Last week the United Workers joined in solidarity with the farm workers of Florida, who are fighting for end to slavery and slave-like conditions in the fields. We did this because our struggles are linked - because an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere. Workers, from the front of the house, to the kitchen, to the parking attendant, to the clean up crew, to the truck driver, to the farm worker, gain strength in unity and solidarity. The fight for fair food, like the fight for fair development, is a fight that connects issues and people together.
During the tour we were moved by the stories of worker abuses exposed by the CIW and its allies. Major corporations like the Publix grocery chain, Aramark and Giant need to be held to account and do their part in ending these abuses. We were also moved by the example of the CIW, in their extraordinarily effective efforts to draw attention to abuses and force businesses to change course and do the right thing. One way they do this is through drama, culture and effective communication of values and ideas. We think the CIW serves as a model for community organizations by focusing on leadership development, human rights values and effective action for change. While we went to Florida last week to express solidarity with farm workers, we also went to Immokalee to continue learning from such an effective model in community and human rights organizing. The Fair Food Solidarity Tour was actually sandwiched between two great examples. We started by going North to Philadelphia’s MMP, who provided examples for how to organize in a city much like Baltimore. Then we went South to Immokalee’s CIW, who provided examples for how to sustain winning campaigns in the new labor economy.
For more than the past year we’ve been working on applying lessons learned from all our allies, and the tour last week marked a milestone in preparations for the ramping up of the Human Rights Zone campaign. This process began in earnest on April 19, 2009 - the day after the B’More Fair and Human Rights Zone March - when we held a day-long meeting with our closest allies from across the country to unveil plans for ramping up the campaign over the course of the year. At that meeting we unveiled plans for a major ramping up, if Phillips refused our offers for face to face talks (which they did). Part of this included consideration by workers to move the demands up to the top of the profit chain (which workers voted to do in October).
The next step in ramping things up will be Our Harbor Day on May 1, 2010. This day will center on a participation play with a cast of hundreds (including you) converging on the Human Rights Zone to peacefully retell the people’s history of human rights struggles and victories. Your participation is what make this event a powerful day to celebrate human rights values and build the power to end the poverty-zone business model that’s being imposed on the Inner Harbor. Without you, there will be no story to tell and no history to make.
At that meeting some of our most trusted allies, especially those with a long history and deep dedication to community organizing in Baltimore, raised constructive concerns about how we would build the capacity to use street theater to communicate a message through the Our Harbor Day’s participation play. There is nothing worse than using street theater to get heard, but what’s actually heard by a disinterested media or confused public is a muddled mess.
This feedback led us plan a series of workshops and internal trainings on justice theater. We’ve already been reaching out to experienced practitioners of Theater of the Oppressed, protest puppetry, and the Battle of the Stories Framework since meeting with our allies right after the Human Rights Zone March. We held in-depth workshops at our internal Staying on Track Retreat, focused on drama and storytelling skills. And throughout last week’s Fair Food Solidarity Tour we held more internal workshops, which were enhanced by the allies we visited during the tour. CIW provides one of the best examples of combining street theater, drama, music, puppets with effective messaging to build power through action. MMP provides one of the best examples of using storytelling and new media to get heard and tell our story, our way.
The next major step in this process will be opened up to all our allies and the public - we invite you to join us as we expand our capacity building for Our Harbor Day to all our allies and the public. The Justice Theater Conference on January 16, 2010, at 2640 Space in Baltimore from 10 AM to 3 PM, will focus on building capacity that leads to action. Please note that the $15 registration fee for the conference includes lunch, with vegetarian option available (there is no charge for members of poor people’s human rights organizations and members of youth theater programs). Register today by sending an email to info@unitedworkers.org with your contact information.
At the Justice Theater Conference we will explore the intersection of theater and struggles for dignity and justice through Theater of the Oppressed, the Battle of Stories Framework, street theater and puppet making. Presenters include Classlines, Theater Action Group (TAG), Puppet Underground, Bashi Rose and Mitchell Ferguson with NOMMO Theater, and the United Workers. Small group workshops will focus on in-depth and practical skill development.
The conference is open to everyone, but we hope it will lead directly to making Our Harbor Day an effective celebration of human rights values, building on the success of the B’More Fair from the year before. We want to expand our capacity as a community for uniting the many social, economic and environmental struggles facing our city and the world. We’d like to repeat what made B’More Fair a great coming together, by expanding on the level of community participation in more of the planning and actions of the day. At the center of this will be the participation play, which is now a framework only - waiting to be filled in through the community planning process in the lead up to May 1, 2010. Even if you don’t make it to the Justice Theater Conference we want and need your participation for Our Harbor Day. Please let us know if you will help with Our Harbor Day by emailing us at info@unitedworkers.org. Together, we are writing history and taking back our harbor, taking back our city.
We invite you to join us, for the Justice Theater Conference and Our Harbor Day. The participation play is just that - a participatory process that brings people together in the writing of history. Mark your calendar now - January 16, 2010 and May 1, 2010. Visit http://unitedworkers.org/justicetheater/ for information about registering to the conference, or send an email to info@unitedworkers.org today. Start thinking of ways that we can connect struggles and convey our shared human rights values, and bring your ideas to the Justice Theater Conference as we get ready for the next major action to make the Inner Harbor a Human Rights Zone that reflects our community’s values.
