Frank Barbaro

Frank Barbaro

Frank Barbaro is a former New York City politician.

National Coalition to Fight Inflation and Unemployment

April 16, 1975, Frank Barbaro, New York State Assemblyman, was on the Current List of Sponsors of the Communist Party USA front National Coalition to Fight Inflation and Unemployment.

DSA honor

In 1991 Frank Barbaro and Penelope Pi-Sunyer were honored at the annual New York Democratic Socialists of America "bash". Speakers included Frank Llewellyn, DSA vice chair Steve Max, and Manhattan Bourough President Ruth Messinger.

DSA support

In 2004 Democratic Socialists of America targeted local races where control of state houses were up for grabs and where statewide electoral-vote outcomes hinged on successful local district turnouts.

In New York City, DSAers are backing long-time labor ally Frank Barbaro in his attempt to take the conservative 13th District in Brooklyn and Staten Island from Republican incumbent Vito Fossella.”

In Democratic Socialists of America's Democratic Left Winter 2004/2005, Theresa Alt wrote;

We reported on the candidates that DSAers were supporting in the last issue of Democratic Left. How did they do?

New York State looks like politics as usual on the surface... Longtime left labor advocate Frank Barbaro, who took on a challenging congressional district; Socialist Green David McReynolds, whose longshot campaign was really about educating for a more peaceful and wiser foreign policy; and labor activist Dan Cleveland, who made a state senate bid in rural Republican western New York, all lost..

Communist Party support

During the 2004 election cycle, the Communist Party USA was very supportive of the Working Families Party and their endorsed Congressional candidate Frank Barbaro.

The newly emerging Working Families Party and its fusion strategy, which negates the issue of spoiler, deserves special attention. The Working Families Party in New York is building a beautiful working class multi-racial base. In New York their local campaigns are being carried out in the context of defeating Bush, and also electing a long-time progressive, Frank Barbaro to Congress in a district that has been represented by a Republican. The efforts of the Working Families Party to expand into more states deserve full support.

The Communist Party USA was supportive of several candidates in the 2004 election cycle including Frank Barbaro, Cynthia McKinney, Barack Obama, Betty Castor, Nancy Farmer and Inez Tenenbaum;

It would be helpful for each district to single out House seats that can be swung from Republican to Democrat to develop our list of key races, which includes progressive Frank Barbaro in New York and Cynthia McKinney in Georgia.

A number of exciting candidates are emerging in the Senate, in the first place Barak Obama in Illinois, and also several progressive women including Betty Castor seeking to retain retiring Bob Graham's seat as Democrat; Nancy Farmer seeking to defeat Kit Bond in Missouri; Inez Tenenbaum seeking to retain retiring Fritz Hollings seat as Democrat.

The Young Communist League USA also lent a hand;

In Chicago YCL members were very active in the Youth for Obama efforts and one member worked with the United States Student Association and his student government to register over 1,000 new voters. New York YCLers worked on the election bid of Frank Barbaro in Brooklyn and to defeat Republican Olga Mendez in Upper Manhattan. In Buffalo, YCLers worked with Citizen Action and went to work in Ohio.

From a 2006 Young Communist League USA report by Jessica Marshall.

Young people are up to the challenge. In 2004 youth-run organizations helped to organize and register 4.6 million new young people to get out and vote… the majority of them voted against Bush and more than half were young people of color. The YCL was there and present for those experiences - we learned alongside them through our Midwest Project.

The YCL has to be at the table this fall too. Every club and every member needs to be out there and involved. And we need to bring everyone we work with out too! This is a national campaign to change the Congress and we are gonna be a part of that!

We don’t have to be millions to have an impact! Just think about what a small group of YCLers have done in less than four years since our last convention!

We organized dozens of young people to head to the battleground states in 2004

In Ohio our YCLers were asked to lead up get out the vote teams because of our experience and hard work.

In Cincinnati we helped defeat an anti-gay ballot initiative.

In New York we worked on a campaign to elect Frank Barbaro defeat a Bush Republican and elect a real progressive

In Chicago we helped to form a youth vote operation to elect Barak Obama.

In St. Louis we were instrumental in electing John L. Bowman a progressive state representative. Bowman publicly acknowledged the key role the YCL and Communist Party played in his election.

The 13th CD, which includes Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, between Frank Barbaro and Republican incumbent Vito Fossella, started out as a long shot bid by Barbaro and wound up being hotly contested.

Barbaro, a veteran campaigner and public figure, known when he was in Albany as “labor’s assemblyman,” closed a 70-30 polling gap despite having a modest war chest. His lack of funds was compensated largely by a dedicated contingent of volunteers.

Barbaro won Brooklyn but was unable to reach all of Staten Island with his pro-working families, antiwar, anti-Bush message. He received about 42 percent of the vote overall.

Communist honor

The New York Friends of the Peoples Weekly World newspaper held its annual Better World Awards Gala May 6 2007, to celebrate the May Day and Cinco De Mayo holidays and to benefit the paper.

2007 Better World Award honorees include New York City Councilman Robert Jackson, and Latino community activist Adolfo Fana. Past honorees and speakers have included former State Assemblyman Frank Barbaro, NY State Senator Bill Perkins, Rev. Lucius Walker of Pastors for Peace, Congressman Major Owens, and many local union and community activists from throughout the state.

Dream of Equality awardee

Frank Barbaro is a past recipient of Asian Americans for Equality's annual Dream of Equality award.

References

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