Today's Poor People's March on Washington and the tie-in between military spending and underfunded social programs

With my daughter Michelle and granddaughter (off to the side in the picture) at the Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly in DC today. The assembly fed on the legacy of Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s March which took place shortly following his assassination in 1968.

 

Today’s march did a fantastic job in uniting disparate groups and causes under one banner, and this was the goal of the march stressed by its key organizer the Rev. William Barber. Unity in diversity is what the march was all about.The scores of speakers with a few exceptions were poor people from different groups living in states throughout the country. They included ex-felons, homeless people, members of the LBGTQ+ communities, Latinxs, African-Americans, etc. There appeared to be an alliance between the “poor people” organizers and labor unions leaders (as evinced in the name of the Assembly). A number of unions including the AFL-CIO and Unite Here spoke all one after another. One topic that came up a number of times (though not enough for me) was the link between underfunded social programs and the military budget-endless wars abroad.

 

Barber stressed that his movement was committed to mass civil disobedience in the near future (he stated beginning in 2 years) if major changes do not come about. He closed the rally with an emotional speech which had a number of people on the stage next to him as well as in the public in tears.