The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A COMMUNITY DISCUSSION
Sunday, Dec. 10th, 2 PM Arab-American Cultural Center 3962 Twilight Dr. SJ 95124 Building 2
Join Human Agenda Board Members Sharat Lin and Salem Ajluni for critical background information on the Gaza conflict.
Saturday, December 9 from 6 to 9 PM at the South Bay Labor Council. You can look forward to glowing introductions, incisive commentary, and holiday joy.
The renowned immigrant rights activist and human rights professor and activist will provide a serious examination of the status of human rights today, on the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in San Francisco on December 10, 1948. Renee Saucedo will receive the 2023 Human Agenda Lifetime Achievement Award.
During her entire remarkable political career as a local Councilmember, Mayor, County Commissioner, State Assemblywoman, Speaker Pro Temp, and Member of the State Board of Equalization, Sally Lieber has maintained her focus on her constituents as one of the few elected officials who does not receive corporate contributions. The policies she has helped enact focus on basic human rights: health care, adult and juvenile corrections, foster and dependency care, refugee and immigrant rights, renters' rights, sustainability, open space and toxics issues, affordable housing and homelessness, mental health, and disability rights.
Equity Award: Joan Goddard
Joan was on the negotiating team for the 1981 San Jose Municipal Employees AFSCME union contract, involving a successful eight-day strike, which focused on equal pay for equal work for women. In addition to providing leadership in the Coalition for Equal Pay and union leadership, for many years she organized Equal Pay Day teaching aids for high school teachers. This included cookies only ¾ in size to bring students' attention to the women's wage gap!
Cooperation Award: Mandela Grocery Cooperative
Unlike conventional supermarkets and grocery stores, Mandela is operated, centrally governed, and democratically controlled by its worker-owners. The structure and operations are guided by cooperative principles and a strong community centered mission. The Mandela Grocery Coop sources with intention from local farmers and food purveyors. This keeps money circulating within the local economy longer, providing more jobs to local residents. The Mandela Grocery Coop intentionally supports businesses run by people of color because it is deeply committed to creating opportunity for interdependence in the food space, where POC entrepreneurs generate livable incomes that support their families.
Kindness Award: Judge Katherine Lucero
Judge Katherine Lucero is the Executive Director of the California Office of Youth and Community Restoration (OYCR) located within the California Health and Human Services Agency. She has centered her 33-year career on developing compassionate solutions for families in crisis within the Family and Juvenile court systems. She now leads the statewide implementation of SB823 which moves California towards a trauma informed, positive youth justice model which promotes accountability and healing, rather than punishment with lifelong negative consequences.
Sustainability Award: Our City Forest
Since 1994 Our City Forest has been the leading nonprofit in Silicon Valley for urban forestry and environmental education. Our City forest fights climate change in local disadvantaged neighborhoods, teaches tree planting and forestry skills, and helps residents choose appropriate trees and native and drought-tolerant plants. Our City Forest believes in the power of trees to transform homes, communities, and cities and the power of people to achieve this needed transformation.
Tax-Deductible Donations for December 9 Celebration at www.humanagenda.net or send your donation to Human Agenda, 1590 Oakland Road, Ste B211, San Jose, CA 95131
This unique 21st annual Human rights Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday, December 9 from 6 to 9 pm at the South Bay Labor Council, located at 2302 Zanker Road, San Jose, CA 95127. Sponsorships are available at levels of $1500 (Visionary), $1000 (Champion), $500 (Advocate), $250 (Supporter), and $100 (Sponsor). Tax-deductible Individual tickets are priced at $60 (regular price) $40 (“I need a break”) or $20 (student rate). Human Agenda is a small, compassionate, values-based nonprofit that could really use your support this year. This is the only fundraising event of the year.
The 6th Annual Break the Mold Conference of Human Agenda was a huge success. Held on Saturday, November 4 at San Jose City Council, the event was co-sponsored by the SJCC Associated Student Body, Reilient Foodsheds, the SJCC Ethnic Studies Department, Destination:Home, the South Bay Progressive Alliance, the NAACP San Jose Branch, Sacred Heart Community Service, the Human Rights Institute at SJSU, Raising the Roof, the San Jose Peace and Justice Center, Amigos de Guadalupe, and other groups. Richard Hobbs, Executive Director of Human Agenda, started out the presentations with 10 concepts related to resisting our current economic system and building alternatives to really meet human needs.
Keynote Speaker Alex Lee argued for housing as a human right, explaining his bill for social housing and efforts for rental relief at the state level. He showed that social housing is possible with financing, public development expertise, resident input, land banking, and the philosophy of housing as a human right, providing Singapore and Vienna best practices.
Sandy Perry, President of the Santa Clara County Affordable Housing Network, emphasized the need for a popular movement. Without a strong mass movement, nothing will change the broken housing system. Unaffordable housing is the reason for homelessness, he argued, and if developers can’t “pencil out” a good profit, they won’t build housing. “Organize, organize, organize.”
Oscar Quiroz Medrano from Somos Mayfair presented limited equity housing cooperatives as a viable long-term solution to affordability. He presented the Tenant Preference Policy proposal of Somos Mayfair, to prevent the displacement of lower-income renters. (The Board of Directors of Human Agenda subsequently voted unanimously to endorse this proposal.)
David Low from Destination Home argued that the reasons for the 10,000 homeless in Santa Clara County are the lack of affordable housing, rising income inequality, underinvestment in programs serving the most vulnerable residents, and systemic and structural racism. He concluded that homelessness cannot be solved in this economic system but that there have been successes in permanent supportive housing, homelessness prevention, and rapid rehousing.
Student Vitumbiko Kambilonje told the story of his brush with homelessness, and the vulnerability of college students. Approximately 20% of community college students statewide experience homelessness at some point during the academic year.
Peter Ruddock of Resilient Foodsheds argued that we can no longer think reductively to solve the food crisis; we have to think holistically. The 800,000,000 chronic food insecure in the world could easily be fed; thee is plenty of food grown every year but it is not distributed or accessible to poor people. The lack of a living wage or income is the real underlying problem: capitalist inequality. Malnutrition and being overweight are products in great part because of food deserts, food swamps, and food apartheid. Via Campesina from the Basque region of Spain points toward a solution: food sovereignty, or a holistic sustainable food eco-system.
Mireya Gomez-Contreras from Esperanza Community Farms in Salinas explained that “Organic is healthy for our bodies.” She said that capitalism breeds isolation, and that to break that isolation we need food hubs, farmers’ markets, community gardens, and farmer cooperatives. Esperanza Community Farms is a farmer cooperative with six farmers who grow over 20 vegetables, provide food to 175 CSA customers, and do outreach to schools to talk about regenerative agriculture. Esperanza also invoked the importance of individual responsibility: “As an immigrant woman of color and a single parent, we have a lot of work to do individually.”
Candidates Pamela Campos, Babu Prasad, Vanessa Sandoval, Alex Shoor, Olivia Navarro and Domingo Candelas have confirmed their attendance.
Human Agenda has been a community partner of the South Bay Progressive Alliance (SBPA) since its inception six years ago. SBPA has three components: community education, support or rejection of policy proposals, and the endorsement of candidates.
The endorsement of candidates is based on the commitment of the candidate to not accept corporate campaign contributions and on their progressive policy agenda. SBPA has endorsed local candidates such as the Hon. Sally Lieber, Assemblymembers Ash Kalra and Alex Lee, and San Jose City Councilpersons Omar Torres and Peter Ortiz.
As a 501c3 community partner organization Human Agenda only supports education and policy issues, not endorsements.
On Saturday, October 28, SBPA will hold an educational forum (without endorsements) for City Councilpersons seeking election to the San Jose City Council. The March 2024 primary will be followed by the November general election. Pamela Campos, Babu Prasad, Vanessa Sandoval, Alex Shoor, Olivia Navarro and Domingo Candelas have confirmed their attendance. Please join Human Agenda and the SBPA to become acquainted with the biggest issues facing San Jose and the positions of the candidates on those issues.
The candidate forum will take place from noon to 2 PM with lunch included from 12:30 to 2 PM.
On October 19 Human Agenda Executive Director Richard Hobbs was the keynote speaker of the Plataforma Agraria in Tocoa, Honduras. Tocoa is the largest city in the Aguan region of Honduras, known for multinational palm oil corporations that have usurped the lands of agricultural cooperatives in pursuit of profit.
Hobbs’ presentation “A New Human Agenda: Resist and Build” included 10 key concepts to understand why the cooperative movement in the Aguan region is so vital as an alternative to corporate plundering. With respect to Resist, five key concepts with respect to the problems of the capitalist system were presented: exploitation, speculation, corruption, oppression, and alienation. An additional five liberatory concepts were introduced in order to Build: method, human needs, vision, values, and praxis.
Hobbs summarized his fundamental message in the Aguan: “New institutions based on a human needs-based vision with the values of democracy, equity, cooperation, kindness and sustainability need to be created from the ground up.” He added: “Worker-owned cooperatives that meet human needs and share decision making and profit are a model alternative to the afflictions of our current economic system.”
Hobbs spoke to 200 active members of over a dozen agricultural cooperatives, applauding them in their efforts. It is well documented that 173 coop members and community activists have been assassinated in the Aguan region in their struggle to defend their lands, protect local water sources, and promote cooperative development.
Human Agenda will soon announce the exceptional keynote speakers and DECKS awardees who will highlight its 21st Annual Human Rights Awards.
Please save the date. You will not want to miss this extraordinary event that will be held at the South Bay Labor Council on Saturday, December 9 at 6 PM.
