Wisconsin Poor People's Campaign
Capitol 2 E. Main St., Madison, Wisconsin 53703
press release: For the third consecutive week, poor people, clergy and advocates will return to the Wisconsin statehouse, as their historic reignition of the Poor People’s Campaign turns the focus of its protests to one of the 1968 movement’s main themes: militarism.
Tuesday’s protest comes days after President Trump bragged to North Korea about the United States’ “massive and powerful” nuclear capabilities and will highlight how our government prioritizes the war economy over programs to eradicate poverty and help veterans. Participants in Tuesday’s nonviolent direct action are expected to carry signs that read, “Money for Veterans, not for War,” and “Build Schools, Not Walls.”
They’ll call for a reallocation of budgetary dollars to veterans, healthcare, schools, public housing and other social programs in need of funding, among other demands. Under the current federal budget, 53 cents of every federal discretionary dollar goes to military spending and only 15 cents is spent on anti-poverty programs. Tuesday’s protests will highlight how this disproportionate allocation of resources benefits military contractors that profit from war at the expense of our troops.
In 2015, the Department of Defense budgeted more money on federal contracts, $274 billion, than all other federal agencies combined. In 2016, CEOs of the top five military contractors earned on average $19.2 million each — more than 90 times the $214,000 earned by a U.S. general with 20 years of experience and 640 times the $30,000 earned by Army privates in combat.
In his landmark speech on militarism at Riverside Church in 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the leaders of the original Poor People’s Campaign said: “If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”
The action in Wisconsin is one of three dozen nationwide, including a major protest planned at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. that will feature Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival co-chair, the Rev. Liz Theoharis. Her campaign co-chair, the Rev. William Barber II, will join protestors in Raleigh, NC, where he started the Moral Mondays Movement.
With 101 mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2018, activists will also draw the connection between the war economy and the mass proliferation of guns on our streets. They will demand a ban on assault rifles and a ban on the easy access to firearms. And they’ll call for the demilitarization of our borders, including an end to calls to build a war on the U.S.-Mexico Border. They’ll also call for an immigration system that, instead of criminalizing people for trying to raise their families, prioritizes family reunification, keeps families together and allows us all to build thriving communities in the country we call home.
For more information contact wisconsin@poorpeoplescampaign.
Website: poorpeoplescampaign.org
Facebook: @anewppc
Twitter: @UniteThePoor
Martin Luther King Jr's Poor People's Campaign for Moral Revival announces six weeks of direct non-violent action to confront the immoral policies of racism, systemic poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and religious nationalism. From May 13 through June 23 there will be presentations, discussions, marches and demonstrations in cities all over the nation.