PJALS and faith leaders plan for the Poor People’s Campaign locally

The Peace and Justice Action League in Spokane (PJALS) and Faith Leaders and Leaders of Conscience are spearheading Eastern Washington and North Idaho events for The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival.

The campaign is an effort by Repairers of the Breach, founded in 2015 by the Rev. William Barber II in collaboration with the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice, the Education Project, and hundreds of local and national partners. 

It is a multi-state movement with the goal of ending systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, environmental destruction and other injustices.

Liz Moore, executive director of the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane (PJALS) and one of the tri-chairs for the Washington State Coordinating Committee, was in Nashville in March for a training of trainers with the Rev. James Lawson, who studied nonviolence three years with Mahatma Gandhi in India before organizing nonviolent resistance in the civil rights movement, such as the lunch counter sit-ins.

“He emphasized the importance of preparation so organizers maintain nonviolent discipline and agree on strategy,” Liz said.

“James said the Poor People’s Campaign will build on past campaigns and create a new moment of struggle with a new scale of coordination to push back systemic causes of poverty, racism, militarism and ecological devastation.

“The hope is to create power the power brokers will not expect to bring change,” Liz said.

The campaign, “The Season of Moral Resistance,” that will run from Mother’s Day through the summer solstice will launch a long-term, multi-year campaign.

For a Mother’s Day protest in Olympia, Spokane will have a send-off rally for its delegation.

In Spokane, Faith Leaders and Leaders of Conscience (FLLC), a diverse group of spiritual leaders, has come together facilitated by the Rev. Gen Heywood, pastor of Veradale United Church of Christ, to support PJALS in this effort.

“We, as a diverse group of spiritual leaders, can model what it means to repair the breach.  We can model unity in the effort to overcome poverty, racism and militarism, and move toward developing the beloved community,” said Gen.
A remembrance of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. is planned at 6 p.m.,
Wednesday, April 4, at New Hope Baptist Church, 9021 E. Boone. 

Beginning on Mother’s Day, May 13, the campaign will engage in 40 days of action. 

On “Moral Mondays,” groups around the nation and in Washington, D.C., will gather at state capitals to make known their concerns that leaders take moral actions and act with integrity regarding the four key areas of poverty, racism, militarism and environmental devastation. 

PJALS and FLLC are planning activities. 
• A series of 40 videos of people telling their stories will be available to build understanding. 
• Voters will be registered. 
• Booklets of meditations on overcoming divisions are planned.

FLLC is discussing activities, such as visiting those incarcerated at Airway Heights or a day of service at the new Martin Luther King Center location at 500 S. Stone.

“Moral concerns of our faith traditions are how our society treats the vulnerable—the people whom Jesus calls ‘the least of these.’  Our traditions point to equal protection under the law, a desire for peace within and among nations, the dignity of all people and the responsibility to care for our common home,” are the goals of the Repairers of the Breach organization.

For information, call 408-593-9556 or genheywood@att.net.

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