The Country With The World's Worst Inequality Is ...2APR18

26 years after freeing itself from apartheid South Africa still struggles with income and economic inequality.  South Africans may be equal politically but economically a very small group controls the economy and most of the wealth in the nation. Still, this World Bank report shows they are taking the necessary steps to address this problem, considering the hundreds of years the country was exploited as a colony and then a brutal plutocracy / oligarchy it is going to take more than 25 years to overcome the damage done. The United States ranking in this report is something to be ashamed of but also proves the voluntary political ignorance of the American people allowing them to be deceived and manipulated by politicians controlled by greedy corporate America, the 1%, is moving America closer and closer to being a Third World nation. From NPR

The Country With The World's Worst Inequality Is ...

April 2, 20185:49 PM ET

JASON BEAUBIEN

More than two decades after South Africa ousted a racist apartheid system that trapped the vast majority of South Africans in poverty, more than half the country still lives below the national poverty line and most of the nation's wealth remains in the hands of a small elite.

"The country was very unequal in 1994 [at the end of apartheid] and now 25 years later South Africa is the most unequal country in the world," says Victor Sulla, a senior economist for the World Bank in charge of southern Africa. "There is no country that we have data about where the inequality is higher than South Africa."

Sulla is the lead author of a new report on poverty and inequality in South Africa.

There are various ways to look at economic inequality and South Africa scores terribly on all of them. Income inequality looks at the gap between what the lowest paid workers earn each day versus the salaries of top employees.

"The people at the bottom in South Africa, they get wages comparable to the people who live in Bangladesh. It's very, very poor. Wages of less than $50 a month," Sulla says. "If you take the top ten percent, they live like in Austria. So it's very high level even by European standards or even by U.S. standards. And we are talking just about employees, people who are getting paid." And not the super-rich who are earning income from factories or property or other investments.

In addition to a huge problem with income inequality, South Africa also has a significant problem with wealth inequality. Wealth inequality looks at the range of a person's assets. So a businessman in Johanesburg might own real estate, factories or other investments while a farmer in KwaZulu Natal might not even own the land she's tilling.

GOATS AND SODA

Why The Internet Loves And Hates Oxfam's Global Inequality Report

This new report from the World Bank finds that the top 1 percent of South Africans own 70.9 percent of the nation's wealth. The bottom 60 percent of South Africans collectively control only 7 percent of the country's assets.

"How is that possible? Someone must explain this to me!" exclaims 30-year-old Phiwe Budaza, reached on her cellphone in Cape Town. "How is that even possible?"

Budaza, who grew up in the township of Khayelitsha, says inequality is part of life in South Africa.

"There's always been a difference between the white and the black but I think it's getting worse now," she says. Before her cellphone battery dies Budaza says she doesn't have a permanent job. She freelances as a photographer and in her words "hustles" to cover her bills.

"I work as a bartender and I work for a rental company that rents cameras and film equipment," she says.

"It's hard for someone like me who doesn't have a full-time job to survive in Cape Town. The rent for an apartment [in the city] is like three times what I earn in a month." She says she ends up living outside the city, which makes it harder to get to some jobs.

Budaza is not alone in struggling to make ends meet every month in South Africa. The nation's official unemployment rate is currently at 27 percent compared to roughly 4 percent in the United States.

"South Africa is really facing the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality," says the former head of the African Union, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, about the report. Dlamini-Zuma is a long-time anti-apartheid activist who now heads up a national planning commission in President Cyril Ramaphosa's cabinet.

"We are a relatively rich country but with a lot of poor people," she says.

If things don't change dramatically in South Africa, Dlamini-Zuma adds, the country will fail to reach its goal of eliminating extreme poverty (people earning less than $1.90 a day) by the year 2030.

South Africa has been focused on trying to bring down poverty and reduce inequality. And it's had some success. Post-apartheid, the government launched a significant Black Economic Empowerment program to promote the transfer of white-owned businesses to black investors. South Africa has invested heavily in social programs including free primary education, a plan for universal health care, infrastructure projects to expand access to clean water and minimum income grants to parents.

Sulla at the World Bank says South Africa under the post-apartheid ANC government has been a leader on social programs.

"Their social protection programs in terms of different grants and support for the poor are working very well," he says. "This country is one of the best in the world in terms of the efficiency of its social protection system."

Yet despite these efforts the number of South Africans living below the national poverty has actually been increasing since 2011. In 2015, 55.5 percent of South Africans or more than 30 million people were surviving on less than $5 a day.

Sulla says the lack of progress against poverty is partly due to what he calls "opportunity inequality." Some people have more access to opportunity than others. And the people who've traditionally had wealth and economic opportunities continue to enjoy those benefits.

Dlamini-Zuma says the legacy of the apartheid regime still casts a long shadow over the opportunities available for millions of South Africans.

"We should not shy away from acknowledging that apartheid was a system that systematically excluded black people from the economy, from skills, from everything. So overcoming that has to be a big part of what we do."

She says South Africa's progress will be measured on the progress it makes against the "dehumanizing scourge" of poverty.

"Poverty stops us from reaching our full potential individually and collectively," she says. "It's not good to be the country with the highest inequality in the world. We need to get ourselves out of that space. But it's not going to be easy."

THE FIGHT OVER THE GOP TAX SCAM ISN'T OVER. CALL OR E MAIL CONGRESS NOW. 11DEZ17

DEMOCRATIC and republican representatives and senators need to be called and / or e mailed and told by the people, the 99%,  to vote against the republican tax plan that takes from the middle class, the retired, the poor, the working poor, from students and children and military veterans to give tax breaks to the 1%, to the greedy American oligarchy that has bought and paid for the drumpf/trump-pence administration and is demanding a return on their corrupt "investment". Find your representative here and your senators here and remember DEMOCRACY IS NOT A  SPECTATOR SPORT so if you do not contact your elected officials and the republican tax legislation is passed so every day becomes a BOHICA day for you and your family just remember to be looking in the mirror when you are complaining about it. From UltraViolet....

Some think the fight to defeat the tax bill may be lost, but it's far from over.

The bill is still headed for one final vote, and Republicans in Congress are already facing a barrage of protests.

Constituents shut down Sen. Susan Collins' office in Bangor, Maine. Folks in Toms River, New Jersey marched to The Beatles' "Taxman" to urge Rep. Chris Smith to vote no. And at over 60 colleges and universities in 33 states, students protested the Republican tax bill's plan to make college unaffordable.

Your Representative, your Senator, may be one of the few who isn't entirely convinced by the tax plan, is facing a ton of constituent outrage, too. That's why Republican leaders are frantically trying to rush a final vote. Your call could actually swing their vote--and kill this bill.

When you contact your Representative and Senators it's best to speak in your own words, but here are some points to get you started.

• Hi, my name is ___ from [your location]. I'm calling to demand the Representative vote NO on the final tax plan.

• 83 million middle- and working-class families will get a tax hike to pay for an additional 20% tax break for corporations and the 62% of tax cuts that will go to the top 1%. 

• How can the Representative plan on ending individual tax cuts for middle-class families while giving corporations a permanent tax giveaway? 

• Women and their families will end up paying for this plan. The plan will gut Medicaid, Medicare, food assistance, and other services millions of women rely on so billionaires and corporations don't have to pay their fair share.

• Under the Senate tax plan, 13 million people will end up without health care. Don't let that happen!

• Voters oppose the plan by 2-to-1. How can the Representative/Senator vote against her/his constituents?
• Sources:
  1. Mainers arrested for occupying Sen. Collins’ office, demanding she vote no on 'tax scam', Maine Beacon, December 5, 2017
  Toms River protest attacks GOP tax reform, APP, December 4, 2017
  Graduate students nationwide protest House tax bill, saying it could cost them thousands, LA Times, November 29, 2017
  2. Major Provisions in Senate Bill, Tax Policy Center, December 4, 2017
  3. Republican Plans to Cut Taxes Now, Cut Programs Later Would Leave Most Women Worse Off, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities
  4. 13 million more people would be uninsured even if Senate does Obamacare two-step, CBO says, CNBC, November 29, 2017
  5. Poll, Quinnipiac University, November 15, 2017
• 
  

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES &SIMPLY AMAZING: Bernie Sanders FANTASTIC Rally in Washington, DC. Thank You Bernie 8&9JUN16

And one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. 

- Martin Luther King Jr.

NOW that Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee we all look to the convention and the final draft of the party's campaign platform. Bernie Sanders' campaign must have a major role in determining the policies of the party to obtain the unity the DNC will be achieved. One major point of contention is debbie wasserman-schultz. Her "leadership" of the DNC has favored the 1%, the corporate, bank-financial cabal and the military-industrial comlex, the very people and organizations who have controlled the politics of this country no matter the party in power, to the detriment of the poor, working class and middle class. The 99% is still struggling to recover from the 2008 recession caused by the greed of the 1%. The DNC must present a presidential platform that represents the needs of the 99%, and Hillary Clinton MUST endorse the platform and MUST deliver when she is elected president on 8 NOV 16. This from BERNIE 
The struggle continues 8JUN16

When we began this campaign a little over a year ago we were considered to be a fringe campaign. But over the last year, I think that has changed just a little bit.

As of last night, we have won 22 state primaries and caucuses with more than 11 million votes.

What we understand, and what every one of us has always understood, is that real change never occurs from the top on down, always from the bottom on up.

That is the history of America. Our fight is to transform our country and to understand that we are in this together. That is what OUR movement is about.

The struggle continues. We are going to fight for every vote in Tuesday'sprimary in Washington, DC, and then we will bring our political revolution to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

I am pretty good at arithmetic, and I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight, but we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get.

But you know that what we are doing is about more than Bernie Sanders. It is all of us together. It is what this movement is about. It is millions of people from coast to coast standing up and looking around them and knowing that we can do much, much better as a nation.

That whether Wall Street likes it, whether corporate America likes it, whether wealthy campaign contributors like it, whether the corporate media likes it, we together know what our job is. And that is to bring the American people together to create a government that works for us, not the 1 percent.

Our fight is to transform our country and to understand that we are in this together. To understand that all of what we believe is what the majority of the American people believe. And to understand that the struggle continues.

Thank you all. The struggle continues.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

SIMPLY AMAZING: Bernie Sanders FANTASTIC Rally in Washington, DC. (6-9-16) Thank You Bernie

A BANKER, A WORKER AND AN IMMIGRANT.......

Democrats Can’t Unite Unless Wasserman Schultz Goes! & Debbie Wasserman Schultz goes to bat for predatory lenders 23&1MAI16

FOTZE rep debbie wasserman-schultz D FL, chair of the DNC / Democratic National Committee, is a political whore. She is working for the 1%, for corporate America and especially for the bank-financial cabal to screw the poor, the retired, vets and active military, the working class and the middle class. Her latest action in support of the bank-financial cabal is co-sponsoring legislation that will nullify the new rules the CFPB / Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is enacting to regulate payday loan lenders (see below) to the financial detriment of the poor and working class. She has also welcomed lobbyist to dictate the Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Platform, the result will be little different than the republican's presidential campaign platform if she is not removed from the DNC. If the Democrats loose the presidency to donald drumpf it will, in large part, be thanks to wasserman-schultz. She needs to be forced out as the DNC chair and might as well change her party affiliation to repiglican. Then she will be able to sell herself to the highest bidders without needing to explain her actions. Word of warning to anyone thinking of getting in bed with her. You should tie a board across your ass so you don't fall in. Think she isn't a political whore? Take a better look at the picture above, schlempe has a lot of "miles" on her.....These from +Daily Kos 
Democrats Can’t Unite Unless Wasserman Schultz Goes!

To paraphrase the words of that Scottish master Robert Burns, the best laid plans of mice, men — and women — go often astray, or “gang aft agley,” as they say in the Highlands. No one knows this better than Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Twice now, the flight of her presidential aspirations has been forced to circle the airport as other contenders put up an unexpected fight: In 2008, Barack Obama emerged to grab the Democratic nomination away and this year, although all signs point to her finally grabbing the brass ring, unexpected and powerful progressive resistance came from the mighty wind of the Bernie Sanders campaign.

Certainly, Hillary Clinton is angered by all of this, but the one seemingly more aggrieved — if public comments and private actions are any indication — is Democratic National Committee chair and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Hillary surrogate who takes umbrage like ordinary folks pop their vitamins in the morning.

As we recently wrote, “… She embodies the tactics that have eroded the ability of Democrats to once again be the party of the working class. As Democratic National Committee chair she has opened the floodgates for Big Money, brought lobbyists into the inner circle and oiled all the moving parts of the revolving door that twirls between government service and cushy jobs in the world of corporate influence.”

And that ain’t all. As a member of Congress, particularly egregious has been her support of the payday loan business, defying new regulations from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that would rein in an industry that soaks desperate borrowers. As President Obama said, “While payday loans might seem like easy money, folks often end up trapped in a cycle of debt.”

In fact, according to an article by Bethany McLean in the May issue of The Atlantic, “After studying millions of payday loans, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that 67 percent went to borrowers with seven or more transactions a year, and the majority of borrowers paid more in fees than the amount of their initial loan.”

A recent editorial in the Orlando Sentinel notes that 7 percent of Florida’s population “must resort to this predatory form of small-dollar credit – nearly the highest rate in the nation…” What’s more, “Based on a 14-day loan term, the typical payday loan… had an annual percentage rate of 278 percent. Many lenders advertise rates of more than 300 percent.” Let us repeat that slowly… 300 percent!

So why has Wasserman Schultz been so opposed to the CFPB’s proposed rules? She has said,“Payday lending is unfortunately a necessary component of how people get access to capital, [people] that are the working poor.” But maybe it has something more to do with the $2.5 million or so the payday loan industry has donated to Florida politicians from both parties since 2009. That’s according to a new report by the liberal group Allied Progress. More than $50,000 of that cash has gone to Rep. Wasserman Schultz.

But we digress. It’s the skullduggery going on within the Democratic Party establishment that’s our current concern and as we wrote in March, Rep. Wasserman Schultz “has played games with the party’s voter database, been accused of restricting the number of Democratic candidate debates and scheduling them at odd days and times to favor Hillary Clinton, and recently told CNN’s Jake Tapper that superdelegates — strongly establishment and pro-Clinton — are necessary at the party’s convention so deserving incumbent officials and party leaders don’t have to run for delegate slots ‘against grassroots activists.’ Let that sink in, but hold your nose against the aroma of entitlement.” 

Now Wasserman Schultz has waded into the controversy over what happened or didn’t happen last weekend when Sanders supporters loudly and vehemently objected to the rules at the Nevada State Democratic Convention. In truth, some behaved badly at the event and others made trollish, violent and obscene threats to Democratic state chair Roberta Lange via phone, email and social media. There’s no excuse for such aggressive, creepy conduct, and Sanders was quick and direct in apologizing for the behavior of the rowdies and bullies.

But there is a double standard at play here. Why, pray tell, shouldn’t the peaceful majority of Sanders people be angry at the slow-motion, largely invisible rigging of the political process by Wasserman Schultz and the Clinton machine — all for the benefit of Secretary Clinton?

Wasserman Schultz claims the party rules over which she has presided (and manipulated) are “eminently fair.” She told CNN on Wednesday morning, “It is critical that we as candidates, we as Democratic Party leaders, everyone involved needs to make sure that we can take all the steps that we need to, to ensure that the process is not only run smoothly but that the response from the supporters of both candidates is appropriate and civil.”

In response to the DNC chair’s remarks, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver talked to CNN, too, and said Wasserman Schultz had been “throwing shade on the Sanders campaign since the very beginning… Debbie Wasserman Schultz has really been a divider and not really provided the kind of leadership that the Democratic Party needs.”

The Nation’s Joan Walsh, a Clinton supporter critical of the Sanders campaign, concurs: “Once again, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz escalated a conflict that she should have worked to defuse,” she writes. “… Wasserman Schultz is not helping her friend Hillary Clinton with her attacks on Sanders. Just the appearance of fairness can go a long way in assuaging worries about fairness. Wasserman Schultz’s defiant rebuke to the Sanders camp has made it worse.”

So, too, has her abolition of the restraints that had been placed on corporate lobbyists and big money — now they can write checks bankrolling what doubtless will be swank and profligate parties during this summer’s Democratic National Convention. At The Intercept, Lee Fang and Zaid Jilani report that a number of the members of the Philadelphia host committee “are actively working to undermine progressive policies achieved by President Barack Obama, including health care reform and net neutrality. Some… are hardly even Democratic Party stalwarts, given that many have donated and raised thousands of dollars for Republican presidential and congressional candidates this cycle.”

This is a slap in the face to progressives calling for a halt to big money and allowing lobbyists to buy our elected officials. And it’s contrary to what Hillary Clinton herself has said about money and politics on the campaign trail. The Sanders movement has shown that lots of cash can be raised from everyday people making small donations. His supporters and all of us should be outraged that Debbie Wasserman Schultz and convention officials have kowtowed not only to the corporate wing of their own party but also to those high rollers who back the opposition and ideas antithetical to a democracy.

Rep. Wasserman Schultz is facing a primary challenge for the first time this year, her opponent a law professor, activist and progressive Sanders supporter named Tim Canova. But the primary’s not until late August, long after the Democratic National Convention. Unless she steps down now or Hillary Clinton has her removed, Philadelphia will be dominated by someone who represents everything that has gone wrong with the Democratic Party and Washington. At the convention’s opening session, Debbie Wasserman Schultz will be bringing the gavel down squarely on progressive hopes of returning the party to its legacy as champion of working people and the dispossessed.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Time for her to go.

AN E MAIL FROM DAILY KOS ON PAYDAY LENDERS 23MAI16

Craig, payday lenders are known for their predatory practices, which include exorbitant interest rates (390% is the national average), transaction fees, penalties, and contracts which keep people in a vicious cycle of debt that is damn near impossible to break. 

These operations target the poorest populations, primarily operating in low-income and communities of color where they perpetuate the cycle of poverty. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the brainchild of Elizabeth Warren, wants to change these practices by placing new rules on the industry, which currently operate on a state-by-state regulatory basis. 

Unfortunately, some Democrats are siding with the payday lending industry to restrict CFPB's ability to regulate the industry. 

The CFPB has been the target of Republican ire since its inception—and now corporate Democrats are jumping on the bandwagon. 

DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is co-sponsoring a bill to restrict the CFPB from enacting rules, BEFORE they have been issued. 

The CFPB is scheduled to propose new rules on June 2, 2016 in Kansas City, MO. Daily Kos and our allies will be in attendance at the event, where we intend to deliver your support to members of the CFPB. 

These rules would be a huge financial victory for low-income workers and communities hardest hit by these practices. 

Keep fighting, 
Rachel Colyer, Daily Kos

Debbie Wasserman Schultz goes to bat for predatory lenders

My god, she’s a horrible person. 

Wasserman Schultz is co-sponsoring a new bill that would gut the [Consumer Finance Protection Board’s] forthcoming payday loan regulations. She's also attempting to gin up Democratic support for the legislation...

The CFPB hasn’t issued final regulations, but Republicans and the person supposedly running the Democratic National Committee have been fighting hard to protect those predatory lenders (and other enemies of American consumers). 

According to DWS, the feds should stay out of it and adopt Florida’s approach to payday lenders, a law that she proudly admits to “helping write.” And what about that law? 

The average interest rate on Florida's payday loans is 304 percent -- only slightly better than the 390 percent annual average. Critically, the average payday loan amount of $389 is equal to 35 percent of average paychecks in the state -- in line with national figures.

Odious. And, I suspect, getting rid of her is something that both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters can agree on.

Democracy Spring: Over 400 Arrested at U.S. Capitol Protesting Corruption & Money in Politics & Hundreds Protesting Political System Arrested On Capitol's Steps 2:15 Queue Download Embed Facebook Twitter Google+ Email April 11, 20167:26 PM ET Heard on Morning Edition 12&11APR16

DEMOCRACY SPRING / DEMOCRACY AWAKENING ! The week of lobbying, protest and non-violent civil disobedience in D.C. has started. These actions are an expression of the opinion of the vast majority of the American people that we are tired of the 1%, corporate America and the wall street bank-financial cabal buying our politicians and run the country to increase their wealth and political power to the detriment of the 99%. Over 400 activist were arrested on the steps of the U.S. capital for demanding congress overturn citizens united and restore the Voting Rights Act.  From +Democracy Now! and +NPR ......

Democracy Spring: Over 400 Arrested at U.S. Capitol Protesting Corruption & Money in Politics

APRIL 12, 2016

Democracy Spring: Over 400 Arrested at U.S. Capitol Protesting Corruption & Money in Politics

More than 400 people were arrested Monday in a massive sit-in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to protest the influence of big money and corporate lobbying in politics. The protest, organized under the name Democracy Spring, brought together activists from about 140 organizations who marched from Philadelphia to Washington last week. Similar acts of civil disobedience are scheduled throughout the week in Washington. We speak to Kai Newkirk, campaign director of Democracy Spring and co-founder and an organizer with 99Rise. He was arrested yesterday in the action at the U.S. Capitol.

GUESTS

KAI NEWKIRK

campaign director of Democracy Spring and co-founder and an organizer with 99Rise. He was arrested yesterday in the action at the U.S. Capitol.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, this is Democracy Now! We’re on the road as part of the 100-city tour, now in San Francisco, headed to Stanford University this afternoon and toSanta Clara tonight.

But in Washington, D.C., more than 400 people were arrested Monday in a massive sit-in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to protest the influence of big money and corporate lobbying in politics. The protest, organized under the name Democracy Spring, brought together activists from about 140 organizations who marched from Philadelphia to Washington last week. Similar acts of civil disobedience are scheduled throughout the week in Washington. This is Democracy Spring campaign organizer Kai Newkirk speaking during yesterday’s action.

KAI NEWKIRK: [echoed by the Peoples’ Mic] The American people won’t take this anymore! We’re going to end this corruption! This is just the beginning! This is just the beginning! Join us! Join us! Join us! Join us! Join us!

AMY GOODMAN: The Democracy Spring action comes in a presidential election cycle in which campaign finance reform, super PACs and dark money have made headlines. The Washington Post reports, through the end of January, 680 corporations had given nearly $68 million to super PACs in this election cycle—12 percent of the $549 million raised by such groups. This figure does not include the untold amounts of dark money contributions to other groups that are not disclosed by the donor or the recipient.

For more, we’re joined by two guests. Kai Newkirk is campaign director of Democracy Spring, co-founder and organizer with 99Rise. He was arrested yesterday in the action at the Capitol. And Lee Fang is with us here in San Francisco, investigative journalist at The Intercept covering the intersection of money and politics.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let’s go directly to D.C. Kai Newkirk, you just recently got out of jail. Talk about this mass civil disobedience that took place yesterday, leading to the arrest of more than 400 people.

KAI NEWKIRK Thank you, Amy. It’s great to be with you, and it’s an honor to be on the show.

We think that yesterday can be the beginning of the end of this corruption and inequality in our democracy. It was so inspiring to see people come together at the People’s House and say, "We are going to take it back," people from across the political spectrum, many of whom had walked all the way from Philadelphia, from the Liberty Bell, to Washington, D.C., almost 150 people who did that, and, we believe, over 500 people who sat in and sent a message to Congress that we will not accept inaction to save our democracy, and sent a message to anyone who’s running for office in our country that you have to make a decision: Are you going to stand on the side of democracy and on the side of the people or on the side of big money and corruption? And if you choose to defend the status quo of corruption, we believe there’s going to be growing nonviolent resistance in the streets, at the Capitol, at your fundraisers and in the polls, to say, "We will not take it anymore. We demand an equal voice in our democracy." And, yes, it’s right. It’s just the beginning. And we call on people to join us here. We’re going to be back at the Capitol today and tomorrow and the next day.

AMY GOODMAN: Kai Newkirk, can you talk about how you and who were the others who organized Democracy Spring?

KAI NEWKIRK Sure. We had this vision well over a year ago. We had led a march in California from Los Angeles to Sacramento, 99Rise, the organization that I co-founded. It was very powerful. It was an inspiration to many people. And we thought, "What if we could take that national? What if we could give people across the country an opportunity to participate?" and have been able to bring together an incredible coalition, as you said, over 140 organizations from across the spectrum of the progressive movement and even beyond. And leaders from different parts of the movement—Cenk Uygur from The Young Turks sat in yesterday. Frances Moore Lappé, a leader around food justice for many years; Umi Selah from the Dream Defenders; Jodie Evans from CodePink; John Pudner from a conservative organization Take Back Our Republic marched with us and joined with us.

And when we were at the Capitol today, you could feel the energy that this can be a moment that can really turn the tide around this. And it’s because of the hard work of so many people who have built this coalition and brought people together and given them an opportunity to express what the vast majority of people in our country feel, which is that the political system is not representing us, that it is corrupt, and that, because of that, we have a rigged economy. We want a government of, by and for the people, not the 1 percent. And we stood up and sent a message that we’re going to win that, one way or another, yesterday.

AMY GOODMAN: Kai Newkirk, you also snuck a camera into the Supreme Court. Can you talk about what you did back in 2014 and why you were there?

KAI NEWKIRK Yes, that was on the eve of the expected decision in the McCutcheon v. FEC ruling, which was another—ultimately, another wrecking ball to the wall of separation between wealth and state in our society, Citizens United 2.0. And we felt like we needed to call attention to this crisis and the Supreme Court’s role in deepening it, and do so in a way that would inspire people to stand up. So, myself and one other person, Ryan Clayton from Wolf PAC, who also sat in with us yesterday, we went into the court, and I stood up and gave a short speech, was arrested. But we got it on video, the first video ever from inside the Supreme Court. We’ve done two similar actions, 99Rise, since then, with seven people and five people.

And I’m very proud, because the goal, in many ways, of that was to inspire other people to step up and to be willing to do something similar. And yesterday was a tremendous fulfillment of that, to see hundreds of people, over 500. It took them hours to get people processed and out. They had to get another bus, because they were not prepared. There were so many people. And more are going to be joining today and tomorrow. And we call on people, wherever you are this country, if you agree with us, get in your car, get on the bus, get a ticket, do whatever it takes to get to D.C. and be part of this moment.

AMY GOODMAN: Kai Newkirk, what are the bills before Congress right now that addresses campaign finance?

KAI NEWKIRK There are many steps that Congress could take. We’re calling on them to take immediate action to end the corruption of big money in politics and ensure free and fair elections that give us all an equal voice. And there are four bills, in particular, that we’ve identified—two that deal with big money in politics and two that will protect and expand the right to vote and voter access. One would set up public finance, a citizen funding of elections, so that anyone can run for office without raising money from billionaires. Another is an amendment that would overturnCitizens United. The third would restore the damage that was done to the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court, the Voting Rights Advancement Act. And the fourth, the Voter Empowerment Act, would do many positive things to make it easier for people to get to the polls and to be able to vote. And in the wake of Justice Scalia’s death, there’s a fifth step that we’re calling on Congress to take, which is to confirm a nominee to the Supreme Court who will vote to uphold the principle of political equality, to end this corruption of big money in politics and ensure that all have the right to vote.

And what we’re saying is that even though the conventional wisdom is that Congress won’t do anything with Republican leadership, we don’t accept that. You know, we feel that conscience demands that we ask what is right, what is just, what is consistent with our principles as a country. And the vast majority of the American people—Republican, Democrat, independent—want change on this. And we’re saying to Congress, "You can’t just hide. You can’t just be resigned. You can’t just pretend that we don’t know that you could solve this problem right now. We’re going to demand that you do so. And if you don’t, you’re going to have to send hundreds of people to jail, day after day, and expose this problem and shine a spotlight on it and force yourselves to take a stand and make a decision." And those who don’t stand with the people, and stand on the side of corruption, we believe that there will be a growing political price to pay.

AMY GOODMAN: Kai, have any presidential candidates endorsed Democracy Spring?

KAI NEWKIRK I don’t know if we could call it an endorsement, but there were two tweets that went out from the Bernie Sanders account yesterday lifting up what we did. We want to be clear this is a nonpartisan, independent campaign. There are many Bernie supporters that are part of it, but I’ve talked to many Hillary supporters and even some Trump supporters. And it’s welcome to everyone. And what we’re saying is that we’re not going to endorse candidates, but we are calling on them to endorse the movement. Whatever office you’re running for, from president on down to city council, you need to let the American people know, those who you would want to represent, if you will work and fight to solve this problem, if you will work to make sure that we have a government that represents us all, not just the 1 percent. We were pleased to see those tweets from the Bernie Sanders campaign. We hope that Hillary Clinton, Trump and anyone who’s running for office in our country will stand with us in this cause to save our democracy.

AMY GOODMAN: Kai, can you talk about how Democracy Spring fits into Democracy Awakening and what that is?

KAI NEWKIRK Yes, I like to think of it as two wings of the same bird, one democracy mobilization that’s coming to D.C. this spring. All told, I think over 300 organizations are part of it. We kicked things off with this march from Philadelphia to D.C. and are sitting in at the Capitol this week and building, going at least through the week. We will carry forward until either Congress does something or they send so many of us to jail that it will be, we believe, the largest civil disobedience in our country in this 21st century.

And this weekend, we’ll be joined by many more with the Democracy Awakening; on the 17th, there will be a huge family-friendly rally. We call on everyone to come out into the streets to march, to walk, to join with us then. And then, on Monday, Congress of Conscience, lobbying direct action going back to the Capitol, we’ll be there, we’ll be organizing. It may go beyond that.

And we’re calling on people across the country, wherever you are, to be part of this moment. If enough of us come together, Amy, in D.C., we can make this the turning of the tide. We can shine a spotlight on this issue like never before in our country and lift it up in the middle of this presidential election in a way that Occupy Wall Street did for economic inequality. We can do that for this critical issue of political inequality. Solving it is the key to making progress on so many other urgent issues in our country, from catastrophic climate change to mass incarceration. We lit a spark yesterday, and we need to fan the flames and build this into something that changes the political weather in this country.

AMY GOODMAN: Kai Newkirk, I want to thank you for being with us, campaign director of Democracy Spring, co-founder of 99Rise.

Hundreds Protesting Political System Arrested On Capitol's Steps

April 11, 20167:26 PM ET

Heard on Morning Edition

Police needed most of Monday afternoon to arrest all of the sit-down protesters outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington at a demonstration in favor of changing the rules on political money, voting rights and redistricting.

More than 600 turned out for the protest, and more than 400 were arrested inclosethe sit-in at the Capitol steps, U.S. Capitol Police reported. The nonviolent protest was led by Democracy Spring, a coalition of more than 100 progressive groups.

The protest was cheery and peaceful. Police blockaded the marble staircase with a chain and a cordon of officers. Demonstrators sat in front of the chain and on the plaza, talking, chanting, singing and taking pictures as police led them away one by one. Police, badly underestimating the potential crowd, initially brought a single bus to Capitol Plaza to haul the protesters away.

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Kai Newkirk with the group 99Rise speaks ahead of the Democracy Spring sit-in Monday in Washington.

Peter Overby/NPR

In a rally preceding the protest, organizer Kai Newkirk of the group 99Rise told the crowd that "we send a message — to everyone in our country who needs a government that represents us all — that this House is your House too, and now is the time to stand up and to take it back."

The coalition wants a "Congress of Conscience" to pass legislation limiting undisclosed and big-donor money, giving more clout to small donors; to restore powers in the Voting Rights Act; and to put an end to gerrymandered districts that insulate incumbent lawmakers from election challenges.

Newkirk has been campaigning to limit political money since 2014, when he interrupted a Supreme Court hearing to object to rulings that lifted restrictions on big donors.

Democracy Spring plans four more daily protests this week. April 16-18 it will be joined by another large coalition, Democracy Awakening, for a teach-in, speeches and another sit-down demonstration.

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