February 3, 2012

Building the Human Rights MovementResults and Expectations for the HuRAH Campaign moving forward,or How we win and Why we win

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

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

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.

✤ 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

✤ 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

!

✤ 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!

Why we winA human rights vision based upon community capacity is the only way that policy change is possible.

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:

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:

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:

Case studies in human rights organizingCommunities + vision + human rights = victory.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

photo: Runners for human rights in El paso, 2011

We either cross the finish line together... or not at all.