A report from the California Poor People’s Campaign
End Women’s Poverty: Invest in Caring Not Killing, an International Women’s Day event on March 8, was spearheaded by the California Poor People’s Campaign (PPC), with UFPJ, CODEPINK and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom among other co-sponsors. In collaboration with dozens of cosponsors and endorsers, our International Women’s Day event drew over 200 people to celebrate and honor women, and to acknowledge their contributions and recognize the challenges they continue to face. Watch the recording here.
Monique Orozco welcomed us with a land acknowledgement and urged us to learn more about the lands and Indigenous peoples wherever we are. We were lifted up by the powerful songs of Ciara Taylor from New York and Arnaé Batson from Los Angeles. It wouldn’t be our movement without music!
We heard the painful and powerful stories of women struggling to survive and fighting back: Jenina Gorman, an Indigenous woman in Pennsylvania fighting to get her children out of the system; Jacqueline Johnson in Los Angeles, persevering even after being denied healthcare to keep her alive following a bout with cancer; Kenia Alcocer demanding that immigrants be given the same rights and opportunities as the rest of us living here; Rachel West in San Francisco calling on us not to criminalize mothers for resorting to prostitution to support their children.
Women recounted the struggles they are waging in communities everywhere:
Nana Gyamfi of Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders/Reclaiming Our Sisters Everywhere spoke of the horrors of Black and Indigenous women being murdered and disappeared; Karen Frailey in southern Illinois with Shawnee Forest Defense described efforts to protect her land. And we heard from Leddy, who talked about the fearless women she works with to organize paid and unpaid domestic workers in Peru.
We were honored to be joined by some of our elders who have continued in the struggle for so long: Rev. Annie Chambers, one of the organizers of the original Poor People’s Campaign; and Dolores Huerta, one of the leaders of the United Farm Workers Union.
Two of our champions in Congress joined us as well. Rep. Gwen Moore (WI) shared her background as a single mother and spoke about the importance of restoring the Child Tax Credit. Rep. Barbara Lee (CA) urged Congress to pass her Third Reconstruction Resolution, noting that it is a “comprehensive response that prioritizes the needs of women and children.”
The danger of the war economy was a central theme. Darien De Lu of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and George Friday of United for Peace and Justice highlighted the damage that the war economy inflicts on all of us, with Jodie Evans of CODEPINK adding that “women bear the brunt of war.”
National PPC women leaders were in the house! Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis recounted the many women in the movement who have taught and inspired her through the years. “It is women who are building from the bottom up and breaking every chain,” she said. Shailly Gupta Barnes, policy director of the Kairos Center and the PPC, reminded us that “the story of poor and low-income women, caregivers, trans women, everyone who is marginalized and oppressed in this society, without the recognition, power or the pay that we deserve—never ends here…because we only get what we’re organized to take. Out of love we are here, building our power, today and every day, until we win everything that we deserve.”
The afternoon ended with another song: “Here We Come!” performed by Taína Asili.
Whether you missed the event, would like to share it with others, or would like to be inspired again, you can watch the entire event here.
