Economic Justice and Women's Rights at GA

At an international women's breakfast during General Assembly, UUSC economic justice partner Dr. Winnie Mitullah was welcomed among other activists working to strengthen women's rights in countries such as Kenya, the Sudan, the United States, the Philippines, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, and India.

The group noshed and networked in a banquet room that overlooked downtown St. Louis, where historic mill buildings used to house workers in a once-thriving garment district.

In this "archway" city linking eastern states to the territories claimed after Jefferson's western expansion, beaver pelts were made into top hats using a mercury pelting process. Workers poisoned in those factories from the heavy metal came to be known as "mad as a hatter."

While St. Louis' fur and garment industries no longer exist, you can still find workers in the downtown area, with street vendors and informal traders in large numbers among them.

Throughout history, workers have always been a vital part of the urban fabric. Too often, their jobs have been hazardous. At the same time, workers have demonstrated enormous resiliency, responding to precarious economic and physical environments while contributing services and commodities that boost economies and make residents' lives easier.

Research shows that cities and towns benefit enormously when comprehensive urban planning and policies take into account the needs and rights of all of its residents, including workers, particularly women workers.

Globally, women workers constitute the largest percentage of the growing "informal economy." Female workers also face particularly challenging conditions as workers. Strengthening the rights of informal economy workers, with women and children at the center, is a core focus of UUSC's Economic Justice Program.

At GA 2006, UUSC highlighted the importance of "informal economy" workers throughout the world. Several appreciative workshop participants (and locals!) invited Mitullah, UUSC Program Director Atema Eclai, and UUSC Communications Manager Judy Rakowsky to tour the active market down the street from the convention center where local vendors hawked food stuffs and other commodities to St. Louis residents.


A street market scene is very much the same around the world, whether you are in St. Louis or Nairobi, Kenya. Winnie would know, since she provided key research and support to the Kenya National Alliance of Street Vendors and Informal Traders (KENASVIT).

This new Kenyan "union" of street vendors provides an example of the new kind of effective organizing and advocacy being done by informal economy workers around the world.

New "role models" for worker organizing and movement building are vital today, and Winnie shared perspectives on the innovative work of KENASVIT, with fellow panelist Tim Costello of Global Labor Strategies.

Winnie's workers' rights activism turns "research-into-action" and Tim's work can be found at a website which presents some of the best thinking being done today about workers rights in the global economy. It was great to share the news of their work and provide an opportunity for them both to meet each other.