February 22, 2006

By ADAM HYLA
Editor

It may not be Jan. 16, 1933, when 1,000 people overwhelmed the state capitol’s downtown merchants and slept in the churchyards. But it’s a start.

That’s what Olympia activist Pat Tassoni is thinking as he plans for the 300 marchers who will gather Jan. 16 — the 75th anniversary of that Depression-era march and the day after what would have been the 77th birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tassoni, the part-time director of the Thurston County Tenants Union, is part of a statewide network of grassroots activists mobilizing people living in poverty to take their grievances to the legislature.

Like the 1933 assembly, today’s marchers have demands. Back then, says Tassoni — who has combed through newspaper clippings of the day — they spoke of direct benefits to veterans and the poor, putting a stop to evictions and diverting tax dollars from military to social purposes.

Today, organizers say, they’re calling for access to jobs and educational opportunities; work that pays a decent wage; and the bare necessities — food, shelter, and medical care — required to keep people safe and well.

They’re also acting in the spirit of King’s final, unfinished project: assembling a multiracial poor people’s movement to march on the nation’s capitol for a guaranteed income.

The group’s concerns represent “work that’s been left undone since [King] was assassinated,” says Tassoni. This MLK Day event is “not so much a celebration of what he accomplished as a message that we need to take up the gauntlet.”

The march’s organizers are planning beyond the one-day event, too: they are meeting via telephone monthly to support each other in strengthening local grassroots organizations of poor people.

Effectively organizing the poor isn’t easy, says Aiko Schaefer of the Statewide Poverty Action Network, who convened the meetings at the urging of SPAN’s board — many of whom are low-income and face real challenges having their voices heard in a large, diverse state.

“ It’s hard to organize people who have very challenging lives,” she says. SPAN’s primary mission is to influence decisions that impact Washington’s poor, “and the only way we can do that effectively is to ensure there are strong local and regional networks of low-income people.”

Such networks could branch out from groups like Tassoni’s, for example, which currently can pay him only for part-time work advising 1,000 Thurston County tenants who face problems with their landlords.

Or from Kathy Mann’s, which is bringing at least 25 people from the Spokane area to take part in the rally and speak with their legislators.

Mann, the director and sole staff member of VOICES — which stands for Voices for Opportunity, Income, Childcare, Education, and Support — says convening meetings with the powerful is the heart of her group’s work.

“ People who want to become more participatory in civic life come to us,” she says. “We hook them up with legislators, advisory boards, and committees. We’re representing low-income issues from the perspective of people experiencing those issues.”

Face-to-face meetings between legislators and constituents who are homeless, hungry, or unemployed can be particularly powerful, she says. She remembers when Sen. Lisa Brown (D - Spokane) sent the group a note after one meeting: “It said, ‘This is the only way low-income people can get heard: when they group together.’”

“ Usually, the people talking to her are paid to do that,” says Mann. “She really respects that we don’t get paid — that we care and are connected to one another and to our community.”

The 1933 march on Olympia was followed by a second, larger march later that spring, on Inauguration Day of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term. Police and vigilantes found shelter for women and children but stood guard while the men spent the night in the rain.

The marchers left the next day — but they had sent a message, Tassino says, that FDR would stick to the terms of his New Deal or the government would face more evidence of misery.

That’s the kind of message public officials still need, says Mann.

“ I don’t think Americans want to see children going hungry or vets going without homes,” she says. “I think once they see it, they’ll step up.” 

[March on the Capitol]

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Poverty Action Summit.

Mon., Jan. 16, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

March on the Capitol: 1 p.m.

To join: call toll free 1-866-789-7726 or go to www.povertyaction.org.