In his prophetic speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” delivered on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his tragic and untimely assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared: “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism that blames poor people for their own poverty, into one “moral fusion” campaign.

Groups in Oakland, CA have been doing public participatory readings annually, since 2003. This year, standing in the bright sun at the amphitheater in front of Oakland City Hall, a group of activists, including members of the Bay Area Poor Peoples Campaign, gathered once again to read “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” As one of the organizers said: “We have now been doing these annual readings in Oakland under five U.S. administrations! And each year something new stands out that is directly relevant to the moment we’re in. This year was no different. Dr. King truly was a prophet who continues to teach and inspire us 57 years later.”

In Los Angeles, CA, twenty people gathered at Alexandria House to read Dr. King’s speech. Although most in attendance were not familiar with the history of the Vietnam war, the present-day resonance was clear to all. Several people were so moved by his words that they broke down and cried. One of the readers put it this way: “The beauty and power of the words of Dr. King, along with the harmony of the voices reading, was a gift to my spirit. So grateful to have been present.”

A statewide online reading, organized by the California Poor People’s Campaign took place on April 9.

This was the fourth year that North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign folks did online readings of the speech. Nearly 50 people volunteered to participate in the readings. There were readers from the mountains to the coast and every area in the state was represented. Over 100 people joined Zoom to hear the reading of the speech. Watch the recording here.

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be a mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign. We have prepared a tool kit, updated annually, with everything you need to organize a reading in your community. Consider organizing a reading for next April 4 (or sooner; you don’t have to wait!)

The post MLK’s “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” – Now More Than Ever appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

Kansas City Missouri is literally at the center of the 2lst century new nuclear arms race.

Kansas City MO is home to one of the 8 major sites that make U.S. nuclear weapons.  It has an innocuous name, the Kansas City National Security Campus (NSC), located at 14520 Botts Road, where it produces or procures over 80% of the non-nuclear components of U.S. nuclear bombs and warheads.  Honeywell runs the NSC facility.  Very few people living in and around Kansas City know it exists let alone know what it produces. Activists against nuclear weapons more accurately refer to it as the Kansas City Nuclear Bomb Parts Plant.  This plant is a vital link in the production of nuclear weapons.  And for this reason, the plant could be a target in an enemy attack.

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to spend close to $2 trillion dollars over the next 30 years to maintain and modernize its nuclear weapons and their delivery systems – aircraft, ICBMs and submarines.

Spending trillions of dollars on nuclear weapons, weapons that destroy all life, is a choice. The U.S. government and its elected officials have chosen to enrich wildly profitable military contractors by spending outrageous sums of money on weapons that can never be used if we expect to continue to live on this planet.  The military bonanza hurts all U.S. citizens.  Americans deserve better.  Americans deserve affordable housing, affordable medical care, a livable wage, good schools, roads, bridges, allowing no one to go hungry in the richest country in the world.

The KC nuclear bomb parts plant will double in size over the next few years to handle this increased production.  Adding insult to injury, state legislators, with bipartisan support, are set to pass legislation that will provide a state sales tax exemption on the cost of all materials needed to double the size of the current nuclear bomb plant.  This huge windfall to Honeywell/NSC is a cost all Missourians will absorb!

Instead of wasting the intelligence, skills and talents of those employed by Honeywell at the NSC, those employees’ talents could be used to address the climate crisis, the other existential threat facing the world.

We all live on this planet together.  We are not each other’s enemies.   It is in deciding to come together that we can address the nuclear and climate threats so life continues on this planet.

With all that said, the Kansas City National Security Campus is one crazy notion of national security.

The post What People Need to Know about the Kansas City Nuclear Bomb Parts Plant appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

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.

The post End Women’s Poverty: Invest in Caring Not Killing – International Women’s Day event now online appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

UFPJ encourages groups around the country to organize public participatory readings of the speech this April 4 to build momentum for the Poor People’s Campaign Third Reconstruction Agenda to Heal the Nation: End Poverty and Low Wages From the Bottom Up. We have prepared a toolkit which provides everything you need to organize your own reading – in English or in Spanish. You can organize a reading in person or online.

Please let us know if you’re planning a reading!

When Dr. King gave this speech, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War. The country was in turmoil as peace activists resisted the draft, and anti-war and civil rights protesters took to the streets. King’s speech laid bare the relationship between U.S. wars abroad and the racism and poverty being challenged by the civil rights movement at home. And it was controversial in some parts of the civil rights movement.

In this powerful speech Dr, King provides both a diagnosis and a cure that remain fully relevant today. “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism, into one “moral fusion” campaign.

Listen to an audio recording of Dr. King delivering “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” on April 4, 1967.

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be a national mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

The post This April 4: Organize a Public Reading of Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam: Speech in Your Community appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

 Please register to join us in DC! Once you register, you’ll start receiving the Digital Drum beat, inspiring weekly messages from Poor People’s Campaign Co-chairs Bishop William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, about how you can keep up the enthusiasm about the programs happening on June 18th in Washington, D.C. for your community. 

UFPJ is proud to be a mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign. We encourage you to work with your organization to also join as a mobilizing partner. Sign up here.

Find a ride on a bus near you! Through the Poor People’s Campaign partnership with Rally Co., there are buses leaving across the country to get to the Mass Poor People and Low Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls. Check it out to see which one is closest to you. Click here for FAQ.

Want to do more? Sign up to be a mobilizing captain! There is still time to bring your friends, family, and community with you to Washington, D.C. As a mobilization captain, you will receive active updates on the latest news happening on June 18th. Sign up here. There will be a Rally Co. bus training on Tuesday, March 31 at 7:30 pm ET. Register here.  

Read the Organizer’s Manual here.

Spread the word by using the Digital Toolkit and the weekly Digital Drumbeat email.

Volunteers are needed in DC. Sign up here.

Go live with us on June 18 via Facebook and Twitter. 

Schedule 

June 17: On the evening of June 17, we will be holding a special community meal and memorial service to mourn the loss of 1 million+ lives to COVID-19 and to ground ourselves and prepare for the assembly and march the following morning.

• Meal at 5:00 pm ET at Freedom Plaza
• Memorial service at the Lincoln Memorial at 7:30 pm ET

June 18: To kick off the morning, there will be a Shabbat Service co-organized by Jewish partners and open to all who find such a space meaningful. 8:00 – 9:15 am ET at Freedom Plaza.

• Gathering time for the march and assembly will begin between 9:00 -10:00 am ET at 3rd and Pennsylvania Ave, NW.
• Kick-off at 10:00 am ET

Mobilization Tour

 Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign has declared: “Refusing to address the interlocking injustices and evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation & the denial of health care, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism is constitutionally inconsistent, morally indefensible, politically insensitive, and economically insane.”

In the build up to the June 18 Mass Assembly in Washington, DC, the Poor People’s Campaign made tour stops in Alabama (virtual), Texas (virtual), Ohio, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Washington, DC, New York, Pennsylvania, California, and Tennessee, to do M.O.R.E. – mobilizing, organizing, registering and educating people for a movement that votes. The final tour stop before DC took place in Memphis, Tennessee on May 23, at the exact location where Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The history of Memphis is crucial to this movement led by and for poor and low-income people. From the prolific sanitation strike in 1968, to the musical history of Beale Street, Memphis has the movement in its’ bones and the Poor Peoples’ Campaign is proud to be about of that history.

Watch this powerful 3-minute video to understand how the Poor People’s Campaign has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished business, weaving together the interlocking injustices of systemic poverty, racism, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and the distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism into one “moral fusion” campaign.

This is our time; this is our movement! Join us on June 18 to go forward together, not one step back!!

The post Let’s Bend the Arc of Justice on June18! appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

UFPJ encourages groups around the country to organize public participatory readings of the speech this April 4 as part of the Poor People’s Campaign Mobilization for the June 18 Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington.

We have prepared a toolkit which provides everything you need to organize your own reading – in English or in Spanish. You can organize a reading in person or online.

Please let us know if you’re planning a reading!

When Dr. King gave this speech, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War. The country was in turmoil as peace activists resisted the draft, and anti-war and civil rights protesters took to the streets. King’s speech laid bare the relationship between U.S. wars abroad and the racism and poverty being challenged by the civil rights movement at home. And it was controversial in some parts of the civil rights movement.

In this powerful speech Dr, King provides both a diagnosis and a cure that remains fully relevant today. “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

Listen to an audio recording of Dr. King delivering “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” on April 4, 1967.

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism, into one “moral fusion” campaign.

Read the powerful Statement on Russia’s attack on Ukraine from the co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, Bishop William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis on Feb. 25, 2022 – Poor People’s Campaign (poorpeoplescampaign.org)

Heads up, member groups! UFPJ is inviting our member groups to participate in a virtual reading of “Beyond Vietnam” on April 3 and will be launching a Poor People’s Campaign working group. You’ll be hearing more from us soon.

The post This April 4: Organize a Public Reading of Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam: Speech in Your Community appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

When Dr. King gave this speech, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War. The country was in turmoil as peace activists resisted the draft, and anti-war and civil rights protesters took to the streets. King’s speech laid bare the relationship between U.S. wars abroad and the racism and poverty being challenged by the civil rights movement at home. And it was controversial in some parts of the civil rights movement.

In this powerful speech Dr, King provides both a diagnosis and a cure that remains fully relevant today. “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism, into one “moral fusion” campaign.

UFPJ encourages groups around the country to organize public participatory readings of the speech this April 4 as part of the Poor People’s Campaign Mobilization for the June 18 Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington.

We have prepared a toolkit which provides everything you need to organize your own reading. You can organize a reading in person or online. Let us know if you’re planning a reading!

Listen to an audio recording of Dr. King delivering “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” on April 4, 1967.

Heads up, member groups! UFPJ will be inviting member groups to participate in a virtual reading of “Beyond Vietnam” on April 4 and launching a Poor People’s Campaign working group. You’ll be hearing more from us soon.

The post This April 4: Organize a Public Reading of Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam: Speech in Your Community appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

This webinar highlighted UFPJ member groups’ and allies’ work to raise awareness of the impacts of war industries in communities around the U.S., including approaches ranging from focusing on particular armament companies to the use of local resolutions to educate publics about endless funding for the military while the frontline services provided by local government are short-changed. The keynote speaker was Rev. Liz Theoharis, National Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

Other presenters included:

Carley Towne, with Code Pink’s Divest From the War Machine campaign
Ken Jones, with the campaign against Raytheon in Asheville, NC
Denise Duffield, with the Back From the Brink campaign
Jackie Cabasso, UFPJ National Co-convener, with Mayors for Peace
Helen Jacquard with the Veterans for Peace Golden Rule Peace Boat project
Brian Garvey of Massachusetts Peace Action Raytheon Anti-War Campaign
George Friday, UFPJ’s National Organizer, on Seeding Young Peacekeepers

The post UFPJ Webinar: The Costs of War at Home, recording now available. appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

War profiteers and corporate Democrats want us to feel like increasing the Pentagon budget year after year while they nickel and dime programs for human needs is inevitable. It’s NOT and the tide is changing!

That’s why we need a movement to #CutThePentagon for People, Planet, Peace, and a Future!

Cut The Pentagon is a coalition of groups pulled together by CODEPINK, the Institute for Policy Studies, The People’s Forum and World Beyond War, with a commitment to be in the streets with peaceful direct actions, theater, disruptions, and teach-ins. Whether in Washington DC or around the country, we will be organizing actions every day—exposing individuals and companies that profit from war, pressuring Congress and the administration to join us, making common cause with the positive causes that deserve more tax dollars, lifting up the stories of those most affected by militarism, and the lack of funds it steals from their needs.

You can join the coalition as an organization here

You can join the coalition as an individual here

You can find more resources and information here

The post Join the movement to #CutThePentagon for People, Planet, Peace, and a Future! appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

In the years following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, peace and justice groups in Oakland, California started organizing annual April 4 public participatory readings of Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech in front of the Federal Building. These readings have served as powerful community-building experiences and have since been organized by groups around the country.

This year, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to curtail our public gatherings, we invite you to listen to a recording of Dr. King giving this speech, as you read the text and reflect on its meaning today.

If you’re feeling especially ambitious and have the technical skills, you may wish to organize a virtual participatory reading via Zoom, by adapting our how to Organize a Public Reading of Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam” Speech in your Community “tool kit.” You’ll need to update the introduction. You will find a useful set of fact sheets from the Poor People’s Campaign here.

Click here for additional Martin Luther King, Jr. resources, including speeches and posters.

Hopefully, by April 4, 2022 we’ll be able to gather again in public spaces and experience the inspiration of participating in public readings of this powerful speech.

When Dr. King gave the speech, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War. The country was in turmoil as peace activists resisted the draft, and anti-war and civil rights protesters took to the streets. King’s speech laid bare the relationship between U.S. wars abroad and the racism and poverty being challenged by the civil rights movement at home. And it was controversial in some parts of the civil rights movement.

In his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, Dr. King declared: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

We believe that Dr. King’s words were both precautionary and prophetic, providing both a diagnosis and a cure – “a true revolution of values” – for our society’s gravest illnesses, “the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.”

At the time he was murdered, Dr. King was organizing a massive Poor People’s Campaign. The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished agenda, and on June 20, 2020, held the largest digital and social media gathering of poor and low wealth people, moral and religious leaders, advocates, and people of conscience in this nation’s history.  The global pandemic has exposed even more the already existing interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism, and the distorted narrative of religious nationalism. The Poor People’s Campaign is a addressing these five interlocking injustices by building a powerful “moral fusion” movement.

United for Peace and Justice is proud to be a national organizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Join the Poor People’s Campaign!

The post Honoring Dr. King’s Full Legacy – “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.