Human Rights Tree Workshop

This exercise is designed to get folks thinking about the root causes of the problems they experience and see in their workplaces and communities, and to introduce the concept of doing “root work” to transform the underlying systems.

Lessons from the Healthcare Fight

This article presents the responses of 6 organizers from around the country to the question: “what can left organizers learn from the fight over healthcare?”

The Vermont Workers’ Center Leads Breakthrough on Healthcare

This article discusses the history of the Vermont Workers’ Center and their movement for universal healthcare.

Put People First! Pennsylvania Pamphlets and Flyers

Put People First’s pamphlets and flyers describing the organization and its mission. Note: Please visit the resource link below to access various formats available in English and in Spanish.

Put People First! Pennsylvania Teams

This document describes Put People First’s coordinating teams.

Growing the Healthcare Is a Human Right Movement, One State After Another

At the 2013 Left Forum in New York City, leaders from the Healthcare Is a Human Right campaigns in Vermont, Maine and Maryland presented their organizing model for achieving universal, publicly financed health care in their states. Moderated by NESRI, panelists discussed their collaboration, lessons learned, and how to expand this movement to other states.

Campaigns for the Human Right to Healthcare: Stories from Struggles

At the US Social Forum (Detroit in June 2010), Rishi Manchanda from the South Los Angeles Coalition for Health and Human Rights, Kim Abbott from the Montana Human Rights Network, Peg Franzen from the Vermont Workers’ Center, and Anja Rudiger from NESRI discuss approaches, challenges, victories, and lessons learned in their struggles for human right […]

Peg Franzen Tribute Video

NESRI and the Poverty Initiative held an event at the Church Center of the United Nations in honor of Peg Franzen, a community leader who made an incalculable contribution to growing the movement for health care as a human right.

Healthcare Is a Human Right Roundtable Discussion Video – Human Rights Day, December 10th, 2013

On Human Rights Day, December 10th, 2013, NESRI and the Poverty Initiative held an event at the Church Center of the United Nations in honor of Peg Franzen, a community leader who made an incalculable contribution to growing the movement for health care as a human right. At the event Laura Flanders of GRITtv facilitated […]

Healthcare Is a Human Right MayDay Rally

On May 1st, 2009, the Vermont Workers’ Center brought the human right to health care to the nation’s attention with its first large Mayday rally at the Statehouse in Montpelier. The Healthcare is a Human Right rally was endorsed by over 100 organizations, including NESRI, faith and labor leaders, and other national and state-based organizations. […]

Fighting for Universal Healthcare at the State Level: Vermont Workers’ Center Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign

Because the federal health reform package fails to make health care truly universal and equitable, human right to health care advocates across the country are pushing their state legislatures to implement more effective and comprehensive measures at the state level. In Vermont, for example, the Vermont Workers’ Center’s Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign has […]

Vermonters Demand a Universal Health System

As a universal, equitable health care system is within reach for Vermonters, the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign (run by the Vermont Workers’ Center) has released this short video of Vermonters demanding a universal health care system. The Vermont legislature is considering a bill for a roadmap to a single-payer system in Vermont.

Vermonters Demand an Accountable Health System

A universal health care system that’s accountable to the people is now within Vermonters’ reach. The Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign (run by the Vermont Workers’ Center) has released this short video of Vermonters demanding an accountable health care system. The video is part of a series, all featuring Vermonters calling for a new […]

A People’s Struggle for Universal Healthcare

Vermont Workers’ Center: How we Won Healthcare for All

Vermont Workers’ Center organizers Mary Gerisch, Kate Kanelstein and Sarah Weintraub visit Oregon and talk about the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign and how the campaign succeeded in bringing universal health care to their state.

VT Breakthrough! How the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign Is Winning a Healthcare System that Puts People First

This video tells the story of a successful grassroots campaign organizing for our human rights. This video is co-produced by the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) and the Vermont Workers’ Center, with thanks to Media Mobilizing Project, Nate Adams and Mindi Mumaw. Music provided by: “Shovel Ready” by Flat Top Trio, Jeremy Sicely […]

Put People First! PA Stands with the Vermont Workers Center

This statement from Put People First! Pennsylvania expresses solidarity with the Vermont Workers’ Center following Gov. Shumlin’s abandonment of the universal healthcare agenda and explains why timely healthcare reform is crucial.

Solidarity with the Vermont Workers Center on their January 8th Day of Action for All Healthcare for All People

This statement form the Southern Maine Workers’ Center expresses solidarity with the Vermont Workers’ Center in their protests following Gov. Shumlin’s decision to abandon his commitment to healthcare reform.

Now More Than Ever: Growing the Movement for the Right to Health Care and Economic Justice

In this statement, NESRI reflects on why Vermont Governor Shumlin abandoned public healthcare financing and offers lessons and ideas for next steps for the movement in Vermont and elsewhere.

National Open Letter in Support of Universal, Publicly Financed Healthcare in Vermont

This open letter, signed by 70 organizations, urges Gov. Shumlin not to give up on universal, equitably financed healhtcare and calls on the Vermont legislature redouble their efforts to develop and agree on a public financing plan that advances equity and realizes Vermonters’ right to healthcare.

Open Letter from Economists for Universal, Publicly Financed Healthcare

This letter, signed and submitted by over 100 economists, states that universal, publicly financed healthcare is not only economically feasible but highly preferable to a fragmented market-based insurance system.

Healthcare Is a Human Right: Lessons from the Vermont Model

In this 2014 Left Forum presentation, NESRI’s Anja Rudiger sums up the strategic lessons from Vernont’s Healthcare Is a Human Right movement and explains the domino strategy of health care wins across the country.

Toward a Unified Policy Approach for Healthcare Is a Human Right and the People’s Budget

This document outlines how the key policy positions for universal healthcare, as formulated by Vermont’s HCHR campaign, are aligned with policy demands for a People’s Budget, i.e. human rights-based budget and revenue policies that meet people’s needs and raise revenue equitably.

A Strategic Vision for the Human Rights at Home Campaign

This statement was created by a grassroots coalition to describe a collective vision for a society guided by human rights. It describes how human rights arise from people’s struggles for justice, how governments are accountable for upholding human rights, how principles must guide struggles, and how a human rights vision builds unity among people and […]

Community Voices on Causes and Solutions of the Human Rights Crisis in the United States

This report summarizes the discussions and conclusions at two community-based human rights convenings, at which a broad range of grassroots organizations developed a critical analysis of the human rights crisis in the United States, defined common goals, and identified common strategies.

NESRI’s Universal Periodic Review Report

This report was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by NESRI and a coalition of seven collaborating organizations. It addresses serious and ongoing issues in the state of economic and social rights in the US, and gives recommendations for action by the US Government.

“Small Place Close to Home” — Toward a Health and Human Rights Strategy for the US

In the journal Health and Human Rights, Elizabeth Tobin Tyler explores health and human rights strategies in the US. While she mainly focuses on legal approaches, she also stresses the importance of grassroots organizing to drive policy change by highlighting the Vermont Workers’ Center’s campaign for universal publicly funded health care.

Grassroots Campaigns for Universal Health Care Are Changing What’s Politically Possible

This In These Times article covers the movements for universal, single-payer healthcare in Vermont, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

The Fight for Health Care Justice Moves to States

LaborNotes reports on the groundswell of state-by-state organizing for universal, publicly financed healthcare, citing the leadership of the Vermont Workers’ Center in building a winning model.

NESRI’s Universal Periodic Review Report

“Small Place Close to Home”: Toward a Health and Human Rights Strategy for the US

Building Local Support for the Human Right to Healthcare

This presentation, prepared for the conference “Health and Human Rights in Connecticut” at the University of Connecticut, April 28, 2011, shows how the human rights framework can be used for health reform advocacy in the United States, with examples from Montana and Vermont.

Resolution for Action on the Human Right to Health US Social Forum

This resolution for action was created by the People’s Movement Assembly at the US Social Forum in June 2010.

Vermont Declaration of Human Rights

Vermont’s People’s Convention for Human Rights, held in September 2012 with over 40 organizations participating, adopted this declaration of human rights, which outlines the current human rights crisis, its root causes, and the vision for realizing human rights.

The Right to Health: From Concept to Action

This chapter describes the Right to Health framework and discusses how it can be used by health activists.

Lessons from the Single-Payer State

The Vermont Workers’ Center puts forward five key lessons from its campaign to pass a universal healthcare law, which can be applied to movement building efforts more generally.

The Medicine for America’s Healthcare Headache Lies in Vermont

This Alternet article tracks the history of the movement for single-payer, universal healthcare in Vermont.

Integrating Human Rights Principles into a County Health Reform Project

This article presents a first-person, “hands-on” account of efforts to operationalize a human rights framework in public health advocacy and action in a local setting, King County, a jurisdiction of Washington, USA, that includes the city of Seattle.

Human Rights US Social Forum People’s Movement Assembly

This article lays out the human rights principles stated and agreed upon by collaborating organizations of the People’s Movement Assembly on the Right to Health at the US Social Forum in Detroit to guide the struggle for health and healthcare in the United States.

The Struggle for Healthcare at the State and National Levels: Vermont as a Catalyst for National Change

This article describes the Healthcare Is a Human Right organizing model, and explains why a campaign based on values and on grassroots organizing is necessary to achieve change.

Using Human Rights To Move Beyond the Politically Possible

This article decribes how the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign changed the rhetoric of Healthcare in Vermont and made it possible to get universal coverage passed

The Vermont Breakthrough: Grassroots Organizing Moves a State towards Healthcare for All

This article tells the story of the grassroots organizing that led to the passage of Vermont’s universal health care law by changing what is politically possible through a mass organizing campaign.

Reviving Progressive Activism: A Case Study of Vermont’s Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign

This case study of Vermont’ Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign presents the history of the campaign and its 2011 success, analyses the rationale, strategy and tactics of the campaign, and offers lessons learned for developing transformative grassroots campaigns.

A Rights-Based Approach to Healthcare Reform

This book article outlines the history of the human right to health in the U.S., derives principles and standards from international human rights law, and offers a human rights framework for guiding health reform efforts.

Using a Human Rights Framework and Grassroots Organizing to Build a Revolutionary Movement

This essay advocates for the use of a human rights framework and grassroots organizing strategy to create class-conscious solidarity and build a revolutionary movement for economic rights.

It’s Not Enough to Be Angry

This article shares lessons learned for effective organizing and focuses on the importance of uniting across issues to create a powerful movement capable of confronting the fundamental problem of economic injustice.

The People’s Recipe (for People’s Convention)

This document explains and gives examples of seven key organizing principles.

Put People First Agenda

This Address on the future of Vermont’s budget and healthcare systems was delivered by the Vermont Workers’ Center and its Put People First partners. The People’s Address was given ahead of the Governor’s Budget Address and the Administration’s presentation of a financing plan for universal healthcare on January 24, 2013.

Healthcare Is a Human Right: Confronting the Immigration Wedge in Vermont – Case Study for Communications Strategies for Community Organizing

This article is part of a report by the Echo Justice Communications Collaborative on developing innovative and effective communications strategies for community organizing. The article describes how the Vermont Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign used the human rights principle of universality to preempt division over immigration status and ensure that the healthcare law included […]

Five Critical Lessons from Vermont’s Universal Healthcare Struggle

Building a Grassroots Movement for HRHC

In this document, the Vermont Worker’s Center shares their experience and lessons learned in building a Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign.

Organizing Quotes

This document pulls together inspirational quotes on the power of organizing.