For the Many is a left-of-center advocacy group with offices throughout New York State that promotes left-of-center economic, racial, and environmental policies and organizes on behalf of such policies throughout New York. The organization promotes eviction moratoriums, rent control policies, short-term rental bans, and many other housing policies as well as opposing the expansion of natural gas plants, supporting a minimum wage of over $21 per hour, and the creation of government-run banks.
The organization employs socialist rhetoric supporting “taking back” wealth from high earners and “make the greedy few pay their fair share of taxes.” The organization is sponsored by Tides Advocacy, a left-of-center lobbying group affiliated with the Tides Foundation that acts as the fiscal sponsor to many left-of-center advocacy groups. 1 2 3
Background
For the Many was formed in 2012. While the group has added or changed campaigns over the years, the focus of the organization has remained largely centered around economic issues. The organization’s activity timeline states that the organization was formed in the wake of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Following the collapse of the housing market and subsequent recession, the group decided to make its first campaign focused on housing policy, which led to the group lobbying for the passage of a local ordinance in 2014 in Poughkeepsie requiring banks to post a $10,000 bond for every foreclosed or vacant property they own. In 2014 the organization also hired its first two full-time staff members. 4
Other initiatives the organization has been involved in or led in its history have included opposing utility rate hikes by stating that utility companies only raise rates while “destroying the climate…just to line their pockets,” expanding utility assistance programs, organizing on behalf of policies to provide drivers licenses and identification cards for illegal immigrants, supporting laws to block deportations by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and backing a variety of proposals in New York to significantly raise taxes on high earners and impose restrictions on eviction proceedings. 5
Activity
For the Many has grown to have a statewide presence in New York and lobbies the legislature to pass many of its priorities at the state level. The group also organizes on behalf of left-of-center policies in Poughkeepsie, and has also expanded to operate offices in Middletown, Newburgh, and Kingston. The organization also endorses candidates for public office, mostly focusing on local offices in the cities where it maintains offices and surrounding villages and counties. The group states that it will “only endorse in close, important races where our work can be the difference in who wins and loses.” 6 7
Policies supported by For the Many include a minimum wage of $21.25 in the New York City area and $20 elsewhere in New York, state-run government-funded health care, expanding low-income state health care programs to cover all low-income individuals and illegal immigrants, and creating a public state-run bank in order to “divest from banks that are financing destructive corporate interests, including speculative real estate, private prison and immigration detention companies, the global arms trade, and the fossil fuel industry.” 8 9
Opposition to Nuclear Energy
For the Many was a cosigner on an April 2021 letter to President Joe Biden that asked the administration to promote weather dependent wind and solar power systems and “end the fossil fuel era.” The letter also advised the president to “Phase out nuclear energy as an inherently dirty, dangerous and costly energy source.” The group was listed by its website: EarthDay.org. 10
Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and from 1990 until 2021 accounted for 20 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. 11 An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. 12 A 2020 analysis from Our World in Data reported that nuclear energy “results in 99.9% fewer deaths than brown coal; 99.8% fewer than coal; 99.7% fewer than oil; and 97.6% fewer than gas,” making it “just as safe” as wind and solar power production. 13 The U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that “nuclear energy produces more electricity on less land than any other clean-air source” and that it would require “more than 3 million solar panels to produce the same amount of power as a typical commercial reactor or more than 430 wind turbines.” 14
Fiscal Sponsorship
For the Many is sponsored by Tides Advocacy, a left-of-center lobbying group affiliated with the Tides Foundation that acts as the fiscal sponsor to many left-of-center advocacy groups. 15
References
- “Our Work.” For the Many. Accessed June 12, 2023. https://forthemany.org/our-work/
- “An Economy For the Many.” For the Many. Accessed June 12, 2023. https://forthemany.org/our-work/an-economy-for-the-many/
- For the Many. Accessed June 12, 2023. https://forthemany.org/
- “About Us.” For the Many. Accessed June 12, 2023. https://forthemany.org/about-us/
- “About Us.” For the Many. Accessed June 12, 2023. https://forthemany.org/about-us/
- Candidate Endorsements.” For the Many. Accessed June 12, 2023. https://forthemany.org/candidate-endorsements/
- “About Us.” For the Many. Accessed June 12, 2023. https://forthemany.org/about-us/
- “An Economy For the Many.” For the Many. Accessed June 12, 2023. https://forthemany.org/our-work/an-economy-for-the-many/
- “Healthcare For the Many.” For the Many. Accessed June 12, 2023. https://forthemany.org/our-work/healthcare-for-the-many/
- Center for Biological Diversity, et. al. Letter to “The Honorable President Joseph R. Biden.” RE: NOW IS THE MOMENT TO ACCELERATE THE JUST, RENEWABLE ENERGY FUTURE AND END THE FOSSIL FUEL ERA. April 27, 2021. Accessed July 23, 2024. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2022-4-27_Letter-to-Pres-Biden-re-End-Fossil-Fuel-Era-Accelerate-Transtion-to-Renewable-Energy.pdf
- “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php
- “The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/
- Ritchie, Hannah. “What are the safest and cleanest sources of energy?” Our World in Data. February 10, 2020. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy
- “3 Reasons Why Nuclear is Clean and Sustainable.” U.S. Department of Energy. March 31, 2021. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/3-reasons-why-nuclear-clean-and-sustainable
- Ludwig, Hayden. “Unearthing The Tides Nexus.” Washington, D.C.: Capital Research Center, 2021. https://capitalresearch.org/article/unearthing-the-tides-nexus-part-2/