[captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> and it was an apache firing with a loud noise. the cobra, drone, all sorts of aircraft. taylor. they wiped out mosques and displaced people. they kept on saying, go to route

5, they came here, and then you target them? amy: strikes in gaza have killed 17 people overnight as concern grows that israel will soon launch a ground invasion over one million palestinians have sought refuge in route 5. we will speak to a young teacher who is trying to evacuate with young children. >> i want people to know that we are human. they deserve life. they cannot cease fire and just leave us to get out of gaza. amy: we will also speak with palestinian human rights advocate noura erakat as the world warns against a full invasion of rafah. the poor people's campaign plans

to catalyze the voting power of the poor and low-wage workers ahead of the november election. >> diplomacy. living in peace is more important than blowing up the world. we will not be silenced. amy: we will speak with bishop william barber and economists michael zweig, author of "class, race, and gender: challenging the injuries and divisions of capitalism." all that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. it is wonderful to be back. palestinian health officials say

israeli strikes killed at least 67 people in rafah overnight as fears grow israel will soon launch a ground invasion on a city where over one million palestinians have sought refuge. the overnight airstrikes came as israeli special forces carried out an operation in rafah to free two is really argentine hostages, 60-year-old fernando simon merman and 70-year-old luis har. they were both found to be in good condition after being held captive since october 7. on sunday president biden spoke by phone with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. the white house said biden warned netanyahu against a ground invasion of rafah unless there is a "credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety and support for the more than one million people sheltering there.” authorities in egypt have threatened to suspend a key peace treaty with israel if rafah is invaded.

hamas has also warned an israeli invasion of rafah will torpedo ongoing truce talks. the european union warned against a ground invasion of rafah with one official saying it could lead to an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe. israel carried out numerous air strikes on rafah over the weekend including one that leveled a five-story home, killing at least eight people. >> i am searching for my niece. she was two months old. my sister and her husband were sleeping in the room and my other mother in her sister in the room. me and my father over here. suddenly a rocket fell on us. my sister, her husband, including my niece, who is two months old, are all gone. amy: this all comes as israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu faces increasing pressure at home to secure the release of the remaining hostages in gaza.

earlier today, a relative of the two israeli hostages freed in rafah called for israel to reach a deal now. >> we know about the discussions in cairo or paris or others between hamas, israeli, the mediators. please be serious and strike a deal. the israeli people need the deal done. not yesterday, not tomorrow, today. we want it done as soon as possible in order to give us some grief. we must grieve a little bit here. amy: hind rajab, the six-year-old gazan girl who had been missing for nearly two weeks, was found dead on saturday. relatives found hind's body inside a car, alongside the dead bodies of five of her family members. the bodies of two rescue workers who were attempting to reach her were also discovered.

audio of hind's call with emergency dispatchers was heard around the world as the terrified child begged for someone to get her as an israeli tank approached her. the car where hind was found was covered in bullet holes. the palestine red crescent society said israeli forces also targeted its ambulance as it arrived on the scene. emergency workers yusuf zeino and ahmed al-madhoun had found their way to hind but appear to have been killed by israeli fire just yards away from her vehicle. this is hind's mother, wissam hamadah, after she learned of her daughter's killing. >> my heart is completely destroyed over my daughter. two weeks. they killed him. two weeks they were in that car. i told the world, please go get hind. god is the only one sufficient for us, everyone failed us. i will tell god about this

judgment day. i will not forget you, and human rights organization. amy: a court in the netherlands has ordered the dutch government to stop exporting u.s.-made f-35 fighter jet parts to israel. in the ruling, one of the judges wrote, “it is undeniable that there is a clear risk that the exported f-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law." in november, oxfam and amnesty international sued the dutch government saying the arms transfers violated the netherlands' obligations under international law to prevent war crimes. one of president biden's top foreign policy aides has admitted the administration has made "missteps" in the middle east. during a closed-door meeting with arab american leaders in michigan, deputy national security adviser jonathan finer was recorded saying, "we are very well aware that we have missteps in the course of responding to this crisis since

oct. 7.” during the conversation finer also said, "i do not have any confidence in this current government of israel.” finer traveled to michigan after arab american leaders vowed to vote uncommitted due to biden ho's support for israel's assaut on gaza. here in new york, hundreds of palestinian rights activists occupied the museum of modern art saturday, forcing the museum to close to the public. protesters unfurled massive banners and handed out mock moma pamphlets in which they called out museum trustees for their investments in israeli weaponry and other industries. another protest was organized outside the brooklyn museum. the actions came as an open letter signed by over 100 artists and cultural workers, condemned the "disgraceful silence of our institutions as israel commits genocide in gaza."

in providence, rhode island, brown university students ended an eight-day-long hunger strike demanding brown divest from companies supplying israel with military equipment. the students say they will continue fighting for divestment and for palestinian rights. in november, a palestinian-american student at brown was left paralyzed after being shot along with two friends in burlington, vermont while they visited over the thanksgiving holiday. talks have resumed in iraq that could result in the withdrawal of troops from iraq more than 20 years after the 2003 u.s. invasion. the united states currently has about 2,500 soldiers in iraq and another 900 troops in syria. calls for the troops to withdraw have increased after the u.s. carried out a number of deadly drone attacks on militia groups in baghdad. in other military news, u.s.

defense secretary lloyd austin has been hospitalized again, this time he's being treated in a critical care unit for a bladder issue. on sunday, he temporarily transferred power to his deputy. austin was diagnosed with prostate cancer in december. former president donald trump is facing widespread criticism after saying he would encourage russia to attack nato allies who pay too little money into the military alliance. trump made the comment during a campaign rally in south carolina. >> one of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, sir, if we don't pay and we are attacked by russia, will you protect us? i said you didn't pay, you are delinquent. yes, let's say that happened. no, i would not protect you. in fact, i would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. you have to pay. you have to pay your bills. and the money came flowing in.

amy: nato secretary general jens stoltenberg issued a statement in response to trump's remarks. “any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the u.s., and puts american and european soldiers at increased risk.” finland held national elections on saturday. the conservative former prime minister alexander stubb won the presidential election with over 51% of the vote. it was finland's first election since joining nato. in pakistan, candidates affiliated with the jailed former prime minister imran khan have pulled off a major upset by winning 101 seats, more than any other party in last week's election even though khan's pti party was formally barred from running. but the pti-affiliated candidates fell short of winning a majority of seats giving other parties a chance to form a coalition government. supporters of khan accused the military of rigging thursday's vote by taking drastic actions including shutting down the country's cell phone service on election day.

>> today's demonstration is a protest against the forces that have stolen the people's mandate. this is a protest against those forces that do not accept public opinion and think they can impose their decision on the public. amy: in sudan, u.n. officials estimate about 18 million people are facing levels of severe hunger, a figure that's doubled since last year due to months of fighting between the sudanese army and the paramilitary rapid support forces. the humanitarian crisis has also triggered the world's largest displacement of children ever seen in sudan with over 700,000 likely to suffer severe acute malnutrition, according to unicef. this is the agency's spokesperson james elder. >> first, the world's largest displacement of children has been seen in sudan. 4 million children have been displaced. that is just over 13,000 children displaced every single day for the past 300 days.

safety, gone. only possessions, gone. hope, fading. the consequences of the past 300 days mean more than 700,000 children are likely to suffer the most dangerous forms of non-attrition this year. unicef cannot treat more than 300,000 of those without improved access or additional support. in that case, tens of thousands would likely die. amy: burma's ruling military junta has imposed mandatory military service for all young men and women. under the new law, all men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 will be ordered to serve for two years, though that can be extended to five years in the event of an ongoing state of emergency. this month marks three years since the military seized power in a 2021 coup and ousted elected leader aung san suu kyi and other members of her party. earlier this month, burma's un ambassador appealed to the international community to do more to help his country. >> last three years, over 44,000

people have been brutally killed by the military. more than 2.6 million people have been internally displaced. over 86,000 civilians including religious buildings have been destroyed or abandoned by the junta forces. almost 19 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. half of the population has been thrown into poverty. amy: meanwhile, amnesty international is calling for a war crimes probe over the military bombing of a church in sagaing in january which killed 17 people including two children who were attending a sunday service. amnesty is urging the u.n. security council to refer the burmese junta to the international criminal court. in news from somalia, the militant group al-shabab has claimed responsibility for an attack on a military base in

mogadishu that killed four emirati troops and a bahraini military officer. the foreign troops were at the base to train somali soldiers in their fight against al-shabab. a jury in washington has awarded $1 million to the famed climate scientist michael mann who had sued two right-wing critics of defamation. in a statement mann said “i hope this verdict sends a message that falsely attacking climate scientists is not protected speech." and the city of minneapolis has agreed to pay $950,000 to a group of journalists who were attacked by minneapolis police while they covered protests over the police killing of george floyd. in its lawsuit, the american civil liberties union of minnesota had accused police of tear gassing and pepper spraying journalists as well as shooting some journalists in the face with hard foam bullets. the aclu said several journalists were arrested and threatened at gunpoint. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

palestinian health officials say overnight israeli strikes on rafah in southern gaza killed at least 67 people as concern grows that israel will soon launch a full-scale ground invasion. over 1 million palestinians have sought refuge in rafah, which borders egypt, after israelis said it was a safe zone. palestinians in rafah say a mosque and several houses were hit by the overnight israeli strikes. >> it was an apache firing with a loud noise. the f-16s, the cobra, drones, so much taylor. they wiped out mosques and displaced people. they kept on saying go to rafah. people came here. and then you target them? amy: over the weekend, israel carried out numerous air strikes on rafah, including one that leveled a five-story home killing at least eight people. >> my sister and her husband are

sleeping in the room. i mother and her other sister with the children in the living room. me and my father over here. suddenly a rocket fell on us. my sister and her husband including my niece, who were two years old, are all gone. amy: the overnight airstrikes came as israeli forces carried out an operation in rafah to free two is really-argentine -- israeli-argentine hostages who were found to be in good condition. their relative, edan begerano, spoke after visiting them in a hospital near tel aviv monday morning. earlier today, they called for a deal now. >> we know about the deals in cairo, paris, others between hamas, is really, with the mediators. please be serious and strike a deal. the israeli people need the deal

done. not yesterday, not tomorrow, today. we want it done as soon as possible in order to give us some breath. we must breathe a little bit here. amy: on sunday, president biden spoke by phone with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. biden warned against israel launching a ground invasion of rafah. aid agencies fear the offensive would cause massive casualties. unicef has warned an escalation of israeli attacks in rafah will cause hunger and disease to skyrocket. hamas has warned an israeli invasion of rafah will torpedo ongoing truce talks. authorities in egypt have threatened to suspend a key peace treaty with israel if rafah is invaded. for more, we are going directly to rafah to speak with duha latif, a 29-year-old teacher from gaza who is trying to evacuate rafah with her young

children, six-year-old ameer and one-and-a-half-year-old kareem. welcome to democracy now! especially under these difficult circumstances, we appreciate you being with us. you are a native of rafah. can you describe the situation now? duha: hello, amy. thanks for hosting. i am sure most of you saw the news yesterday, and what happened with rafah, it was the worst night in my life. i really cannot believe i am still alive. actually, the situation here is terrible. rafah is a small city and now 1.5 million people, 55 square kilometers, which means 24,000 palestinians. just imagine. it is very difficult to get food, water, medicine. in addition to the spread of

diseases. a large population, rafah also has no hospital, no electricity since. this is the situation here. amy: you are 29 years old, you are a teacher in rafah. duha: yes, that is right. amy: the city has swelled to four times the population. can you talk about your attempts to get out with your little ones, your one and a half year old, and your six-year-old? duha: evacuation to egypt is very complicated and it is very, very expensive. we need the approval of the egyptian side to grant our arrangement which costs a lot of money. this is what we don't have at the present time.

we created a gofundme account. we don't have money to get out of gaza. amy: how much money does it cost to leave gaza? what are you raising money for? duha: in fact, i cannot determine exactly, but i can tell you the amount to be paid to exit gaza is considered somewhat, very high, especially in our current care. expensive coordination. in addition to what is required when we arrive on the egypt side. of course, if we were still alive, a place to stay, food. we don't know whom this money goes. we have to pay this amount for one of the egyptian officers. amy: talk about your little

ones, how they are processing what is happening now. do you hear bombing, shelling around you? duha: yes. maybe last night you see it in the news. it was terrible. my children cried overnight. maybe you see what is happening in the news. it is very hard and difficult. amy: i wonder if you heard the relatives of the two israeli -argentine hostages who they freed in rafah. there relatives said please have a truce now, it is not enough that you have read our two loved ones. duha: no, i don't hear of this.

i am like you, i just hear it from the news. amy: could you talk about what message you may have for president biden. hayes aides have said that they have made mistakes in dealing with the middle east. what message do you have for president biden? duha: i will send the message. i have two children and they are always afraid of the voices they hear around us and always ask me questions. i don't have the answers for. when can we get out? when can we eat a burger? when can we go back to school? it is difficult. a mother needs somebody to call. my message to president biden,

we are innocent civilians. we have no fault in what is happening. our children deserve to live a normal life like the rest of the children. just one word, president biden, cease fire now. you have the power to make it happen now. amy: do you have access to clean water? also, have you taken in refugees from other parts of gaza at this point into your own home? duha: yes, i have, but there are only canned foods, tuna, beans. my children are in a growing stage and they need healthy and useful food like an egg, milk. all of this is absent at the present time. there is no clean water. because of this, my young son suffers. there is also no medicine.

also about the refugees, yes, every situation like thousands here in rafah. i have many refugees in my home, they are relatives from gaza. rafah is full of refugees. amy: thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us from rafah. duha: i want to say a word. can i? we are trying to leave rafah but we have no money. we have a gofundme account if people want to support us by donating or sharing or help my family. we need to leave to keep my family safe. amy: duha latif, thank you for being with us. 29-year-old teacher from rafah, trying to evacuate with her young children, six-year-old ameer and one-and-a-half-year-old kareem.

when we come back, we will speak to palestinian human rights attorney noura erakat as countries around the world warned israel against a ground invasion of rafah. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "la ahada yalam" by amal murkus. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in the united states, the european union countries around the world are warning israel against a ground invasion of rafah in southern gaza, where over one million palestinians have sought refuge from the rest of gaza. one top eu officials said it could lead to a "unspeakable humanitarian capacity -- catastrophe." authorities in egypt have threatened to suspend a key peace treaty if rafah is invaded. hamas has also mourned that invasion will torpedo ongoing truce trucks. we are joined by humanitarian rights attorney noura erakat,

professor at rutgers university, author of "justice for some: law and the question of palestine." welcome back. if you could start by responding to the threat over the weekend that plans are being readied for israel to invade rafah. countries around the world warning israel not to do this. apparently, president biden doing that in a phone call with netanyahu, as well. your response to what this would mean? noura: good morning, amy. it may be refreshing to hear these mornings sounds off across the world but they are holy and completely inadequate knowing that this is a possible genocide, knowing what israel has said despite multiple warnings. it created a ground invasion on october 27.

it destroyed all of the hospitals. it has blown up all of the universities. it has created a situation of starvation, a lack of even water. there is a humanitarian crisis that even without other bombs falling will need to sure deaths of thousands of palestinians. these capitals, these states have an arsenal of diplomatic options available to them to stop a genocide. first and foremost is a un security council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire. short of that is the cutting of weapons transfers, as has the netherlands high court demanded this morning, stopping the transfer of f-35 parts to israel. belgium stopped weapons transfers. japan has cut military contracts. short of that, these states can cut diplomatic ties. what is it to the population of rafah, now bracing themselves for more massacre, for mornings

to a state that is responsible under international law, and accountable? if it is not responsible or accountable, it is a rogue state that ought to be isolated by everybody, or it means these other countries are complicit, covering responsibility for themselves by issuing empty warnings. amy: i want to go to that issue of the netherlands court, ordering the dutch government to stop exporting u.s.-made f-35 jet parts being stored in the netherlands to israel. in the ruling, one of the judges wrote, it is undeniable there is a clear risk the exported f-35 parts are used in serious violation of international humanitarian law. in november, oxfam, amnesty international sued the dutch government saying the dutch transfers violate international law to prevent war crimes.

are you seeing this escalating around the world, other countries doing the same? certainly, germany gives more weapons, the united states the most. noura: i am seeing a surge. over the past five months, the only thing that has kept humanitarian efforts together, doing the work that states have failed to do. we see in the u.s., the center for constitutional rights bringing a lawsuit in the northern district of california, where the judge agreed that the icj was correct, this is undeniable, a case of genocide, but doesn't have the jurisdiction to stop the administration. we saw the highest court in the world say the same thing, this is possibly genocide. we are seeing a series of judicial decisions come to the same conclusion but none of them can be enforced without political will which is being

impeded in the security council by the united states. let's be clear, the icj, january 6 when it issued its provisional orders, said the international community has a duty and responsibility according to its responsibility under the genocide convention not to perpetuate israel's genocidal campaign. we see israel directly violating those orders. nearly 2000 palestinians have been killed since january 26. we know what effect they have impeded access to humanitarian aid going so far as the israeli navy shooting at you and humanitarian convoys from the mediterranean sea. we also see very clearly a continuing incitement to genocide most recently in the convening of a far right coalition of 11 ministers in government under the banner of settlement. bring security and victory. there is an expose campaign to

to populate in, to resettle it. no one is mincing words. everyone is watching, covering themselves with these empty promises and warnings as israel continues with its campaign. and this is a warning to the world. we are watching. this is very blatant in being exposed. in this situation we have now, in the worst case scenario, israel will continue with its campaign. egypt is trying to prevent this from happening, will likely create a buffer zone in the sinai, if israel is successful in pushing out the palestinians. they will be stuck in that buffer zone, as have refugees from syria been stuck in that buffer zone with jordan and iran. that is the worst case scenario. netanyahu telling the world they will evacuate the palestinians up north mean nothing when the north has been decimated.

rafah is the last standing city. israel must stop its genocidal campaign now. if it wants to offer refuge to palestinians, it must offer refuge to palestinians within historic palestine, where they can actually be house safely, where we know israel does not want them and will return them to gaza. there are many options at our disposal yet none of them are being accessed in this moment. amy: i want to ask your thoughts in this latest development, the overnight airstrikes in rafah coming as it forces carried out an operation to free two israeli-argentine hostages who were found in good condition. earlier today, a relative of the two israeli hostages freed in rafah called for israel to reach a deal now. >> we know about the discussions

in cairo, paris, others between israeli, with the mediators. please be serious and strike a deal. the israeli people need the deal done. not yesterday, not tomorrow. today. we want it done as soon as possible in order to give us some graft. we must breathe a little bit here. amy: this is interesting because this is a man whose loved ones have been held since october 7 but he said we cannot rest until all the hostages are freed. he is calling for a truce. that is not what netanyahu is calling for. are you concerned, finding these hostages in rafah will lead to more bombings and attacks, or to justify a full-scale assault? noura: amy, the israeli

government is not concerned with its hostages. if they were, they would have engaged in good faith negotiations, the diplomatic negotiations that led to the release of 136 hostages. that was not any military operation. after five months they have only extracted two hostages? we know the families want a truce. we know the government is opposing a truce. israel shot to kill two of their own, raising white flags, speaking in hebrew, giving us an idea that this is not a legitimate war. this is a genocidal campaign of extermination. last night, the images that came out of rafah are horrifying. there was a young girl, her legs cut off, hanging by a wire. this is disproportionate, excessive force that is meant to terrorize a population that is

telling them you have no life here. there is no future here. you must leave. that is the message being sent. we are seeing young children being forced to be far older than their age. a young boy telling the world, i am not scared. how can he not be scared in the situation? how are all of us not terrified? we have taken away life for these children. we are decimating their future even if they do survive. images of babies being removed from the rubble with only two limbs, no family members left. what is their future? yet we are obscuring these atrocities, these genocidal campaigns with words of distraction. we are abstracting it to warfare and strategy, hostages, negotiations, when the humanitarian situation speaks for itself.

tribunals have told us repeatedly this is a genocide. it must be ended unequivocably. that is incumbent upon us now before we see the last city in gaza, the one that is normally home to 220,000 palestinians, now housing 1.5 million palestinians, 80% of the population in intense, in dire humanitarian situations. we should be running to treat them with medicine, food, water, with adequate care, rather than preparing massacres for them, like the speaker before you, duha, creating a gofundme to save herself and her children. this is our responsibility. last word on this. there is a concept in international law known as state responsibility where a state must deal with the actions of its -- the results of its actions.

israel cannot say it is fighting a war of self-defense. if those actions are illegal, it must bear the consequences for them. israel has imposed a siege against international law for 17 years, prolonged military operation for 60 years, imposed an apartheid regime which is a crime against humanity, that the international community has said is an apartheid regime, and still asking the world for an exception, blaming the palestinians as an assailant as it is committing a genocide, and now asking the world to let it commit genocide as a form of exception. like it is any other situation. rather than meet that with the full force of diplomatic and international will to rebuff it, instead we allow israel to create that exception which will make none of the world safe, when other countries and nuclear

powers decide they want to decimate an inconvenient native population in order to fulfill its national interests. it defies all logic of international legal institutions and international law which are set up to regulate things like this in this very moment. amy: we have 10 seconds. you have a top aide to president biden admitting the administration has made many missteps since the beginning of this. what do you think they could do, a single action that can make the greatest difference as to what israel does in gaza? noura: they can abstain the security council and allow an immediate cease-fire to take place. biden can pick up the phone and tell netanyahu to stop. they can revoke the supplemental budget which plans to resettle palestinians and what would be an ethnic cleansing campaign, complicity in genocide.

there are so many things to be done. these are empty words aimed at the 2024 elections, aimed at compliance with international law, to meet our duty under the genocidal conventions. amy: thank you for being with us. noura erakat, palestinian human rights attorney and an associate professor at rutgers university. she is the author of "justice for some: law and the question of palestine." when we come back, bishop william barber the plans to have the poor people's campaign march on 30 state legislatures to catalyze the voting power of poor and low-wage workers ahead of november's election. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: if i had a hammer, covered by nikki thomas. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as the 2024 election heats up, the poor people's campaign announces a plan this month to catalyze the voting power of poor and low-wage workers across the united states. as part of a 40-week operation,

thousands are working to mobilize 15 million voters with the first major coordinated actions taking place outside of 30 statehouses on march 2, three days before super tuesday. the voting bloc, described as “the sleeping giant,” could potentially determine the outcome of the elections. activists say nearly half of voters in the country are living in poverty or low wage households. this is alabama activist linda burns, a former amazon worker, speaking at a news conference with the poor people's campaign last week. >> $180 a week. $180 a week. amazon let me go because i was hoping to organize the union. we didn't get the union in alabama. but i will do everything in my power. i will stand in solidarity. amy: we are joined right now in

durham, north carolina by bishop william barber, co-chair of the poor people's campaign. and here in new york we're joined by michael zweig, founding director of the center for study of working class life , emeritus professor of economics at the state university of new york at stony brook, where he received the suny chancellor's award for excellence in teaching. his new book is titled, "class, race, and gender: challenging the injuries and divisions of capitalism." bishop barbara wrote the book's introduction. welcome you both to democracy now! bishop barbara, this is an enormous undertaking as the car -- corporate heads talk about the strength of the economy and how it is only getting better. talk about what you are seeing on the ground and how people are organizing. rev. barber: amy and michael, we have to have an enormous undertaking because we have

enormous economic and moral problem. 2019 before covid we had 140 million poor and low-wage brothers and sisters in this country, 43% of the adult population going into covid. coming out of covid we now have 135 million. it went down some and then went back up. it went down because of investment made during covid but they were not continued. poverty right now is the fourth leading cause of death. over 800 people are dying every day from poverty and low wages. on the ground, people are hurting. people who make less than $15 an hour. we have not had a pay raise since 2009. there are 52 million people that make less than a living wage of $15 an hour. we had 58 senators during covid vote no on raising the wages of essential workers.

even during covid, we still had 87 million people uninsured or underinsured. we know there is not a state in this country, where if 20 to 30% of poor to low-wage workers who are editable to vote, who have been in frequent with the vote, that they could not change the outcome of the election. in some states, you have a situation where you have almost a million poor and low-wage voters that didn't vote in the last two elections, and the election was only won at large by 40,000 votes or 100,000 votes. poor and low-wage people are saying we must move this power. march 2, we are having a launching of a 42-week campaign to mobilize 15 million poor and low-wage voters. we are going to raise people in every state that will be trained

in every form of voter mobilization from technology to the old way of just walking on the turf and knocking on doors, to touch these voters. right now, democracy could the grill be saved by the power of four and low-wage workers. it is not just holding onto democracy. what kind of democracy do we want? we want living wages, we want poverty not to be the fourth leading cause of death, we are uniting around those things. why statehouses? because statehouses are where the political insurrections are taking place. everything we have on our flyer for march 2, you can either start or stop in a statehouse. we are challenging both sides of the aisle. june 15, we are coming to challenge the congress to launch the summer initiative of this massive mobilization on june 15. but we must have a massive movement because we have a

massive moral and economic problem. amy: i want to bring in michael zweig to the conversation. you worked on the new york state coordinating committee of the poor people's campaign, you wrote the book "class, race, and gender: challenging the injuries and divisions of capitalism." can you talk about the fact -- columbia university found only 46% of voters with household incomes less than twice the federal poverty rate cast a vote in 2016 compared to 68% turnout rate for voters with a household income more than twice the poverty line. this leads politician to ignore whole swaths of people and what you think needs to be done, and how the poor people's campaign is addressing this, michael. michael: thank you for having me here today, amy. bishop barber, good to be with

you. the task is to understand, first of all, why it is we have these outrages that cause poverty, because the women of this country to lose their agency, lose their right to health care, threaten the environment, all of these issues that are brought together and have a special effect on poor and low-wage workers. these are not just things that happen or fall out of the sky. they come from the functioning of a capitalist system. in particular, the capitalist system in the united states, capitalism with u.s. characteristics. as we build our movement, we need to build them with an understanding of what it is we are dealing with, and what we have to confront in order to address the inequalities, in order to address the injustices that the poor people's campaign is organized to do, bring

together what bishop barber has often called a fusion movement that is not just one piece of the puzzle but all of those things brought together. i think this book, "class, race, and gender: challenging the injuries and divisions of capitalism," is a resource to try to get that understanding, bring it forward, so that we can all be marching together no matter what our particular concern is. that we all echo each other, come together in one mighty force. that is both a political question of mobilization but also an intellectual question, a question of analysis, political education. what this book is trying to do is be a resource for all of that organizing, mobilizing going on. amy: we just heard an amazon worker talking about why it is

so important to organize, michael zweig. in what ways can the labor movement leverage collective bargaining and advocacy efforts against corporate entities like amazon? also talk about the significance of the united auto workers and what they did in their strike that led to so much advancement. michael: the uaw strike, autoworkers strike, was really a watershed moment, i think, in the current labor scene, political climate in the country. i say that because, for the first time, it was a strike that attacked all three major u.s. automakers simultaneously, and struck each one selectively. it did that in a way which also brought a public message that the corporate leadership is getting 40%, 50% wage increases, making million dollars a year,

and the autoworkers are not getting any piece of that. the task there was to bring forward those demands in the context that made sense to the american people. of course to the autoworkers themselves. what was also important, sean fain addressed the question as a class question. he addressed his workers as working-class people. when president biden went to picket lines in michigan, he talked about the workers in the middle class, the union makes the middle class. no, the union makes working people have a better life, and they are still working-class people. sean fain understands that. also understands the history of the uaw, other parts of the labor movement, the unions have an obligation to talk about the whole structure of society, to go to the core of what it is that they have to fight every day for a better wage, for

better working conditions. why it is that acceptable to have workers paid solo they have to get food stamps, public assistance in order to make ends meet. the corporations make billions and billions of dollars. what sean fain and the rest of the labor movement is coming to understand, it's important to take on the whole range of questions that affect working people, not just at the workplace but also in their communities. that means hunger issues, issues of women's equality, racial justice, the environment. all those questions are questions for working people to address, to address in conjunction with those other movements that are outside the labor movement, per se, just as those other movements to pay attention to and take strength from what the labor movement is doing.

that fusion movement, which is what the poor people's campaign is about, is also what i'm trying to get across in the book. rev. barber: we also don't need to start using the language working-class. i say to michael and others, we cannot back up the language poor. the poor working-class. we don't use that language every fall into a trap of capitalism. we are saying poor and low-wage workers. we are saying workers that every day hustle and still live poor and low-wage. one third of the poor live in the south. one of the movements to get to the uaw, but we challenged north carolina and won. brought for low-wage people together.

they said we couldn't win. we have to go to these states. in the south we say those are red states, but we don't know what color they are because we have not mobilized. one third of our poor people live in the south. there is not a state in the south were if you mobilized 25% of poor and low-wage workers it wouldn't change the outcome. in florida, the percentage is under 3% of infrequent voters. north carolina, under 19%. georgia, under 7%. all over the south all over the country. wisconsin is less than 1%. even in our language, we have to say poor and low-wage workers. we call battleground states where the marginal victory was within the percent for the presidential election. poor and low-wage workers don't make up 40% of the electorate. there is not a state in this country where poor and low-wage

workers don't make up more than 30% of the electorate. this is about the system but it is also about poor in low-wage people grabbing their power, understanding the power that we have not used. remember it was dr. king in 1965, at the end of the summer, montgomery march, who said the greatest fear of a racist aristocracy in this country is if the mass of the knee grows, for white working folks, coming together and forming a voting block to form the country. i just released a book looking at the mythology pushed down by the southern strategy to literally design poor and low-wage black-and-white people as a way of continuing to exacerbate the division of race and class. this is a power move for poor and low-wage folks, religious leaders. one of the things sean did with uaw, he made it a moral issue.

it is a class issue, an issue about morals. when he framed it that way, it actually helped more people to grab onto to what he was saying. amy: before we go, i want to turn to a different issue. we have just a minute. the moral case for cease fire that you have written about in gaza. you joined a group of christian leaders for a vigil outside the white house amending president biden support a cease fire, and said we must join forces with jews, christians, and muslims around the world calling for a cease-fire in gaza, return of all hostages and civilian prisoners, and to stop the killing. your final thoughts on this as israel weighs a full-scale invasion of rafah? rev. barber: we moral leaders need to say no to what hamas did to women and children, and know to what the israeli government

and netanyahu is 10 ewing to do -- is threatening to do. also challenging the apartheid state that netanyahu has in israel. we must speak in one voice, christians, muslims, and the jews. the indiscriminate killing of women and children in this war is immoral. let me give you a scripture straight from the text that muslims, jews, and christians agree on. isaiah 10. it ought to be a framework of how we move forward. woe to those who legislate people and rob the poor of their rights and make women and children prey. that is a moral text from the ancient hebrew scriptures that muslims and christians all agree on. it is a prophetic challenge to government, and that must be the challenge to what that yahoo! and others are doing today. amy: william barber, cochair of

the people's campaign -- poor people's campaign, speaking to us from durham, north carolina. michael zweig, author of "class, race, and gender: challenging the injuries and divisions of capitalism." bishop barber wrote the introduction. that does it for our show.