Solidarity Letter to the Poor People’s Campaign

Dear Reverands Liz Theoharis and William Barber (Poor People’s Campaign)

We have been observing for the past three weeks the developments that have followed the death of George Floyd on the 25th of May. We lament his egregious death along with so many others, who have suffered and died at the hands of law enforcement officials.

We were pleased to see the strength and response of so many Americans –now in its third week of protest; and it gives hope that the spirit of resistance against racial inequality, police brutality and social discrimination of all kinds continues. There are welcomed signs that State and the US Governments are beginning to respond to the call for police reform and this would be one important step in addressing the deeper violence rooted in society, made visible by un- and underemployment, lack of affordable health care, inadequate food security and lack of access to safe sources of drinking water and so forth.

You, as the Co-Chairs of the Poor People’s Movement, seem to be actively eliciting the engagement of people at the grassroots and gaining their involvement, and this has no doubt been an important moment for movement building. It has also caused a chain reaction of protests in other countries, that also have similar challenges.

Since the Covid-19 the Jai Jagat India and International have been responding to the issue related to the plight of migrant labourers. Having tens of millions of people migrating back to their homes, has led us to begin a new round of mobilization with migrant workers aimed at resisting the reduction of labour rights and the removal of legal safeguards for those in the unorganized sector.

The global political economy has advanced the interests of a small and powerful group; and as people begin to come out of the Covid-19 lockdown, this is a historical moment for us to come together to bring forward the aspiration of people at the grassroots as a powerful force of change. This can be done by also bringing forward the vision of nonviolence of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi to ensure that we do not get trapped in a cycle of violence.

The Jai Jagat is committed to supporting the Poor People’s Campaign in whatever way possible, and we hope that through continued collaboration, different movements will come together to make a Jai Jagat (One world for Everyone) a possibility.

In Solidarity,