By Jasmine Gripper & Ana Maria Archila
Co-Directors, NY Working Families Party

If you’re reading this right now, you probably feel like us – inundated by the news cycle, countering yet another attack on our communities everywhere you turn, worried about yourself and your family and conscious of all that our movement needs to do to be ready for what’s next. It’s an overwhelming, chaotic time. But as we know all too well, for Trump and Elon Musk chaos is the point, and our task is to stay organized to overcome their tyranny. 

We’re taking a moment to write YOU — our members and supporters — a bit of our reflection on this moment and how we need to continue to remain committed — perhaps now more than ever before — on a new north star.

The facts are plain — the Trump administration is aggressively carrying out a plan to sow fear in our communities, destabilize government at all levels, and hurt millions of working families across the country. Instead of standing up for the interests of New Yorkers, Mayor Eric Adams is facilitating Trump’s agenda in exchange for an end to his legal troubles.

This moment requires all of us to act with courage, rise above the fray, and stand together to provide a new vision for the country. We are committed to building constructive and engaged relationships with current and future elected leaders, while continuing to build our movement to forcefully push back against the onslaught of attacks we’re facing. While some may rightfully feel frustrated that politicians aren’t doing enough to stand up for our communities, trust and believe that the Working Families Party has — and always will — stand up to the billionaires to protect our schools, social security and healthcare. 

In this moment, local government has an immensely important role to play. We are looking to our state and local leaders to be a source of trusted, steady, moral leadership that prioritizes working families – and unequivocally stands up to Trump’s chaos and fear. 

We have our work cut out for us, and we will take action on multiple fronts at the same time:

• At the municipal level, this year we are going to run and win elections across New York State, including in major cities across the state, to make sure that workers and their families have champions in local governments up and down the state.
• At the state level, we are fighting for policy change that puts more money in the pockets of working people — like the Working Families Tax Credit in Albany. We will be unequivocal in demanding that our state and cities fortify their protections against Trump’s deportation machine, which will try to tear our neighbors and our families apart.
• At the federal level, we will expose the hypocrisy of the Republican leaders who are enabling the erosion of public goods to facilitate massive tax cuts for the ultra rich; and we will identify strategic opportunities to respond to the rollbacks on both human rights and crucial services from Washington and ensure that New York remains a line of defense against tyranny. 
• And, every day we’ll continue to build a party that belongs to workers, tenants, students and working families, alongside each of you. 

It’s a big year — and there’s a lot of work to do together. 

So here’s what we’re going to do — every Monday, our team will be sending you a Monday Memo. Think of it like your “assignments” for the week. How to plug in, take action and remain laser focused on the work ahead of us. If you’re not already signed up, join the New York Working Families Party and stay connected with us!

Now, more than ever, we need all of us to fight back, protect our immigrant neighbors, our trans friends and each other to build solidarity across our differences to imagine the state and country where we can all thrive. And the only way to do it is together.