Online Petition to the US Congress: End poverty of mothers and children. Recognize caregiving work.

Support the RISE Act and Reintroduction of the WORK Act.

Dear friends, Please sign the petition: End poverty of mothers & children. Recognize caregiving work. Support the RISE Act and Reintroduction of the WORK Act. The petition is now online! To sign it click here http://bit.ly/17GnI7v. And share the link with all your friends, email list and social media. In signing the petition and sharing it with as many people as possible you are taking action to help end the poverty of mothers and children. Nearly 50 million people in the US arent sure where their next meal is coming from. Since the passage of welfare reform in 1996, 16.4 million children live in poverty, 7.4 in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty among women-headed households has nearly tripled. 1.46 million households live on less than $2 per day. With the RISE Act (H.R. 814) introduced by Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-WI) we would finally have an opportunity to shift welfare policy towards the elimination of poverty rather than sinking more and more people into destitution. In signing the petition, you would also support the call for Congressional members to reintroduce The Womens Option to Raise Kids (WORK) Act, which was introduced in the last Congress by former Congressman Pete Stark of California. WORK would recognize every mothers right, including those of us on welfare, to raise our young children up to age three fulltime at home. And we are getting support from overseas, from an Early Day Motion passed in the House of Parliament in the UK, UK Early Day Motion, to the Mayday launch in the House of Parliament of a similar petition Invest in a caring society. A living wage for mothers and other carers http://bit.ly/18tF7P8. As Selma James, international coordinator of GWS and author of the recently published Sex, Race and Class: The Perspective of Winning said announcing the UK petition: We must ACT NOW. Mothers and other carers are under unprecedented attack. Denied recognition for the value of our work, we are impoverished by cuts to services and benefits . . . Those of us who have jobs also face working longer hours for even lower wages. This threatens our very survival and massively increases our unwaged workload running between caring and earning. We belong together. Please sign the petition and circulate to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Local coordinator: Initiated by: Global Womens Strike; Women of Color/Global Womens Strike; Every Mother is a Working Mother Network Sponsoring organizations so far:
Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO), Benton Harbor, MI Rossana Cambron, member, Military Families Speak Out, Southern CA DHS/DCFS Give Us Back Our Children/Southern California & Philadelphia, PA Energy Rescue, Omaha, NE Every Mother is a Working Mother Network/Philadelphia & Southern CA Family Advocacy Movement, Omaha, NE Family Connection Center, Cleveland, Ohio Global Womens Strike, Guyana, UK, US Legal Action for Women, San Francisco, CA & London, England Massachusetts Welfare Rights Union, Mattapan, MA Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, Detroit, MI National Welfare Rights Union, Detroit, MI Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights (POWER), Olympia, WA Payday Mens Network, UK & US Queer Strike/UK & US Red Thread, Guyana, South America Single Mothers Self Defense, London, England Survivors, Inc., Mattapan, MA US PROStitutes Collective/San Francisco, CA Welfare Warriors MaGod (Mothers and Grandmothers of the Disappeared Children), Milwaukee, WI WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities)/UK & US Women of Color/Global Womens Strike/ UK & US

Endorsers include: Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network; Brandywine Peace Community; BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action; Chester
County Peace Movement Chapter of Coalition for Peace Action; Class Action; Coalition for Peace Action/Princeton; Connecticut Coalition for Peace & Justice; Thomas Paine Cronin, Retired President of AFSCME D.C. 47; F*WORD (Feminists Working on Real Democracy), a project of the Resource Center for Nonviolence, Santa Cruz, CA; John Grant, journalist, Veterans for Peace/Phila area (identification purposes only); Greater New Haven Peace Council; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Main Line Peace Action; Mumia Abu-Jamal; Massachusetts Peace Action; Mass Incarceration Working Group, Germantown Friends Meeting; New Hampshire Peace Action; North Country Peace Group; NOW Philadelphia Branch; Oregon PeaceWorks; Parkhouse Studios; Pax Christi Florida; Pax Christi USA; Peace Action Wisconsin; Peacehome Campaigns; Peace House of Oklahoma; Peak Women, Santa Cruz, CA; Francis Fox Piven; Queer Student Union, Prescott College; Statewide Parent Advocacy Network; Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor; Students of Color Organizing Against Racism (SCOR), Prescott College; Suffolk Peace Network; Swarthmore Labor Action Project; Voices of Women Organizing Project; Womens International League for Peace & Freedom/Santa Cruz

For more information see www.everymothernetwork.net/tag/welfare www.globalwomenstrike.net

Background to the bills Call to Action

Endorsement Letter Printable petition

Letter to Congressional Reps Letter to Congressional Black Caucus