Flier from Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's September 2014 Visit to the Flint Farmers Market

VOTE   WHILE   YOU   STILL   CAN!

Under Michigan’s Emergency Manager law, the city of Flint is run from Lansing. Flint’s city council, mayor, and charter have no power; residents have no voice. All local decisions are made by Gov. Snyder and carried out by an Emergency Manager (EM) he appoints.

This is dictatorship and it is dangerous!—not simply dangerous to our fundamental rights,

but dangerous to our very health.

Financial Emergency  Fixes Cause Health Emergency Crises

The United Nations has declared “safe, clean, accessible, and affordable drinking water and sanitation” to be a human right. Water shutoffs and unsafe water deny this right and put entire communities at risk of disease and other health complications.

The multiple fecal contaminations of Flint's water supply are the direct result of the decision to abandon the Detroit water supply for a new Lake Huron pipeline. Even though independent auditors commissioned by the State called this a "major risk" and said Flint and Genesee County residents would be better off staying with the Detroit regional authority, Snyder's EM pushed the plan through.

Now everyone is paying high water rates because those fees are the security for bondholders in the new pipeline deal underwritten by J.P. Morgan Chase and UBS. That's the “comeback kid” in action!

Our Public Health at the Expense of Our Public Wealth

Through Snyder’s EM, the State of Michigan handed private Flint corporation Uptown Reinvestment $5.65 million in grants and low-interest loans to create “an emerging health and wellness district” downtown. Flint’s EM also awarded Uptown a 12-year, $1 million tax abatement and $880K in federal community development block grants for the project that:

• privatized control of the once-public Flint Farmers’ Market
• gifted publicly-owned Genesee Towers to Uptown for $1
• setup MSU's Public Health program as Uptown’s tenant in the old Flint Journal building

If State resources exist for “public health districts” that benefit wealthy private interests, Governor Snyder can allocate resources to address actual public health emergencies arising from soaring water rates, water shutoffs, an unsafe water supply, and the theft of local democracy.

Lower Water Rates Now! Stop Water Shutoffs Now! Safe Water Now! Restore Democracy Now!

Labor Donated   •   Contact the Democracy Defense League at DemocracyDefenseLeague@gmail.com

PAMPHLET: "The Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance" by Thomas Paine

The city of Detroit's historic bankruptcy is the perfect occasion to point out again that not all of America's "founding fathers" were enamored with finance-based capitalism.

In the pamphlet below, Tom Paine observes:

"...though all the approaches to bankruptcy may actually exist in circumstances, they admit of being concealed by appearances."

BONUS: In the ongoing debate about whether Thomas Paine was or was not a socialist, the following excerpt from his Agrarian Justice provides some insight:

"Personal property is the effect of society; and it is as impossible for an individual to acquire personal property without the aid of society, as it is for him to make land originally.

Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all cases, that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore, of personal property, beyond what a man’s own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came."

Emergency Dictator Double-Standard in Michigan's Genesee County Alone

Kenneth B. Clark and the famous Doll Test.

On May 13, the Detroit Branch of the NAACP announced that it had filed a federal challenge to the current Emergency Manager Law in Michigan. In the section of their complaint (PDF) entitled "State Treasurer Process for Emergency Manager Selection was Discriminatory in its Application," they include Genesee County as an example of how the State's own methodology for determining if a "financial emergency" exists has been applied indiscriminately (or rather, quite discriminately as it were) :

73. In Genesee County, the City of Flint has a fiscal score of 8, and an Emergency Manager was appointed. Of further relevance is that Genesee Township (8.18% African American population) did not receive an Emergency Manager even though it had a fiscal score of 9, a higher score than Flint. Argentine (0.23% African American population) did not receive an Emergency Manager even though it had a fiscal score 6, equal to Pontiac’s score. Davison (1.8% African American population) did not receive an Emergency Manager even though it had a fiscal score 6, equal to Pontiac’s score. Flint Township (16.12% African American population) did not receive an Emergency Manager even though it had a fiscal score 7, a higher score than Pontiac. And Thetford Township (2.91% African American population) did not receive an Emergency Manager even though it had a fiscal score of 7, a higher score than Pontiac.

SEE: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/treasury/Genesee_341964_7.pdf

VIDEO: School House in the Red (1945) - W.K. Kellogg Foundation

What is the best way to train schoolchildren useful skills like pesticide application, Ms. Apple Blossom?

VIDEOS: Flint Rally Against Michigan's Emergency Manager Law (Public Act 4)

Rev. Jesse Jackson's visit to Flint's Foss Avenue Baptist Church the day before this rally helped bring out a large crowd of Flint residents. Rev. Jackson came to Flint to show solidarity with Foss Avenue's Pastor Flynn, who had been arrested earlier in the month for voicing his concerns about the undemocratic nature of Public Act 4 (the Emergency Manager Law) inside Flint City Hall. (NOTE: Apologies for not being able to stay to record Pastor Flynn's remarks).

FLINT PROTEST: Michigan Emergency Manager Law (P.A. 4) Amounts to "Taxation Without Representation"

Sign-Making Party for Monday's protest will take place Friday at 6 pm at Occupy Flint 

FLINT, April 24 - On Monday April 30th Flint General Assembly will host a protest against Public Act 4 (the emergency manager law).

The protest will be from 11am to 1pm on the lawn of Flint City Hall, 1101 S. Saginaw Street.

The Flint General Assembly began meeting when Flint emergency manager Mike Brown cancelled the regularly scheduled city council meetings late last year. “Our Flint income taxes are due April 30th,“ said Nayyirah Shariff, one of the protest organizers. “As things stand now, because we have an emergency manager, we will have no say in how those taxes are spent.”

Governor Rick Snyder announced the appointment of an emergency manager November 8th, the day Flint residents went to the polls to vote for mayor. Mike Brown started December 1st 2011.

"We're paying for an unelected bureaucrat that doesn't have our interests in mind. He's using our tax money to harm the city," said Blair Neifert, another protest organizer.

Yesterday emergency manager Mike Brown presented his budget to Flint City Council. The budget included public safety layoffs, privatization of city services, and projected increased water rates for residents.

Under Public Act 4, the emergency manager assumes the power of the mayor and city council, the legislative and executive branches of local government.

In February, the grassroots group Stand Up For Democracy turned in 226,637 signatures to repeal the law. The state Board of Canvassers will be meeting April 26th to vote whether to certify the signatures to put the issue on the ballot for November.

"It's up to us to take back our democracy," said Paul Jordan. Mr. Jordan is one of the plaintiffs in the statewide lawsuit challenging the constitutionality for Public Act 4.

The protest will also include a short theatrical event.

For more information about the protest contact: Nayyirah Shariff at (810) 610-3681.

 ######

LEAFLET: "Occupy for Democracy" in Michigan! MLK Day March to Governor Snyder's!

Bus/Transportation Info: http://bit.ly/wXWTqk | Map: http://g.co/maps/fdfp8

MORE: "Occupy For Democracy" #J16

Autoworker Caravan Press Release: Skilled Trades Workers Appeal “Ratification” of Tentative UAW-Chrysler Agreement

For Immediate Release:

WHAT: Skilled Trades Workers Appeal “Ratification” of Tentative UAW-Chrysler Agreement
WHO: Autoworker Caravan
DATE: November 4, 2011
CONTACT: Alex Wassell, Warren Stamping, UAW, L. 869, tel: 734-629-7226 | George Windau, Toledo Jeep, UAW, L. 12, tel: 419-320-2230

DRUM (Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement - 1968)

On November 4, 2011, an appeal was filed by UAW skilled trades members to overturn the decision of UAW President Bob King and the International Executive Board (IEB) that the Skilled Trades section of the 2011 Chrysler-UAW Contract was ratified.

The appeal letter was written by George Windau, a member of Toledo Jeep Unit, Local 12, and co-signed by UAW skilled trades members from other Local Unions in Michigan and Ohio.

The letter asks for documentation on how President King and the IEB arrived at their decision on the same day the vote totals were announced. Whereas the contract was ratified by the whole membership by 54%, the skilled trades rejection was by 55%.

Brother Windau and 226 co-appellants thus far start the formal appeal process claiming that Brother King and the IEB violated the UAW Constitution with their summary rejection of the Skilled Trades ballot results.

“We feel it is time for the UAW to recognize that when you cast a vote it means something. We were not asked why we voted no. Our voices need to be honored and heard”, claims Windau.

INTERVIEW: "Paul Robeson - All American" by Open Mind (1989)

BOOK: "Time Bomb: America's Sinister New Fascism; Will It Explode on Schedule?" By E.A. Piller (1945)

The Top 5 Direct Action Moments in Literary Fiction

5. Lock Down by Edmund Fitzpatrick

Summary:
Fed up with low pay, dangerous conditions, and months away from their families, the crew of the SS Richard DeVos mutiny. When the owners of the ore freighter refuse their modest demands, the men initiate the second phase of their stratagem: recruiting the crew of the SS Jay VanAndel to join them in navigating their massive vessels, now armed and fortified, to block all access to the Soo Locks, effectively halting Great Lakes shipping.

Movie: "Democracy" (1945)

This is the companion film to Despotism, which is also located in the Prelinger Archive section of Archive.org.

BOOK: "Industrial Socialism" by Big Bill Haywood and Frank Bohn

ANTI-PROTEST MOVIE: "Brink of Disaster" (1972)

"How 1960s activism "threatens" American moral, religious and ethical principles."

PART 1



PART 2