Reclaim New York sounds innocuous; it might be a movement you’d want to support. To some, the name may suggest something that can help improve our lives in upstate NY. Certainly we all want to hear from anyone who can stem corruption and save us money. Indeed, various local chambers of commerce and other civic groups seem open to consider what benefits Reclaim New York is offering.

But beware. This is not an organization with an aim to help regular citizens like you and me.

A few watchful residents have revealed that Steve Bannon has close ties to this movement. In fact he was one of six original directors; the same Steve Bannon lurking in the White House, rumored to have an enormous influence on our president; the same Steve Bannon behind Breitbart News, the powerful media corporation unknown to many of us until its extreme social agenda was revealed just weeks before the election; the same Steve Bannon determined to remove so many of Americans’ social benefits and environmental protections, and scrap the Affordable Care Act—for a start. Take note that another of the original directors of Reclaim New York is a major Trump campaign donor and member of his transition team, billionaire Rebekah Mercer. (Under pressure to eliminate conflicts of interest, Bannon resigned from the board last year.)

We may believe this kind of far-right group prevails in the Midwest or Louisiana. But it’s right here in our own backyard. Reclaim New York’s organizers have been at work in the Hudson Valley and are now planning programs in Delaware County: in Hobart, Delhi, Hancock and Binghamton [in Broome County], for example.

Some alert citizens of Delaware County, NY were able to inform a private business in their area about Reclaim New York’s background. It then decided to remove its sponsorship of a planned meeting, although the chamber of commerce hosting the event has not cancelled the program, not yet.

The group seems to be focusing on Delaware County northwest of Sullivan County at present. It has already moved forward with its agenda in other parts of the state: Orange, Westchester and Putnam for example. In order to gather information to carry out its “reclamation,” Reclaim New York requests financial information from schools, villages, towns—they can do this under the Freedom of Information Act. And when those public entities refuse to comply, the group proceeds with lawsuits against them. Peekskill is a town that had to spend tax income to defend itself from Reclaim’s charges. 

A perusal of the Reclaim New York’s website (www.reclaimnewyork.org ) does not make clear its background and agenda. One finds no mention of Bannon or Mercer—only bios of a number of educated young men and a woman, many in finance and law. The words “Republican Party” do not appear either, or the name of its leader Donald J. Trump; indeed it presents itself as non-partisan, and is a registered 501(c) 3 organization. One finds nothing about why it seeks financial information about our schools and other public institutions. That very agenda is odd, given that towns and schools annually present their budgets and financial records to the public.

Slowly—too slowly—the public is learning the unsettling truth about the backgrounds of our elected and non-elected leaders. We are at a time in our history when every citizen needs to be more active than ever in uncovering the forces swirling around us, forces that could take us back decades in our struggle to establish and hold American ideals we once thought were unassailable.

[Barbara Nimri Aziz, Ph.D., is a resident of Roscoe, NY.]