Bringing the fight for Economic Human Rights to Detroit and Beyond

This past June, The Women’s Economic Agenda Project (WEAP) joined more than 20,000 organizers, educators, visionaries, working and poor people from across the nation and world at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit. Modeled after the World Social Forum, this was the second U.S. Social Forum (USSF) to convene and came at a critical time as our nation faces a growing economic, social and ecological crisis. WEAP played an integral role in the planning and deliberations of The U.S Social Forum along with other grassroots groups from the most oppressed and marginalized communities across the US.  The planning process focused on developing a unified approach to building the people’s solutions and to strategize for systemic transformation. The Social Forum provided the venue for hundreds of groups fighting for multiple issues to engage in dialogue and learn from each other’s struggles while also aligning with our international brothers and sisters to reclaim our world.

The Forum kicked off with an opening march throughout the streets of downtown Detroit that mobilized thousands of people and amplified the theme that “Another World Is Possible, Another US Is Necessary.” Following the opening march, the week’s activities included cultural performances and over 1,000 workshops and 50 “People’s Movement Assemblies” (PMAs) which produced resolutions of action, outlining real solutions and demands to be taken back to our communities.

From the initial planning stages, WEAP was clear that the participation and leadership of poor people, and the discussion of poverty as a human rights violation were absolutely necessary components of the USSF. In response to this need to bring an awareness of poverty elimination to the USSF, WEAP, as the California state host of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC), participated in the USSF Poverty Working Group along with the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and National Welfare Rights Union. The Poverty Working Group met for months to design PMAs resulting in strategic plans for action to eradicate systemic causes of poverty and social oppression and to unite poor people from across the country to attend the USSF. WEAP was proud to help mobilize 16 representatives from the CA PPEHRC from Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose and other California cities to attend the USSF.

WEAP and the Poverty Working Group collaborated on several PMAs at the USSF that brought light to topics such as the World Court on Poverty in the US, and the debate on National Healthcare reform. The Poverty Summit was the first PMA of the 2010 U.S. Social Forum. It opened (and closed) the Forum because it encompasses a variety of issues addressed and discussed, particularly as it addresses the main theme of neo-liberal capitalism. The Resolution of Action created from this multi-part PMA is an ongoing commitment to work for an end to poverty by reclaiming the abundance that has been produced. The country and the world can be taken back by the dispossessed, by fighting for a greater vision, by building unity, community, and a movement for justice and economic security.

The PMA on the “World Court on Poverty in the US: Disappeared in America” sought to illuminate the tremendous violence of poverty that impacts our children, our families, our communities, and to challenge the myth that dire poverty only exists outside of the US. This PMA named the crimes of poverty in the US through testimony from rebels and survivors and built a vision of healing and reparations. The PMA gave an introduction to the upcoming convening of the first ever US held World Court of Women, a monumental event that will take place in the coming months highlighting Poverty in the U.S.

The PMA called “What the health happened and how do we get the health care we need?" led by Healthcare Now, focused on the debate about national healthcare reform, with a focus on the changes that will be occurring with ObamaCare and why a battle must continue. There was discussion on how to make health care an affordable, quality commodity for those who can pay for it; a creation and expansion of Medicare for All system. This PMA offered an understanding that the movement for the health care is connected to a broader movement that demands a right to and accessibility of healthy food, adequate housing, clean water, and a clean environment. It was clear from the testimony and facts given at the PMA that as Ethel Long Scott, Executive Director of WEAP stated “we have to turn this paradigm upside down.” In her speech given at the PMA, Mrs. Long-Scott reminded us that “California is the 8^th largest economy on the planet and yet they want to take from families and children and disabled. The time is now to highlight the laws that are unjust, reject incrementalism, and stay independent as we fight forward with a new vision…we need to wake up!”

The PMAs were powerful spaces that brought hundreds of people together to engage in these powerful discussions and begin to mobilize communities to take action through housing takeovers, foreclosure resistance, community gardens, expanding and improving Medicare as a part of goal towards securing single payer and health care for all, defending immigrant rights as workers rights, and developing the leadership of the poor to end poverty. An important aspect of the USSF and contribution of organizations leading PMAs, was the development of Resolutions of Actions, brought forth and affirmed by people, that laid out clear demands and solutions to take took the discussions beyond the UUSF and back to communities.

The Resolution of Action for the “World Court on Poverty” PMA advanced the vision and principles of the right to economic justice as a means to end violence against women and the poor. This resolution “is a reflection of decades of work and we are lifted up by the efforts of many organizations that have fought tirelessly to eliminate injustice.” The resolution gives voice to the mothers, immigrants, incarcerated fathers and millions of uninsured in America. It calls for both the exposure and elimination of poverty as guaranteed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its focus is to build intersections by geographic region will enable us to move forward together, position the movement to eliminate poverty as a both a women’s right and a human right issue, and engage and empower poor people  to participate in the World Court process. These actions will break the silence on poverty as a human rights violation, and gather our communities while connecting our local struggles to broader movements.

Similarly, the “What the Health Happened” PMA developed a Resolution of Action demanding to end the privatization of health care and end health care as a commodity that makes profit and class exploitation denies equity and healthcare access resulting in unmet needs. As a means of achieving these demands, the resolution states the need to end disparities and the social conditions that cause them, emphasizing preventative care and free choice of health care provider; fighting for access to healthy food, water, and a clear environment; educating people through the framework of the human right to health care and working to implement People’s Movement Assemblies on the right to health and health care on the local level.

WEAP continues to confront local communities, state governments and a national government that continues to ignore the extent and the issues of poverty, and refuses to address them in a meaningful way. Through teach-ins, leadership development, community action and ongoing education, WEAP continues to build leadership and unity for a new vision of justice and economic security. With poor women and families being particularly victimized, now is the time to put a spotlight on the hidden issues of poverty through a human rights framework. Economic justice and security for all people in America is at the core of our mission, we are committed to uniting the poor as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty everywhere and forever.