Our 2009 Anti-Poverty Victories

The inaugural year of Poverty in America ends today. We continue to be a growing cause at Change.org, but have built a tremendous, stalwart community of anti-poverty activists and allies in only a year's time. As you prepare to celebrate the end of a difficult year, or welcome in a hopeful new one, take a look back at three key anti-poverty victories we enjoyed here in 2009:

1. After Poverty in America guest blogger Diane Nilan learned of a day shelter in Grand Junction, CO that refused to allow families in, leaving them to fend for themselves in the winter cold, she organized a petition here at Change.org targeting GJ Mayor Bruce Hill demanding the city respond. For a town of little more than 50,000, flooding a Mayor's inbox with over 300 letters is bound to garner some attention! Sure enough, City Manager Laurie Kadrich followed up directly with Diane, promising that they are getting families off the streets and looking for permanent housing for these families. Sounds like one to watch in 2010, to make sure that the city follows through! Special thanks to all who participated in this action!
2. In September we reported on the unjust firing of almost 100 long-term housekeeping staff at two Boston area Hyatt hotels. We urged Change.org readers to join the boycott against Hyatt until they restored these workers' jobs, rather than replacing them with low-wage, outsourced employees from a Georgia-based company. We were victorious in forcing Hyatt to backpedal on the firings, as in the wake of bad publicity they offered the workers new full-time jobs at the same pay with relatively generous benefits, but only for a limited period of time. The workers reasonably rejected this offer, preferring to organize against this labor injustice rather than just postpone the looming, likely economic hardship until 2010. With the help of UNITE Here, the workers continue to keep the visible pressure on Hyatt to reject such low-road economic strategies. Labor, religious and youth groups continue to protest and organize with the workers here in Boston. This is another action we need to maintain into 2010.
3. I am most proud of our third victory in 2009: knocking The Heritage Foundation out of the top Google slot when searching for "poverty in America." Heritage is a conservative, right-wing organization known for biased research that favors strident rhetoric and anti-poor platitudes that blame people in poverty for their lot, whether based on their bad behavior or "values." They are a major player behind the promotion and public embrace of the "culture of poverty" meme that suggest that poor Americans are culturally and morally different from the rest of us, lacking the values, beliefs, ethics and habits that we all hold that make us hard workers and responsible beings. When we frame poverty this way, as opposed to recognizing it as the natural outcome of an inherently unequal capitalist system, it allows us to wash our hands of responsibility for poverty -- it's the choice and fault of poor people themselves, who then become solely responsible for ending it themselves. Knocking Heritage and its misinformation campaign from the top slot is the greatest victory we've had in our first year. Ensuring that reliable, fair, and humane information from Change.org continues to show up first for people trying to learn more about poverty in the US is an on-going action for 2010.

Hopefully this brief list has lifted your spirits as you look forward to 2010 and helped renew your commitment to fighting poverty in the New Year. Change.org has listed its overall top 10 victories in 2009 here. Check it out and we'll see you in 2010! A happy, healthy, safe and warm New Year to you all!

(Photo: "congratulations" by droskeet)