7 Steps Before The Midterms
A Movement Declaration to Reconstruct American Democracy
We – the thousands gathered here in active declaration of a rapidly growing front of organized moral fusion power – and in deep solidarity with those rising up across this country, who are demanding a reconstruction of this democracy and a reconstitution of the policy and legal priorities of this nation – say:
we are in a time of emergency.
We gather in Washington D.C. for a Mass Poor Peoples and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls in a dark summer, as our democracy is threatened by a state by state coordinated assault on the right to vote and imperiled by open violence, greed, obstruction, distortions, and denial, while more than 140 million poor and low wealth people of every race, creed, religion, in every region of this country are rising up daily against growing indignities, pain, injury, and death at the hands of immoral policies and interlocking injustices.
Even after historic numbers of people, including those gathered here, voted in 2020 and said we must do more in a collective act of faith, during the grief of a global pandemic, our democracy remains in an untenable, fragile place: it is bending under the unrelenting weight of an orchestrated attack on our rights to vote for the purpose of further entrenching anti-democratic, non-majority power. And we are facing an attempt to stop the power of this movement and what our presence and witness represents.
We see the truth and so we say the truth: if the assault on this democracy prevails, the consequences will be felt across generations. We see and say that we come here in the shadow of mass death, insurrection, an attempted coup, and in a time in our nation’s history when it is openly known that there are those in political office – and running for political office – who are working with grotesque resources to seek to overthrow the will of the people of the United States again. And we come with the sight and insight to see ahead of us to the generationally transformative resurrection possibilities of a Third Reconstruction of this democracy and this country.
As we gather in Washington D.C. before Congress, before this Supreme Court that – unchecked – threatens to decay our constitutionally protected right to justice and equal protection under the law, and before this White House, we declare that we know there are 143 days between today, June 18, 2022, and the last day of the mid-term elections on November 8. On the ballot are 469 seats in Congress – 34 in the Senate and 435 in the House.
We stand together today without the full protections of a Restored Voting Rights Act. And we declare that we will use our full power to force this democracy to reckon with its people’s plight. We will not be silenced and we will not go unheard! This movement will not be turned around or turned back! Our votes are not supports but demands to be heard and to take action. A movement that votes does not vote for any party or any one person, we vote for our people and for our lives. We vote to summon a Third Reconstruction that can birth us out of an impoverished democracy and usher in a new world.
Why we need a Third Reconstruction Agenda
The Third Reconstruction is a revival of our constitutional commitment to establish justice, provide for the general welfare, end decades of austerity, and recognize that policies that center the 140 million poor and low-income people in the country are also good economic policies that can heal and transform the nation.
Take Action
Find a State Campaign
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is uniting people across the country to challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation’s distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. Join the Poor People’s Campaign in your state!
Mobilizing Partners
for the #MoralAssembly2022
