WHAT: A series of full day anti-racism workshops for community members. It is a workshop which is meant for anyone actively engaged in efforts for social change (or would like to be). Each of these workshops will explore institutional racism, white privilege, and how people, especially white people, can put this analysis into practice to build powerful, multiracial movements for justice.
WHEN: Full-day trainings will be held 9am - 4pm on:
Saturday, October 25, St. Michaels College (SMC)
Sunday, October 26, University of Vermont (UVM)
Monday, October 27, Aldrich Library, Barre
Thursday, October 30, Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) (New!)
Saturday, November 1, Vermont Workers' Center, Burlington
Sunday, November 2, University of Vermont (UVM)
WHO: These trainings are being coordinated by the Vermont Workers' Center and facilitated by the Catalyst Project, which is based in San Francisco. The Vermont Workers' Center is a movement-building community-based workers' organization based in Burlington. Sponsors of these trainings include: ALANA Community Organization, Burlington Livable City Coalition, Community Service Programs of Student Life (UVM), Dept of Multicultural Student Affairs (SMC), New Directions of Barre, Post Oil Solutions, SMC Peace & Justice Center, Students For Peace & Global Justice (UVM), Student Labor Action Project (UVM), Student Labor Action Movement (SMC) and Vermont Anti-Racism Action Team (VARAT).
The training will be led by long-time anti-racist activists Chris Crass and Ingrid Chapman of the Catalyst Project:
Chris Crass is an organizer and trainer with the Catalyst Project, a center for political education and movement building. He has worked in struggles for economic, racial and gender justice for the past 20 years. His essays on collective liberation politics, anti-authoritarian leadership, feminism, and movement building have been published widely in Left Turn, Clamor and on ZNet and Infoshop.org.
Ingrid Chapman is a working class organizer and trainer with the Catalyst Project. Her roots within social and economic justice organizing began as a leading member of the global justice movement in the late '90s. Ingrid has led Catalyst Project's New Orleans Solidarity Program, working with the Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund and Common Ground supporting the struggles for the right of return and equitable rebuilding. The last 5 years she has worked with Oakland residents in struggles for tenant rights, community safety and alternatives to incarceration and policing.
REGISTER: Fee is $25 for adults, students/youth are free. Lunch included. Register for any one of the full-day workshops at www.workerscenter.org/register (space is limited)
More Info: Contact James Haslam at 802-272-0882 or james@workerscenter.org
WORKSHOP: Anti-racism & Building a Social Justice Movement
Oct 23 Human Rights Hearing in Burlington
Human Rights Hearing: "Healthcare is a Human Right"
Where: Burlington City Hall, Contois Auditorium (149 Church St., Burlington)
When: Thursday Oct 23 at 7:00 p.m. refreshments, 7:30 p.m. hearing
Burlington - For months volunteers for the Vermont Workers' Center have been surveying Vermonters from all across the state, including many in the Burlington area. The results have been clear: Vermonters believe that healthcare should be a human right.
The state, however, has come up short on this issue. More than 11 percent of all Vermonters are without health insurance, including more than 11,000 children. Thousands more are woefully under-insured, and cannot afford their costly premiums and co-pays, which are only rising as the cost of healthcare soars.
The Vermont Workers' Center is currently undertaking its "Healthcare is a Human Right" campaign to help end this injustice. The goal of the campaign is to spread awareness and build a movement that can help reform the state's system so it will guarantee care to all Vermonters, regardless of income. On Thursday Oct. 23, this discussion is coming
to Burlington at Burlington City Hall, Contois Auditorim. The event begins at 7:00 p.m. (refreshments will be available).
Community faith leaders and healthcare professionals and other community leaders will serve on a Community Listening Panel to hear testimony from residents. Speakers will address the failure of the state's healthcare system, the plight of those who try to navigate through it, and effective ways to bring about change. The event will give members of the Burlington community a chance to share stories highlighting how our flawed system has caused them suffering and
hardship.
"In speaking to Vermonters, we have found that many have suffered greatly, both personally and physically, when they try to navigate through a a healthcare system that leaves so many behind," said James Haslam, the director of the Vermont Workers' Center, which is located at 294 North Winooski Avenue in Burlington. "This event will give members of the Burlington community a chance to make some of these stories heard."
The event will include the following listening panel:
Mayor Bob Kiss, City of Burlington
Rabbi Joshua Chasan, Ohavi Zedek Synagogue
Jennifer Henry, RN Nurses Union President, Fletcher Allen Health Care
Rebecca Haslam, President, Burlington Education Association
Rev. Sarah Flynn, ALL Souls Ministry in Vermont
Roddy Cleary, former minister Unitarian Universalist Church in Burlington
Al Robinson, Imani Health Institute
Ann Goering, MD, Winooski Family Health
Mohamed Abdi, Somali Bantu Association
Hal Colston, Neighbor Keepers
Denise Foote, Barnes Elementary School PTO
Similar "Human Rights Forums" will be held all across the state, including St. Albans (Nov. 13), Lyndon (Nov. 18), Barre (Jan. 29), Rutland (Feb. 12) and Bennington (Feb. 19) as this effort continues to fight for a just healthcare system that Vermonters' health over profit.
More info email erika@workerscenter.org
Presidential debate on healthcare as a right or commodity
From our allies at the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI):
Last night's presidential debate addressed the key issue for health care reform in the United States: do candidates see health care as a right or as a commodity? [ NY Times Coverage ]
"I think it should be a right for every American." This was Senator Obama's answer.
What does this mean for Obama's health care plan? Does the plan really treat health care as a right? As advocates, it is our responsibility to push his campaign to move beyond rhetoric and present a plan that protects the human right to health and health care.
In the debate, the question unfortunately pitted rights against responsibility ("Is health care in America a privilege, a right, or a responsibility?"), neglecting that all rights entail responsibilities. Senator McCain described health care as a personal — not collective — responsibility: "I think it's a responsibility [ ... ] it is certainly my responsibility. It is certainly small-business people and others, and they understand that responsibility".
Both candidates sidestepped the initial question that referred to the use of health care as a commodity: "Senator, selling health care coverage in America as the marketable commodity has become a very profitable industry. Do you believe health care should be treated as a commodity?"
In response, Obama outlined how his plan would help people to "buy insurance", and McCain compared accessing health care to "purchas[ing] other things in America".
These responses reflect the findings of a recent human rights assessment of the presidential nominees’ health care plans. Here’s a summary of that publication:
Senators Obama and McCain have put forward health care reform plans that fail to meet human rights standards, according to an analysis by the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI). This assessment, based on human rights standards for health care reform, finds that both plans rely on market competition to solve the current health care crisis, without addressing how markets could be incentivized to put health protection ahead of the drive for profits.
Despite significant differences in approach, the nominees' plans share a focus on a consumer product — insurance coverage — rather than on actual health care, a public good. Neither plan recognizes the human right to health care — a right guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The assessment develops detailed standards for the implementation of the human right to health care in the United States and suggests basic steps the nominees could take towards meeting those standards.
The publication, "The Human Right to Health Care: Nominees' Plans Lag Behind Public Demands," is available in PDF format at the NESRI website.
Healthcare & Domestic Abuse: Human Rights Hearing Testimony
The following was submitted by a individual we surveyed this summer in Brattleboro. It was read in its entirety at the Human Rights Hearing in Brattleboro.
Sept, 2008
I am a resident of West Brattleboro, Vermont. Earlier this month at Brattleboro's Gallery Walk, I was asked to participate in a survey about health insurance. While I do have health insurance provided through my ex-husband, I felt it was important to share my experiences. I was delighted that at long last, someone was even willing to ask the questions. I am quite certain that my experiences are shared by many in vulnerable situations.
One of the questions on the survey asked if I had ever stayed in an abusive relationship in order to maintain health insurance benefits. Indeed I have. Years ago, while I was still married to my ex, who was an abusive active alcoholic, I made an attempt to leave the relationship. I had two small children at the time: ages 6 and 3. My oldest child had recently been diagnosed with cancer. It was not an easy time to launch into the perils of
single-parenthood as I knew my life was at risk. It never occurred to me that my daughter's life would be on the line not only from the cancer, but from her own vulnerability to the consequences of domestic violence.
As I was preparing to exit the relationship, my husband threatened me that if I left him, he would cancel the health insurance for the family. Once the insurance lapsed, the cancer would have caused my child to be excluded from alternative coverage due to her pre-existing condition of cancer. It was a certain death sentence for my 6 year old child. A risk I was not
willing to take.
At the time, the courts would not have issued an immediate injunction against his canceling the health insurance. Once it was cancelled, my daughter's cancer would have precluded her from coverage through another policy. My ex knew that, had calculated that, and used it in the cruelest way to force me to stay in the relationship.
So I stayed. Of course I stayed. If leaving meant that your child would surely die a very painful death – an entirely unnecessary death, wouldn't you stay? Of course you would. Any responsible parent would. Over the years, the cancer recurred 7 times, each time leaving me entirely unable to exit the relationship. I stayed married to the abuser for 22 years waiting until I had opportunities to ensure my daughter's safety and her health insurance. The moment I was assured that she had insurance of her own, I left my husband.
Oddly enough, he has maintained the health insurance on me for 15 years since our divorce! Why? He is under no obligation to do so. The reason is because he, as the subscriber to the policy, has all the advantages. As the subscriber to the policy, he is able to find out who my physicians are and what treatments or tests I may have had. I can keep my location secret from him, but if I use the health insurance, then he has access to the location of my doctors. It is a short leap to figure out my whereabouts.
HIPPA regulations do little or nothing to prevent this in situations of domestic violence. They leave the onus of responsibility on the insurance companies, who are classically unwilling to pay whatever slight administrative or clerical costs to shield the information from an abuser.
Their comments to me have been that they are not willing to protect victims of domestic violence because it may leave them vulnerable to litigation if they were to "slip up" and not implement a policy. So they are better protected by having no policy of protection to begin with.
I spent 22 years in that abusive relationship and because of this nightmare with the health insurance coverage, I am still "attached" to that man who so willingly imperiled my life and my daughter's life to maintain power and control over me. The health insurance companies, in my opinion, are in collusion with him by their callous unwillingness to consider the
circumstances of abuse.
People ask of battered women all the time: why don't they just leave? Believe me; it is not because leaving has never occurred to us. We contemplate it every moment we can remain alive to do so. We are fully aware of the statistics that say the risk of lethality (being the victim of homicide) rises 70% as a woman prepares to leave an abusive relationship.
If you knew that taking an action, increased your chance of death by 70% would you do it? Victims are well aware of those risks, because they live it and because on average, a victim attempts to leave 6 times before being successful. They don't remain in an abusive relationship because they like it (If she stays, she must like it) or because they are just lazy (victims are acculturated to hyper vigilance because they must assure their own
survival in order to remain alive long enough to raise their children).
There are many, many reasons why a victim stays. But she NEVER stays because
she likes it. Never.
The time has come to provide some relief for victims of domestic violence. If that one hurdle of the health insurance had not been placed in my way, I not only could have gotten my child through her cancer treatments, but she would not have been subject to all those added years of having to witness domestic violence.
I have asked that this testimony be given anonymously. Not because I am ashamed of my past, or even particularly because I still fear him, although I do. I have asked because I have never been able to tell my daughter the real reason we stayed through all the abuse. She certainly has asked because she wants to know why she had to suffer through all those years.
But I could never look her in the eye and tell her that her own father was willing to sacrifice her life for his own selfish purposes. I couldn't tell her that the system has been unwilling to do anything to protect me, or her, or whoever may be suffering the same abuse today.
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If you have or know of any stories like this where the lack of the basic right to healthcare violates our most fundamental human rights please contact us at 802-861-2877 or healthcare[at]workerscenter.org