Ready When It Comes
This is a moment in which the old order is showing serious signs of decay. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed what the poor have known for a long time – that our current economic and political systems have been set up to benefit a shrinking few at the expense of the rest of us. Our health, our wellbeing, and the very lives of our loved ones are being sacrificed on the altar of big capital in the desperate hopes of preserving a system in its death throes.
*Special thank you to Tim Shenk for the featured artwork for this issue, and to Jessica Morrison for the drawings of our contributors.
Jamie Blair, Joyce Brody, Lenny Brody, and Dan Jones
The University of the Poor Political Reports team on the political significance of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
Colleen Wessel-McCoy
An interview with Colleen Wessel-McCoy on the successes and limitations of the Poor People’s Campaign of 1967-68, and especially how we can wield this movement history to inform current organizing efforts toward the June 18 Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls.
Ben Wilkins
An interview with Ben Wilkins, director of Raise Up the South, about organizing low-wage workers and the living legacy of political unionism in the South.
Part 1 of a two-part series, describing the economic stages in US history as seen from a “Historical Materialist” perspective.
Dan Jones
Dan Jones writes about the origins of Hebrew scripture in the struggle of poor people against exploitation, violence, and dispossession in the Bronze Age.
Kym Smith and Lindsey Jordan
Kym Smith and Lindsey Jordan offer their reflections on our 2nd issue, “Making the Struggle a School,” from their work in the movement to end poverty.
Olga Bautista
An interview with Olga Bautista, Executive Director of Southeast Environmental Task Force (SETF) and a founder of the Chicago Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke and the Coalition to Ban General Iron, about the struggle for environmental justice in Chicago.
Natalia Fajardo and Emiliano Vera
Natalia Fajardo and Emiliano Vera on building Unity Across Language.
University of the Poor Proletarian Internationalism Committee
The South African Shakdwellers’ Movement is under attack and its leaders are being assassinated with impunity, including Nokuthula Mabaso and Ayanda Ngila of the eKhenana Commune in Durban. Learn more about Abahlali and watch this video from New Frame about the recent murder of Ayanda Ngila.
Bruce Edwards
Bruce Edwards reviews Ray Dalio’s 2021 book, Principles for Dealing with The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail. Ray Dalio is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Chief Investment Officer of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates.
