Ready for a deep dive into immigration and workers rights in our state? Listen to WDRT 91.9 fm Driftless Community Radio's show "Conversations" this Thursday morning. WNPJ Board member Dena Eakles welcomes the Founder and Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera, Christine Neumann-Ortiz and UW - Madison Professor Armando Ibarra to discuss their work here in Wisconsin. Not to be missed; lots of great information and lots of opportunities to get involved. Open those compassionate hearts and let's get busy with initiatives like "licenses for all". Making life a bit better for all of us. After it airs, you can also listen to the show in the archives or as a podcast at https://www.wdrt.org https://www.facebook.com/dena.eakles

This past week, nine Palestinians were murdered in the West Bank city of Jenin by Israeli forces. I went to one of WNPJ’s member groups, Madison–Rafah Sister City Project’s website to learn more about the massacre in Jenin and the current plight of the Palestinian People. From a Massacre Took Place in Jenin: “2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in nearly 20 years and more deaths than since the United Nations began recording fatalities in 2005. The new, far-right Israeli government and its forces remain adamant about continuing, if not increasing their brutality. We're only 26 days into 2023, and Israel has already killed 30 Palestinians, including five children—setting a pace to double the murder of Palestinians in 2022.” The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project is a wonderful website, full of good endeavors like creating housing, playgrounds, providing fresh food and clean water as well as hosting educational events and providing well-written articles on BDS and more. How to Help will bring you additional information and offer ways for you to be involved. ​ I have deep appreciation for the efforts of our member groups that keep us informed and inspired. May Peace Prevail. Submitted by Dena Eakles, WNPJ Board Member

Wisconsin has continued to reject $1.6 billion additional funds from the federal government to expand Medicaid. We are one of eleven states rejecting Medicaid expansion and hindering low-income people’s access to better health care. In addition, we are facing an exacerbated health care crisis as the federal public health emergency (PHE) is phased out this year. Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites could lose Medicaid coverage. Let us move forward together covering as many people in our state with the best access to healthcare possible and not allowing anyone to be removed from Medicaid. Please sign this petition from WNPJ member, Wisconsin Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival To: Wisconsin's Joint Finance Committee We call on the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee to: * Accept federal funds to expand Medicaid as 39 other states have done. * Fully fund access to healthcare to ensure that no person in Wisconsin is removed from Medicaid. * Recognize that Healthcare is a Human Right. ​ photo:Creative Commons Attribute 2.0

This Martin Luther King Day, we must continue a campaign for social, political and economic rights, not simply to commemorate a man. This nation needs a different kind of Martin Luther King Day. More than a day, we are and have been, building a moral fusion movement. We need a movement led by poor and low-wage workers pushing for a Third Reconstruction and declaring that we don’t want some of our justice, we want all of our justice. Fifty years after Dr. King and other leaders like Caesar Chavez, Hank Adams, Bertha Burres, Myles Horton, welfare rights moms, the Jewish federation and others called for a Poor People’s Campaign, poor and marginalized people across America have united not to commemorate their vision, but to consecrate a new movement that has the ability to transform the heart and soul of this nation, and the moral structures of society. The legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer, Rev. Douglass Kirkpatrick, Jimmy Collier, Betty Mae Fikes, Mary Wright Edelman – who brought the idea of forming a Poor People’s Campaign along with The National Welfare Rights Organization – and countless unnamed leaders from the ranks of the poor is, us. We carry on their legacy by building this national campaign organized around the needs and demands of the 140 million poor and low-wealth people in this nation. With over 35 state coordinating committees across the country, we are declaring we won’t be silent anymore! This moral fusion movement is on the move! This weekend, state campaigns from coast to coast are taking action and shaking the very chains of the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, militarism, poverty, ecological devastation, and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism. The actions below serve as just a few examples of our work. It is important to reiterate this because we have built, and will continue, to build a movement, not just a moment. On January 16th, the California Poor People’s Campaign is hosting readings of our Third Reconstruction Agenda as part of the launch of their new Third Reconstruction Agenda campaign: Close the Wealth Gap, CA! They started this initiative last month to celebrate the success of the GOTV efforts across the state and outlined their plans for 2023. The Maine Poor People’s Campaign held a watch party of “Moral Policy Is Good Economics” featuring our Policy Director, Shailly Gupta Barnes. Earlier this week, the Maryland Poor People’s Campaign and other social change partners gathered in Annapolis for the opening of the 2023 Maryland General Assembly and handed out fact sheets with our 2023 legislative priorities. Yesterday, the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign gathered at The Cathedral Church of St Paul, Boston prior to the unveiling of The Embrace Sculpture to discuss the work and legacy of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Coretta Scott King and the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. The Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign continues to sound the alarm on the decades of neglect by crying out for clean water and the right to keep it public. These are just a few examples from our statewide coordinating committees. This weekend, the New York Poor People’s Campaign will be hosting three hybrid mass meetings to lift up a new ground-breaking State of the State Report (available in both English and Spanish) which documents the prevalence of poverty and mass inequality in the state. Did you know that more than half of all children in NY State are poor or low income and that homelessness in New York City is reaching the highest levels since the Great Depression? Last month the Rhode Island Poor People’s Campaign brought the lack of housing back to their State House, pointing out the "short term nature" of their Governor’s "response" to an exploding epidemic of homelessness. Indeed from Appalachia to Alabama, the Carolinas to California, the Borderlands to the Bronx, from the hood to the holler, people are uniting under the banner, “We Won’t Be Silent Anymore!!” Last June, we held a historic, generationally transformative gathering of poor and low-wealth people at The Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls which brought over 100,000 people to DC. In addition those in the streets, digital organizers with the PPC:NCMR have tracked several million people who watched on social media. Justice is coming. Last November, our nationwide Get Out The Vote Mobilization reached over 5.1 million poor and low-wealth voters in 15 priority states, representing 1 out of every 50 eligible voters. We more than doubled our reach from the last election! We are Waking The Sleeping Giant. Justice is coming. This June, we will hold our Poor People’s Moral Action Congress. We will hold major actions in state capitols across the country. We will continue to mobilize, organize, register, and educate. We won’t be silent or unseen anymore. Forward together, not one step back! info@poorpeoplescampaign.org The Rev Dr William J. Barber, II. President of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Director of The Kairos Center for Religions Rights and Social Justice and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Learn more about the WNPJ member group, the WI Poor People's Campaign here: www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/committee/wisconsin/ www.facebook.com/wisconsinppc wisconsin@poorpeoplescampaign.org

Dr. Martin Luther King knew that Beloved Community was essential for change. The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice allows us to create and maintain that Community. Need inspiration? Take a stroll through our Facebook page to see postings of the 73 member organizations that are the Network. Need connection? Read what thoughtful and kind activists are doing throughout this state, much of it in real time and often available via zoom or live broadcasting. From environmental issues to ending the nightmare of prisons and war you can find people and organizations doing compelling work. Need information? The treasuries of researched materials from PFAS to clean energy, nuke watch to labor reform and so much more are readily available. Need to take action? Every organization could use some help. Find the one that calls to you and offer your skills. www.wnpj.org As we celebrate Dr. King’s life, we can pay homage for more than one day. We can shake off the lethargy of hopelessness and get busy answering his call: “Life's most persistent and urgent question is,'What are you doing for others?" Perhaps the best we can do is invite people in and widen the circle of Peace. Spotlight from WNPJ Board member, Dena Eakles

Some Wisconsin legislators are trying to rush through a change to our state’s constitution. AJR107 is a proposed amendment that passed the legislature with very little discussion last year. The Republicans are working to push it through quickly again in 2023 so that it can be on the ballot in April. (A constitutional amendment needs to pass in two different legislatures, then win a majority of votes in a statewide election.) On January 10, both the State Senate and State Assembly held the one and only hearing they will have on the bill. The hearing was attended by dozens of people, from many sectors. Almost everyone who testified spoke of why the amendment should NOT be passed. Still, the majority party in the legislature seems determined to push it through. AJR107 would change the constitution around matters of pre-trial bail. Essentially, it would encourage judges to set higher bail amounts, especially for people with previous convictions (no matter how long ago those were). It would almost certainly result in even greater racial and economic disparities among incarcerated people than we have now. Cash bail is not a fair or effective way to decide who stays in jail and who gets to go home as they await trial. People should be detained if a judge determines that they are a serious threat to other people and/or if they are a flight risk (that is, that they are likely to run away before facing trial). If they do not pose a flight risk or a danger, they should not be held. “Innocent until proven guilty” should not only apply to people with money, or to people who have never been convicted of a previous crime. Wisconsin needs to reform its pre-trial bail system. But, AJR107 is the wrong way to do it. In Solidarity, David Liners Executive Director, WISDOM Action Network info@email.actionnetwork.org

Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice is embarking on a new project of intentional interfaith conversations as a follow-up to our successful Sacred Site Visits program. The goals are to deepen the conversation and learning about different faith traditions, build new and deepen existing relationships, and focus more on how individuals experience and live out their faiths, rather than hearing from clergy or 'experts'. We are starting with two events as a pilot. We hope it will grow into an ongoing series of events of intentional interfaith conversations, lay-led, on a variety of topics. Each event will feature a panel of 3 or 4 people speaking to a given topic, with a moderator or facilitator. Panelists will all be lay people, speaking from their own faith tradition and understanding, but not speaking for their faith tradition. After the presentations, we will break into small groups to give people a chance to share their thoughts and reactions to what they heard. Then we will come back together for report-outs from the small groups. Please put on your calendar March 9 and May 18, 2023, from 7:00 to 8:30pm. The topic for both events will be "How do our traditions teach us to construct our sense of moral responsibility?" If you are interested in being a panelist for either of these dates, please email Rabbi Bonnie Margulis at wifaithvoices4justice@gmail.com. No experience or expertise necessary, just a willingness to share your own beliefs and understandings from the perspective of your faith tradition. Stay tuned for details and a link to RSVP.

Nukewatch’s John LaForge will be entering a German prison on January 10 to serve 50 days for his part in actions aimed at removing US nukes from Germany. Dozens of activists that have been involved in the campaign have endured jail time. Click here for the audio recording of the zoom call - to hear from John LaForge, Susan Crane, Gerd Büntzly, and others. Nukewatch Talks - an Exclusive- John’s Jail Send-Off Zoom Meeting Thursday, January 5, 2023 - Audio recording: https://youtu.be/jcQDrwwD3R0 If you'd like to send mail to John from Jan 10th through mid-February, here's his address: John LaForge JVA Billwerder Prison Dweerlandweg 100 22113 Hamburg Germany ***************** nukewatchinfo.org www.facebook.com/Nukewatch nukewatch1@lakeland.ws ​ Contact: Kelly Lundeen, John LaForge 715-472-4185 740 "A" Round Lake Rd, Luck, WI 54853 Nukewatch has been working for a nuclear-free future since 1979. Nukewatch brings critical attention to the locations, movements, dangers, and the politics of nuclear weapons and radioactive wastes. They work to raise awareness and take nonviolent action to address the nuclear dangers that threaten current and future generations.

A letter to the editor was published in the Eagle Herald this week: 'Gold Resource mine permits must not be combined' Dear Editor, An FYI from the Coalition to Save the Menominee River. By now you all should know something about the infamous Back Forty Mine. Many think because we defeated Aquila in court, the threat of this mine is over. It is not. Aquila sold out their investors and transferred their remaining assets to Gold Resource Corp., G.O.R.O. on the N.Y.S.E. They are determined to start the mine. They will need five permits before a shovel can be put in the ground. Each permit has numerous conditions that must be met before they can be issued. G.O.R.0, has submitted their first application. It is for their Air Quality Permit. They are requesting to submit all five of their permits together. If this happens, We The People will be at a great disadvantage. Why? The pages in five applications can easily be over 40,000! A public hearing will then be scheduled where We The People will be allowed the usual time of three minutes to voice our concerns. In combining five permits no one can absorb all the information given to make an informed statement in that amount of time. Written statements are accepted but can never pack a punch like a public speaker can. Jeff Budish phoned MI, EGLE representative Adam Wygant who told him the Menominee Tribe and We The People were in favor of the combined permits. The Coalition Board sat with The Tribal Board at their meeting. They informed us that they had not even been contacted. As for the We The People he referred to, they are NOT those we know. So ... We The People, contact Adam Wygant and tell him do not combine the mine permits. His number is 517-897-4828. Mary Hansen and Jeff Budish Both of Peshtigo Action Alert sent to WNPJ by Al Gedicks, of the WI Resources Protection Council Gedicks, Al - agedicks@eagle.uwlax.edu

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court allowed the continuance of Title 42, the Trump-era rapid expulsion of migrants seeking asylum at the southern border. These people are fleeing violence and extreme poverty and are now living in dire situations while the U.S. courts and legislators play a sinister game of keep away. The Court may not lift the policy until June 2023. At that time it is expected that huge numbers of migrants will be legally seeking asylum in accordance with international and U.S. law. The Biden administration must create humane and safe corridors of entry for this influx of humanity. Immigration reform is needed now. Our united voices must ensure this inhuman and illegal barbarism ends. Voces de la Frontera is a leading Wisconsin immigrants' rights organization empowering people for over twenty years. Their website is full of Wisconsin based information, petitions and thoughtful actions. They are a membership driven organization and deserve our support. Let 2023 be a year of inclusion and intersectionality, as we create the world we know is possible. Best wishes to all of our member groups as we go forward. May peace prevail.

Thanks to PSR, VFP #102, and WNPJ Board members for these photos from the Fall Assembly in Milwaukee, Nov 13th!! Learn more here... https://www.wnpj.org/post/invitation-to-get-into-some-good-trouble-at-the-wnpj-fall-assembly-nov-13th 1) Art Heitzer receives Lifetime Achievement Award form co-chairs, Tynnetta Jackson and Mary Kay Baum. 2) Key-note speaker, Angela Harris - Milwaukee educator on Abolition. 3) Board member, Dena Eakles, intorducing Angela Harris - while zoomers look on. 4)Board member Debra Gillispie introduces the Peacemaker of the year, Claude Motley. 5) Board member John Peck facilitates the WNPJ business meeting. 6) Julie Enslow of Milwaukee gives introductory remarks about Art Heitzer's Lifetime of peace and justice work. 7) Claude Motley, Peacemaker of the Year and 8) Several of the newly elected WNPJ Board members, John Peck, Mary Kay Baum, Tynnetta Jackson, Vicki Berenson and Debra Gillispie. Videos from the 2022 WNPJ Assembly are now ready! Many thanks to volunteer editor Dan Folkman for putting this together! 1) Keynote Angela Harris - Milwaukee abolitionist educator, introduced by Dena Eakles: https://youtu.be/7KUOAEaeU8E 2) Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Art Heitzer, peace activist and advocate for normalizing relations with Cuba. Introduced by Julie Enslow, Tynnetta Jackson and Mary Kay Baum: https://youtu.be/rQC4F7Vht4o 3) Peacemaker of the Year Award recipient Claude Motley, introduced by Debra Gillispie: https://youtu.be/MQS7Blmze0k Video clip from the film: https://youtu.be/bs0nma7yNTc More about the award-winning film "When Claude Got Shot": https://whenclaudegotshot.org/ 4) What does Abolition mean to you? Tynnetta Jackson, interviewed by Debra Gillispie https://youtu.be/2Z_0wyiC3PY and comments by Judy Miner, former Network Coordinator https://youtu.be/m-4SybFaH2k

Let’s take a few minutes at the end of this year, to appreciate all we’ve accomplished and gear up for what’s next! Highlights of 2022 January - NEW LEADERS AND BUILDING OUR BASE We continue to grow our base building efforts by establishing an organizing committee in the Dane County area and strengthening our regional committees in Rock County, Milwaukee County, and North Central Wisconsin. Identifying and supporting the growth of leaders directly impacted by the interlocking injustices of poverty, systemic racism, ecological devastation, militarism, and religious moral nationalism IS OUR MISSION AND OUR FOCUS! No one is coming to save us, so we must build a movement and save ourselves! February - PROJECT OF SURVIVAL TO ADDRESS WATER CRISIS IN WAUSAU In response to the news of PFAS-contaminated drinking water in all the wells in Wausau, the Wisconsin PPC North Central regional committee launched a GoFundMe posting, raising almost $1,000 to provide water and filtered dispensers to residents who could not access it, including a delivery to a local assisted living facility serving low income, disabled folks. This project helped meet the immediate need for alternative water in the face of inaction by officials while also supporting neighbors to join and speak out about the many injustices we face in Wausau, including impacts from pollution and poverty. Laura, a life-long Wausau resident and member of the WI PPC, stated: “I feel that the public should have been made aware of this…when it was first known. I am concerned about the long term health outcomes. I am left wondering if one of my daughter's health issues could have been caused by this. I wonder how long we have been drinking, cooking with and using this contaminated water. My children and many children in the city had [and still] have their formula prepared with city water.” March - M.O.R.E Mobilization Tour in Madison Hundreds gathered from Wisconsin and across the Midwest to march around the Capitol Square and hear from impacted folks about why they were joining the Poor People’s Campaign’s national rally in Washington D.C. in June. https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2022/03/30/poor-peoples-campaign-mobilization-tour-draws-hundreds-to-madison/ https://captimes.com/news/business/poor-peoples-campaign-madison-william-barber/article_c3d52ad7-f748-5864-b07f-ee8ec2c75bb0.html June 18 - ASSEMBLY IN DC Hundreds from Wisconsin joined tens of thousands from 38+ states for a Mass Poor Peoples and Low Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls. From teachers to laborers, pastors and youth, Wisconsin was well represented. We heard speakers from across the United States, including Mark Denning from Wisconsin, sharing personal testimonies about their fight for justice and amazing music from the Freedom Choir. The purpose of the assembly was to make our voices heard, to push for voting rights and a Third Reconstruction to fully address poverty from the bottom up. Someone is hurting our siblings and it's gone on for far too long and we won’t be silent anymore! A special thanks to Rev. Ari Douglas, Tri-chair of the WI Poor People’s Campaign who was the State Campaign Organizer who focused on assisting WI in bringing people to D.C. Poor People's Campaign Moral March is Just the Beginning - Wisconsin Examiner: WATCH: Official Rebroadcast of #MoralAssembly2022 August - HEALTHCARE STUDY WI PPC organized and led a 5-week healthcare study with participants from across Wisconsin as well as PPC partners in other states, members of the Non Violent Medicaid Army and Put People First! PA. We came together to deepen our understanding of the for-profit healthcare system and strategies to organize for Healthcare as a Human Right leading into the Nonviolent Medicaid Army Week of Action. September - MEDICAID POSTCARDS As part of the NonViolent Medicaid Army Week of Action, WI PPC developed a postcard action calling on President Biden to extend the Public Health Emergency Order initiated during the COVID 19 pandemic. The PHE order insured 2,000,000 Wisconsinites who would not otherwise qualify for insurance. We distributed these postcards to areas across the state, asking people to sign and send them to the White House. October - CANDIDATE LISTENING SESSION IN BELOIT A listening session for candidates for national, state and local offices was held in Beloit and hosted by New Zion Baptist Church with speakers impacted by systemic racism, homelessness, lack of healthcare access and over-policing. Candidates were there not to speak but to only listen to these stories. Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharris, national co-chair of Poor People's Campaign, facilitated the session and joined us in a march through the streets of Beloit that coincided with actions across the country focusing on the needs of the poor and dispossessed. This event had great media coverage, expanding the reach of the event to a wider audience. Wisconsin Poor People's Campaign pushes low-income voters to ballots December - PLANNING FOR 2023 Building off of our healthcare study, the Wisconsin PPC has begun planning to fight for Medicaid expansion and our human right to healthcare in 2023. Join us in the new year as we proclaim HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT and hold power holders accountable to the fundamental right of healthcare for ALL! Start by signing our petition to the Joint Finance Committee. Help us step forward together in to 2023 and not one step back by making a year-end donation to support the work of the Wisconsin Poor People's Campaign. May 2023 be a year in which justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream! Email: wisconsin@poorpeoplescampaign.org www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/committee/wisconsin/ www.facebook.com/wisconsinppc