Over 150 community members participated in a forum on our Human Right to Helathcare last night at the Imani Center in the Old North End of Burlington. Nearly a dozen Chittenden Co. Legislatures were present, mainly to listen, as the focus was on the voices of the people.
Michael Leon Guerrero of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance will be speaking at the University of Vermont on "The Road to Detroit: The US Social Forum and Grassroots Reponses to the Economic and Environmental Crisis," at 7pm in the John Dewey Lounge in Old Mill, UVM. Mr. Guerrero is one of the key organizers of the US Social Forum, and also a member of the International Council of the World Social Forum. The event is sponsored by the Vermont Workers' Center, the Student Labor Action Project and Students for Peace and Global Justice, and will also include speakers from local organizations.
A small delegation from the Vermont Workers' Center travelled to Pittsburgh last week to join thousands of others in demanding that the G-20 address the financial crisis by bailing out the people, not the banks. In addition to joining the peaceful mass march on Friday the 25th, VWC members participated in the People's Voices activities with grassroots organizations from Pittsburgh, around the nation, and around the world. More coverage is available on the Grassroots Global Justice website.
The Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign, coordinated by the Vermont Workers' Center is organizing a series of healthcare forums with local state legislators around Vermont. The forums will include personal testimonies, presentations on the human right to healthcare and how Vermont can lead the way when the federal health reform falls short of solving the current crisis.
WINDHAM COUNTY 7pm, Tuesday, Sept 29, Brattleboro Union High School, Multi-purpose Room
CHITTENDEN COUNTY 7pm, Thurs, Oct 1, Imani Youth & Family Center, 294 N. Winooski Ave, Burlington
The Vermont Workers' Center is sponsoring the debut screening of Michael Moore's new film "Capitalism: A Love Story" at the Savoy Theater in Montpelier.
6:30pm and 9:00pm, Friday, October 2, 2009
Savoy Theater, 26 Main Street, Montpelier
Article in Bennington Banner
http://www.benningtonbanner.com/ci_13415571
Care for all, but how?
NEAL P. GOSWAMI
Posted: 09/24/2009 11:00:26 PM EDT
BENNINGTON -- Local lawmakers agreed Thursday that health care is a human right, but finding the right way to deliver it is proving difficult.
The Vermont Workers Center sponsored a Health Care is a Human Right forum in Bennington Thursday night where area residents relayed their troubles and struggles with health care. And lawmakers relayed the challenges they face to correct the system.
Article in Times Argus and Rutland Herald
http://www.timesargus.com/article/20090923/NEWS01/909230339/1002/NEWS01
Slow pace of health care reform sparks ire
By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: September 23, 2009
MONTPELIER – More than two decades ago, Liz Zundel of Barre was diagnosed with lupus, a treatable but incurable illness. Although she had a young child she worked full time, in large part, so she would have health insurance, although according to her prognosis she was unlikely to survive more than a few years.
As President Obama's speech has taken our country's broken healthcare system once again to the center stage, its increasingly clear that struggle to truly make healthcare a public good for all will be up to state's like Vermont. Our Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign has been getting lots of media coverage.
PRESS:
Single-payer health care: dead in Washington, but alive in the states: Insurance companies may be winning the fight in Washington, but California and Vermont are on the cusp of comprehensive reform." read here: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0910/p09s03-coop.html
The beautiful town of Peacham, VT has a population listed at about 665 people but last night it was doubled for Senator Bernie Sanders Town Meeting on Healthcare last night. The upstairs of the church had over 300 people, the downstairs had over 150 people, and then speakers were blasting out the church kitchen door to a crowd of well over 200 people outside, often standing in the rain. Just like the Town Meetings held last week, in Rutland and Arlington (link: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/112 ) hundreds of Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign (HCisHR, link: www.workerscenter.org/healthcare ) and single-payer healthcare supporters came to show their support, outnumbering opponents at probably more than 25-1 (Rutland was probably 6-to-1, Arlington probably about 10-to-1).
This Sunday the Bennington Healthcare is a Human Right organizing committee teamed up with Vermont Center for Independent Living to ride on the float they had worked on for weeks in the Bennignton Battle Day Parade. The prize-winning theme was "Still Fighting for our Rights" and many of the participants were dressed in costumes.