafeterias. Several League members took to the streets during a national Get Out the Vote Day last May 8 engineered by Move.On.Org and America Votes and focusing on registering 18-35 year olds. The League will be holding a youth camp in July around voting issues.
Two young women are in charge of organizing the League’s Twin Cities effort. They are Alyssa Erickson, who is also a youth leader at the Resource Center of the Americas in Minneapolis, and Nimcoh Ahmed, who operates out of the Confederation of Somali Communities office on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota campus.
Ahmed, an articulate 22-year-old Somali refugee, was one of those present at the founding of the League in May of last year. Although she is not yet an American citizen and therefore cannot vote, Ahmed has taken on a leadership position in the League. “We formed as a formal 50I(c)4 PAC so that we could endorse candidates and issues,” she said. “Twelve people came to the first meeting. We didn’t even know how to run a meeting. We just made it up as we went along.”
Since arriving in the United States in 1998, Ahmed has “seen that America doesn’t respect everyone equally” and decided that “I want to change the system. I got involved because I didn’t want to feel after the election that I could have done something different.” She chaired the League’s precinct caucus trainings earlier this year and helped organize a talent show for youth to raise awareness of the League’s efforts. “About 300 people came,” she recalled. “We had celebrities, lawyers, artists, advocates in the room getting together. Soon after that a generous donor committed to giving us a million dollars.”
Since then, the League has gone to build a massive constituency of potential voters through its website and has established a national network of locally driven multi-issue, multi-constituency programs. Ahmed is optimistic that these kinds of efforts can reverse the historically low turnout of youth. “I believe people will be surprised this year at the young people’s vote,” she says.
Ahmed is also active in the recently-formed Somali-American Democratic Association, which is working to get Somalis to vote and participate in the Democratic Party. “We have not endorsed a presidential candidate but we want people to vote against Bush, as well as for good local candidates,” she says. “We want to take back our democracy.”
The relationship between local and national campaign efforts in Minnesota is further exemplified by the work of two organizations: National Voice and America Votes. Created last October by a group of nonprofits wanting to increase opportunities for voter registration and participation, National Voice is headquartered in the Twin Cities but works in about 15 so-called swing states. Organizing Director Glenda Marsh, who operates out of a South Minneapolis office, says that National Voice’s main job is to provide education and technical assistance to nonprofits engaging in election-related campaigns, including advertising, fund-raising and legal advice. The group has a data base and contacts on the website and a matchmaker project that links needs of organizations with volunteers, as well as staff members who work specifically with the Native-American and Latino communities and collaborate with various multi-cause organizations.
From her position, Marsh has been able to monitor public sentiment towards this election and finds it encouraging. “There has been an upsurge of interest in voting in this election,” she says. “It’s happening all over the country.”
America Votes, which has a branch office in Minnesota, is a nonpartisan political organization formed in July 2003 for the purpose of increasing voter registration, education and participation in electoral politics. Founded by many of the nation’s largest grassroots organizations, it is working on voter registration in key states and was a chief organizer along with MoveOn org of the May 8 nationwide voter canvass. MoveOn.Org does not have an office in Minnesota, but has held two recent events in the Twin Cities to launch its new book, “50 Ways to Love Your Country,” which promotes election campaign participation.
While all of the efforts mentioned here will peak on election day, some of them will not end there.
Several organizations intend to continue their grassroots political efforts past November 2.
Milner wants the Freedom to Vote project to morph into a mentoring program for troubled youth in North Minneapolis. Peace in the Precincts, MAP and The League of Pissed Off Voters plan to work beyond the election to promote their favorite issues and hold politicians’ feet to the fire. Even those groups who are partisan don’t plan to fall behind a leader once the election is over.
That may be what distinguishes this year’s voter campaign from others in the past. To paraphrase statements made by several of the organizers, “We are really about building a movement.”
Volunteers are needed to help with local get-out-the-vote campaigns. If you are interested or want more information, contact any of the following:
Juneteenth: Bob Milner 612-724-4296
MAP-Peace in the Precincts: Ann Lewis 952-944-9604. annlewis694@cs.com.
Friends for a Non-Violent World:
Phil Steeger, director. 651-917-0383.
National Voice: Glenda Marsh, organizing director. 612-879-7520.
glenda@nationalvoice.org.
nationalvoice.org
League of Pissed-Off Voters:
Mattie Weiss 824-4768.
website: indyvoter.org
Alyssa Erickson 612-588-9223. Nimco Ahmed 220-3659 (cell phone).
ACORN: 651-642-9639 acorn.org.
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