Workers Center of Central NY

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Workers Center of Central NY

Since 2016, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has provided $345,000 in grants to the Workers’ Center of Central New York (WCCNY), including its most recent grant of $75,000 in 2020.
At issue is the fact that WCCNY is an active promoter of homosexual and transgender ideologies, gave full throated support for looting while calling for the defunding of police, and is a member of several coalitions pushing abortion and LGBT ideologies.  Despite the fact that the Lepanto Institute has reported on WCNY’s activities since 2020, the organization continues to receive CCHD funding and support.

Promotion of Abortion

In March 2016, the same year it received its first grant, WCCNY wrote a facebook post about a “recent win for CNY Workers,” wherein the All Above All campaign (of which WCCNY is a member), worked “to restore and expand abortion coverage for low-income women.”

Promotion of Looting and Defunding the Police

On May 29, 2020, WNCCY gave full throated support for rioting and looting on Facebook, saying:

“these riots and lootings are taking back what the masses of working black and brown communities are owed. Riots and protests are necessary tools and we fully support … An injury to one is a injury to all.”

The Workers’ Center also joined in protest and explicitly called for the defunding of police as seen in this photo posted on the group’s Facebook feed from June 6:In this post from June 5, 2020, the Workers’ Center (with the abbreviation WCCNY on the far left) created a sign calling for the defunding of the police, and included on the sign “DSA,” which stands for the Democratic Socialists of America.  In other words, it is clear that the Workers’ Center is collaborating with a publicly Marxist organization for the defunding of the police.

Promotion of Homosexual and Transgender Ideologies and Marxism

Every organization receiving a grant from the CCHD is required to sign an agreement regarding the organizations activities, affiliations and conduct. The CCHD grant agreement clearly states in section A. 5.

“Grantee agrees that it will not knowingly participate in any coalition that has as part of its organizational purpose or agenda the promotion of actions in conflict with fundamental Catholic moral or social teaching.”

Having signed the agreement at the time of its application, WCCNY would have known that its involvement with a coalition that acted against Catholic teaching would be a disqualifier.  And if CCHD had done its due diligence, it would have known that the coalition membership we’re about to discuss would have been an obstacle to funding.

Furthermore, WCCNY’s awareness of the obligation to refrain from coalitions that acted in a manner antithetical to Catholic teaching extends to a time before it received its first grant.  In 2014, the year before WCCNY received its first grant from the CCHD, WCCNY vigorously opposed the discontinued funding of a Portland-based grantee called VOZ Workers Rights Education Project.  CCHD denied funding to VOZ due to its membership in a coalition that advocated for homosexual marriage. WCCNY took to social media and called CCHD’s rare enforcement of the grant guidelines “bullying” and a “litmus test over LGBT equality.”

In 2016, for instance, WCCNY tabled an event at Nottingham High School,  blatantly promoting homosexual activism and violent revolutionary extremism.

In June 2019, WCCNY indicated that it was at the Pride event for that year, saying, “HAPPY PRIDE EVERYONE!”
This photo, taken from WCCNY’s own Facebook feed in December of 2016 provides an overview of their display. The raised, clenched fist (which is in the very logo of WCCNY) is enough to illustrate the organization’s disposition for Marxist revolution.
This close up photo displays homosexual activism flags with logos such as “I love my husband,” “Long Life (sic) the LGBT.”  But more disturbing is the  promotion of the militant Palestinian “freedom fighter” and airplane hijacker Leila Khaled (circled in yellow) and the violent Zapatista Marxist revolutionary, Comandanta Ramona (circled in red).  For background on Khaled’s violent militancy, click here.  For background on Ramona’s violent overthrow of the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, click here.
In June of 2015, WCCNY participated in the Syracuse Gay Pride parade to promote itself with t-shirts as well as “support the LGBT community.”
More recently, on June 16, 2020, WCCNY took to Facebook to continue its support of homosexual activism, celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision to include homosexuality and transgenderism in the Civil Rights Act of 1964:

In June 2016, WCCNY posted a link to the Trans Queer Liberation Movement, saying, “We love you LGBTQ family.”
In addition to WCCNY’s active support for homosexuality and militant Marxist revolutionaries, it also has strong ties to the socialist network in New York. WCCNY is an active partner with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and active participant in the Marxist movement.

Some examples:

This June 2015 Facebook post shows WCCNY giving a class and Karl Marx is clearly shown in its lesson materials.
This July 2020 Facebook announcement by WCCNY promotes DSA activities –

Even more troubling is this 2016 article from the Marxist revolutionary news site Workers World titled “On the Campaign Road to Revolution.” This article details a campaign meeting of Monica Moorehead, the Marxist Worker World Party presidential candidate, clearly stating that the meeting was about the “path to socialism.” In accordance with this theme, WCCNY is identified as a participant in the meeting, helping to “explore strategy and theory on how to move forward.”
Given WCCNY’s active support for the LGBT agenda and Marxism, and its involvement in a coalition that aggressively advocates for homosexuality and abortion, it should come as no surprise that WCCNY’s involvement with this meeting included the same.  According to the article:

Moorehead emphasized that the path to socialism must be based on building broad solidarity and unity with struggles like #NoDAPL in Standing Rock, N.D.; the rebellions in Charlotte, N.C., Baltimore and Milwaukee against police terror; and the continuing struggle against deportations of migrant workers and families. She noted this solidarity must include fighting LGBTQ oppression, like the struggle against HB2, the anti-trans, anti-worker hate law in North Carolina.

WCCNY, while receiving funding from the CCHD, employed socialist and homosexual activist Nikeeta Slade. Slade died earlier this year, and in a published eulogy, the Syracuse DSA said “she was a proud Black, queer socialist-feminist organizer” who was a “former organizer with the Workers’ Center of CNY.  The eulogy emphasized Slade’s belief that “we must overthrow capitalism … heteropatriarchy, and all oppression.”

WCCNY is a member of Food Chain Workers Alliance

On the CCHD portion of the USCCB website, the CCHD first asks and then answers the question, “Does CCHD fund groups that act against Catholic values?”  CCHD falsely claims “no,” and then explains its “thorough application process,” before asking the follow-up question:

“What about participation in coalitions for a good purpose, like better wages or housing, that include groups acting against Catholic values on other issues?”

Here’s what the CCHD says:
As such, WCCNY’s membership in the Food Chain Workers Alliance, which is forbidden under CCHD grant guidelines, as will soon be made clear, is a dues-paying relationship.  According to the Food Chain Workers Alliance’s most recent tax form 990, the organization does indeed collect dues from its members.  And the Food Chain Workers Alliance has taken formal positions regarding same-sex “marriage,” and abortion.

On its membership page, WNNCY is identified as a member of The Food Chain Workers Alliance.
On June 26, 2015, the Food Chain Workers Alliance celebrated the SCOTUS decision on same-sex “marriage.”
Even more egregiously, just this year, after the Dobbs V. Jackson decision that overturned Roe V. Wade, FCWA issued a formal statement on the SCOTUS ruling, saying,

“We are outraged by the U.S. Supreme Court’s brazen agenda to disempower our communities while expanding the reach of corporations and the carceral state. SCOTUS rulings of the past year have protected the interests of the corporate class while stripping away our rights to bodily autonomy, privacy, and reproductive choice;”

Concomitant with that, FCWA retweeted a statement that overturning Roe is an indication that “SCOTUS is in it to kill (us).”In addition to being a dues-paying member of the Food Chain Workers Alliance, WCCNY is also a member of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas.  Alianza identifies WCCNY on its list of members, here.

On June 29, 2022, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas issued a press release slamming the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, declaring that reproductive justice and farmworker justice are “intertwined.”  The press release states:

“Alianza Nacional de Campesinas defends, and will continue to passionately advocate for, reproductive and healthcare justice. We call on the Biden-Harris administration to immediately act to uphold and protect reproductive freedom and on Congress to codify Roe into law.”

This isn’t the first time Alianza forcefully promoted abortion.  In January of 2018, Alianza stated, “We RISE UP for the nearly 29 million women of reproductive age whom are denied insurance coverage for abortion care.”
In September of 2020, Alianza declared, “There is no immigrant justice without reproductive justice.”

In October 2021, Alianza participated in the fight for reproductive justice.

On June 29, 2022, Alianza declared that it is “defends, and will continue to passionately advocate for, reproductive and healthcare justice,” while demanding a national codification of Roe.

In May of 2022, Alianza claimed that “Abortion rights are Campesina rights.”

And if promotion of abortion wasn’t bad enough, Alianza is also firmly entrenched in the promotion of homosexual and transgender ideologies.  This tweet from June of 2022 is sufficient to make the point.

Here on CNY Solidarity Coalition’s website WCCNY is clearly identified as both a member and “anchor organization.”
In late 2020, the CNY Solidarity Coalition published a call script for House Representatives to oppose the First Amendment Defense Act and “take a strong stand on protecting LGBT rights.”
In April of 2018, the CNY Solidarity coalition published an action alert in support of New York State Legislature’s “Reproductive Health Act.”  This was the infamous bill that disgraced Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law, allowing the murder of preborn children at any time in the mother’s womb – even up until birth – and for any reason.  This was the same bill for which the needle of the Empire State Building was lit up in pink.

In May of this year, CNY Solidarity Coalition promoted the Syracuse DSA Socialist Feminist Working Group’s “meetup” which planned a discussion on both Marxism and transgender activism as well as fundraising for the New York Abortion Fund.

Most recently, in September of this year, CNY Solidarity Coalition promoted and supported a rally for Planned Parenthood, specifically for the defense of its abortion business.

Conclusion

WCCNY is demonstrably diametrically opposed to Catholic moral and social teaching.  It’s calls for looting and the defunding of police are nothing short of the advocacy of anarchy, and its clear promotion of socialism and revolution are clear violations of Catholic social teaching.  Furthermore, its individual promotions of homosexual and transgender ideologies act directly against the Church’s teaching on human sexuality.  And on top of that, its membership in at least three coalitions that are fighting for abortion and homosexual and transgender ideologies are direct violations of the CCHD’s guidelines on coalition memberships.