California Poor People's Campaign joins nationwide caravans of mourning demand COVID action, smooth transition

Visuals include putting signs and memorials on cars; brief press availability and caravans around state Capitol 

 

 

WHAT: The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will organize Moral Monday caravans to mourn the nearly quarter-million Americans who have died from COVID-19, demand a smooth and open transition of power and lift up the moral policies we need immediately and in the first days of the new administration. 

 

WHO: The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign, along with protesters in their cars.

 

Speakers/testifiers will include Jamilia Land and Sylvia Ramos

 

WHEN: 11:30 a.m. PT Monday, Nov. 23, 2020

 

WHERE: Caravan participants will begin to gather at 11:00AM at the SEIU 1000 Parking Lot, 1808 14th St, Sacramento, CA 95811 to put signs and memorials on their vehicles before heading to California State Capitol where cars will circle the Capitol.

 

The car caravan will be decorated with colorful slogans and signs with the names and images of loved ones lost from COVID-19 and poverty. Also, the cars will include Fight Poverty not the Poor, and Full and Just Relief Package now!!

 

Other participating states include Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

 

You can also join online at https://vote.poorpeoplescampaign.org to hear reports from each participating state capitol. An online mourning wall for COVID-19 victims and a petition demanding short- and long-term action from the White House and Congress will be shared on the website in the days before the caravans. 

 

WHY: This Thanksgiving, a day already marked by many Indigenous people as a day of mourning, families across the country will remember and mourn the loss of loved ones who have died from COVID-19 and poverty. Millions of poor and low-income households also face mounting bills, evictions, and hunger after months of unemployment, cuts in wages and the government’s failure to pass a comprehensive COVID-relief package.  

 

The COVID-19 crisis feeds on the fissures of inequality already felt by the 140 million people who were living in poverty before the pandemic, or who were one emergency away from poverty. In California:

 

• 1.4 million on unemployment (Nov 2020)
• Unemployment rate of 11% (Nov 2020)
• 1.05 million COVID cases
• 18,317 COVID deaths

 

According to the California Poverty Measure, 17.8% of Californians are living in poverty; in total 36% of Californians live at or near the poverty line.

 

• 17% of children; 27% of single parent households living in poverty

 

• In 2018, 22.8% of Latinos; 18.2% African Americans lived in poverty in CA compared with 12.8% of whites
• 79% of poor Californians had at least one working adult in the household

 

We are now approaching 250,000 deaths while millions remain without health care. Thirty million workers have lost their jobs or significant hours of work, and nearly every state is facing sharp drops in revenue that will threaten even more cuts to essential social programs and jobs. The U.S. economy remains deeply depressed and,  as Federal Reserve Chair Powell warns, may never return to “normal” -- the greatest impact of further economic shifts will be on low-wage workers and others deemed “essential,” but who are still unable to afford all the essentials of life.

 

Ending the suffering of our families and communities is a moral mandate to all who are tasked with governance now and in the new year. Calls for cooperation cannot compromise with injustice. 

 

Our political leaders must reject a politics of austerity and meet their commitment to visionary policies that address human needs and cultivate human capacities. They must overcome the divisions caused by hunger, poverty, and racism in the richest country in the world. America must direct its resources and creativity towards the poor and most marginalized rather than lobbyists, insurance companies, financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and wealthy corporations. 

 

**The event will be ASL interpreted and captioned. 

 

BACKGROUND: More than 140 million poor and low-income people live in the United States, or 43% of the country’s population, and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic. The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, with organizing committees in 43 states, is building a moral fusion movement to address the five interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism and a distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. Our demands are reflected in our Jubilee Platform.

 

For additional information: poorpeoplescampaign.org  https://youtu.be/PmOjcUoDhEs

 

Twitter: @unitethepoor / Instagram: @poorpeoplescampaign / Facebook: @ANewPPC

 

CONTACTS:

Faye Wilson Kennedy,  916 812-7429/fayek@springmail.com

Nell Myhand,510- 5480/myhand94606@gmail.com

Rose Gudiel Escobar,  626-5967/rose.seiu1000@gmail.com

 

Martha Waggoner:  mwaggoner@breachrepairers.org | 919-295-0802