Fight for $15 Marches on the Confederacy

Adam Barnes

August 17, 2016

Category: Religions

Nearly 4000 people gathered in Richmond, VA this past weekend (August 13 & 14th) for the first National Convention of the Fight for $15. The convention highlighted the struggles and leadership of the 64 million low wage workers — fast food workers, home health workers, airport workers, and many others — who are part of a national fight for a more just wage of $15/hour and representation in a union.

Part of the collective resolution that came out of the convention was a commitment to support the growing moral movement led by Repairers of the Breach and Rev. Dr. William Barber, II, specifically to support the national coordinated day of action on state capitols that Repairers of the Breach is calling for on September 12.
Rev. Barber, along with dozens of other faith leaders, helped to open the fight for $15 convention on Saturday. He also gave the key note speech at the conclusion of the worker’s march through Richmond’s Monument Boulevard, at the base of a state of confederate general Robert E. Lee. Barber spoke powerfully of the connection between the slavery of our nation’s past and the modern day slave wages that deny millions of families the freedom and dignity promised by the God of our different religious traditions, our deepest moral beliefs, and in the founding creed of our nation. Watch the speech here.
Learn more about the fight for $15 struggle here, see some of the media coverage of the convention and march here, and learn more about the work that Rev. Barber and others, including our own Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis and others at the Kairos Center have been doing with Repairers of the Breach.