It is official: City Councilman Charles Barron has just announced that he is going to run for governor. In order to defy what the former Black Panther called the “Republicrats,” on Thursday, June 17, Barron will throw down the gauntlet to the Democratic Party and gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Evidently, it’s on!

“We are forming the Freedom Party, and I am running for governor. This is first and foremost about our self-determination,” Barron told the AmNews. “We are forming a new party to represent our interests. Don’t waste your vote on Cuomo. They say he’s going to win any way, so you might as well vote for us so we can form the Freedom Party to push through our issues and continue the strong legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer and Rosa Parks,” said Barron.

One point, he said, is to put issues affecting the Black community on the table and make demands of the process and state government to address crucial topics, such as inadequate housing, high unemployment, and inner-city and police violence. The second point is to challenge the media crowning of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who seems to not even have to campaign since the mainstream press already speak of former Gov. Mario Cuomo’s boy as the gubernatorial candidate-select.

To hear Barron and his supporters tell it, New York State is about to welcome the rebirth of the Freedom Movement. It’s self-determination and self-preservation meets agitation propaganda meets political theater meets stark social reality.

Causing grassroots political contention is Cuomo’s all-white ticket with his pick of Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy as his lieutenant governor and his pushing of controversial Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice as the next attorney general.

A meeting two weekends ago saw Rev. Al Sharpton call together noted Black leadership to demand inclusion in Cuomo’s gubernatorial administration–should he end up getting one.

Last week, a small, like-minded group met at Alton Maddox’s weekly United African Movement meeting. There, the idea germinated and was followed up on Tuesday by an expanded meeting at Sistas’ Place Coffee Shop, also in Bed-Stuy. There, grassroots mainstays like members of the December 12th Movement, such as Viola Plummer, and Operation Power’s Brenda Walker, Roots Revisited’s Michael Hooper, the Black United Front’s Jitu Weusi and CEMOTAP’s Dr. James McIntosh thrashed out the plan of creating a third party, the Freedom Party.

“We support him 100 percent!” declared resilient activist McIntosh.

“Fannie Lou Hamer was disrespected by the state of Mississippi and started the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and in the same way now, we’ve been disrespected by the state of New York,” said Barron. “The Democrats basically told you to go to hell, so vote for your dignity and self-respect. Don’t be mad and stay home. Come out in November and vote for your Freedom Party and Charles Barron.”

“I think the Freedom Party is an idea that corresponds to the realities and necessities of Black people in 2010,” said Roger Wareham, human rights attorney and December 12th Movement member. “We are in a very precarious position and we should develop an agenda to defend our interests locally, nationally and globally.”

Aside from Thursday’s (June 17) noon announcement, scheduled to take place at Sistas’ Place (456 Nostrand Avenue, on the corner of Jefferson Avenue, Bed-Stuy), the group is planning for a petition drive from July 6 to August 10. Weusi and Plummer are the co-chairs of this ambitious endeavor.

While his fellow Brooklynite Gov. David Paterson refused to comment, retired assistant principal Weusi asked, “Why two years after the election of a Black president of the United States would Black voters want to start a ‘Freedom Party’? We want to emphasize that as a people, our conditions have not changed. White unemployment is 5 percent, Black unemployment is 25 percent. Black foreclosure rates are three times the rate of white foreclosures. In states like New York and Mississippi, we still receive a very meager portion of the economic pie. As Frederick Douglass said, ‘He who cries least gets whipped oftenest.’”

“This is the right time to do it,” proclaimed an exuberant Barron. “We’re not going to allow the Democratic Party to keep taking us for granted and treating us as invisible people. The structure of the Democratic Party has presented this all-white slate reminiscent of Mississippi of the 1950s. They are saying Blacks need not apply. They are saying we like your vote, but you, not so much. There is not one Black candidate. It is like a blackout.

“This is a slap in the face by the Democrats. The way this is looking at present, come November, there will be only one statewide Black-elected official–that is John Sampson. This is a move for an independent, Black-led political party.”

The man who calls himself an “elected activist” added, “The only reason why we are running for governor is because those are the rules if you want to form a third party…the system is set up just for two parties. And since both are moving further to the right and further to the white, you might as well call them the Republicrats. We can make history in this state. This is our time. We can get 15,000 signatures to get on the ballot, and we can get the required 50,000 votes. So far, the response has been overwhelming and we haven’t even made the official announcement yet. We are getting calls from all over the state.”

Barron pointed out though that “none of the other white slate candidates had to circulate petitions–not Cuomo, not our two senators, Schumer and Gillibrand, not State Comptroller DiNapoli, not any of the five attorney general candidates.

“By the way, how do they figure that all five attorney general candidates got the required 25 percent to make them qualify? That’s Bernie Madoff math. There’s no way they should have been anointed by the party at their convention in Rye, New York. They should all have had to circulate petitions so they can be appointed by the people, but this white slate was selected by the party, not the people.”

“The Freedom Party is the perfect response to those who won’t speak to our issues and expect to win by default,” former City Council candidate Marquez Claxton. “Blind Democratic Party loyalty has trapped us in irrelevance and impotence. We need a party that believes in reciprocity.”