2012 Green Party Vice President with Jill Stein for
President
Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett
We do not seek pity. We seek power that ends human rights conditions threatening all people. Violations of economic human rights deny the birthright to Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness reads the mission of the organization founded by Cheri Honkala.The woman chosen for vice president by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has been called “a speaker with a powerful message about ending poverty in America.”
Who is she?
Minnesota-born Pennsylvanian Cheri Honkala is a leading advocate for human rights who speaks worldwide about the struggle against poverty in the United States and the denial of basic economic human rights. She has brought life stories and voices of America’s poor and homeless people to the United Nations Human Rights Commission/Council, to the World Social Forum, and to other international bodies.
Cheri Honkala is National Coordinator for the Poor
People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign.
Listed among her efforts, in addition working with the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, are speaking to
148 governments at the United Nations about ending poverty in America; leading a March of the Americas, the World Summit of the Poor, and a
125-mile march of homeless and poor from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to
the United Nations in protest of welfare reform and poverty as a violation of
economic human rights.
Cheri Honkala has served on the Urban-Rural Mission, the
Reproductive Health Technologies Project, the Pennsylvanians for Choice, the
Alliance of Native Americans, and the Annie Smart Leadership Development boards of
directors, among others. She refused to sign the Pennsylvania Agreement of
Mutual responsibility (AMR on behalf of all welfare recipients on the grounds
that without adequate guarantees of childcare, healthcare, and jobs at a living
wage, the AMR is an unfair contract). Pennsylvania newspapers have named her
among “the region’s 100 most powerful” and “Woman of the Year.”
Cheri Honkala is an American anti-poverty advocate, founder
of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU) and founder of the National Coordinator
of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign.
In June of 1977, Cheri Honkala and other members of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union organized the “‘March for Our Lives’ from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to United Nations in New York to protest human rights violations in the United States caused by welfare reform.”
In 2011, Honkala was the Green Party candidate for Sheriff of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This coming Saturday, Green Party 2012 presidential candidate Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala are expected to be officially nominated at the Green Party national convention in Baltimore, Maryland.
What is Honkala’s
Poor People’s Economic Rights Campaign?
The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign is a rising
movement “that unites the poor across color lines,” says the organization’s
published mission.
“Poverty afflicts Americans of all colors. Every day more
and more of us are downsized and impoverished.
“We share a common interest in uniting against the
prevailing conditions and around our vision of a society where we all have the
right to health care, housing, living wage jobs, and access to quality primary,
secondary, and higher education.
“The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign includes
people of many backgrounds: mothers, fathers, children, and grandparents; the
unemployed, the working poor, the downsized, the homeless, the victims of
welfare reform and NAFTA, the cast-asides of the new economy; we are social
workers, religious leaders, labor leaders, artists, lawyers, and other people
of conscience. We are young and old. We live in rural areas and in urban
centers.”
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
“We are committed to uniting the poor as the leadership base
for a broad movement to abolish poverty everywhere and forever. We work to
accomplish this by promoting economic human rights as anchored in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 23, 25, and 26. These
articles provide for the human right to housing, health care, a living-wage
job, and education.
 |
| Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 Eleanor Roosevelt |
“The founding creed of the United States of America (the 1776
Declaration of Independence proclaiming equally the 'unalienable rights') asserting
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness inspired the formulation of rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights signed by the United States in 1948. However, while
it claims to defend human rights, the United States of America has consistently
ignored and undermined the global consensus on economic human rights.”
Full implementation of these rights means that “our
country, the richest, most powerful in the world, would be living out the
true meaning of its creed.
“We do not seek pity. We do seek power to end conditions
that threaten all of us with economic human rights violations denying us our
birthright to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Biographer Anne Roth wrote about Cheri Honkala: “What she is
fighting for seems to be a chance for our entire nation’s poor to meet the
basic needs for survival.
This is not a fight for a bigger handout, but a fight for a realistic opportunity to exist under the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Sources and notes
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cheri_Honkala&printable=yes
http://old.economichumanrights.org/about/about.html
http://www.speakersforanewamerica.com/speakers/cheri.html
“Biography of: Cheri Honkala” (author: Anne Roth), http://www1.appstate.edu/~clarkne/socm/bios/honkala.htm
Appalachian State University,
http://www1.appstate.edu/~clarkne/socm/bios/honkala.htm
KWRU
The Kensington Welfare Rights Union is a progressive social
justice, political action, and advocacy group of, by, and for the poor and
homeless operating out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and led by Galen Tyler.
The group was formed in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood in April of
1991.
KWRU is a part of the national organization, the Poor People’s
Economic Human Rights Campaign, a coalition of grassroots organizations,
community groups, and non-profit organizations committed to uniting the poor
across color lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish
poverty. KWRU is also a member of the steering committee of the A.N.S.W.E.R.
coalition. The KWRU was written about in David Zucchino’s book Myth of the Welfare Queen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Welfare_Rights_Union
Myth of the Welfare
Queen
A reviewer of David Zucchino’s 1999 work said the author had
“written an unsentimental yet powerful narrative describing life in the
trenches of the welfare system,” a recounting that “reminds us that we cannot
disregard the urgency of poverty [because] it affects all of us regardless of economic
situation or anyone’s opinion of welfare recipients.”
“Zucchino’s attempt to deconstruct the myth of the welfare
queen exposes many unsavory details about life below the poverty line:
trash-picking, sex for money, children left in charge of other children.
“This book invites readers step into the shoes of a
desperately poor person, leaving behind moral judgments and uninformed
opinions.”
The Myth of the Welfare Queens “is a story of two women on
welfare, a chronicle of daily life with Cheri Honkala, a welfare recipient and
activist, and Odessa Williams a welfare grandmother.”
POOR PEOPLE'S ECONOMIC HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign
Larry Bresler, Executive Director
2671 Haddam Road
Cleveland, Ohio 44120
Phone: (216) 651-2606
email: lbresler@economichumanrights.org
or
email: info@economichumanrights.org
March to Fulfill the Dream Contacts:
Cheri Honkala
phone: 267-439-8419
email: cherihonkalappehrc@gmail.com
Jeff Rousset
phone: 845-642-8145
email: jeffppehrc@gmail.com
Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign
Artists/Musicians
Affiliate Members
Alpha Platoon / Seattle
B Girl Media / Seattle
Carvell Holloway for Strokely/California
De-Bug / San Jose CA
Elena Rose Productions/California
Gathering of Hearts / Kentwood, Louisiana
Harvey Finkle Photography / Philadelphia
Hip Hop Congress
Junkyard Empire/California
Just Artistic Terrorism / Minneapolis
Kevin Sandbloom/California
Lady T for Natural High/California
Mark Webber/California
Poor Rich Kids (PRK ) / Philadelphia
Raz-B (formerly of B2K)/California
Rebel Diaz / Bronx NY
Rock & Rap Confidential/California
Rock A Mole Productions/California
Rondavoux Records / California
Street Level Youth Media / Chicago
Talissa Love/California
Tia Chucha's Cafe Cultural/California
True Mutiny / Minneapolis
Umojafest P.E.A.C.E. Center / Seattle
Untold Legacy Production Company / Kentwood, Louisiana
Zumix Radio/Boston
Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign Members
Agape Love Ministry to the Homeless (Cleveland OH)
Alabama Arise
Alexandria United Taxi-drivers Organization (Alexandria, VA)
Alternatives for Developing Change (Chico, CA)
Arise for Social Justice (Springfield, MA)
ASL Advocates (Euclid, OH)
Big Creek People in Action (Caretta, WV)
BOSS and Street Spirit (Oakland/Berkeley, CA)
California PPEHRC Committees
CCove (Philadelphia, PA)
Center for Economic and Social Rights (New York, NY)
Center on Housing Rights and Evictions (international)
Centro Comunitario Juan Diego (Chicago, IL)
Centro de Trabajadores Agriculas (El Paso, TX)
Chattanoogans and North Georgians for Economic Rights -
CHANGER (Chattanooga, TN)
Coalition of Immokalee Workers (Immokalee, FL)
Coalition to Protect Public Housing (Chicago, IL)
Community Homeless Alliance Ministry (San Jose, CA)
Deaf and Deaf-Blind Committee on Human Rights
(North Olmsted, OH)
Delaware Housing Coalition (Dover, DE)
Direct Action Welfare Group (Charleston, WV)
Domestic Workers (Los Angeles, CA)
The Employment Project (New York, NY)
Empowerment Center of Greater Cleveland (Cleveland, OH)
Friends & Residents of Arthur Capper and Carrollsburg
(Washington, DC)
Georgia Human Rights Union/Project South (Atlanta, GA)
Hip Hop Congress (National)
The Nashville Homeless Power Project (Nashville, TN)
Human Rights Tech (Philadelphia, PA)
Idahoans Struggling in Solidarity (Boise, ID)
Independent Media Center-Philadelphia (PA)
Iowa PPEHRC ( Iowa City, IW)
Ithaca Workers Rights Center (Ithaca, NY)
Jesus People Against Pollution (Columbia, MS)
JEDI for Women (Salt Lake City, UT)
Just Housing! (Aurora, IL)
Kensington Welfare Rights Union (Philadelphia, PA)
La Mujer Obrera (El Paso, TX)
Lifetime (Oakland, CA)
Loring Nicolett Alternative School (Minneapolis, MN)
Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA, CAN)
Louisiana Injured Workers (New Orleans, LA)
Low-Income Self-Help Center (San Jose, CA)
Luzerne County Residents Union (Wilkes-Barre, PA)
Massachusetts Welfare Rights Union (Mattapan, MA)
Miami Valley Full Employment Council (Dayton, OH)
Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (Detroit, MI)
Mid-South Peace & Justice Center (Memphis, TN)
Minnesota PPEHRC (Minneapolis, MN)
Mississippi MAP (Jackson, MS)
Mormons for Equality and Social Justice (Salt Lake City, UT)
National Alliance of HUD Tenants (Nat)
National Welfare
Rights Union
Network of Spiritual
Progressives ( Pittsburgh, PA)
New Jersey STEPS
New Jerusalem
(Philadelphia, PA)
New Labor (NJ)
North Carolina
Farmworkers Project
Ohio Empowerment
Coalition ( Cincinnati, OH)
Organizer's Learning
Center (IL)
Organize! Ohio
People Organized to Win Employment Rights
(San Francisco, CA)
Poor People United
(Rochester, NY)
Poor Voices United
(Atlantic City, NJ)
Portland Organization
to Win Economic Rights (Portland, ME)
Real Change (Seattle,
WA)
The Refuge (St.
Petersburg, FL)
Rochester Poor
People's Coalition (Rochester, NY)
Rochester SWAA (
Rochester, NY)
Rock A Mole Productions (Los Angeles, CA)
The Rural Coalition
(national)
San Francisco
Coalition on Homelessness (San Francisco, CA)
The Simple Way (Philadelphia, PA)
Sisters Of The Road
(Portland, OR)
Sisters Together Ending Poverty (Boston, MA)
Skylight Pictures
(New York, NY)
Social Welfare Action
Alliance (national)
Southerners for
Economic Justice (Durham, NC)
Southsiders Together
Organizing for Power (STOP) (Chicago, IL)
Stand for Our
Neighbors (Washington, DC)
STOP Targeting Ohio's
Poor (Cleveland, OH)
Tampa Bay Action
Group (St Petersburg, FL)
TRASA (Salt Lake
City, UT)
UNC Housekeepers
Union (Chapel Hill, NC)
United Clevelanders
Against Poverty (Cleveland, OH)
United Workers
Association (Baltimore, MD)
U.S – El Salvador
Sister Cities
Voices of Illinois
Poor People (Dekalb, IL)
West Virginia
Listening Project (WV)
Women's Project
(Little Rock, AR)
Womens Economic
Agenda Project (Oakland, CA)
Women in Transition
(Louisville, KY)
Western Regional
Advocacy Project (Multi-State)
Youth Action Research Group (Washington, DC)
PPEHRC Coordinating Council Members
Ethel Long-Scott,
WEAP
Bonnie Macri, JEDI
Cecilia Perry, PPEHRC
legal committee
Galen Tyler, KWRU
Khalilah Collins,
Women in Transition
Monica Beemer,
Sisters of the Road
Jesse Vear, Portland
Organizing to Win Economic Rights
Anne Patterson, MN
PPEHRC
Mary Bricker Jenkins,
Social Welfare Action Alliance
Carol Steele,
Coalition to Protect Public Housing
Diane King, United
Clevelanders Against Poverty
Shamako Noble, Hip
Hop Congress
PPEHRC Staff
Larry Bresler,
Executive Director
Cheri Honkala,
National Organizer
For other
information, email info[at]economichumanrights.org
http://old.economichumanrights.org/members.html
http://old.economichumanrights.org/contact.html
_____________________________________________
Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
______________________________________
