Speakers Available from the Kensington Welfare Rights Union

Posted by on September 24, 2004

The Kensington Welfare Rights Union(KWRU) is currently scheduling speaking engagement and economic human rights trainings for the following school year. Please contact us soon to arrange for a speaker to come to your campus. church, or community group.

KWRU is an organization based in the Kensington area of North Philadelphia. We are an organization founded and led by the poor, working together to demand that our needs for housing, food, health care, and a job at a living wage be met.

The Kensington Welfare Rights Union is the spearheading organization of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign www.economichumanrights.org. The Poor People’s Economic Human Right’s Campaign is an organization committed to uniting the poor across color lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty. They work to accomplish this through advancing economic human rights as named in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights- such as the rights to food, housing, health, education, communication and a living wage job.

Here is a short list of potential speakers that you request to speak at a conference or event. All of our speakers know poverty on an intimate level, all are formerly homeless and have become leaders in the struggle to end poverty:

Cheri Honkala, former executive director of KWRU and the national coordinator of the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign- Cheri started KWRU with a group of welfare mothers in 1991 and has been organizing the poor for over 15 years. She has taken action around the world in the struggle to end povery, speaking at the Hague Appeal for Peace in 1999 and the United Nations tribunal of Economic Human Rights Violations in the United States. Cheri is a spokesperson for the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign and on the Interim National Council of the Labor Party

Willie Baptist, education director of KWRU- Willie has been involved in organizing the poor since his involvement with the National Union of the Homeless in the late 1980s. He is the co-director of the University of the Poor, which links up poor people’s organizations across the country and provides educational resources for those concerned with eliminating poverty and injustice.

Joy Butts, producer and host of “Marching On” on DUTV Cable- In addition to being part of the Legal Strategy Committee of KWRU, Joy also hosts a television program which showcases the work of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign and delivers the message of KWRU.

Galen Tyler, Director of KWRU- Galen directs outreach to the poor of Kensington and works in coordinating actions in the struggle for economic human rights. He is a vital leader in the training of the poor to demand that their needs be met.

Tara Colon, organizer for KWRU- Tara has been a member of KWRU for over 9 years and is a member of the War Council and the International Committee. She is particularly involved with linking up International Organizations led by the poor around issues of the FTAA and the global economy.

Politics of Recovery Committee
We would talk about the effects of globalization and the economic de-industrialization of North Philadelphia and how that created a basis for a massive influx of drugs in the poorest communities of the USA. Topics that we will cover are the roles of corporations in the drug industry, the geopolitics of oil and drugs, Plan Colombia, drug addiction and recovery. We will also discuss the role of the unity ofthe poor and building a massive movement to end poverty that is led by the poor.

Recently the PPEHRC and the KWRU successfully marched on the opening day of the Republican National Convention in NYC. Organizer and participants of the march are available to talk about why we marched and why we continue to March for Our Lives. Read more about the march at http://www.marchforoulives.org

To invite one of these speakers or to learn more about the Kensington Welfare Rights Union’s Speaker’s Bureau, please check us out at http://www.kwru.org/getinvolved/speaking_for_ourselves.htm or contact Anne Kretzmann at 215-681-0447 or email at speakers@kwru.org.