‘Stop the War’ campaign shakes up Michigan

A Green Party “Stop the War” slate of multinational candidates emerged in Michigan to carry out a dynamic election campaign around the state in protest against the war in Iraq, as well as the war being waged on working people inside the United States. Activists with the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI), including members of Workers World Party, formed an alliance with the Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) to put forward the slate that, collectively, garnered hundreds of thousands of votes from working people.

David Sole, a longtime leader of Workers World Party and MECAWI organizer, was the Stop the War Slate candidate for U.S. senator. Sole waged an aggressive effort around the state to expose the true character of the Democratic incumbent candidate, Debbie Stabenow, who ultimately won reelection.

Sole’s campaign emphasized that Stabenow, while posturing as anti-war, had voted for every Senate appropriations bill funding the Iraq war. She had also supported the racist, anti-immigrant fence along the Mexican border, the “torture” bill, the anti-worker bankruptcy overhaul, and the Patriot Act.

In contrast, Sole called for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. reparations to Lebanon and Palestine for its role in backing of Israeli wars there, immediate rights and citizenship for all immigrant workers, and re-direction of money wasted on war to fund jobs and health care, education, housing and other human needs.

Sole took his anti-war, pro-human-needs message directly to the people, with meetings in over 13 cities and towns, including several in conservative northern Michigan.

Sole’s campaign went with sound cars and literature distributions into the Latin@ and Arab communities in Detroit and surrounding areas, where activists reported a positive response. Strong anti-war ads were placed in newspapers in those communities as well as in dozens of newspapers around Michigan.

The Michigan Citizen, a weekly African-American community newspaper, officially endorsed Sole in an Oct. 22 editorial. The Western Michigan University newspaper, the Herald, also endorsed Sole in an Oct. 2 editorial.

Other progressive and student newspapers and radio stations, as well as some cable TV stations, gave coverage to the Sole for Senate campaign, including a front page article in the Michigan Citizen, and an article in the Metro Times—a free weekly in the metro Detroit area.

But the corporate-owned media refused to cover Sole’s campaign or the campaign of other Green Party candidates, despite dozens of press releases on every major issue sent by Sole’s campaign to statewide media outlets. Sole and others were also excluded from candidate debates to which only the Republican and Democratic candidates were invited.

Despite these obstacles, the Sole for U.S. Senate campaign resonated with many workers and poor people as well as students around Michigan. And some in the progressive movement supported and promoted Sole’s candidacy, such as well-known Chicana community leader and immigrant rights activist Elena Herrada.

Rejecting the “Republicrats”

Two Stop the War Slate candidates did receive major media coverage—after the elections were over. Kyle McBee, a young activist in his early twenties who works several jobs to survive, was candidate for 13th District State Senate in Oakland County. McBee was the subject of a venomous press attack blaming the Stop the War Slate candidates for “stealing votes” from the Democrats. (Detroit News and Free Press)

McBee and Lloyd Clarke, a retired UAW activist and candidate for 32nd District State Senate in Saginaw and Gratiot Counties, each received more votes than the difference in votes between the Democratic and Republican candidates. This tipped control of the State Senate to the Republicans.

McBee’s opponents were reactionary Republican John Pappageorge, who eked out an 800-vote victory, and Democrat Andy Levin, scion of the Michigan Levin political machine. Both candidates spent almost $2 million on the race. Levin waged an opportunistic and reactionary campaign against immigrant workers.

Clarke, a former auto worker, received 2.5 percent of the vote in his district, well over the 520 votes, or one-half percentage point, that elected the Republican candidate. Clarke ran an active campaign, placing over 5,600 hanger cards on mailboxes throughout rural Saginaw and Gratiot counties.

Anti-war, pro human needs

All Green Party of Michigan candidates used the campaign to take an anti-war, pro-human-needs message to the people during this months-long campaign. Several candidates made support of the Palestinian struggle a focus of their campaigns. The Green Party candidate for U.S. Congress in the Flint area was a retired Delphi worker and union activist.

Kevin Carey, a laid-off substitute teacher, laid out a program for equal school funding in Michigan, unlike the apartheid-style funding system now in place. Carey also walked the picket lines with striking Detroit school teachers.

Michael Merriweather, a Wayne State student and candidate for WSU Board of Governors, traveled around the state calling for a new kind of education—“an honest view of history from those who lived it ... a focus on women, minorities and working class people ... whose social struggles provide inspiring models for social changes in the present.”

Kristen Hamel, candidate for state representative on Detroit’s East Side, took part in a debate that was televised repeatedly on cable stations in the Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods, also part of her district. Hamel, a longtime member of Workers World Party, articulated a program for turning around the economic disaster faced by workers and the poor in Michigan, and called for using the state’s share of money going to the Pentagon to fund a massive jobs program instead. Hamel called for a moratorium on foreclosures, evictions, utility shut offs, plant closings and layoffs.

By far the largest vote-getter for the Stop the War slate, coming in fifth in a field of 9 candidates including two Democrats and two Republicans, was Lauren Elizabeth Spencer. A 19-year-old Michigan State University sophomore, Spencer ran for a slot on the Michigan State University Board of Trustees. Spencer waged a bold campaign throughout the state and was endorsed by Between the Lines, Michigan’s weekly newspaper for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, as well as the State News, the MSU newspaper.

Spencer also received the endorsement, as did the entire anti-war slate, of Leslie Feinberg, internationally known author and LGBT leader, with whom Spencer shared a platform in meetings in Detroit and East Lansing. Feinberg used an October speaking tour in Michigan to rally against the Iraq war and for the Stop the War Slate candidates and program.

For more information on the Stop the War Slate campaign on the GPMI ticket, you can still visit the beautiful Web site, designed by MECAWI activist Michael Johnson, at www.stopthewarslate.org. The U.S. Library of Congress will archive the web pages of the 2006 David Sole for U.S. Senate campaign.