Rev Dr. William Barber II addresses moral activists during the Mass Poor People's & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly & Moral March On Washington DC & To The Polls on Pennsylvania Ave on June 29, 2024 in DC. Image courtesy: Franklin Golden

Dear John,

Thanks to you, we marched by the thousands in Washington, D.C. this weekend, demonstrating the strength of our moral fusion movement.

People came from every corner of the country to demand that those in power hear the voices of poor and low-wage voters and other impacted people.

Now is the time to take the next step: mobilizing 15 million poor and low-wage infrequent voters ahead of this year’s pivotal elections.

Darcy Carter speaks during the Mass Poor People's & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly & Moral March On Washington DC & To The Polls. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Repairers of the Breach)

It’s time to take the “Pledge to Join the Poor People’s Campaign’s 2024 Mobilization Work” to join our campaign to wake the sleeping giant of poor and low-wage workers and commit to working towards a moral public policy agenda. You can read the pledge in full below:

As members of the June 29, 2024 Poor People’s and Low Wage Worker’s Mass Assembly and March on Washington and to the Polls, we pledge to break the silence about poverty, the fourth-leading cause of death in America.

We commit to mobilize and touch 15 million poor and low-wage voters to tell them they have the power to rise and reconstruct our government.

We refuse the cynicism of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, denial of healthcare, the war economy, and the distorted immoral vision of religious nationalism.

We are not a violent insurrection responding to the prompts of greedy extremists; we are a nonviolent resurrection of the promise of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

We pledge our power, our voices, our votes, our protest, and our principles to legislation, litigation, and even nonviolent direct action agitation when necessary to ensure that everyone is lifted and the poor are never neglected.

We commit to a moral and just economic agenda of:

1. Abolishing poverty as the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.

2. A living minimum wage of at least $15 +/hour (indexed for inflation)

3. Full and expanded voting rights

4. No more voter suppression

5. Guaranteed workers’ rights & labor rights

6. Healthcare for all

7. Affordable, adequate housing

8. Strong social welfare and safety net programs

9. An end to gun violence, profit and proliferation

10. Fully protected women’s rights

11. Environmental justice that secures clean air & water

12. Justice for all Indigenous nations

13. Fully-funded public education

14. Just immigration laws

15. Addressing militarism and the war economy

16. Standing for peace not war; an immediate cease fire in Gaza that allows humanitarian relief, the release of all hostages, and peace with justice to be pursued; and an end to genocide, around the world

17. An end to hate, division, and the extremist political agenda

We commit to waking the sleeping giant of everyday people who’ve been silenced by the fake populism of extremists and the compromises of so-called “moderates.”

We will rise to challenge every candidate for public office to make clear where they stand on a just, loving, truth-telling agenda rooted in our deepest constitutional, moral, and religious values regarding the least of these.

Somebody’s been hurting our people, and it’s gone on far too long. We won’t be silent anymore!

Click here to sign on to the pledge.

Reverend Dr. William Barber II speaks to moral activists during the Mass Poor People's & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly & Moral March On Washington DC & To The Polls. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Repairers of the Breach)

Forward Together, Not One Step Back

Bishop William J. Barber, II, DMin National Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival President & Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach Founding Director, Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School

Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis
National Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Executive Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice

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