This Tuesday, January 17, at noon, we have an opportunity to drive forward our fight to victory. If we turn out a large crowd for our rally and fill up the Library Commission meeting room and assert our will, we can make the commissioners vote to reverse their shameful decision to close the Lincoln, Monteith, Richard and Mark Twain branches.
Our fight to save the four branch libraries is gaining momentum. The libraries were supposed to be shuttered, stripped bare and boarded up in December, but the lights and heat are still on, and the vast majority of our books and computers are still inside. The community has made it overwhelmingly clear how important the libraries are to the safety and education of Detroit’s youth, and to the integrity and future of our neighborhoods. We have also demonstrated our willingness and determination to fight.
On Tuesday, January 10, Detroit City Council unanimously approved an emergency resolution to keep all the libraries open. The resolution calls on Governor Snyder and the Michigan state legislators to appropriate some of the more than one billion dollar surplus in the state coffers to keep our libraries open.
If we mobilize our communities we have the power to determine the destiny of our city. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and the other great leaders of the last civil rights movement did not have the money or the support of any of the mainstream politicians. What they did have was masses of people prepared to act, and the determination to organize and win.
Dr. King understood that our strength is in our numbers. If we can get the people of Detroit to understand the power in our numbers again and to take direct action, we can build a new civil rights movement in our city that, like the civil rights movement of Dr. King, can defeat the rich and the powerful and the politicians who get in our way.
The fight to save our branch libraries can play an important role in building the new civil rights movement. If we use the power of our numbers, the people of Detroit have the power to make Detroit what we want it to be. We are the only force that can prevent the further destruction of our city and create a Detroit that serves the interests of the vast majority of Detroiters.
Join BAMN, the Friends of Monteith Library and people from across the city to rally and pack the library commission meeting this Tuesday.
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary – BAMN
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