Wed 6/6 Race & Economic Inequality: Building a multi-racial movement for justice

The Occupy movement has always been much about economic inequality and economic injustice, but the racialization of inequality has not always been emphasized. The mainstream media loves to highlight stories of middle class families losing their jobs or their homes, but people in racial minority or immigrant communities bear a disproportional burden: first fired, last hired, hugely targeted by predatory mortgage lenders in good times, their communities decimated by foreclosures during the crisis. How can we educate ourselves about the racialized aspects of economic inequality? How are working class people of color organizing themselves to fight injustice? And how can we learn from them, and work with them to build a truly global, multi-racial movement for economic justice? Community organizer Camilo Vivieros will help us explore and answer these questions.

Camilo Viveiros has worked on immigrant worker issues and multi-ethnic/multi-racial economic and environmental justice organizing with students, youth and seniors in New England. He has worked for the Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants, and the Massachusetts Senior Action Council. For two years, he was Executive Director of Rhode Island Jobs with Justice. He is currently lead organizer for the George Wiley Center in Rhode Island, along with providing direct action, organizing and campaign development trainings for diverse grassroots groups around the country. Born to immigrant parents, Camilo was raised in the working class immigrant community of Fall River. He has been involved in work for social justice for virtually his whole life. Over the years he has organized for unions of the homeless, welfare rights unions, against the prison industrial complex and many different issues. He has a background in tenant, youth and congregation-based organizing and gained national media exposure in 2000 when he was arrested during demonstrations at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Four years later, after a national campaign, http://www.friendsofcamilo.org, he was acquitted of all charges.

Race & Economic Inequality
Wednesday, 6/6/2012 7:00 pm USA Eastern Time
Occupy Boston Radio – OBR.FM