April, 12 2022, 04:20pm EDT
Poor, Low-Income People March Through Wall Street, Bring Their Demands Directly to Country's Center of Wealth
Our politics must no longer blame the poor for their poverty: Bishop Barber.
WASHINGTON
Hundreds of poor and low-wealth people marched through Wall Street, chanting "if we don't get it, shut it down" and carrying signs as the Poor People's Campaign brought its Mobilization Tour to the heart of capitalism on Monday.
The Moral March on Wall Street, led by the New York Poor People's Campaign, began at the Museum of the American Indian and moved past the New York Stock Exchange before ending at Trinity Church Wall Street for a mass meeting where impacted people and faith leaders spoke. The NYPPC invited the co-chairs of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival - Bishop William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis - to speak.
"We are here to tell the stock exchange and Wall Street to stop trading our lives, that we want living wages and health care and clean air and voting rights," Rev. Dr. Theoharis, who lives in New York City, said during the march. "And we want them now! And if we don't get them, we'll shut it down."
Kelly Smith, a tri-chair of the NYPPC, said at the meeting that she was called to this work about four years ago, when she became overcome with worry about the struggles in her family, community, city, state and nation such as a lack of healthcare and more recently, New York City's evictions of people from homeless camps.
"I worry for my son. I worry that he'll be able to find a living wage. I worry that he lives in a world where his Black skin is valued less than my white skin." she said. "And I could worry and worry and worry and wring my hands. Or, I could stand up. I could speak up. I could fight. Rev. Barber, it has meant so much to me when you said if you knew this was your last breath, what would you do? ... Well, we are going to stand up. We are going to speak out. And we are going to mobilize for June 18th in Washington, D.C."
Along with the NYPPC, representatives from campaigns from Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Rhode Island joined the march and rally as part of a Mobilization Tour stop on the way to the Mass Poor People's & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls.
"We've got to do this (June 18th) because our politics are trapped in the lies of scarcity and the lies of scarcity to keep alive the lies of trickle-down economics and the lies of neoliberalism, which leave people out. The false narrative of Christian nationalism and racism and militarism and climate devastation," Bishop Barber said.
"You've got a mess. These kinds of politics turn us against each other, blame the poor for their poverty even though we live in the midst of abundance. And we know that poverty is not so much a personal choice as a political consequence of policies. We have the resources to meet the needs of everybody. The only thing we don't have enough of is moral consciousness and the will to do what's right. And that's our job - to shift the moral narrative of this nation," he said.
Faith leaders representing different traditions also spoke at Trinity Church Wall Street, explaining why they're mobilizing for the June 18th assembly and march. Trinity Church Wall Street is a historic church, with its current building (the third) constructed from 1839 to 1846. In 2020, it gave over $24 million in grants, with a focus on organizations that work with undocumented immigrants, undocumented immigrants, domestic violence survivors, homeless families, and formerly incarcerated adults and youth. The 2020 grant-giving nearly tripled its New York City grants from 2019.
The program can be viewed here.
Poverty is not a personal choice but a policy choice and even before COVID, these policies were killing and hurting people, with 250,000 dying from poverty each year in the US. The action called attention to the needs of the 8.6 million poor and low-income people in the state and the 140 million people nationally who were poor or low-income before COVID.
Volney Gordon, who has been homeless for 15 years since being priced out of New York City and who now lives in Washington, Vermont, said he "became an expert in poverty on these very streets - in the shadow of obscene wealth and amidst the headquarters of institutions that, having built their wealth on the backs of our class, have waged an all out war on those very same people.
"The ruling class doesn't want us to strategize across lines of division because our strength, the strength of the working class, the poor, is what powers this machine," Gordon, a liver cancer survivor, said in prepared remarks.
Brenda Temple, a low-wage worker who lives in public housing in New York City, said she's part of a campaign to demand that Mayor Eric Adams stop the privatization of public housing and let residents manage the developments.
"Privatization of public housing ends public housing," she said in prepared remarks. "This is nothing less than an attack on the poor. "We need decent housing, affordable to the over 140 million of us Americans who can't afford to live in our own country. ... We demand decent public housing. We demand to manage our own homes. We demand more democracy. "
Stephanie Heslop, who helped lead the unionization effort at a Starbucks in Ithaca, said she lives paycheck to paycheck.
"It is our labor that has made Starbucks the multi-billion dollar company it is and all we are asking for is what we deserve," she said. "In return we have been met with threats, harassment, cuts in hours, and some workers have even been fired. The company is using the massive wealth they have made off our labor to try to prevent us from exercising our fundamental right to unionize, and I find that deeply shameful--but it also gives me hope, because in spite of all that we're still winning. Our solidarity is stronger than their ill-gotten wealth. And if we can do it, if Amazon workers on Staten Island can do it, then other workers can too!"
OTHER VOICES
Jennifer E. Cuffee-Wilson of the Shinnecock/Montauk Nation said her community lives on Long Island, one of the richest parts of the country:
"We are surrounded by nothing but billionaires. And one of the billionaires is (former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bloomberg had the nerve to go on national television and tell them that Shinnecock Indian nation is disastrous" and they need help.
"Well, are they helping us know? No. but he's got a house out there. He's living on stolen land."
Pamela Poniatowski, tri-chair, Rhode Island Poor People's Campaign
"I was not aware that more than 70% of households with disabled members living below the poverty line do not receive federal housing assistance. But I now know because I was waiting for housing for three years and it seems I'm one of the lucky ones, only waiting three years for housing.
"There are still millions of people waiting for housing, just look around. We can see them in every state. It is heartbreaking and there are 140 million people who are just one emergency away from losing everything. The waiting list for housing anywhere is years long. What are we expected to do during those years?"
Josh Kaupilla of Maine, poor, gay, formerly homeless
"I grew up with that shame-mongering by politicians, public figures, and family members. Though I wish those days were past, I know firsthand how these ideas divide families and keep poor people from recognizing their shared interest. How much longer do we have to start over, to run, to face homelessness, addiction, abusive situations; with stability, belonging and safety so often out of reach?
"The truth is their distorted moral narrative is what's deepening the suffering in our country and making us all less secure. Division is what THEY seek, then what we need to do is come together."
Amy Tai of Massachusetts
"Most nights I wake up with my heart racing because I cannot imagine what kind of future my 16-year-old son will have or not have because of climate devastation. I have spent countless hours working to help friends who are on the brink of homelessness. I cry every day because I see the toll of racism on my loved ones. I cry every day because I am witnessing the injustice and violence committed against poor people, Black and Brown and Indigenous people, in our country is gut-wrenching. I myself have personally experienced anti-Asian violence and it is terrifying."
The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, is building a generationally transformative digital gathering called the Mass Poor People's Assembly and Moral March on Washington, on June 20, 2020. At that assembly, we will demand that both major political parties address the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism by implementing our Moral Agenda.
LATEST NEWS
Despite Court Rulings, Trump Refuses to Pay Out Food Stamp Benefits to Tens of Millions
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Two federal judges have said the Trump administration cannot use the government shutdown to suspend food assistance for 42 million Americans. But hours into Saturday, when payments were due to be disbursed, President Donald Trump appears to be defying the ruling, potentially leaving millions unable to afford this month's grocery bills.
A pair of federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ruled Friday that the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) freeze on benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, was unlawful and that the department must use money from a contingency fund of $6 billion to pay for at least a portion of the roughly $8 billion meant to be disbursed this month.
“There is no doubt that the six billion dollars in contingency funds are appropriated funds that are without a doubt necessary to carry out the program’s operation,” said US District Judge McConnell of Rhode Island in his oral ruling. “The shutdown of the government through funding doesn’t do away with SNAP. It just does away with the funding of it. There could be no greater necessity than the prohibition across the board of funds for the program’s operations.”
McConnell added: “There is no doubt, and it is beyond argument, that irreparable harm will begin to occur if it hasn’t already occurred in the terror it has caused some people about the availability of funding for food for their family."
SNAP benefits are available to people whose monthly incomes fall below 130% of the federal poverty line. More than 1 in 8 Americans rely on the program, and 39% of them are children. According to USDA research, cited by the Washington Post, those who receive SNAP benefits rely on it for 63% of their groceries, with the poorest, who make below 50% of the poverty line, relying on it for as much as 80%.
McConnell shot down the administration's contention that the contingency funds may be needed for some other hypothetical emergency in the future, saying "It’s clear that when compared to the millions of people that will go without funds for food versus the agency’s desire not to use contingency funds in case there’s a hurricane need, the balances of those equities clearly goes on the side of ensuring that people are fed."
While the judge in Massachusetts, Indira Talwani, ruled that Trump merely had to use the contingency funds to fund as much of the program as possible, McConnell went further, saying that in addition, they had to tap other sources of funding to disburse benefits in full, and do so "as soon as possible." Both judges gave the administration until Monday to provide updates on how it planned to follow the ruling.
However, after the ruling on Friday, Trump insisted on social media that "government lawyers do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available, and now two courts have issued conflicting opinions on what we can and cannot do."
He added: "I do NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT. Therefore, I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible."
Attorney and activist Miles Mogulescu pointed out in Common Dreams that, "until a few days ago, even the Trump administration agreed that these funds should be used to continue SNAP funding during the shutdown."
On September 30, the day before the shutdown began, the USDA posted a 55-page "Lapse of Funding" plan to its website, which plainly stated that if the government were to shut down, "the department will continue operations related to... core nutrition safety net programs.”
But this week, USDA abruptly deleted the file and posted a new memo that concocted a new legal reality out of whole cloth, stating that “due to Congressional Democrats’ refusal to pass a clean continuing resolution (CR), approximately 42 million individuals will not receive SNAP benefits come November 1st.”
As Mogulescu notes: "The new memo cited absolutely no law supporting its position. Instead, it made up a rule claiming that the 'contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exist.'"
Sharon Parrott, the president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, who previously served as an official in the White House Office of Management, said last week that it's "unequivocally false" that the administration's hands are tied.
"I know from experience that the federal government has the authority and the tools it needs during a shutdown to get these SNAP funds to families," Parrott said. "Even at this late date, the professionals at the Department of Agriculture and in states can make this happen. And, to state the obvious, benefits that are a couple of days delayed are far more help to families than going without any help at all."
She added: "The administration itself admits these reserves are available for use. It could have, and should have, taken steps weeks ago to be ready to use these funds. Instead, it may choose not to use them in an effort to gain political advantage."
In hopes of pressuring Democrats to abandon their demands that Congress extend a critical Affordable Care Act tax credit and prevent health insurance premiums from skyrocketing for more than 20 million Americans, Republicans have sought to use the shutdown to inflict maximum pain on voters.
Trump has attempted to carry out mass layoffs of government workers, which have been halted by a federal judge. Meanwhile, his director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, has stripped funding from energy and transportation infrastructure projects aimed at blue states and cities.
"Terminating SNAP is a choice, and an overtly unlawful one at that," says David Super, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University. "The administration has chosen to hold food for more than forty million vulnerable people hostage to try to force Democrats to capitulate without negotiations.”
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A federal judge on Friday permanently blocked part of President Donald Trump's executive order requiring proof of US citizenship on federal voter registration forms, a ruling hailed by one plaintiff in the case as "a clear victory for our democracy."
Siding with Democratic and civil liberties groups that sued the administration over Trump's March edict mandating a US passport, REAL ID-compliant document, military identification, or similar proof in order to register to vote in federal elections, Senior US District Judge for the District of Columbia Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found the directive to be an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers.
“Because our Constitution assigns responsibility for election regulation to the states and to Congress, this court holds that the president lacks the authority to direct such changes," Kollar-Kotelly, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, wrote in her 81-page ruling.
"The Constitution addresses two types of power over federal elections: First, the power to determine who is qualified to vote, and second, the power to regulate federal election procedures," she continued. "In both spheres, the Constitution vests authority first in the states. In matters of election procedures, the Constitution assigns Congress the power to preempt State regulations."
"By contrast," Kollar-Kotelly added, "the Constitution assigns no direct role to the president in either domain."
This is the second time Kollar-Kotelly has ruled against Trump's proof-of-citizenship order. In April, she issued a temporary injunction blocking key portions of the directive.
"The president doesn't have the authority to change election procedures just because he wants to."
"The court upheld what we've long known: The president doesn't have the authority to change election procedures just because he wants to," the ACLU said on social media.
Sophia Lin Lakin of the ACLU, a plaintiff in the case, welcomed the decision as “a clear victory for our democracy."
"President Trump’s attempt to impose a documentary proof of citizenship requirement on the federal voter registration form is an unconstitutional power grab," she added.
Campaign Legal Center president Trevor Potter said in a statement: "This federal court ruling reaffirms that no president has the authority to control our election systems and processes. The Constitution gives the states and Congress—not the president—the responsibility and authority to regulate our elections."
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Two federal courts ruled Friday that the White House must release contingency food assistance funds, but officials have suggested they will not comply with the orders.
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Though two federal judges ruled on Friday that the Trump administration must use contingency funds to continue providing food assistance that 42 million Americans rely on, White House officials have signaled they won't comply with the court orders even as advocates warn the lapse in nutrition aid funding will cause an unprecedented child hunger crisis that families are unprepared to withstand.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is planning to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Saturday as the government shutdown reaches the one-month mark, claiming it can no longer fund SNAP and cannot tap $5 billion in contingency funds that would allow recipients to collect at least partial benefits in November.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that his administration is "going to get it done," regarding the funding of SNAP, but offered no details on his plans to keep the nation's largest anti-hunger program funded, and his agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, would not commit on Friday to release the funds if ordered to do so.
"We're looking at all the options," Rollins told CNN before federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ordered the administration to fund the program.
The White House and Republicans in Congress have claimed the only way to fund SNAP is for Democratic lawmakers to vote for a continuing resolution proposed by the GOP to keep government funding at current levels; Democrats have refused to sign on to the resolution because it would allow healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act to expire.
The administration previously said it would use the SNAP contingency funds before reversing course last week. A document detailing the contingency plan disappeared from the USDA's website this week. The White House's claims prompted two lawsuits filed by Democrat-led states and cities as well as nonprofit groups that demanded the funding be released.
On Thursday evening, US Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) addressed her followers on the social media platform X about the impending hunger emergency, emphasizing that the loss of SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans—39% of whom are children—is compounding a child poverty crisis that has grown since 2021 due to Republicans' refusal to extend pandemic-era programs like the enhanced child tax credit.
"One in eight kids in America lives in poverty in 2024," said Jayapal. "Sixty-one percent of these kids—that's about 6 million kids— have at least one parent who is employed. So it's not that people are not working, they're working, but they're not earning enough."
"I just want to be really clear that it is a policy choice to have people who are hungry, to have people who are poor," she said.
Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, an economist at Georgetown University, told The Washington Post that the loss of benefits for millions of children, elderly, and disabled people all at once is "unprecedented."
“We’ve never seen the elderly and children removed from the program in this sort of way,” Schanzenbach told the Post. “It really is hard to predict something of this magnitude."
A Thursday report by the economic justice group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) emphasized that the impending child hunger crisis comes four months after Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which slashed food assistance by shifting some of the cost of SNAP to the states from the federal government, expanding work requirements, and ending adjustments to benefits to keep pace with food inflation.
Meanwhile, the law is projected to increase the incomes of the wealthiest 20% of US households by 3.7% while reducing the incomes of the poorest 20% of Americans by an average of 3.8%.
Now, said ATF, "they're gonna let hard-working Americans go hungry so billionaires can get richer."
At Time on Thursday, Stephanie Land, author of Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education, wrote that "the cruelty is the point" of the Trump administration's refusal to ensure the 61-year-old program, established by Democratic former President Lyndon B. Johnson, doesn't lapse for the first time in its history.
"Once, when we lost most of our food stamp benefit, I mentally catalogued every can and box of food in the cupboards, and how long the milk we had would last," wrote Land. "They’d kicked me, the mother of a recently-turned 6-year-old, off of food stamps because I didn’t meet the work requirement of 20 hours a week. I hadn’t known that my daughter’s age had qualified me to not have to meet that requirement, and without warning, the funds I carefully budgeted for food were gone."
"It didn’t matter that I was a full-time student and worked 10-15 hours a week," she continued. "This letter from my local government office said it wasn’t sufficient to meet their stamp of approval. In their opinion, I wasn’t working enough to deserve to eat. My value, my dignity as a human being, was completely dependent on my ability to work, as if nothing else about me awarded me the ability to feel satiated by food."
"Whether the current administration decides to continue to fund SNAP in November or not, the intended damage has already been done. The fear of losing means for food, shelter, and healthcare is the point," Land added. "Programs referred to as a 'safety net' are anything but when they can be removed with a thoughtless, vague message, or scribble from a permanent marker. It’s about control to gain compliance, and our most vulnerable populations will struggle to keep up."
On Thursday, the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) expressed hope that the president's recent statement saying the White House will ensure people obtain their benefits will "trigger the administration to use its authority and precedent to prevent disruptions in food assistance."
"The issue at hand is not political. It is about ensuring that parents can put food on the table, older adults on fixed incomes can meet their nutritional needs, and children continue to receive the meals they rely on. SNAP is one of the most effective tools for reducing hunger and supporting local economies," said the group.
"Swift and transparent action is needed," FRAC added, "to restore stability, maintain public confidence, and ensure that our state partners, local economies and grocers, and the millions of children, older adults, people with disabilities, and veterans who participate in SNAP are not left bearing the consequences of federal inaction."
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