Day 1- Washington DC

The March of the Americas began today in front of the White House in Washington DC. Marchers have gathered from places as diverse as Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Florida, Toronto, Quebec, New Zealand, Brazil, and Bolivia. The Marchers gathered in Lafayette Park at 10 am to kickoff the March with speakers from across the hemisphere. Cheri Honkala, National Spokesperson for the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and Executive Director of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, began by explaining the activities of the March and read stories of American families whose rights have been violated by poverty and welfare reform.

International human rights lawyer, Peter Weiss, described the legal case called "The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign vs. The United States." Its a legal complaint submitted to the Inter-American Commission of the Organization of American States, claiming welfare reform and the growing economic problems in the United States as violations of all of our economic human rights. He said, "Everyone says in principle that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and freedom, and yet in the United States poverty rates have been rising for the last 10 years and the US has the lowest proportion of health insured people in the industrialized world"

Tony Mazzocchi, Interim National Organizer for the Labor Party, spoke in support of the march. He spoke of the 43 million people in the US with no health insurance, and to the need for a national health plan.

Rene Maxwell of the Coalition to Protect Public Housing in Chicago, noted that when in the 1930's there was a housing crisis, the government responded by creating public housing. When faced with a similar crisis today, the government is responding by destroying public housing. Rene shared a song that he wrote for building the movement to end poverty, "Our Fight Must Go On"

Patricia Ireland, the Director of the National Organization of Women, spoke of the fight to bring the issue of poverty to the US Congress as well as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund. She noted that one-third of working women in the US earn less than $10,000 a year.

John Lonetti of the United Mine Workers spoke of poverty in Appalachia, like in Welch, West Virginia where the mines closing have left a population that has unemployment rates of 90%.

Josephine Gray from Low-Income Families Together in Toronto Canada spoke of how the corporate elites are organizing global trade agreements to fight for corporate rights; and that we, the poor of the world, must organize globally to fight for human rights.

Njoki Njoroge Njehû, Director of 50 Years is Enough, said the poor around the world are being devastated by neo-liberal economic policies, whether by the US government in this country or by the World Bank and the IMF in poor countries around the world.

Marina Dos Santos, a representative of the MST, the landless movement in Brazil (who are holding their own march across Brazil right now), came to support the March and presented Cheri Honkala a MST cap, while they in turn, donned a March T-shirt. The MST and other groupings of poor people in Brazil are conducting a 1000 mile march to the capital of Brazil ending on Oct. 12. Thousands of Brazilians are marching to call attention to the economic crisis in Brazil and its affect on poor people. The media in Brazil has not covered any of their march.

Also speaking were representatives from AFSCME District 33, the Chicago Coalition of the Homeless, and the Gray Panthers. Also performing was sixth-grade poet Langston Tingling-Clemons.

After the rally, we marched through Washington DC to the Inter-American Commission where the complaint put together by Cathy Albisa and Rhonda Copeland from the International Womens Human Rights Clinic, Peter Weiss of the Center for Constitutional Rights and lawyer, Cecilia Perry, was filed. After leaving the Inter-American Commission, we marched to the Organization of American States Building, where we were met by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, member organization of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, who will be marching for the entire march.

From there we marched to the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial to honor a vision that says that the role of government is to guarantee its people "freedom from fear and want". Also honored here is Eleanor Roosevelt, a champion of the vision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including economic human rights.

We marched 20 miles from DC to Bethesda, Maryland. We marched long into the night before finally coming coming to a place to rest.

Keep checking our website for a day-by-day account of the March of the Americas.

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