Poor Peoples Campaign rally targets budget cuts

A spirited crowd braved the rain and gathered in front of Rhode Island’s State House April 4 for the R.I. Poor Peoples Campaign rally against massive planned human services budget cuts.

The rally was called on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and invoked the spirit of the Poor Peoples Campaign march on Washington. It comes at a time when Rhode Island is facing a budget deficit of more than $500 million and is planning a $67 million cut to Medicare, a $17 million cut to higher education, and a $3.3 million cut to Head Start programs.

The rally’s demands included “Tax the rich, not the poor!” “Cut off $ for war abroad!” and “Fund a war on poverty at home!” The rally was chaired by Jasmine Woodbury of DARE youth.

Bob Traynham of USW 8751, the Boston School Bus Union, sang the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” described the crisis working people face with foreclosures and layoffs, and called for participation in an April 16 march against the Mortgage Bankers Association meeting in Washington, D.C. Traynham is himself being evicted because the building where he rents has been foreclosed.

As Maggie of the Campaign to End Childhood Poverty described the impact of the budget deficit on children, she broke down and wept. Other speakers included Anea Garcia, DARE youth; Father Raymond Tetrault, St. Teresa’s Church; John Prince, Family Life Center; Rochelle Lee, R.I. Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee; Karen McAninch, USW United Service and Allied Workers; Wally Sillanpoa, Community Coalition for Peace; John Gallagher, Poor Peoples Campaign; and John Barns, AFSCME Council 94.

Speakers expressed their outrage that R.I. capital police had denied the rally participants’ entrance to the State House. They called for participation in an April 19 Philadelphia demonstration protesting the recent denial of a new trial in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. And they expressed solidarity with the Narragansett nation, which was found guilty in court that same day for having defended their sovereign land against a raid on a smokeshop in July 2003.

Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas expressed that it was outrageous that they should have been convicted on the 40th anniversary of King’s assassination. Dr. King, he said, “was murdered for trying to win fairness and equality. Not a day goes by when I don’t have to fight for justice.”