Dear Friends and Supporters of the Refuge and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign,

Hello Everyone. It is now Monday, September 28th, 2009. It is 3 days after the last day of the G20 demonstrations and actions.

Our contingent from Florida arrived back in Florida on Saturday night. We were tired, but encouraged and excited about what happened there. For more than 5 days and encampment of the poor, the homeless, the unemployed and their supporters camped out at Monumental Baptist Church, on their grounds in of the poorest, historical African American Districts called the Hill District in Pittsburgh, PA. We participated in the March for Jobs on the 20th with more than 1000 people,including PPEHRC, the Refuge, Bail Out the People, several Unions and others. We had to opportunity to speak at this event and talk about how movements to end poverty must be informed and led by those effected by it. We had workshops on ending poverty, worker rights, unions, and global issues. We viewed several films, including "Explicit Ills", which talked about healthcare and poverty with PPEHRC and a protest as the back drop. We did a speak out on ending Police Repression, and one about Healthcare. We had a March on Mellon Bank in the middle of the day on Wednesday and managed to get serious attention and disrupt traffic. At this March, we spoke of Predatory lending, foreclosures, and the housing crisis.

We also participated in several large Marches, including a large March on Thursday that was unpermitted. The authorities claim we had only 500 people, but it was more like 3000 to 4000. It was at this event, the Police Repression was the greatest, though throughout the week the Police harassed by Flying helicopters overhead at all hours, sending Police by in their Patrol cars, randomly stopping people and asking for their ID's for no apparent reason, in one case we were visited by Secret Service. At first, we thought they were there for a funeral the Church was having, but when I discovered they were Secret Service, I went up and talked with them and took a picture of them. I got more than 80 pictures at this event this week. So, we have lots of footage. During the unpermitted march on Thursday, the Police used tear gas in a residential neighborhood effecting both protesters and residents, including children. They used tear gas on the University of Pittsburgh campus, and got both protesters and students, who were looking from their dorms. The police used high intensity sound machines, which gave me at headache, and they used rubber bullets and concussion grenades. I, as well as the group with me, were victims of tear gas. Several news reporters were hit with batons, tear gassed and hit with Police fists, including a New York Times Reporter and a CNN reporter.

At the permitted march, several thousand (at least 15,000) marched. Cheri Honkala, National Organizer with PPEHRC, spoke as did Union Organizers, Cindy Sheehan, and many others. Our march was blocked several times by a massive Police Presence and Military presence. They had helicopters, including Chenok troop carriers, Blackhawk helicopters, and Apache Attack helicopters, as well as armoured vehicles and Humvees. So, the Militarized presence was enormous. But, we were undaunted and got our messaged out of justice and peace and economic human rights. Several news organizations from the International community covered the event, including Al Jazerra, the BBC, German Television, Australian Television, and Japanese Television among others.

In closing, we believe it was a very worthwhile demonstration. We were especially pleased that the message of the poor, oppressed, unemployed and homeless were heard by those who were effected by the current economic crisis. Without your help and support, we could not have done this trip. We thank you. However, the work locally, must continue.

Our struggle for economic human rights for the poor and oppressed continues. We continue to serve and work alongside the homeless, the poor, and the unemployed. So, we need your continued support, help, and prayers.

For more info. about what happened on this trip you can go to www.economichumanrights.org.

Thank you again,
Rev. Bruce Wright

Labels: Bail Out the People, Cheri Honkala, FL PPEHRC, G20, Pittsburgh, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, Refuge Ministries of Florida, Rev. Bruce Wright

POOR PEOPLE'S ECONOMIC HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

For immediate release

Contact: Cheri Honkala, 267 439-8419

Marching to Fulfill the Dream: Campaign Will Mobilize Thousands to Claim Economic Rights

"Martin Luther King dreamed not only of racial justice, but of organizing across racial lines to secure economic justice for all. In 1998 the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) picked up the mantle of MLK and vowed to work until the dream was fulfilled. If you think we're there, you can ignore this. But if you're hurting, or your mother or your brother or your neighbor or friend is hurting, put on your walking shoes," said Cheri Honkala, National Organizer of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC).

At its national conference in July, nearly 400 representatives of PPEHRC member organizations voted to organize the next phase of the campaign—a march from the Katrina-torn Gulf through the Mississippi Delta and on through the Rust Belt.

The march will culminate in Detroit at the 2010 US Social Forum, which expects upwards of 20,000 participants from around the country and the globe.

As was the case in the 1968 Poor People's Campaign, other marchers will follow Freedom Roads from other parts of the country to join the main branch, which will visibly unite south and north in their common cause.

In 2003, PPEHRC recreated the 1968 Poor People's March, caravanning from Marks, Mississippi to Washington, DC. Commemorating the 35^th anniversary of the campaign planned by King before his assassination, organizers of that march pointed to the shameful lack of achievement of the original economic justice goals of jobs, housing, and health care. Since then things have gotten worse—much worse.

"In 1968 the white middle class liberals who had supported civil rights largely abandoned the struggle for economic rights," said a PPEHRC organizer, "but today whites and people of all colors increasingly understand out of their own experience that poverty is not the result of moral failure and laziness. They have worked hard, educated themselves and their children, served their communities and their country, and yet they are losing their homes and their health care. Robots are doing their jobs, and if they can find a job they work harder and longer for less."

Another PPEHRC leader elaborated on today's growing understanding of poverty. "People who have followed all the rules of 'middle class America' are having to choose among their basic human rights: Shelter or medicine? Food or clothing? Education or basic necessities? Water or pre-natal care? That's the nature of poverty. It's structural. Millions who thought of themselves as middle class are awakening to that fact—that securing economic human rights for all is not a safety net for the fallen, but a foundation on which the people of this country can rebuild this country. We are calling them to this march and to the US Social Forum to create a people's solution to the economic crisis."

Marian Kramer, Co-Chair of the National Welfare Rights Union, announces PPEHRC plan to continue pursuing MLK’s dream in 2010 national march for economic justice.”

The plan to undertake the march was announced by Marian Kramer, Co-Chair of the National Welfare Rights Union, at the July PPEHRC event, "Building the Unsettling Force:A National Conference to End Poverty," held in Louisville, KYIt was endorsed enthusiastically by the participants, most of whom represented over 60 of the 131 member organizations of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC). The theme of the conference was based on Martin Luther King's call to organize the "dispossessed of the nation" into an unsettling force to demand economic human rights. The conference was co-sponsored by the Social Welfare Action Alliance, and hosted by Women in Transition, both PPEHRC member organizations.

Labels: Detroit, Economic Justice, Marching to Fulfull the Dream, Martin Luther King, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, PPEHRC, SWAA, USSF 2010, WIT

Labels: Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, Harvey Finkle, KWRU, KY, Louisville, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, Spaulding University, SWAA, WIT

Original Article: http://www.sunherald.com/local/story/1094988.html
By J.R. WELSH - jrwelsh@sunherald.com

WAVELAND — A small group of residents rallied Monday in support of a pending lawsuit and their push to keep living in Mississippi cottages when a state program expires.

About 20 cottage residents gathered at the Waveland ball field on Central Avenue, carrying homemade signs and making short speeches. Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed Friday on the issue is expected to make its way to court this week.

“We need this permanent housing,” Andrew Canter, a lawyer at the Mississippi Center for Justice, told those at the rally. “We’re not going to let it be taken back.”

Canter and another lawyer from the justice center filed suit on behalf of eight Waveland residents still living in the small hurricane-relief cottages. They sued Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo and the Board of Aldermen, saying the city acted improperly when it decided to allow cottages to stay only in areas zoned for trailers when a housing program by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency expires at the end of March.

In response, Longo said the lawsuit was “unbelievable.” He said the city had already taken steps to change its position, renegotiate a memorandum of understanding with MEMA, and allow cottages to remain in areas zoned residential.

Canter said he would be filing an additional brief in the case, which is scheduled to be heard at 9 a.m. Friday in Chancery Court in Gulfport.

The Hancock County Board of Supervisors decided last week to allow the cottages to stay in residential neighborhoods, citing a state law that considers the structures to be modular homes, not mobile homes. Thus far the Bay St. Louis City Council has continued to restrict cottages to trailer parks.

Not everyone watching Monday’s rally of about 20 people favored the cottages. Waveland resident John Peterson, 73, sat in his car across the street holding an anti-cottage sign. He said the small, shotgun-style Mississippi cottages are ruining his investment in his home, which he rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina.

“I rebuilt a $179,000 home and I’ve got Katrina cottages near me,” Peterson said. “What does that do to my property values?”

But one after another, cottage residents and their supporters made short speeches invoking their rights to a home. MEMA has offered to sell the cottages at low prices to residents who can meet a list of criteria.

Labels: Biloxi, CHANGER, Cheri Honkala, FEMA, Housing, Katrina, MEMA, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, PPEHRC, Rev. Bruce Wright, Waveland

The Waveland residents turned out for a first-ever public rally to stand for their right to housing. They were joined by PPEHRC members Cheri Honkala, Rev. Bruce Wright of Tampa, and Mary Bricker-Jenkins of CHANGERs in Tennessee.

Waveland Rally

More pictures and stories to come.

Labels: Biloxi, CHANGER, Cheri Honkala, FEMA, Housing, Katrina, MEMA, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, PPEHRC, Rev. Bruce Wright, Waveland

Original Articles:
WAVELAND — A group of Waveland residents has filed a lawsuit against city aldermen and the mayor, claiming their rights were violated when they were refused permits to remain in Hurricane Katrina cottages.

The lawsuit was filed in Hancock County Chancery Court Friday by lawyers with the Biloxi-based Mississippi Center for Justice. It asks the court to issue a preliminary injunction against the city, forbidding officials to force the residents from their cottages when a housing program by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency expires.

MEMA officials started distributing the cottages to displaced homeowners after Katrina.

There are eight plaintiffs, some of whom are disabled. Defendants named in the suit are Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo and the city’s board of aldermen.

Labels: Biloxi, CHANGER, Cheri Honkala, FEMA, Housing, Katrina, MEMA, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, PPEHRC, Rev. Bruce Wright, Waveland

By Al Showers
Original Article: http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=9736905&nav=6DJI

WAVELAND, MS (WLOX) - Two national social justice organizations brought their voices to Hancock County Monday. The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, based in Minnesota, and the Social Welfare Action Alliance of Tennessee sent representatives to Waveland.

Watch Video of the MEMA Cottage Rally

The groups are trying to rally support for those who want to make Mississippi Cottages permanent homes. Cheri Honkala helped to organize the rally because of what she calls a reluctance by elected leaders to allow the Mississippi Cottages to become permanent homes.

"I'm with the Poor People's Economic Human Right's Campaign. I'm a formerly homeless mother and I'm very passionate about this issue.You dare touch any of these families, we'll come make Mississippi our home. We will set up tents. We will go to jail," Honkala said.

The protestors then paused for prayer. Rev. Bruce Wright with Refuge Ministries of Florida said, "I believe firmly that people that claim to follow Jesus should be concerned about people having a place to live, and not being put out on the streets."

The rally sparked a counter protest from people who don't want to see the cottages become permanent.

"Not everybody's for this. Not everybody's for the cottages next to their houses that they built brand new and spent thousands and hundreds of thousands and their whole grant money. Some people are responsible, some people are not," Waveland resident Scott Peterson said.

John and Silvia Peterson said, "Why not go into a trailer park? No, they think they're too good for that."

Waveland Resident Mary Sherrouse says it's not her fault the cottage has become a necessity.

"I have tried to rebuild, but had to let go of a contractor that wasn't building to code and lacking some money because of it. And I love my MEMA cottage and am just horrified to think people are so, the city is so heartless to want to throw us out," Sherrouse said.

Bayside Park resident David Winkles agrees.

"Don't put the old people, the sick people, the people with no place to go, the people with kids out on the streets - don't send them to trailer parks. Do the right thing. Let them have MEMA cottages on their own property," Winkles said.

City and county leaders have taken steps to allow the cottages to become permanent. But cottage-dwellers are concerned that the rules will be so strict they will not qualify.

Labels: Biloxi, Cheri Honkala, FEMA, MEMA, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, PPEHRC, Refuge Ministries of Florida, Rev. Bruce Wright, Social Welfar Action Alliance, Waveland

Original Article: http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=9724331

WAVELAND, MS (WLOX) - The cottage battles in Waveland will now be fought in court. Friday afternoon, the Mississippi Center for Justice filed suit on behalf of eight Waveland residents who want to keep their temporary cottages as permanent dwellings in the city.

Waveland leaders have been struggling with a decision on whether cottages can stay after the end of the government's temporary housing program March 31st.

The suit, filed in Hancock County Chancery Court, says the city wrongly denied permits to cottage residents when it misclassified the cottages as mobile homes instead of modular homes.

Riley Morse is an attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice.

"Within a week a court is going to hear arguments whether Waveland's effort to split hair between other kinds of modular and the Katrina Cottages hold water," Morse said. "We think they won't, and we hope that when the court hears the argument they will agree with MEMA and most of the other jurisdictions that say modular embraces these cottages and they should be allowed to stay permanently."

The case will be heard next Friday. To see the filed suit, click here.

Labels: Biloxi, Cheri Honkala, FEMA, MEMA, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, PPEHRC, Refuge Ministries of Florida, Rev. Bruce Wright, Social Welfar Action Alliance, Waveland

Marchers for poor tape manifesto on City Hall door
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2008/oct/04/chattanooga-marchers-poor-tape-manifesto-city-hall/
By: Cliff Hightower

More than 50 people marched down McCallie Avenue to Miller Park on Friday and then peacefully walked to the steps of City Hall to post a manifesto calling on economic rights for poor people.

The Poor People’s March was the first of its kind in Chattanooga as organizers tried to bring attention to homelessness and poverty in the city.

“The ultimate goal is to end poverty,” said Mary Bricker-Jenkins, a Chattanooga resident and member of the Chattanooga and North Georgia Economic Human Rights Campaign. The group organized the march across downtown Chattanooga.


Caption: A group trying to call attention to the rights of poor people marched from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to City Hall, where it taped a manifesto to the doors.


The group, which started just a few months ago at the Community Kitchen, is affiliated with the national Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, Ms. Bricker-Jenkins said.

Homeless people, volunteers, teenagers and a small group of Gregorian friars walked along McCallie Avenue at 5 p.m. led by a bagpipe player in a Scottish kilt. The group of marchers held signs, some saying “Homelessness is not a crime” or “We’re all homeless.”

Ali Rudolph, 24, moved here in August with her husband from Oregon, she said. Both are homeless, but he was gone Friday to the Military Entrance Processing Station in Knoxville to join the Tennessee Army National Guard, Mrs. Rudolph said.

She marched in solidarity with others like her, she said.

“It is for a good cause,” Mrs. Rudolph said. “A lot of us out here don’t get treated the way we should.”

The group ate dinner at Miller Park and then proceeded to City Hall, where they taped a copy of the “Poor People’s Manifesto” on the door. Brother Ron Fender, a local Gregorian friar, told marchers he asked City Council members Tuesday to come on the march.

None showed, he said.

“We want them to have a reminder we were here,” he said.

Several marchers shared different reasons for marching. Amanda Wheelock, a 16-year-old Ringgold, Ga., girl, said just a few days ago she met a homeless man on Walnut Street Bridge who used to be a doctor. She said a few minutes later, while he was eating a sandwich, the police shooed him away.

“That’s why I’m here,” she said. “I can’t see why he can’t sit there and eat his sandwich.”

Elizabeth Wray, an 18-year-old Chattanooga resident and member of the human rights group, said her brother died two years ago homeless. Marching for her is “personal, not political,” she said.

She said sometimes people in Chattanooga take for granted what they have. The reward Friday night was everyone blending together, she said.

“It’s really a beautiful thing to see people merge,” Ms. Wray said.
A group trying to call attention to the rights of poor people marched from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to City Hall, where it taped a manifesto to the doors.

Labels: CHANGER, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, PPEHRC

In Minneapolis on October 1st at 9:30AM, PPEHRC members Cheri Honkala, Natasha Euler and Deeq Abdi will go to court for demonstrating at the Minneapolis Office Housing And Urban Development (a public building) regarding the housing crisis in America prior to the RNC.

On the afternoon of October 1st at 1:00PM in St. Paul, PPEHRC Members Cheri Honkala and Tim Dowlin will go to court for setting up Bushville, a tent city for poor and homeless people to gather, at Harriet Island Regional Park (a public park) prior to the RNC.

At a time when millions of people are losing their homes to foreclosure and banks are crashing, let's stand by the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign in
order to create another kind of world.

Please call the Mayors of Minneapolis and St Paul today and demand that all
charges be dropped!

Mayor R.T. Rybak
City of Minneapolis
(612) 673-2100

Mayor Chris Coleman
City of St. Paul
(651) 266-8510

Please also send this to as many other people as you can.

Labels: Arrests, Bushville, HUD Sit-in, March for Our Lives 2008, Police, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, PPEHRC

http://chattanoogan.com/articles/article_135939.asp
Posted September 26, 2008

A "March for Our Lives" will be held next Friday beginning at 5 p.m.

The march will begin at UTC's Hunter Hall on McCallie Avenue and proceed to Miller Park where there will be music and local, fresh food served by Food Not Bombs, followed by speakers from across the nation.

The march will then proceed to City Hall, where the Poor People's Manifesto for Economic Human Rights will be posted to the doors.

The march will then conclude with a Tent-Inn, its location to be announced at a later date.

At sunrise on Saturday, Oct. 5, an ecumenical prayer service will conclude the march.
Officials said, "Every day in our community, working families are forced to choose between paying the electric bill or buying groceries, between paying the landlord or filling prescriptions.

"Every night in our community approximately 300 people are sleeping in cars, abandoned buildings, under bridges or in the woods.

"Every day, hundreds of children begin the school-day hungry or cold from sleeping in their cars, or on the couch, or in a church basement.

"Twenty five percent of homeless people are employed. Forty percent of homeless men are veterans.

"We have program shelters that are filled to capacity, not one of them city-run or funded.

"On Oct. 3, we invite you to take a stand as poor people march on Chattanooga.

"Why is this march being held?

"Believing that all humans are equal and that all humans have the right to shelter, health care, water, food and all other economic, social and political rights, the Poor People's March was created in response to the growing inequalities and economic injustices occurring in our city and across our nation.

"All people are invited to the march and the park and to spend the night at the Tent-Inn, especially poor People, homeless people, working people, students, teachers, old people, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, city and county leaders, doctors, lawyers, rabbis, farmers, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, religious people, agnostics, atheists, writers, readers, cowboys, policemen, priests, preachers, sinners, saints, social workers, activists, students, anyone with a heart who cares about the poor. Animals are welcome, as well.

"The goal of the march is to move from service to solidarity, and to make basic economic human rights a reality for all in Chattanooga. The March is being organized by the North Georgia and Chattanooga chapter of the Poor People's Human Rights Campaign."

Labels: CHANGER, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, PPEHRC

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