In an unprecedented move, the 30,000 strong Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Minnesota State Council endorsed Socialist Alternative candidate Ty Moore for Minneapolis City Council.
Also endorsed by the Green Party, Moore is running against five DFL candidates for the Ward 9 seat.
“Ty Moore may have been the most impressive candidate we screened [in any of the city council races],” said Harrison Bullard, security officer and Vice President of SEIU Local 26. “Ty has long been a partner of SEIU, through his work with Occupy Homes and in collaboration with Minnesotans for a Fair Economy. He has marched with us in subzero temperatures and stood on the picket line in support of low-wage workers. He clearly doesn’t just talk the talk; instead, Ty takes action whenever he encounters injustice. Ty is for real – he’s about the people. We are confident he is doing what he needs to do to win and would prove to be an effective collaborator on the City Council for Ward 9.”
Moore’s campaign is calling for a moratorium on foreclosures, a $15/hr minimum wage, and an end to deportations and workplace repression of undocumented immigrants. Many of SEIU’s members are immigrants fighting low wages and racist abuses by employers, and the union has supported community campaigns against foreclosures, including Occupy Homes MN, which Moore helped lead.
“SEIU’s endorsement is a capstone on the powerful, multi-racial grassroots coalition we’re building to win this election,” said Moore. “We’re bringing together community and labor activists, socialists, Greens, even disgruntled Democrats, because history shows it take movements of working people to challenge the corporate stranglehold on our political system.”
“We’re running to build a political alternative for working people in Minneapolis,” said campaign manager Kelly Bellin. “The DFL has run this city for decades, presiding over a broken political system. We face growing poverty and racial disparities, foreclosures and gentrification, and a neoliberal education ’reform’ agenda that is failing our kids. It’s time we organized a broader challenge to these corporate policies dominating our city.”
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