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

On Tuesday, August 26 2008, 25 members of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign conducted a sit-in at the offices of Dexter Sydney, Minneapolis Field Director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Members from the Twin Cities and across the US entered the International Building on 920 2nd Street in downtown Minneapolis where the HUD offices are located.

At roughly noon, these poor and homeless families sat down in Sydney's front lobby, insisting that he follow through on his written agreement to attend PPEHRC's Minnesota Truth Commission Sat August 30th at 2PM. In a July 15th letter, Sydney “look[ed] forward to learning more about the concerns ... regarding homelessness, the housing crisis, and the challenges many people face with affordable housing”.
While in the HUD offices PPEHRC members were informed by building security that the public office was in private property and were to be escorted out by Minneapolis Police. A representative of the Department of Homeland Security informed campaign members that they were there to keep HUD workers safe during our nonviolent protest. The Minneapolis Police closed down the hallway outside, even pushing a KSTP reporter into an elevator.


Sit-in Video Part 1 | Part 2

Members of PPEHRC stayed behind in the offices after the final warning of the Minneapolis Police and were arrested. Cheri Honkala, PPEHRC National Organizer, Deeq Abdi of Minneapolis PPEHRC, and Natashia Euler of the Kensington Welfare Union in Philadelphia, PA were arrested and held at the Hennepin County Jail with bail.
They have since been released.

Labels: Arrests, HUD Sit-in, March for Our Lives 2008

After Returning to the Twin Cities, we distributed macaroni and cheese and other food and fliers about the March for Our Lives in a poor neighborhood in Minneapolis. We then marched through downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul and passed out fliers about the March on September 2nd.

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, St. Paul

After marching through Rochester, we met with local homeless people at the Dorothy Day Center, the only homeless shelter in Rochester. Here we heard some of the most powerful and moving testimony. A Vietnam veteran talked about having to walk ten miles a day in order to find employment.

We collected testimony of another formerly homeless Vietnam veteran who is currently receiving care at the Mayo Clinic for agent orange exposure. He spoke with us about the plight of homeless veterans and veterans without adequate medical care in Minnesota and around the United States.

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, Rochester

Austin

In Austin, we met with Dale Chidester..., the Assistant to the President of Local P-9, the union that led the historic Meatpackers’ strike of the Hormel plant in Austin in the mid 1980's. We talked about how 80% of the workers of one of the meatpacking plants are now Latino and the impact of the ICE raids and how corporate America is really making workers adjust to a lower and lower standard of living.



P-9 Interview Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4


After the interview we drove by the Hormel plant and then we had an educational watching “The American Dream” and talking about the use of strikes today and the struggle to win concessions.

Labels: Austin, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan

Actor Webber brings his directing debut to Minneapolis
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 08/20/2008 11:37:46 PM CDT

Mark Webber, who was born in Minneapolis but grew up in a variety of places, is coming home for a benefit performance of his film, "Explicit Ills."

How you know Webber depends a lot on your demographic. Woody Allen fans will remember him from his role in "Hollywood Endings." Fans of twisted films may have seen him as a tortured artiste in "Storytelling." And the Nickelodeon crowd will remember him flinging snowballs in "Snow Day." "Explicit Ills," the actor's directing debut, is about love, drugs and poverty. The screening will benefit Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, founded by Webber's mother, Cheri Honkala — who, like Webber, is formerly homeless.

Tickets are $10 or $20 and can be purchased at the Parkway Theater, 4814 Chicago Ave. S., Minneapolis. For more information, call 612-822-3030.

— Chris Hewitt

Labels: Mark Webber

Truth to Tell: Veterans for Peace and Poor Peoples' March
Story By Andy Driscoll

The names and numbers of organizations planning events coincident with and in response to the Republican National Convention (RNC) just keep on coming. At the end of the month the national and local chapters of the *Veterans for Peace (VFP)*will hold their convention, joined by the IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR (IVAW), while on September 2, the second large parade of protesters will seek the eyeballs and ears of RNC delegates and the media – the MARCH FOR OUR LIVES organized by the POOR PEOPLE’S ECONOMIC HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN (PPEHRC).

Tune in on Wednesday, August 20th at 11am as ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with leaders of all these events and get their take on the dynamics of the convention in St. Paul, Sept. 1-4 at the Xcel.

GUESTS:

• JOHN VARONE, President, VFP Minnesota Chapter 27

• CHANTE WOLF, Vice President, VFP Minnesota Chapter 27

• JIM STEINHAGEN, Past President, VFP Minnesota Chapter 27

• WES DAVEY, Iraq Veterans Against the War

A Member of Community Shares National Federation of Community Broadcasters

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008

The Party Crashers
By Michael Gould-Wartofsky

August 19, 2008

At some point during the upcoming Republican National Convention, delegates will look out the windows of the Xcel Energy Center, or down from swank hotels and grand old after-parties, and there, past the security fences and the legions of taser-toting police and private security guards, they will see the other America spilling into the streets of St. Paul, Minnesota.

That is, if the Republicans even make it that far. From September 1-4, the RNC will be besieged by a panoply of protesters--including antiwar activists, Iraq War veterans, Hurricane Katrina survivors, immigrant workers, labor unionists, anarchists, environmentalists, feminists and queers. At the frontlines will be America's young dissidents who will walk out of class, lock down intersections and dance in the streets to "Funk the War."

The view from Denver at the Democratic National Convention at the end of August will look a little different. That's because in the age of Obama many of these same movements, so united against the RNC, are deeply conflicted over the Democrats and the party system itself--perhaps none more so than the youth movement. At issue, say organizers across the country, is not only their relationship to the Obama campaign and the presidential elections but the very meaning of democracy in 2008. Is true democracy possible inside the party system and on the campaign trail? Or is democracy to be found and made by the people in the streets outside? Will the two ever meet?

Not if the conventioneers have their way. Uncredentialed activists are to be fenced off and kept away from the Pepsi Center in Denver by parking lots the size of football fields. The protesters descending on the RNC will be cordoned off into designated "free speech zones," guarded by thousands of police officers to the tune of $50 million at this "National Special Security Event."

The streets will also be haunted by the ghosts of conventions past, from the cracking of skulls at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago to the pre-emptive arrest and detention of nearly 2,000 protesters at the 2004 Republican convention in New York City. Like their predecessors outside those arenas, this year's dissidents have come to see the party conventions, advertised as the ultimate showcases of American democracy, as exhibits A and B of the nation's deficit of democracy instead. And they cast themselves in opposition, as the keepers of the flame.

"It really will be a collision of opposites," says Minneapolis activist Katrina Plotz when asked about the RNC, which she is organizing against with the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War. "A scripted and sanitized spectacle for a homogenous group of wealthy elites inside the convention hall versus a thriving, organic movement of the masses outside."

Perhaps the starkest contrast will be between the plutocrats of the Grand Old Party and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, a coalition led by poor and homeless families fighting for the right to housing, healthcare, education and a living wage. They will be camped in a "Bushville," a tent city evoking the Depression, and setting out on the March for Our Lives. "It's to say to the whole country, 'We are here,'" says Minneapolis native Rickey Brunner, who, at 16, has become a spokesperson for the group. "We plan to show that this is a crisis, this is something that needs to be looked at with a little more urgency.... We don't have enough housing. We don't have enough healthcare. And it's killing the people."

The RNC for many has become a symbol of everything the protesters believe is wrong with America. They are moved to action by all-too-familiar litany of injustices--the occupation of Iraq and beyond, class war and racism, sexism and homophobia, torture and repression, corporate power and the climate crisis, rising tuition and an economic bust that's hitting this generation hard. Yet what they have in common, beyond a penchant for ruckus and a loathing of the GOP, is a persistent belief in democracy from below, in the power of ordinary people to transform the conditions of life in this country and worldwide--a power they believe must be exercised in the street, not just in the voting booth.

"Democracy is not waiting to vote once every four years. Democracy is getting out in the streets," says Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, a 24-year-old member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) who refused orders to deploy to Iraq this June and now plans to show up to the conventions with IVAW. "They [the politicians] are not gonna do it by themselves. We're gonna force their hand, because that is the nature of democracy."

The dissent at the Democratic National Convention--though less "mass" than at the RNC, especially after the recent withdrawal of some national organizers--is set to feature events like an open-air Festival of Democracy, a Restoring Democracy Parade and a base camp with free housing and medical care, organized by groups like Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Alliance for Real Democracy, the Recreate '68 Alliance and the immigrant coalition the We Are America DNC Alliance.

Activists with these groups report getting the critical questions from their friends and peers about plans to protest Denver: "Especially now, with a candidate who talks a lot about hope and change, people talk about, 'Why do you need to protest?' " says Zoe Williams, a local organizer with Code Pink: Women for Peace and a spokesperson for the Alliance for Real Democracy. Her answer? "I think that we need to define what hope and change are. We need to decide what that means to us as a people."

Even among the activist crowd, there are those who hope the youth movement outside the convention will join with those inside to toast the "new era" they believe the Obama campaign represents--as well as hold Obama accountable and engage the hundreds of thousands of newly politicized young people who have joined in the campaign. "For people who are disenfranchised by the system, some of them for the first time are being motivated into politics," says Rachel Haut, a member of SDS and labor activist at Queens College who is working on the 100 Days Campaign, intended to pressure the next President during his first 100 days in office. "We want to create a broad progressive movement that can invite these newly politicized people in. And we want to create a campaign that can take that beyond the voting booth."

Organizers like Haut feel the stirrings of a new youth movement, newly mainstreamed. Some say it's about the power of the stories that are told on the campaign--and about what stories will be told at the conventions. Madeline Gardner, an activist from the Twin Cities who now organizes with the Energy Action Coalition, sees a political opening for movements like hers: "The story Obama tells, about how we're gonna change this world by regular people taking action," she says, "creates more space for social movement organizing in a way we haven't had since the '60s. I would like to see the conventions and the protests around them take full advantage of that opportunity."

That sentiment is shared by Joshua Kahn Russell, an organizer with the Rainforest Action Network in the Bay Area who feels that the youth movement should "use both conventions to put forward a narrative that we are starting a new chapter in American history.... Our job is to be part of that progressive wave and to pull it to the left as much as we can."

Still, many in the youth movement are riding on a different wave, and they do not want to be swallowed up by the one depicted in Obama's campaign logo--especially following what they see as his betrayals of the movement's values. Some of them are tired of being taken for granted, whether as young people or as people of color. "Because Obama's running, they think, 'We've got them, they're coming out, they're gonna support Obama no matter what,' " says Troy Nkrumah, a chair of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention in Las Vegas, which is convening this summer to forge a national agenda for the hip-hop generation. "Some of us aren't so sure that it's gonna make a difference."

Likewise, young people like Adam Jung, a farm boy from Missouri who is helping to organize the DNC tent city with Tent State University, are questioning whether Obama and the Democrats are ever going to represent them: "The Democrats, they count on and expect our votes. We're saying, 'If you're not representing me, I don't have to vote for you. You need to start listening to the youth [and] the 65 percent of the people in this country who want the war to end.' "

Most determined of all are the anarchists and anti-authoritarians, as many of the youth activists describe themselves, including two of the most active groups preparing to crash the conventions: the RNC Welcoming Committee and the Unconventional Action network. Unconventional Denver organizer Clayton Dewey acknowledges that "the candidacy of Obama is a reflection of the public's desire for something different." But as an anarchist, he explains, "we believe that despite the rhetoric Obama uses, genuine change will always come from the bottom up, and that means countering the system as a whole."

"An anti-authoritarian vibe is what's going on," says Carina Souflee, an activist with Anarchist People of Color and the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) at the University of Texas-Austin, who was radicalized by the immigration protests and is planning to be in the streets at the RNC. "People have learned that a top-down approach to things doesn't work."

To young radicals like Souflee and Dewey, the question remains one of democracy, and to them, democracy has very little to do with the 2008 presidential elections. "What we have in common is a desire to break the spell that elections have over the US left," says a member of the RNC Welcoming Committee who goes by the pseudonym 'Ann O'Nymity.' "Our message is one of direct participation in democracy, bypassing corrupt politicians who don't represent us but instead further corporate interests."

Still, in the age of Obama, some in the youth movement are bypassing protests that directly confront the Democratic candidate and his party, opting instead to aim their dissent at the Republicans. "The RNC is a very easy target, because they are so visibly to blame for what's happening in this country," says Samantha Miller, who recently graduated UCLA and is now organizing members of DC SDS to bring the group's notorious Funk the War street parties to the RNC. "There's a whole lot more energy for the RNC than the DNC," she reports.

Thousands of youth from dozens of groups from across the country are coming together to blockade the Republican convention, using direct democracy not just as an end but as a means. Inspired by the Battle in Seattle and the global justice movement of the '90s, they are deploying a well-organized web of leaderless "affinity groups," "assemblies" and "spokescouncils."

Always the bete noire at a convention ("Anarchists Hot for Mayhem!" screamed a typical headline at the last RNC), this direct action wing of the youth movement has already sparked a media frenzy, along with an internal debate, over what tactics they will employ in the streets. Some activists are wary of the plans to blockade the convention. "I don't know what to make of shutting down the RNC," says Uruj Sheikh of New Jersey, who has worked with the War Resisters League and with the new SDS since its inception. "I'd like to see more of a consciousness raising thing. I don't want the left to be perceived as crazy."

Yet most activists in the Twin Cities agree that the likeliest scenario will be violence from those in blue, more than those in black: "We know that it is the police, not protesters or activists who will have the tasers, guns, rubber bullets, concussion grenades, chemical weapons, helicopters, the media spin machine and millions of dollars on their side," says the Welcoming Committee.

The same story can be heard over at the DNC protest headquarters. "We're just hoping that the Denver police don't recreate the violence that happened in Chicago [in '68]," says Glenn Spagnuolo of the Recreate '68 Alliance, "since they're the only ones capable of doing that."

The group's call to "Recreate '68" at the 2008 DNC has become a point of contention all its own, even among activists born decades after 1968 and bred amid a new world order. The collective memory of '68--not just of Chicago, but of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, of Black Power and women's liberation and youth revolts worldwide--persists among this generation. But while some in the youth movement may look back on '68 as a usable past, as a memory of mass democracy they can mobilize and learn from, few activists see it as a moment to recreate. "It provides inspiration and an example of what can be possible," says Arya Zahedi of New York City SDS. "But it can also prove a disservice. If we just 'recreate '68,' we will be destined to also recreate its problems."

Not everyone is counting on the conventions, the campaigns and the protests. Not Senia Barragan, who helped found the new SDS at Brown University and in Providence: "That culture of activist summit hopping, I'm not really into that. I do think it is important to show a resistance to both parties. I just think that there are different ways that people go about doing that. And I hope we don't lose steam over this election. We've got a long way to go."

Already youth organizers are looking beyond September, even beyond November 4, 2008, and January 20, 2009. They are looking to the long haul, to the work of movement building, rooted in their communities but linked in solidarity with a global movement. For, they say, the whole world is still watching. "Our task today," says NYC SDS's Zahedi, "is to get to work organizing where we are, at our campuses, workplaces, and in our communities, while at the same time building links with people struggling all around the world."

For many, this push begins by showing ordinary people, and especially young, newly politicized people, their own power beyond Election Day. "We really need to find a way to engage the people who are excited, and really do think that Obama's gonna change something," says DC SDS's Miller. "We have to do a lot of popular education to say that it isn't politicians who make real change, it's the movements that politicians have to follow."

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008

Video from our day in Owatonna where PPEHRC caravan members interview Centro Campesino's community organizing on issues facing immigrants in Minnesota.


Centro Campesino video: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3


In Owatonna, we ended the day passing out fliers in a poor trailer park. The first woman we encountered, a woman who with serious medical problems who lives in the trailer park, gave us her entire change purse to support our efforts.

We ended the day sitting in the emergency room of the Owatonna hospital after a dog bit one of our youngest marchers’- Guillermo’s - hands and we had to fight with the hospital to get him stitches for his hand because Guillermo and his mother were notified on Friday that they are not eligible for Medical Assistance in Minnesota. The down payment in order for him to receive care was $50 (not counting the bill that will come later) and then his medication cost another $50. We understand why people don’t go to the doctor.

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, Owatonna

We talked to two men with devastating stories. The first man was in a terrible accident at the age of 13 where his legs were crushed and burned. It took 20 years before he could find and pay for the prosthetics for his legs because of complications due to his burns.

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, St. Cloud, Waconia

Everyday people right here in Fargo/Moorhead don't make enough money to live.
They don't have health care, they don't have a home, and some don't have enough money for food. Advocates for the poor say these stories need to be shared in order to stir up change. Regional activists are touring Minnesota, in the hopes of gathering personal accounts of financial struggles. They plan to take the stories and gather volunteers for their cause. The tour is called "March for our Lives", and members from the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign are heading it. They are hitting dozens of Minnesota cities this summer. They want to help spread information to those who don't know about poverty. One of the concerns this winter is that people won't have enough money to heat their homes. The group will hold an open listening session Saturday at Romkey Park, Moorhead from 1-3 pm. The group will take what they've learned and present it at both the republican and democratic national conventions.

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, Moorhead

The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign Marches in Moorhead, MN

In Moorhead we were hosted by the People Escaping Poverty Project (PEPP), who has been doing community organizing around social justice issues for over twenty years.


People Escaping Poverty Project (PEPP) Video: Part 1 | Part 2

PEPP members joined us on our march through the city and they took us to Social Connections. This is a program where low-income people in the area shared with us their personal experience of being poor and their struggles for a right to mental health services.



Duke, the executive director of PEPP, took a couple of PPEHRC members out door-knocking to invite people to a picnic we held the next day. We had a potluck with PEPP members that night where we exchanged organizing experiences. The next day two PPERHC members joined Lorenzo, from the UND chapter of SDS, on Peace Talk Radio to discuss the March For Our Lives and the new relationship between PPEHRC and The American Driver. That afternoon, at the picnic, we talked about food access issues with community members and human rights with Del Rae Williams of the Moorhead Human Rights Commission. We ended the evening with political education by watching the film Hotel Rwanda and having a lively debate. Lastly, the hospitality was amazing. We were hosted in the personal homes of generous PEPP members.

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, Moorhead

POVERTY TOUR HEADED TO MOORHEAD
http://www.kfgo.com/news/details.asp?ID=7683
8/15/2008

A MINNESOTA HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP WILL BE IN MOORHEAD TOMORROW TRYING TO RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS. MARSHA DUGAN IS WITH "THE POOR PEOPLE'S ECONOMIC HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN". SHE SAYS THEY'RE FINDING CONDITIONS AREN'T AS BRIGHT AS STATE LEADERS CLAIM. THE GROUP IS USING THE THREE-WEEK TRIP TO COLLECT STORIES AND TESTIMONY FROM LOW INCOME AND HOMELESS PEOPLE. THE INFORMATION WILL BE PRESENTED AT THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION IN ST. PAUL SEPTEMBER 1ST.

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, Moorhead

We began our day in Detroit Lakes by marching through the city. We were joined by our hosts from White Earth and by one of our newest members from Red Lake. Members of PPERHC met with staff from the Mahube Community Center. We learned that Detroit Lakes has no battered Women’s shelter and that the closest safe house is 50-90 miles away. Because of this, the average women suffering from domestic violence in the city will leave and return to the batterer 8 to 9 times and often will only leave for good when their life is in immediate danger. There are no homeless shelters and no free health clinics in Detroit Lakes, nor is there adequate public transportation. Another problem they raised was that any USDA food programs, like Head Start or soup kitchens, require that they throw all excess food into the garbage each night despite the number of hungry people. Staff at the community center were also very worried about the coming winter since it is clear to them that the current level of government assistance will not be able to cover people’s energy costs, which in Minnesota means that people could freeze to death.

They also shared with us stories of, such as the elderly women who was found living in an abandoned chicken coupe, or the person living in an oil drum.

Other members of PPEHRC went to the food bank to see what the food bank process was like there. One woman discusses with us how the food would only last her family of five two to three weeks, but people are only allowed to utilize the food shelf six times per year.

We spent the night at the Refuge, a place that offers free meals and spiritual guidance to those in need. We had a wonderful discussion of how neither the Democratic party nor the Republican party are doing the lords work, since neither is shining a light on the issues of the poor nor walking with the poor as Jesus taught. The generosity and love that these Christians shared with us that evening was overwhelming. We were especially moved by their prayer for us and we won’t forget our new friends.

Labels: Detroit Lakes, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan

We drove into White Earth reservation and were welcomed into the home of Michael Dahl where we discussed various issues around identity and rural poverty on the reservation with Michael, his elder father named Craig Kingbird, and our host, his sister, Sandy Lindstrom.


Watch this three part interview: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

We were then brought to the community rediscovery center, in which we were hosted with a gracious meal of soup, fried bread, and other native foods. Then we spent a night enjoying a campfire and hearing stories and songs of Anishinaabeg culture.

The next day we were taken a poverty reality tour by our host, Sandy, around the many poverty stricken villages of the White Earth Reservation. Two PPEHRC youth members provided childcare at the Rediscovery Center by taking them fishing and engaging in other outdoor activities. Meanwhile we met with a man who the Tribal Council was blacklisted from being employed on the reservation, merely due to his political stance and action within the community. We then met with Bill Paulsen, care taker and member of Sahkahtay Indigenous Preservation Society, who gave us a tour of the Giiwedin, the Shakahtay garden project. He also treated us to lunch and a gracious donation and told us about how they bring in adults and children to help with the gardening and teaching self-sustainable farming, including wild rice gathering, berry scattering, etc. It was very uplifting to see someone struggling with incredible obstacles to make such positive change in their community. Later in the evening we were again hosted by our favorite cook, Michael, and were treated to a gathering around the fire including stories, songs, and a drum ceremony.

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, White Earth

By Natalie J. Ostgaard, City Editor
Published: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 1:35 PM CDT
E-mail this story | Print this page
Participants in Operation: March for our Lives pause Monday near the post office on South Main. (Natalie J. Ostgaard, photographer)

About 10 people participating in Operation: March for Our Lives who are on a mission to call attention to issues affecting the poorest people in the nation made a stop in Crookston Monday, where they conducted an early afternoon march from the former SuperValu parking lot to the Care and Share Center. Despite rain drenching them along the way, they managed to get their message across with waterproof signs and banners and at a press conference outside the center.

"We're going to communities across the state documenting people's stories about having their human rights to housing, health care, education, food, living wage jobs, and other basic needs denied in this country," said Jenn Cox, who came from Philadelphia to join the initiative. "We're also trying to bring people together to join us at the end of this month and early September in St. Paul."

The march, under the national Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC), kicked off Aug. 1 in St. Paul and will end Aug. 22 in Minneapolis-St. Paul after visiting about 20 communities across the state. March participants are sharing experiences, exchanging ideas, collect human rights documentation, and join local actions in the fight for economic human rights, according to information provided by PPEHRC. They're also hosting teach-ins, panels, workshops and performances in an effort to grow mobilize and grow the movement to end poverty in the United States.

"There is a large number of people working real hard to survive but can't because of high gas prices," said Cox. "People are losing their farms, homes, and trucking businesses, not to mention going without food and health care. For the richest country in the world, our people shouldn't have to live like this to get by."

She pointed out several events set to take place in the Twin Cities later this month and early next month, culminating with protests at the Republican National Convention:

-- On Aug. 30, the Minnesota Truth Commission will collect testimony detailing violations of economic human rights from throughout the state.

-- On Sept. 1, the first day of the RNC, PPEHRC will join the "March to Stop the War!" tying the issues of poverty, homelessness and the health care crisis with the spending of trillions of dollars on the Iraq War.

-- Also on Sept. 1, the National Truth Commission on Human Rights Violations in the U.S. will collect testimony detailing violations of economic human rights from across the country.

-- On Sept. 2, the national "March for Our Lives: Money For Health Care And Housing Not For War!" will bring together tens of thousands of people, led by poor families, marching to the site of the RNC.

"We're encouraging people in the Crookston area to join us and get involved in these activities in some capacity," Cox said. "Maybe you have a story to tell. Maybe you just want to show your support. We'd really welcome a delegation from the Crookston area. We'd be glad to talk with people on how to make it happen and are working on getting transportation there and back."

If interested, contact the PPEHRC by mail at PPEHRC, Sabathani Community Center,

310 East 38th St Room # 126, Minneapolis, MN 55409; by phone at (612) 821-2364; or e-mail at info@economichumanrights.org. Visit the Website economichumanrights.org for more information and details on upcoming events.

About PPEHRC

The PPEHRC was formed 10 years ago, the 50th anniversary of the U.S. signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Cox explained. This is the international standard for human rights, and full implementation would mean that poverty would not exist in this country.

"That's not happening, now, is it?" she said.

Each summer, the group conducts marches and other events to call attention to economic rights violations, she said. Cox has been involved with the organization since the beginning and has been to two other protests to the RNC, in 2000 and 2004.

"We're not partisan, though," she stressed. "We're not connected to either party - we think both parties have screwed peoples lives up."

The reason they're focusing on the RNC this year is because that's the party our president belongs to, Cox explained.

"There will also be protests and stuff around the Democratic National Convention," she said. "But conditions over the last eight years, based on Bush's presidency, have caused a lot of hurting."

"Stop spending money on the war and give it to the poor," said Mario Seina of Grand Forks, who's with the UND chapter of Students for a Democratic Society. He's been working with American Driver, a trucker's group protesting across the nation. "A lot of owner-operators are filing bankruptcy and having to delve into their retirement funds. We want to raise awareness and let people know how this affects citizens across the board. Everything that comes into the city comes from trucks."

He added that he hopes the protests at the RNC will attract national media attention and get people talking to work on a solution to the problem.

Marsha Duggan, a college student from Iowa, said she came on board with PPEHRC after a spring break service trip that "really opened my eyes to poverty, homelessness and food issues going on. It really made me frustrated. I don't think its right for mothers and fathers not to be able to put food on the table at night for their kids, not to be able to have a home and put their children to bed, and not have health care."

Deeq Abdi, the leader of the group from Minneapolis, said he became involved with the group because he went through some housing issues and others helped him get on his own feet and more independent.

"I don't want anyone to go through the same situation as I did," he said.

Labels: Crookston, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan

We had a march through town in the rain and went to the First Presbyterian Church where we were served sandwiches for lunch. A small delegation, joined by our ally Lorenzo, speaking on behalf of the truckers who are committed to bringing a delegation to the March for Our lives, held a press conference in front of Care and Share, a transitional shelter where we were housed that night. We also ate dinner there and did documentation. One of the stories, for example, was of a 24 year old man, Jake, faced with various disabilities, who talked about his need to buy custom shoes for $500 forcing him to wear the same pair of shoes for over three years straight. We interviewd our host, Carol, who told us that poverty, in Crookston, was largely ignored and despite the necessary presence of Care and Share for over 20 years the majority of the Crookstonites would say that there are still no homeless people in town.

Labels: Crookston, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan

The Human Rights Monitors went door to door, while doing this we learned that there is homeless shelter, no food shelf, and no social services at all in the area. We met a woman with Polio, who was in a wheelchair and therefore stuck in her trailer six months out of the year due to a lack of help and health care services during the extremely harsh Minnesota winters. We met a young women named Stacey who was refused assistance from the city for residing of her trailer, since the siding had been recalled and it was past a certain date, despite the fact that you could literally put your hand through the side of her home.

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, Red Lake Falls

We were hosted by St. Mary’s Mission, the sisters greeted us with open arms and made us delicious food. We also did documentation and were led on a poverty tour by Anita Whitefeather through red lake reservation.




Later we were given an educational on the history of the Red Lake reservation who was conducted by our friend Jodi Bolio.



Watch this three part video: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Another educational was had later on about the school of the Americas by Deeq Abdi, one of our fellow human rights monitors. We attended the church service and joined the congregation in song and prayer.

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, Red Lake

Photos to come.

Labels: Cass Lake, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan

Labels: Grand Rapids, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan

The marchers started morning at 8:30 with breakfast around a giant statute in memorial to the Iron Ore Miners Statue an homage to the miners' role in shaping America and the Industrial Revolution. Miners remain the backbone of this community to this day.

After breakfast, the marchers marched 4 miles to Second Harvest Food Shelf - who generously hosted the caravan's lunch. At the Food Shelf, many families, who are receiving minimal help from social services and having terrible times making ends meet, shared their stories. The marchers then collected Economic Human Rights Violation Documentation from these families.

Next, the caravan moved on to the ITASCA Resource center. The staff of the center will bring a delegation to the MN Truth Commission and the March for Our Lives. The caravan enjoyed dinner hosted by the ITASCA Resource Center.

More tomorrow...

Labels: Grand Rapids, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan

Labels: Grand Rapids, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, Spanish

We woke up at six o'clock am to members of Lawron Presbyterian Church already in the kitchen preparing pancakes and sausages. While we ate breakfast, we spoke with one of the parisioners about his experiences in Vietnam and the medical issues he suffered afterward, along with his fears that GIs suffer similar or worse treatment now. After effusively thanking them and presenting them with t-shirts, we hit the road to Hibbing. We stopped thirteen miles from Hibbing at around eight o'clock am and prepared ourselves to march, which included assembling our heavy, makeshift billboard to drag along with us.

We marched approximately ten miles under a potent sun into Hibbing, recieving many supportive honks along the way. We found out as we entered town that a front page article in the local paper, the Hibbing Daily Tribune, had roused local interest and support for our visit. Along the route, we were startled when a local woman, who had been on public assistance herself in the 80's, pulled over and told us she had looked for us on the highway, but had just found us. She had to leave quickly but found us later, talked to us and gave us money for food. In downtwn Hibbing, we met O Jay, a long time homeless local who allowed us to videotape him telling his story and marched the rest of the way to Bennet Park with us. We also encountered Chris Buckley from Channel 11, who immediately began filming us marching the streets and chanting. After resting briefly at the park, we made our way to the Salvation Army, where we met Chris and Mike Jennings of the Hibbing Daily Tribune, who interviewed Cheri and expressed interest in following up on local sotries of poverty and degradation.


O.J. Sanders from Hibbing tells how his mother has had her utilities shut off on her and will be evicted from her home after being foreclosed on.

We proceeded to eat at the Salvation Army and spoke at length with local folks. O Jay loaned us his laptop and we sat outside accessing the internet to read email and post crucial updates. We also met Cedric, from Cass Lake, who had left the reservation with his family at a young age and now finds himself isolated as one of the few Native Americans living in Hibbing. Many of us spoke with Victor, a volunteer at the Salvation Army, about his long history of participation in social movements such as the Black Panther Party in southern California.


Hibbing Press Conference

Just following the press conference outside of the Salvation Army, we were joined by Liz Ortiz, a long time member of PPEHRC and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, from Philadelphia. From there we proceeded to Chisholm Baptist Church, where we unloaded our things and had a meeting to plan the strategy for the coming days. The pastor of Chisholm Baptist graciously lent us his office computer as well as his personal laptop. After the meeting and brief work at the computer, we took a chance to rest our legs, take showers, play pool and watch movies.

Labels: Hibbing, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan

Will wind up at Republican convention

Mike Jennings

HIBBING — A march that is intended to draw attention to the needs of Minnesota’s poor is due to arrivetoday in Hibbing.

Sponsored by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, the march began Friday in St. Paul and continued Saturday in Duluth and Sunday in Taconite. It is scheduled to pass through about 20 communities across the state this month and end Sept. 2 at the front door of the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, where the Republican National Convention will be in progress. Peter Cooper, a spokesman for the sponsoring group, said the marchers would set out from the outskirts of Nashwauk about 8 a.m. today and follow Route 169 to Hibbing, where they will proceed along First Avenue to the Salvation Army building on Howard Street. After resting at Bennett Park, the marchers will return to the Salvation Army building, where they will hold a press conference about 2:30 p.m., he said.

Cooper said Sunday that 10-15 people were participating in the march so far. “It’s kind of fluid, and it’s going to be growing,” he said.

Those who have been “denied health care and housing are welcome to come out and share their stories and march with us,” Cooper said. He said that during the march the group will collect documentation from people who have been denied services that meet basic needs.

On Tuesday, the march is due to continue in Grand Rapids.

Mike Jennings can be reached at mike.jennings@mx3.com. To read this story and comment on it online go to www.hibbingmn.com.

Labels: Hibbing, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan

Federal mediators want to get involved in protest plans

by Dennis Geisinger
published August 4 '08

"He said, 'We're not here to spy on you. Is that what you think?’ ” recalled local activist Cheri Honkala about her follow-up phone conversation this month with U.S. Justice Dept. conciliation specialist Kenith Bergeron.

Bergeron had called Honkala at Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) headquarters on July 3 to ask if her group would be willing to participate in training to mitigate what he saw as possible violence during PPEHRC's planned "March for Our Lives" at September's Republican Convention in St. Paul.

"He basically implied violence toward myself and toward the other marchers," Honkala said. "He said that he was concerned about a counter demonstration and that the (St. Paul) police had recently purchased 300 new Tasers," said Honkala.

Bergeron's office within the federal justice system is with something called the "Community Relations Service" (CRS) whose stated function is "mediation of disputes and conflicts, training in conflict resolution skills, and help in developing ways to prevent and resolve conflicts," according to the government. CRS was created by the 1964 Civil Rights Act and has a long history of involvement in defusing confrontations, including easing racial tensions in the South and helping pave the way for gay and lesbian issues to be addressed on college campuses.

"My question was, 'Why do they have to be involved unless they have knowledge of an intention of violence. And if they have, they should reveal those threats to the public," said Honkala. "He also told me that AIM (members of the local American Indian Movement) and the Welfare Rights Committee had said they would be participating in his training, which I later discovered was not true," Honkala said.

Both AIM and the Minnesota Welfare Rights Committee, as well as the local Anti-War Committee, have gone on record as saying they would not be interested in federal training. They say that their own efforts to apply to authorities for common ground—like applying for the proper permits to demonstrate—have been frustrated or delayed. The Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War was forced into court with the City of St. Paul because city officials wanted to keep protesters out of the sight of convention goers.

Nineteen St. Paul and Minneapolis police officers were given CRS training on July 23.

"Police are one entity that may call us in—we may enter a community on our own or at the request of the community," said Ryan Breitenbach, CRS Senior Counsel. "But we are unique within the Dept. of Justice as we have no investigative or law enforcement power. We only provide facilitation of dialogue, particularly in regard to protests or marches," Breitenbach said.

"We are a movement that practices nonviolence. The federal government has never seen the need to become involved in our movement in more than twenty years," said Honkala. "Our only other experience in dealing with the feds is our experience with ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and their treatment of our local immigrantpopulation. We have many immigrants in our movement," Honkala said.

"Communities often don't want any kind of federal presence, and that's understandable," another CRS mediator, Patricia Campbell Glenn, told City Pages back in 2002. At that time, the Minneapolis City Council and local community leaders asked CRS to facilitate talks between the city and neighborhood groups after a riot broke out in the Northside's Jordan neighborhood when a police bullet hit an 11-year-old black child in the arm. After a months-long mediation process between a diverse coalition of community groups and representatives of the Minneapolis Police Dept., a federal mediation agreement was reached.

Yet according to Honkala, CRS's contact with her was a bit more heavy handed. In a subsequent phone conversation with Bergeron, Honkala said that her group had declined the use of CRS services."He got really upset and started screaming," said Honkala. "He told me that if anyone even had a heart attack during the march, that I would be held responsible," she said.
So much for federal facilitation at the Republican Convention.

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008

This morning marchers went Lawron Presbyterian Church located just outside of Taconite. They were hosted by the church for lunch, dinner and to sleep tonight.

The pastor opened her congregation to the marchers and she is a prime example of what religious leaders ought do be doing - working to meet the needs of others not just in working in their own interests. Pastor Dorothy's comments were moving in that she stated that she "feels an inability to live lavishly while others are suffering." This is the source of her congregations commitment to aiding those in the areas around Taconite.

We would like to extend our prayers and gratitude to Lawron Presbyterian Church and its congregation for their support and loving kindness. We wanted to share the beautiful prayer from this morning's service:

Almighty God,
You love us but we have not loved you.
You called but we have not listened.
We walk away from neighbors in need,
Wrapped in our own concerns.
We accept evil, prejudice, warfare and greed.
God of grace,
Help us to admit our sins,
So that we may repent and receive forgiveness.

Labels: March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, Taconite

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) -- A 73-year-old retired surgeon marching in silence with a tombstone picturing a soldier killed in Iraq. A philosophy professor calling for a new investigation into the September 11 terrorist attacks. A long-haul trucker from Texas protesting the price of oil.

Those are just a few of the images that demonstrators hope will capture the attention of delegates, journalists and others attending the Republican National Convention. Tens of thousands -- from anarchists and immigrants to advocates for the poor -- plan to use the streets outside the Xcel Center as a national podium, transforming downtown St. Paul into a marketplace of ideas.

"There are some groups that are going to be here just because this is a big stage," said Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota. "But I think the majority of groups are here because they really want to demonstrate to the delegates that they want to see some sort of changes in the party platform."

Protesters and police expect the opening day of the four-day convention, September 1-4, to be the biggest -- with a huge anti-war march from the state Capitol to the Xcel Center and back. Groups representing labor, immigrants, gays and lesbians, solidarity with Palestine, and many other causes have signed on.

"The Bush agenda has really angered all different groups," said Meredith Aby, a member of the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War. "These groups have said, 'We can't survive four more years of this."'

President Bush, whose approval rating was just 28 percent in a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll, is scheduled to speak that night.

The war probably will generate a bigger turnout of demonstrators for the Republicans than the Democrats, who open their convention August 25 in Denver, said Paula O'Loughlin, an associate professor of political science at the University of Minnesota-Morris.

"It is something that really gets people out in the streets," she said.

Democratic conventions have historically attracted more protesters. That tide shifted in 2004, O'Loughlin said, when more than 100,000 protesters -- likely a record turnout -- descended on the streets of Manhattan for the GOP convention.

At the Democrats' meeting that year in Boston, the largest protest came the day before it opened when about 2,000 anti-war activists and 1,000 abortion opponents marched separately.

The women and men of the anti-war group CODEPINK plan to join the march in St. Paul, complete with pink "police" on in-line skates and the pink-slip girls, who have been known to deliver their "pink slips" to politicians whom they believe aren't doing enough to end the war in Iraq.

The Red Wing chapter of Veterans for Peace is planning a smaller event on August 31, the day before the convention begins. The group will walk in silence, to a beating drum, with each person carrying a tombstone picturing a civilian or soldier killed in Iraq. A group with orange jumpsuits and masks will represent the Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

"It's not directed specifically against the Republicans, that's for certain," said Red Wing's David Harris. "It's against the warmakers. But even people marching don't necessarily have to see things as broadly as I do."

Some of the messages converging in St. Paul are quite focused -- and as diverse as the messengers themselves:

By KBJR News 1

Concerns over high gas prices, the slumping housing market and rising food prices have many people concerned.
However, it's easy to forget those who are less fortunate.
Trevor Roy spoke with a group dedicated to remind people of the plight the poor of this country face everyday.

Nearly twenty people marched on Duluth Saturday to educate and promote economic human rights reform.
The group calling themselves the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign is taking a bus tour around Minnesota.
They are gathering stories of violations regarding the human rights to health care, housing, food, and education to present to state and national leaders.

3:50"All of this will culminate in a Minnesota truth commission, where people will travel from Duluth to the Twin Cities to talk to commissioners about what's happened in their lives and than we have our big anti–poverty march September 2"

Cheri Honkala, whom was at one time homeless, says it was the good will of other people that inspired her to get involved.

"7:30 I'm a formerly homeless mother and that's why I do this, people decided to help me and step forward in a difficult situation and we need people to get involved."

Ann Patterson says she started protesting at an early age, but after having her children she realized that this issue is something that she can latch on to.

8:18 "From the age of probably four I was on protests and marches with her and taking over houses, abandon houses for homeless people, but as I got older I had five children and I'm on a very very low income and so it's becoming more of a necessity to me than a passion".

Honkala sees the war in Iraq as being at odds with the war against poverty.

"5:06 While there is a lot of focus on the war that's going on in Iraq nobody is talking about the need for something like operation March of Our Lives, where we give visibility to what's happening to families and the consequences of spending billions of dollars on the war.'

The group is planning on marching on the Republican National Convention which runs later this month.
In Duluth, Trevor Roy, the NorthlandsNewscenter.

Labels: Duluth, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan

Members of the Operation: March for Our Lives Caravan spent last night at the Nice Island Campsite. This morning the campsite owner shared her story with the Caravan. She had the horrible experience of having her children removed for her home and the fight to regain custody of them.



UNITE! HERE Local 99 of Duluth hosted breakfast (thank you!). Local President, Todd Erickson, explained the struggle of Duluth workers as their economy and industries have shifted from union mining jobs with excellent pay and benefits to low wage service industry jobs with or without benefits. Local 99 will join PPEHRC at the March for Our Lives and will bring a delegation from Duluth.

Operation: March for Our Lives then marched 3 miles through downtown Duluth community members to the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial for a press conference

After that, the caravan joined a local soup kitchen for lunch and collected documentation from homeless folks assembled for lunch.

From there, the caravan traveled to CHUM, a local family single adult/family shelter. Hosted by Tony, a CHUM staff member, he recounted the story of losing his home and her 9-year old children in house fire. He told of having to rebuild her life over the years and the importance of treating people with humanity and dignity. He spends every day of his life "giving praise to people to building them up and not breaking them down." Marchers talked to lots of people and invited them all to join us

The marchers ended their day at Loaves and Fishes for a community dinner. Here we met a man named Marty who was displaced by Hurricane Katrina and then again two weeks later by Hurricane Rita. FEMA provided him a trailer that was contaminated with formaldehyde. He brought attention to the fact the trailer was uninhabitable; FEMA then moved him to a second trailer which was contaminated with asbestos. This left permanent scars on his legs. He is now in Minnesota and unable to leave due to medical crisis which have left him incapacitated. His medical condition prevents him from working. He is saddled with massive medical bills leaving him without a way to pay bills, rent, and other expenses.

The marchers spent the night here.

Labels: Duluth, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan

Yesterday in St. Paul, the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) started its Minnesota statewide tour called Operation: March For Our Lives, its Minnesota statewide tour, from St. Paul.




PPEHRC held a news conference to start off Operation: March for Our Lives in front of the Vision of Peace Statue at the St. Paul City Hall with representatives of UNITE! HERE, the American Indian Movement, The Minnesota Tenants Union, St Stephen's, the Maria Iñamagua Campaign For Justice, The Main Street Project and the Minnesota National Lawyers Guild.

PPEHRC Members have 22 days of marching and caravaning across the state collecting documentation of economic human rights violations. Staying with those most affected by poverty and the worsening economy, PPEHRC will spend much of the upcoming weeks in in homeless shelters, soup kitchens, visiting with farmers who have lost their farms, and visiting some of the poorest Indian Reservations.

If you have you are a Minnesotan and have been affected by poverty, share your story with us using our economic human rights violation form. These stories from people by poverty in Minnesota will be documented and brought to Minneapolis for the Minnesota Truth Commission, a hearing by human rights experts, clergy and government officials.

Labels: Duluth, March for Our Lives 2008, MN Caravan, St. Paul

St. Paul / Poverty caravan departs City Hall for Duluth
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 08/01/2008 11:51:30 PM CDT

A group hoping to draw attention to poverty, homelessness and health-care problems kicked off a statewide march-and-caravan trip from St. Paul City Hall on Friday.

The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign plans to travel to Duluth and return to the Twin Cities over the next month, stopping at homeless shelters along the way.

On Sept. 2, the second day of the Republican National Convention, group members plan to demonstrate outside the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

— Dave Orrick