Which Side Are We On? A TIME FOR ACTION

Dianne Blais, in Washington DC at the PPC march & rally on November 15

By Dorothy Van Soest
WILPF Liaison to the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC)

December 2021

A Call to Moral Revival Into Real Action

The first person I met was Sister Carol Gilbert. I had read about her and Ardeth Platte and their anti-nuclear work.  She asked if I knew Ray Acheson and helped me put on my WILPF sash... I was only a few feet from Rev. Barber as he spoke about the huge costs incurred by social cuts... and held the banner all the time except for a few minutes when he told us to put our signs down and clap. Numerous people noted and took pics of the banner.  I was glad to have WILPF represented. — Dianne Blais, Jane Addams Branch, at the Supreme Court on Nov 15, 2021

Our nation is at a critical crossroads when, now more than ever, we must put WILPF’s partnership with the Poor People’s Campaign: A Call to Moral Revival into real action.

WILPF and the PPC are on the same side. The side of ensuring education for our children instead of insulating billionaires from tax cuts. The side of providing paid sick leave and paying fair wages instead of creating more money for fewer people. The side of politicians who vote to uplift the whole society and guarantee full access to the ballot instead of those who would hide behind a coward’s filibuster and allow voter suppression to go unchecked. The side of fighting for the soul of the nation and democracy instead of letting the love of money, which is the root of all evil, be our nation’s guiding principle.

WILPF is on the side of the Poor Peoples Campaign as an active partner in the moral fusion movement, uniting people all over the country to address the five interlocking injustices that have led to over 140 million people being poor or low wage. Now more than ever, we are called to realize WILPF’s partnership with the PPC through taking action.

CALL TO ACTION: WILPF Representatives needed for Moral Monday March in Washington on December 13 at 12 p.m. EST

CALL TO ACTION: WILPF REPRESENTATIVES NEEDED. With the pandemics of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and a war economy, voter suppression, and COVID-19 decimating our lives and democracy, we must demand that Congress pass voting rights and Build Back Better before the year ends. RSVP today to join the Poor People’s Campaign Washington DC to tell Congress: Get It Done in 2021!

Don’t have enough people to fill a bus? Join with your state Poor Peoples Campaign. To find your state contact go to the PPC Website.

Unable to travel to DC? Watch the action on livestream, by yourself, with others, with your branch. For viewing information, visit PPC's Facebook.

Register to get updates and more information: PPC Website.

What else can you do? Call and email your Senators, demand that they listen to the 140 million poor and low wealth people in the United States. Tell them to get legislation done in 21! Here’s a sample script:

My name is _______ and I am a resident of ____ State at zip code______.

I demand that you pass critical legislation that serves the 140 million poor people in the United States. Justice delayed is justice denied. The Senate must end its legislative filibuster immediately and pass critical legislation before the end of the year, including:

• President’s Build Back Better Agenda as a first step to addressing poverty in the wealthiest country on earth
• For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to protect the sacred right to vote for all Americans
• PRO Act and a $15 Minimum Wage for All Workers to give the working class the ability to organize in their workplaces and a basic minimum standard of living

SAVE THE DATE: June 18, 2022 for Mass Poor Peoples & Low Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington

ORGANIZE AND MOBILIZE WILPF TO BE THERE! This will be a generationally transformative event in DC that is one part of the broader movement to realize a Third Reconstruction building across the country.

It is not just a one-day event. It is a declaration that we must do more to make DC hear us and meet the needs of more than 140 million poor and low-income people—a declaration that this is not a political game. People are dying; more than 50% of our children are poor or low wealth—a declaration that we are here. We will never again be divided, and we will be heard— a declaration that we are doing M.O.R.E., the Mobilizing, Organizing, Registering, and Educating of poor and low wealth who are eligible to vote in 2022—a declaration that we understand. In the words of Frederick Douglass during the years leading up to the First Reconstruction, “power concedes nothing without a demand.”

Watch this video Announcing the March and show it to others: Poor People's Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival

RSVP for more information: PPC Website

Sign up to receive WILPF for PPC email messages: wilpf4ppc@gmail.com