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. Continue reading →
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial, Washington, D.C.
By Greg Thrasher, VOD Washington DC Bureau contributing editor planeidea@msn.com
January 15, 2012
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has ordered a correction to a badly mangled quotation from Martin Luther King Jr. inscribed in granite on the Tidal Basin memorial to the slain civil rights leader.
Salazar has told the National Park Service to consult with the memorial foundation and the King family and to report back to him within 30 days with a plan to fix the carved excerpt. Yet for many this is not enough. Instead of just some minor clerical repairs to the quotation additional quotes and words that reflect the total work of MLK, which included a focus on racial injustice must be a part of the National Park Service’s repairs to the monument.
The future of Black youth is still gravely imperiled by racism, poverty, destruction of public education, police brutality and mass incarceration
What many people don’t know is that presently none of the quotes on the King memorial mention race nor any words about King’s body of work in America’s civil rights movement. King’s work which encompassed major protests against racial injustice and inequality are not reflected nor present as quotes on the King Monument. To officially ignore the core work of Dr. King is not only a national disgrace but almost Orwellian in construction and design. This omission of Dr. King’s civil rights legacy is an affront to the holiday and the King Memorial.
It is shocking to discover that this was deliberate and intentional to not insert any verbiage or words, quotes which recognize the real life work and mission of MLK. This deliberate omission of acknowledgment of King’s body of work in the arena of racial justice reflects a contempt in part for Black Americans . The mission of MLK encompassed more than a kum ba ya cultural drive feeling. MLK’s work was all about racial injustice as well as concerns about the poor and ending the war in Vietnam.
Instead of minor clerical repairs to the King Memorial is it is incumbent that the King Memorial reflect authentic truth and the reality of King’s life and body of work. We must demand a complete portrait of MLK on his memorial not a pc driven almost censored view of the truth about the mission of MLK.
From Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam”
“When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered.”
Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech:
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.”
DETROIT – As the state speeds towards a train wreck takeover of Detroit, corporate executives and journalists from all over the world are living it up at the gala North American International Auto Show (NAIAS, in the city that is the birthplace of the auto industry.
Most reporters have said nothing regarding the workers who built the cars that are on glitzy display at the show. They have also ignored the devastation the Big Three automakers have wrought on Detroit over the last four decades. They did not note that profits from events at Cobo Hall like the auto show have been stolen from Detroiters by a regional authority.
Protester demands companies that leave Detroit should pay tax penalties
But the Autoworkers Caravan, including workers from all over Michigan as well as Toledo, Ohio, marched outside the show Jan. 8, loudly demanding jobs at a living wage for all, and a halt to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s move to install an emergency manager over this historic city.
They chanted, “Wages down, profits high, what do you do? Occupy!” recalling the historic 1937 Flint sit-down strike which led to the formation of the United Auto Workers union, and “The city of Detroit is under attack; what do we do—stand up, fight back!”
Protesters demanded jobs and self-determination for Detroiters
“There has been a whole frontal attack on the working-class,” said Martha Grevatt. She has been a Chrysler autoworker since 1987, first in Ohio, and now at the Warren Stamping Plant outside Detroit.
“Contracts are shoved down our throats,” Grevatt explained. “They are instituting alternative work schedules which are an attack on the eight- hour day. Wages are frozen for the next four years and they are cutting holidays. A shorter work week is needed. In the 30’s, a primary demand of the Flint sit-down strike was a six-hour day, to employ more people. We stand in solidarity with Fiat and Chrysler workers in Italy and Canada, where Sergio Marchionne, CEO of both companies, is demanding that they take the same concessions U.S. workers have. He is threatening to close their plants and move them to countries like Serbia—global whipsawing.”
The Big Three used whipsawing to drastically downsize Detroit by shutting down its main economic base, the auto plants, since 1970, and moving them to non-unionized areas of the U.S. and overseas.
Historic Dodge Main plant, home of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM)
“In 1960 there were 35 major auto plants in and around the Motor City—including such well-known operations as the Ford Rouge complex, GM’s Cadillac plant and Dodge Main—employing well over 110,000 workers,” a research paper from the World Socialist Website (WSWS.org) says. “Today, there are 14, employing less than 22,000 workers, including many earning half the traditional wages—$14 or even $12 an hour, compared to $28. All told, the restructuring of the auto industry has led to a 70 percent drop in Michigan’s auto-related employment since 1989.” Continue reading →
In the tradition of Dr. King, we are going to stand in solidarity and fight for the promise of our democratic freedom. In this spirit, we urge you to join us on Monday, January 16, 2012. For those interested in attending the march there are buses leaving from several locations around the state and returning to those locations. Please pick a location convenient to you and call that site location listed below.
This photo shows Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's home near Ann Arbor. Snyder said that he's staying in his home so his daughter doesn't have to change schools. Snyder plans to use the official governorââ¬â¢s residence in Lansing for meetings and receptions. (AP Photo/Kathy Barks Hoffman)
In response to Michigan leaders passing the Emergency Manager law that allows the state to appoint CEO’s with absolute control and continuing to deny democracy to the 170,000 plus voters that have [so far] signed the petition to repeal Public Act 4 by the Michigan Senate passing S865, we are sending out a call to action for all Americans to Occupy Superior Township for Democracy.
(VOD ed. note: The Michigan Senate passed SB 865(1) on Dec. 15, 2011 after speeding wildly from its introduction on Dec. 1. It is now in the House. The bill essentially creates a substitute means for the Governor and Treasurer to maintain continued control of municipalities that have emergency managers, even if sufficient valid signatures for the referendum to repeal Public Act 4 have been collected. Click on Analysis of SB 865 as passed by the Senate 2011-SFA-0865-B[1]and on PA 4 2011-SCVBS-0865-9088[1] for the full text of the bill.)
Benton Harbor rally: Wanda Hill of Detroit and George Moon of BH demand REPEAL PUBLIC ACT 4
This will be a peaceful non-violent assembly. The rally will include citizens, labor, clergy and elected officials from around the state of Michigan. Our drop point is WASHTENAW COMMUNITY COLLEGE, 4800 E. Huron Drive, Ypsilanti, Michigan. Upon meeting there we will march to the gates of Governor Snyder’s neighborhood. [The map is posted at the bottom of this article.]
Thank you to the event’s supporters:Jobs with Justice, UAW, MEA, USWA, Sugar Law Center, Labor Notes, AFSCME, elected officials all over the state, ministers and clergy from Detroit, Highland Park, Flint, Benton Harbor, Lansing, Inkster, Muskegon, Welfare Rights and ant-poverty advocates, Occupy Detroit, NAACP and many more.:
BELOW ARE DETAILS OF BUS SITES AND MAP OF MARCH ROUTE: Continue reading →
Snitch may testify in Charles Jones exam set for Thurs. Jan. 26, 1:30 p.m; Jones’ daughter is Aiyana Stanley-Jones, killed by Detroit police at 7
By Diane Bukowski
January 10, 2012 (Updated January 12, 2012)
Aiyana Stanley-Jones
(Ed. note: Prosecutors announced last week that the plea deal for Chauncey Owens, who the daily media has claimed would testify against Jones, has been officially vacated and he will stand trial for first-degree murder after he refused three times to testify against Jones in court. The outcome was expected by both Owens and his attorney David Cripps. His next court hearing will be Feb. 5 in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Richard Skutt, to set a trial date. Jones’ next court hearing is Jan. 26, 2012.)
DETROIT – Why alleged “jailhouse snitch” Jay Allen Schlenkerman, Michigan Department of Corrections #370328, is not serving time for kidnapping, rape and attempted murder, after severely beating several women, holding them against their will, and threatening to kill them, is an indictment of the court system and its treatment of domestic violence victims.
Simulated photo using actors
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s office charged Schlenkerman only with “aggravated domestic violence,” a misdemeanor, in 2011, and with “assault and battery” on his wife in 1999. They have not charged him with perjury for lying to police and judges about the incidents, once in writing, even after pleading guilty.
Wayne County Asst. Prosecutor Robert Moran said Dec. 20 that he wants Schlenkerman to testify on Jan. 28 that a fellow prisoner at the Wayne County Dickerson facility, Chauncey Owens, “bragged” about killing Je’rean Blake May 14 and said Charles Jones, father of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, gave him the gun. Detroit police shot Aiyana, 7, to death May 16, 2011 during a Special Response Team assault on her home.
Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes
Thirty-Sixth District Court Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes is to hear arguments from Jones’ attorney Leon Weiss, of the Fieger law firm, and Owens’ attorney David Cripps, that Schlenkerman should not be allowed to testify Jan. 26. Absent any statement from Owens, Moran appears to have no other direct evidence against Jones.
In a handwritten statement in court files, Debbie C. a mother of two, described her last encounter with Schlenkerman May 25, 2011, the crime for which he was serving time in Dickerson. (Last names of women in this story are not being used to prevent adverse affects on their lives.)
“Early morning, 1:30, he came home drunk and proceeded to beat me with a belt in face, upper body, vaginal area and groin, made me sleep in the bathroom, peed on me, and wouldn’t let me leave,” Debbie C. said. “He stuck his fingers up my butt and then in my mouth and told me that’s what a dirty whore tastes like.”
She said she was held against her will in her home for three days, and that Schlenkerman threatened to kill her if she left him. That was likely the reason Brownstown Township police cited “kidnapping” in the first report they filed with Michigan State Police. Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Opolla Brown changed the charge to misdemeanor domestic violence.
Closed head injury depiction
Debbie C. added in her report that this was only one of numerous and repeated similar incidents, during which Schlenkerman also forced her to have sex, during their three-year relationship.
Medical records in the court file show she was treated for a closed head injury, physical and sexual abuse, post-traumatic stress syndrome, likely leakage of cerebro-spinal fluid through her nose, and that she was experiencing “night terrors.”
Schlenkerman was sentenced in the Debbie C. case to 180 days in jail, with 34 days credit for time served, and 18 months probation, according to court files. Continue reading →
Florida’s drug testing program was ruled unconstiutional by a Federal judge. Gov. Rick Scott’s wife owns a chain of clinics doing the testing. A similar pilot program in Michigan in 2003 was tossed out by the Michigan Supreme Court.
State Rep. Jeff Farrington (R-Utica), House assistant majority floor leader
(VOD: Michigan Rep. Jeff Farrington (R-Utica), house assistant majority floor leader, introduced H.B. 5223 in Dec. 2011, which would require that all recipients of public assistance be drug tested and denied benefits if the tests are positive. (Click on Welfare drug testing 2011-HIB-5223[1]) The Department of Human Services has now drafted a proposal for such testing.
Individual hearings on the cut-offs of thousands of families from assistance are continuing. According to advocates from Michigan Legal Services, administrative law judges are ruling against the recipients.
The Senate Fiscal Analysis division just released a report predicting that the state will have a budget SURPLUS this year of almost $1 BILLION. It is time for the state’s unions, churches, community groups and others to unite in support of these victims of corporate greed, which has eliminated hundreds of thousands of jobs in Michigan.
Below is a column by a University of Houston doctoral candidate.
State House during vote to cut off public assistance; WHY NOT TEST LEGISLATORS FOR DRUGS?
Under the guise of ensuring prudent government spending and personal accountability, state Legislatures across the country are proposing that mandatory drug testing be a condition for receiving welfare assistance. Everything from food stamps to unemployment benefits would be awarded only after screening for illicit drug use, and supporters are championing this measure as a sensible means of preventing the waste of tax-payers’ dollars on “junkies” and “addicts.”
Whatever the intent, such drug testing policies violate the constitutional rights of those who are already facing financial hardship and simply will not stand up against legal challenge.
Courts have ruled that drug testing constitutes an unreasaonable search; here a technician tests urine taken under mandate.
In previous cases, the US Supreme Court has ruled that drug testing constitutes a form of search, and when carried out by a government agency, falls under the regulation of the fourth amendment. As a result, the prerequisite of probable cause must exist prior to conducting a drug test. Such conditions must be met on a case by case basis, and the blanket approach of screening all welfare applicants is overly presumptive.
In essence, states are taking the position that all welfare applicants are suspected drug users and are subject to being searched. There is no reasonable basis for such suspicion, hence the conviction that this form of obligatory drug testing is illegal. Continue reading →
By Greg Thrasher, VOD Washington Bureau contributing editor
January 5, 2011
One of the things about living in the DC region that reminds me of living in Detroit is quite often the similar themes of inequity are always present. It is a constant of life in America regardless of one’s domicile. The specter of inequality is always present in every aspect of life for people of color. Recently the discussion about failed educational outcomes of DC students was always depicted as the sole failure of unprepared Black students who lacked the basic intellectual skill set to achieve. This ugly theme is whispered often and it is water cooler and chatter class discourse whenever Black folks are not present .
Media accounts documenting the disproportionate rates of suspensions between Black and white students in the DC Region school districts of course are not a newsflash to many people, including Black parents. The contempt for Black students is similar to what their parents encounter. The soft bigotry of low expectations shares the lesson plan with disparate rates of expulsion and suspensions for Black students. The landscape of academic success in our nation for Black students is full of obstacles; navigation is
perilous in all levels of education from kindergarten to the university venue for Black students.
Students in DC classroom
The more important issue now is how can Black families and their students navigate around these inequities and obstacles. Black parents must develop their own lesson guide to disarm educational officials, teachers and even students who discount the educational goals of Black students. We must embrace our own self worth, recognizing that we are worthy of respect and our offspring deserve superior educational efforts and outcomes. Black parents must develop strategies that equip them to combat , reject and influence educational systems that have contempt for our offspring.
Instead of lamenting the horrors of a destructive pathological educational system that has contempt for Black students, now is the time to develop our own lesson plans that produce motivated students who can themselves defeat the waves of contempt for them that exist in our classrooms across the DC region and our nation.
Brandon Jessup, leader of Michigan Forward and campaign to Repeal Public Act 4
On December 22, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow PUSH and allies met at Bethany Baptist Church in Detroit for a community meeting and later press conference regarding Public Act 4. These allies included Michigan members of the Occupy Movement, faith and community leaders.
What’s been swirling around the local conservative talk crowd is “civil disobedience” and what that means in regards to the campaign against dictatorship in Michigan. The term itself leans towards some type of abnormal behavior normally frowned upon by mainstream society.
Yet, what’s abnormal about demanding my right to vote and defending not those who were elected to office, but in essence the office itself. I guess that’s the problem: the Repeal effort isn’t an attack on any one elected official so it’s not personal, this is business. Petitions, laws, legislation, recall, election and voting are the tools of our government and how we govern ourselves. This campaign engages and uses democracy to fight this odious and unconstitutional law. This state-wide movement is touching every corner of Michigan. For the record, civil disobedience began when the Michigan Legislature passed and Governor Snyder signed into law Public Act 4, March 26, 2011.
Young woman rallies against Snyder in Benton Harbor earlier this year
Over 163,000 voters in Michigan see our petition as an effort to see Democracy work again. Some signers have said to me, “I didn’t know Gov. Snyder would do this.” I understand what they mean, so I won’t draw opinions from that statement. Michigan’s Dictator Law is a reflection of the ultra conservative stand the Michigan Legislature, Attorney General, Secretary of State and Governor have taken against the majority of Michigan voters.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has pursued a state lawsuit against the Affordable Health Care Act. President Obama’s efforts to reform health care were met with a ferocity that many think crossed the line between politics and personal. Tea Party members threatened the lives of members of Congress, hurled racial, homophobic and other derogatory slurs like beads at Mardi Gras towards our national leadership. This activity was supported with 20 states filing lawsuits against the constitutionality of health care reform, another example of civil disobedience. Continue reading →
Huge rally lays plans to repeal Emergency Manager act
January 3, 2012
By Diane Bukowski
DETROIT – Over 2500 Detroiters packed a local church Jan. 2 to stop a complete state takeover of their city. Under Public Act 4, enacted last year, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and State Treasurer Andy Dillon are rapidly moving to appoint an “emergency manager” (EM) to run the city, disenfranchising the residents of the world’s largest majority-Black city outside of Africa.
US Congressman John Conyers addresses rally against PA 4 January 2, with Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, a co-convenor, at his left; Council members Kwame Kenyatta and Brenda Jones are at far right
The EM would have the unilateral power to strip the city of all its assets, including its water and sewerage department, the third largest in the country, remove elected officials, abrogate union contracts, take over its pension funds, worth $6 billion, and even dis-incorporate the city.
Wall Street’s Fitch Ratings agency has said that an EM takeover will cause the banks to call in $400 million of outstanding city bonds immediately, one-third of the city’s budget. Detroit is paying $579 million on its debt to the banks in the current fiscal year.
“It is our understanding if you choose to appoint an Emergency Manager to oversee Detroit, that would mean that approximately 50 percent of all the African American citizens in the State would be living under the authority of unelected managers,” U.S. Congressman John Conyers (D-Detroit) and 65 elected officials wrote Snyder on Dec. 15.
Part of mass audience rallies against PA 4 in Detroit January 2
They received no response. Instead, Snyder has now moved to the second step of the takeover procedure, the appointment of a 10-member formal review team to conduct a 60-day study of the city’s finances, which he can cut short at any time to declare a takeover.
Rev. Edward Pinkney, leader of Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO), in Benton Harbor, denounces effects of PA 4 on his majority Black city, its first victim. Photo by Dale Rich
Snyder and Dillon have focused their PA4 takeovers almost exclusively on the state’s majority-Black cities, including Benton Harbor, Flint, Inkster, Pontiac and the public school systems of Detroit, Highland Park, and Inkster.
Conyers also wrote U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Dec. 2 asking him to take action against the takeovers under the nation’s Voting Rights Act.
“It just so happens that I have a closer relationship with the 44th President of the United States and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, than I have ever had with anybody in the Washington White House,” Conyers said at the rally. To date, however, Holder has announced no action, despite the Justice Department’s investigations of current voting practices in other cities. An inquiry to his office had not been answered by press time.
Conyers, Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, and the Moratorium NOW! Coalition were among the chief conveners of the rally, held at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church on the city’s central west side.
PA 4 referendum organizer Brandon Jessup explains how to get valid petition signatures at rally January 2
Brandon Jessup, leader of Michigan Forward, which initiated a referendum petition drive to overturn PA 4, called on Detroiters at the rally to collect 100,000 petition signatures in the next two weeks. Michigan Forward, in coalition with unions and community groups, has collected 170,000 signatures state-wide since the petition drive was launched last June. At least 161,000 valid signatures are needed.
Al Garrett, president of Michigan AFSCME Council 25, said his union and Michigan Forward plan to take the petitions to the State Board of Canvassers Jan. 18. If the signatures are certified, the state constitution requires the act be frozen until a popular vote in November of this year.
Council 25 President Al Garrett
“We plan to hit the streets, and knock on doors,” Garrett said. The audience responded with a resounding “Yes” and a standing ovation when he asked if they were ready to lead the charge. Jessup said they are focusing on the next three Saturdays to “take it to the streets” with the petition drive, and gave detailed instructions to the audience on how to collect valid signatures. (See details at end of story.)
The state says it wants the Detroit takeover because the city is under “severe financial stress,” with an expected deficit of $155 million this year. In his recommendation for a formal review, Treasurer Dillon also cited the $579 million paid out on the city’s debt this year, and said the city’s total debt load is approaching $12 billion.
However, the state has announced it expects to end its fiscal year with a budget surplus of up to $1 billion, at least $242 million in the general fund, and $645 million in the state school aid fund. The surplus has resulted largely from slashing revenue-sharing funds to municipalities and aid to the schools, and cutting tens of thousands of Michigan residents off public assistance.
Maureen Taylor, president of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, addresses rally against PA 4 Jan. 2
“This state government is aimed at destroying the lives of women and children,” said Maureen Taylor, President of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization.
Helen Moore of the Keep the Vote No Takeover coalition noted that two state takeovers of the city’s public schools have resulted in the fact that 66,000 Detroit students now attend charter schools. Close to ninety-percent of state per-pupil aid to Detroit goes to pay off the district’s debt to the banks, largely incurred during the takeovers.
State officials have said they want to use the state surplus to pay off the state’s own debt, estimated at $76.6 billion, according to the U.S. Debt Clock.
Attorney Jerome Goldberg, with attorney Vanessa Fluker to his right, both of Moratorium NOW! calls for a moratorium on debt to the banks. Photo by Dale Rich
But Councilwoman Watson and the entire City Council, the city’s Mayor Dave Bing, and the State Legislature’s Black Caucus have demanded that, at the very least, the state repay $220 million it owes to the city as a result of a revenue-sharing agreement with a previous governor.
Snyder has refused, saying it would be only a one-time solution. Continue reading →
