Report from the Poor People’s Campaign Congress

By The Editorial Committee

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival held a Moral Poverty Action Congress from June 19th to the 21st, 2023. Over 700 leaders from state coordinating committees and national partners representing more than 30 states convened in Washington D.C. The Congress participants heard a report from University of California sociologist, Dr David Brady, citing data demonstrating that poverty is the 4th leading cause of death in the United States. Poverty causes 10 times as many deaths as homicide, close to five times as many deaths as gun violence, and 2.5 times as many deaths as drug overdoses. Only heart disease, cancer and smoking-related deaths cause more deaths than cumulative poverty. This shocking information added to the motivation of the Campaign’s drive to abolish poverty.

On June 20th the Campaign leaders together visited more than 400 congressional offices demanding that our elected officials take action to eliminate poverty. This was the largest effort of its kind in recent history. On June 21st the Campaign’s Third Reconstruction: Fully Addressing Poverty and Low Wages From the Bottom Up resolution was re-introduced in the US Congress. The Resolution is an omnibus vision to restructure our society from the bottom up, recognizing that we must simultaneously deal with the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation and the denial of health care, militarism and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism that blames the poor instead of the systems that cause poverty.

The Campaign’s Congress was an important step in building a movement to eliminate poverty and restructure economic and political power in the U.S. The Campaign served notice on politicians that the increasing poverty and suffering of our people will not be tolerated and that politicians who refuse to support the campaign’s goals will not be re-elected. The Poor People’s Campaign is non partisan. It is not Democrat nor Republican. But it is very political. Politics are a moral question of right and wrong. The Campaign organizes and registers poor people and urges folks to vote their values.

The Poor People’s Campaign is a movement. It is not a separate organization. It is a gathering place for organizations and individuals who see the need to break out of isolated silos and come together to amplify the various struggles of the poor. The Poor People’s Campaign is emerging as one of the key efforts of the class struggle in the U.S. today.