RandomPottins: Can Brad make a difference?

http://www.bradlander.com/files/images/family.jpg

http://www.bradlander.com/

BRAD LANDER with partner Meg Barnette and their children, Marek and Rosa.

NEXT Tuesday, November 3, sees New York citizens voting for their mayor, and also for local councillors, and I'm interested in one of the candidates, if only because I know him. Brad Lander, who has worked for the Pratt Centre for Community Development for six years, and campaigned for better housing provision and the rights of low-paid agency workers, won the Democratic Party nomination for Council District 39 in Brooklyn.

We're often given the impression that American politics is all about personalities, PR image, and who gets how much from which vested interests, and that's just by those who'd have us remodel our politics the American way, so it is refreshing to see Lander's election literature being 'old-fashioned' enough to talk about

"The Issues

Preserving Liveable NeighborhoodsKeeping Housing Affordable for

I'm proud of my work to preserve and create affordable homes for New Yorkers. I can't wait to get to the City Council to do even more. "

Standing up for Public Education

As a public school parent, I see every day what makes a great school: small classes, an excellent principal, dedicated teachers, and active parents. Every child deserves no less.

Creating good jobs and a fair economy

I've been fighting to create good jobs in Brooklyn for more than a decade - and today that fight is more important than ever.

Creating a more sustainable city

The importance of thinking globally and acting locally has never been more apparent. I want to apply my experience with sustainable development to build a greener future for our city.

Strengthening Public transportation and liveable streets

A better public transportation system is key to sustainable growth for our community, and for the city and region as a whole. With more frequent subways and buses, with safer and more better-planned streets, we can have both a metropolis that really works, and neighborhoods that are more livable for our day-to-day walks to the grocery store or the park.

Restoring confidence and participation in government

My work with communities in Brooklyn and throughout New York has shown that democratic participation keeps public servants accountable to the public. That is why I want to shine sunlight on city contracts and budgeting, eliminate the culture of pay-to-play and respect the will of voters on term limits.

Promoting public safety and justice

I will work with communities to ensure that our streets remain safe, that our businesses can operate securely, and that our families can thrive and live without fear.

Equal treatment for the LGBT community

Brad is a longtime supporter of LGBT equality and will be a forthright ally in the City Council. Brad will not stand for discrimination in our laws, and will fight to protect civil liberties of all members of our community.

Today, over a million working New Yorkers have no paid so sick days. Many work in places where disease is most likely to spread -- one survey showed that 84% of restaurant workers have no paid sick days, and more than half report going to work sick. Its bad for workers, bad for families, and bad for public health. The New York City Council is currently considering a bill that would allow employees to earn up to 9 paid sick days a year (up to 5 days for small business employees). The Paid Sick Days bill is begin championed by the Working Families Party. One way to show your support is to vote for me (and other Democratic candidates) on Row E, the WFP line. It counts the same, and sends a message in support of progressive public policy.

Honor Julian Brennan by Helping Build Schools in Afghanistan

Marine Lance Corporal Julian Brennan, who grew up on 15th Street in Park Slope, was 25 when he was killed in Afghanistan on January 24, 2009. In a remarkable act of compassion, his parents Bill and Thya Brennan are asking us to make contributions to the Central Asia Institute, which builds schools in Afghanistan.'

Of course, when Brad Lander tells us proudly his children are at public schools, he isn't using the misnomer we get in England for private schools, he means public, state schools.

Brad's website bears the proud statement:
"Not paid for by PACs, corporate lobbyists or developers"

So that's two assurances from this Democrat that you would not get from Tony Blair and New Labour!

I met Brad Lander some years back when he was studying at University College London. If I was to endorse his campaign now it would mean I was supporting a bourgeois party, and my name would not do him any good. Fortunately he does not need it, being able to list a host of supporters, notably union districts and locals.

But popular as Brad's stands on jobs and housing, equality and the environment, might be, his candidature has not pleased everybody. A pseudonymous blogger calling themself "Chaim Yankel", for instance, is concerned not with Brad's election literature or speeches, but with some things he said at his son's brith (circumcision and naming ceremony:

Your last name is your mother’s -- a non-Jewish one -- by the fact of which you are ineligible for the nationalist privilege of automatic Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. We believe that law confuses the wonderful and painful inheritance of identity with unearned advantages -- legal, political, and financial -- granted by a militarized state over other people, including so many it oppresses daily….

…We pray fervently that by the time you read this, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the settlements, the house demolitions, the violence will be history. But even then, we hope you will appreciate this absence of nationalist privilege in your inscribed identity. We hope you will work for a world where identity is explored, nurtured, critiqued, celebrated, and protected -- but not the basis for privilege, for discrimination, for money, for power.”

At a time when Israel is not only the strongest military power in the Middle East, but has an aggressively right-wing government sticking up two fingers to the UN and paying little heed to its US backers, it is thrilling to think that it may face a problem with the 39th district of Brooklyn and what a would-be councillor said at his son's brith! In fact, Brad Lander has not introduced the Israel question or anti-Zionism to his election campaign. On the contrary he has even reportedly joined the America-Israel Public Affairs Council(AIPAC), for whatever tactical reasons. But at a local Jewish community event honouring Holocaust survivors he spoke about the Bundist socialist Marek Edelman, a leader of the Warsaw ghetto revolt. He also commented afterwards on the way his opponents - including Mayor Bloomberg and former mayor Rudi Giuliano - were abusing the occasion to raise racially divisive politics.

The Bund had an expression, doikeit, here-ness, meaning fight for what's right where you are, rather than tie yourself to the Zionist project. It also upheld a much older adage: "If I am not for myself, who is for me?; but if I am only for myself, what (good) am I? And if not now, then when?" Brad Lander is a director of Jewish Funds for Justice, which has channelled help to a variety of deserving causes, such as victims of Hurricane Katrina. In 2007 it also brought together more than 20 Jewish organizations in an attempt to focus the attention of the 2008 American presidential candidates on the domestic priorities of American Jews. The coalition produced an online survey, which received nearly 9,000 responses, and which identified health care as the top domestic concern of American Jews.

That must be a change from candidates vying to be 100 per cent or 200 per cent "for Israel"

Recent articles in the Jewish Daily Forward have suggested that the "Jewish Vote" is no longer what it was in NewYork, either in numbers or cohesion. Different groups were moving different ways, Orthodox for instance dbeing conservative, unlike the liberal middle class, on family and social issues. But it also noted: "Observers say that New York’s ultra-Orthodox communities, with their large and often poor families, tend to vote for whomever will deliver the most government dollars and resources — and they like to go with a winner. And Lander, who before running for office was director of the Pratt Center for Community Development, has led the crowded primary field in money and endorsements from elected officials".

Labels: America, Jewish