More information from Labor Notes. Events in thirty states:

Led by the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Liz Theoharis, the Campaign's aim is to launch a new movement with 40 days of mass actions, including civil disobedience, at 30 state capitols, beginning May 13. Information on getting involved locally is at Poor People's Campaign.org

The campaign will focus on a different theme each week.

What’s going to happen on those days?

Nelson Johnson: This whole movement has evolved out of more than 10 years of work connected to Moral Mondays. At one point there were tens of thousands of people in Raleigh.

This didn’t all just come out of somebody’s head. It came out of blood, sweat, tears, work, jail, and it was the logical extension of the Moral Monday campaign.

The campaign was kicked off in August with a mass meeting in Charlotte. Now, it has 30 states. The civil disobedience is designed to create a discussion around issues. Each week will have a different theme, starting with child poverty. Some of them are women’s and gender equality, health care, war, the economy, voting and politics.

This alliance cuts across racial, religious, economic and geographic lines:

JR: Can you talk a little bit about the allies the campaign is joining up with?

Nelson: Labor, the church and faith communities, the immigrant movement, and Black Lives Matter are involved. While we need to name the particularity of our situations, we need to transcend that at some point, so we are not so much seen as these different categories but as a single movement with many different parts.

The goal is fundamental structural change:

JR: This is the quote from 1967 that we heard in the training out here in Washington State. Dr. King said that “there must be a radical redistribution of economic and political power...we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society.”

And:

What are the assumptions that undergird this? Is this a matter of just individuals making decisions, or do we have a systemic process that has to be deconstructed and reconstructed in order to ensure an equitable distribution of wealth?

I think when Dr. King raised that question, he had come to a clear understanding that minor tweaks and adjustments in the social order were inadequate.

There’s no shortage of anything in the world, except for spirit. When we can correct that, there’s plenty for all of us.

My choice for a money quote:

The movement is moving minds and hearts toward one another, as opposed to thinking we can do something in just five minutes or just a year.

Nelson: Moments are manageable. You win a struggle, you celebrate a little bit, but there’s no ongoing plan other than to wait for another crisis.

I envision a movement as streams flowing toward each other. A river doesn’t have to ask permission to get to the ocean, it develops the power to carve a new highway through the landscape. That is a movement, you can’t manage that. (emphasis added)

Interview: Reviving the Poor People's Campaign