The Time Is Now! Poor People’s Campaign to Launch May 14. We Need You.

By paulgibson51 on May 7, 2018 • ( 0 )

Thoughts on the importance and potential for the Poor People’s Campaign coming in 7 days, our PPC civil disobedience training, actions for the week, and an assembly of the blog posts for the past week. A packed week, so now you can catch up.

“I spent several hours today canvassing for Janene in Cerillos. It was inspiring to hear how many people felt energized to vote for her and spread the word once they understood the importance of this election and what Janene’s platform is all about. I would be happy to volunteer to organize canvassers from Santa Fe for the next two weekends. After that I will be out of town so I won’t be able to help out with that last stretch, but for the next two weekends, sign me up!” Leah. That is what canvassing can be. If you’ve never done it, give it a shot. Click here and then scroll to the bottom of the Actions & Events page to get to info on how you can canvass. Or just write to me at paul@retakeourdemocracy.org.

Actions & Events. I have updated the Actions & Events pages. It now includes contact information if you want to support either of the PRC races (Yazzie v. Lovejoy and Fischmann v. Jones). For our ABQ supporters there are neighborhoods nearby where you can canvass for Janene Yazzie or go south to Los Lunas and canvass for Steve Fischmann and for our Santa Fe readers we have precincts in Madrid, Cerrilos, and La Cienega where we canvassed last weekend and will again each weekend between now and the election, June 8.

There is also contact information for how you can support either candidate in Dist. 46 or Dist. 41. Most of our readers are concerned about local, state and national issues. But concern doesn’t matter if you don’t get involved and as we discussed at our civil disobedience training, petitions, letters, emails and calls seem to be falling on deaf ears. If we are going to change things in NM, we need to be actively engaged and over the next four weekends, we will have beautiful weather. We have made it very easy for you to canvass for Janene Yazzie or Steve Fischmann, to our minds the greatest opportunity to transformationally impact NM’s direction in relation to energy and the environment. And we have two hotly contested State House races nearby. I implore you to click here, scroll through the Actions & Events page and find a way to contribute. I am sure any of the campaigns can also give those with mobility issues a way to donate or make calls, but please don’t sit on the sidelines.

You will also find information about our two action teams and other events of interest.

The Time Is NOW! 40 Days of Direct Actions in 40 States. Be There for Day One

Monday, May 14, 2:00pm. Eastside Entrance of the Roundhouse. Poor People’s Campaign Civil Disobedience Update. Roxanne and I attended an excellent 4-hour civil disobedience training led by Mike Brown. About 40 of us were in attendance and we learned a good deal. Those of us who have now been trained will comprise the “front line” on May 14th when the Poor People’s Campaign is launched in 40 states across the Nation. For those who were not trained, there will be future training opportunities after March 14 but on the 14th it is essential that those on the front line will be supported and witnessed by you, all of you.

I view the PPC as the most promising initiative on our horizon as it is grounded in four fundamental issues that can unite all of us: racism, poverty, the war economy and environmental degradation. For the next 10 weeks, the PPC will stage direct actions and civil disobedience across this Nation. And those ten weeks do not span the beginning and end of the movement, they are the ten weeks that will build momentum towards the beginning of the movement. It is the explicit goal of this movement to galvanize the entire nation, much as the Civil Rights movement did in the 60s. As Mike Brown stated over and over, we didn’t solve anything in the 60s and we are now in the darkest, most dangerous period in our nation’s history. Emails, FB posts, petitions, and calls to legislators are getting us nowhere while giving us the illusion that we are being active. It is time to get very, very serious.

Not all PPC actions will be designed to force police into arresting those on the front line, indeed the action on the 14th is very unlikely to lead to confrontations with police or to arrests. Organizers are working in advance with police and Roundhouse security to ensure a peaceful action which will be largely symbolic and educational and focused on the obscene level of childhood poverty in NM where 34% of our children live in poverty.

As we move through the 10 weeks of phase I, different actions will be announced all at the very last minute. There are very good security-related reasons why the details are not shared earlier. And while the 14th should be utterly peaceful and non-confrontational, it is highly likely that some of these actions will result in arrests of those on the front line. The training we received yesterday prepared us for what this might entail. I couldn’t encourage you more strongly to put this on your calendar and gather a group of friends and make a commitment to coming to these events. Organizing a group of friends to go with you does two things: 1) it significantly increases the likelihood you will be there; and 2) It can grow the crowd exponentially. So, please start now. Share this with friends and make your commitment a commitment of ten.

Moral Mondays have transformed the political landscape in North Carolina, fusing new alliances and creating a strong intersectional base of power. Now that strategy goes national. So, hold Mondays for the next 10 weeks. We need you there. See below for the details for the event on the 14th and how you can support the front-liners.

We need to send an uncompromising message: capitalism, colonialism, and an utterly failing democracy have left us watching as our planet and future disappear from sight. Enough is Enough. Time to take sides. Wake up NM, there are actions throughout the state and Nation. Click here to sign up for the National movement and you will begin getting emails for actions. When you arrive at the Roundhouse PPC organizers and singers will coordinate music and chants. Those who have been trained last weekend, will meet two blocks from the Roundhouse and march in song to join you. The action that takes place at the Roundhouse will be done by the front liners. Again, it will be peaceful, symbolic and unthreatening in any way to the police. You are our witnesses; you are the ones who will build the movement by bringing friends and then their bringing friends until the hundreds who show up on the 14th become the many thousands over the next ten weeks. And this will happen across the nation. And you will be there day one.

Beats the hell out of signing a petition.

In solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne

A Look at Last Week’s Blog Posts

A Look Back: A Call for Civil Disobedience, for Canvassers for Janene Yazzie, An Assessment of Andrea Romero, Challenger in Dist. 46 and a Flood of News on the Alleged Sexual Harassment Perpetrated by Rep. Trujillo. Quite a week.

Sorry about clipping off much of Romero and Trujillo’s faces below, Word Press has a mind of its own when selecting how to crop “previews” of prior posts.