25th Annual Summer Institute Recap

Our 25th Annual WILD Summer Institute was held June 24-26 at Bentley University in Waltham with the theme On the Road to Social Justice: Building a Diverse Labor Movement.  The Institute surpassed our expectations and was highly successful by all measures. 

We had almost 140 women in attendance, up from 80 participants for the past two years. Thirty-four percent were white women and 66% were women of color, including roughly 20 Brazilian women, 40 Latinas, as well as Asian-American, Native American, Haitian American, and African-American women. We had more younger women, from 16 through early 30s, participate this year as well. Over 45 different local unions and community organizations were represented, including first-time participation from Massachusetts Early Childhood Educators United, Lawrence Community Connections, Neighbors United for a Better East Boston (NUBE) and the Massachusetts Alliance of Professional Nannies (MAPN). 

A major contribution to the growth in participation this year was the organizing of women involved in the newly formed Massachusetts Coalition for Domestic Workers. Formed by organizations including MAPN, the Brazilian Immigrant Center, Brazilian Women’s Group, Dominican Development Center, WILD, and others, these women conducted significant outreach and organized multiple fundraisers to be able to sponsor women to attend the Summer Institute as part of their organizing and leadership development strategy for building the Alliance. WILD also provided scholarships to make the Institute accessible. Each year, we conduct a fundraising campaign in support of the Summer Institute and in particular our ability to provide scholarships, childcare and transportation. This year’s appeal campaign was the most successful Institute fundraising campaign we have ever had. 

The Institute opened with a short context-setting presentation on neoliberalism and why the Right is currently attacking labor rights and funding for social services. Our invited keynote speaker was Julia Monteiro Johnson, a retired school librarian and former member of the board of directors of both the Massachusetts Teachers Association and National Education Association. Julia spoke directly to the heart of WILD’s mission, how she decided to lead in her union, how she found mentorship from other women of color, and how she continues to work for justice for all people through organizing, education and leadership development.

On Saturday morning, the leadership development workshops began. These workshops ran in eight concurrent sections, in English, Spanish and Portuguese, taught by fourteen volunteers, all Board members and past participants. The curriculum this year focused on what unions and community organizations do and how they do it, bringing other people into our unions and community organizations and working on a personal vision and goal within one’s union or organization. We also focused on what we call our “WILDer Vision of Unions and Community Organizations:” working to build unions and organizations that are inclusive, democratic, mobilizing, fighting all forms of oppression and organizing new members into the union, the community organization and the broader social and economic justice movement.

We invited Cheryl Harris back again this year to lead our anti-oppression workshop after the success of last year’s program. With a better understanding of the Institute and Institute participants from last year, Cheryl crafted an outstanding workshop that was even more participatory and experiential. We looked at race and racism broadly in our society, and then focused in on the ways in which race, class and gender expectations get passed down in families and internalized by people in targeted groups and acted upon consciously and unconsciously by people in non-targeted groups. Later in the day, we provided time and space for caucus groups to meet: African-American, Latinas, Brazilians, young women, lesbian/bi/queer/trans women and educators.

As the weekend continued, women practiced new skills and learned new information in workshops such as Public Speaking (English), Intimidation in the Workplace: Responding to Sexual Harassment and Bullying (English), Becoming a Union-Building Steward (English) and Organizing for Health and Safety in the Workplace (bilingual Spanish and Portuguese). They went in depth on current social issues in workshops such as Economic Refugees: Immigration and the Growing Divide (bilingual English and Spanish) and Building a Sustainable Public Sector for Workers and Our Communities (English and bilingual Spanish and Portuguese). We have continued to work on providing an integrated experience, regardless of language differences, at the Institute and our multiple bilingual workshops this year helped to facilitate that.

On Saturday evening, the wonderful musical, participatory and multi-media performance "We Were There" by Bev Grant (an activist singer-songwriter) told the story of women labor organizers and activists through history, such as Sojourner Truth, Sarah Bagley and Dolores Huerta. WILD alumna from previous years joined us for dinner and the program as well. For our closing luncheon on Sunday, Lisa Wong, Mayor of Fitchburg, delivered a speech that was refreshingly down-to-earth as well as uplifting and inspiring. She shared the story of her path to being an elected leader and the challenges and opportunities she has enjoyed in that role. From beginning to end, we were truly delighted by the great success of every aspect of this year’s Institute program.