Detroit: 'Get involved and fight back'

Detroit

Once known as Motown or Motor City, Detroit lost its auto factories to restructuring 20 years ago. Today working and unemployed women and men are looking for answers as local and national budget cuts in the midst of a war are bringing devastation. Life grows more difficult every day.

School board worker Otis Mathis in floor discussion.

"Let your voice be heard. Get involved. Fight back," said the call for a Million Worker March speak-out forum held here Feb. 5. Inspired by the Million Worker March in Washington, D.C., last Oct. 17, the gathering united organizers fighting water service shutoffs with the fight for immigrant rights and the common interests of working people across international borders.

Although only 14 percent of workers in the U.S. are union members, said Mau reen Taylor, state chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, the other 86 percent are potential members of her org ani zation--and together they will be strong.

Dave Sole, president of UAW Local 2334, spoke representing the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice. Sole worked at the Fisher Body Fleetwood auto plant for 17 years until it was closed down.

Facing restructuring again today as a City of Detroit worker, Sole said, "Detroit isn't poor. It pays $300 million in interest on bonds. According to Employment Research Associates, Detroit's share of the Iraq war budget last year was $429 million. Police brutality lawsuits pay out more per capita than Los Angeles."

Charles Brown saw the victories of working people in the state of Michigan--from the sitdown strikes that organized the auto industry during the 1930s, to the reclaiming of Detroit's right to elect its School Board in the last election--as preparation for new struggles ahead.