‘Our People Are Being Hurt and We Won’t be Silent Anymore’
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CaliforniaPoor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival To Kick Off Six Weeks of Non-Violent Direct Action Monday in Sacramento
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Protests Planned in over 30 State Capitals, Washington, D.C.
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Movement Demands Sweeping Overhaul of Nation’s Voting Rights Laws, Policies to Address Poverty, Ecological Devastation, War Economy
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA—The CaliforniaPoor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will kick off a six-week season of nonviolent direct action Monday in Sacramento. The Campaign is demanding a massive overhaul of the nation’s voting rights laws, new programs to lift up the 140 million Americans living in poverty, immediate attention to ecological devastation and measures to curb militarism and the war economy.
The Monday rally in California is one of over 30 actions across the country by poor and disenfranchised people, clergy and advocates who will engage in 40 days of nonviolent direct action and voter mobilization, among other activities. As a movement, we aim at transforming the nation’s political, economic and moral structures by building on the work of the original Poor People’s Campaign 50 years ago.
To emphasize the urgent necessity for action,hundreds of participants are joining ‘Freedom Trains’,in solidarity with their 1968 counter parts. These caravans will be launching from Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. To Commemorate the daily hardships that Women endure, these caravans will embark on Mother’s Day, May 13th, to join forces in Sacramento to focus on the first week’s theme: Somebody’s Hurting Our People: Women, Youth, Disabled, Children in Poverty and Right to Education.
"Though we have a reputation as being ’liberal’ in California, the four pillars of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, and the war economy are rampant in our state and are ‘hidden in plain sight.’ With the 1% prospering in their unregulated wealth, California has the highest poverty rate when housing is factored in. We must shine a bright light on the oppression and interlocking injustices which poor, impacted communities must face everyday regarding local to statewide issues, including but not limited to: immigration and ICE, racist police violence, homelessness, evictions, inequity in education, the school-to-prison pipeline, gentrification, rising cost of living, low wages, and the continuous commodification of Mother Earth causing ecocide in poor communities, all of which could be eliminated in California if our state's leaders and legislators would create policies that had human rights and non-partisan morality at their core." - Kait Ziegler, Co-Chair of California Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Protests and other activities during this first week will focus on child poverty, women in poverty and people with disabilities. Subsequent weeks will focus on systemic racism, veterans and the war economy, ecological devastation, inequality, and our nation’s distorted moral narrative.
At the conclusion of the 40 days, on June 23, poor people, clergy and advocates from California and coast to coast will join together for a mass mobilization at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. They’ll then return to their states to continue building the campaign, which is a multi-year effort.
WHO: Poor and disenfranchised people, moral leaders and advocates from California. (See supporting groups below.)
WHAT: Protest at California Statehouse demanding sweeping overhaul of nation’s voting rights laws, policies to address poverty, ecological devastation, war economy
WHEN: Monday, May 14 at 2PM
BACKGROUND:
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is co-organized by Repairers of the Breach, a social justice organization founded by the Rev. Barber; the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary; and hundreds of local and national grassroots groups across the country.
The campaign is building a broad and deep national moral movement – rooted in the leadership of poor people and reflecting the great moral teachings – to unite our country from the bottom up. Coalitions have formed in 39 states and Washington, D.C. to challenge extremism locally and at the federal level and to demand a moral agenda for the common good.
Over the past two years, leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival have carried out a listening tour in dozens of states across this nation, meeting with tens of thousands of people from El Paso, Texas to Marks, Mississippi to South Charleston, West Virginia. Led by the Revs. Barber and Theoharis, the campaign has gathered testimonies from hundreds of poor people and listened to their demands for a better society.
I’m proud to tell you that DSA is joining the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival!The Poor People’s Campaign is uniting tens of thousands of people across the country to challenge systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation’s distorted morality. And you can get involved right now.
The Poor People’s Campaign builds on the vision of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the last year of his life, Dr. King set out to bring poor people together for non-violent direct action for “a radical redistribution of economic and political power.” Fifty years ago today, the day before his assassination, Dr. King spoke in Memphis as part of the Poor People’s Campaign, standing up for striking sanitation workers.
Today, I urge you to join DSA’s work on the new Poor People’s Campaign, spearheaded by the DSA Religious Socialism Working Group.Non-violent acts of civil disobedience will start Mother’s Day and continue for forty days. Sign up here to get involved with DSA’s Poor People’s Campaign actions.Your support is vital!
As DSAers, you and I understand the connections between poverty, structural racism, warmongering, and environmental catastrophe. And as part of DSA’s Poor People’s Campaign work, you can help dismantle white supremacy and economic oppression and stand up for a democratic socialist future. Sí, se puede!
In solidarity,
Maria Svart, DSA National Director
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