KWRU Plans on Protesting the Inauguration of President Bush in DC on January 20th

The Kensington Welfare Rights Union is organizing a delegation to attend the protests of the Presidential Inauguration in Washington DC on January 20.

Buses are leaving the KWRU office in Philadelphia (2825 North 5th Street) at 6:30 am on January 20th. Or, you can join us in DC. We are gathering at the Organization of American States at 17th and Constitution Ave at 10:00 am,and marching to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Building 200 W. Independence Ave. NW. We will then be erecting a tent city called "Bushville" at the Department of Heath and Human Services. We will use the tent city to document the violations of economic human rights caused by welfare reform of people from across America. If you are interesting in joining us, please call our office at 215/203-1945 or email us at kwru@libertynet.org.

KWRU members will be participating in the protests as human rights monitors. We want the world to know that President-Elect Bush, as well as Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (who Bush has named to head the Department of Health and Human Services) are human rights violators. Thompson's shredding of the social safety net in the name of "welfare reform" in Wisconsin was the model for the national "welfare reform" law of 1996. Bush whole-heartedly supports these policies, which are among the most regressive laws of this century.

Since January of 1996, over 2.1 million families (6 million individual recipients) were forced off of welfare. One third of those who left welfare are unable to find work, and report no earnings at all. The average yearly earnings of people who left welfare range from $2,980 to $13,444, well below the poverty level. Half say they worried that food would not last until the end of the month, or report skipping meals in the last year.

Welfare reform also affects the wages of already low paying jobs. Among the lowest third of jobs in the labor force, welfare reform is projected to cut average wages by 11.9%, from an average of $7.19/hour before workfare to $5.47 after workfare.

America has the highest poverty rate and the largest disparity between rich and poor of any industrialized nation. All of this is happening amidst a booming economy and unparalleled abundance in our country.

The United States signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This document guarantees the human rights due to every human being, including food, housing, and living wage jobs. Welfare reform violates articles 23, 25 and 26 of the UDHR.

We have filed an economic human rights petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against the United States government for violations against the poor.