Thread by @UniteThePoor

HAPPENING NOW: Poor and low-income people from all over the western US are coming together in LA to speak out as we head towards the Mass Assembly in D.C. on June 18.

#PoorPeoplesCampaign

While we're marching, here are some important facts: if California were its own country, it would represent the fifth-largest economy in the world, and yet more than half of California’s residents are poor and low-income.

#PoorPeoplesCampaign

In L.A. County alone, a single individual would need to make three times the poverty threshold to meet basic expenses like housing, child care, health care, and transportation.

#PoorPeoplesCampaign

It's important to give a face to all of this poverty and struggle! For example, fast-food workers with @Fightfor15LA have been striking all around L.A. over the last few weeks to fight back against discrimination, wage theft, and more.

https://twitter.com/Fightfor15LA/status/1526311435554287616?s=20&t=5WYTH5K-x8ANlCPySnzFjA

There are 140 million poor and low-wage people in this country. When we come together we have the power to make our politicians listen!

#PoorPeoplesCampaign

The rich and powerful want to sweep our poverty and our struggle under the rug. We won't let them! We won't be silent.

#PoorPeoplesCampaign

https://twitter.com/ybarksdale/status/1526366290226532352?s=20&t=LLw1LWP9vATdalk2x4ns4Q

Yara and the Band are setting the vibe for tonight. Of course, we're troubled about the state of our country, but no one can steal our joy.

#PoorPeoplesCampaign

🎶There's a meeting up in Washington and I belong🎵

are you going to the meeting?

#MeetUSInDC on June 18th
poorpeoplescampaign.org/june18

Kenia is right. California is hurting, our country is hurting, and it does not have to be this way.

#PoorPeoplesCampaign

"We are taking to the streets to demand policies that lift from the bottom. Just immigration, quality healthcare and housing, a living wage, and an adequate income for all." - Rose Gudiel Escobar, @CaliforniaPPC

Reflecting on the recent white supremacist shooting in Buffalo, @RevDrBarber says what's important is who radicalized him. White supremacy isn't a lone issue, it's a system.

51% of ppl in Cali are poor or low-income—a total of 20 million residents in raw numbers. This includes 62% of children. We can't be silent.

It's been 12 years since we've raised the Federal minimum wage. No one can live on these poverty wages.

#PoorPeoplesCampaign

The rich and powerful want to keep us siloed off. We need to come together and recognize our collective power.

#PoorPeoplesCampaign

"53 cents of every discretionary dollar goes into the war economy, less than 15 cents go to programs that could lift the poor." - @RevDrBarber

There has been a long train of abuses in this country. It is our right to change that.

#PoorPeoplesCampaign

"Nobody is going to stop us. Nobody is going to shut us down. It is time for a meeting." - @RevDrBarber

Come to the meeting: poorpeoplescampaign.org/june18

Lucia Torres is a tenant organizer in L.A. Her story is far too common. Her husband got COVID, but couldn't afford healthcare. She had to try to balance caring for her husband and affording rent.

Cora Phillips, an activist from the Navajo Nation, tells her story about the ways extractivist industries stripped indigenous lands of Uranium and caused ecological destruction in her community.

Bartholomey Perez is a fast-food worker and leader in the @Fightfor15LA. Perez tells us that the Government's inability to raise the minimum wage has simply made poverty worse.

Perez explains that fast-food workers at companies like @McDonalds and @JackBox face so many structural problems. In response, they're fighting for #AB257 so they can have a seat at the table in setting industry-wide standards for fast-food workers in CA.

"Abortion access...is not about choice, but about necessity in a system that has failed to give every person the ability to thrive." - Nourbese Flint, @PPFA

Rev. Dr. Monica Cross of the @CaliforniaPPC is right. Our government has no problem shoveling cash into the pockets of war profiteers while we live in poverty and on the streets.

#PoorPeoplesCampaign

Maya Morales of People First Bellingham organized her community to urge her local politicians to pass ordinances to address the fallout from COVID. Maya's story is a good lesson in what the power of the people looks like.

#PoorPeoplesCampaign

"We see where the evil sits. It's this corporate world we live in that dismantles you as a person." - Wendsler Nosie Sr.

This system is hostile to the lives of poor and working people. But, together we can change that. Together, we have power. That's why on June 18th, we're rallying in Washington DC to speak out and show our strength.

#MeetUsInDC
👇👇👇👇
poorpeoplescampaign.org/june18