final feb 3 presentation
TRANSCRIPT
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February 3, 2012
Building the Human Rights MovementResults and Expectations for the HuRAH Campaign moving forward,or How we win and Why we win
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Next steps for HuRAH
✤ The human rights movement is inevitable.
✤ The human rights movement has already begun.
✤ Traditional policy campaigns are not enough.
✤ Community capacity through organizing is the only path to victory.
What we have learned
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How do we know this works?
✤ In Vermont, we witnessed something amazing happen.
✤ In Texas, we witnessed something horrifying not happen.
✤ These victories had many things in common,
✤ But both took their strength from community organizing and multi-sectoral participation.
We have seen it before
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How we winWe talk about human rights beyond issues.
An organized community with a broad human rights frame can win new allies and the public narrative.
But they can win concrete local and regional policy changes at the same time.
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✤ This is central to the entire campaign
✤ It is how we can break our isolation
✤ We have been comfortable in narrow struggles, sometimes leading to small victories, but never to systemic change
✤ We know we are at a critical moment: The U.S. is being led down a dangerous path. The voices leading the debate are not from the impacted communities
Connecting issues.How we win:
Human Rights
immigration
healthcare
housing
education
labor
healthcare
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✤ This represents our next step.
✤ Once we connect our issues, we must connect our communities
✤ To some extent, we may be connected now. But only because of talking about and framing our struggles around human rights
Leveraging each other.
How we win: Victory
!
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✤ Having a core value of universality gives us strength
✤ Will lead us to making broad, systemic change because we will not sacrifice one community for another when pursuing policy change
✤ The concept is explicit in the U.S. founding documents
✤ It is up to us to rescue the human rights values and resistance that have been part of U.S. culture since the foundation.
Sticking to principles.
How we win:
No compromise!
Human rights are
indivisible!
Human rights are
universal!
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Why we winA human rights vision based upon community capacity is the only way that policy change is possible.
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The vision.✤ It connects struggles and
communities
✤ It opens the door for new allies.
✤ It is effective for both short term actions and long term structural change
✤ It connects communities to policy work
✤ It provides values beyond issues, such as universality and internal accountability
✤ It creates a democratic process of participation
So, what makes the human rights frame the only winning
narrative?
Basic human rights
now!
Why we win:
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The capacity. ✤ We know this: With communities
everything is possible
✤ Permanent structures of community participation is the only proven method for change
✤ Extensive leadership training is essential to moving forward
✤ There is no substitute. None.
✤ It takes time...
✤ But it’s the only way to move forward
Why we win:
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The strategy.✤ Community organizing at the
root of all actions and strategies
✤ Alliance-building to leverage our strengths
✤ Value-based policy development
✤ Communications work where communities are empowered to tell their own stories
✤ Direct action against targets
Why we win:
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Case studies in human rights organizingCommunities + vision + human rights = victory.
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Meet the Vermont Workers’ Center.✤ In 2008, nobody thought a
state mandate for universal healthcare was politically possible.
✤ But members of the VWC understood the challenge, believed in their capacity and they took to the streets to organize.
✤ After 3 years, their “Healthcare is a Human Right” campaign won statewide universal healthcare in May 2011.
✤ How did they do it?
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Why VWC won
✤ “Be our own story tellers” communication strategy
✤ Prepare early for divide and rule tactics - i.e. excluding immigrants
✤ Knowing that convincing arguments can’t win alone. People power drove the policy change.
✤ Using the human rights frame is doubly effective. It strengthens organizing and policy work simultaneously.
VWC’s victory garnered international attention.
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The VWC Lesson.
✤ Universality: n. 1. the quality or state of being universal, 2. unlimited range and application
✤ VWC’s victory mirrored their values: It was total and complete. They prepared for divisive attacks against their immigrant allies and won without compromising their demands or their human rights principles.
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Meet the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance.✤ During his last reelection
campaign, Gov. Rick Perry promised tea partiers he would crack down on immigrant families in Texas.
✤ In 2011, he directed the conservative-controlled legislature that enforcement-only immigration policy was an “emergency item.”
✤ But RITA was ready. How did they stop Texas from following Arizona against all odds?
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Why RITA won
✤ Two years of statewide community organizing
✤ An inside-outside policy strategy
✤ Changing the terms of the debate. “It’s not just about immigrants”
✤ Opening the door to new alliesRITA’s victory press
conference in the Texas Capitol.
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The RITA Lesson
✤ There’s no such thing as “immigrant rights.”
✤ The many strengths of RITA’s Texas Can Do Better campaign (organizing, diverse allies, etc.) all trace back to one thing: RITA busted out of the “immigration issue box” and tied the issue to every community across the state.
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The RITA Lesson
✤ The human rights framework not only opened the door for non-traditional allies, it put them in a position to deliver the RITA message.
✤ RITA allies include: 18 Texas police chiefs and sheriffs, 100s of religious leaders of various faiths, including conservative Evangelical pastors, communities of color, business owners, students, lawmakers, attorneys, etc.
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The RITA Lesson
✤ RITA won by tying specific legislation to greater American and Texan values, like economy, family and security.
✤ More than 80 anti-immigrant bills were proposed in 2011. None passed.
✤ These included Arizona-style enforcement, immigration reporting in schools, employer sanctions and criminalization.
✤ When a special session was called, everyone told RITA it was over. But RITA reacted and won a second victory.
✤ This proves that we can win against incredible odds.
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The next stage for HuRAH
✤ The future of the campaign is based on the vision, capacity building model and strategies of these winning campaigns.
✤ The campaign is moving forward based on these principles and with the victories of RITA and VWC in mind.
✤ These next steps will enhance and strengthen the accountability, policy change, etc. of the campaign.
✤ Our next step is to integrate these experiences into the work already done by the HuRAH campaign.
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photo: Runners for human rights in El paso, 2011
We either cross the finish line together... or not at all.