PEOPLE’S ORGANIZATION FOR PROGRESS (POP)
PO BOX 22505
NEWARK, NJ 07101
973 801-0001
http://www.njpop.org
CONTACT: LAWRENCE HAMM

NOVEMBER 4, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE

DEFEAT TRUMP: PEOPLE’S ORGANIZATION FOR PROGRESS (POP) ENDORSES HARRIS-WALZ TICKET

The People’s Organization For Progress (POP) publicly announced today its endorsement of the Harris-Walz ticket for president and vice president of the United States. The following statement was issued today on behalf of POP by the group’s chairman Lawrence Hamm:

Today, the People’s Organization For Progress (POP) publicly endorses Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic Party nominees for President and Vice President of the United States.

All voters are urged to cast their ballots for the Harris-Walz ticket on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, 2024. POP calls for a massive record turnout to ensure that former president Donald Trump is soundly defeated.

The People’s Organization For Progress is an all-volunteer, multi-issue, grassroots group that works for racial, social, and economic justice. The 42-year-old organization was established in 1982. It was founded by its current chairman Lawrence Hamm. Although based in Newark its activities have been statewide in scope.

The decision to make an organizational endorsement was made two weeks ago at the October 17th POP meeting. At that meeting, POP chairman Lawrence Hamm presented his statement of endorsement that had been made earlier that month.

After a review of the statement and the subsequent debate that followed, the group voted to adopt it with minor amendments as an organization’s position. The full statement is released for the first time today.

The election, which started last month with vote-by-mail and early voting, will end tomorrow with in-person voting at regular polling places. As of today, all things remaining the same, there are two possible outcomes as far as who will win the election. It will either be the Harris-Walz team or that of former president Donald Trump and Senator J. D. Vance, the Republican nominees.

POP believes the Harris-Walz ticket is the better choice between these two. Trump has already shown us what he can do. He served one term in the White House, and it was a disaster.

He was a failed president. That is why he was defeated by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2020. POP believes a second Trump term would be more catastrophic than the first.

Trump must be defeated in November. He was one of the worst presidents in American history. He must be prevented from winning a second term in the White House.

The Harris-Walz team is the only ticket with the potential strength to defeat Trump at the ballot box. Doing all we can to ensure their victory is how to keep Trump out of the White House again.

The race between Harris and Trump is very close. As of today, it is too close to call. Every vote is going to count. We must vote in record numbers and do everything else necessary to realize a Harris-Walz victory and defeat Trump in November.

Our endorsement of the Harris-Walz ticket does not mean we agree with the Vice President on all of her policy positions. In particular, we strongly oppose the Biden-Harris administration’s support of Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinians.

POP has issued statements opposing U.S. support for this war since it began last October. Over the past year, the U.S. has given billions in military aid to Israel for its genocidal war against the Palestinians. In so doing our country has become a partner in genocide.

With U.S.-made bombs, aircraft, and weapons of war, Israel has killed, according to conservative estimates, more than 45,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom have been women and children. Others have put the death toll as high as 186,000 when you include those who are missing and buried under the rubble.

It has wounded more than 100,000 and displaced more than 2,000,000, which is nearly the entire population of Gaza. The majority of Palestinians are suffering from starvation and disease because of the war.

Israel has bombed and destroyed more than 86,000 housing units and damaged more than 300,000 more. It has destroyed 32 hospitals, 100 universities and schools, and more than 25,000 other buildings, including mosques and churches.

Israel has turned Gaza into an apocalyptic uninhabitable wasteland, but the destruction has not stopped there. It has expanded the war to the West Bank. Israel has bombed Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. It is threatening all-out war with Iran. Israel is turning the war in Gaza into a regional conflagration and dragging the international community closer to world war.

Since October of 2023, POP has opposed and demonstrated against the war and called for an immediate ceasefire. Because of the Biden-Harris administration‘s continued support for the war we urged our members to vote uncommitted in the New Jersey presidential primary race and urged others to do the same in order to send a strong message to the administration to change course.

In July, President Biden bowed out of the race and threw his support behind Vice President Harris who went on to the Democratic National Convention to win her party’s nomination for president. At that time she said she wanted a ceasefire and that the administration was working to bring the war to an end.

Whatever the Biden-Harris administration is doing to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza is not working. In fact, it has produced the opposite effect. Saying you want a ceasefire while doing everything possible to send more weapons to Israel will prolong the war and genocide, not end it.

The Biden-Harris administration must drastically change course on the Gaza war and Middle East policy. Just saying you want a ceasefire is not enough. Vice President Harris must call for an arms embargo against Israel in order to bring the fighting to an end.

Other nations have announced a halt to weapons sales to Israel. The U.S. should do the same. The majority of Americans want a ceasefire in Gaza. The majority of Americans want the U.S. to stop sending weapons to Israel for the war in Gaza.

POP believes that if the Vice President called for an arms embargo against Israel to bring about an end to the war, it would improve her chances for victory in November. Continuing on the current course will only increase the chances of defeat.

We have opposed and protested against Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and U.S. support for it under the Biden-Harris administration. And we will continue to do so if there is no change in policy under a Harris-Walz administration.

Trump must be defeated. We cannot allow a would-be dictator who tried to seize power through a right-wing coup attempt, conspired to overturn an election, and led a violent insurrection, to become president of the United States. A second term will only allow him to try to do it again.

He is leading a reactionary movement that has in its ranks white supremacists, neo-nazis, and violent extremists. Their movement wants to roll back nearly one hundred years of hard-won rights and social progress. A Trump victory will only strengthen that movement.

The initiatives Trump proposes to realize this reactionary agenda are outlined in Project 2025, Agenda 47, the platform of this year’s Republican National Convention, and several recent Supreme Court decisions.

Trump has used the U.S. Supreme Court to accomplish the goals of that movement. He has made appointments that have led to a conservative super majority on the court. It has issued decisions that will negatively impact the lives of millions of people.

Trump is a racist, fascist, sexist, bigot, and pathological liar. When he was elected, he failed to win the popular vote. While president, he was impeached twice. He is the only former president convicted of a crime.

He is facing upcoming trials on other charges. He has vowed to pardon those of his followers who violently attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump is corrupt and unfit to hold office.

Both he and his enablers in the Republican Party must be defeated. Democrats must win the White House, win back the majority in the House of Representatives, and hold on to and widen their majority in the Senate.

Tomorrow is Election Day. We urge everyone to go to the polls and to also do whatever you can to get other people to go and vote. Tell your family, friends, neighbors and coworkers to go vote. Use whatever means of communication that is available to you including word of mouth, phone calls, emails, text messages, and social media.

There must be massive voter mobilization. Everyone must vote. Don’t sit this election out. Everyone must get involved. Those who can should help get people to the polls.

We must vote in record landslide numbers to hand Trump a crushing and incontestable defeat on Election Day so that the Harris-Walz team can win both the popular vote and the electoral college.

Our work will continue after Election Day. Trump has made it clear that he will not concede if he loses the election. He will try to overturn the results of this election as he did with the 2020 election. We must remain vigilant and be ready to take to the streets and prevent him from stealing this election.

We must continue to struggle after the new president is sworn in on January 20, 2025. We must hold the Harris-Walz administration accountable just as we did the Biden administration. We must hold their feet to the fire to bring the war in Gaza to an end and to improve the quality of life for the vast majority of people at home.

Lawrence Hamm
Chairman
People’s Organization For Progress