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City, Town and County Work on the Right to Health Care in the USA
There is a considerable history of approaching human rights in the USA through local resolutions and ordinances (law). In 1990 Berkeley, CA passed a human rights ordinances outlining what actions would be allowed within city limits for units of law enforcement. Resolutions in cities, towns and for counties throughout the USA were numerous regarding rights of sanctuary (during US support for murderous regimes in Central America), for non-intervention and solidarity and for establishing sister city relationships with towns in Nicaragua (during the illegal US mercenary war against the Sandinista government).
This can be an effective way to promote human rights throughout a state or the nation. It accomplishes public education, it gets reported by media and it can demonstrate to legislators that there is support for a human right throughout the legislative districts of a state. Below is a report on such a campaign in Seattle WA. The NC Committee to Defend Health Care is launching a similar campaign throughout that state. CLICK HERE
Some Interesting Points From the Seattle's "Right to Health Care" Campaign, from Brian King
In Seattle there was both a resolution from our city council and a ballot measure. The "Health Care is a Right" resolution was very helpful as a stepping stone toward the ballot measure, but in itself, it didn't amount to much. Consider the numbers: 9 city council members or 110,000 yes votes from grass roots voters. By itself, the resolution would have faded into the same fog as the rest of the 'do good" resolutions that the City Council regularly passes. The ballot measure showed courage on the part of the council, and gave them much deserved vindication when 69.4% of Seattle's voters sided with them and voted "Yes!"
The ballot measure got the local press to cover the issue. The Seattle Times attacked the council for placing the measure on the ballot. Their lead editorial one day, headlined "Seattle's Silly Council" addressed the issue in a mocking tone. Subsequently, our other major paper defended us in a major editorial entitled "Send a Message." The year before, there had been no press coverage of the resolution.
The potential of using the ballot to propel this issue to the national front burner cannot be overstated. People admired us for having the moxie to put the issue to a public vote. I can't emphasize enough the desirability of giving the voters a voice and putting the idea of real health reform on the ballot.
The whole process leading to getting measure #1 on our ballot was termed "the campaign". It was long and ardous, but it was fun, too. It began a couple of years prior with a meeting in Councilmember Nick Licata's office. The subject of the get-together was grassroots efforts in Seattle to further health care reform.
During the meeting with Licata, I told him of the reluctance of the city clerk to respect the initiative process, if it meant placing an advisory measure on the city ballot. Nick looked at me and said, "the city council can put that on the ballot, if we want to."
So, we decided to avoid the confining elements of the initiative process, and instead petition the council to place "Health care is a Right" on the ballot. I had become quite interested in Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr's approach of a looking at health care as a right, but I was reluctant to include the idea of a constitutional ammendment in the wording of the petition. I thought that might make it seem out of reach to the everyday people we would be asking to sign. The wording called for a right to health care of equal high quality for everybody in America and directed the Congress to make it a reality by passing all necessary legislation.
We collected 11,500 signatures at shopping centers, street festivals, and parades. A lot of people passed the petition among friends after receiveing a copy in the mail with a newsletter from a friendly organization. It took us about 18 months. Gathering signatures was hard work, rewarding, and fun. Most people we encountered in public seemed to be doing their best to avoid hassels. The hassel avoiders didn't stop to find out what the petition said. But, perhaps one in five got interested in why we were giving up our time to get names on a clipboard. When such people read the wording, their eyes lit up, they smiled, and they signed. Many thanked us for our efforts. It helps to make a display of yourself--I wore a sign with ""Health Care is a Right" painted on it.
We had about 10 regular volunteer signature collectors. the "volunteer" part proved to be very important out in public. We were asked enough times if we were being paid that we decided to wear badges that said "Health Petition Volunteer" on them when collecting signatures. People liked the badges, and commented on them sometimes while signing the petition. In addition to our stalwarts, another 30 or so contributed frome time to time.
As time went on, I came to believe that leadership was crucial to our continued effort. In order for people to hit the streets again and again, the campaign had to be infused with a belief that our efforts would help build a movement for real health care reform.
The other crucial element for the morale of the signature gatherers was firm, institutional backing. We were very fortunate to have the steady support of the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans, and especially its' president, Will Parry, and the health care committee chair, Joan Bethel. We had tepid but crucial support from our local labor council and a local single-payer reform organization, Health Care for All, WA. Without any one of these 3 institutional supporters, I don't think we would have been successful.
Sustained lobbying of members of the Seattle City Council was a very important part of the campaign. Several members immediately liked the idea. The rest had to be brought along. I spent most of my time at City Hall in meetings with the uncertain council members, and I think that my lobbying, along with the visible support of the King county Labor council, did the trick.
In order to mount a successful campaign like this, you need to have the local labor movement on your side. In this regard, I think it was crucial to have our main slogan be "Right to Health Care" and not "Single-Payer." "Right to Health Care" neutralizes, to a great extent, the very real opposition in the labor movement toward anything that might interfere with their Taft-Hartley health insurance trusts.
We held a conference, as a kick-off for the petition campaign. Jesse Jackson Jr. was our keynote speaker, and boy, did he get people up for the campaign! The conference established the campaign as a force in the city. It gave us legitamacy we never would have had without it. It was really fun! A local, liberal congressman, Jim McDermott, also spoke, along with a number of other interesting folks. About 150 people attended at a "UCC" church in downtown Seattle, Plymoth Congregational.
There is something to be said in favor of doing an initiative instead of a petition. If a city group does an initiative, they will have firmer control over the process than we had. One of the waverers on the city council tried to change the wording of the ballot measure to eliminate the words "Right to Health Care." Fortunately, he failed, and the voters got to vote on the strong wording we had on the petition. With an initiative, this wouldn't come up. Also with an initiative, you wouldn't have to lobby city council members as much. It would be great to have their support, but not necessary.
If we had done an initiative, though, we would have had to collect twice as many signatures, in a lot shorter time (2 months). We would have needed a core of at least 30 petitioners, with maybe 50 more who would help once or twice.
Don't worry too much about publicity or press coverage until you're actually on the ballot. Concentrate on petitioning in places where you'll run into lots of everyday people, they're the ones who will make your campaign go. And when you get on the ballot, do as big a campaign as possible.
Don't worry about attacks in the press, just make sure they spell it right. One thing that can be prepared in advance is to have a bunch of folks ready to fire off letters to the editor of your local paper. We had some wonderful support from people we didn't even know that way. Any publicity or press coverage is good, "Right to Health Care" will carry itself. People love it!
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