Via WI Examiner

From Madison to North Carolina, poor and low income people will be mobilizing on March 28

On March 28, the last Monday in March, the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) will march on Raleigh, North Carolina. As part of the mobilization, actions will also be held in Madison, Wisconsin. Part of an ongoing 12-stop national tour, the actions aim to build momentum for a mass poor people’s assembly and march on Washington, D.C. on June 18. During a press conference Monday, Rev. Dr. William Barber II said that it’s a movement mobilized “among the 140 million poor and low wealth people in this country.” In other words, Barber added, “43% of this nation — a shameful number — 52% of our children, those who have been made poorer, even during COVID. Who have decided that somebody has been hurting our people, and we won’t be silent anymore.”

Barber said that a main focus is to shift the country’s moral narrative. “Because on June 18, it won’t be people speaking on behalf of people. But it will be people who are impacted by what we call the five interlocking injustices. Systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, slashed and denial of health care, the war economy and the false narrative of religious nationalism.” The march, Barber said, will put “a face on the 140 million,” of which, he stressed, “66 million of that 140 million are white; 26 million are Black; 38% of Latinos are poor and low wealth; 38% of indigenous people, over 20% of Asians, 73 million women. And during COVID, billionaires made $2 trillion so far, while 8 million more people fell into poverty.”

In Wisconsin, over 2 million people, or about 35% of the population, live in poverty or low wealth conditions. As of 2018, some 313,000 people were uninsured in a state where the minimum wage of $7.25 is just 29.9% of the living wage of $24.54. According to an analysis done by Oxfam America, a global organization that analyzes economic and social inequality, Wisconsin “ranked last in the Great Lakes region in worker rights and protections.” Mid-2020 saw nearly half a million Wisconsinites who rent face eviction, or about 27% of householders statewide.