Thursday, July 16, 2009
IAI Message to PPEHRC and SWAA
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Dear friends,
The International Alliance of Inhabitants congratulates you on your conference, Building the Unsettling Force: A National Conference to Abolish Poverty (Kentucky, July 16-19, 2009), which is a very important step in the creation of an independent body striving for structural change in the United States.
Indeed, although the Obama administration represents a certain break with the past, we must still take up the challenge of the struggles of the poor, workers, women, youth and seniors of all colour to open up spaces, win rights and obtain support policies.
Because your struggles and triumphs are significant not only in the United States but also on a global level, we would like to develop with you an experience exchange and the establishment of international solidarity.
In this regard, we would like to inform you that, thanks to our united action, we have succeeded in arranging two international missions whose aim will be to examine how the right to housing is respected in your country. The first mission, organized by the UN-Habitat’s Advisory Group on Forced Evictions will take place in New Orleans from July 26-31, 2009, and the second one, which will be at the national level, will be in November 2009 under the aegis of the UN Special Rapporteur for Housing Rights.
For all these reasons, we invite you to participate in the process of creating the World Assembly of Inhabitants (WSF Dakar, January 2011), an initiative that aims to create a shared space that is global and supportive and that is based not only on recognizing cultural diversity, but also on complementarity and equilibrium in respecting our right to organize ourselves independently as an international urban movement by establishing the Urban Way (Vía Urbana).
The goal of this space will be to promote initiatives of shared and supportive action to defend our legitimate right to housing and to the city in the face of neoliberal globalization, to be build together another possible world and other possible cities.
To do this, we can already count on the support of more than 200 organizations in more than 40 countries, as well as, following the WSF in Belem, on all the international networks working in the field of the right to housing and to the city.
The next stage is the establishment of united WAI promoter committees at the national and international level, and, given your commitment and strong involvement in this area, we would like to count on your participation in this initiative.
Therefore, we invite you to fully participate in the development of this process, starting with the creation of initiatives that will take on the struggle in the context of the World Zero Evictions Days (October 2009), and by taking into account that preparatory meetings of the WAI are on the agenda during the World Days for the Right to Housing (Bobigny, France, November 15-22, 2009) and the World Urban Forum (Rio de Janeiro, March 22-26, 2010).
Finally, in wishing you a successful conference, we invite you to send us its results, which we will make available globally on www.habitants.org.
We look forward to your comments and suggestions.
Ciao in solidarity,
Cesare Ottolini
IAI coordinator
PDF of this message:
The International Alliance of Inhabitants congratulates you on your conference, Building the Unsettling Force: A National Conference to Abolish Poverty (Kentucky, July 16-19, 2009), which is a very important step in the creation of an independent body striving for structural change in the United States.
Indeed, although the Obama administration represents a certain break with the past, we must still take up the challenge of the struggles of the poor, workers, women, youth and seniors of all colour to open up spaces, win rights and obtain support policies.
Because your struggles and triumphs are significant not only in the United States but also on a global level, we would like to develop with you an experience exchange and the establishment of international solidarity.
In this regard, we would like to inform you that, thanks to our united action, we have succeeded in arranging two international missions whose aim will be to examine how the right to housing is respected in your country. The first mission, organized by the UN-Habitat’s Advisory Group on Forced Evictions will take place in New Orleans from July 26-31, 2009, and the second one, which will be at the national level, will be in November 2009 under the aegis of the UN Special Rapporteur for Housing Rights.
For all these reasons, we invite you to participate in the process of creating the World Assembly of Inhabitants (WSF Dakar, January 2011), an initiative that aims to create a shared space that is global and supportive and that is based not only on recognizing cultural diversity, but also on complementarity and equilibrium in respecting our right to organize ourselves independently as an international urban movement by establishing the Urban Way (Vía Urbana).
The goal of this space will be to promote initiatives of shared and supportive action to defend our legitimate right to housing and to the city in the face of neoliberal globalization, to be build together another possible world and other possible cities.
To do this, we can already count on the support of more than 200 organizations in more than 40 countries, as well as, following the WSF in Belem, on all the international networks working in the field of the right to housing and to the city.
The next stage is the establishment of united WAI promoter committees at the national and international level, and, given your commitment and strong involvement in this area, we would like to count on your participation in this initiative.
Therefore, we invite you to fully participate in the development of this process, starting with the creation of initiatives that will take on the struggle in the context of the World Zero Evictions Days (October 2009), and by taking into account that preparatory meetings of the WAI are on the agenda during the World Days for the Right to Housing (Bobigny, France, November 15-22, 2009) and the World Urban Forum (Rio de Janeiro, March 22-26, 2010).
Finally, in wishing you a successful conference, we invite you to send us its results, which we will make available globally on www.habitants.org.
We look forward to your comments and suggestions.
Ciao in solidarity,
Cesare Ottolini
IAI coordinator
PDF of this message:
Labels: Building the Unsettling Force: A National Conference to Abolish Poverty, IAI, International Alliance of Inhabitants, PPEHRC, Social Welfare Action Alliance, SWAA
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
WIT Press Conference: A Call to End Poverty -- Building the Unsettling Force: A National Conference to Abolish Poverty
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Women In Transition (WIT)
The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC)
and the Social Welfare Action Alliance (SWAA) Announce:
Building the Unsettling Force:
A National Conference to Abolish Poverty
Join residents of homeless encampments, social workers, families fighting foreclosure, Katrina victims, low-wage workers, immigrants, people without health care, members of the religious community, the unemployed, artists, representatives of the labor movement, and friends from the International Community as we come together to confront the economic crisis and to build a massive movement for Economic Human Rights for all.
Thursday, July 17, 2009 -- Sunday, July 19, 2009
Spalding University -- Louisville, Kentucky
Labels: Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, poverty, PPEHRC, Social Welfare Action Alliance, SWAA, WIT
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Build A Health Justice Movement
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By Nicole Martin, WEAP's IJES Associate
Original Article: http://weap.org/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=138&cntnt01origid=15&cntnt01returnid=17
May 6, 2009
The work of poverty and health justice knows no boundaries. That is why the Women’s Economic Agenda Project (WEAP) has always made it a point to link the local situation to state and national levels. The pain and injustices we are experiencing here in our home city of Oakland, CA, are the same struggles that are occurring in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Portland, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and hundreds of other cities and towns across the United States. This national scope and the dire need to make connections with people mobilizing across the country, was a driving force behind WEAP’s recent “mini-tour” of Rochester, New York.
From April 20-22, WEAP’s Executive Director, Ethel Long-Scott, and WEAP’s Institute for Justice and Economic Security Associate, Nicole Martin, traveled to New York and joined with the Rochester arm of the Social Welfare Action Alliance (SWAA) in anti-poverty leadership development, education, and organizing work. Nationally, SWAA is an organization committed to eradicating the structural causes of inequality and injustice in our society. Founded in 1985, “the Alliance is based on principles that reflect a concern for social and economic justice, peace and coalition building with progressive social movements.” Both WEAP and SWAA are members of the umbrella organization, the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) and are dedicated to building a broad social justice movement across color lines to abolish poverty.
With the building of that movement in mind, for three exciting days, WEAP educated and organized for "Health care as a Human Right" by teaching about Single Payer & Universal Health Care, sounding the alarm against unjust health care “Individual Mandates,” and highlighting the immediate need to end poverty and build a broad social movement to secure the health justice we need in the United States right now.
To spotlight the urgent need to end poverty, Long-Scott appeared on two radio shows to help promote the message of poverty eradication. The first was on WDKX radio, one of the few independent African-American owned radio stations, on the “Wake UP Club” show. Long-Scott was also interviewed on WXXI radio, a Rochester public radio station akin to the Bay Area’s KQED, on the Bob Smith Show. On both shows, WEAP discussed the increasing poverty in our cities, our broken health care system, and how we need a social contract that works in the interest of the people and not for the profit of a few over the many.
WEAP also conducted two major speaking engagements during the mini-tour. The first was near Rochester at the Brockport campus of the State University of New York, as part of the American Democracy Project Speaker Series Presentation. The audience was approximately one hundred and fifty people, primarily social welfare and women’s studies students and scholars. The next night, Long-Scott spoke to the community at the Dugan Center of St. Mary’s Church. This audience, also around one hundred and fifty, included a diverse array of people – social justice activists, concerned community leaders and members, the homeless and poor, and local politicians.
At each radio show and each speaking engagement, the people of Rochester responded positively to the vision that WEAP’s Long-Scott presented. They articulated, often passionately and guided by their own heartbreaking misfortunes, their need and desire for change. People agreed that there is something fundamentally wrong with both our current health care system, and our overall economic system. Like WEAP, they also said we need to start creating a world that places human rights ahead of the profits that increasingly leave so many people homeless, hungry, sick, jobless, and without an adequate education. In other words, the audiences indicated they are tired of being treated like they aren’t worth it, like they can be kicked to the curbside and forgotten because our industries, including the medical industry, follow a “throw away” policy which dictates that cutting costs is the bottom line.
In between radio shows, speaking engagements, receptions, and strategy sessions, the superb leaders of the Rochester SWAA found the time to give its WEAP guests a tour of Rochester. Currently, Rochester has the second highest rate of child poverty among the 100 largest cities in the United States, growing income inequality, and is often called the “Murder Capital” of New York. As Californians from the Oakland Bay Area, it was absolutely eerie at times to see the similarities between one East Coast city and our own West Coast city- cities with rich histories and diversity, mixed with extreme poverty and wealth, sometimes just blocks away from each other. One of the most memorable and sadly poignant moments was a stop at Rochester’s House of Mercy, a homeless shelter in a poverty and violence stricken neighborhood, only a couple of neighborhoods away from such historical landmarks as Susan B. Anthony’s and Frederick Douglass’ homes. Inside this shelter that refuses to turn a single soul away, the amazing Sister Grace, who runs it and keeps it alive despite constant threats of closure, has been filling a wall with faces. It is her wall of death, as she has placed there every obituary of all the people she knows and loves and whose lives have been taken too soon by poverty.
It is because of Sister Grace’s wall of death, it is because of the hundred plus homicides in Oakland that occur every year, it is because of the three-million-plus homeless every night across the United States, and it is because of the some 90 million uninsured and underinsured Americans, that Long-Scott reiterated again and again on the Rochester mini-tour: “We MUST work forward towards a new vision. This new vision, where everyone’s human rights are secured and poverty is eliminated, MUST inform new strategies. A new, more just, America can’t happen until we all get involved in breaking the silence on the injustices we face and dedicating ourselves to fighting to secure health care as a human right. It makes a difference what we do.”
Original Article: http://weap.org/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=138&cntnt01origid=15&cntnt01returnid=17
May 6, 2009
The work of poverty and health justice knows no boundaries. That is why the Women’s Economic Agenda Project (WEAP) has always made it a point to link the local situation to state and national levels. The pain and injustices we are experiencing here in our home city of Oakland, CA, are the same struggles that are occurring in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Portland, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and hundreds of other cities and towns across the United States. This national scope and the dire need to make connections with people mobilizing across the country, was a driving force behind WEAP’s recent “mini-tour” of Rochester, New York.
From April 20-22, WEAP’s Executive Director, Ethel Long-Scott, and WEAP’s Institute for Justice and Economic Security Associate, Nicole Martin, traveled to New York and joined with the Rochester arm of the Social Welfare Action Alliance (SWAA) in anti-poverty leadership development, education, and organizing work. Nationally, SWAA is an organization committed to eradicating the structural causes of inequality and injustice in our society. Founded in 1985, “the Alliance is based on principles that reflect a concern for social and economic justice, peace and coalition building with progressive social movements.” Both WEAP and SWAA are members of the umbrella organization, the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) and are dedicated to building a broad social justice movement across color lines to abolish poverty.
With the building of that movement in mind, for three exciting days, WEAP educated and organized for "Health care as a Human Right" by teaching about Single Payer & Universal Health Care, sounding the alarm against unjust health care “Individual Mandates,” and highlighting the immediate need to end poverty and build a broad social movement to secure the health justice we need in the United States right now.
To spotlight the urgent need to end poverty, Long-Scott appeared on two radio shows to help promote the message of poverty eradication. The first was on WDKX radio, one of the few independent African-American owned radio stations, on the “Wake UP Club” show. Long-Scott was also interviewed on WXXI radio, a Rochester public radio station akin to the Bay Area’s KQED, on the Bob Smith Show. On both shows, WEAP discussed the increasing poverty in our cities, our broken health care system, and how we need a social contract that works in the interest of the people and not for the profit of a few over the many.
WEAP also conducted two major speaking engagements during the mini-tour. The first was near Rochester at the Brockport campus of the State University of New York, as part of the American Democracy Project Speaker Series Presentation. The audience was approximately one hundred and fifty people, primarily social welfare and women’s studies students and scholars. The next night, Long-Scott spoke to the community at the Dugan Center of St. Mary’s Church. This audience, also around one hundred and fifty, included a diverse array of people – social justice activists, concerned community leaders and members, the homeless and poor, and local politicians.
At each radio show and each speaking engagement, the people of Rochester responded positively to the vision that WEAP’s Long-Scott presented. They articulated, often passionately and guided by their own heartbreaking misfortunes, their need and desire for change. People agreed that there is something fundamentally wrong with both our current health care system, and our overall economic system. Like WEAP, they also said we need to start creating a world that places human rights ahead of the profits that increasingly leave so many people homeless, hungry, sick, jobless, and without an adequate education. In other words, the audiences indicated they are tired of being treated like they aren’t worth it, like they can be kicked to the curbside and forgotten because our industries, including the medical industry, follow a “throw away” policy which dictates that cutting costs is the bottom line.
In between radio shows, speaking engagements, receptions, and strategy sessions, the superb leaders of the Rochester SWAA found the time to give its WEAP guests a tour of Rochester. Currently, Rochester has the second highest rate of child poverty among the 100 largest cities in the United States, growing income inequality, and is often called the “Murder Capital” of New York. As Californians from the Oakland Bay Area, it was absolutely eerie at times to see the similarities between one East Coast city and our own West Coast city- cities with rich histories and diversity, mixed with extreme poverty and wealth, sometimes just blocks away from each other. One of the most memorable and sadly poignant moments was a stop at Rochester’s House of Mercy, a homeless shelter in a poverty and violence stricken neighborhood, only a couple of neighborhoods away from such historical landmarks as Susan B. Anthony’s and Frederick Douglass’ homes. Inside this shelter that refuses to turn a single soul away, the amazing Sister Grace, who runs it and keeps it alive despite constant threats of closure, has been filling a wall with faces. It is her wall of death, as she has placed there every obituary of all the people she knows and loves and whose lives have been taken too soon by poverty.
It is because of Sister Grace’s wall of death, it is because of the hundred plus homicides in Oakland that occur every year, it is because of the three-million-plus homeless every night across the United States, and it is because of the some 90 million uninsured and underinsured Americans, that Long-Scott reiterated again and again on the Rochester mini-tour: “We MUST work forward towards a new vision. This new vision, where everyone’s human rights are secured and poverty is eliminated, MUST inform new strategies. A new, more just, America can’t happen until we all get involved in breaking the silence on the injustices we face and dedicating ourselves to fighting to secure health care as a human right. It makes a difference what we do.”
Labels: Ethel Long-Scott, Health Care, Social Welfare Action Alliance, WEAP
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