The poor of this country have been silenced for too long. Many people believe that we as poor people don't even exist. Join us as we shine a light on the hidden stories of preventable human rights violations occuring here in the richest country in the world!

On July 15th, following in the tradition of our brothers and sisters from South Africa, Peru and elsewhere, we will be holding a Truth Commission to expose the economic violence and human rights violations that we are forced to endure every single day. We will also shine a light on our resistance and our strength!

In order for this day to be a success, we need your stories! Without your stories this Campaign has nothing to fight for. We must ensure that everyone's voice is documented and heard. Please send your stories of struggle and resistance to Emily Carlson of KWRU at emilykwru@gmail.com

After the Truth Commission, we will be holding a rematch basketball game against Billionaires for Bush. If you're interested in playing, email Galen Tyler of KWRU at galentyler@hotmail.com

On July 16th, we will celebrate the role of art and culture in this movement. The day will be filled with resistance art, music, and poetry, and it will feature panel presentations on the topic of art and culture as a voice for a growing movement led by the poor. If you have any talents you'd like to share during the day, please write to Natashia Euler of KWRU or Oren Casdi of Northeast Ohio PPEHRC at natashia_kwru@hotmail.com or orencasdi@yahoo.com

The third day, July 17th, will be a Day of Action, in which we will collectively raise our voices and march for the human right to health care. This will be an important moment for us as a Campaign, as we will call attention to the hundreds of thousands who have lost their heath care in Tennessee over the last year, the millions more who have never had the "privelidge" of having health insurance, and the unique effort in the state of Ohio to initiate a single-payer health care plan, the Single Payer Action Network.

Following these days of action, we will hold our second annual PPEHRC Leadership School, which will be coordinated by our University of the Poor. This school will be a 3 day event, beginning Monday night, July 17and ending Thursday morning, July 20th. For more information on the curriculum and how to apply to the Leadership School, please contact Liz Theoharis, Co-coordinator of the University of the Poor, at liz@universityofthepoor.org

For more information on how to get to the National Truth Commission, please contact Carrie Young or Cecilia Garza of the PPEHRC staff at youngcarrie@hotmail.com or cecilia@economichumanrights.org. And for any questions about logistics and local accommodations, contact Larry Bresler of Organize!Ohio and the NE Ohio PPEHRC at lbresler@organizeohio.org

To read more about recent local Truth Commissions held by the Women's Economic Agenda Project and the Community Homeless Alliance Ministry, visit http://economichumanrights.org

On Monday May 1st, the PPEHRC will be closing our office in Philadelphia in honor of “The Great American Boycott: A Day Without an Immigrant.”

Currently several bills in the US House of Representatives and Senate call for criminalizing undocumented immigrants, making it a felony to be in the US illegally, and for the building of a wall along the US-Mexico border.

Meanwhile treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO) allow companies to go anywhere in the world where they can pay people the least and provide the least safe working conditions. These policies rob all of us, the poor of all races and national backgrounds, in the United States and worldwide, of our basic human rights to survival: the rights to jobs at living wages, health care, education, food, housing, heat and water. However at the same time that companies are allowed to travel worldwide, we the poor across the world, are being criminalized for seeking a better future.

Following recent demonstrations which have brought out 3 million people nationwide, immigrant organizations are calling for May 1st to be a day of No School, No Work, No Selling, No Buying, and millions of people will be wearing white as a sign of support for the human rights of undocumented people. The PPEHRC is likewise calling on our members, our supporters, and our children’s schools to wear white on that day. We encourage PPEHRC organizations and supporters around the country to join in this historic and important day, by 1) wearing white to work or school that day 2) by educating your membership, congregations, schools, etc, 3) by closing your offices if possible, or 4) by joining in the boycott and participating in demonstrations in your local area. Click here for more.

In the last month, the Deaf & Deaf-Blind Committee on Human Rights has made history holding the first and second ever Deaf & Deaf-Blind sit-in protests at local doctors' offices drawing attention to the fact that many doctors still refuse to provide interpreting services for their Deaf & Deaf-Blind patients. These actions have brought excellent media coverage and have grown their membership and reputation both locally and around the country.

After contacting over 100 doctors three times each and asking them to sign an "ADA agreement form" which states they would follow the law and provide interpreters to patients who request them, DDBCHR decided to take their requests in person to doctors' offices who had ignored their attempts to contact them.

As a result, on March 29th, members of DDBCHR's negotiating team met with Mark Wiedt, CEO of Premier Physicians at their offices to discuss their demands and requests. Wiedt was very open to working with DDBCHR and agreed to meet all requests!

Read more about DDBCHR's recent successes, including press clips and more at http://economichumanrights.org/members.html

In realization of a long-term vision, CHAM (Community Homeless Alliance Ministry) recently embarked with their Central Valley partners on a Journey for Justice from Visalia to Sacramento, April 13-20, 2006. The Journey was co-sponsored by CHAM, California Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign, Merced Labor Party, and California National Action Network.

If it were a separate state, the Central Valley would be the second poorest in the nation after Mississippi. And Fresno was recently identified as the city with the most concentrated poverty in all America.

The Journey for Justice caravaned from town to town and held meetings, marches, and rallies everywhere it went. The Journey for Justice carried forward the fight for single payer health care and against abuses in the criminal justice system. The goal of strengthening and unifying the movement on a statewide level was achieved. New Orleans was a warning to us all of what can happen when the government is turned over wholesale to soul-less corporations. If we act, and unite, and educate each other, then this does not have to be our fate.

The mass upsurge of immigrants in the past few days proves that what we do matters. We do not have to accept injustice, and we do have the power to build a better world.

Read more at http://www.cham-ministry.org

On April 2, 2006, 86 members of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and the Brandywine Peace Community gathered at the Old First Reformed Church in Philadelphia in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who, one year before his assassination, called for a joining of the domestic justice and peace movements in a speech entitled "A Time to Break Silence."

A day of workshops and panelists including Peter Lems, AFSC; Galen Tyler, Kensington Welfare Rights Union; Sr. Margaret McKenna, New Jerusalem Laura; Ray Martinez, SEIU Local 668 ; and John Grant, Veterans for Peace was followed by a march to City Hall. Closing remarks were by Cheri Honkala, Poor Peoples' Economic Human Rights Campaign National Coordinator.

Said Bob Smith of the Brandywine Peace Community and local KWRU Religious Organizing Committee, "In his 'A Time to Break Silence' speech, yes, Dr. King spoke out against the Vietnam War, calling the U.S. government 'the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.' But more fundamentally, he called for a vision of a social change movement that would speak "beyond Vietnam". He called for a conjoining of the civil rights movement and the peace movement of the day. He called for a movement that proceeded on the basis of the inseparability of a commitment to domestic justice with efforts to stop war."

39 years later, we continue to work toward this vision!

Check the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign website for regular updates as well- www.economichumanrights.org