United Progressive Party (USA)
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The United Progressive Party, also known as UPP, is a progressive, American political [third] party, formed in October 2015,[1] originally under the name Unity Progressive Party, as part of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and "political revolution." The party was founded by Seattle grassroots activist, Justin M. Renquist,[2] initially as only a thought experiment on Facebook,[3][4] but expanded in March 2016 to become an actual political party and alternative to the mainstream American Republican and Democratic parties. While the party is inspired by Bernie Sanders and his "political revolution," it has no direct connection with Bernie Sanders or his presidential campaign.
Notable American intellectuals on the Left have called for the Bernie Sanders political revolution to expand into its very own political party, outside the mainstream Democratic and Republican Parties, including public recommendations by Kshama Sawant,[5] among others.
The party is a 501c6 non-profit organization incorporated and headquartered in Washington D.C., and will also operate as an IRS 527 tax entity and organization, mimicking the legal and fiduciary structure of the RNC (Republican National Committee) and DNC (Democratic National Committee), in order to aggressively compete and be on par with the Republican and Democratic Parties. The party also publicly states its intention to register as a national committee (party) with the Federal Elections Commission before 2017, and register for ballot access in all 50 states and US territories as quickly as possible for 2018 and 2020 local, state and national elections.
United Progressive Party identifies itself as a reformist, populist, progressive, leftist umbrella organization, with its members and leaders being progressives, independents, environmentalists, social democrats, democratic socialists, former Green Party members, former Democrats, eco-socialists, feminists, and left libertarians. The party is designed to be a counterbalance on the Left of the American political spectrum to the increasingly conservative center-right Democratic Party and the right to far right Republican Party. UPP aims to transition quickly from minor national and state/territory party status to major party status, based on enormous demand from the Bernie Sanders supporter and voter network comprising tens of millions of voters nationwide and expats residing overseas. UPP aims to be a focal point for leftist parties to unite under in order to create a unified progressive voice, whereby other parties and organizations merge with UPP. UPP also forms coalitions with other leftist, progressive parties in the United States, where mergers aren't possible or feasible, sometimes as a transition step to eventual mergers, and also forms broad coalitions with international progressive parties. UPP is looking forward to coalition and merger talks with Socialist Alternative, SPUSA, Green Party USA, Peace and Freedom Party, the Justice Party, and many others.
Unlike most American political parties, UPP has no single leader(s), and is run solely by its National Council, comprised of national party co-chairs and officers, as well as federal district, state, and US territory co-chairpersons, and its members, a system by which all organizational decisions are made 100% democratically by the National Council and the National Steering Committee (a sub-group of the National Council) in combination with the nationwide party membership at large.
The copyrighted logos for UPP are based on the female finch bird that landed on Bernie Sanders' podium as he was giving his campaign stump speech at a large rally in Portland, Oregon, on March 25, 2016.[6] The party's primary logo is a plain, female Finch bird, and UPP has multiple versions of the logo in which the bird is "dressed up" to relate to certain topics or sentiments expressed by the party. The logos were designed by graphic artist and party member, Faustian Rubble.[7]
A list of the party's leaders, National Council and National Steering Committee, is publicly available,[8] as well as an explanation about the party.[9]
References
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