“Poor and working people know what we need.” Rev. Joe Paparone, Lead Organizer of Labor Religion Coalition
This month's happenings at Labor Religion Coalition of NYS!
Press Conference and Faith Letter Sign-On To Fully Fund Public Higher Education
This past Tuesday, March 15th, faith leaders of several different religious traditions gathered in Albany for a press conference to release the letter and urge state lawmakers to pass a final budget with more than $1 billion in increased funding for SUNY and CUNY. They were joined by Assembly members Karines Reyes and Jonathan Rivera. Student leaders and union officers of the Professional Staff Congress and United University Professions were there as well. The group urged Gov. Kathy Hochul, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Speaker Carl Heastie to reverse decades of harmful disinvestment in our public higher education system by fully funding CUNY and SUNY in the state budget.
Help us amplify the press conference by sharing some of the tweets below!
Truth Commission Report from The Right To Health and the 3rd Reconstruction
"The poor and dispossessed in this nation are objectively united, but that doesn't mean we are all aware of it." Nijmie Zakkiyyah Dzurinko, Put People First PA
On February 22, we held a truth commission on healthcare with six partner organizations across New York State. We heard from testifiers, cultural workers, and organizers about the plight, fight, and insight around healthcare justice.
The truth commission also received coverage from the Hudson Valley Press! Check out the article, Great Disparities in Healthcare For Many Community Members.
Finally you'll see theres a digital toolkit action link. Please share these videos, graphics and writings via your social media account! As Willie Baptist reminds us, "Movements begin with the telling of untold stories."
Reflections from the 57th Selma Jubilee Bridge Crossing
Photo by Steve Pavey, Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice
“We have to expand our framing and always tie the struggle for the right to vote to the struggle of a low wage worker not getting a living wage,” -Elliot Smith, co-director of student and youth engagement for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
On Monday, March 7, two of our board members and our digital organizer joined a contingent with three social justice groups – the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the Transformative Justice Coalition – to help lead the Monday leg of the Selma-to-Montgomery march in a recommitment to voting rights.
Monday's march symbolized a recommitment to the urgent fight for voting rights in an era when voters have less access to the ballot box than they did when the marchers in the original Selma march in 1965 were beaten and tear-gassed on what became known as Bloody Sunday.
To learn more check out this article by the Washington Post, In Selma, foot soldier’s kin boosts youth voting rights role and also visit The Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice.
Rally To Support SUNY Hospitals
United University Professions (UUP) is hosting a rally with partner labor unions, community members, and Upstate Medical in Syracuse on Tuesday, March 22! UUP would like to invite those in the area to attend.
For more information visit uupinfo.org
Join us on April 11th, in New York City!
A leader of the NYS Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival in Long Island gave the following testimony at an event on International Women's Day. We wanted to share her words as a reminder to join us in New York City on Monday, April 11th, for the Poor People's and Low Wage Workers Mass Assembly and Moral March on Washington and To The Polls MOBILIZATION TOUR!
My spiritual practice makes me ask daily: why am I here? My mother practice makes me wonder about that too much. There’s never a satisfactory answer there. But my work with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival provides some solace that there can be an answer: A way to consciously move towards justice together.
At every moment of my journey was the ache for fairness. I remember writing about Rosa Parks in third grade, only 7 years after her famous refusal in the year of my birth, because I was fascinated by her courage, but also by the strange world that made her have to take that action. So I became passionate about justice.
Today, What will I do to help overcome the 5 interlocking evils: Systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism, and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism that says, you don't have to address those issues? How do I fix this? Well, the “I” doesn’t fix. It’s the “we.” Forward together. - Janie Lynch, The NYS Poor People's Campaign
Forward together,
The Team at Labor Religion Coalition