The following is a guest-blog post by Nathan Fishman, fishman.nathan@gmail.com
I got home last night from three days in DC, where I joined the Poor People's Campaign Moral Monday march for especially voting rights legislation, a $15 an hour minimum wage and getting the Build Back Better Plan done in 2021. People in power have always feared partnerships between groups of different races, ethnicities, religions, genders and gender identities, sexual orientations, abilities and age groups. They fear us because together we can threaten their power and wealth; that's why they have always invested in brainwashing and dividing us along these artificial lines. That's why this enduring campaign that centers people's dignity and rights while acting on goals that are winnable, popular and antiracist appeals to me.
Passing the Build Back Better Act is important because it taxes the richest people appropriately and then funds programs like the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit which help tens of millions of families, including 960,000 Black children, 1.7 million Latino children, as well as millions of Black and Latino low-wage workers*. It closes the Medicaid gap and insures the uninsured, and it helps low wage and essential workers in several ways. The For the People Act was written by Civil Rights icon Rep. John Lewis and would fully restore the 1965 Voting Rights Act, end the filibuster and raise minimum wage to $15 an hour.
And some of us see a network like this as even more important for its vision than its existing and potential policy victories. Conceived as a revival of the work Dr. King was engaged in when he was murdered, the PPC celebrates the concept of the beloved community, including lifting from the bottom, spiritual grounding through song and asserting the rights, dignity and leadership of poor people.
Everybody resists the system of the ruling class of the .01% billionaires and hundred millionaires in some way or another. Many resist it through unhealthy means like chasing materialistic illusions or worse, physical or emotional violence or abuse towards loved ones or strangers. Some resist it alone through self-imposed poverty or isolated acts of rebellion. Some are able to successfully organize with their coworkers or neighbors to win improvements in their conditions. And combinations of these and other expressions of resistance exist. I learned an analysis from White People Confronting Racism, that "we too often experience life through the pain of our marginalized identities and act out of the arrogance of our mainstream identities."
Combining this perspective with a diversity approach to economic justice would create an outlook of racial and economic justice depending on each other. For me, it helps me find the safety I need to disclose about things I need support in like managing a mental illness and not conforming to social norms and values that I disagree with, and the courage to support others who need it for taking on the challenges inherent in being who they are.
Photo: Steve Pavy/Kairos Center/Poor People's Campaign
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