Endorse or Volunteer for May 11-13 2013 Poor Peoples Campaign March from Baltimore to Washington
RECLAIM DR. KING JR’S DREAM DURING THIS HISTORIC
YEAR–
2013 MARKS THE 50TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1963 JOBS
& FREEDOM MARCH
and the 45th anniversary of the 1968 Poor Peoples
Campaign
On the anniversary of the Poor Peoples Campaign ignite a
fight for people’s rights
2013 POOR PEOPLES CAMPAIGN & MARCH FROM BALTIMORE TO
WASHINGTON D.C.
Beginning on Saturday, May 11th – the
anniversary weekend of the Poor Peoples Campaign, we will hold a civil rights
walk and March from Baltimore to Washington D.C. and arrive in Washington on
Sunday, May 12, 2013.
We invite people from around the country to join us
in Baltimore on May 11th.
There will be support vehicles to ensure that
everyone can participate, regardless of physical ability.
We are Marching because...
POLICE BRUTALITY & MASS INCARCERATION ARE GROWING
Baltimore has become the capital of police killings! Since January,
2012, 16 people have been killed by the Baltimore City Police Department and
not a single officer has been indicted. The epidemic of police terror and abuse
are not confined to our city. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement has documented
that every 36 hours a Black person is killed by police agencies in this
country. Police repression and racism go hand in hand with the mass
incarceration of young people, mostly of color, who are locked away in prisons
across this country.
We march to bring national attention to these issues and to demand
community control of police and an end to mass incarceration. On May 11, 2013
we will link arms with the families of the victims of police killings to demand
that the Justice Department charge killer police.
POVERTY IS DEEPENING AND THE PEOPLE NEED JOBS, NOT
JAILS
One out of every four persons in Baltimore City lives below the poverty
level. Growing poverty due to continuing depression level joblessness in
every major city in this country and in many towns underscores the need to
revive Dr. King’s fight to end poverty. Justice minded
people everywhere must begin to prepare a united resistance to stop any and all
austerity measures, whether it comes in the form of cuts to social security,
Medicare, unemployment or food stamps.
We must renew Dr. King’s call for “Jobs or income
now” and demand that the federal government: 1) bailout the people, not
the banks; 2) provide a massive Works Projects Administration program to put
the people back to work and 3) through Executive Order place a moratorium on
home foreclosures.
WORKERS RIGHTS ARE UNDER ATTACK
If the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive he would be on the front
line of stemming the tide of right wing attacks on workers and unions couched
in the misleading language of “right to work.” Dr. King would have
been leading sit-ins to win justice for low wage workers from Wal-Mart to
McDonalds. His last days were spent fighting for sanitation workers rights
– this battle is yet to be finished.
On May 11th we will be marching to defend workers’ rights from
Detroit to Atlanta.
JUSTICE FOR ALL IS NEEDED
We will march to continue the ongoing struggle to stop racism, end
attacks on immigrants, women and LGBTQ people.
We can no longer be divided from or consider a person as
"illegal” simply because he or she has crossed a border; the fight
for justice is far from over when someone can be profiled and murdered because
they are Black, Latino/a, Native or Asian; it continues when women are still
denied equal rights and LGBTQ people continue to suffer from violence and
bigotry.
FUND EDUCATION, HEALTH CARE & HUMAN NEEDS, NOT WAR &
OCCUPATION
Dr. King proclaimed very accurately that “every bomb that falls on
Vietnam, is a bomb dropped on our inner cities.” The names of the
targeted countries and occupations have changed. What hasn’t is the
growing trillions spent on the Pentagon that drain the wealth of this country
and that could instead fund healthcare for every uninsured person, provide
education for youth, stop school closings and provide jobs for
all. Not only does war still threaten the people of this world,
but the refusal to deal with ever growing evidence of climate change, and the
insatiable desire to put profits before people, threatens the entire
planet. The only way to build Dr. King’s beloved community is to end
war and put people’s needs before profits.
It is urgent that we reclaim Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s
legacy and begin a new revolution to ignite a people’s movement for not
only civil rights but human rights.
The Occupy movement inspired many, but the 1968 Poor Peoples Campaign in
Washington D.C. was, outside of other heroic examples in labor history, one of
the first “occupations.” Let’s bring the movement
together. Join the 2013 Poor Peoples Campaign March!
The campaign to reclaim Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy in
this historic year to fight back against police terror, austerity measures,
attacks on workers and student rights was voted and consented on at the
December 15, 2012, National Peoples Power Assembly.
We in Baltimore invite everyone to join us – from Oakland to Atlanta,
from Detroit to New York. Our problems are the same as your problems
– let’s stand together. If you are interested in organizing
your community, school, or union to be part of this effort call us at 410-500-2168 or
410-218-4835 or email BaltimorePeoplesAssembly@ gmail.com. To sign on as an endorser of
this effort please contact us by phone or email.
Initiated by: Baltimore Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the
Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly
2011 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218
Phone 410-500-2168 or 410-218-4835
www.PeoplesPowerAssemblies.org
