Current Events

Pre-March Teach-In and Training

On January 19th, preceding a march for affordable housing in San Francisco, several advocates from SafeGround Sacramento participated in a WEAP Teach-In & Leadership Training. Our opening comments stressed the changing economic landscape, the dismantling of social safety nets, and the need for a unified vision and strategy. All over the country, affecting people with all sorts of backgrounds, basic needs are not being met. There is an opportunity for those most affected to come to the table and become leaders.

The remainder of the training discussed WEAP’s tools and methodologies, including rights violations surveys, truth commissions, and education. Participants filled out the health care addendum to rights violations survey and added their voices to numerous individuals who have experienced our broken health care system.

We concluded with a discussion about the current budget crisis in California and strategies Schwarzenegger is exploiting to make deep cuts into social services. Using words like “cap” instead of “cut” is indicative of legal wording tricks. Meanwhile, crucial services like SSI, MediCal, and all services to legal immigrants here for less than five years have been slashed. It is crucial for activists and advocates to fight the protection of wealth and the propaganda that delegitimizes the movement to protect our human rights.

Healthcare-NOW! Strategy Conference

On November 14th, WEAP participated in Healthcare-NOW!'s national strategy conference in St. Louis, MO. Activists from around the country joined together to plan a strategy to achieve a guranteed single-payer universal health care program. Executive Director, Ethel Long-Scott, was invited to speak to the assembly. The following video is a portion of this speech. Here you can find the written speech in its entirety

The annual Health Care Now Strategy conference took place just one week after the Senate passed “The Health Care Reform Act”. This factor significantly affected the mood and tone of the strategy conference. Participants representing labor, health care professionals, teachers, and social workers from across the nation were exasperated by the seemingly endless struggle towards real, fair, and comprehensive health care reform.

The dominant quandary in the strategy conference was messaging. How can Health Care Now move their single payer health care as human rights message forward, given the current political climate? How can we draw attention to the universal mandate to protect and care for everyone regardless of class, race, or gender

WEAP offered the Strategy Conference participants several options at generating strong grass roots support for health care as human right and single payer option.  In her speech the first evening of the conference Director Ethel Long Scott presented both a question and a solution.  Long-Scott asked “What should we do as we go forward? We can go forward by building outreach based on human rights values.”

WEAP’s delegates presented a workshop at the conference that further reinforced Long-Scotts message. The delegates shared powerful personal stories in their plight as working class women. They presented evidence of our failing social safety nets, from the lack of health care to the lack of housing. The delegates also spoke of the empowerment they had obtained through WEAP’S teachings and learning tools. WEAP invited the strategy conference participants to use WEAP’s methodologies, toolkits, website and written material to promote a grass-roots agenda that changes the social values surrounding poverty, illness, and health care.

WEAP & St. Mary's College Leadership Training

In October WEAP participated in a Leadership & Social Justice Conference put on by St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California. Joined by Patrizia Longo, Professor of Politics and Women’s Studies, and about twenty-three of her students, WEAP began a health care discussion.  WEAP addressed the fact that our health care delivery in the U.S. is a for-profit business directed by major financial corporations that consider health less important than profits. Questions about health care delivery, the relationship between health and corporations, and the human right to health led to students sharing their own experiences of a lack of health care for them and their families.

The students had strong opinions in support of some form of Universal or National Health Care Plan.  They also expressed concerned over the right wing propaganda against health care that fueled confusion and misinformation. A brief presentation on health care as a human right was followed by a personal story from Prof. Longo comparing Italy’s health care system and her experience as a young pregnant graduate student in the U.S.

WEAP shared the importance of a new vision and a new strategy  built around the human right to health care, as well as specific tools we use to advance comprehensive health care reform as a part of a new social contract.  We put forward the importance of linking health care reform to poverty elimination.

This prompted a discussion about the allocation of public funds and why some nations spend less money yet provide better health care to all their citizens, while our nation shuns universal health care for fear of wasted dollars, even as we spend huge portions of the national budget on the military.

This St. Mary’s session concluded with discussion about activism, and how taxpayers can direct funds that reflect their values and not those of elected officials. WEAP emphasized the importance and significance of empirical and qualitative data on social reform. Accordingly, each student filled out a health care addendum to WEAP’s human rights violation survey report, providing an invaluable service towards the education and advocacy for human rights for all.

Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease (WORLD) in Oakland

It's an outrage that the lives of far too many women around the world are cut short by the scourge of HIV/AIDS. Increasingly, according to one expert, the face that epidemic is a minority woman living in poverty. On October 20th, 2009, WEAP held a Leadership Training and Information Session in conjunction with Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease (WORLD) in Oakland. Our discussion of tragically inadequate treatment of the sick and poor was bolstered by the presence of WORLD members and people from Life Long Medical Health Clinic, each with their own personal experiences.

WEAP's Human Rights framework was brought into the training early as a tool to change the health care narrative, creating a moral responsibility to provide health care for all. By focusing on the importance of this responsibility, and the importance of reporting rights violations, we are better able to understand our situation today and what we need to work towards.

Discussion then centered on the human rights benefits of comprehensive single-payer health care. This segment approach was crucial in dispelling negative myths about a single-payer system, its costs and its benefits. Even a quick glance at the profit driven model that rolls up huge profits for health corporations and CEOs while the unindered and underinsured suffer makes it clear we have a moral mandate to support universal health care for all. By renewing our efforts towards education and action, we can continue bulding a social movement to demand justice and our human rights.

“Health Care is an Economic Human Right” Teach-In & Dialogue

On Wednesday, September 16, WEAP participated in its tenth "Health Care is a Human Right" Teach-In & Dialogue series. The event began with an  Executive Director, Ethel Long-Scott, offering critical analysis of the new rhetoric regarding health reform, including Obama's recent speech in front of Congress, and the changing economic landscape of America's Heartland. Joyce Mills and Kay McVay, two California Nurses Association representatives, led us into a discussion regarding the industrialized nature of the current health care crisis and how the law of business dominates human rights. This theme was further explored with an excellent presentation on the History of Health Care as a Human Right Time-line, which reminds us the history of health care reform has been a long struggle and we are in a new era of risk and opportunities. This teach-in covered a great deal of important ground, but there is still so much to learn and accomplish! Contact WEAP if you are interested in holding a teach-in & dialogue and continuing the fight for universal health care for all!

“Health Care is an Economic Human Right” Teach-In & Dialogue

On March 19th, April 18th, June 11th, and August 5th 2009, WEAP continued its “Health Care is a Human Right” Teach-In & Dialogue series. The thematic focus for March was “Health Care and Poverty Elimination in the Era of Obama” and began with a comprehensive discussion of the national health reform situation, lead by former CNA president, Kay McVay.  The event also included a break down of the horrendous state budget crisis and the "tent city" struggle in Sacramento. The April teach-in, themed "Health Care: It's What Ails Us" covered this election and the health care crisis in more detail.  It also included a viewing of The Water Front documentary, a powerful film that warns of the increasing dangers of water privatization in the US. To learn more about the June 11th teach-in, please read our extensive summary.  These teach-ins covered a great deal of important ground, but there is still much left to learn and accomplish! Contact WEAP to set up your own Teach-In & Dialogue and help secure Health Care as a Human Right for ALL through the building of a broad social movement!


CJTC Santa Cruz: Building a Movement to End Health Disparities and Poverty

On May 19, 2009 WEAP’s Executive Director, Ethel Long-Scott, was invited to speak as the 10th Annual Spring Speaker during an event organized by The Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community (CJTC) at UC Santa Cruz. In a packed room of approximately 300 people, Long-Scott spoke passionately about health care and poverty issues, as her talk was themed “Health Care is a Human Right: Building a Movement to End Health Disparities and Poverty.”  Covering the broad, structural reasons for our country’s economic turmoil to begin, she also spoke about how single payer, universal health care could help millions, challenging the audience to participate in the creation of a broad movement for health care that is a human right . The following morning, several WEAP members met with two UCSC student groups, Chicanos in Health Education (CHE) and the Black Science Network (BSN) during a breakfast meeting sponsored by El Centro Resource Center.  The purpose of this meeting was to re-emphasize the importance of the human rights framework in the health care struggle and the use of educational tools when advocating for health justice. Read the full summary here.


Water Front Screenings

On April 29th at Mills College in Oakland and again on April 30th at St. Mary's College in Moraga, WEAP put on two screening events for the documentary, The Water Front.  Earlier this year, WEAP joined the Water Rights campaign, which is lead by the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization. This campaign seeks to raise awareness about the increasing dangers of water privatization, domestically and internationally, and to stop local water shut-offs.  Both screenings of the film were largely lead and facilitated by WEAP student interns from Mills and St. Mary's College and were shown primarily to other students, family, and community members.  Both screenings also included a post-film discussion, in which audience members expressed their outrage about the very apparent human rights violations that take place in the film.  If you are interested in learning more about the fight to secure our human right to water or are interested in putting on your own screening, please click here or contact weap@weap.org.


Rochester, New York Mini-Tour

From April 20-22, 2009 WEAP members 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. Both WEAP and SWAA are members of the umbrella organization, the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC). 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, WEAP's Executive Director Ethel Long-Scott, appeared on two radio shows (WDKX radio and WXXI radio) and conducted two major speaking engagements (at the State University of New York and the Dugan Center of St. Mary’s Church).  Throughout, the people of Rochester responded positively to the vision that WEAP presented, articulating their great need and desire for change.  Read the full summary here.


France IRG/Ford Conference

In the last week of March 2009, WEAP's Executive Director, Ethel Long-Scott, traveled to  Rambouillet, France to join organizers working in some of the world’s most voiceless and invisible populations in order to discuss how to strengthen the voices of billions of marginalized people. Among the concerns of the nearly 40 participants was that bad times in the world economy could literally squeeze the life out of many of the people they have been working to support.  As organizers, they represented dozens of countries from every major continent.  Most came from grassroots “self-help” networks that are little known to most people. The topics ranged from how water privatization is denying people access to clean water to the brutal affects of the criminalization of HIV.  In other words, they discussed the increasing abuses of people's basic human rights, discussing whether organizing globally would make them stronger.  The primary issues covered at the conference were how to get more of the world’s poorest and most marginalized people to speak up for themselves, instead of having others speak for them, and how to get more effective international support for the changes they need to improve their lives.  Read the full summary here.


"Health Care is a Human Right" Training

On February 20th, 2009, WEAP, along with the assistance of community members from CHAM, STRONG, and CNA, conducted a four hour and a half “Health Care is a Human Right” orientation training with a Sociology & Women’s Studies class led by Professor Ganote at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California. WEAP has worked with St. Mary’s College since 2002, believing the partnership to be an excellent opportunity to not only bring academia and the broader community together, but to push students to think about issues such as health care through a human rights and social movements framework. Throughout the training, the students were engaged, eager to learn, and demonstrated a keen insight into the current health care crisis and possible solutions to the problems plaguing our for-profit health care system. Like in the past, WEAP looks forward to working with these students on several community-based projects over the course of the spring semester.


Breaking the Cycle of Poverty: Mayor's Summit on Women

WEAP’s Executive Director, Ethel Long-Scott, was invited to participate and facilitate a workshop discussion during Mayor Dellums’ Model City Summit on Women held February 17, 2009 at the Oakland Marriot Convention Center. The widely attended workshop was entitled “And Still I Rise: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty.” Joining Ethel for this discussion were: Cherri Allison, Esq. - Executive Director of  the Family Violence Law Center, Nola Brantley- Executive Director of MISSEY (Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting, and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth), and Carolyn Thomas-Russell- Executive Director of A Safe Place. These phenomenal and moving women shared their perspectives on Poverty Elimination versus Poverty Management, the horrific realities and statistics of Domestic Violence, and the work being done in Oakland to address youth and adults typically labeled as “throw away people.” WEAP posed several questions around how we can begin to break the cycle of poverty because living free of poverty is our HUMAN RIGHT! Several panelists and participants expressed how interconnected domestic violence, poverty, and abuse are and that we must start exploring ways to prioritize prevention rather than simply intervention and ensure everyone has access to healthy food, adequate housing, a clean environment, control over her/his own life, and be able to fully participate in decisions about her/his community.