Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) announces plans=20 for Bushville Tent City and March For Our Lives on Opening Day of the=20 Republican National Convention in New York City
In a national press conference held at the Center for Constitutional=20 Rights (CCR) in New York City on Thursday, February 19, leaders of the=20 Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign from New York City and=20 across the country announced plans to protest at the Republican National= =20 Convention.
During the week preceeding the Republican National Convention, which=20 starts on August 30th of this year, the Poor People's Economic Human=20 Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) will erect a Bushville Tent City at an=20 undisclosed location near the site of the convention. Throughout the=20 week, PPEHRC organizers will be taking members of the national and=20 international media, the human rights community, religious people and=20 others on Reality Tours of New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia,=20 showing the true face of economic human rights violations occurring=20 across this country.
On opening day of the Republican National Convention, August 30th, at 4=20 PM, the PPEHRC will lead a massive non-violent "March for Our Lives:=20 Stop the War at Home" from the United Nations at 45th and 1st Avenue=20 through downtown Manhattan toward the site of the RNC at Madison Square=20 Garden. In the words of KWRU founder and PPEHRC national organizer Cheri= =20 Honkala:
" We will march because both the Republicans and Democrats have ignored=20 the plight of poor and we will march to highlight the war at here at=20 home. A war caused by the massive job losses and people without housing=20 and healthcare and the other basic necessities of life."
Speakers at the press conference included Cheri Honkala, KWRU founder=20 and National Organizer of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights=20 Campaign (PPEHRC), New York resident and actor Mark Webber of the=20 Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU), and leaders of PPEHRC=20 organizations: Roland Emerson of the Deaf & Deaf-Blind Committee on=20 Human Rights in Ohio (DDBCHR), Ethel Long-Scott of Women's Economic=20 Agenda Project (WEAP) in California, Galen Tyler and Carolyn Caesar of=20 the KWRU in Pennsylvania, Rachle Hamilton and Kieran Holcombe of the=20 Loring Nicolett Alternative High School in Minneapolis, and Jennifer=20 Jewell and Kyauna Black of Women in Transition in Louisville Kentucky.=20 Also speaking at the press conference were Peter Weiss, of the Center=20 for Constitutional Rights, Reverend Dr. Paul Chapman of The Employment=20 Project in New York City, Bill Kane of the New Jersey State Industrial=20 Union Council, and Bob Brown of the newly founded Health Care Human=20 Rights Network.
"We are no longer going to sit back and take this abuse. It's time for=20 us to stand up and fight for our rights!"
- Roland Emerson, Deaf & Deaf-Blind Committee on Human Rights, Ohio
"Just as Dr. King warned in his final days, the soul of America is=20 tortured because we are being forced to live in a society that denies=20 compassion, dehumanizes our neighbors and puts all of us in jeopardy. IN= =20
THE FACE OF ESCALATING WAR AT HOME WE ARE MARCHING FOR OUR ECONOMIC=20 HUMAN RIGHTS!"
- Ethel Long-Scott, Women's Economic Agenda Project (WEAP), California
The events in August will be organized by and joined by the wide range=20 of more than 100 organizations belonging to the PPEHRC, including, in=20 addition to the ones listed above, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers,=20 the Chicago Coalition to Protect Public Housing and dozens of other=20 member organizations, unions and others. In addition, the PPEHRC events=20 have already gained the widespread support of organizations and=20 movements around the world, including many who attended the recent World= =20
Social Forum and International Forum for the Defense of People's Health,= =20
both held in Mumbai, India this past January.
Later that evening, the PPEHRC organizations, local PPEHRC organizers=20 and artists and other friends of the PPEHRC gathered in Brooklyn for a=20 cultural event.
Award-winning NYC playwright and actor, and KWRU member,= =20 Tim Dowlin ran the event, which featured poetry, songs, rap and other=20 art by leaders in the movement for economic human rights from across the= =20 country.
CONTACT INFO:
Kensington Welfare Rights Union
NUHHCE, ASFCME, AFL-CIO
PO Box 50678
Philadelphia, PA 19132-9720
Phone: 215/203-1945
Fax: 215/203-1950
email: kwru@kwru.org
web: http://www.kwru.org
Sorry about all the text garbage in this post; it's how their email attachments read. I'm not going to spend the time, editing them all out.
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