We Must Do MORE!

By Emily Keel
WILPF liaison to the PPC

May 2022

We are in the last month of preparation for the Mass Poor People's and Low Wage Workers'  Assembly on June 18 in Washington, DC. Anticipation is growing, and so is the number of people committing to travel to this history-making, generationally transformative event. “This is not a day of action. It is a declaration of an ongoing, committed moral movement to 1) Build power, 2) Shift the political narrative, and 3) Make real policies to fully address poverty and low wealth from the bottom up”, co-chairs Bishop Barber and Rev Theoharis tell us.  

WILPF members will be flying, busing, driving, and coming by train to the events on June 18, and some will stay for ancillary events with Code Pink and the PPC. As one of the two solidarity actions chosen by our branches, uniting at this event has a powerful significance to many of us. We hope to gather as one group and display our branch banners and WILPF US/PPC logos. We will be getting off Zoom and getting into the streets! Our members have long been passionate about immigrant rights, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism, the threats of uncontrolled corporate power and big money to our individual rights and freedoms, the economic stability of families and individuals, and the human right to safe food and water. These are areas in which WILPF members have worked for decades. Now we have a chance to join the national campaign to demand these considerations for all people. 

We all suffer when we are denied the support for social and environmental needs because we have poured billions into the war industry. We have a chance to make our voices heard and change our nation's moral narrative by showing up in numbers far too large to be ignored. Read why we must have this assembly and moral march in 2022 here. Let's join in liberating the politicians and ruling class from all the ways they hold us down as sung by Matthew David Morris here in Lift From the Bottom.

Several of our current members were a part of the 1968 Poor People's March in DC with Coretta Scott King and Ralph Abernathy following Dr. King's assassination. That historic event demanded economic justice over a period just longer than a month before being forced to cease.  If you were a part of those events, please contact me and tell me about the history that you were a part of then. Our nation's horrific shame is that we are fighting the same battles 54 years later. We watch as the 140 million poor and low wealth citizens continue to be kicked to the sidelines as we favor those with wealth, military might, and corporate affiliations.   

The campaign offers scholarships for travel to DC for low-income people through your state campaign. Find the contacts for each state here. WILPF will announce some scholarships for our members with information on how to apply. There will also be WILPF PPC buttons distributed to branches for free and T-shirts (union made) that combine our logos that we can order from WILPF. If you are not able to join us in DC, think of contributing to travel for others by going here.

If you are planning to travel by the rally.co bus program, I have additional details about that ride-share service and will share those if you contact me.   

Please continue to reach out to friends, your faith group, labor organizations, civic groups, and others to let them know the importance of this event and the power of joining together.  As Bishop Barber has said, “We cannot address labor rights in one place, health care one place, voting rights in another place. We must say that we want all our rights, and we want them now!” This is a united movement, and our entire democracy is at stake. 

If you plan to be with us as WILPF joins with the Poor People's Campaign and have not completed the recent survey sent by eAlert, please contact me at ppc-comm@wilpfus.org.  Let me know if there are questions or ways that I may help in your plans, and thanks for joining us!