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PASTOR TED BURNETT, California Poor People’s Campaign Coordinating

Pastor Ted Burnett statewide historian for California Poor People’s Campaign (PPC): Retired Deputy Director of SEIU Local 1000 State Workers Union. Environmentalist and Social Justice Community Activist!

From Pastor Burnett:

As members of the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC), we are here to talk to you because we live in the wealthiest nation in the world, yet poverty is the 4th leading cause of death in this country. Poverty kills 10 times more people than homicides! This poverty pandemic requires a response at the scale of the problem. It requires our country’s policy-makers to create policies that invest in fixing the problem at the systemic, structural level. And this kind of change requires building a movement to demand policy choices that lift people out of poverty.

This PPC movement to end poverty has a long history. In November 1967, Dr. King announced the Poor People’s Campaign to challenge economic inequality, militarism and poverty. Rev. Dr. King articulated a clear formula for how the poor can claim the power that resides within our communities. He said: “Power for poor people will really mean having the ability, the togetherness, the assertiveness and the aggressiveness to make the power structure of this nation say yes when they may be desirous to say no.”

On December 4, 2017,the 50th anniversary of the announcement of the first Poor People’s Campaign, a diverse leadership came together in Washington, D.C. to launch the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival — a movement co-chaired by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II of Repairers of the Breach and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis of the Kairos Center with the support of many organizations, denominations and individuals, now organizing in 40 states across the country.

The PPC was launched with two primary goals:

Change the narrative by changing the narrator — more focus on who and why people are poor. PPC is committed to amplifying the voices of those most impacted by systemic poverty, systemic racism, ecological devastation, militarism/war economy and the distorted moral narrative of white Christian nationalism.

Build power to change policy through a fusion movement that unites communities and partner organizations.

Our Fundamental Principles guide decisions about what we do and how we do it. Our non-violent, non-partisan but deeply political movement is based on our deepest religious and constitutional values, lifting up the leadership of those most affected by the 5 interlocking injustices identified by the PPC.

In 2019, before the pandemic hit, 140 million people (43% of the US population) who are poor and struggling in the richest country in the world. Poverty, policy violence, kills 250,000 people every year so the Poor People’s Campaign is calling for/building a Third Reconstruction to complete the moral fusion organizing work of extending constitutional guarantees to every person. The work began during earlier periods of US history but is not yet complete.

There are 38 million children who are poor in this country.

And 60% of African Americans are poor.

And 65% of Latinx are poor.

And 40% Asians are poor.

And there are 67 million poor white people in the United States.

In California, the PPC is organizing to close the wealth gap. California’s gross domestic product is the 4th largest in the world after Germany, the US, China and Japan, yet poverty is widespread in our state:

Between 2018-2020, there were almost 19 million poor people (low/no income or wealth) accounting for 47.6% of the population

A household with two adults and two children needs to earn over $30/hour to meet their basic needs. However, the current minimum wage is just $15/hour; at this wage, an individual must work 104 hours/week to afford a modest two bedroom apartment. Clearly, a poverty wage is violence.

You can contact the CA PPC at california@poorpeoplescampaign.org..

More info at www.poorpeoplescampaign.org

Check out our California PPC newsletter here.

Thank you for your interest in building a movement to end poverty.

PPC invites you to join them

Pain | A Poor People’s Campaign Introduction to Affliction in America

Poor People’s Campaign Fundamental Principles https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/about/our-principles/

Poor People’s Campaign Moral Budget https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/…/poor-peoples…/

Poor People’s Campaign Audit The Souls of Poor Folk https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/…/PPC-Audit-Full…

Brady Report — “Novel Estimates of Mortality Associated with Poverty in the U.S”.

California 2023 Fact Sheet https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/…/state-fact…/

Contact: https://www.facebook.com/ppcbayarea/

You can reach CA PPC at california@poorpeoplescampaign.org