AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager

Sunday, June 03, 2018

Advocates to Demand Lawmakers Address Environmental Justice as Poor People’s Campaign Heads to Springfield

Advocates to Demand Lawmakers Address Environmental Justice

as Poor People’s Campaign Heads to Springfield

Springfield, MA — For the fourth consecutive week, poor people, clergy and advocates will rally in Massachusetts as their historic reignition of the Poor People’s Campaign this week demands lawmakers ensure everyone in Massachusetts has the right to healthcare and a healthy environment.

At least 42% of Springfield residents have incomes under $25,000. April was the 400^th month in a row with warmer than normal temperatures. Springfield is the #1 most challenging city in the U.S. to live with asthma, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

In Massachusetts, 379,100 people have no health insurance, 11 percent of census tracts are at-risk for being unable to afford water, and 10,452 tons of NOx, a leading cause of respiratory problems, are emitted yearly in Massachusetts.

Participants in Monday’s nonviolent direct action are expected to carry signs that read, “Health care is a moral issue”, “13.8 million U.S. households cannot afford water”, “Systemic change NOT climate change”, and “Why can we buy unleaded gas, but not unleaded water?”

The action in Massachusetts is one of three dozen nationwide.

WHO: Participants in Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral

Revival, Arise for Social Justice, and Springfield Climate Justice Coalition

WHAT: Protest at Springfield City Hall demanding immediate action to address environmental

justice

WHERE: Court Square, Springfield

WHEN: Monday, June 4, 2018, 1-3pm

BACKGROUND:

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is co-organized by Repairers of the Breach, a social justice organization founded by the Rev. Barber; the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary; and hundreds of local and national grassroots groups across the country.

On May 14, campaign co-chairs the Revs. William J. Barber II and Liz Theoharis were among hundreds arrested nationwide in the most expansive wave of nonviolent civil disobedience in U.S. history, kicking off a six-week season of direct action demanding new programs to fight systemic poverty and racism, immediate attention to ecological devastation and measures to curb militarism and the war economy. Last week, they were arrested again, alongside the Rev. Jesse Jackson after staging a pray-in in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Hundreds more were arrested at capitols nationwide, including in Massachusetts.

The protests from coast to coast are reigniting the Poor People’s Campaign, the 1968 movement started by Dr. King and so many others to challenge racism, poverty and militarism. The Campaign is expected to be a multi-year effort, but over the first 40 days, poor and disenfranchised people, moral leaders and advocates are engaging in nonviolent direct action, including by mobilizing voters, knocking on tens of thousands of doors, and holding teach-ins, among other activities, as a moral fusion movement comprised of people of all races and religions takes off.

For the past two years, leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival have carried out a listening tour in dozens of states across this nation, meeting with tens of thousands of people from El Paso, Texas to Marks, Mississippi to South Charleston, West Virginia. Led by the Revs. Barber and Theoharis, the campaign has gathered testimonies from hundreds of poor people and listened to their demands for a better society.

A Poor People’s Campaign Moral Agenda, announced last month, was drawn from this listening tour, while an audit of America conducted with allied organizations, including the Institute for Policy Studies and the Urban Institute, showed that, in many ways, we are worse off than we were in 1968.

The Moral Agenda, which is guiding the 40 days of actions, calls for major changes to address systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and our distorted moral narrative, including repeal of the 2017 federal tax law, implementation of federal and state living wage laws, universal single-payer health care, and clean water for all.

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Savina Martin

Massachusetts Statewide Coordinating Chair (Eastern Region)

Cell: (339) 216.7181

Email: massachusetts@poorpeoplescampagin.org

https://poorpeoplescampaign.org/

Michaelann Bewsee

Massachusetts Statewide Coordinating Chair (Western Region)

Arise for Social Justice, Springfield, MA

Khalil Saddiq, Legal Liaison

Massachusetts Statewide Coordinating Chair (Eastern Region)

"Forward Together NOT one step back!"