One day after the historic Poor People’s March in St. Paul, we speak to the group’s national organizer, Cheri Honkala. She’s a longtime organizer and director of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union in Philadelphia. [includes rush transcript]

AMY GOODMAN: I am joined right now here in St. Paul on Democracy Now! by the national organizer of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, Cheri Honkala, longtime organizer and director of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union in Philadelphia, now living in Minneapolis here in the Twin Cities.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Cheri.

CHERI HONKALA: I’m very happy and very thankful for shows like yours.

AMY GOODMAN: Your thoughts on the Republican convention and what you feel needs to be the policy, the way to deal with the poor in this country?

CHERI HONKALA: Well, we’ve been trying to organize a poor people’s movement for over a decade now. And we’ve just been fighting to, I think, do the most important thing, which is to make poor people visible.

I think that the majority of the people in this country don’t know the conditions in which people live in, and only if they saw with their own eyes seniors having to share medication, farmers being thrown off their land, homeless people living under bridges—and I think that if they saw those daily images, that the American people are good people, and I think that they would be moved to do something about the situation.

But with the combination of the lack of civil liberties and the ability to march and to speak about what’s happening in this country, as well as the takeover of corporate media in this country, it’s one of the hardest struggles that I’ve been a part of, to show the faces of poverty in this country.



AMY GOODMAN: Your group was also at the Democratic convention in Denver.

CHERI HONKALA: Yes, members of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign were also at the Democratic
National Convention. Things were also difficult for folks there to put a face on what’s happening to the majority of the people in this country.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about your own story, Cheri Honkala. How did you get involved with this?

CHERI HONKALA: I’m a formerly homeless mother from here, from the Twin Cities, and I have an older son who’s twenty-eight now, but at the time, he was nine years old. And—

AMY GOODMAN: He’s Mark Webber, the actor?

CHERI HONKALA: Mark Webber, the actor now. And the both of us almost froze to death on the streets of Minnesota, because we couldn’t get into the homeless shelters here. And so, I decided one day to move into a government-owned, abandoned HUD property, because they had the heat on in the wintertime. And I made that decision—I had never broken any laws before in my life—because I wanted to stay alive and not die. And it’s been, ever since that time, some twenty-eight years ago, that I’ve been doing this kind of work, because I knew that if I could have died and nobody cared about what was happening to me, that that had to have been happening to thousands of other people across the country.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s the fortieth anniversary of King’s Poor People’s March that he started, and then was assassinated, but continued. What is the relevance of that to today? Were you inspired at all by that?

CHERI HONKALA: Our movement is very much trying to take up the baton where Dr. Martin Luther King left off. We now have the largest multiracial movement of poor people in this country. The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign can be found on—it has over 200 affiliates. We have members like the Immokalee farm workers, to the Coalition to Protect Public Housing, to trailer park residents in Minnesota, to some of the largest Indian reservations, you name it. And we have one message, which is, we’re calling for the elimination of poverty in this country, not the reduction, no more band-aids, not a bigger and better welfare system, but an elimination to the kind of conditions that we’re faced with.

AMY GOODMAN: The message to end poverty in this country, will you talk about the corporate media and how it deals with these issues, or doesn’t?

CHERI HONKALA: Yeah, I mean, I’ve been involved in large demonstrations for like the last twenty years, and I’m very ashamed of my home state. I’ve never seen so many reporters like yourself being detained. A Channel 5 reporter was trying to cover a story of us; he was thrown into an elevator. A couple other folks that we know that were trying to cover some of our events were also detained and then later released on two different occasions. We were inside the Capitol trying to have a peaceful demonstration during regular open hours of the Capitol, and the reporters were literally locked out of the Capitol and unable to come in, even though they showed their credentials. And so, I don’t quite get what is so horrible about covering a story of women and children and the elderly and people of all colors trying to come together to talk about the day-to-day reality of their lives.

AMY GOODMAN: You know, I was astounded when I talked to the St. Paul police chief yesterday, and, you know, with the arrest, how is he instructing the press to—the police to deal with the press, and how are we supposed to operate when we are trying to cover this and the police arrest us. And he said you can embed yourselves with the police department. And you saw Rick Rowley, Big Noise filmmaker in this piece, he’s covering the riot police, and he sees there the Fox News reporter. As they’re pushing him away, she’s in the midst of them. And he yells to her, “Are you embedded with the police?” She comes in and out with the police.

CHERI HONKALA: Yeah. I mean, for us, that’s no surprise, when it comes to Fox News. But we’re just absolutely outraged. And, you know, like my son said, “Mom, when you get up this morning, don’t read any of the papers. You know, don’t even turn on the television,” because regardless of the fact that poor people came together from all walks of life, every color, every age, yesterday, regardless of being terrorized for actually the last month—we had two Bushvilles that were knocked down, encampments. When we came—

AMY GOODMAN: Bushvilles?

CHERI HONKALA: Yeah, we set up encampments, particularly during the Republican National Convention, for some place for people to sleep, because we can’t afford the W or the Hilton. And so, people were staying at the Bushville, and our first Bushville that we set up on Harriet Island, the first night we were surrounded by 200 police officers in riot gear. They turned on the sprinklers on our children while they were sleeping, turned off all the park lights and drove their police vehicles up onto the lawn with their brights on. And myself and a couple of our other leaders were then arrested, and our Bushville was torn down. Later through the week, they brought dogs to our Bushville, while the kids were sleeping, let the dogs bark and scare the kids, and then periodically would just go by and drive up and run their sirens at 2:00, 3:00 in the morning, just to make people afraid.

AMY GOODMAN: Cheri Honkala, can you describe the conditions of the poor, the daily challenges faced?

CHERI HONKALA: Yeah. Actually, later this afternoon, I leave to go to a funeral in Philadelphia, where a woman, a good friend of mine, Esther, struggled her whole life, because she was right on the borderline in terms of not being able to qualify for medical assistance. And I think she spent each and every day trying to figure out how to pay for the many different medications that she had. So her whole life was about how does she get up every morning and figure out how to pull together, you know, that $80, $90, or whatever, for one individual prescription after another. And these were in the last dying days of her life. People shouldn’t have to live like this.

I have a six-year-old son who needs serious eye treatment. I, as well, don’t qualify for medical assistance, and I’m right on the borderline. And he’s supposed to have regular eye checks, because —

AMY GOODMAN: Glaucoma?

CHERI HONKALA: Glaucoma runs in my family, and he’s stopped seeing out of his right eye. So I have no idea how I’m going to cover those costs.

My older son, who has now become a movie star, has spent every waking moment of his life using his power and his financial resources to fund and give us resources. And, you know, as this movement continues to get larger, there’s never enough money, but he’s committed to helping to fund a movement that wants to eliminate poverty and homelessness. He’s not interested in giving money to a charity. He knows, as a formerly homeless boy in this country, that he has a responsibility to do whatever he possibly can to help make this movement grow and give it visibility.

AMY GOODMAN: Cheri Honkala, your website?

CHERI HONKALA: Our website is www.economichumanrights.org. And people can see lots of the footage that they never will see on any television program on that website.

AMY GOODMAN: Cheri Honkala, thanks so much for joining us, of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, and we’ll link to it at democracynow.org.

Labels: Amy Goodman, Cheri Honkala, Democracy NOW, M4OL Coverage, March for Our Lives 2008

by Kashish Das Shrestha | September 2008 | Courtesy of http://samudaya.org/

Photography by Kashish; Produced by Anup Kaphle

Labels: M4OL Coverage, March for Our Lives 2008, Police

Those of us who were there know that there were hundreds of people - media, cops, organizers, citizen journalists and others - with cameras, video, audio and recording devices galore at the March for Our Lives.

We will keep trying to post what we find. Here a flickr slideshow of pix tagged with
"poorpeopleseconomichumanrightscampaign":

Labels: M4OL Coverage, March for Our Lives 2008, Photos

Marching For Our Lives

By Mike & James (NYC Indymedia)

Here, find a photo essay in two parts from the Poor People's Economic
Human Rights Campaign March on the RNC.

Part 1: Rally, Repression, March Begins.
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/09/99688.html

Part 2: Marching On the XCel Center
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/09/99712.html

Labels: M4OL Coverage, March for Our Lives

More footage and news to come...Here a couple videos that documented the March:


With over 200 people still in jail after Monday's arrests, and with a massive police presence in the street, the Poor People's March prepared to set out and braced for the police response. Footage from Rick Rowley, Elizabeth Press, Fatimah Mojaddidy, Rebecca McNeice and Jordan Hansen of Big Noise Tactical Films.

---

March for our Lives, PPEHRC in St Paul Minnesota during RNC. The march was followed by an enormous amount of police, though it was very peaceful. Footage courtesy of Lennart Kjorling.

Labels: M4OL Coverage, March for Our Lives 2008

Commissioners’ Joint Statement Regarding the National Truth Commission

This Commission was at the Christ Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minnesota on Monday, September 1, 2008.

During their consideration of the testimonies heard and received at the hearings, the Commissioners focused on three questions:
1) do the testimonies and documents received during this hearing describe human rights violations?
2) if so, could these human rights violations have been prevented? and

3) if so, who is responsible?

The Commission’s answers to these questions is as follows:

1. Yes, the testimonies and documents received do describe violations of human rights. The basic nature of human rights as recognized worldwide in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is that they are inherent. People are born with them. They do not arise only when a government recognizes them or confers them to people. Therefore, for example, the rights to housing, medical care, employment, freedom from racial discrimination, and an adequate standard of living in all respects (including heat) are human rights of all people everywhere. The testimonies and documents received spoke to inadequacies in the provision and availability of these basic human rights.

2. Yes, these human rights violations could have been prevented. As the most affluent nation on earth, the United States has had unequalled opportunity and financial capacity to honor these human rights. If the country’s leaders at all levels had committed themselves to shape the country’s agenda and societal expectations to honor these rights from the time they were first articulated nearly 40 years ago when the United States signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, these human rights would be honored today rather than being largely ignored and violated for so many people in this country as they are today.

3. Responsibility for these violations: responsibility for the failure to develop an economy that promotes and achieves the human rights to housing, healthcare, education, employment, etcetera. lies in all who have had an opportunity to bring about the changes necessary to achieve that goal. Some of us have had greater opportunity to pursue these goals and therefore bear greater responsibility. The greatest responsibility, therefore, lies with the framers and maintainers of the structure, goals, and operation of the current economy: 1) governments at all levels, since it is the government at all levels that has the greatest capacity to promote those human rights through its administrative agencies and its economic and social policies; 2) both major political parties; and 3) corporate, professional, religious, and civic leadership.

At the same time, to the extent that we as individuals and grass roots organizations have the energy, capacity, and vision to promote these human rights, we also bear responsibility to promote observance of these human rights by, for example, holding those with even greater capacity and responsibility accountable to their responsibility under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the universally recognized Bill of Human Rights*, and the ratified human rights treaties** to promote and achieve those rights.
We urge careful consideration of these findings and observation by all concerned.

Respectfully submitted as the Joint Statement of the Commissioners,

Ajamu Baraka, Executive Director, US Human Rights Network - Atlanta, Gerrgia
Bill Means, American Indian Movement and International Indian Treaty Council - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sister Dorothy Pagosa, Sisters of St. Joseph - Chicago, Illinios
Professor Edward Oyugi, Social Development Network and African Social Forum - Kenya
Rosa Clemente, Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate
Michael Kane, Habitat International Coalition and National Alliance of HUD Tenants - Boston, Massachusetts
Lennart Kjorling, Journalist - Sweden
Rev. Bruce Wright, Refuge of St. Petersburg, Florida
Shamako Noble, Hip Hop Congress - California
Pastor Gary Dreier - Christ Lutheran Church on Capitol Hill - St. Paul, Minnesota
Imam Sheikh Saad Musse Roble - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Michael Crenshaw - Hip Hop Congress - Portland, Oregon
Rev. Nancy Anderson - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mary Brandl - Union Steward of AFSCME Clerical Workers Local #3800 - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Peter W. Brown - National Lawyers Guild - Minneapolis, Minnesota


* The Bill of Human Rights consists of the two treaties: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, ratified by the US Congress in 1992) and the International Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, signed by President Carter in 1976 but not yet ratified by the US Congress.)
** The human rights treaties that the United States has ratified are: 1) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, ratified by the US Congress in 1992); 2) Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT, ratified by the US Congress in 1994); and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD ratified by US Congress 1994).

Labels: 2008 National Truth Commission, M4OL Coverage, March for Our Lives

Press conference from the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign where they speak out about issues largely ignored by the US government. The Stimulator dispatch from St. Paul about protests, Amy Goodman's arrest, and independent media journalists being held by police. Amy Gojavascript:void(0)
Publish Postodman also speaks about her arrest.

Labels: M4OL Coverage, March for Our Lives

The day started with a service by Sandy Perry and Muliaga Togotogo. Our lunch was a wonderful BBQ Picnic by Ted Dooley of the National Lawyers Guild. Also provided by Mr. Dooley and his colleagues where kids' activities and free shoes.

The Afro-Caribbean band, Quilombolas, and Truth Mayes played for the crowd. Poet Doanta Davis of WIT-KY performed a spoken word piece. The Brass Kings, a live acoustic band, played the folk country styles and were followed up by DJ Mixwell.
Shamako Noble of the Hip Hop Congress performed "Know U" and introduced Minnasota native/ Portland Hip Hop artist Mic Crenshaw and his crew.

The Rude Mechanical Orchestra shared their sounds with the crowd





Tou Saik Lee and his student breakdance troupe showed off their talents for the 150 event attendees.

Labels: DJ Mixwell, Hip Hop Congress, M4OL Coverage, March for Our Lives, Mic Crenshaw, People's Fest, Quilombolas, Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Shamako Noble, The Brass Kings, Truth Mayes

Last night, we reestablished our Bushville tent city in St. Paul (400 Western Ave). The police have monitored our activities with numerous marked and unmarked police cars driving by Bushville including a SWAT van with the guards visible through the open back doors.

Despite attempts to disrupt and intimidate us, we are continue to prepare for our March on Tuesday, Sept 2nd. Delegations from Florida, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and other parts of the country arrived today with more to come.

Labels: Bushville, M4OL Coverage, March for Our Lives 2008

Owing to the fact that the police cleared our Bushville this morning. We decided to move our Bushville to the home of the State of Minnesota.

Shortly after we arrived, the State Police evicted us from the Rotunda. In the process, police force the media and laywers out of the building preventing them from entering the Capitol.



Here is the video of a police manhandling and injuring Cheri Honkala as she attempts to help the media gain access to the building in order to cover the protest, protect our freedom of expression, and document the actions of the officers on site.

Labels: Cheri Honkala, M4OL Coverage, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, PPEHRC, RNC

Original Article

Organizers of the Republican National Convention will stage a welcome rally for presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain next Wednesday, the day he becomes the party's official nominee.

Doors for the rally will open at 11 a.m. at Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis.

Convention organizers said tickets will be distributed to delegates Saturday. They did not immediately say whether the event will be open to the general public.
SCHWARZENEGGER SHACKLED BY BUDGET

When the Republican convention opens Monday night, its prime-time lineup could be missing one of its biggest draws: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is vowing to remain in California if legislators fail to reach agreement on a state budget, now two months overdue.

"I am honored to be asked to speak at the convention ...[but] the state of California and the budget is the most important thing," Schwarzenegger said. "So that if I don't have a budget, I cannot speak at the convention."

A budget deal by showtime seems unlikely at this point, potentially costing Schwarzenegger a national platform and John McCain a high-profile supporter who has been popular with the kind of independent voter McCain hopes to attract.

Organizers of the convention still hope Schwarzenegger will show. Because his speech is scheduled for the Labor Day holiday, he could fly in and out on his private jet without missing any state business.

Convention spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin declined to say whether organizers were considering another option: a Schwarzenegger appearance by satellite from Sacramento, as Republican Gov. Pete Wilson did in 1992 during a similar budget stalemate.
GREEN PARTY PICK TO SPEAK IN ST. PAUL

Cynthia McKinney, Green Party presidential candidate, will be a speaker at a rally at Mears Park in St. Paul at 4 p.m. Tuesday, just before the Poor People's March is to begin.


McKinney and her vice presidential running mate, Rosa Clemente, will also serve as "truth commissioners" at a public meeting at 7 p.m. Monday in St. Paul.

The meeting, at Christ Lutheran Church on Capitol Hill, 105 W. University Av., will include testimony of poor residents from Minnesota and across the country. A similar meeting, not including Mc- Kinney and Clemente, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Sabathani Community Center in Minneapolis, 310 E. 38th St.

Both the march and the meetings on poverty are sponsored by the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign.

The Poor People's March on Tuesday will wind up across the street from the Xcel Energy Center, where the convention will take place. Peter Cooper, press coordinator for the group, said Wednesday that some demonstrators will try to scale barricades and fences and attempt to sit down in front of the doors of the Xcel to engage in civil disobedience.
RON PAUL BRINGING LIBERTARIAN BARR

Onetime GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul's plan to steal some of the limelight from the Republicans' show will bring yet another presidential hopeful to the Twin Cities next week.

Former Georgia U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party's nominee, will appear with Paul at a picnic Monday sponsored by Minnesota for Limited Government. The picnic will be held at 2 p.m. at Langford Park in St. Paul.

The joint appearance by Barr and Paul, a Texas congressman and onetime Libertarian candidate himself, does not amount to an endorsement by Paul, a campaign spokeswoman said.

Paul's forces plan a three-day "Rally for the Republic" that will climax Tuesday with a 10-hour extravaganza at Target Center in Minneapolis. Among the speakers will be former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura.

Labels: M4OL Coverage, March for Our Lives 2008

Councilmember calls for investigation in RNC-related arrest




Less than a week before the start of the Republican National Convention, police have made their first convention-related arrest.

Minneapolis Police had their hands full Tuesday with protestors and citizen journalists; a possible sign of what's to come.

Armed with their voices and a video camera, a group fighting for affordable housing held a sit in-at the Minneapolis Housing and Urban Development office.

But when a 5 EYEWITNSES NEWS photographer showed up, a Minneapolis Police officer pushed him back into an elevator.

Shortly after, a demonstrator was arrested.

In a separate incident, police detailed three videographers from the Glass Bead Collective, an organization with a history of documenting police misconduct. They are in the Twin Cities to cover the Republican National Convention.

Videographer Vlad Teichberg said he and two others were stopped early Tuesday morning while walking to where they were staying in northeast Minneapolis.

Teichberg said police violated the group's First Amendment rights by taking items including a video camera, a still camera and a laptop.

"They are confiscating the means for us to do our work," he said.

An incident report classified the incident as Homeland Security issue.

Minneapolis City Council member Cam Gordon, who spearheaded the drive to protect demonstrators, wants an explanation from the police chief and the city attorney.

He said the police actions appear to violate the spirit of a resolution passed unanimously last month, which prohibits seizing cameras except during an arrest or when it captures evidence of a crime.

"We don't want to hide anything and I don't think we want anything to be hidden," said Gordon.

Minneapolis police spokesman Bill Palmer said the incident happened at 1:40 a.m. and that the group was stopped on suspicion that they were trespassing in a nearby railroad yard.

Authorities are concerned transportation could be a target during the Republican National Convention.

The three videographers said they did not trespass.

Labels: Arrests, M4OL Coverage, March for Our Lives 2008