{"id":22035,"date":"2018-02-19T09:14:24","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T16:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=22035"},"modified":"2022-02-19T05:35:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-19T12:35:05","slug":"the-revival-of-the-poor-peoples-campaign-and-its-effects-on-women-in-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=22035","title":{"rendered":"The Revival of the Poor People’s Campaign and its Effects on Women in Poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bishop William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis led a mass meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina<\/p><\/div>\n

With the re-launch of the Poor People\u2019s Campaign<\/a> over fifty years after the call by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Fight for $15 joined the new movement launch with a one day strike and rallies of low wage service workers across the South, in memory of the Memphis sanitation strike. On Feb. 12, 1968, the strike began after two co-workers died on the job and drew the attention of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr to the location where he was killed.<\/p>\n

Across the Mid-south, there were more than 30 demonstrations, and fast-food workers went on strike for a day. The protest served as uniting of the coalition between the Fight for $15 Movement and the Campaign, which focuses on shared goals: the push for a $15 hourly wage, and the right to unionize and the right to organize. Rev. William Barber of North Carolina<\/a>, one of the co-founders alongside Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, explained<\/a>, \u201cBoth of our movements will do whatever it takes to ensure everyone has a living wage, a strong union and the right to organize for their rights so we can unrig America\u2019s broken politics and lift people of all races out of poverty.\u201d The movement will kick off in May, on Mother\u2019s Day, with six weeks of direct action and nonviolent civil disobedience in effort to address the issues of racism, poverty, militarism and ecological disaster.<\/p>\n

The re-launch of the campaign is in response to the Trump administration\u2019s rising hostility and white nationalist backlash to the progress of women and minorities: \u201cWe\u2019re witnessing fundamental changing our demographics around the world. We see extremist policies in America today and it\u2019s driven by the growing blackening and browning of America and a fusion of every creed, color and class.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal government<\/a> has invested only $183 billion of its budget in social programs but has relocated a $630 billion to the Department of Defense for the country\u2019s continuous wars. That money could be spent lifting people out of poverty and helping them get the necessities of food, shelter, heat and air conditioning, and other basics. Today in America<\/a>, nearly 140 million people, including 31 million children, are poor or near-poor; and the country has a growing trend of adults who work full time hours but are considered impoverished.<\/p>\n

Low-wage work has fallen on the shoulders of women who, according to the National Women\u2019s Law Center<\/a>, make up 60% of the workforce. Low wage workforce typically pays $11 per hour; in jobs paying less than $10 per hour, women make up 70% of those workers. Women primarily are bearing the consequences of the Trump administration\u2019s attack on social welfare programs in the United States, and that trend is only likely to continue, such as replacing SNAP benefits<\/a> with a food delivery service and calling for additional Medicaid<\/a> work requirements.<\/p>\n

It is symbolic and important that the launch would begin on Mother\u2019s Day, as women and mothers are those who most need the campaign to succeed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(Photo Credit: Facing South<\/a>) (Infographic Credit: National Women’s Law Center<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the re-launch of the Poor People\u2019s Campaign over fifty years after the call by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Fight for $15 joined the new movement launch with a one day strike and rallies of low wage service workers across the South, in memory of the Memphis sanitation strike. On Feb. 12, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":278,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6080,5998,6137,1616],"class_list":["post-22035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-fight-for-15","tag-nichole-smith","tag-poor-peoples-campaign","tag-the-rev-dr-martin-luther-king","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/278"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22035"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25700,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22035\/revisions\/25700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}