The Slow Decay of Social Justice in Cleveland

It is a rough time for social justice in Cleveland with the Cleveland Tenants Organization announcing that they were closing yesterday.  This is a huge loss for Cleveland, and continues to the slow death over the last 20 years of social justice movements.  The best symbol of this decay was our social justice champion Dennis Kucinich joining Fox News.   Here is a short history of the slow death of social justice in Greater Cleveland:

• Most of the neighborhood centers dropped their commitment to funding community organizing which is the foundation of social justice.  Some of the Community Development organizations were also doing organizing and marching and protesting.  None of that would happen today with the CDCs tied to the City Council for their very existence. They had previously lobbied, marched, and advocated for change.  That is all dead now as they fight among themselves over table scraps.
• The Catholic Diocese abandoned the Catholic Commission which previously had a strong independent staff that was fighting for justice especially economic justice. 
• Templum House (Domestic Violence) merged and then lost their focus on advocacy and public policy in support of women's issues.
• There was a 9 to 5 organization that worked against sexual harassment  and there was a chapter of the National Organization for Women. Both folded.
•  There were four Fair Housing groups in Cuyahoga County all working on different areas and different aspects of civil rights.  There is one left now with the Housing Center. There is still the Heights Community Congress, but I am not sure if they actually function or are just a Zombie organization hanging on with volunteers.
• The NAACP was powerful and they were everywhere.  If there was an issue that had a negative impact on poor people they were at the table.  They are a shadow of their former selves. There was also a Carl Stokes Brigade for a period of time, but the NAACP did such a great job with Civil Rights issues there was not a need for others to step in.  The Urban League, Antioch, Olivet and other groups pushed African American equality issues all in support of NAACP. Now that George Forbes is quasi-retired and many African American politicians really sucked the life out of the NAACP.  The current movement is now more like a Sunday Bridge tournament at a nursing home.
  
• Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry had a strong focus on advocacy and public policy. They had done so much for the rights of the disabled, re-entry folks, and seniors in the 1970s and 1980s.  Now they are largely a social service organization and every once in a while they say something about advocacy. 
• There was a hunger collaborative that really built the Food Bank and started the Harvest for Hunger program.  They were taken over by the United Way and then dissolved. 
• The Cleveland Mediation Center a long time ago was a social justice group that went way off course and then were eaten by another non-profit organization. 
• There was a group of tenants who formed the Alliance of Cleveland HUD tenants to organize Project Based Housing buildings--gone.  Also, the public housing tenants previously had a Progressive Action Council that actually did community organizing before it became a social club for older tenants. 
• The Cleveland Tenants Organization was nationally known for their responsiveness to tenants.  They helped write and then get passed the Ohio Landlord Tenant Law then they did a local version with Council President Frank Jackson.  Now, they are out of business.  
• Greater Cleveland Congregations took the advocacy previously done by some of the religious groups in the community especially Trinity and Fairmount Temple.  We saw the misguided advocacy done over the Q Deal by the Greater Cleveland Congregations and that could not be considered successful or a just result.  
• The AIDS Taskforce and the Free Clinic previously were big advocacy groups that worked on needle exchange and universal health care issues.  Now they are just a social service organizations.  
• There was a disability rights organization that I cannot find much information about.  They moved to the suburbs and I have no idea what happened to them.  I am sure we did not hear from many groups speaking on behalf of Tenisha Anderson after she died in police custody lying on the ground for a half hour.
• There was a jobs program in Cleveland that was helping with re-entry issues and getting the Workforce Investment Act to work for low income people.  The director got in trouble and the group folded.  
• The unions were also more prominent in housing, health care and civil rights issues.  Jobs with Justice tries, but in the past the union could turn out hundreds for a rally, a committee meeting or a gathering of advocates.
• There was the InterChurch Council, West Side Ecumenical and East Side Ecumenical trying to get the religious community to work together against hate and injustice.  Then there was InterAct who took over for ESIM and all of these groups folded or merged.  InterAct punched way above their weight class, but the others just sent religious folks to meeting to weigh in on issues.  They were represented on many boards including corporate boards to keep the community grounded and in compliance with religious teachings. 
  
• We had an anti-nuclear war organization that folded or was merged with the Cleveland Peace Action.  Women Speak Out for Peace and Justice was a pretty big organization with Ms. Biggs and others showing up for all kinds of social justice demonstrations.  
•  Planned Parenthood had an administrative office in Cleveland and they asserted themselves on women's health at the County including welfare and childcare issues. The Women's Center also did advocacy in the 1990s and were not just social services. 
• Cleveland had the first Welfare Rights group in the United States organizing women who were under attack by Richard Nixon/Ronald Reagan.  By the time of the Clinton assault on welfare, they were a shadow of their former self as the Empowerment Center and then went out of business in 2000s. 
•  Update:  Listening to the Sound of Ideas today February 7, 2018: I forgot to list the senior social justice groups that are significantly weaker today.  The Western Reserve Area Agency previously had an advocacy component that was first to go in budget cuts. Also, the Long Term Care Ombudsman (LMM program) was previously more prominent in pushing the rights of seniors especially to live in a decent nursing home. 
• There was the Earth Day Coalition and a group that focused on the health of Lake Erie both disappeared.  There was an environmental group that tracked threats to our public safety in our neighborhood, but it also went out of business. 

There really are very few groups listening to a constituent and then trying to improve their lives.  There are very few groups pushing public policy or politicians to do better.  The LGBTQ community is well represented and they are successful locally, but the other pieces of social justice quilt are failing.  If you ask most of these non profits what would they suggest for changes in the law or what their biggest issue of their main constituency, they have no ideas.  There is no one demanding changes in the law to curtail the spread of opioid, or to close down the payday lenders, or forcing the banks to invest in Cleveland.  No one is asking why the children born in Beechwood can look forward to a quality education while a child born in Cleveland, through no fault of their own, will struggle to find a quality school--separate and unequal.  The issues facing Cleveland are overwhelming and in the 1980s there was a group with a mission to work on that issue.  The most undemocratic of organization known as the Philanthropic Foundations pushed mergers on us all and government never liked being told what to do so they sat and watched as the social justice sector withered and died.

We have a few bright spots such as Brian over at the Task Force doing good work unfortunately it is in Latin America.  There is the amazing Amy Hanauer and her staff at Policy Matters pointing out the absurdity of current policies in Ohio.  The Housing Center and NEOCH are both plugging away.  It seems that our entire hope rests with the local ACLU who have never wavered in their commitment to the Bill of Rights.  They seem strong and are vigilant in keeping the social justice flame alive.  The rest of the groups are toiling away in obscurity, trying to keep their doors open, or changing to become a social service provider.  There were really good reporters who could dedicate themselves to a social justice beat.  Cleveland was previously one of the most progressive places in the United States with like minded people working together to shut down racists when they tried to march, housing injustices from red lining, or fighting health care disparities.  It is shocking how far we have fallen.  There is a social justice institute at CWRU which is ironic when so many programs have closed during the time this institute was established.

by Brian Davis