Yesterday, Feb. 12th, Fight for $15 members walked off the job and joined protests against poverty wages and unsafe working conditions across the country. These fast food workers rallied in Memphis, where 50 years ago sanitation workers went on strike with the support of Martin Luther King Jr.

This moment also marks the rise of a “new” Poor People’s Campaign, a revival of King’s movement dedicated to ending what he called the triads of evil: racism, militarism and poverty. The campaign began with King in 1968 and these actions during Black History Month and upon the 50th anniversary of the sanitation strike that cost King his life should awaken us all to the work left to be done.

You can join The Poor People’s Campaign here.​​

Last week when I spoke at the San Francisco Occupy Forum, I was thrilled to see activists promoting this renewal of the Poor People’s Campaign. Organizers of the campaign come from poverty advocacy and activism, the clergy, and other centers of moral leadership. They aim to achieve campaign goals through organizing, voter registration, power building, and nonviolent direct action.  

In Richmond we utilized the same tactics to build the people power necessary to pass our $15/hour legislation, and we are bringing this spirit to our Lt. Governor campaign. The truth is, we are grappling with more than just a broken economic system, we are dealing with a broken spirit that has been a result of militarism, capitalism and racism. The elites have used every tool possible to divide us and while we fight for crumbs they run out the back door with the loaf. Instead of seeing our shared struggles and working to lift each other up across the board, they want us to be focused on “getting ours” at the expense of one another. The goal of King’s Poor People’s campaign was to re-ignite our spirit and bring back radical solidarity and love for one another. Yesterday’s rallies were a step in that direction again, and it should serve as an inspiration to all of us.

Right now in Sacramento those elites still have the say, they use their corporate cash and ill-gotten gains to bribe politicians and further stack the deck. If we want to bring the spirit of radical solidarity and love into our government and make Sacramento work for the people, we need a corporate-free revolution in June. My campaign is building the movement to do just that, and I need your help to organize and spread our message. There are hundreds of thousands of Californians ready to hear our vision, and your donation of $7, $27, $50 or even $99 allows us to reach them.

Click here to make a contribution of any size to my people-first campaign!​

We are living in revolutionary times, and no one can sit on the side lines. It’s one hell of a fight, but I know we are going to fight like hell!