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How
do we end poverty?
The
poor people’s economic human
rights organizing model answers the
question “how do we end poverty?” The
model provides a framework for how
to effectively organize the poor
to build the power required to change
the political conditions behind poverty’s
continuation. The model’s central
strategy is to develop leaders from
the ranks of the poor around human
rights values of respect, dignity
and sacred life.
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Poor
Peoples's Economic Human Rights Organizing
Model
The
following discription of the model was developed
by the United
Workers. The model comes from the work of
many poor people’s organizations fighting
for human rights. (pdf
version)
I.
Assumptions of the model
- Poverty
is a moral choice made by those in power that
can be ended by a change in the political,
social and economic conditions that cause poverty.
- People
are motivated by moral beliefs in transformative
values.
- Poverty
will be ended when leaders from the ranks of
the poor effectively organize the poor around
transformative moral values and build the power
required to change the political, social and
economic conditions that cause poverty.
II.
Objective/purpose of the model
- Build
a movement capable of ending poverty.
- End
poverty.
III.
Organizing base
- Poor
people who are morally opposed to poverty and
who are committed to the human rights values
of respect, dignity and sacred life
IV.
What’s needed to end poverty
- The
belief that poverty can be ended
- A
movement, community and leaders centered on
transformative and universal human rights values
of respect, dignity and sacred life
- A
strategy to organize people and to build the
power required to realize the vision of ending
poverty and securing the human rights of all
- Leaders
who are skilled at community organizing and
who carry out effective strategies that will
put an end to poverty
V.
Methodology
1.
Organize people and build community around
human rights values.
- Center
organizing on universal and transformative
human rights values (respect, dignity, sacred
life).
- Integrate
and fuse organizing with culture and faith
of organizing base.
2.
Develop consciousness of people and leaders
from the ranks of the poor.
- Place
primacy of non-partisan political education
and community building.
- Provide
human rights education through reflective
action.
- Celebrate
the history of social and non-partisan political
movements.
3.
Identify and then develop leaders from the
ranks of the poor.
- Focus
on the 3 C’s of leadership (commitment,
consciousness and cooperation).
- Train
community organizers from the ranks of the
poor.
- Expand
base of leaders to other sectors of society
(including students, faith, labor.
- Develop
leaders with specialized skills.
4.
Build and exercise collective power of the
poor who are committed to human rights values.
- Focal
point campaign
- Work
place outreach
- Leverage
through perception management (Battle
of Stories Framework)
- Direct
engagement around concrete demands
- Controlled
outcomes
- Survival
project
- Community
building activities
- Coalitions
5.
Build and sustain poor people’s institutions
committed to expanding human rights values.
- Policy,
governance and power
- Education
and research
- Labor
and economic (production and distribution
of good and services needed by people)
- Human
rights culture and faith
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