On Mother’s Day 50 years ago, thousands converged on
Washington, D.C., to take up the cause that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had
been fighting for when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968: the Poor People’s Campaign.
A little more than a week after her husband’s memorial service, Coretta Scott
King led a march to demand an Economic Bill of Rights that included a
guaranteed basic income, full employment and more low-income housing. Half a
century later, Rev. Dr. William Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis have
launched a new Poor People’s Campaign. Starting today, low-wage workers, clergy
and community activists in 40 states are participating in actions and events
across the country that will culminate in a mass protest in Washington, D.C.,
on June 23. We speak with Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis,
co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. On Mother’s Day
50 years ago, thousands converged on Washington, D.C., to take up the cause
that Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been fighting for when he was
assassinated just months before, April 4th, 1968: the Poor People’s Campaign.
It was a little more than a week after her husband’s memorial service that
Coretta Scott King led a march to demand Economic Bill of Rights, that included
a guaranteed basic income, full employment and more low-income housing. In the
coming weeks, caravans traveled from around the country to take part in a
6-week-long protest camp on the National Mall called “Resurrection City.”
Today we look at the new Poor People’s Campaign,
launched by the Reverend Dr. William Barber II and Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis.
Starting today, continuing for the next six weeks, low-wage workers, clergy and
community activists in 40 states are planning events that will culminate in a
mass protest in Washington June 23rd. This week’s focus is on children, women
and people with disabilities who live in poverty.
OLGA BAUTISTA: We’re
going to do something different here, and because we deserve it, because we
matter. And I think that that is the spirit of the Poor People’s Campaign, is
just saying, “It ends with me. You know, we’re going to have a different community,
a different neighborhood.”
What’s disgusting?
GIRL: Union
busting.
OLGA BAUTISTA: What?What’s
disgusting?
GIRL: Union
busting.
AMY GOODMAN: The
new Poor People’s Campaign officially launched last year, and, since then,
Reverend Dr. William Barber and Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis have been touring
the country. Today they’re in Washington, D.C., for a major day of nonviolent
direct action, joining us now.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Reverend
Dr. William Barber, you’re president of Repairers of the Breach, distinguished
visiting professor of public theology at Union Theological Seminary, former
president of the North Carolina NAACP, and Moral Mondays leader. Talk about what
you’re doing now. What is different today? What are you doing in Washington,
D.C.?
REV. WILLIAM BARBER II: Thank
you so much, Amy. Today, in more than 30 states and here in the District of
Columbia, activists, clergy and, most of all, impacted people, the poor, will
be organizing a nonviolent, moral, fusion direct action Mondays, a direct
confrontation with what we call policy violence and the immoral policies that
we see are continuing to hurt the poor. And particularly the focus today will
be on women in poverty, children in poverty and the disabled. We cannot
continue to have a democracy that engages in the kind of policy violence that
we see happening every day.
I think about the low-wage worker I met in North Carolina who could not
get insurance, because North Carolina did not expand Medicaid, and was also
sick with ovarian cancer and has children. Or Amy in West Virginia, who is a
woman who’s a working poor woman, who watched her state, her governor,
Republican governor, cynically give a little raise to teachers, but chose to do
it by cutting Medicaid and cutting food stamps. Or I think about the lady
Pamela in Lowndes County, Alabama, who has raw sewage in the back of her yard,
who was taken advantage of by predatory lenders and had to pay over
$100,000-some for a single wide trailer that is now falling apart, full of mold
and holes. And her son, who is an 11-year-old, now has to wear a CPAPmachine
because of the infections in his lungs. And she, herself, is disabled.
All over this country, we continue to see what is not often seen or
talked about in our politics, in our political debates, or even in the media,
except for places like here, Amy. Two hundred fifty thousand people are dying
every year from poverty and low wealth. Sixty-four million people work with
less than a living wage, 54 percent of African Americans. And these realities
hurt children and women and the disabled the most. Thousands of people who are
homeless, of every different race, creed, color and sexual orientation.
And what we are saying, it is time for a moral confrontation, a
nonviolent moral confrontation, because whether you look at the morality of our
Constitution, the establishment of justice, or you look at the morality of the
Scriptures, that says, for instance, in Isaiah 10, “Woe unto those who legislate
evil and rob the poor of their right and make women and children their prey.”
It is immoral to have 37 million people without healthcare. It is immoral not
to pay living wages when we know we can do it. It is immoral that people don’t
have single-payer healthcare for everybody as a matter of human rights—and
children have access to public education and college, and that we stop the
trend of resegregation. It is immoral the way we’ve suppressed the vote in a
way that allows people to get elected who, once they get elected, using
racialized methods to do so, they then vote policies that hurt women and
children and disabled. They’re against living wages. They’re against
healthcare. They’re against unemployment—and those things that hurt families,
hurt children, hurt women and hurt the disabled.
And we’re coming together, of every race, creed, color, kind, people
from every part of this country. There will be simultaneous nonviolent actions,
beginning today with a 2:00 rally and then 3:00 direct action. And this will go
on for 40 days, every Monday, along with other things that will be happening
across the country.
Please continue this transcript, or to
watch the full video interview, please go here: https://www.democracynow.org/2018/5/14/its_time_for_moral_confrontation_new
No comments:
Post a Comment