Poor to March for Economic Human Rights

On February 8, 2002, poor, unemployed and homeless people from across the United States will lead a massive March for Our Lives on the opening day of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Marchers will demand their basic economic human rights to jobs at living wages, health care, housing, food, and education.

The March will be led by the Philadelphia based Kensington Welfare Rights Union (www.kwru.org) and JEDI Women of Salt Lake City (www.jedi4women.org). These two organizations have been nationally recognized for their work fighting poverty for the past decade. The KWRU organized and led the largest demonstration during the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.

Cheri Honkala, Director of the KWRU, says, "The March for Our Lives at the Winter Olympics is an urgent effort to break the invisibility of the poor in the United States. Every day millions of Americans are denied their Economic Human Right to decent health care, education, food, housing, and living wage jobs. This has to be an American priority."

America is entering unknown territory-a time of economic recession AND the lack of a safety net. Honkala says, "Welfare to work is a fatal insult to poor families who are asked to find a job when thousands are being laid off every week."

The March takes place at a time when poverty, unemployment, lack of health care, homelessness, and hunger threaten the lives of the majority of the world's people. All eyes will be on Salt Lake City during the Winter Olympics. Honkala says, "We will highlight the economic human rights violations being committed here in the richest country in the world, and demand economic human rights. We have seen our lives, livelihoods, and rights devastated by Welfare Reform NAFTA, privatization, and other cuts in the social safety net."

For more information, contact James Pfluecke at (215) 203-1945, or james@kwru.org.