Economic Justice News  

This spring, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project is excited to hear from agitators, advocates, and allies on the front lines of the immigrant rights movement. Join us for a free webinar with former clients Magdiel L.G., Mirna A.D., and their NWIRP attorney Bruna Estrada Fortanelli as they discuss the challenges asylum seekers face both on their journey to the United States and once they cross the border. This panel discussion will touch on the many ways racist systems impact BIPOC community members. RSVP for free here or via the link below. Tuesday, April 27th from 1pm - 2:30pm

nca Davis-Lovelace (WaPPC Chair & ED of REACH) around ending and preventing homelessness. Topics will include:

• Rent relief
• $15 minimum wage
• Governmental response to houselessness
• Housing insecurity during a pandemic

What's Next: Moving Into the Great Turning WWFOR Fall Retreat, November 21, 2020

Register Here

We are proud of the ways our Faith continues to #SideWithLove and be present to the World. We are in the final days before a historic election and we want to offer you an opportunity to provide Faithful Witness at The Polls. Whether your congregation is a polling site or is interested in offering some warmth and kindness at undoubtedly tense polling stations, we have ideas for how we can offer faithful responses that are at the heart of Side With Love. You can view the 30 minute webinar here. What does it mean to continue to “harvest our power” when we are tired or overwhelmed? There's no magical fix, but knowing you are NOT alone and that others can help find the answers helps. Join Side With Love on Monday Movement Moments for a 30-minute check-in and highlights of what’s happening across the country and ways you can get involved. Monday Movement Moment Nov. 2,9 at 9:30am PT. You can watch past episodes here.

How can organizers of nonviolent mass protest actions help ensure those actions won't be "hijacked", and thus made less effective, by violent flanks, outside groups, and covert provocateurs?  How can we help ensure that health guidelines are followed during protests, to minimize the risk of harm from a deadly virus? Basic Training for Peace Teams: Keeping Non-Violent Discipline October 25, 6:30 to 8:30 pm     Dr. Tom Hastings, of Portland State University Conflict Studies Program and Adam Vogal of Portland Peace Team will provide a Zoom training on basic peacekeeping and de-escalation theory and skills to keep mass protests nonviolent. This training is designed for those who want to be trained to serve in a "peace team."

We invite you to join us to for bi-weekly Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) General Meeting Covid19 HUB #ImmigrantHealthResponse calls for exciting news and updates! This is reminder that WAISN will be hosting its weekly COVID-19 Response HUB call September 24th and every Thursday from 3-5 PM over Zoom. Call information below:

#ImmigrantHealthResponse

 EXCITING UPDATES 

• Are a Washington resident;
• Are at least 18 years of age;
• Have experienced hardship due to the pandemic; and
• Are ineligible to receive unemployment insurance compensation or federal stimulus dollars due to immigration status.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE WAISN IMMIGRANT HEALTHCARE SURVEY

How, during an unprecedented pandemic, can we educate all children equitably—with closed schools, disruptions in food assistance, and lack of internet access for home-learning affecting some far more than others? Especially now, how can we not?

Believing that educational equity is a moral imperative, Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church has asked Dr. John B. King, Jr., former US Secretary of Education, to address the needs and possibilities for accessible, equitable educational opportunities for low-income and otherwise disadvantaged children and youth, especially those of color. We invite you to join us on Wednesday, August 26, 2020, 4-5:30 pm. PT for this free, virtual event.

Register

The WA Low Income Housing Alliance works toward the opportunity for all Washington residents to live in safe, healthy, affordable homes in thriving communities. They sponsor a weekly webinar to highlight work and provide action points on these issues. Examples of recent/coming meetings: Marc Dones  joined us July 1st to share about the newly formed Center on Housing Justice, an arm of the National Innovation Service that will focus on dismantling structural racism inside our nation’s housing and homeless service systems, and redesigning toward an equitable future! On July 8th, we'll be joined by Lowel Krueger from the Yakima Housing Authority and Amber Johnson from SNAP to discuss how COVID-19 is impacting their tenants. If you would like to submit a question ahead of the call, please use this form to do so! We will do our very best to answer your questions during the call or in follow-up correspondence. You can register for the call at this link, or by clicking the button above. After registering, you should receive a confirmation email with the call-in information and a password. If for some reason you do not, please email John at johns@wliha.org to make sure you get it.

Continue reading→

Food is a basic need, and healthy local food should be a fundamental right. At the heart of the food system is the seed.  Our current food system is so broken - in most all ways. Join Backbone for two events, this Friday and next Wednesday. We will talk about the effects of racism and colonization on our food system and how those oppressive systems relate to growing a garden and saving your seeds.  

Scroll down for detailed info on each virtual event and to register.

A wonderful opportunity!

We need volunteers

Letter to UUJEC from Pablo DeJesus, council member UUA’s PPC Leadership Council:

I'm writing to ask if UUJEC can do several things to support UU involvement in the PPC, especially in these final days leading into Sat. June 20th -- a major milestone for PPC. See the UUA announcement on the formation of a UU leadership council HERE or UUSJ's promulgation in our May eNews, of which I am a part. (Several council members are CCed here.)

As you know, this is a deeply troubling moment in our nation, rife with an unfolding national conversation about the disproportionate economic impacts of the pandemic and the cross-cutting role of systems of criminalization and racial injustice as entrenched policy and social structures.  For this reason, it feels even more deeply important for UUs to support campaigns that center the leadership of poor and low-income people, people of color, and other disenfranchised folks in our society.  The PPC is such a campaign.

So I'd ask on behalf of the UUA’s PPC Leadership Council for several steps in the assistance of the council and our UU denomination's commitment to the PPC.

Four Asks:

1. UUJEC Contacts: Very Timely/Urgent -- Can you help connect the council with any UUs that are low-income folks, willing to speak of that experience (to witness) as part of a Church of the Larger Fellowship service on June 14, 2020, centered on PPC?  I'm thinking of folks perhaps like your brave UUJEC member who spoke directly to Sen. Portman (OH) during our joint UU conference in 2017 (Reversing Inequality: Healthcare Justice is a UU Value). Personal stories like his will help the PPC council win hearts and minds.

2. UUJEC Promotion: Can you promulgate the special UU RSVP for June 20th and encourage UUs in the UUJEC network to register and attend several times going into June 20th in ~10 days?  In so doing you'd be joining the UUA, SideWithLove, and UUSJ.   You can see in UUSJ’s June eNews and our events list how UUSJ is striving to promote (in part). You may have seen some of our eBlasts. UUSJ is also posting events and content to Facebook as possible. Please consider closely what UUJEC can do to support the promotion of PPC. Here is the PPC's digital toolkit that offers text & graphics to make things easier.

3. UUJEC Connection: Rev. Robin Tanner, NJ is a UU minister from NJ and also a lead national faith organizer for the PPC. She might be able to speak to UUJEC stakeholders to explain the PPC campaign and its goals and especially its economic justice commitments. I will comment here, I can think of few national campaigns beyond the PPC that are so clearly aligned with UUJEC's general interest in restructuring the American economy away from escalating inequality, rampant inequity, and towards justice, equity, and service to the human condition.

4. UUJEC Follow-on: Please consider having an internal conversation during the next month or so, on if or how UUJEC can support UU mobilization and participation in the PPC heading towards November. It is my understanding after we “click” past June 20th the PPC will be more focused on Voter Mobilization and GOTV activity engaging poor and low-income participation. As you know from our two conferences together, if we can get candidates who take structural inequity and inequality seriously as a policy area, we will have more traction and support for policies in the next congress that reflect UU values and principles.  This is generally consistent with UUA's UU the Vote campaign, and UUSJ's joint project with Reeb Voting Rights Project (review an upcoming event June 17 HERE or RSVP). On how PPC activity dovetails with UU the Vote, Susan Leslie, UUA might offer referrals to specific staff.

It is my sincere hope that UUJEC can look at what is possible in response to this request for connection and assistance from the UUA PPC Leadership Council.

In love and for justice, 

Pablo

Join UUs for a Just Economic Community for a webinar:

Climate Crisis, like COVID-19, is a Global Health Threat; & Managing the Health Effects of the Climate Crisis. Thursday June 11, 5:00 pm PDT

To join our Webinar, please click here.

Brief Bio: Julia Ying is a volunteer public speaker trained by former US Vice President Al Gore and the Climate Reality Project. She is Co-Chair of the Climate Reality Northern New Mexico Chapter. She is also a member of 350 Santa Fe. She is a retired General Medical Practitioner from Sydney Australia, and is a happy grandmother to 5 grandchildren. She is now living in Los Alamos, NM. She is passionate about taking care of Mother Earth, to preserve the beauty of nature she loves, and to know her grandchildren can grow up in a safe, sustainable world.

Julia Ying can be contacted on: climaterealitynnm@gmail.com     Website: ClimateRealityNNM.org

Too often the argument “How can we possible pay for it?” stops any further discussion of implementing the Green New Deal. Join UUJEC for a webinar on how to change conventional thinking. A “can do” attitude can make impressive headway, both against global warming and the social, economic, political gridlock that stymies us. Join Zoom Meeting Adam Wasserman, host; Thursday, May 14, 5 pm PDT https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6687480796 Meeting ID: 668 748 0796 +13462487799, 6687480796# US

Continue reading→

Backbone Campaign took a deep dive last week into solutionary ideas for local resilience when we interviewed Judy Wicks - an expert on local living economies - and a group of time bank experts last week.

You can watch the Time Bank Conversation Here

You can watch the Judy Wicks Interview HERE

Backbone Campaign is grateful to Judy for sharing her wisdom and insights gained over decades of work. Watch and see if you agree that going back to "normal" is unacceptable. Only forward - never backward. #ReMakeTheWorld

Thank you, Diane Wittner, co-producer of our Solutionary Perspectives series for organizing and hosting this interview.

The Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March on Washington on June 20, 2020 will not be postponed but will be transformed! We are going digital! We will hold the largest digital and social media gathering of poor and low-wealth people and people of conscience in this nation’s history. The COVID-19 global pandemic is exposing the already existing crisis of poverty in America, and we are going to bombard every member of Congress and the White House so that we raise up the demands of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. We will not be able to gather physically in Washington DC, but it is paramount that we have a forum where poor and low-wealth people can share their truths with a nation that needs its heart broken. If there was ever a time for a massive outcry, it’s right now. People are hungry for bold, visionary solutions, not just to this current crisis, but to systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. Poor and low-wealth people know the solutions we need. Stay tuned for more about how we are transforming our vision to adapt to the digital space. We may be isolated, but we remain united! Forward together, The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival

Continue reading→

We are only 40 days out from the launch of Census 2020 on March 12, as postcards will begin to arrive inviting households to participate. Official Census Day is April 1. In the State of Washington, $16.7B in tax dollars for our communities are at stake, along with our democratic representation in Congress. We cannot afford to miss counting anyone in this census, especially traditionally undercounted communities of color, immigrants, tribes, rural areas, and young children. You can help in three ways right now: Save the date for a Faith-based Census training on February 19 in Tukwila. Let us know if you'd like to attend by responding to the survey below. Respond to our survey indicating ways you would like to help with the Census in your faith community and beyond. There ARE people in your faith community who may not be counted without our extra efforts. Share our part-time Census Coordinator job description - we are accepting applications through February 9. Please download the job description and share with your communities. We see this as a statewide effort and are excited to join a powerful coalition for the Census.

Continue reading→

The Mount Holyoke College Club of the Puget Sound invites you to a panel discussion. Speakers: Dr. Serin Houston, Professor of Geography and International Relations at Mount Holyoke College, and author of Imagining Seattle: Social Values in Urban Governance.  Dr. Anu Taranath, Principal Lecturer, Comparative History of Ideas at University of  Washington, and author of Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World. Ms. Sarah Mayes. Sarah has worked for four lawmakers, most recently at Seattle City Council. A transgender woman and single mother, Sarah produces and co-hosts a new podcast, By the Sound. Free and open to the public.  Download flyer here.

Continue reading→