Educating for Justice Award
By Willie Baptist, Education Director of the KWRU, Co-Founder, University of the Poor

INTRODUCTION

First of all I want to give THANKS:

I am a member of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. It is a powerful, multi-racial organization of poor and homeless families including the working poor. It is based in Kensington, North Philly which is the poorest community in the entire state of Pennsylvania. The Kensington Welfare Rights Union has over the years done some magnificent things with no money. None of its leaders and staff receive salaries. Some may think that this is crazy. But we think this is commitment under the present circumstances of our organization. There is no in between. People either love us or they hate us. But nobody can deny our commitment! We have been in existence for over ten years. We are a family. And without the Kensington Welfare Rights Union I would not be here today. So I want to give thanks where thanks is due, first and foremost, to all the members of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. In most respect this Award is not an Individual award. It is an award to a tremendous collective effort

Secondly, I want to give thanks to my immediate family. My Wife, Joanie Baptist. My Daughter, Alexis. And my two sons, Boo and Frank.

And thirdly, I want to give thanks to Bread and Roses for this very kind recognition.

I AM A PRODUCT OF

(1) I am 53 years old and I am a product of the largest Upheaval since the American Civil War against slavery, that is, the massive urban uprisings of poor blacks during the 1960s. At 17 years of age I participated in the uprising in Watts, California. On August 11, 1965, 60,000 to 100,000 poor people hit the streets turning over police cars and burning buildings in loud protest against inhumane economic conditions and extreme police repression. This protest was heard around the world.
(2) I am a product of the national organizing drive of the National Union of the Homeless Union during the last half of the 1980s and early 1990s. It was the first of its kind. We organized over 16 chapters thru out the country. In the founding of the New York Chapter, we organized in all the major shelters in the city's burroughs. We assembled over 1 thousand and 2 hundred homeless delegates. I remembered when after the founding convention 400 delegates had no way of getting back to their shelters before losing their bed and dinner. We all decided to march down with our protest signs to the nearest Subway station and all 400 of us jump the turn styles to aboard the train. The police and security guards were stunned as homeless people vanished into the night. The Homeless Union also spearheaded nationwide housing takeover operations(the was capture by Skylight Pictures' Documentary, TAKEOVER),
(3) I am a product of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union who with very little resources spearheaded the building of the Poor People's Economic Human Right Campaign. The campaign currently consist of over 50 organizations of the poor and homeless people nationwide and internationally.

These powerful experiences shaped who I am today. 3 main lessons I have learned,
1) building a social movement or carrying out a massive organizing drive is about more than mobilizing bodies. It is about MOVING MINDS. If poverty and all its injustices in this country are to be ended, the Hearts and Minds of the majority of the American people have to be made up. This is largely an education task.
2) First Step in building such an effort: Building Leaders. An Education Campaign to identify and develop leaders is the first requirement for the success of a social movement. We in the KWRU call it in mixed metaphor, "planting Seeds and panning for Gold." Despite the new and defining social energies generated by the homeless during 1980s and 1990s, and despite the tremendous and unsettling social energies that exploded during the 1960s in all the major ghettoes of the countries, their impact or influence were spent in a very short period of time because neither had a solid foundation of constructive leadership. Building leaders is a great and difficult organizing task but it is essentially a task of education. No easy task when dealing with the American Remote Control FastForward Mentality, where we are constantly and impatiently trying to begin at the ending and not the beginning, trying to build the roof of the house before we build the foundation of the house:
--Everythings about quantity not quality
--Everythings about velocity and not direction.
The foundation that will determine the direction and quality of the movement today is leadership development particularly among the ranks of the poor. And

3) that poor folks are a potentially great social force to awaken the sleeping giant, the American masses provided that they are united and organized. Again, this is largely an education task.

To accomplish all this we must:
TALK AS WE WALK!!!
TEACH AS WE FIGHT!!!
LEARN AS WE LEAD!!!
EDUCATE AS WE ORGANIZE!!!

WHAT HISTORY TEACHES

All this is important in light of what history teaches us about movements that have failed and movements that have succeeded.

Every major period in American History has been defined by a major social problem or polarity and the way that that problem was solved was by bringing to the forefront those social forces most devastated, most dislocated by the problem. For instance:
---The struggle for American Independence against the mighty British Empire. Opposition to the British Crown existed in Spain, Portugal, and particularly in France. Opposition also developed in England itself. But it was necessary that all this opposition key in on the leading opposition of the American colonials themselves for their own freedom from British colonialism.
---The struggle to abolish the system of the Ownership of Human Being, the system of slavery. The slaves, former slaves, and the urban and rural classes of the North has to be in the forefront of that struggle.
---The Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s was led by the legally oppressed black masses

History teaches that when those most victimized by a social problem are brought to forefront then that problem is solved. Can you imagine what would have happen in the struggle for woman suffrage during the turn of the last century if that struggle was led by men?

History also teaches that the task of consolidating the position of the most victimized at the forefront of the struggle involved uniting and organizing those forces but the task was essentially an education task. Educating for justice during each of the major periods of history necessarily required a focus on the main problem and means toward the solution at that time.
---Against the British Crown: the educational roles of Samuel Adams and Tom Paine were outstanding examples
---Against Slavery: Frederick Douglas and Harriet Beecher Stowe and William Lloyd Garrison.
---Against Legalized Racial segregation: MLK, Jr, Septima Clark, and Ella Baker.

MAIN PROBLEM TODAY

The main problem today is the growing impoverishment of the people which is manifesting itself in every aspect of life. For instance, Ford Motors recently announced that 35,000 workers will be laid off; Merrill Lynch announced 9,000 lay offs. Between 1988 -1998, 1128 emergency hospital rooms closed. We have two leaders in our organization that share heart attack medicine. Incidents of people sharing unaffordable but life-saving medicine is a widespread and growing problem. Etc. etc

---Martin Luther King, Jr in his 1967 Massey Lectures Series to the Canadian Broad cast stated,

"THERE ARE MILLIONS OF POOR PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY[NEGROES AND WHITE - my ed] WHO HAVE VERY LITTLE, OR EVEN NOTHING, TO LOSE. IF THEY CAN BE HELPED TO TAKE ACTION TOGETHER, THEY WILL DO SO WITH A FREEDOM AND A POWER THAT WILL BE A NEW AND UNSETTLING FORCE IN OUR COMPLACENT NATIONAL LIFE."

This statement expressed Martin King's shift in strategic orientation from civil rights to human rights, from ending legal racial segregation to eliminated poverty. This shift was but a continuation of his life long commitment to "redeem the soul of America", to make this country live out the true meaning of its founding creed.

"WE HOLD THESE TRUTH TO BE SELF-EVIDENT THAT ALL MEN [PARAPHRASE…AND ALL WOMEN] ARE CREATED EQUAL. THEY ARE ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS AND AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. [PARAPHRASE….GOVERNMENTS ARE CONSTITUTED ON THE CONCENT OF THE GOVERNED TO ENSURE THOSE RIGHTS. WHEN THE GOVERNMENT ABDICATES ITS RESPONSIBILITY IT IS THE RIGHT AND DUTY OF THE PEOPLE TO MAKE IT RIGHT]"

Origins of the Universal Declaration Human Rights(UDHR) was inspired by words of the United States' Declaration of Independence.

The use of Articles 23, 25, and 26 of the UDHR is the Major Tactic of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign.

Martin King mastered the American psychology and personality which made him educationally as well as tactically most effective. Today we must do the same if we are to awaken the consciousness of the American people.

In the launching the 1968Poor People's Campaign he was the last major leader in the country to attempt the uniting of the poor of all color--black, white, latino, asians, and native Americans. For this Reason he was killed. December 1999 circuit court of Memphis, Tenn ruling on MLK's Assassination proved this reasoning without a doubt. It was revealed that it was not a single "fanatical racist" that killed him. That in fact all levels of government were involved, from military intelligence, the CIA and FBI, to local intelligence and law enforcement.

TAKING UP MLK'S MANTLE

Those of us who are members of the KWRU and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign are determined to take up Martin Luther Kings, Jr's mantle.

---First national New Freedom Bus Tour in 1998(capture Skylight Pictures' Documentary, OUTRIDERS) proved to be an effective organizing tool but also a powerful school of learning. Next New Freedom Bus Tour will be a bigger University of education and organization starting Nov 10th and ending Dec 10th, later this year. Like the last tour we will be demanding freedom from unemployment, homelessness, and hunger. We will be demanding our Economic Human Rights focussing on the Right of Every Human Being to Quality Healhcare. In preparation for this we will holding a National Day of Protest to bring attention to growing problems of Healthcare for everybody not just the poor. We invite all of you come to Broad and Tioga, 4PM, May first at Temple Hospital.

---I like to end by again saying, thanks you for this Honor. And thank you all for listening!!