Last week, the Poor People’s Campaign joined members of the Majority Leader’s Task Force on Poverty and the Congressional Progressive Caucus for a press conference to announce a congressional resolution entitled, Third Reconstruction: Fully Addressing Poverty and Low Wages from the Bottom Up.
Emerging from the pain and organizing power of the 140 million people living in poverty or with low wages in this nation, the congressional resolution for a Third Reconstruction reflects an omnibus vision for a fundamental restructuring of society that lifts from the bottom.
The non-partisan resolution comes as a response to years of movement-building, including the important work of the Kairos Center, to create the collective resolve necessary to implement real and transformational legislative action.
This resolution recognizes that in order to build a true Third Reconstruction we must simultaneously deal with the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation and the denial of health care, militarism and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism that blames the poor instead of the systems that cause poverty.
Read on to learn more about the Third Reconstruction Resolution, and find out how you can get involved with the ongoing historic effort to summon the moral and political resolve of the nation to center the needs of the 140 million people who are poor or low-wealth.
It’s time to fully address poverty and low wages from the bottom up!
On Monday, May 24th, the Poor People’s Campaign joined members of the Majority Leader’s Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity and the Congressional Progressive Caucus to celebrate their introduction of the Third Reconstruction Resolution in a special Moral Monday online rally.
Once the Resolution has been introduced, our movement will be working to realize the Third Reconstruction in Congress and across our nation.
On Moral Monday, June 7th, state coordinating committees of the Poor People’s Campaign will hold simultaneous actions at the offices of members of the US House of Representatives to demand all of their Representatives embrace the Third Reconstruction.
And on June 21, 2021, poor people, low-wage workers, moral and faith leaders and advocates will gather online simultaneously with a socially-distant rally at the North Carolina General Assembly in Raleigh, NC for a National Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers Assembly. The hybrid online/in-person mass assembly will include our over 40 state coordinating committees, 200+ organizing partners, and thousands of moral and faith leaders in our Prophetic Council.
From June 21, the Poor People’s Campaign will launch a one year campaign fighting forward every day towards a massive, generationally-transformative Moral March on Washington and Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly on June 18, 2022. People from every corner of the U.S. will converge and convene in the nation’s capital in the summer of 2022 to create a national stage for the voices and leadership of people directly impacted by systemic racism, the denial of health care and ecological devastation, militarism and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. We will demonstrate the power and resolve of poor people to make the Third Reconstruction a reality.
You can read the text of the Third Reconstruction Resolution, view the recording of our livestream events, and take action by visiting our new page: 3rdReconstruction.org.