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repairers of the breach
Poor People's Campaign Plans June 29 Mass Assembly, March in DC
"This is a crisis moment for our democracy," said one campaigner. "We need for our political leaders to become moral leaders and take seriously the needs and priorities of the millions of people struggling simply to survive."
Apr 29, 2024
Leaders of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival on Monday announced plans for the Mass Poor People & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly & Moral March in Washington, D.C. on June 29, just over four months before the U.S. elections.
The aim of the assembly and march is to "mobilize the one-third of the U.S. electorate who are poor and low-wage infrequent voters" as well as to pressure political leaders to embrace a 17-point agenda during the 2024 election cycle and beyond.
"It does not stand to reason—morally, economically, or politically—that in the richest nation in the history of the world, 800 people die every day from poverty and low wealth," declared Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach. "Politicians then made the conscious choice to increase poverty to where it was before—an unconscionable reminder that mass poverty is a political choice, not an inevitable law of nature."
"We are here to say we must restore the moral conscience of this nation, and elect leaders across the country who will make different choices—not to raise poverty, but to lower it; not to give out tax breaks to wealthy corporations, but to those who are struggling to make ends meet," he continued. "These are the priorities of one-third of the U.S. electorate, and any candidate interested in activating these voters must speak to our issues and our values."
The agenda, revealed during the campaign's Monday press conference, is:
- Abolishing poverty as the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S.
- A living minimum wage of at least $15+/hour (indexed for inflation)
- Full and expanded voting rights
- No more voter suppression
- Guaranteed workers' rights and labor rights
- Healthcare for all
- Affordable, adequate housing
- Strong social welfare and safety net programs
- An end to gun violence, profit, and proliferation
- Fully protected women's rights
- Environmental justice that secures clean air and water
- Justice for all Indigenous nations
- Fully funded public education
- Just immigration laws
- Addressing militarism and the war economy
- Standing for peace not war; an immediate cease-fire in Gaza that allows humanitarian relief, the release of all hostages, and peace with justice to be pursued; and an end to genocide around the world
- An end to hate, division, and the extremist political agenda
"We are a resurrection of the unheard voices in this democracy, not an insurrection," said Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice. "After years of historic union drives and grassroots organizing, we are demonstrating our power at the polls in 2024. We will elect leaders with the courage to abolish poverty, raise wages, safeguard voting rights, and meet the basic needs of struggling families."
In addition to Theoharis and Barber's groups, supporters of the assembly and march include the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Christian Church Disciples of Christ, Common Cause, Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, Good Trouble, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Make It Plain, National Council of Churches, National Council of Jewish Women, Service Employees International Union, and Union of Southern Service Workers.
"Workers' rights, civil rights, and human rights are on the ballot this election. American voters will decide: Do we want to stay the course and keep on this path toward a more compassionate government or revert back to this morally bankrupt nation?" said Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. "The American labor movement is committed to registering and mobilizing union members and union families around the mass mobilization on June 29. We're going to elect lawmakers who will advocate for workers and poor people to elect leaders who will put people over profits, protect our democracy, and advance worker and civil and human rights."
In addition to choosing between Democratic President Joe Biden and former Republican President Donald Trump, U.S. voters in November will decide which party controls each house of Congress. There will also be various consequential local and state elections, including ballot measures to protect key rights such as access to abortion care.
"This is a crisis moment for our democracy," stressed Rosalyn Pelles, a senior advisor to the Poor People's Campaign. "In order for our nation not to continue down the path of autocracy, we need for our political leaders to become moral leaders and take seriously the needs and priorities of the millions of people struggling simply to survive."
"Congress must lead, by bringing forward comprehensive legislation to restore the child tax credit and raise the minimum wage," Pelles argued. "The media must do more, by covering the experiences of people struggling to get by, not just the words and whims of the wealthy and powerful. And the White House must treat poverty like the crisis it is, if this administration is serious about saving our democracy. We all must act, and that is what June 29th is all about."
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Women to Unite for 'She Speaks' Virtual Assembly Marking March on Washington's 60th Anniversary
"Extremist lawmakers are using state capitols to subvert our democracy and erode voting rights, denying living wages, and suppressing access to healthcare, all while concentrating this rich nation's wealth," said Hanna Broome of AME Zion Church.
Aug 28, 2023
Six decades after civil rights and labor groups held the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, women from across the country plan to come together Monday evening for a virtual "She Speaks" mass assembly to honor female leaders from 1963 and draw attention to issues that persist today.
"While numerous brave and brilliant women—including Rosa Parks, Dorothy Day, Fannie Lou Hamer, Anna Arnold Hedgeman, Diane Nash, Dorothy Height, and Mahalia Jackson—were central voices behind the March on Washington, they were not given the chance to speak," organizers said in a statement. "Sixty years later, thousands of women are joining together at the Lincoln Memorial and speaking out to ensure not another anniversary goes by where women's voices aren't central to the conversation."
As Meghan Weaver of Stanford University's Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute detailed last year, Parks said a quick "hello" and "thank you" to the 1963 crowd, the NAACP's Daisy Bates delivered a couple of brief remarks, and actress and activist Lena Horne shouted "Freedom!" into the microphone. According to the researcher, activist and entertainer Josephine Baker "spoke for just over two minutes, in the longest address that day by a woman."
Speakers for Monday's event include Hanna Broome of AME Zion Church; Rev. Kazimir Brown of Repairers of the Breach; Mary Kay Henry of the Service Employees International Union; Rabbi Sheila Katz of the National Council of Jewish Women; Roz Pelles of the Center for Public Theology & Public Policy at Yale Divinity School; Ai-Jen Poo of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; Joy Reid of MSNBC; Karen Georgia A. Thompson of United Church of Christ; and members of Black Voters Matter, Beloved Community, and the League of Women Voters.
"Women refuse to stay silent as we fight back against the most pressing issues harming our communities today," declared Broome. "Right now across the country, extremist lawmakers are using state capitols to subvert our democracy and erode voting rights, denying living wages, and suppressing access to healthcare, all while concentrating this rich nation's wealth into fewer and fewer hands."
"Until the systemic injustices that have been plaguing our communities end," she vowed, "we will continue to make our voices heard across the nation."
During the assembly—set to be livestreamed at 6:00 ET—speakers plan to "demand a lifesaving agenda that includes living wages, voting rights, reproductive healthcare, and more," according to organizers.
"Sixty years ago, the agenda of the March on Washington was to raise the minimum wage 75% to a living wage, expand and protect voting rights, secure healthcare for all, and expand the Labor Standards Act to end racial discrimination," noted Bishop William Barber, who is expected to speak at the event. "Today, we are not finished with that agenda."
"Right now, 73 million women make up our nation's poor and low-wealth population. And millions of these women continue to be impacted by voter suppression," he added. "At a time when poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in our nation, these women are calling on all people of moral conscience—regardless of race, gender, or political affiliation—to join the fight for the moral soul of our nation and call out these attacks on our rights. We need all voices in this movement. This 60th anniversary is not an occasion just for nostalgia, it is a moment for action."
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Coalition Demands North Carolina Lawmakers 'Cease and Desist' From Attacks on the Poor
"We will not allow the clock to be turned back on our democracy, for our hard-fought gains to vanish, or for our children to have less democracy, less rights, less environmental justice than we do today."
Aug 09, 2023
Bishop William J. Barber II, Repairers of the Breach, and the North Carolina Poor People's Campaign joined advocates, impacted people, and interfaith clergy members this week for a letter demanding state lawmakers "cease and desist" from attacks on the poor.
"In honor of all those who have given their lives to secure and protect the sacred right to vote, we are delivering a moral indictment of your cynical priorities and immoral policies," the coalition wrote to the Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly just after the 58th anniversary of the passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.
"Instead of addressing the crises of poverty and low wages, lack of healthcare, underfunded public education, voter suppression, and environmental collapse," says the coalition's open letter to North Carolina legislators, "you have chosen to use 'culture wars' that engender hate to camouflage and distract from your true agenda."
"Your deceptive and deadly attacks aimed against Black and civil rights history, women, the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, students, teachers, and everyday North Carolinians, while ensuring more access to guns promotes a devastating agenda that hurts all of us," the coalition continued. "And you are doing this at a time when poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in this nation, more than gun violence, obesity, homicide, and diabetes, in the richest nation in the world."
"The lack of willingness from state officials to create a democracy where its constituents have an equal and fair opportunity to vote, access to universal healthcare, educational opportunities, justice and public safety, is morally and constitutionally offensive and a sign of your fear of the people."
Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has worked to block some policies of far-right lawmakers, but Republicans have had veto-proof majorities in the state House and Senate since April, when Rep. Tricia Cotham—elected by the voters of District 112 as a Democrat—joined the GOP, enabling further attacks on election rules, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive freedom, public education, and more.
Meanwhile, as the new letter notes, in North Carolina, over 4 million residents are poor or low-income, nearly 2 million earn under $15 an hour, more than 1 million lack health insurance, and average household debt rose 6% last year to an average of $56,590.
Five weeks after the start of the new fiscal year, the letter calls out North Carolina lawmakers for not providing pay raises for teachers and public employees and declining to fund expanded healthcare coverage while plotting to dump millions of dollars into private school vouchers and engaging in "failed and flawed trickle-down economics in the state, giving millions in dollars to the wealthy and corporations."
The letter cites portions of the state constitution and features specific demands for policies on voting rights, living wages, the right to form and join a union, gun control, healthcare, criminal justice, public schools, environmental justice, and LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities.
"At a time when ending poverty is within our grasp, we cannot and will not continue to allow the elected leaders of this state to blatantly ignore the rights of the people who put them in office," the coalition declared. "We will not allow the clock to be turned back on our democracy, for our hard-fought gains to vanish, or for our children to have less democracy, less rights, less environmental justice than we do today."
"The lack of willingness from state officials to create a democracy where its constituents have an equal and fair opportunity to vote, access to universal healthcare, educational opportunities, justice and public safety, is morally and constitutionally offensive and a sign of your fear of the people," the letter adds. "Our call today will be a part of ushering in a new era in North Carolina of revived leadership and moral vision guided by our greatest ethical and constitutional teachings. We believe, together, that this generation can finally realize the promise of a Third Reconstruction and equal protection under the law for all North Carolinians."
A statement announcing the letter points out that it "comes just months after Bishop Barber, faith communities, low-wage workers, and advocacy groups were blocked by metal barricades from entering the North Carolina Statehouse to mark the 10th anniversary and recommitment of the Moral Monday movement and to deliver a warning to North Carolina's newly minted supermajority that it must use its newfound power to uplift the people of the state."
Reflecting on a decade of the Moral Monday movement around that anniversary in April, Barber told Durham-based Indy Week that "even when the extremists led the General Assembly, we proved that you don't have to just sit down and take it, that you can continue to stand and to struggle and cry and fight together."
"On the 10th anniversary, we are not just having an anniversary; we are having a recommitment," he added. "Because even with all that has been done, North Carolina still has over 4 million people who are poor and low-wealth. North Carolina still is not paying people a living wage of at least $15 an hour. So we still have work to do."
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