Make poverty an election issue: religious group

[roxiejules]

We need to follow this example!


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2011/04/04/nl-poverty-coalition-404.html

A coalition of reglious groups in Newfoundland and Labrador is speaking Monday about a website it has created to track which candidates have taken a pledge to tackle poverty.

Arnold Bennett, director of the Religious Social Action Coalition of Newfoundland and Labrador, said voters can use the site to help choose who to vote for.

"Having poverty in a wealthy nation is just a failure of community … what are they going to do to turn this around?" said Bennett.

Members of the coalition come from the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist faiths.



Candidates Against Poverty

http://candidatesagainstpoverty.ca/ - Website created to track Canadian candidates who pledge to tackle poverty


It is the goal of our coalition to call upon all candidates for Parliament all across Canada to pledge to move our society toward greater economic fairness.

In the current election, we are calling on every candidate for Parliament – from every party, in every province and territory – to pledge to work to narrow the growing gap between rich and poor in Canada. The sad fact is that economic inequality is growing, and human beings are suffering needlessly.

[villager]

1. King was assassinated on this April day for making poverty an issue.

(I'm posting this while it's still the 4th, in California).

when he switched from fighting against segregation to fighting against poverty -- on everyone's behalf -- that's when he could finally no longer be tolerated.

Hence his "coincidentally" timed demise, right before the Poor Peoples' March on Washington.

I can't think of a single politician brave enough to take on their actual bosses, by making this an issue.

[Hardrada]

2. That's why they got Malcolm X too. He had also connected the dots.

[roxiejules]

3. Poor People's Campaign

We don't hear much from MSM about the campaign MLK was working on at his death. Thanks for pointing this out.

King's economic bill of rights called for massive government jobs programs to rebuild America's cities. He saw a crying need to confront a Congress that had demonstrated its "hostility to the poor" — appropriating "military funds with alacrity and generosity," but providing "poverty funds with miserliness."

[roxiejules]

4. Video of MLK speaking about poverty

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x570264