POOR PEOPLE’S
CAMPAIGN: A NATIONAL CALL FOR MORAL REVIVAL
Organizing
Guide for State Capitol Press Conference and Demand Deliveries
Action Purpose & Overview
As part of the Poor
People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival state leaders will
organize news conferences/rallies inside state
and federal capital buildings across the nation
within the first few weeks of state legislatures going into session to deliver
our campaign demands.
This is an opportunity for states to express
collective power by acting in coordination with one another. When we act in
coordination we can bring more media attention to our work, we build off the
energy of other state actions and we remind our base and each other that we
aren’t alone.
These
actions will not include nonviolent moral fusion direct action but will instead
put our state legislators on notice of what we expect from our lawmakers. For
those states that will engage in nonviolent direct action as part of their
legislative strategy, these actions will lay a path for escalation as the
session continues.
These actions will
provide an opportunity to announce the upcoming work of your state campaign
such as the statewide media tours in late March, organizing drives, poor
people’s hearings, etc.
Our Organizing Principles
While these actions
will be different in each state, the spirit of each must align with the
Fundamental Principles of the campaign. Consider each of these points at every
step of your planning process.
●
In our efforts to shift the
narrative, we know that we must shift the narrator. We
create a platform for and uplift the leadership of those who are most directly
impacted by the immoral policies that contribute to and maintain systemic
racism, poverty and inequality, the war economy and militarism, and ecological
devastation.
Questions to consider: Who is speaking? Are those most directly impacted by systemic
injustice speaking in place of organizational leaders and non-profit leads. Who is organizing? In organizing for this action are emerging impacted
leaders from your campaign engaged in the organizing process? Who is participating? Is your event accessible to people
with disabilities? How will you meet the needs of your participants in terms of
language barriers?
●
We are confronting the distorted
moral narrative of Christian nationalism by making visible the true moral
issues of our day. One of the ways we do this is by involving and making visible
leaders of many faiths who provide moral framing to contextualize our movement
and issues.
Questions to consider: How are we providing a moral framing? Are faith leaders from your
campaign engaged in the organizing process? Have they been encouraged to
organize their congregation to attend? Have you asked clergy to wear their
vestments appropriate for public witness (these are key to visualizing their
involvement)? Do you have faith leaders speaking in your program to provide
moral framing? Are speakers prepared to have a moral framing in their remarks?
●
We engage in fusion organizing. We
intentionally build our campaign across lines of difference and historical
division and make our fusion movement visible from every platform we create. We
resist a single-issue mindset and at every opportunity reveal the connections
between the issues we each face. We are not allies to one another but partners
and we uplift each others struggles as our own.
Questions to consider: Are we demonstrating fusion politics? Are the speakers a visual
representation of coming together across lines of division including race, age,
gender, gender identity, ability, sexual orientation, region and other lines of
difference? Are the people standing behind your speakers and within the
video/camera frame also visually demonstrating a coming together of people
across lines of division? How are we using our program to show the connections
across issues? How are all regions of your state campaign being included in
your event framing and outreach efforts?
●
We
understand the importance of a culturally grounded movement. When we gather as
a movement, theomusicology can unite, galvanize, energize, inform, comfort,
calm, direct, encourage and much more. Visual art helps effectively communicate
our message and goals as a movement while creating a unified visual identity
across all of our state campaigns.
Questions to consider: How will you bring the PPC spirit to your action? Will you have a
theomusicologist lead campaign songs and chants during the news conference and demand delivery? Will
you bring your PPC banners, flags and placards?
●
We understand the importance of
building a mass movement and reaching as many people as possible and recognize
the important role the media plays in maximizing our reach. A central goal of
the campaign is to shift the narrative. To do this, we don’t let the media tell the story they want to tell, we teach the
media about how they should understand and report on what they see.
Questions to consider: What is your media outreach/creation strategy? Have you identified
and prepared media spokespeople who are committed to the campaign and can
effectively communicate about the campaign and the event? How will you create
your own media with this news conference? Examples: writing letters to the
editor, creating videos, memes, and social media engagement.
● Our most effective weapon
in our fight to shift the narrative is the truth. We have made a serious
commitment to revealing the truth both through personal testimony and through
empirical research and analysis. At every opportunity, we tell the truth about
what is happening in our communities, across our states, and across the
country.
Questions to consider: How are you using the action as an opportunity for political education?
Are you passing out your state fact sheets at the news conference to both
participants and media? How are you incorporating these facts and others from
the Souls of Poor Folks Audit in
remarks and testimonies given during your news conference?
● We are
committed to nonviolence. While this takes many forms, we believe that all people have the right to feel safe.
Questions to
consider: Does your news
conference feel safe and welcoming? What are your plans for making sure
your action is safe and people are able to get their questions answered (marshalls,
etc)? What is your plan to make sure your action is accessible? How will people new to the
Campaign feel welcome and invited into the work? Are you passing a clipboard
with pledge cards and/or registration forms?
●
We are political and we are nonpartisan—no elected
officials or candidates get the stage or serve on our organizing committees.
This is not about left and right, Democrat or Republican but about right and
wrong.
How Is This
Action Rooted In Our Goals?
Shift the
narrative; Build power; & Impact elections and policies
Center our narrative
● The narrative around our
state legislature’s policy agendas, those most likely to have widespread
negative impact on the lives of poor and marginalized people, are largely
controlled by lawmakers. We will interrupt this narrative and bring media
attention to 1) the truth about what is happening in our communities and the
moral crisis we are in and 2) the ways that these policy agendas either contribute to or at the least maintain systemic
racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy, and a distorted moral
narrative.
These institutions of power are not living up to their constitutional mandate
to “govern for the good of the whole” or the “general welfare.”
Change the moral and political landscape
● Many of the organizations
that are part of the PPC: NCMR will likely be involved in specific policy
endorsements during your legislative session. It is unlikely that legislation introduced
during this session will meet campaign criteria for policy endorsement (see page 7 of the
Phase II Organizing Guide) because legislation is usually based on what lawmakers see as possible
in the moral and political context they are operating in. This means our
strategy for impacting policy is not endorsements. Instead, we are creating a
moral and political landscape where these demands are the norm rather than the
extreme. This begins by focusing the conversation around our demands.
Engage new leaders and consolidate emerging leaders
● We will reach new
audiences by engaging in a highly publicized action and provide an opportunity
for new people to get involved in the campaign.
● When we organize together,
we have the opportunity to consolidate current and emerging campaign leader’s
commitment, clarity and capacity. Any action or event can be used to strengthen
our skills as organizers, speakers, canvassers, etc.; to deepen our
understanding of the campaign demands and vision; and to strengthen our
relationships to other leaders in our campaign.
Materials and Resources
Mobilization
●
Review the list of organizations
and list of faith bodies
that have endorsed the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral
Revival. Don’t forget to invite these groups to take action with you.
●
Flyer for those who request it
Communication
●
Materials to come
○
Template press advisory
○
Template open letter to deliver
with the demands
○
Template Op-Ed
●
Click here to review the Communications Webinars
to refresh your memory on strategies for media outreach, building your media
link, and training media spokespeople.
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