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poor people s campaign
We Should Listen to Rev Barber on White Poverty and Multracial Organizing
The latest book by the Poor People's Campaign co-chair shows how racial division keeps both Black and white communities poor—and lays out a real vision to defeat it.
Sep 03, 2024
For progressives to win, we need a powerful multiracial coalition. That includes the people of color who disproportionately suffer poverty and structural violence, but it also includes the white people who make up the largest share of poor people in this country.
As the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II points out in his new book, White Poverty, there are more poor white people than any other racial group, and more effort should be put into pulling them into this coalition.
I'm a white man from a wealthy family—and a lawyer who took on tough civil rights cases and fought them as if my life depended on it. My goal from the beginning was to join those who are trying to make America a better place—a country where racism and sexism would slowly fade away and where the possibility of equal opportunity would shine through.
I see that road forward in Rev. Barber's new book, co-written with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.
White Poverty's great value is to teach and motivate both Black and white leaders to create a multiracial movement which demands legislation that benefits all poor people.
Talking to white people in all walks of life—from taxi drivers to restaurant workers as well as bankers and stockbrokers—has been very revealing. When I say I'm a civil rights lawyer, their voices often take on a certain unsympathetic tone—and many times they inject the "Black crime rate" into the conversation. Sometimes the person will shift the conversation to discuss Black children being raised by single women who use food stamps to put food on the table or who benefit from other welfare programs.
As Barber points out, there are "more than twice as many poor white people as there are poor Black people in this nation." But if I mention that, the person sometimes appears not to hear me, or lets me know in no uncertain terms that it's Black people themselves who are at fault for their poverty—and they should look to their own lives rather than blame whites. The government taxes "us," I'm often told, to give "them" a free ride.
When I hear this, I know there's something major missing.
De-racializing Poverty
I've been encouraged by the many articles, books, and memoirs that have been written about racial justice since the protests over George Floyd's murder, but few suggest an effective way forward.
For example, a new book by Kellie Carter Jackson, We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance (Seal Press, 2024), highlights how Black women fought back against racism, some with weapons, some without, but none took the path that Reverend Barber takes in White Poverty. Reverend Barber, by contrast, argues that Blacks and whites must join together to address their common needs.
Another prominent civil rights advocate, Heather McGhee, traveled across America to write The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (One World, 2021), which documents how some progressives were beginning to engage in cross-racial solidarity through collective action to achieve higher wages and benefits for working people.
As Barber points out, the political establishment invariably markets itself to the needs of "the middle class" and ignores the poor, and whites especially look the other way.
In effect, Barber's White Poverty builds upon McGhee's book. It's the work of a man of action to not only test cross-racial solidarity, but to put that theory into action. Barber lays it on the line in his very first sentence: "This is a book by a Black man about white poverty in America." That initial signal points to where he is headed.
As a lifelong civil rights lawyer, I find that his signal resonates. As Barber persuasively argues, the public and the country's legislatures—federal, state, and local—accept the myth that poverty is only a Black issue, as do the people I talk to daily. They view poverty through this lens to the detriment of Black and white people alike, as well as people of all other colors and races.
As Barber points out, the political establishment invariably markets itself to the needs of "the middle class" and ignores the poor, and whites especially look the other way. The same is true even in our country's religious establishments. Barber notes that "a Pew Research Center study of nearly 50,000 sermons found that neither the words 'poverty' nor 'poor' register as commonly used in American pulpits."
A Multiracial Fusion Movement
Much of White Poverty concerns the history of how American racism came into being and how the myths evolved around it. Barber explains how the manipulation of these myths has preserved the power of white elites, who use their political and economic power to downgrade the needs of poor white people as well as Black people, while benefiting the wealthy.
To this reader then, White Poverty's great value is to teach and motivate both Black and white leaders to create a multiracial movement which demands legislation that benefits all poor people. As an additional benefit, White Poverty gives examples of Black and white movements fusing themselves together.
Not least, Barber has spent a huge amount of energy over the past seven years in building a multiracial Poor People's Campaign. Co-chaired by Rev. Barber along with Rev. Liz Theoharis of the Kairos Center, the Poor People's Campaign has thousands in the field to help poor white and poor Black communities understand each others' community needs and the advantages of working together to fight against "policy violence" and to turn out the vote.
This beautifully written book offers a road map to the powerful multiracial organizing that can turn this country around, lift up poor people, and deepen our democracy.
In the last election for governor in Kentucky, the campaign and its allies worked with both white and Black rural communities to get out the vote. The result was an upset in electing the state's present governor, Democrat Andy Beshear. In rural counties, an enlarged electorate turned out to vote and that tipped the election.
The Poor People's Campaign has built durable alliances with other organizations to advance its multiracial vision. It's currently collaborating with the AFL-CIO on voter engagement. It pursues legal challenges with Forward Justice. It coordinates actions with national Christian and Jewish organizations. With the Institute for Policy Studies, on whose board I serve, it has produced the data and the analysis to back up its bold agenda.
Barber is a man of the cloth who takes his religion seriously. As a result, the book is sprinkled with words from other religious figures who offer moral reasons for organizing poor people to struggle for their needs nonviolently but willing to cross police lines and stand up to authority.
In short, this beautifully written book offers a road map to the powerful multiracial organizing that can turn this country around, lift up poor people, and deepen our democracy.
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'We Are a Resurrection': Poor People's Campaign Rallies for Low-Wage Voters in DC
"There will be no democracy worth saving if it doesn't lift the lives of poor and low-wage people all over this world," one speaker said.
Jun 30, 2024
Thousands of poor and low-wage workers and their supporters from religious, labor, and social justice organizations rallied in Washington, D.C. on Saturday and pledged to "break the silence about poverty" and mobilize 15 million poor and low-income voters ahead of the November 2024 election.
The Mass Poor People's and Low Wage Workers' Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C. and to the Polls was hosted by the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, which hopes to pressure politicians to embrace a 17-point agenda that prioritizes the well-being of the poor and working class over funding for war and militarism.
"We came here today to represent America's largest potential swing vote: poor and low-wage people who make this country work," Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, wrote on social media after the event.
Speaking at the rally, which took place at Third and Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest and began at 10:00 am ET, Barber emphasized the potential power of the poor as a voting block. He said that poor people represent 30% of the electorate and 40% in swing states.
"Every state where the margin of victory was within 3%, poor and low-wage voters make up over 43% of the electorate," Barber said.
He added that in crucial battleground states Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia, the result of the 2020 election was determined by 178,000 votes, yet more than six million poor people in those states did not vote at all.
"Those most impacted by injustice, organizing together, mobilizing together, and voting together can force the changes that we know we need that will be good for everybody."
"The No. 1 reason they did not vote is they said nobody talked to them," Barber said. "Well, there comes a time when people don't talk to you, you've got to make them talk to you."
That is exactly what the Poor People's Campaign is trying to do. In addition to reaching out to 15 million low-income infrequent voters, Barber said the campaign planned to deliver a statement to the major news networks on Saturday.
"We don't care what kind of debate you have if you don't have a debate that asks candidates where they stand on living wages and labor and healthcare, that's the failure," Barber said.
Barber added that the movement would also deliver a statement to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions saying, "If you want these votes, then you have to talk to us, not about what you've done, but what you're going to do in the days to come, because our votes must rise."
Barber and other speakers argued for putting the concerns of the poor and low-income at the center of national politics.
"There will be no democracy worth saving if it doesn't lift the lives of poor and low-wage people all over this world," Barber said. "This is not a moment, this is a movement that must rise until we lift this nation from the bottom so that everybody rises."
Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, said: "Those most impacted by injustice, organizing together, mobilizing together, and voting together can force the changes that we know we need that will be good for everybody."
She argued that putting the poor at the center of the struggle for democracy "is what can save this nation."
"We say poverty no more. We demand justice for the poor," she concluded. "Because everybody has got a right to live."
On social media, Barber encouraged others to sign on to the movement's pledge.
"It's time to make our voices heard," Barber wrote. "We call on people of moral conscience to join us by pledging to be a part of this mobilization effort. Together, we can wake the sleeping giant of poor and low-wage voters. We are a resurrection, not an insurrection!"
The movement's 17-point agenda includes calls for abolishing poverty as the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.; ensuring economic justice policies such as a living wage, labor rights, affordable housing, and universal healthcare; enshrining women's and immigrants' rights; protecting the environment and climate; ending gun violence and domestic extremism; and negotiating a cease-fire in Gaza and limiting the war economy.
In addition, Barber and other speakers responded to political developments over the past week, including concerns about U.S. President Joe Biden's performance in a debate against former President Donald Trump Thursday night.
Barber criticized the media for focusing on issues like Biden's stutter or Trump's sexual indiscretions rather than the bread-and-butter issues that matter to voters.
"In my tradition, Moses stuttered, but he brought down Pharaoh," Barber said at the rally. "Jeremiah had depression, but he stood up for justice. Jesus was acquainted with sorrow. Harriet Tubman had epilepsy. Folks are getting caught up on how a candidate walks—well, let me tell you, I have trouble walking, but I know how to walk toward justice."
Barber continued: "We say to the media, this election is not about foolish things. It is about whether we will have democracy. And it is not about one candidate; it is about the people mobilizing and organizing, and you will not drive us to despair."
Participants also spoke out against the Supreme Court's decision on Friday in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnsonthat cities can enforce bans on sleeping outside in public even if they are not able to provide shelter space for unhoused individuals.
"A Supreme Court that says you can send somebody to jail for not having a home, you can send them to jail for sleeping, but then they turn around and say those with money can have unprecedented power in our election, that is too low down for a nation," Barber said.
Theoharis agreed.
"It is wrong for the highest court in the land to criminalize homelessness, to rule that you cannot breathe in public on a bench, in your car, or in a park if you do not have a home," Theoharis said.
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Why Extinction Rebellion and The Poor People's Campaign Ought to Get Married
Nothing organization is perfect, but it seems the two need one another. And from this union, we all would benefit.
Jun 13, 2024
The other day I went on Extinction Rebellion's (XR) website and signed myself up. I had been thinking about this for a while. The UK-based organization, known as XR for short, operates with a loosely affiliated, decentralized, global model, and I knew that there is a group in nearby Franklin County, Massachusetts. I am simply attempting to bring my personal commitment in line with my rhetoric. I admire XR, but not without reservations. People familiar with my writing know that I view the issue of climate as an ongoing confrontation between corporate intentions and organized activism. I have repeatedly raised a few points:
1) Without massive resistance and civil disobedience we are politically and environmentally doomed.
2) Resistance is, critically, a matter of building coalitions and attaching the climate movement to other issues: workers' rights and union building, human rights, housing, universal health care, voting rights, and military spending—just to name a few.
3) The climate movement often reflects class imbalance—many have pointed out that XR in particular, and the climate movement in general is too white, too middle class and too immersed in academic rhetoric—thereby cutting off poor and working class participation and passion.
4) Climate activism should be inherently political, anti-capitalist and based on the understanding that the political structures that have pushed us collectively to the brink of apocalypse cannot be redeployed to get us out of danger.
5) The poorest people are a wellspring of potential power that has been reduced—via the brainwashing of media and the immediacy of personal threats to survival—to the status of passive bystanders. Those that inhabit housing waitlists, or live in subsidized housing projects, or occupy Section 8 housing, are both the most vulnerable to climate related events, and an untapped progressive voting block and source for activism. Very poor people are almost never sympathetic to Trumpist fascism. As a long time (now retired) mental health outreach worker, I never heard a good word about Trump from anyone living in subsidized housing, and many of my clients were white.
6) Poor people are disproportionately subjected to climate suffering, whether through catastrophic heat waves, rising food prices, or floods. Where I worked, in Greenfield, Massachusetts, all three housing projects and many poor neighborhoods have been built adjacent to the Green River, which has flooded many times in recent years, and has the potential to cause terrible damage. It must be a goal of the climate movement to pursue rapprochement with those most threatened by climate instability. Poor people should not be patronized or marginalized within the climate community, but be seen as a cornerstone of a coalition.
I mentioned that I had joined XR, but that is not the whole story. The group has been criticized for lack of class and racial diversity, and for hedging on ties to larger political issues. XR has avoided the natural inclination to identify itself with any of the fundamental left wing ideological touchstones—including socialism, degrowth, redistribution of wealth, etc.—and yet leftist ideology permeates XR as an often unacknowledged undercurrent.
The organization has promoted itself as an apolitical organization, founded solely on the common cause of climate, but this self definition fails to address the political issues that have caused the climate apocalypse in the first place: that is, the political power and lobbying influence of corporate rulers, who keep fossil fuels, toxic chemicals and industrial agriculture locked into the eternal status of unregulated juggernauts of societal fate.
For me, XR can therefore only be an incomplete platform for activism. The Poor People's Campaign (which has scheduled "The Mass Poor People's and Low Wage Worker's Assembly and Moral March on Washington D.C. and to the Polls!" for June, 29th) ticks all the boxes. The Poor People's Campaign has issued a 17-point agenda that ties climate issues to the full social justice context that I believe XR ought to add to their well known three demands.
These points are:
- Abolishing poverty as the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.
- A living minimum wage of at least $15 +/hour (indexed for inflation)
- Full and expanded voting rights
- No more voter suppression
- Guaranteed workers’ rights & labor rights
- Healthcare for all
- Affordable, adequate housing
- Strong social welfare and safety net programs
- An end to gun violence, profit and proliferation
- Fully protected women’s rights
- Environmental justice that secures clean air & water
- Justice for all Indigenous nations
- Fully-funded public education
- Just immigration laws
- Addressing militarism and the war economy
- Standing for peace not war; an immediate cease fire in Gaza that allows humanitarian relief, the release of all hostages, and peace with justice to be pursued; and an end to genocide, around the world
- An end to hate, division, and the extremist political agenda
The 11th point above—"environmental justice that secures clean air and water" —does not fully delineate and represent the issue of climate. The climate point in the Poor People's Agenda is incomplete in much the same way that XR is incomplete because it does not place the climate crisis within the larger context of social injustice and class inequity.
Perhaps XR and the Poor People's Campaign ought to get married. It may not be a perfect marriage—few are—but, rather, a marriage of convenience. I'd rent a tux and be there enthusiastically in time for the vows.
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