John Oliver Mason
October 22, 2008
Bread and Roses Awards event.

The Bread and Roses Community Fund held its annual Tribute to Change program at Hamilton Hall, University of the Arts, on Broad and Pine Streets, on Thursday, October 16, 2008.

Bread and Roses was founded on the theme “Change, not Charity.” It distributes funds to groups working on social change issues, such as health care, economic justice, environment, peace, and civil and human rights. Bread and Roses also provides technical assistance and leadership development to grantees and donors.

Casey Cook, Executive Director of Bread and Roses, opened the program, saying, “Each year, Bread and Roses’ Tribute to Change brings together hundreds of people to honor the contributions of local leaders of social change, as we recognize the continuing struggle for racial and economic justice.” Referring to the presidential campaign, the bailout of financial institutions by the federal government, and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s criticism of community organizers, Cook added, “The events of the last several weeks have shown us, in no uncertain terms, a Luta continua, (Portuguese for) the struggle continues.

“Wall Street and Washington,” added Cook, “are just now waking up to the reality that people on the ground live with every day. Our economy is a disaster. The gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing exponentially. In the last eight years, working family income decreased by more that two thousand dollars, while corporate CEOs now make 400 times their typical employee. Since January of this year, the unemployment rate has increased 24 percent, and is at its highest in the last five years. Most than 131,000 Philadelphians are without health insurance, and over half of those people are employed. Across the country, more than a million families have lost their homes to foreclosure. If we do not change our policies, that number is likely to grow to five million over the next few years. “

This is not news, said Cook, to Bread and Roses grantees of donors, nor to the communities they represent, “that we have an extremely troubled economy. We are all here tonight, because we all know that concentrated wealth and power corrupt our democracy, deepen the racial and ethnic divides, and destroy the fabric of our communities. What kind of democracy do we live in where we can socialize the banks, but not health care? Where our policy makers and elected officials didn’t see this coming? Where working families lose their jobs, their homes, and their retirement, while the four hundred richest Americans increased their combined net worth by $700 billion in just eight years?

“These are hard times,” added Cook, “and yes, we’re all scared. It seems like things are crumbling around us, but like the Phoenix that rises from the ashes, an opportunity exists for us to take back our government, and rebuild our economy in ways that work for all Americans. But it required the commitment of each and every one of us to make sure the work gets done, and real change happens.” Cook noted that the national presidential election was coming up, but she added, “Real change begins at home. Local grassroots organizations need us now more than ever; as allies, let’s give our bodies, our time, and our money by supporting their actions, by volunteering our time and expertise, and by writing checks. Right here in this room, we have the leadership needed to make real change happen.”

Tom Segrue and Denise Brown, co-chairs of the Bread and Roses Board of Directors, presented the awards. Video clips were played, showing the accomplishments of each of the awardees.

“The Tribute to Change,” said Segrue, “is our opportunity each year to honor the individuals and organizations, who are doing the challenging work to advance social justice in our region. Over the last few months, we heard a lot of mocking and derision on the political right about community organizers and community organizations. Tonight’s awardees are an inspiring group of four individuals and one organization who are doing the hard work of organizing from the bottom up, working on the grassroots for social change.”

Denise Brown presented the Community Empowerment Award to Casino-Free Philadelphia, a group working to prevent casinos opening in Philadelphia. The award was a bullhorn with an engraved plaque on it. “I hope Casino Free Philadelphia will put it to good use,” said Segrue, “I know they will.”

The Emerging Leader Award, presented to someone emerging as a community organizer, was presented to Thomas Robinson, who has chaired Jobs With Justice’ POWR (Philadelphia Officers and workers Rising) campaign in organizing security guards at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Robinson said of POWR, “It’s a campaign geared in the City of Philadelphia geared toward revolutionizing security guard interests, who want to go after (The security firm) Allied Barton…and to get them to raised their standards of the way that they treat their workers,” which would cause other security companies to follow suit.

“Before I got involved in this campaign,” added Robinson, “I never knew anything about organizations such as Jobs With Justice. I never before thought about how I could help people change their lives, through changing the conditions of their jobs. “ Robinson urged people to challenge the situation “Where the company continues to grow and continues to expand, and at the bottom of the totem pole, the employees get nothing.”

The Emerged Leader Award went to Wayne MacManiman, Chairman of SEIU’s Mid Atlantic District 32BJ. “IT was the lack of action that inspired me” into activism, said MacManiman. “I really felt that we as a unit could do better. We talk about change, but someone has to be willing to step up and take a hold of that change.” MacManiman led service workers into gaining new contracts that improved their health coverage and salaries.

The Robin Hood Was Right Award was presented to Linda Lee Alter, a local artist who founded the Leeway Foundation, which is dedicated to recognizing and supporting women and transgender artists. “For my own art,” said Alter, “I always feel like I want to communicate, that each piece of artwork has a story and a message. It always seemed like a tool for me for change.” Alter received “financial resources that I never expected to have. When I got those resources, I felt a real need to give back in some way. It came to me that I can start a foundation (that) supported and encouraged women in the arts.” Alter and her board “wanted to reach out to people that were less well served in the women’s community.”

The Paul Robeson Award for Lifetime Achievement was presented to Father John P. McNamee, who recently retired as pastor of St. Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church. McNamee has been active in labor and peace activism, and has published several volumes of poetry and a memoir, Diary Of A City Priest.

McNamee recalled his time in the seminary when he found a copy of The Catholic Worker newspaper in the reading room. “The founder of the Catholic Worker (movement),” he said, “was Dorothy Day. She had come out of radical labor politics. I began to be taken with her concern for the poor, and I had a special feeling for the United Farm Workers. Whenever they came to Philadelphia, they would contact me and ask me to help them, and so I spent a lot of time contacting labor leaders in Philadelphia. The peace community discovered me as someone who would come to a draft-card burning.” At that time, McNamee was on the board of the Central Committee of Conscientious Objectors, and he recalled being on the stage with someone who said, “with four letter words…what he felt about the government or the war.”