Members of the Kensington Welfare Right Union have arrived in Seattle to join thousands of other critics and protesters of the World Trade Organization as it holds its Third Ministerial Meeting here in the United States. As the most powerful institutions in the world, the World Trade Organization is composed of unelected people choose whether governments or corporations make rules and policies regarding social programs, the environment, jobs, healthcare, etc. In Seattle, the members of the WTO hope to negotiate trade agreements that would give even more power to corporations to make more profits, therefore further taking power away from elected governments. More specifically, this time they hope to further privatize many more social services and policies on things like education, health services, etc.

For this reason, thousands of people representing various social and labor movements from all over the US and the world have traveled to Seattle to participate in counter-WTO rallies, marches, conferences and speak-outs.

NOVEMBER 27, 1999

Today members of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union participated in the "Global People's Tribunal on Corporate Crimes against Humanity" held at the King County Labor Council in Seattle. The Tribunal functions similarly to a grand jury, considering whether or there is enough evidence to sustain charges or crimes against humanity. The grand jury consists of people from throughout the US, Canada and beyond. The purpose of the tribunal is to help build a "people's jurisprudence" or a court of public opinion where the people themselves can try individuals or corporations that continue to freely violate human rights and humanity without repercussions.

Today's morning session featured Cheri Honkala as the first witness. Below is the statement written by Cheri Honkala and Dawn Plummer:

"Good morning, my name is Cheri Honkala and I am the director of the KWRU and the national spokesperson for the Poor people's Economic Human Rights Campaign - a movement growing and led by the poor people themselves dedicated to ending poverty, hunger and homelessness. We, poor and homeless families from throughout the United States, Canada and Latin America have just completed a 400 mile march, the March of the Americas, from Washington DC to the United Nations in New York City.

In December, I face two felony charges for housing homeless families in Philadelphia. I am here to speak on behalf of other poor and homeless people that I work and live with. I am here this morning to talk about those that stand in the shadows, those that are locking up our loved ones or are killing our people. I am here in hopes that we as a people can force them from the shadows so that we can finally se their faces and expose them for their crimes against humanity. This is my dream for the new millenium.

Corporations have direct impact on the lives of poor people each and every day. They are responsible for those who get elected into political office. Corporations determine who and how entire neighborhoods are controlled, which church will get the new roof, which community center will get the pool for our children to swim in, what politician will invest in the neighborhood, which neighborhood will have a hospital, which police controlled projects will be funded, which charity programs will remain open…and all of this is determined by one allegiance to a corporation. Now, of course, it sometimes just starts with the desperate need of a community to have a swimming pool for their kids or a hospital. But sooner or later we all drown.

The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign is made up of poor people tired of being looked at as criminals for loving and providing for our children. We are committed to upholding the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, particularly Article 25 which states 'Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for himself and his family, including food, housing, clothing and medical care…and the necessary social services…'

In Philadelphia, where I'm from, the healthcare industry is the largest employer in the city. At its peak, about 20% of Philadelphia workers held jobs in the healthcare industry. This is the highest percentage for any city in this nation. Hospitals account for half of these jobs. Between 1980 and 1991, the number of healthcare jobs grew by 66%, but this trend has sharply reversed with the area losing tens of thousands of jobs since 1993. Not only are skilled healthcare workers becoming unemployed, but with welfare reform, welfare recipients are being forced to replace these workers in order to earn sub-standard wages. The contracts of the members of the largest healthcare union in Philadelphia, 1199C, will be up next summer. Many will not be renewed as welfare recipients are put into those jobs. With the continued downsizing and profits before patients, we in Philadelphia are watching our hospitals close down. In Kensington, the poorest neighborhood in Pennsylvania where I live and work, the Episcopal Hospital, which is both the largest employer of the neighborhood (2,000 jobs) and the only hospital in the area, is scheduled to close this year. We feel this is a violation of our human rights and the corporations that own these hospitals continue to commit crimes against humanity with impunity.

If poor communities remain without healthcare and HMO's keep people sick, this is a very purposeful effort to keep poor people from being able to wake up, unify and demand their human rights and reparations for these violations and crimes. And, with the low quality of clinic and emergency room care poor people receive, we see the poor continuing to be medicated, treating symptoms instead of the larger problems. With no jobs, no healthcare, the poor are incarcerated, shot down on our streets and overdose on drugs. We are thought to be expendable human beings - sent to other parts of the world to fight in wars to kill other poor expendable human beings, while corporations remain in the shadows - our children die.

To be poor in America means to be a criminal. To be hunted down. Its time to reverse this and to expose the real criminals of our country.

To put an end to corporations' crimes against humanity lets reclaim our human rights."

On Monday, November 29, Tribunal participants along with others will attempt to serve citizen arrest warrants to the Trade Ministers of the Group of 7 countries (i.e. largest industrialized countries) as accomplices after the fact in the commission of crimes against humanity as determined by the Tribunal.