Creating change

Disrupting the status quo

ECCO creates campaigns that allow oppressed people to use their innate power to change the political and economic systems that exploit them.  Through our work on immigration, criminal justice reform, and economic justice, we work to dismantle the systems that ensure the incarceration and exploitation of Black, Brown, and poor people.

In addition to policy change, ECCO also works to build relationships and understanding across race, class, faith, and origin, and to understand all our issues and our futures as interconnected.

IMMIGRANT RIGHTS / SIN FRONTERAS

Problem: Immigrants in our country are under attack.  With the repeal of DACA and an increase in ICE raids, hard working immigrants are living in fear of deportation and separation.

Solution: ECCO is working to protect the human and civil rights of immigrants.  We have four lines of defense:

1 Pass sanctuary policies such as the Safe Communities to keep ICE from working with local or county police and give all immigrants basic legal rights, the Family Mobility Act to allow all qualified MA residents to obtain drivers’ licenses, and pro-sanctuary city and school ordinances.

2 Organize training and support for local immigrants, including Know Your Rights Trainings, Support Clinics that give access to legal, health, and social-work support in preparation for ICE visits, and assist in creating a worker-owned cooperative so that our immigrant leaders can support themselves financially.

3 Create Rapid Response and Accompaniment teams to offer accompaniment and advocacy support to people visiting court or ICE or who are going through an ICE detention or deportation process.

4 Establish Sanctuary Congregations that will provide physical refuge for immigrants who are in danger of being deported.

 
CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM/
BELOVED COMMUNITY CAMPAIGN FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

Problem: For the last 40 years, we have been steadily and rapidly increasing the number and percentage of our people that we incarcerate, both in the US as a whole and here in Massachusetts.  According MassINC, MA has a 60% recidivism rate, and amongst the highest racial disparities in the nation, with Black people eight times more likely to go to jail than white people and Latinx people five times more likely.

Solution: ECCO is working on the state, county, and local level to end mass incarceration and create a racially just justice system.

• On the state level, ECCO helped to pass historic criminal justice reform at the forefront of MA’s legislative agenda, and is now working to make sure it gets implemented.

• On the county level, we are working to increase mental health services to prisoners at Middleton Jail.

• On the local level, we are are working to build relationships with the Lynn Police. So far, we have conducted an implicit bias training for all command staff, held one-on-one conversations with all officers on the force as part of 2019 training, and are exploring what is next to create a more just and restorative system in Lynn.  

ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Problem: Though Massachusetts is one of the richest states in the country, many of our brothers and sisters are struggling.  Massachusetts has the sixth highest level of income inequality, with child poverty rates continuing to rise.  Our schools and roads are suffering

Solution: ECCO strives to create equality and opportunity for all Massachusetts residents, by passing fairer economic, labor, and tax policies.

In 2018, ECCO helped to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour and pass Paid Family Medical Leave. Now, we are working to pass the Fair Share Amendment would collect $1.2 billion/year in revenue for education and transportation by increasing taxes for personal income over $1 million/year.