KWRU Statement on Permit Refusal

[6-9-00]:

Background Information

The July 31 March for Economic Human Rights will begin at City Hall in Philadelphia and continue down Broad Street, a wide street which marks the center of the city. Following proper procedure, we applied for a permit, but after weeks of trying to work with the city, they continued to stand us up and put us off. Finally, on July 8, they gave us the final answer. They would not allow us to exercise our First Amendment right to march down Broad Street on July 31.

KWRU Statement on Permit Refusal

We are here today because we are outraged. Outraged that the city stood us up yesterday and then later told us flatly that our permit was being denied. They say it is because of "logistics", or "because of traffic."

Well, we're tired of being run over. We have a ten-year history of demonstrating in Philadelphia and could very easily walk up Broad Street for a short period of time, in a single file, with our own marshals.

Our permit was denied in Philadelphia because the city wants the poor to disappear during the Republican National Convention. It's a shame that they don't want poverty to end - just to disappear. Well, that's not going to happen.

We who have slept on the streets of this country, cold with nowhere to go have a responsibility to say no more to homelessness. Those of us who have wiped the tears from our children's' eyes - for us this is no symbolic act but a march we must take. We cannot for one minute allow the violence of unemployment, hunger and homelessness to be reduced to a paragraph on the back page. We who have lived life in the darkest hours have a responsibility to our children and others who today will be thrown from their homes - and we have a responsibility to our country.

As William Channing said in 1830 in "Spiritual Freedom":

Our great error as a people is, that we put an idolatrous trust in our free institutions; as if these, by some magic power, must secure our rights, however we enslave ourselves to evil passions. We need to learn that the forms of liberty are not its essence; that whilst the letter of a free constitution is preserved its spirit may be lost; that even its wisest provisions and most guarded powers may be weapons of tyranny.

This is what is happening in our city. Under the guise of upholding the law, they are violating a higher law. On July 31st, we should be able to practice our right to demonstrate, march, and speak out as long as we are non-violent and not hurting anyone.

The city is abusing its authority and policing messages and trying to shape what, how and when we are allowed to be seen and heard. THIS IS NOT freedom of speech.

We in no way want to be confused with people who throw things through windows or do other disruptive things.

Our march is being led by the poor - this means farm workers, people living in housing projects, people who are deaf and unemployed, and mothers with babies living in trailer parks or homeless shelters. We come in ALL colors and we have one thing in common - we are tired of living in misery, and that is why we are marching.

We are marching to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UDHR says that we have a right to food, clothing, housing and a right to speak out, even if we don't have anything. It doesn't say anything about a so-called free speech zone. We are calling on our friends from around the country an the international community witness this human rights violation taking place in the city of brotherly love.

We will be suing the city for the photo exhibit and the March.

Churches, students and union members will come out and stand on the sidewalk and be witness to this violation of our first amendment rights and to potential human rights violations. We need you as we March for Our Lives, and for Economic Human Rights for everyone.

Please call Mayor John Street's office at (215) 686-2181, to urge him to allow poor people to excercise our right to free speech and march down Broad Street on July 31.