Ann Arbor students defend affirmative action
Special to Workers World
Ann Arbor, Mich.
More than 500 students at the University of
Michigan in Ann Arbor rallied in defense of affirmative action
on Feb. 24.
As part of a "Day of Action" initiated by the Rev. Jesse
Jackson, a coalition of student groups sponsored a morning
teach-in, a noon rally, a march through the campus and a
sit-in.
The coalition urged students and faculty to go on strike for
one day and participate in the various activities, instead of
going to regular classes.
The University of Michigan is currently the target of
several lawsuits aiming to end affirmative action. The
affirmative action program, begun in 1970, has increased the
number of African American and other students of color.
The program was the result of a mass, militant struggle by
the Black Action Movement in the late 1960s and early
1970s.
The lawsuits are being promoted by the "Center for
Individual Rights." At the Feb. 24 teach-in, students learned
that the CIR is a well-financed law firm that has gotten
enormous sums of money from corporate-funded foundations such
as the Bradley Foundation.
Bradley also funded the racist, pseudo-scientific book "The
Bell Curve," which promotes the reactionary "theory" that
people of color are genetically inferior.
The CIR was the firm that overturned affirmative action at
the University of Texas law school in the Hopwood case. It was
also a leading force behind the racist Proposition 209 in
California.
'By any means necessary'
A Feb. 24 rally on the diagonal plaza in the center of the
campus brought together students of many different
nationalities.
Students expressed strong support for speakers who called
for an end to U.S. military attacks and sanctions against
Iraq.
Throughout the rally, speakers repeated that they were not
content to depend on the legal process to defend affirmative
action. Student leaders vowed to build a militant movement in
the streets to keep and expand the gains won over many years of
difficult struggle.
Students later occupied Angel Hall, a major campus building,
to dramatize their determination to fight racism "by any means
necessary."
The week before, Detroit area unionists had also acted to
defend affirmative action.
At a Feb. 19 rally called by the Detroit Labor Forum,
veteran civil-rights activists and union militants spoke out
against the U of M lawsuits. They also denounced bills, now
before the state legislature, that would ban all state
affirmative-action programs-like California's Proposition
209.
According to Nathan Head of the Auto Workers Civil Rights
Department, there are similar bills before 26 state
legislatures.
Speakers called for stronger union action to expose and
fight the highly organized right-wing campaign. UAW Local 2334
President David Sole explained, "Class unity depends on
fighting racism."
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