In August 2005, millions of viewers watched in horror as the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina unfolded on the television news. Perhaps more horrifying than the human impact of the storm itself was the inept and callous political response by the Bush Administration, characterized by comments like the infamous, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job!” It was a stark juxtaposition. As the rich, white, and powerful rallied to cover their political assets, poor and working class people trapped in New Orleans—the vast majority of them black and brown—waited for relief. And waited. And waited.
Adding insult to injury, the disparate treatment of black and white Katrina victims by the media provided a good reminder, to those who needed one, of the racial hierarchy in the United States. As Van Jones succinctly put it, “Black People ‘Loot’ Food … White People ‘Find’ Food”. And for the tens of thousands of immigrant and refugee victims, many from backgrounds of war and poverty in Vietnam, Mexico, and Honduras, invisibility was an added barrier to finding adequate assistance. For justice-minded people everywhere, Katrina was – and is – a staggering illustration of the problems of poverty and racism in the United States, one that demands a clear analysis of the structural barriers to equity. As Adolph Reed, Jr. wrote in The Nation last September:
We have to be clear that what happened in New Orleans is an extreme and criminally tragic coming home to roost of the con that cutting public spending makes for a better society. It is a shocking foretaste of a future that many more of us will experience less dramatically, often quietly as individuals, as we lose pensions, union protection, access to healthcare and public education, Social Security, bankruptcy and tort protection, and as we are called upon to feed an endless war machine.
Here in the Northwest, where Idaho and Montana are among the 10 states with the lowest per capita incomes in the nation, and Washington and Wyoming rank 12th and 13th in the nation for hunger and food insecurity, the fight for economic justice is critical. Moreover, in a region known for strong libertarian and populist sentiments, rightwing forces routinely appeal to working class white voters with “us-versus-them” messages blaming immigrants and people of color for economic problems. Hence it is equally critical for progressives here to wage the fight against poverty with a clear analysis of race and class.
Idaho progressives understand the need for collective power. That is why 23 grassroots social, economic, and environmental justice organizations stand united through a statewide multi-issue progressive coalition called United Vision for Idaho (UVI). Together they represent over 100,000 Idahoans. In recent years, UVI has made a strong commitment to carry out its work with a clear analysis of racism. In a state that is 95 percent white, and where a rapidly growing Latino population is providing fodder for anti-immigrant sentiment, UVI has been a strong ally for emerging organizations in communities of color, and ensures that all of its work includes a “race cut”. UVI’s overarching goal is to build the infrastructure needed for a permanent social, economic and environmental justice movement in Idaho.
The Social Justice Fund currently supports UVI’s work through a Three-Year Support Grant that provides $15,000 a year in general operating support. UVI has used these funds to advance several organizational goals: to strengthen leadership development in the progressive movement; to create collaborative strategies for progressive tax policy; to engage in community organizing campaigns on human dignity, social security, campaign financing, and property taxes; and to reframe public debate on progressive issues through media and message work.
In 2005, UVI made great strides on all of these fronts. They secured over 170 radio hits, mostly through stories they generated through the Northern Rockies News Service using values-based messaging, as well as numerous media stories in newspapers and on television. They created cartoons reinforcing progressive messages on a variety of issues that were then published in newspapers and used by UVI member groups on websites and elsewhere. They conducted community actions to oppose the repeal of the federal estate tax, promoted tax credits tied to the creation of living-wage jobs, and successfully placed other tax reform proposals on the agenda of the governor and the legislative leadership. In addition, UVI created a Progressive Leadership Academy, and provided staff and technical assistance to the Idaho Hispanic Caucus, which works to build political power in the state’s Latino communities, and to Mujeres Unidas de Idaho, an emerging Latina-led organization.
Montana Women Vote (MWV) is a coalition of organizations united to build electoral power for low-income women in the state of Montana. In 2005, the US Census Bureau reported that Montana women suffered the nation's biggest gender wage gap, taking home a median of 67 cents for every dollar earned by men. The state already suffers from the nation’s sixth lowest per capita income, faring slightly better than Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, New Mexico, and Utah. Leaders at MWV are determined to change all that.
The Social Justice Fund is currently supporting MWV with a Three-Year Support Grant, providing $15,000 a year in general support funding. With help from this funding last year, MWV exceeded its voter registration goals by nearly 50 percent, registering 7,300 people. More importantly, MWV matched its list against the state’s voter file, and verified a 77 percent voter turnout rate among the people it registered.
While 2005 was not a major election year, MWV celebrated many successes. Not content just to turn women out at the polls, the coalition worked the legislative arena, holding legislative gatherings, meetings with the new governor, and publishing the results of its work after the legislative session ended. Along with several other organizations, MWV was instrumental in changing election laws to make access to voting easier for Montanans, including same-day voter registration, permanent vote-by-mail status, and paper ballots to ensure accurate vote tabulation. MWV also strengthened its infrastructure around the state, establishing stable steering committees in Missoula, Helena, and Great Falls.
In Seattle, the Legacy of Equality, Leadership, and Organizing (LELO) was formed 34 years ago by Latino farmworkers, Black construction workers, and Asian and Pacific Islander cannery workers, who realized that they shared a common struggle as workers fighting for justice. Over the last three decades, LELO’s work has continued to be rooted in this legacy of working class unity, embodied in the organization’s rallying call for “No Separate Peace”.
In April 2005 LELO won a historic victory through its Family Wage Jobs project, securing a commitment by the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) that be local low-income community members would represent 100 percent of new hires for future construction contracts. The Family Wage Jobs project began in 2003 as an organizing campaign to help low-income communities of color win family wage jobs and training on publicly funded construction projects in Southeast Seattle. The campaign raised questions like, “Who is benefiting from the redevelopment of New Holly and Rainier Vista communities?” and demanded answers. The goal of the SHA Campaign was to win an agreement guaranteeing residents of public housing, low-income and unemployed workers in surrounding neighborhoods, homeless workers and unemployed youth a significant number of jobs and training slots on federally-funded Hope VI housing construction sites. A year and a half later, they met that goal. Now the challenge is to hold SHA to its word through monitoring and community accountability.
The SHA campaign won other victories as well, in terms of the numbers of people it reached and the leaders it helped to develop. Over 2,000 people participated in the petition drive that took place outside of grocery stories in Southeast Seattle. Some 250 people attended direct action protests and press conferences. More than 30 low-income workers attended community-organizing trainings, and 21 individuals, the vast majority being people of color and low-income, played leadership roles in the campaign. Also as a result of the campaign, low-income workers of color living in Southeast Seattle have gained direct access to the new executive director of SHA.
The Social Justice Fund is proud to have supported LELO’s Family Wage Jobs campaign with a Basic Grant of $7,500 in 2004, and Donor Advised grants totaling $8,000 in 2005. LELO was among the very first grantees that the Social Justice Fund supported back in 1978. It is currently receiving a 2006 Basic Grant to support its Debt and Poverty Project.