People Over Profits: A Familiar Message at Hawaiʻi State Legislature Opening Day
While the more than 30 organizations with booths inside the State Capitol rotunda work on a wide range of policy issues, most shared the same hope that lawmakers would put people first.
The Hawaii Independent // The Rotunda
January 20, 2016
Held on the afternoon of January 20, 2016, on opening day of the Hawaiʻi State Legislature, today’s “People Over Profits” rally brought hundreds of activists to the rotunda of the state capitol building. The message to attendees wanted to send to lawmakers was that they need to place a higher value in people and in the planet than in the interests of corporations, many of which actively exploit workers and the environment to make a profit for shareholders.
It’s a familiar message; one that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is pushing in his presidential campaign.
The rally featured more than 30 diverse organizations pushing for a wide range of progressive policies in Hawaiʻi, including better protection of the environment, more limitations on the use of pesticides, housing for the homeless, a higher minimum wage, and respect for the rights of Native Hawaiians to self-determination.
“The common theme from all the groups present at the Capitol today was: people first,” said Marti Townsend, director of the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi. “The people of Hawaiʻi have a right to a clean environment, safe working conditions, and basic housing. Corporations do not have a right to profit at our expense.”
The event featured food justice speakers from Mexico, Nigeria, Malaysia and Switzerland, performances by students from various Hawaiian charter schools, live music by Liko Martin and Laulani Teale, Jammerek, Hanohano Naehu and Paul Izak, as well as speakers from many of the sponsoring organizations, who shared concerns over the environment, Native Hawaiian rights, housing, prison reform, reproductive rights, workers’ rights, pesticide controls, wildlife protections and local control over electrical utilities.
“The four international speakers for food justice highlighted for us just how connected we are across vast oceans,” said Gary Hooser, president of the board of the Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action (HAPA). “We are all working towards the controls on industrial agriculture, the same protections for our air and water, the same bright future for our children.”
The rally followed “Kuʻi at the Capitol,” hosted by Hui Aloha ʻĀina Momona, an event that supported more than 700 people in the unique experience of pounding taro into poi using a traditional pohaku (stone) and papakuʻiʻai (poi board).
