PPC- Call to Action

 

Call to Action: A Movement Declaration to Reconstruct American Democracy At the June 18 Moral Assembly, the Poor People’s Campaign announced its new campaign: 7 Steps Before the Midterms. The steps are enumerated in a new document titled A Movement Declaration to Reconstruct American Democracy, whose preamble points out the importance of this year’s midterm elections, when 469 seats in Congress will be in play. At the same time, the preamble notes, “our democracy is threatened by a state-by-state coordinated assault on the right to vote and imperiled by open violence, greed, obstruction, distortions and denial, while more than 140 million poor and low-wealth people of every race, creed, religion, in every region of this country are rising up daily against growing indignities, pain, injury and death at the hands of immoral policies and interlocking injustices.”   But rather than being obstacles, these facts drive us forward. “Our votes are not supports but demands to be heard and to take action. A movement that votes does not vote for any party or any one person, we vote for our people and for our lives. We vote to summon a Third Reconstruction that can birth us out of an impoverished democracy and usher in a new world.”   Here is a summary of the seven steps: We demand that every member of Congress publicly acknowledge the reality and pain of 140 million poor and low wealth people. We demand every member of Congress commit to creating and supporting legislation that reflects the Third Reconstruction Agenda developed by poor and low-wage communities. We demand a White House Poverty Summit with President Biden to allow this administration to meet with a delegation of poor and low-wealth people, religious leaders and economists and to commit to an Executive Action Plan to Eliminate Poverty in 2022. We declare that this Campaign will engage in massive mobilization and outreach through every means available to us—by visits, letters, petitions, candidate forums, and phone calls—advocating for our current representatives to take action now to address the needs of 140 million poor and low-wealth people in this country. We pledge to return to Washington D.C. in September 2022, to join 5,000 poor and low-wealth people and religious leaders, along with 100 economists, in nonviolent moral direct action in our next step of declaration and notification of these demands. This Campaign announces its launch of a nationwide effort to register and educate poor and low-income communities to vote in every election for candidates who commit to a Third Reconstruction Agenda to address poverty and low wealth from the bottom up. We declare that we are a movement that votes. We call on all poor and low-wealth people to march in mass assembly from here to the polls this November and to use your vote to make your voices heard! The seven steps will ground us and focus our upcoming work. We hope you’ll take a moment to read them in full.

PPC statement on the overturning of Roe v. Wade Amongst a series of disappointing rulings issued by the Supreme Court this week, the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade stands out as a watershed attack that will come to be known as the culmination of an extremist assault on this country’s gains toward equality and justice. “The immediate and long-term impact of this decision in Dobbs v. Jackson will be disproportionately felt by poor women, women of color, transgender and gender non-confirming people, all of whom already face increased healthcare disparities and economic insecurity,” write Rev. Barber, Rev. Theoharis, and national PPC policy director Shailly Gupta Barnes in an op-ed for Common Dreams.   Overturning more than 50 years of legal precedent (or stare decisis), the Court’s Dobbs decision jeopardizes any rights that were not already in place more than 150 years ago, when the 14th Amendment was ratified.    "Let us be clear," they write, "that the impact of Dobbs is not limited to these women or anyone whose health, security, and privacy are at greater risk because of this decision. They are just the frontlines of a broad-based assault on privacy that will impact how and when we decide to have children, who we can be in a relationship with and marry, how we raise our children, and how we die."   This decision—along with recent jurisprudence from the Court targeting voting rights protections, gun violence, the rights of immigrants, housing, public health and protections from police violence and the coercive power of the criminal legal system—is further evidence that the current Court is acting outside of the interests of the American people. The ultimate consequences of the court's decision to break from settled jurisprudence, the commands of the U.S. Constitution and all legal norms reveal again an emergency in the highest court. When the Supreme Court directs people to elected officials to protect constitutional rights, while gutting the right to vote through unrelenting attacks on the Voting Rights Act, our democracy is in acute crisis. To quote the Common Dreams article again, “The current U.S. Supreme Court is not a constitutionally legitimate body.” While we should mourn this decision and take action to help those affected across the country, Rev. Barber, Rev. Theoharis, and Barnes finish with a rallying cry. They recall the historic reaction to the Dred Scott decision in 1857 and its contribution to the anti-slavery movement. “We also know that while the Supreme Court has great power, it is not the only power.” Noting our recent march on Washington, they continue: “We, too, have a power that can and will rise to this moment. Ours is the power of unity, forged across these attacks and lines of divisions, against the power structures, systems, laws and policies that make life unlivable for 140 million people.”

Upcoming meetings

Mass Assembly debriefing Today! Thursday June 30, 6pm | RSVP June 18 was a powerful and transformative action. But our work is not over. Please join us for an evaluation of the event as we plan the next phase of our campaign. Bring your stories and reflections about our organizing and your ideas for driving our movement forward.