Speakers from West Virginia gathered to demand action from U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, joining a Monday press conference in Charleston sponsored by the national Poor People’s Campaign.
Their grassroots effort built on a series of full-page newspaper ads taken out in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel and The Journal of Martinsburg. The ads demanded Manchin support a $15 an hour minimum wage and the John Lewis Voting Rights act, along with ending the Congressional filibuster.
Rev. William J. Barber, one of the co-chairs of the group, said the organization plans to up the pressure.
“We are launching a national call-in and we are in serious conversations and preparations about nonviolent civil disobedience stand-ins, sit-ins, et cetera,” he said.
The speakers set up a video camera outside of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce offices, where they said much of the dark money in politics comes from. They also shared Manchin’s Washington, D.C. office number, encouraging the organization’s supporters to call and make their voices heard.
Manchin responded to their efforts through a spokesperson. “Senator Manchin appreciates The Poor People’s Campaign advocacy efforts, which is why he met with the group several months ago. He continues to listen to the concerns West Virginians share and seek solutions to the issues facing our state.”
Manchin has opposed a $15 federal minimum wage and an elections bill that he said he couldn’t support because it lacked bipartisan support.
Senate Democrats unveiled a pared-back elections bill last week.
Manchin long has defended the filibuster as many of his Senate colleagues have shifted on the issue.
About 40 people stood in the hot sun at the state capitol as part of the “Mass Moral Motorcade on Manchin.” They began their journey in Madison as a tip of the hat to the March on Blair Mountain — a violent labor uprising that saw West Virginians demand better.
The motorcade was sponsored by the state and national chapters of the Poor People’s Campaign, led by Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis.
Jean Evansmore, a state representative for the campaign, says low wages keep even working people poor.
“That is poverty. You didn’t cause it. The system caused it. Get involved with us and fight the system,” she said.
The protest was the latest effort by the groups to sway Manchin. Speakers called for Manchin to end Congress’ filibuster, pass all provisions of the For the People Act, fully restore the 1965 Voting Rights Act and pass a $15 an hour federal minimum wage.
Another speaker at the event, June Spence, an organizer from Common Defense, explained that it is the nation’s largest grassroots veteran organization.
“We want our concerns to be known to Sen. Manchin. One hundred years ago, our ancestors in these hills fought for the right of labor, of a dignified work area, to get paid an actual living wage and not work under company scrip,” she said. “We are here demanding a livable wage. Again.”
Manchin was not in attendance and there was no direct response from his staff.
A motorcade of protestors will be arriving in Charleston Thursday with the hope of getting the attention of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin.
The “Mass Moral Motorcade on Manchin,” as it is being called, is sponsored by the state and national chapters of the Poor People’s Campaign led by Rev. William Barber.
The Poor People’s Campaign was organized in 2018 and works for justice for poor and low-income people. This is the latest effort by the groups to sway Manchin.
They are asking him to end Congress’ filibuster, pass all provisions of the For the People Act, fully restore the 1965 Voting Rights Act and pass $15 an hour federal minimum wage, the group said in a press release.
The motorcade will begin in Madison at noon. That starting point is a tip of the hat to the upcoming March on Blair Mountain anniversary. It will arrive at the state capitol at 2:30 p.m. for presentations.
For Covid safety, participants will stay in their cars. There is also a virtual option to follow through the Poor People’s Campaign website.
About 50 people rallied in Charleston on the sidewalk in front of U.S Sen. Joe Manchin’s Charleston office to encourage him to vote yes on the proposed $15 an hour federal minimum wage.
The minimum wage increase is part of the COVID relief package currently before Congress.
The rally was organized by the Repairers of the Breach and the Poor People’s Campaign. The groups organize Moral Mondays events nationwide to focus on equity issues. Charleston was one of eight cities with simultaneous events.
Eric Douglas
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WVPB
Matt Kerner, from Buckhannon, was one of the speakers at the $15 an hour rally in Charleston.
Matt Kerner drove to Charleston from Buckhannon in Upshur County to be part of the event. He told a story about a man he knew in a plant where he worked in. The man was begging for a raise because his wife had a complicated pregnancy and couldn’t work.
“And the plant manager told him, minimum wage is our way of telling you if we could pay you any less, we would,” Kerner said.
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass the current relief package this week and then it will go to the Senate. Senators Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have both questioned the wage increase.
A national campaign that aims to unite disenfranchised populations across the U.S. held events in Kentucky and West Virginia late last week. Meetings are part of a two-month tour designed to highlight social inequity, and build on a movement begun 50 years ago by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Local groups in Kentucky and West Virginia worked with national organizers to plan the events. Several similar rallies and meetings have been held across the country in the past few weeks to generate momentum around what’s called “the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.”
Modeled after the original Martin Luther King Jr. “Poor People’s Campaign” in 1967-68, the project involves mobilizations at state capitals and educational and cultural events that focus on realities about environmental contamination, public land encroachment, wage gaps, race and culture issues, and the war economy.
The Poor People’s Campaign is in the process of organizing a 40-day protest, including a series of actions meant to highlight racism, and call out political leaders who are not helping to fight poverty. The campaign is also involved in several “get out the vote” actions to get more people to the polls for the midterm elections.
The nationwide action, which will include marches and other non-violent demonstrations, begins on Mother’s Day.
A local organizer from West Virginia, Reverend Ronald English, explained that the event is an extension of the campaign Martin Luther King, Jr. began 50 years ago.
“So we’re able to kind of build on what would have been the momentum that Dr. King had in mind with the original Poor People’s Campaign,” English said, “I’m glad that that’s been taken up.”
English, who knew King, says he’s hopeful that some of King’s objectives can be fulfilled now, 50 years after his death, with the support of grassroots organizers.
Other speakers at the West Virginia event included local people who have experienced poverty growing up, and who continue to experience poverty even though they work full time jobs and have educational degrees.
Credit Joey Aloi
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Speakers at the WV event, including Amy Jo Hutchinson of Wheeling, W.Va.
One speaker was Amy Jo Hutchinson, of Wheeling, West Virginia, who helps organize the Our Children our Future Campaign in her state. She reflected on her support for what teachers accomplished during a recent work stoppage, but noted her own frustration that the same momentum is not behind the campaigns for poor, working class people in the state:
“I watched my state and nation rally behind these teachers who are making more than the people I organize around with Our Children Our Future every day. We’re fighting for middle class people, because they want better health insurance. Why aren’t [middle class] guys fighting for us?”
Events also included discussions lead by co-chair of the Poor People’s campaign, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber.
“Being poor isn’t a sin. But poverty is,” Barber said at a stop in Harlan County, Kentucky.
He called for Progressives to get behind a movement to help fight against voter suppression laws and other policies which he believes are keeping poor people of all races poor.
“You might be bloodied, you might be bruised, you might be broken, you might be poor, you might be without a union, you might be hurting, you might be black, you might be white, you might be brown, you might be gay, you might be straight, but you say – if we be lifted up, somebody’s gonna see this. Because there can’t be a resurrection, there can’t be any change, until we see it.”
