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En Espanol
The
March For Our Lives: Stop the War At Home began with a rally at
the UN.
The
following artists performed:
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 Immortal
Technique – New York – Hip Hop Activist Group
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 Musician
and Activist - Steve Earl
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Speakers
List:
The following are excerpts of speeches. |
 National
Council of Churches - Bob Edgar
Dr King said, "We still have a choice today: nonviolent
coexistence or violent co-annihilation." This may well
be humankind's last chance to choose between chaos and community.
As we gather here in this plaza, let us remind ourselves of
Dr. King's dream, let us remind ourselves of the value of nonviolence,
let us call upon God to be with us in this action, let us stand
up when others tell us to sit down and speak out when others
tell us to be silent. A group of us are going to gather in prayer
tomorrow evening at Riverside Church here in New York, and at
7-o-clock tomorrow evening with the help of Peter Yarrow of
Peter, Paul and Mary, people of all faith's traditions are going
to pray for the poor, gonna pray for justice, gonna pray for
peace. May the spark of this day be a spark that leads us into
the future. And may us all remember as we touch each other's
shoulder that we have a shoulder to count on, and a shoulder
that we must place our hand on as a reminder that the children
of Sudan, the children of Baghdad, the children of New York
and Washington, the children of America are counting on us to
seek justice, to bring hope and to make a difference on our
fragile planet we call Earth. God be with you. |
 Coalition
to Protect Public Housing – Chicago, IL – Barbara
Moore
I'm here representing the Coalition to Protect Public Housing
and Cabrini Green. I'm here to tell President Bush: "America
the Beautiful", but beautiful for whom? Is it just for
the rich, the famous and the politicians? Do poor people in
America have a dream of being successful every year, do we have
to go to Iraq or Iran where Bush has sent all the money to get
a decent safe and sanitary housing? Mr. Bush, please, help us
before we have blood on our streets in America like the blood
on the streets in Iraq and Iran, because we are not gonna let
our children go hungry and have nowhere to live. Please help
us, Mr. Bush. |
PPEHRC:
New York City Chapter – New York, NY – Ronald Casanova
I am a homeless person, but I'm a homeless person who's
alive. I got the virus, but I'm alive. I got about thirty
or forty more years to go, and I'm gonna fight for the rest
of my life just like you guys are. All I've got to say to
you guys is if you're serious, if you really want to make
changes, then let's go get Bush.
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 Michigan
Welfare Rights Organization – Detroit, MI – Marian
Kramer
It's quite an honor to be out here today, but it brings tears
to our eyes to see that many people are beginning to join the
army to eliminate poverty not just in the United States but
throughout the world. We have to get rid of the terrorists,
not just Bush but his whole empire, to make sure that our children
will be able to have a future. Today make sure that this is
the beginning, that you join this fight, the fight for economic
human rights, not just here but throughout the world. Thank
you for being here and thank you for giving me the honor to
be a part of you. |
Women's
Economic Agenda Project
-Oakland, CA-
Ethel Long-Scott
What a joyful day! We are in the fight for our lives, we
are ready for it, we traveled three thousand miles to say to
those who would think they can intimidate us into silence, we
reject that. To those that think they can continue to rob our
lives, to take our health care, our housing, our jobs and our
dignity, we reject that. They think they might be able to keep
us from bringing together the leaders of truth, hardworking
people who built this country, who are marching for our constitutional
rights, we are here to say that you are here for the fight of
your life because we are marching not only for the people who
are here within the sound of voice, but for the millions who
are suffering without healthcare, in misery and in silence.
We lift our voices today in unity, we will fight for economic
human rights, and we will never be silent. |
 Deaf
and Deaf-Blind Committee on Human Rights – Cleveland, OH
– Nicole Mitchart
So
many people have problems and issues, it is very sad. And so
we would like to break those barriers, we have terrible experiences
within the deaf community. Myself, I have migraines and can't
seem to get into the doctor. The doctor only gives me superficial
reasons as to why I'm sick because I can't even afford to go
there. I have to buy the cheapest food I can find just so I
can eat. Our house mortgage keeps increasing; it never stays
the same because the taxes keep going up. I'm afraid to lose
our house, my husband is the only one who works, and he is also
deaf. He's worked for 13 years and seems to be gaining nothing
and is not succeeding. We have to live from check to check and
we can't afford to live on loans. We can't get interpreters
to open up communications, and we feel like our human rights
have not been met and we would like that attention brought here
too. |
Women
in Transition – Louisville, KY – Kiona Black
Good afternoon. My name is Kiona Black. I am from Louisville,
Kentucky, representing Women in Transition. I'm here today letting
our government and our nation know we will be heard. Our needs
will be met. We are not invisible, we're here! Thank you! |
 ADAPT-
Philadelphia, PA - Jimmy
People are being incarcerated against their will, without the
benefit of a trial, without the right to talk to a lawyer. I'm
talking about our sisters and brothers with disabilities who
are locked up in nursing homes and institutions every day for
lack of community-based home services, for the lack of this
money because the nursing home industry is a great big multi-billion
dollar industry that has grown off the cash cow of people with
disabilities. We who are in ADAPT are fighting to free our brothers,
to free our sisters, and to free our people. We ask you to join
us and to help us fight, talk to your local congresspeople and
senators and tell them you support a bill called Mi Casa. Mi
Casa is the key to saving people. |
POWER
– San Francisco, CA – Steve Williams
We need to end homelessness in this country. All over the globe
there are people without housing, without food. George Bush
instead of sending food, instead of sending money, he sends
bombs. He sends jails to our communities. We say that that shit
has got to stop. And it has got to stop today. And we know that
he won't stop it. We know that the democrats won't stop it.
The only people that will stop it are the people in the streets.
And that is why they can bring out all the police they want,
they can drop all the bombs they want, but we know that we are
sick and tired of being treated like less than human beings.
As the people in San Francisco say. We're Fired Up! Won't take
it no more. We're Fired Up! Won't take it no more. |
 NOW
- Olga Vives
"We are here in solidarity with you today to say no to
the Bush Agenda. This Bush Administration is wrong. It has created
chaos in the United States and around the world. We are hated
abroad, and here at home we suffer because of their policies.
It is a shame that the richest country in the world allows 12
million children to go to be hungry every night. It is a shame
that the richest country in the world allows women of color
to get 55 cents for dollar that a man makes. It is a shame that
the richest country in the world throws women off of welfare
without a job, without job training. Promoting marriage is a
failed policy. It is a shame that working across the streets
of this country, this rich country, are people with no shelter,
no medical care, no jobs, and no hope. We are here today to
demand change. To demand an end to the war in Iraq." |
 Episcopal
Diocese of New York - Michael Kendell
"The problem that we are having in this country is that
there is a housing program and it is called jails. We have an
employment program, it is called the military. We would have
a health program and food, but we are at war. We have got to
get out of the business of war, out of the business of giving
too much money to the rich. The gap between the rich and poor
is growing and is the worst in New York State. And we have got
to get back to work for the needs of human beings. This isn't
just a jobs program or a housing program. This is about life
and death. People are dieing in this city and across this nation
because they do not have food, they do not have housing, they
do not have healthcare, they do not have jobs. They tell us
in New York State that the churches, the synagogues, and the
mosques, can open up soup kitchens. And what do they do? They
cut the food money. Then they cut section 8. Housing is a right.
So is healthcare and so are jobs. Lets go to work for that." |
 Coalition
of Immokalee Workers – Immokalee, FL – Gerardo Reyes-Chavez
"It is great to be here with you all today. We imagine
that many of you know that we have a national boycott of Taco
Bell. And this boycott started precisely because of the violations
of Human rights that we as farmworkers face everyday in this
country. The right to a decent wage doesn't exist in the agricultural
industry. The right to organize and be recognized as a union
of workers does not exist in the agricultural industry. The
right to work free from slavery. Talking about slavery we just
finished a case where over 700 workers were forced to work at
gun point in the fields of Florida. We are here today in front
of the United Nations to say that we as farmworkers and none
of us as low wage workers and poor are going to tolerate any
more, these violations of human rights. Thank you " |
Organize!
Ohio – Cleveland, OH – Larry Bresler
"What kind of nation are we living in when our infant mortality
rate is at third world levels. Where we are the only industrialized
nation in the world that does not have universal healthcare.
We have one class of education for the wealthy. And second class
education for those that are not. A homeless population that
gets larger and larger and larger. That is not the mark of a
might nation. A good progressive nation, a might nation, is
one that recognizes economic human rights. We have to demand
on a neighborhood level, on a community level, on a state level,
and certainly on a national level, for social justice and our
economic human rights. Thank you " |
 AFSCME
1707 – New York – Brenda Stokely
"Why do we take over the streets? Because people need to
speak for themselves! It means that you are out speaking for
yourself, but equally as important, it means you are are organizing
for yourself. Because nothing absolutely nothing, in this country
or in the world has ever changed unless the people who are oppressed,
rose up, organized, and took over and made things the way that
they need to be made in this country. We are not going to get
jobs, we are not going to get childcare, and we are not going
to get healthcare, unless we make it happen. And that is what
this is all about. The next march is going to be October the
17th. Be there because those are working people, which all of
us, whether you have been laid off, whether you have never worked,
maybe they have you doing slave labor as a welfare recipient,
whatever it is you are not part of the wealthy class. You are
part of working people. And that is who is going to be speaking
and marching on the 17th." |
 New
Jerusalem – Philadelphia, PA – Sister Margaret McKenna
"I come from New Jerusalem Now which is a community of
people, there are thirty of us here today from Philadelphia,
North Philadelphia. I am happy that God is definitely on our
side today. I am happy to be marching with God and his people
today." |
 National
Association of Social Workers: New Jersey chapter – Renee
Wolf
"I am here today representing the peace and social justice
taskforce of the National Association of Social Workers of New
Jersey and Poor Voices United a group of poor people from Atlantic
City New Jersey. I am here today joined with my fellow social
workers to fight for the rights that every human being should
have when they are born. The right to food, housing and education.
Today I call on all social workers to join this fight because
until the policies of the US change, there are going to be two
people in line for every one person we try to help. I know with
our collective power we are going to get all of our economic
human rights." |
Rochester
Poor People United – Rochester, NY – Charles Kellum
"I just want to say that it was a struggle for us to
get here today. We had to wash cars, we had to beg for money
in order to make this trip and at the last minute we had about
20 people who wanted to go with us and they couldn't make
it. And I said that for all those people that couldn't make
it that we would make sure their voices were heard-- that
they understood, that poor people understand that this is
a struggle for our rights to exist, for our rights to survive.
And I want to come up here and say "get rid of Bush,
no more Bush, no more four years."
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 United
for Peace and Justice - Leslie Cagan
"I don't know if you all can see yourselves, but you look
terrific, you look beautiful. It is wonderful to be here with
you, yesterday many of you marched with us and we know that
the struggle for peace is totally and completely linked to the
struggle for economic justice here at home and around the world.
When working people and poor people stand together, not only
unified in this country but with working people and poor people
all around the world, that's when we become strong enough to
actually turn things around. Peace will come in the world when
there is social and economic justice in the world. " |
 Loring
Nicollet Alternative School – Minneapolis, MN – Rachle
Hamilton
"There are women out there that are raising their children
all across the United States, and 95% of those women live under
the poverty level, and we know the poverty level is way too
low. What we need to do now is go out and protect those children
and this march is one way we can do it. We have those that are
marching who have family members who are in prison. We have
the largest prison population of any civilized nation. Lets
get out there and walk and march and let this government know
what we are all about. |
 Justice,
Economic Dignity, and Independence for Women – Salt Lake
City, UT – Bonnie Macri |
 The
Empowerment Center – Cleveland, OH – Luther Smith
"I am a Korean Vet, and the Bush administration has cut
the pensions critically and they have added extra surcharges
to the medications. I am also a community activist in Ohio and
we want Bush out!" |
 People
to End Homelessness – Providence, RI – Catherine Rhodes
"I want to share with you all a story of what happened
to me in New York City while I was marching and documenting
the Economic Human Rights Violations in the city. I happened
to go to Tompkins Square with a bunch of other really loving
and caring people including Cas who was showing us around. I
was given the honor of sitting down next to a woman who was
with her bags. She was sitting on the park bench and she was
sleeping and I didn't wake her up. And I sat with her for about
15 minutes and I said 'my God what has this country come to?'
and I started to walk away and as I was walking away, a gentleman
in uniform came up and tapped her on the shoulder and said "excuse
me ma'am but there is no sleeping allowed in the park"
this woman, a 60 year-old white woman taking a nap sitting up
in the park was given a ticket and a summons to go to a New
York City court district. That is what this world is coming
to. Time to get Bush out!" |
 Social
Welfare Action Alliance – (national) – Jennifer Jones
"The Social Welfare Action Alliance is here, and a member
of the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign. Whether
you have food or you do not have food; whether you need health
care or don't have health care… We are in a fight for our
lives. Look around make no mistake, poor people did this. There
are no more violent acts of terrorism than the systematic starvation
of children in the richest country in the world." |
Alternatives
for Developing Change – Chico, CA – Sarah Frohock
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 Kensington
Welfare Rights Union – Philadelphia, PA – Galen Tyler |
 Labor
Party - Mark Dudzic
"The Labor Party is made up of hundreds of thousands of
unions and poor people's organizations around the country. We
have come here to stand in solidarity with the Poor People's
Economic Human Rights Campaign. The people of this country have
a right to healthcare. The people of this country have a right
to a job." |
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 Industrial
Union Council – New Jersey – Bill Kane
"It is great to be here with the people who believe and
respect the constitution of the United States. We are here
at the United Nations for a specific reason. We're here because
the world needs to know that it is not just so called third
world countries that have human rights violations. It is here
in the United States of America that we need to build this
movement. And today that is exactly what we are doing."
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Update
Speeches
Why
We're Marching
Press
Updated
List of Endorsing Organizations
Read
the most current news coverage of the march
Buses
will be leaving from Love Park in Philadelphia:
11am on August 30th. Call 267-258-6307 to reserve a spot. Download
a Flyer
Check
out the new Campaign Website www.economichumanrights.org
download flyer
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