Poor People’s March says: Ignite class struggle
OUR Walmart organizers Barbara Elliott and Cindy Murray join Baltimore activists Rev. C.D. Witherspoon and Sharon Black on People’s Power
March, May 11.
Washington, D.C. — The Poor People’s March began May 11 in Baltimore at the site of the police killing of Anthony Anderson, Sr., an unarmed African-American, and arrived the next day in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C.
It was a timely action to further ignite the struggle for social justice for the poor, the workers and oppressed peoples. Not only did hundreds of people travel to Baltimore from as far away as Oakland, Calif., and Selma, Ala., to be in the march, but some even completed the entire 41-mile route on foot. A caravan of at least 15 to 20 cars and vans followed behind, decorated with placards carrying Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s image from the historic 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom.
The marchers included Latino/a immigrant rights activists; Walmart and post office workers; school bus drivers; Black family members impacted by police brutality; Civil Rights veterans, people with disabilities, youth, seniors and many more.
Even torrential rain storms did not discourage more than a dozen young people from walking all night to D.C. A show of police force at a Walmart store did not stop the marchers from going right up to the front doors of this low-wage, anti-union conglomerate. Some of the marchers briefly made it into the store.
All along the route, the march struck an important nerve with anyone who saw it. Some instantly joined the march, even if for a short while. As people heard or saw the march coming down their street or shopping area, they came outside or opened their windows to clap and cheer.
Countless drivers spontaneously honked their car and truck horns in solidarity with the PPM’s demands to end police brutality and mass incarcerations and deportations; for jobs, not jails; to fund education, health care and human needs, not war and occupation, and to demand social justice for all humanity.
A spirit of camaraderie and solidarity was deeply expressed as everyone on the march felt in their bones that this PPM was an important political step forward to empower the masses to fight in their own interests against capitalist greed.
Go to www.PeoplesPowerAssemblies.org for more information.
WW photo: Brenda Ryan
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQJrMDEPSRE]
Above, video of Poor Peoples March 2013 from Baltiimore to Washington, D.C.
See two reports and photos from the two days of marching, rallying, singing 1960s Civil Rights songs and chanting to win power to the people.
Day 1: Marchers defy police presence at Walmart
Day 2: March arrives in D.C., sets new goals for struggle
