Report from Ordinance Committee:
Last night, Burlington Livable City Coalition leaders Bekah Mandell and Chris Guros presented the suggested modifications to the lead paint ordinance and our Open Letter supporting the ordinance. The letter had been signed by about fifty supporters, including parents, tenants, union leaders, educators, faith community leaders and health professionals. We also delivered a letter of support for our modifications from the Alliance For Healthy Homes (see attached), a national non-profit organization that specializes in lead paint poisoning prevention. The meeting was long, but we stayed and it was totally worth it.
After hours of deliberation, they voted to pass the ordinance and add our modifications requiring no bare soil at the drip lines and posting a sign to let tenants and neighbors know when work that creates lead hazards is being done. (The new sign will be designed by the Burlington Lead Program and will have skull & crossbones and a big L to signify poisonous lead.) The Committee also passed a resolution to require City staff to explore more fully our suggested modifications for the citywide properties public database on lead paint history, and for requiring dust wipe tests to ensure that children are not exposed to lead dust hazards, and making a Lead Safe standard modeled after the Burlington Lead Program for rental units to have failed lead inspections twice. (The committee specified that the City must come back with the results of their further study on dust wipes by the end of Feb.) The full City Council is expected to vote on the ordinance on on January 5th.
Victory for Tenants, BLCC Coalition:
This was an important first victory for the Healthy Homes Coalition. We completely re-framed the debate, from what usually is a discussion between the City officials and the landlords (and the lines get blurry there, the chair of the Ordinance Committee is a well-known landlord) and brought voice to those--renters and low-income parents--who are usually excluded from the debate. Despite opposition from the Landlord's Association to the City's original proposal, we were able to strengthen the proposal. There is little doubt that if we were not there, what was passed would have been only a somewhat watered-down version of what the City proposed. Together, we have gotten closer to keeping our children as safe and healthy as possible. We are going to keep putting all kinds of pressure on the Council to pass the ordinance and then on the City to both enforce the ordinance as written and get the dust wipes put in, so that we can really start protecting kids.This victory also represents a significant achievement for the Burlington Livable City Coalition as nurses, educators, other union members, and community folks acted in solidarity to support these tenant rights initiatives in the broader struggle for making Burlington a truly livable city for everyone.
Next Steps: Thanks to everyone for your involvement to this point, we need to keep identifying people who care about this issue (you can forward this email to people you think would be interested and have them contact us), everyone should stay tuned about next steps to pass this ordinance at January 5th Council Meeting. Also, please mark your calendars for our next Burlington Livable City Coalition Meeting will be 6pm, January 13 at the VWC.
Victory for Tenants and BLCC on City Lead Ordinance
Join Students, Staff and Faculty to Stop the Cuts at UVM
Lunchtime Forum and Press Conference:
Moratorium on the Budget Cuts and Layoffs, Full Disclosure of UVM's Finances
12-1 pm Wednesday, December 17
Chittenden Room, Davis Center 4th floor, UVM
Sponsored by Students, Staff, and Faculty Together
This week, as President Fogel hands deans their budget-cutting targets, the new coalition Students, Staff, and Faculty Together will hold a lunchtime public forum and press conference to call for
* a moratorium on budget cuts and layoffs
* full disclosure of Vice President Cate's audit and analysis of the university's finances and budget assumptions/priorities
* if cuts must be made, cut from the top
Scheduled for 12 to 1 pm in the Chittenden Room, Davis Center, the press conference will feature speakers from United Staff; UE Local 267, representing UVM's maintenance and service workers; the Student Labor Action Project and Students Against War; plus faculty who support United Academics' call for transparency in budget decisions and stand with students and staff against the administration's announced plans for expanding the student body while imposing a hiring freeze, workload increases, and layoffs.
Human Rights Conference Draws 500 Participants
Burlington - Five hundred people participated in the day-long Ella Baker Human Rights Conference held on Dec 13, 2009. The conference was organized by the Vermont Workers' Center and sponsored by forty-three other organizations.
Excerpts of Closing Remarks - James Haslam, Vermont Workers' Center
First off, I just have to say thank you to all the people who worked with us to make this event happen. We are very excited about the incredible broad-range of groups who came together for this event, many of these groups and individuals we have worked with for years, and many new groups and new faces, who we are just now getting to know and build relationships with.
..when I first started getting outraged by the injustice and suffering that pervades our society, I got really mad and fired up about it, but it took some time before I made the next big step, and I understood that it was not enough to recognize injustice, get mad and complain about it, that it was necessary to make change, become an agent of change. The myth is that the problems are so big that we can't do anything about them. What I have experienced is totally the opposite, that when people get together, there's an enormous impact we can make. We have seen people who have organized for workplace rights and won, very soon start wanting to organize for bigger things, for healthcare as a human right, to end domestic abuse, to end racism. As we learn that together we can take collective action to fight injustice and win improvements in our lives, tremendous amounts of possibilities unfold. At the Workers' Center we have been doing a tremendous amount of organizing with very few resources, and I believe we are only now scratching the surface for what is possible.
The other thing that I have come to learn is that it does start here with our own struggle for justice, our own family, our own neighborhood, our own community, but that we are all connected. Vermont is small, and this planet is actually not that big, the chain of activity that sustains and reproduces is a chain of interdependence. We have realized that we cannot only struggle for livable wages and organizing for rights on the job. The same interests that exploit workers, exploit the planet, make healthcare and anything they possibly can into a commodity to profit from.
So we started asking who benefits from the fact that healthcare is not a human right? Who benefits when workers are divided by race and immigration status? Who benefits from racism and other forms of oppression? It was only a few years ago that after Vermont passed civil unions, and afterwards the right-wing was able to use homophobia to get thousands of working class Vermonters to vote against their own economic interests. Increasingly, those same people will be pitting white Vermonters against undocumented Latino and Latina workers for jobs. We can't let them divide us. Right now public services and public sector jobs are in jeopardy because of budget shortfalls, and people like Governor Douglas will blame unions and public sector workers have it too good and are the problem. Meanwhile we continue to spend $700 million dollars a day on a totally bullshit war in Iraq. That is why we are committed to building a movement for fundamental change, one that is based on human rights, on human needs and ultimately that is based on solidarity.
At the Workers' Center we use that word a lot, solidarity. We have felt that solidarity is at the core of the labor movement, and I think ultimately to build a broad-based movement, solidarity is what it is all about. Solidarity and unity. We have inherited a world which is based on greed and the endless search for profit, and which is based on competition, selfishness and individualism. And right now, we are witnessing that this path is literally threatening the capacity to continue human life on the planet and we are possibly studying our own extinction. The parents we work with at Barnes Elementary School in the Burlington Livable City Coalition recently put up a quote on a mural outside the school that says "Sustainability is another word for Justice". I am motivated in working with you all to build this movement for fundamental change in our community because I believe that is critical for our kids' future. I was also thinking about that word community, we use that a lot too. I thought of what Gandhi once said when he was asked one time about what he thought about Western Civilization, and he said he thought it was a good idea. I think much of that is true about the word "community". Because how can we have a community when people are subjected to live in poverty? How can it be a community when people are divided by racism and homophobia? How can we call it a community when people do not feel safe, when people regularly suffer from domestic abuse and sexual violence? How can we have a community where kids from low-income families are growing up in rental housing that infested with toxic lead paint that creates permanent brain damage? How can we call it a community when healthcare is not a basic right to everyone, but a privilege to some?
That is why it is so important that we have come together for this conference, that we have learned about the broad range of struggles that we face and the justice we need to fight for in order to make our communities live up to that name.
I want to take a few minutes to let everyone know about some Workers' Center campaigns that I hope you can join us in. We've spent a lot of time thinking about how to do our work in a strategic way that facilitates convergence between our struggles and other struggles.
Of course, we must build a movement to guarantee the right of workers to organize, calling for passing the Employee Free Choice Act, and [supporting] the Fletcher Allen Techs [as they organize a union], their struggle like the nurses before them is one which is not only a workers' rights struggle, but their victory will mean safer patient care and a better hospital for the community..
One thing that we ask all of you to do, is join us in the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign. This campaign is not just about winning a single-payer universal healthcare system, though we believe that that is necessary. This campaign is about a vision of healthcare based not on profits, but on solidarity and community. A vision that encompasses not only the right to see a doctor when you need to, but the right to a comprehensive public health system that ensures that our homes are free of toxins, that we have access to mental health and recovery services when we need them, that victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence are given the support and safety that they need. This campaign is also about building enough power to make the changes that are necessary to realize that vision. The only way to build that power, and to change what is politically possible, is to have an enormous amount of people involved. We are planning on building a statewide network capable of winning and making HC a HR. In building this network, we have called for a major statewide rally on May 1st at 12 noon on the State House steps in Montpelier. We are asking each on of you to sign up today to come to that rally and help bring people with you. We will organize vans, busses, car pools, everything we can to bring as many people there as possible. Together we will have so many people at the State House people will no longer say that change is not politically possible, and we will have built a network of us connected throughout the state that will keep organizing until we have that system in place and we will keep organizing to make sure it works and stays working. We need to build a mass movement for healthcare as a human right, and all human rights for all people.
One of our major projects is to do that in here in Burlington is the Burlington Livable City Coalition, which works to make this community truly livable for all of its residents. For us it started with struggling for livable wages and workers' rights, with the concept that it made sense for for family supporting jobs and quality public services. We are working with the unions to act in solidarity, to support each others' struggles, to have nurses, teachers,UVM Service & Maintenance workers and UVM faculty, Howard Center, City Market workers all who are in difficult contract negotiations this year, to stand together. We are also working with a group of parents, tenants and educators to win real change on how the City addresses the lead paint that is still poisoning children, especially children of working-class parents in the Old North End. Ultimately, this campaign is about building power for the people who don't traditionally hold power in this city -- workers, tenants, people marginalized by race and class -- to win justice in every aspect of our lives; in the motto of the environmental justice movement, "justice where we live, justice where we play, justice where we work."
In our campaigns we talk a lot about building power. The process of how we build that power becomes an end in itself. This is the organizing tradition of Ella Baker, of leadership development, consciousness-raising, and intersectionality of issues and oppressions. The slow, patient, undramatic work of relationship building. Dealing with all the misdirected anger that exists between different parts of the community. This is why we have put a major effort over the past several years into popular education. In January and February we will be holding our third annual Solidarity School, a three-day intensive workshop for emerging labor and community leaders, which covers organizing, tactics and strategy, people's history and movement-building. This past year the Workers' Center also did a series of one-day workshops on Anti-racism & Building A Social Justice Movement. We had one hundred and seventy people participate and it was so successful that we are going to do it again in 2009, most likely in the fall.
A lot of temporary coalitions are put together for limited goals, such as a good contract or a change in public policy. We believe that we all need to be thinking about our coalition and alliance-building terms of how do we use this struggle as part of an overall strategy to build power? How do we begin to re-conceptualize our own work in a way that incorporates the goals of others, making us all stronger? How do we build a movement where we don't just support each other, but we work together strategically towards a shared vision of justice and human rights, one that is based on solidarity and community? We hope this conference has been a useful contribution to that process. So again, please sign the EFCA cards, make plans to join us on May 1st, and, most importantly, we hope everyone continues the dialogues between organizations and movements that we've had today.
Healthcare Campaign to Release Human Rights Day Report
* * * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE * * *
December 9, 2008
Contact: James Haslam, VT Workers' Center, 802-272-0882, james@workerscenter.org
More info: www.workerscenter.org/healthcare
PRESS CONFERENCE
After Surveying 1,200 Vermonters the Workers' Center Releases A Human Rights Day Report
When: 2:30pm, Wednesday, December 10 (International Human Rights Day)
Where: Vermont Workers' Center, 294 North Winooski Avenue, Burlington, VT
What: On Human Rights Day, the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights issued by the United Nations in 1948, the Vermont Workers' Center (VWC) will officially issue a comprehensive report entitled: Voices of the Vermont Healthcare Crisis: The Human Right to Healthcare. This report was compiled partly on surveys conducted with over 1,200 Vermonters and human rights hearings held this Fall across the state. The Workers' Center is also organizing a major related event at the University of Vermont's Davis Center; Ella Baker Human Rights Conference where over five hundred participants are expected.
PLEASE NOTE: Media interviews may be able to be scheduled with VWC representatives at other times that day.
Who: The Vermont Workers' Center launched the Healthcare Is A Human Rights campaign in the Spring of 2008.
More info:
www.workerscenter.org - General information on the Vermont Workers' Center
http://www.workerscenter.org/docs/Voices_of_the_Vermont_Healthcare_Crisis.pdf - Healthcare Human Rights Report (1.82 MB PDF file)
www.workerscenter.org/hrconference - On Ella Baker Human Rights Conference and list of guest speakers and workshops
Workshop at December 13 Human Rights Conference
At the Dec 13 Ella Baker Human Rights Conference at the Unviersity of Vermont we will be having a workshop entitled:
The Human Right to Health & Healthcare
Presenters/Facilitators:
Dr. Deb Richter, Vermont Health Care For All
Anja Rudinger, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative
Donna Roberts Moody, Winter Center for Indigenous Traditions
Jennifer Henry, RN, President of the Nurses Union at Fletcher Allen Health Care
James Haslam, Vermont Workers' Center
Ashley George, Vermont Global Health Coalition
This interactive workshop will explore what the right to health would mean in our community using examples here and across the globe.
To register for this workshop and the whole exciting Ella Baker Human Rights Conference go to:
www.workerscenter.org/hrconference
REGISTER TODAY: Ella Baker Human Rights Conference
On Saturday, December 13, the Vermont Workers' Center, together with a wide variety of community organizations, is sponsoring the ELLA BAKER HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE. The event will take place from 9am-3pm at the Davis Center at UVM. [ Register now ]
This is a major gathering of workers, students, youth, educators and health professionals to build a broad- based movement for human rights in our communities. This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights issued by the United Nations, however many of the most basic rights remain unmet in the wealthiest country in the world. Skill-building workshops and activities will explore using a human rights framework to organize together in order to create fundamental change. Issues include: workers' rights, the economic crisis, the right to healthcare, anti-racism & indigenous issues, gender rights, rights of the child, war and militarism, environmental justice and building healthy communities.
The conference takes place on December 13th, the 105th anniversary of the birth of Human Rights activist Ella Baker. Ella Baker was one of the most important leaders in the Civil Rights Movement working as an organizer in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and later in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). With Ella Baker's influence, SNCC became the leading advocate for human rights in the country.
Sixty years after the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, still inspired by Ella Baker's commitment to justice, we are coming together at this conference to build a movement for fundamental change.
This event is accessible for individuals with disabilities. We will make accommodations for people with disabilities (including ASL Interpreters) upon request. Please make your request by Dec 5th by emailing conference@workerscenter.org.
Guest Speakers
US Senator Bernie Sanders
Ai-jen Poo, Domestic Workers United
Ashaki Binta, Black Workers For Justice and former director of the International Worker Justice Campaign
This event is free and lunch will be provided. Pre-registration is encouraged. To register, or learn more about the conference, please visit workerscenter.org/hrconference.
FILM: "Fundi" The Story of Ella Baker
7pm, Monday, Dec 8
Vermont Workers' Center, 294 North Winsooki Ave, Burlington
Come join us on Monday, December 8th, 7pm, at the Vermont Workers' Center, 294 No Winooski Ave. We will be watching "Fundi." This 48 minute film is about the life and efforts of the great Civil Rights organizer Ella Baker. (full description below)
Come get acquainted with this great leader, in whose memory the Workers' Center has dedicated the upcoming Human Rights Conference, at UVM, on Saturday, December 13th (which is her birthday). Learn more and free registration at http://www.workerscenter.org/hrconference
This movie will kick off a series of gatherings at the Workers' Center; to include skill shares, talks, films, book discussions, music, dance, and food! Stay tuned January's schedule coming soon.
More info call the Workers' Center at 861-2877
FUNDI: THE STORY OF ELLA BAKER reveals the instrumental role that Ella Baker, a friend and advisor to Martin Luther King, played in shaping the American civil rights movement. The dynamic activist was affectionately known as the Fundi, a Swahili word for a person who passes skills from one generation to another.
By looking at the 1960s from the perspective of Baker, the "godmother of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee," FUNDI adds an essential understanding of the U.S. civil rights movement.
First Run/Icarus Films is proud to re-release this landmark civil rights documentary with a new digibeta videomaster that has been digitally restored with enhanced audio and video.
"FUNDI, the powerful film account of Ella Baker's contributions, can enrich us immeasurably, adding depth and texture to our understanding of an important part of our past, inspiring us with examples of lives lived fully and purposefully." -Harvard Educational Review
"FUNDI fills a gap for those who know little of the history of the black struggle [and] is a compelling portrait of an extraordinary woman who has devoted her life to struggle and to the people who take part in it." -Harry Belafonte
"FUNDI does exactly what Ella Baker does: it gives us the courage to act on our own - and to affect the future." -Gloria Steinem
"FUNDI restores Ella Baker, the 'godmother of the SNCC,' to her place in the history of the civil rights movement. Rrecisely and elegantly executed... there's no pomposity, no false reverence - at least none that Baker herself can't cut right through." - Pat Aufderheide, for In These Times
2005 National Women's Studies Association Film Festival; Film of the Year, 1981 London Film Festival; Best of Category, 1981 San Francisco Film Festival; First Prize Winner, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame (1981); 1981 CINE Golden Eagle Winner