Poverty

How Climate Change Impacts Poor People

May 18, 2018 Kate Harveston, Popular Resistance. Educate! Climate Change, Food Security, Poverty, Puerto Rico

“Climate change affects everybody." You'll hear this from time to time, particularly when someone is trying to advocate action on a global scale. It's a way of binding us to a collective issue — letting us know that we're all in this together, so we might as well work together to resolve it. After all, climate change is, by definition, a worldwide phenomenon and issue. The more global temperatures rise, and the ice caps melt, the stranger and less predictable the weather will get for all of us. It is not true, however, to assume that climate change affects us all equally. Those living in poverty find themselves particularly impacted by the changes associated with the rising tides and temperatures.

The Criminalization Of Poverty And What To Do About It

May 15, 2018 Staff, Job Opportunity Task Force Create! New Economy, Poor people, Poverty

In August 2016, the United States Department of Justice issued a report following its investigation into the policies and practices of the Baltimore Police Department. The report was in response to the 2015 police-involved death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray and the subsequent unrest that gripped the city. During that historic week in April 2015, the world watched as Baltimore residents took to the streets to call for an end to police brutality and demand reforms in police accountability. In response to the death of Freddie Gray, what surfaced was communal anger and frustration at a dynamic that has plagued Baltimore communities for decades: an overreliance on incarceration and a divestment in economic opportunities. Given growing national attention and local concern around the impact of incarceration on working families, the Job Opportunities Task Force sought to define and determine the extent to which the criminalization of poverty is occurring in Maryland. Indeed, the August 2016 United States Department of Justice report on the Baltimore Police Department created a greater sense of urgency around issues of poverty, race and criminal records.

Poor People’s Campaign Begins With Rallies & Mass Arrests Across The Country

May 14, 2018 Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance Resist! Poor People's Campaign, Poverty, Single payer health care

The Poor People's Campaign kicked off 40 days of civil resistance calling for a new economy where workers have a wage "commensurate for the 21st-century economy," everyone has healthcare through a single payer system, homelessness is ended and war and militarism no longer dominate the economy. Today's Poor People's Campaign comes 50 years after the campaign Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was doing when he was assassinated. Today's Campaign officially launched on Monday with advocates for economic justice rallying in Washington, D.C. and more than 30 state capitols nationwide. Hundreds were arrested in Washington, DC alone. Rev. William Barber called for a "moral confrontation" stressing that 140 million people live in poverty in the U.S.—one of the world's wealthiest countries—and the abandonment of American workers indicates a profound moral failing of the government. On poverty, he added, "250,000 people are dying every year from poverty and low wealth."

Patients Protest MedStar’s Policies At Union Memorial Hospital

May 11, 2018 Bill Hughes, Baltimore Post Examiner Resist! Corporate greed, Health Care, Medicaid, Poverty

A spirited protest action was held at MedStar’s Union Memorial Hospital on Thursday morning, May 10, 2018. The hospital is located at 3333 N. Calvert Street, at 33rd Street & University Parkway, in Baltimore. About 40 activists showed up for the rally/press conference, which was sourced by the Maryland branch of “Health Care is a Human Right” (HCHR)” campaign. MedStar was the target of the protest action. The protesters charged that the institution had recently arbitrarily dropped Dr. Shawn Dhillon, a primary care doctor at Union Memorial for 20 years.” This action was supposedly done without cause by cutting him from “MedStar’s insurance plans.” This also had the effect of terminating half of the patients in his practice.

As Republicans Attach Work Requirements To, Well, Everything, They’re Driving People Deeper Into Poverty

May 3, 2018 By Bryce Covert, Rewire.news Educate! Electoral Politics, New Economy, Poverty

Thirteen years ago, when Valeria Haley was eight months pregnant with her oldest son, she decided to enroll in Mississippi’s cash welfare program, known nationally as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. She was living with her mother and wanted to contribute to their household. But to qualify for assistance, her caseworker told her she had to go out and look for a job. No matter that Haley, who goes by Val and can’t be much taller than 5 feet, weighing just 110 pounds, had gained 88 pounds during pregnancy, much of it due to water retention. She would soon be diagnosed with preeclampsia, a pregnancy condition that can lead to sometimes fatal complications if left untreated. Despite her condition, she was determined to meet the requirements and seek work.

The Crime Of Being Poor And Black

May 1, 2018 By Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com Educate! Inequality, Poverty, Racism

NEWARK, N.J.—This is the story of Emmanuel Mervilus, who got locked up for a crime he did not commit, whose life was derailed and nearly destroyed by the experience and who will graduate this spring from Rutgers University. It is a story of being a poor black man in America, with the exception being that most poor black men never get a second chance. The only reason Mervilus got a second chance was because of one man, history professor Don Roden, who founded the Mountainview Program at Rutgers for formerly incarcerated students. This program accepts, among others, the students I teach in prison, one of whom, Ron Pierce, also will graduate this spring. There are only a few saints in this world. Professor Roden is one. Mountainview staff, students, professors and families gathered Friday at Rutgers’ Newark campus to speak of the struggles and hardships endured by students such as Mervilus and Pierce.

America Once Fought A War Against Poverty – Now It Wages A War On The Poor

April 17, 2018 William Barber and Liz Theoharis, Theguardian.com Resist! History, New Economy, Poverty, United States

In 2013, Callie Greer’s daughter Venus died in her arms after a battle with breast cancer. If caught early, the five-year survival rate for women diagnosed with breast cancer is close to 100%. But Venus’s cancer went undiagnosed for months because she couldn’t afford health insurance. She lived in Alabama, a state that refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Venus’s death is not an isolated incident – more than 250,000 people like her die in the United States from poverty and related issues every year. Access to healthcare is just one of the issues facing the 140 million people who live in poverty in the US today. Over the past two years, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has carried out a listening tour in dozens of states across this nation.

50 Years Later, The Poor People’s Campaign Continues

April 9, 2018 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. Podcast Human Rights, Martin Luther King, Poor People's Campaign, Poverty

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Poor People's Campaign, called for by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Although Dr. King was murdered a month prior to the Poor People's Campaign, it happened anyway. Resurrection City was built on the Mall in Washington, DC and people stayed there for six weeks. Fifty years later, widespread poverty exists and the "evils" of racism, capitalism and militarism are still in crisis. Two major campaigns are organizing poor people across the country.

Cook County Data Shows Reforms Haven’t Stopped The Jailing Of People For Being Poor

March 7, 2018 By Sharlyn Grace, Chicagoappleseed.org Educate! Poverty, Prison Industrial Complex, Repression

Last fall, the Coalition to End Money Bond organized more than 70 volunteers to monitor the implementation of General Order 18.8A in Cook County’s central bond court. The order aims to ensure that no one is incarcerated at Cook County Jail simply because they are unable to pay a monetary bond. Today, the Coalition to End Money Bond released its findings in the new report: Monitoring Cook County’s Central Bond Court: A Community Courtwatching Initiative. The information collected in the courtwatching report shows that some positive changes have occurred as a result of recent reforms but that the order has not met its goal.

Resurrection City Participant Considers Current Poor People’s Campaign

February 23, 2018 George Pauk, Popular Resistance Educate! Indigenous Peoples, Poor People's Campaign, Poverty, Resurrection City

My deeply moving experience was to see the Washington Mall filled with African-American and other activists living in poverty conditions. They were on the ground in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln. The cold rains and action turned the ground into deep mud. My memory is strong of the mud and walking on planks to the makeshift and somewhat dismal clinic. Now, many years later, the Poor Peoples Campaign is being resurrected. Another attempt is flinging itself at the government, the churches, and the entire American society -- still divided by class. Poverty has largely become normalized in America. The minds of most have become inured to inadequate food, housing and health care for millions of us. We certainly must have not only a national call, but also national change -- to be morally revived and eliminate systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and ecological devastation.

Disability And Poverty For Adults In 2016

February 22, 2018 By Matt Bruenig, Peoplespolicyproject.org Educate! Disabilities, New Economy, Poverty

In 2016, there were 126.3 million adults between the ages of 25 and 54. Around 7.9 million (6.3 percent) of those adults had one or more of the six serious disabilities tracked by the Census. As you would expect, disability rates start out low for younger individuals and slowly creep up with age. In 2016, 13.4 percent of 54-year-olds were disabled while just 3.5 percent of 25-year-olds were. Disabled people have far higher poverty rates than their nondisabled peers. In 2016, the market income poverty rate for disabled people was 44.4 percent while the disposable income poverty rate (i.e. income that includes benefits like SSDI and SSI) was 28.9 percent. The same figures for the nondisabled were 11.7 percent and 9.7 percent respectively. Remarkably, poverty does not differ that much by disability type with the exception of those who have hearing disabilities.

Understanding How Media Protects The Status Quo

February 11, 2018 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance. Newsletter #NoDAPL, Education, Immigration, Media, Police violence, Poverty, Racism

Corporate media outlets in the United States represent the interests of the wealthy elites. They distract the public with meaningless tidbits such as what a celebrity said or did, rather than bringing attention to critical issues. As FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) frequently reports, in the off chance that the media does cover a movement, the coverage is generally biased against the movement. As a result, a useful tactic for getting attention is to go where the media are and present a clear visual message through giant banners and other techniques.

Poverty: American Style

February 10, 2018 By Kenneth Surin, Mintpressnews.com Educate! Inequality, Poverty

In December last year, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Professor Philip Alston, issued a statement on his 15-day fact-finding mission of some of the U.S.’s poorest neighborhoods. Alston, the author of the quoted phrase in the excerpt, is an Australian who is a professor of law at New York University. During his mission, he visited Alabama, California, West Virginia, Texas, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico. Alston’s statement on American poverty and inequality has been overlooked by most of the mainstream media. Alston has a record of consistent impartiality, which makes his statement on American poverty all the more credible. He was critical of China in his report on that country (the Chinese government later accused him of “meddling” in its judicial system).

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