What Is the Forward Together Moral Movement?

A movement, not a moment!

An indigenously led, state-based, state-government-focused, deeply moral, deeply
constitutional, anti-racist, anti-poverty, pro-justice, pro-labor, transformative, fusion
movement.

We Are Building a Transformative Fusion Coalition

Our relationships with coalition partners are transformative, not transactional. We understand
the connectivity between the issues that each partner focuses on and embrace them as our
own. We build relationships that are long-term, not based on one issue or campaign. The
greatest myth of our times is that extreme policies only hurt a small subset of people, such as
people of color. These policies harm us all.

In North Carolina, we are black, white, Latino, Native American. We are Democrat,
Republican and Independent. We are people of all faiths, and not of faith but who believe in
a moral universe. We are natives and immigrants, business leaders and workers and
unemployed, doctors and the uninsured, gay and straight, students and parents and retirees.
We stand together to lift up and defend the most sacred moral principles of our faith and
constitutional values; we know who we are.

We Work Through a Constitutional and Moral Lens

The movement in North Carolina is about the moral fabric of our society, and we are called
by a deeply moral and constitutional vision of what is possible. We look at public policy
through a moral lens of justice for all and through the constitutional principle of governing
for the good of the whole. Our work points out how these extremist policies are morally
indefensible, constitutionally inconsistent and economically insane.

We Address Directly the Fallacies of the So-Called Religious Right that Seeks to Limit Moral
Debate in the Southern Context

We are challenging the position of the religious right that the pre-eminent moral issues today
are about religion in public schools, abortion and homosexuality with a critique that says the
deepest public concerns of our faith traditions deal with how you treat the poor, those on the
margins, the least of these, women, children, workers, immigrants and the sick.

Isaiah 10: Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness
which they have prescribed;
2
To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the
right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob
the fatherless!

We Address Race and Class Together
We bring together a diverse coalition that takes seriously the issue of race. This is a
movement that was born in the South, and we cannot afford to be ahistorical. Anti-racism
and anti-poverty must be at the heart of our struggle. We understand that organizing the
changing demographics in the Souththe increase in black and Latino voters and
progressive whites, and the increase in young voters who vote their futures, not their fears
is connected to the extremist attack we are facing.

We Have an Agenda of Hope, Not Fear

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What Are We Fighting For?

1) Secure pro-labor, anti-poverty policies that insure economic sustainability by fighting for
employment, living wages, the alleviation of disparate unemployment, a green economy, labor
rights, affordable housing, targeted empowerment zones, strong safety-net services for the poor,
fair policies for immigrants, infrastructure development and fair tax reform.

2) Educational equality by ensuring that every child receives a high quality, well-funded,
constitutional, diverse public education as well as access to community colleges and universities
and by securing equitable funding for minority colleges and universities.

3) Healthcare for all by ensuring access to the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid,
Social Security and by providing environmental protection.

4) Fairness in the criminal justice system by addressing the continuing inequalities in the
system and providing equal protection under the law for black, brown and poor white people.

5) Protect and expand voting rights, womens rights, LGBT rights, immigrant rights and the
fundamental principle of equal protection under the law.

Agenda for a Moral Monday

1. Decide the issue focus.
2. On the Thursday before the action, assemble people who will represent the coalition
and provide a critique of the issue at a press conference and in an open letter.
3. On the Monday of the action, meet at a church to do training in nonviolence and hold
a press conference for questions with all who plan civil disobedience.
4. On Moral Monday, hold a public rally at the state legislature (or another critical site).
5. The message should incorporate music and remain disciplined in its language.
6. March into legislature with the clergy leading, followed by military veterans and
other individuals committed to civil disobedience.
7. Inside the legislature, have a clear and disciplined presentation of prayers, music and
the issues that bring the coalition to action.
8. Accept arrest if the authorities try to take away your constitutional right to peacefully
petition your elected representatives.
9. Offer the arrestees moral and legal support.
10. Hold a press conference the following Thursday or Friday with the arrestees and new
devotees of civil disobedience.
11. These Moral Monday actions must be sustained weekly.
12. They must be supported by clearly researched and printed position papers that detail
the issues and the grievances of the Moral Monday demonstrators.