Detroit: 'Get involved and fight back'
By
Cheryl LaBash
Published Feb 13, 2005 6:28 PM
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.
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"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.
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