Today is May Day, or as most of the world knows it, International Workers' Day.  And I am proud that it is on this beautiful day, that I have announced my Green Party candidacy for the Rochester City Council.  As a member of the working class, I think that it is fitting that this is the day that we chose to publicly launch Green Rochester.  For as we must challenge the inequality of the worker-boss relationship, it is also important that as the People of Rochester, we continually challenge the political policies and parties of the boss.  It is imperative that we build a peoples' political movement to take power from those who currently use their wealth and influence to perpetuate economic inequality.  And together we will do so.

My election to the Rochester City Council will be a signal that the people of Rochester will no longer accept business as usual.  We will no longer accept a City government where corporate profits are prioritized over People.  Union and cooperative labor will always have a seat at the table, because these are the people who have voted us in, not some corporate person headquartered in some other state.

With a strong Office for Cooperative Development, we can pioneer the way in democratizing our economies.  We will build economic institutions that have a stake in the well-being of our communities. A Green Rochester will be a City that uses its power as an anchor institution to create new worker-owned businesses that provide living wage jobs, like the Evergreen Cooperatives have done in Cleveland, OH. Instead of bailing out mismanaged companies such as Kodak and Hickey Freeman, a Green Rochester will work with unions and other workers to convert these workplaces into democratically owned and managed factories.

With workers in control of their workplaces, we will no longer have to worry about the outsourcing of our jobs.  And we will no longer have to worry about the fact that CEOs are making 200 times the wage of the average worker.  We must aim high and dream big, if we are to reconstruct Rochester.  I am committed to doing so.  Will you?

Workers for the World, Unite!  Vote Row F.

Drew Langdon

Candidate for Rochester City Council, At-Large