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May 6, 2009 Contact: Jennifer McNulty (831) 459-2495; jmcnulty@ucsc.edu Social justice activist Ethel Long-Scott to discuss health care May 19
For 10 years, the UC Santa Cruz Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community has brought high-caliber social activists to town to deliver an annual spring lecture. This year is no exception. To celebrate a decade of progressive applied research focused on equity, diversity, and social and economic justice, the center is hosting a free public lecture by Ethel Long-Scott, executive director of the Women's Economic Agenda Project (WEAP). The title of her talk is "Health Care is a Human Right: Building a Movement to End Health Disparities and Poverty." She will speak on Tuesday, May 19, at 7 p.m. in the College 9 and 10 Multipurpose Room at UCSC. Admission is free; parking near the event will be available for $2 per vehicle. "Our health-care system is telling us, in ever more tragic and costly ways, that people who don’t have wealth are not worth keeping healthy--or in many cases even alive," said Long-Scott, a leading advocate for health and economic justice, who will discuss mobilizing Californians and people across the U.S. for social change. Heather Bullock, an associate professor of psychology at UCSC and director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community (CJTC), said the United States is at a turning point and that Long-Scott can help lead the country toward greater justice and equity. "As a nation, we are at a critical juncture--politically, socially, and economically," said Bullock. "By calling attention to poverty and health disparities as human rights violations, she is changing how we think about these issues and the solutions we propose." As executive director of WEAP, Long-Scott is an influential advocate for affordable health care, food, housing, education, and the rights of workers. She received one of Essence magazine’s first Street Warrior awards "for courage and sacrifice, vision, and commitment to community and the advancement of our people." Long-Scott helped lead the Freedom Bus Tour, which brought the Just Health Care Campaign and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign to Californians. She described the 2,900-mile bus tour as "a way of protesting poverty, documenting human rights violations, and building alliances between working and poor people." Her social justice work is spotlighted in "Close to Home," a Ford Foundation report that profiles 13 case studies of human rights work dedicated to improving life in the United States. She is currently a board member of HealthCare-NOW!, a group that is working for the adoption of a national single-payer health-care system, and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, a coalition "committed to uniting the poor across color lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty." She serves on the editorial board of The Black Commentator. For more information about the CJTC Spring Lecture, contact the CJTC at (831) 459-5743 or send e-mail to cjtc@ucsc.edu.
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