Decrying System That Favors 'War and the Wealthy,' Poor People's Campaign Unveils Agenda to Combat Poverty, Racism, and Militarism

In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s original campaign against poverty that kicked off 50 years ago next month, leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) on Tuesday announced plans to revive Dr. King’s radical moral vision with mass action nationwide and unveiled a series of ambitious demands aimed at combating the economic, racial, and environmental injustices that afflict tens of millions of people in the world’s wealthiest nation.

“We are coming together to break the silence and tell the truth about the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy, and our distorted moral narrative.” 
—Poor People’s Campaign

Titled the “Declaration of Fundamental Rights and Poor People’s Moral Agenda,” the document argues—as Dr. King did—that the crises of poverty, militarism, racism, and environmental degradation are interconnected and that all must be confronted if justice for the disenfranchised is to be achieved.

“The truth is that systemic racism allows us to deny the humanity of others; by denying the humanity of others, we are given permission to exploit or exclude people economically; by exploiting and excluding people economically, we are emboldened to abuse our military powers and, through violence and war, control resources; this quest for the control of resources leads to the potential destruction of our entire ecosystem and everything living in it,” PPC declares.

Below is a list of just a handful of the movement’s demands, which PPC leader Rev. William Barber argued during a press conference on Monday can only be achieved through “power-building from the bottom up”:

• Full restoration and expansion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and “an end to racist gerrymandering and redistricting”;
• Automatic voter registration;
• Federal and state living wage laws;
• Full implementation of single-payer healthcare;
• Complete repeal of the GOP tax law and “reinvestment of those funds into social programming that helps all”;
• A ban on fracking and a just transition to 100 percent renewable energy; and
• An “end to military aggression and war-mongering” and reallocation of resources from the military budget to education, healthcare, jobs and green infrastructure needs, and strengthening a VA system that remains public.”

“We are coming together to break the silence and tell the truth about the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy, and our distorted moral narrative,” the document concludes. “We loudly proclaim that we will move forward together, not one step back!”

Click Here: camisetas de futbol baratas

Watch Barber and other PPC leaders deliver the demands at a press conference on Tuesday:

In addition to its series of demands, PPC also released a report in conjunction with the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) detailing the widespread destitution and collapsing living standards that make such an ambitious agenda necessary.