Michigan anti-war movement confronts Sen. Carl Levin

The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI) in Detroit, as well as anti-war organizations in Saginaw, Grand Rapids and Lansing, Mich., picketed the offices of Sen. Carl Levin, the Democratic chair of the Armed Services Committee on Jan. 19 to demand that he take action to take U.S. troops out of Iraq.

MECAWI organizer Jerry Goldberg told Workers World, “The demonstration against Senator Levin is the first action in a campaign we are launching, in conjunction with the national Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC), to demand that Congress, and especially the Democrats, live up to their Congressional mandate to end the war in Iraq. The way to do this is for Congress to immediately cut off all funds for the war and bring the troops home now.

“We are encouraged that this week two resolutions introduced into Congress, HR 455 and HR 508, move in that direction. HR 508, introduced by congresspersons Woolsey, Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters, calls for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops and military contractors from Iraq within six months, and limits funding for the troops to bringing them home now.”

Goldberg continued: “The war in Iraq has already cost the people of Michigan $9.5 billion and the city of Detroit alone $600 million in stolen tax revenues. We are demanding that those funds be allocated instead to meet the needs of the people of Michigan who are facing an unprecedented economic crisis.”

A recent study by University of Michigan economists Joan Crary, George Fulton and Saul Hymans pointed out that Michigan has lost more than 336,000 jobs in the past six years and is expected to lose another 33,000 jobs in the next two years. That would make it the longest stretch of job loss in the state since the 1929 stock market crash. The U. of M. study assessed: “Michigan is being battered by one of the most tenacious economic storms ever confronted by its citizenry. ... At no time, or at least as far back as the records take us, has the state endured such a drawn-out disturbance.”

The consequences of this massive job loss have been dire. Some 47,000 Detroit households have had their water cut off. Wayne County had the most foreclosed properties in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2006. Statewide, the number of homes in some stage of foreclosure tripled in September 2006 from a year earlier.

An Aug, 30, 2005, report from the Michigan League of Human Services indicated that in 2003-2004 child poverty in Michigan was suffered by 18 percent of the state’s children. Some 48 percent of Detroit’s children live in poverty. The state is facing an $800 million budgetary shortfall and is projecting a $224-per-student reduction in school aid at a time when Detroit is already shutting down 51 schools.

MECAWI is planning to picket Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s State of the State address in Lansing on Feb. 6 and demand that the governor exercise her emergency powers to declare a State of Economic Disaster pursuant to MCL 30.401, et seq. This law gives the governor emergency powers to meet the crisis. MECAWI is demanding that the governor exercise her authority to declare an immediate moratorium on evictions, foreclosures, utility shut-offs, school closings, plant shutdowns and lay-offs.

MECAWI points out that in the 1930s a moratorium prevented foreclosures for seven years during the depression. “While the moratorium is in effect, the people of Michigan will have time to go and stay in Washington and protest until the stolen war funding is restored to the state,” said Goldberg.

For Feb. 17, at 1:00 p.m., MECAWI has announced a town hall meeting to take place at Central Methodist Church in downtown Detroit. The theme of the meeting is “Not one more penny for the war.” Community members are being invited to bring the bills they can’t pay to this meeting, and to testify on the economic effects of the Iraq war.

MECAWI is also organizing for the March 17, 2007, march on Washington to cut off the funding for war, bring the troops home now, and demand the billions in war spending be utilized instead to meet human needs at home.

For more information visit www.mecawi.org.