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Programs

Education for Action: We use participatory education to deepen analysis, develop critical thinking, and move people to action. We have conducted our flagship workshop, “The Growing Divide: Economic Inequality and the Roots of Insecurity” for over 70,000 people in religious congregations, unions, community organizations and business associations.

This year, we trained over 400 people to lead the “Growing Divide” and other UFE curricula on racial wealth disparities, globalization, and state budget crises. We organized three and four-day Training of Trainers’ Institutes in Los Angeles, California, Tennessee, and Texas. For the first time, we led a track for Spanish speakers. We’ve also developed a network of Spanish-language trainers and workshops, primarily in the Northeast.

Media: We reach beyond the converted to expand the public conversation and influence debate on economic issues. Our capacity to influence public attitudes through talk radio, print media, and television continues to grow.

Our media work vastly multiplies our reach and adds credibility to our message of economic fairness. We have had more than 2,000 media hits in the past two years. The campaign to preserve the estate tax alone yielded 500 major media hits in a three-month period. Our message - and often our spokespeople - was covered on every major television network and syndicated print publication.

Each week during the first six months of 2002, the UFE Communications Team scripted eight 30-second radio spots on economic issues for WINS, the Workers Independent News Service. WINS creates programs and feature stories for commercial, public, community and college radio stations throughout the United States.

Responsible Wealth: Our project, Responsible Wealth (RW), is a surprising and welcome voice for economic fairness. This network of over 750 business leaders, investors and other wealthy people works to build a fairer economy through shareholder activism, support for the living wage, and fair taxes.

RW members filed ten shareholder resolutions. And once again, RW's voice was the backbone of the victory in staving off permanent repeal of the Federal estate tax.

Research Publications and Books: We write, research, and disseminate articles, books, and curricula for a variety of constituencies. We produce several yearly reports on wage disparities, corporate responsibility, and other topics tied to current events. We conduct original research but also repackage existing reports and data to make them more accessible to wider audiences.

Our RW staff, backed up by our Media and Research team, took the lead in producing two reports that received sustained media attention this year. “Titans of the Enron Economy: The Ten Habits of Highly Defective Corporations” and “Executive Excess 2002: CEOs Cook the Books, Skewer the Rest of Us,” written jointly with the Institute for Policy Studies, were hard hitting, informative, readable, and often humorous!

Creative Action: We use theater, music, posters, billboards, radio and video to engage new constituencies, especially younger people. Other groups consult with us to get ideas for creative actions. The Activist Cookbook, a manual for activists and artists to liven up meetings, campaigns, and media events, can be ordered through us from Powells.com.