The Poor People’s Campaign was a march on Washington D.C. to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States that began on this day in 1968, just one month after the assassination of one of its key organizers, MLK Jr.

The protest was also organized by Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and carried out under the leadership of Ralph Abernathy in the wake of King’s assassination.

After presenting an organized set of demands to Congress and executive agencies, participants set up a 3,000-person protest camp on the Washington Mall, where they stayed for six weeks in the spring of 1968.

Among those demands was a proposal for an “economic bill of rights” that included a commitment to full employment, a guaranteed annual income measure, and more low-income housing for poor Americans of all races.

"I think it is necessary for us to realize that we have moved from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights…

When we see that there must be a radical redistribution of economic and political power, then we see that for the last twelve years we have been in a reform movement…

That after Selma and the Voting Rights Bill, we moved into a new era, which must be an era of revolution…"

-MLK Jr., in a 1967 planning meeting

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Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

Aid:

Theory:

        • forcefemjdwon [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
          21·
          3 hours ago

          What did I miss? The resolution seemed egregiously eugenic, and that’s ignoring the fact that uplift fiction hinges itself on sentience being primarily a biological phenomenon.

          • buckykat [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
            2·
            2 hours ago

            Eugenics isn’t just whenever you do genetics. The Portiids’ plan at the resolution doesn’t eliminate anybody, doesn’t even gesture towards any kind of population control, it just allows a widening of empathy in people who already exist.

            One of the central characters driving the entire plot is a specifically non-biological sentient.

            Unless you’re talking about dualism, which is objectively wrong and not materialist.

            • forcefemjdwon [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
              1·
              15 minutes ago

              And eugenics does not require killing anyone if the desired biological traits can be altered post birth. The Portiids resolve the conflict by using the nanovirus to re-engineer humans to be more empathetic. This reflects the author’s liberal politics that key parts of human (individual and social) psychology are pre-determined by physical substrate rather than social relations. “Human nature,” whether “material” or metaphysical. We already have a way to expand human empathy without conceding to the arguments of 19th century liberal scientists — it’s called communism.

      • JD_Vyvanse [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        4·
        21 hours ago

        an upvote to each of you, good gentleposters! here’s to a most spirited debate in the marketplace of ideas!! so-true

        EDIT: sorry yall i was just tryna be a rascal but these comments were friend-losing-worthy & i am truly a wretch, i retract the sentiment but leave both posts up for purposes of self crit

    • JD_Vyvanse [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      4·
      21 hours ago

      an upvote to each of you, good gentleposters! here’s to a most spirited debate in the marketplace of ideas!! so-true

      EDIT: sorry yall i was just tryna be a rascal but these comments were friend-losing-worthy & i am truly a wretch, i retract the sentiment but leave both posts up for purposes of self crit