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WHO
WE ARE
Over
the past 30 years, the incidence of working poverty
and the income gap between the rich and poor in California
have continued to grow at unprecedented rates. This
has created an economic crisis that affects our communities
on multiple levels, jeopardizing the basic social and
economic infrastructure of entire neighborhoods. Education,
public health, local business - all are directly affected
by an impoverished work force.
The
most effective force in reversing this trend in recent
years has been an innovative coalition of creative community
organizations, progressive labor unions and the faith
community.  The role of activist
clergy and congregations in this coalition has been
critical to many of its most notable successes. In San
Diego, Los Angeles, San Jose and the San Francisco Bay
Area, strong interfaith organizations have arisen with
the capacity to organize broad and diverse participation
in a host of public policy and corporate campaigns for
economic justice.
In
November of 2005, representatives of these four interfaith
organizations came together to form Clergy and Laity
United for Economic Justice - California (CLUE-CA),
a new organization that aims to end low-wage poverty
in California by building a faith-rooted movement for
economic justice throughout the state. In the recognition
that economic justice is a human rights issue, we actively
support the intertwined issues of civil rights and immigrant
rights. Drawing upon the unique resources of faith traditions,
CLUE-CA provides a moral framework for the economic
debate, empowers workers, and engages clergy and congregations
in economic justice campaigns.
The
primary goals of CLUE-CA are to build the capacity of
the founding groups by providing mutual support and
sharing resources; create effective statewide collaboration
on public policy and corporate campaigns; provide hands-on
technical assistance, training and capacity- building
to emerging interfaith worker justice groups throughout
California; and seed new interfaith worker justice groups
in strategically important communities
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