New campaign launched to fight attack on voting rights

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UFT President Michael Mulgrew, flanked by community and civil rights leaders, addresses the press.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew joined a host of community and civil rights leaders on the City Hall steps on Nov. 8 — Election Day — to launch the “Stand for Freedom” national voting rights campaign.

The campaign announced a major march and rally on Saturday, Dec. 10 — the United Nations Human Rights Day — to protest the attack on voting rights nationwide. Marchers will assemble at 11 a.m. at 61st Street and Madison Avenue, in front of the offices of the billionaire, right-wing Koch brothers, and then march to Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza near the United Nations for a noon rally.

The campaign was formed in response to the recent Republican-led push in 38 states for changes in state election laws that the organizers believe would suppress the number of poor, minority, elderly and out-of-state college students coming to the polls — which could have a decisive impact on next year’s presidential election.

Mulgrew said that these efforts to restrict voting “perverted” the legal and legislative process in an effort to keep control of government in the hands of the wealthy few. 

“They’re seeking to block us from voting in order to make it easier to come after our other rights,” he said.

Mulgrew said that many things that the UFT holds dear are at stake, from the right to a quality education to the right to a fair wage.

“We won’t stand by and let this harassment of voters happen,” Mulgrew said. “We should be encouraging people to vote, not forcing them to stay away.”

Benjamin Jealous, the president of the national NAACP, stressed how attacks on voting rights often were just a starting point. 

“When they come after your right to vote, they make it easier to come after your other rights,” he said.

Jealous cited Ohio, Texas and Mississippi, where attacks on the right to vote went hand in hand with attacks on the right to collective bargaining.

Other sponsors of the “Stand for Freedom” campaign include 1199 SEIU, the Hispanic Federation, the National Council of La Raza and the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund.