Brandworkers

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Brandworkers

Brandworkers received a grant from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development for $60,000 for FY 2020-2021, and since 2016 has received four grants totaling $255,000.
Brandworkers claims to be a community organizing group dedicated to supplying training, infrastructure, and community to local food factory workers.  The problem is, Brandworkers has been promoting pro-abortion messages on social media and through direct involvement with pro-abortion movements. Additionally, the founder of Brandworkers regularly supports LGBT pride on social media and is the co-founder of the International Workers of the World Starbucks Worker Union, an openly socialist/communist organization.

Here is a summary of our findings, illustrating Brandworkers violations of Catholic moral and social teaching:

• Endorsed the pro-abortion International Women’s Strike
• Executive director participated in pro-abortion women’s marches
• Promoted socialist ideology on social media
• Intimate involved with IWW, a socialist organization including a branch co-founded by Brandworker’s founder
• Hosted and promoted IWW campaigns and a pro-communist book release
• Posted job announcements specifically encouraging LGBT individuals and those who support LGBT ideologies to apply
• Honored LGBT activists
• Promoted occult tarot card readings

Pro-Abortion Advocacy

In 2017, Brandworkers publicly endorsed the International Women’s Strike, an extremely pro-abortion organization.The platform of the International Women’s Strike demands full access to abortion without reservation.

“We stand for full reproductive justice for all women, cis and trans.  We want complete autonomy over our bodies and full reproductive freedom. We demand free abortion without conditions and affordable healthcare for all, irrespective of income, race or citizenship status. The history of forced sterilization of Indigenous women and women of color in this country goes hand in hand with the attack on abortion rights.  Reproductive justice for us means the freedom to choose both whether to have children and to have them at a time of our choosing.”

On March 5, 2018, Brandworkers posted the pro-abortion platform of the International Women’s Strike, referencing “queer and trans women” with a message calling for members to join in the strike:Brandworkers even initiated a Brandworkers “Contingent of the International Women’s Strike,” stating that they “enthusiastically endorse the International Women’s Strike,” even posting a link to a “comprehensive version of the International Women’s Strike NYC Call to action,” which includes the demand for abortion on demand.
The page linked to by Brandworkers says, “free and safe abortion on demand without apology.”
On March 9, Women’s Strike NYC posted a photo of Brandworkers marching with their own signs in the pro-abortion International Women’s Strike.
It should come as no surprise that Brandworkers would promote pro-abortion activism, however, considering the fact that Gabriel Morales, the current executive director for Brandworkers attended a campaign to stand with Planned Parenthood and the International Women’s Day March which is both pro-abortion and socialist.
In addition to actively promoting the pro-abortion International Women’s Strike and its stridently pro-abortion platform, Brandworkers is a member of and on the Steering Committee of a pro-abortion coalition called the HEAL Food Alliance.

CCHD grant guidelines specifically forbid organizations receiving a grant from the CCHD from being members of other organizations whose actions or agendas go against Catholic social or moral teaching.  The USCCB’s guideline specifically states:

“CCHD will not fund groups that are knowingly members of coalitions that have as part of their organizational purpose or coalition agenda, positions or actions that contradict fundamental Catholic moral and social teaching (e.g. promotion or support of abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, racism, as well as the use of the death penalty punitive measures toward immigrants, etc.).”

The HEAL Food Alliance website identifies Brandworkers as a “Core Member.”
On its membership page, the HEAL Food Alliance indicates that member organizations pay annual dues, though it is unclear how much those dues are.
Brandworkers executive director Gabriel Morales is also on the steering committee HEAL food alliance.
On July 5, 2022, HEAL Food Alliance publicly condemned the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, claiming that the decision “undermined the sovereignty, power, and bodily autonomy of people with uteri,” and “access to safe medical care, including safe abortion care, is an essential part of a thriving future for all of us.”  It then added a bullet point indicating where people can obtain help in paying for an abortion:

• If you need help paying for an abortion, or have the means to contribute to support others who need financial help, tap in to the National Network of Abortion Funds.

On June 24, the day of the SCOTUS decision, HEAL retweeted a statement from HEAL’s co-founder and executive director, Navina Khanna, claiming that the fight for abortion is linked to their fight for “food, land, farm justice.”
On facebook, HEAL’s statement was even more explicit, declaring that “access to abortion … is a human right that we will not stop fighting for.”  In other words, HEAL announced that its agenda includes fighting for access to abortion.

Pro-LGBT Activities

In addition to Brandworkers being openly pro-abortion, they are also unapologetically promoting homosexual and transgender ideologies.  For instance, back in 2015, Brandworkers celebrated the Obergafell decision, legalizing same-sex “marriage” throughout the country.
More recently, on June 2, 2022, Brandworkers not only promoted LGBTQ+ “pride,” but even went so far as to demand employers cover transgender surgeries and treatments under “healthcare.”
November of 2021, Brandworkers announced a homosexual comedian as the entertainment for their awards dinner.  This comedian “hosted the Queerty Podcast, hosted Scruff’s comedic queer trivia show “Hosting,” where he wrote and created weekly games focused on LGBTQ+ history and culture. He’s also currently hosting and producing a monthly queer comedy show ‘The Lavender Scare’ at Caveat in NYC.”
In 2019, Brandworkers tweeted in support of “trans workers.”
In 2019, Brandworkers honored an LGBT activist (Carmelyn P. Malalis) with an award as a “Champion of Economic Justice.”
In it’s writeup on Malalis, Brandworks made sure to explain that her LGBTQ advocacy played a big role in their decision to present her with this award:

“She co-created and co-chaired the firm’s LGBT practice group, and co-chaired other practice groups including the Disability and Family Responsibilities Discrimination practice group. For over a decade, she successfully represented workers in a wide range of discrimination claims, including those based on race, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, and pregnancy.
…
She’s redoubled her agency’s outreach, with a particular focus on those most at risk of discrimination and harassment, including trans people, religious minorities, immigrants, people with disabilities, and communities of color.
…
For showing us what’s possible when an agency adopts an intersectional approach to its work, we couldn’t be more thrilled to recognize Commissioner Carmelyn P. Malalis as a Champion of Economic Justice at the 2019 Brandworkers Awards Dinner.”

Pro-Marxist Activities

The founder and former executive director of Brandworkers, Daniel Gross, co-founded the International Workers of the World Starbucks Workers Union in 2004. The IWW has a long history of violence going back to 1904. Since then, the IWW has been involved in over 150 violent strikes resulting in countless injuries and many deaths. From the beginning, they openly opposed capitalism and briefly divided in 1908 over a disagreement between whether the Socialist Labor Party Union or direct action in the form of strikes, propaganda, and boycotts would most effectively communicate their goals.  An article in the International Socialist Review stated that the IWW occupies “a proud place in the tradition of revolutionary socialism in the US.”  A history project on the IWW at the University of Washington asserted that “the IWW’s revolutionary goals and commitment to anarcho-syndicalism positioned it to the left of the Socialist Party as well as the AFL.”

Not only does IWW publish multiple articles in support of abortion, but is so pro-death that Margaret Sanger even used to protest with them.

In 2014, Daniel Gross (identified in the article as the founder of Brandowrkers) wrote an article on IWW organizing strategies in which he supplies ways in which to “win your IWW campaign.”

Given this strong connection between Gross and the IWW, it is only natural that Brandworkers would also have a tight relationship with the IWW, signaling its intimate relationship with revolutionary Marxism.

In May of 2012, Daniel Gross wrote an article for the IWW declaring a joint victory for a joint project between Brandworkers and the IWW.Furthermore, according to the IWW NYC website, Brandworkers is hosting “monthly branch meetings” for the IWW in the Brandworks office.
On top of that, in confirmation of the completely socialist nature of the Brandworkers organization itself, former Brandworkers board member Greg Pason is the National Secretary of the Socialist Party USA.

As mentioned above, the current executive director for Brandworkers is Gabriel Morales.  Morales’ “likes” on facebook strongly indicate that the connection with the Marxist IWW continues under his leadership. 
In fact, in 2016, Morales reported that he is an actual card-carrying member of the IWW.
On October 21, 2017, Brandworkers hosted the book launch of “Wobblies of the World,” a book examining the founding of the IWW and its revolutionist/socialist history.
In anticipation of the book launch, Morales cited Lenin on Twitter.
During the same 2019 Awards Dinner in which Brandworkers honored LGBT activist Carmelyn P. Malalis, they brought in a project of the Democratic Socialists of America to sing to the attendees for entertainment.
And to top it all off, in April of 2021, Brandworkers promoted and encouraged the occult practice of tarot card readings as part of a campaign.

Conclusion

Because Brandworkers is a clearly pro-abortion, pro-LGBT, and socialist organization, as shown by the evidence in this report, it has no right to receive any kind of Catholic funding. It is clear that the organization is anti-Catholic in teaching and belief in itself, but also was founded and run by radical socialists. It has a history interconnected with corrupt organizations like the IWW and International Women’s Strike and is not afraid to share their close connections with these organizations on social media.

This information and evidence of Brandworker’s anti-Catholic promotions is easily available and accessible, which renders the CCHD either incompetent or indifferent in terms of researching the organization to whom they are providing hundreds of thousands of dollars.