Jeannette Manning, President-elect

Injustice Anywhere

Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere

Keeping the Flame of Justice Alive!

Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte
234 N. Sharon Amity Road
Charlotte, NC

Register * Home * Schedule * LGBT Death Penalty * Peace

3rd Annual Social Justice Conference

Session: Economic Justice

Speakers and panelists:

Cynthia Brown is the Economic Justice keynote speaker and a progressive Durham activist who is running in the Democratic Party primary May 7 for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Jesse Helms. She has served a
four-year term as member of theDurham City Council and was Executive Director of Southerners for Economic Justice (SEJ) from 1994 to 2000. She has been director of women shelters in High Point and Greensboro and was co-chair of the NC Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She is running on a platform that guarantees health care access for all, protection of workers' right to organize, economic policies that lead to "fair trade" not "free trade", living wage jobs, environmental justice, ending subsidies to the wealthy and "corporate welfare", and increasing funding for school repairs, education, affordable housing, and drug treatment programs.
Amanda Ayers has been a stagehand for almost 12 years and is a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE- a Stagehands' Union). She has been active in rallies and
rallies and fundraising for FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee), and in the Labor Day Parade Committee in Charlotte for the three years that this event has been held. She will be going to Colombia, South America with a group called Witness For Peace in January 2002.

Matt Emmick, FLOC and National Farm Worker Ministry community organizer in Benson, NC. He works to develop a coalition of support among community groups and churches.
Nyala Hunt, educator and community activist for more than 20 years, was born and grew up in Britain. She has worked extensively in formal and informal education to challenge racism, sexism and all forms of bias and bigotry, and to promote inclusion and social justice. She has been with NCCJ since March 2000 and is now Executive Director.
Vernon Kelley, Sociologist, Coastal Carolina Community College, and Research Consultant working primarily with studies funded by Sea Grant and the Department of Labor. Chair, SP North Carolina Chair, New River Foundation, an environmental preservation foundation with focus on the New River in Onslow County. Was twice honored as Environmental Educator of the Year for Onslow County (1995 & 2000). He received the Socialist Party USA National Ann Rosenhaft Award in 2001, presented biennially for Community Organizing. Vernon is married to Katherine Nicewander, National Co-Chair of the Socialist Party USA, and father of 3 children, Rob, Alivia & Harmony.
Jeannette Manning is the president-elect of the board of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte.

Rev. Dr. Doug Reisner, minister emeritus, Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte and long-time social justice activist.
Lori Fernald Khamala
 works for the National Farm Worker Ministry in Durham, NC. NFWM is a national organization that mobilizes the religious community to support farmworker organizing efforts. Originally from Charlotte, she is
a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and graduated from Guilford College in 1999. She has participated in several delegations abroad, including South Africa and Cuba, studied abroad for 2 semesters in Mexico and has previously worked with Student Action with Farmworkers, the NC Occupational Safety & Health Project, and El Centro Hispano.
Jeannette Manning, president-elect of the board of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte.
Joseph Straley received his Ph.D in Physics in 1941 from Ohio State University. He was Professor of Physics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, from 1944 to 1980, a Guggenheim Fellow (Italy) 1953-54 and an Adjunct Professor of Physics - Harvard Univ. 1973-74. He was in Washington in 1963 to hear MLK's "I Have A Dream" speech. He was active against the Vietnam War. Elected to Chapel Hill Town Council in 1980 where he focused on securing a living wage for garbage collectors and other town employees. He helped organize Chapel Hill/Carrboro CITCA/Witness For Peace and has served as Chair since 1987.
Cindy Thomson is the president of the Charlotte chapter of NOW and an activist in the Charlotte Pro-Choice Coalition.
Dr. Ron Virmani received his M.D. from New Jersey Medical School, Newark in 1985 and moved to Charlotte in 1989, having finished his ob-gyn residency from Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia. He is the author of numerous articles, including "America's Choice - Build Walls Or Share."
Mel Watt, U.S. Congressman since 1992.

We come together at the Social Justice Conference in Charlotte out of a shared concern that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of a world blind to the color of a person's skin has not yet become realized and that the world's corporate and political leadership is undertaking a restructuring of global politics and economics that may prove as historically significant as any event since the Industrial Revolution. This restructuring is happening at tremendous speed, with little public disclosure of the profound consequences affecting democracy, human welfare, local economies, and the natural world.

Meanwhile North Carolina is the largest user of the federal H2A program with 10,000 migrant workers crossing our state lines every year to work in the fields under this program, working often 12-14 hours a day with few breaks and under conditions that are reminiscent of the period of slavery in our history.

The current U.S. minimum wage forces millions of working Americans to live under the poverty level that is established by the federal government. The Charlotte City Council recently voted for a living wage for city employees, but it was vetoed by Mayor Pat McCrory.

One of the main focuses of this year's Social Justice Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, will be economic globalization: its history; its current application in the United States and in North Carolina, in particular; and how we can respond.

This year the Social Justice Conference will be expanded to the entire first weekend of April, 2002.

_________

The cost for each session is $5. However, pre-registration received prior to March 31 is only $3 per session or $10 for all 5 sessions. Checks should be made out to UUCC and sent with the form to: UUCC, c/o Social Justice Conference, 234 N. Sharon Amity Road, Charlotte, NC 28211.

If you would like to register for the conference, click here for the form to mail in.

The schedule for the Economic Justice session is:

Saturday, April 6, 2002

9:00-9:05 AM:
Welcome and Introduction to Economic Conference
Rita Heath Singer
9:05-10:15 AM: Panel Discussion: "What Economic Justice Means Today"
Panelists: Cindy Thomson, Lori Fernald Khamala, Nyala Hunt
10:15-10:30 Speaker: Vernon Kelley
10:30-11:45 Panel Discussion: "American Jobs on the Chopping Block"
Panelists: Vernon Kelley, Dr. Joe Straley, Amanda Ayers, Cynthia Brown
11:45 AM-12:30 PM Lunch in the Fellowship Hall
12:30 PM Presentation of the Economic Justice Award 2002 to keynote speaker Cynthia Brown by Jeannette Manning
12:35-1:00 Keynote speech "Racism and Economic Justice: Where Are We Today?"
Speaker: Cynthia Brown
1:00 - 2:15 PM Panel: Globalization and Economic Justice
Panelists: Cynthia Brown, Vernon Kelley, Jeannette Manning, Dr. Ron Virmani, Wally Kleucker
2:15-2:45
"Migrant Farm Workers in North Carolina"
Matt Emmick
2:45-3:00 Open discussion
3:00 PM: Refreshments in Fellowship Hall

Sunday, April 7, 2002

10:30 Service: "The Spiritual Side of Social Action"
Rev. Amy Brooks

11:30 Coffee hour in the Fellowship Hall

12:30 Daryle Ryce, "The Queen of Jazz", performs

1:00 Presentation of the Social Justice Award 2002 and Introduction of Social Justice Conference Keynote Speaker
Rev. Dr. Doug Reisner

1:05-1:30 Social Justice Conference Keynote Speech
Speaker: Melvin "Skip" Alston

1:30 Presentation of the Henry D. Thoreau Award 2002 and Introduction of Mel Watt
Rev. Dr. Doug Reisner

1:35-2:00 Keynote Speech
Speaker: Congressman Mel Watt

2:00 Panel Discussion:
"Social Justice 2002: Where Are We Going?"
Panelists: Mel Watt, Skip Alston, Cynthia Brown, Stephen Dear, Dr. Rania Masri, Connie Vetter, Wally Kleucker
Moderator: Dr. Doug Reisner

3:30 Open Mike/Questions /Discussion

4:30 End of Conference with Light Refreshments in the Fellowship Hall

___________________

 

Don't miss the
CIVIL RIGHTS
HISTORIC BUS TOUR

Selma, Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama,
Atlanta, Georgia
March 26-29, 2002

Click to find out how to retrace the steps of Dr. King.

Trip prices start at $186 per person which will include transportation, lodging, entrance to historic sites and 3 nights hotel stay.