Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Boggs Center – Living for Change News – 5-12-2022
May 9th, 2022
Thinking for Ourselves
Moral authorities
Shea Howell
As the war in Ukraine intensifies, the only solution being offered by most western powers is to provide more weapons. The Biden administration has now pledged $3.8 billion in military weapons of various sorts. Meanwhile Russia is glorifying its invasion as a triumph of military force. There are few voices for peace as the US and much of the world justifies accelerating arms in a conflict that is dangerously close to engulfing the globe.
As we watch this military buildup, I find myself thinking about Beirut and the destruction of that ancient city. Beginning in 1975 a bloody civil war erupted in Lebanon as people protested the authoritarian rule of Assad and as the Palestinians developed an independent power base. Over the course of nearly a decade of fighting more than 130,000 people were killed. Some of the most brutal massacres in modern history , at Sabra and Shatila, occurred there. Syrian, Israeli, and UN forces intervened, often intensifying killing in the name of peace. In 1983 the US suffered the largest military defeat since Viet Nam when a lone suicide bomber blew up a Marine Barracks, killing 241 people. Earlier that day, 58 French soldiers were killed in a similar attack. Both groups were part of a larger multinational force attempting to establish peace.
Just prior to the US withdrawal of troops in February of 1984, with little resolved, an American pilot, Robert Goodman, was shot down while flying over Lebanon. Goodman was a high profile hostage held in Syria. US military might was not able to affect the release or safety of the pilot.
In a stunning announcement, the Reverend Jesse Jackson organized a peace mission to Syria and Lebanon. He put together a group of well known civil rights ministers, including Louis Farrakhan, and set off to negotiate for Goodman’s release, in spite of the fact that he had no government support and Assad had refused to acknowledge his communications. After a week of careful negotiations, Goodman was released, returning home with Jackson.
Over the next few years Jackson continued his efforts at direct negotiations on behalf of people held hostage. He persuaded Slobodan Milosovic, Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein, as well as Hafez-al-Assad, to free American captives. In doing so, he cast himself as a “citizen of the world” and as a man representing the moral authority of the civil rights movement.
On the 30th anniversary of the release of Goodman, Jackson reflected on the experience saying that it was only possible because of the respect people around the globe had for US civil rights activists who had challenged the authority of the US government. He said, “I think the Civil Rights Movement in America has moral authority in the world community. Our authority may not have an official office, but there’s a certain moral authority that the Civil Rights Movement has.”
In today’s political landscape it is impossible to see where such moral authority resides. Our most visible public figures challenging the legitimacy of the government do so from a position of fear and hate, justifying violence, limiting basic rights, and protecting white power and male privileges. Those of us who challenge them, and the racial capitalist system they support, have yet to find a clear, strong ground from which to project a different, loving future. The development of a broad movement for peace, rooted in the fundamental belief that we can yet create loving, justice communities is our most urgent task.
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Eastside Solutionaries Collective
Spring 2022 Newsletter
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In the midst of a community benefits negotiation with Stellantis on Detroit’s east side, emerged the Eastside Solutionaries Collective. The Collective began to advocate for support of area community groups working to improve the quality of life for residents at community benefits meetings. Their goal was to negotiate benefits from the auto plant in exchange for Stellantis continuing to encroach and pollute the area neighborhood. As that plan failed, the group continued to meet but was soon met with challenges as a pandemic later emerged.
Persistance was had as the group has since then launched a quarterly newsletter focused on highlighting community groups, organizations, and people who are committed to solution-driven opportunities for the east side, further promoting self-sufficiency and sustainability while raising the need for critical conversations. You can now read their latest newsletter, check out their blog, or reach out via email if you’d like to find how to get involved.
“To build community requires vigilant awareness of the work we must continually do to undermine all the socialization that leads us to behave in ways that perpetuate domination.” -bell hooks
What We’re Reading
Riverwise Magazine – Spring 2022
cover art: “Evolution” by Alicia Polk
The latest issue of Riverwise Magazine is here as it features a number of poems from local talent — including An Ode to Rev. Mama Sandra by Charles Ezra Farrell, art exhibit Womxn House, updates regarding the People’s Food Co-op, and article “Self-Care Isn’t Selfish: Implementing Well-being Practices in your Organization Benefits the Organization, the Movement, and Recognizes our Humanity”, and so much more.
You can find the full issue here, or grab a copy at various places throughout the city including:
- 27th Letter Books
- Good Cakes and Bakes
- Dabls Mbad African Bead Museum
- Nandi’s Knowledge Cafe
- Bert’s Warehouse
- Cafe 1923
- Boggs Center
- Samaritan Center
- Georgia St. Community Collective
The Tea’s latest issue features three dope transgender,gender-nonconformig, intersex, queer (TGNCIQ) folks working to help us heal. Check out the story, “The Healing Benefits of Kink” from guest writer, Sara Elise. The Tea correspondent, Tomme Faust also converses with Breya Johnson about reproductive justice, sexual violence, gender-expansive identities, and what consent looks like within our communities.
Catch all of the Tea in their latest newsletter and subscribe here.
Looking for something new to jam to? Check out music from Jay Marie is Holy (they/them) who The Tea describes as a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and gender- and genre-busting artist who’s on a mission to reclaim W-Holy-ness in a binary world meant to break
Check out their new single below!
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Allied Media Projects
In their latest blog post, AMP shares the news of piloting a 4-day work week in the name of rest and breaking capitalist-driven rituals. They also announced the opportunity for groups to learn together during their upcoming Allied Media Conference as they introduce AMCPods. They describe the project as “a way to create critical connections in the places we live”. This can include your collective, neighbors, biological & chosen family, colleagues, comrades, lovers & friends — apply here.
People’s Forum Report on Compensation
Check out this newly published report from The Coaltion for Property Tax Justice which follows feedback given from Detroiters who attended their People’s Forum this past January. The report summarizes feedback into categories of how Detroiters would prefer to be compensated should the city reimburse those who’ve experienced their home being overtaxed by the city.
People’s Forum Compensation Report
The Coalition is also calling for folks to write Mayor Duggan, demanding compensation for overtaxed Detroiters.
What We’re Watching
Detroit is Different presents:
Mom, what’s a mayor?
In their latest podcast episode, Detroit is Different features mayor, Monique Owens of Eastpointe, MI as she discusses how her love for East Coast Hip-hop and Church was a balance she found. Owens also shares of her diverse background as police officer, comedian, and now mayor, leading into her candidacy for State Senate.
Owens was elected in 2017 as Eastpointe Michigan’s first black councilwoman. In 2019, only two years into her term, she decided to run for mayor and became Eastpointe’s first black woman and youngest mayor to hold office in Macomb County’s history.
Check out the full interview
Detroit is Different is planning to expand and improve their outdoor podcast studio, ‘a Lot of Studio’ as they plan to raise $25,000 to help support a bigger stage, liver performance, more conversation, all new landscaping, and so much more. ‘a Lot of Studio,’ takes place in the community garden started by Detroit is Different founder Khary Frazier and steps away from the Detroit is Different incubator. ‘a Lot of Studio’ is an eclectic mix of welcoming culture, creativity, and community inside a legacy Detroit westside neighborhood.
If you support their vision and want to help, be sure to donate to their GoFundMe or spread the word!
Uplifting & Supporting Our Community
Finding Home: Stories of Displacement
Curation by Laura D. Gibson featuring Black Bottom Archives
Artist, Laura D. Gibson recently launched her latest exhibit, FINDING HOME: Stories of Displacement which “reflects on stories of home, displacement, and memory while exploring narratives of specific marginalized communities in America, through the eyes of local Detroit artists. FINDING HOME showcases work that advocates against displacement while shedding light on its historical consequences.”
The exhibit features Black Bottom Street View, Bryce Detroit, Parisa Ghaderi, Oren Goldenberg, Rebeca Maxon, Wayne Ramocan Jr., Darryl DeAngelo Terrell, and Anna van Schaap.
You can learn more here and catch the exhibit on display at Detroit Artists Market – 4719 Woodward Ave. Detroit, MI through May 21
Birwood Community House presents:
Community Lens Program Showcase
Community Lens Program Showcase
Friday, May 27 – 5pm – 7pm
Detroit Association of Black Organizations
12048 Grand River Ave., Detroit, MI 48204
Birwood House presents their Community Lens Program showcase where participating students will be honored and celebrated for their community involvement. Students who participate in the Community Lens Program will share their experiences as community stewards in the annual showcase, hosted by Detroit Association of Black Organizations (DABO).
The program emerged in 2017 with a unique collaboration between the Birwood Community House and Noble Elementary-Middle School which has allowed students to learn in dual environments. Birwood House is a non-profit organization that operates within the same neighborhood as the Noble school. Please join them as they welcome neighborhood residents, community stakeholders, and family members to celebrate the learning and community advocacy created by these students within the past year.
“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.” – Audre Lorde
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March 28th, 2022
Thinking for Ourselves
People not governments
Shea Howell
This week there were two important actions related to police violence. The first was the announcement that the Detroit Police Department has identified 128 officers who reflect “high risk” behaviors. The identification of these officers is the result of the work of a new unit created by Chief James White in an effort to hold officers who receive multiple complaints to be disciplined. White announced the identification of problem officers, acknowledging that until recently officers with records of repeated abuse and multiple citizen complaints have “slipped through the cracks.”
This image does not convey the dimensions of abuse citizens have endured at the hands of Detroit police, nor does it deal with the systemic failures of those who are supposed to police the police. Accusations range from the use of racist language and sexual harassment to the targeting and subsequent death of individuals.
The dimensions of repeated allegations of abuse of force are staggering. Today, 133 officers have amassed at least 30 complaints from people over whom they held life and death powers. 58 have been sued at least 5 times and another 93 have been disciplined at least 10 times. One officer, notoriously, had 85 separate cases for discipline. Under former Chief Craig, he was promoted. Craig’s excuse was he was unaware of all the problems. This individual was sued at least 8 times, costing the city $830,000.
The 128 individuals singled out are about 5% of the total number of people on the street. Most have been with the department less than 5 years, but they reflect a culture that has trained them and often rewarded people who do the very things these officers have.
All of this information and action did not come willingly from the Detroit Police Department. Rather, local news media forced the issue. Local reporting on police abuse, police misconduct and cover ups brought this information to light. The Detroit Police Department does not report statistics of use of force of death at the hands of police in any routine, transparent way. Nor does it provide statistics on citizen complaints, allegations of abuse or other concerning behaviors like domestic violence in ways that allow for public oversight.
Some of this is the product of union protections, distorted to challenge any effort to discipline egregious behaviors. But much of it is also the fault of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners. To say the Board is” dysfunctional” does not grasp the degree to which they have become a source of embarrassment to the city and contribute to the lawlessness of police. I have personally witnessed a police commissioner trying to raise legitimate questions about facial recognition being silenced, ruled out of order, and removed from a meeting in handcuffs. I have seen commissioners resort to holding signs up during zoom meetings announcing they are being muted by the chair, unable to voice even the simplest of questions. This behavior has been going on for a long time. In an editorial chronicling the sorry history of this commission by the Detroit Free Press reported that “by 2000, an analysis of 11 years of BOPC proceedings found that board members had become steadily less inclined to challenge the status quo, even when a rash of police shootings precipitated a protracted period of federal oversight. The BOPC stood silent as shootings and citizen complaints soared, unconstitutional practices like dragnet arrests became commonplace, and the cost of liability lawsuits ballooned.”
Things have only gotten worse.
Meanwhile, in Colorado, a Denver jury awarded $14 million after finding that the police engaged in the use of excessive force against individuals protesting police killings. This finding does not bode well for Detroit Police, who are charged with similar practices and are now trying to stall a lawsuit here.
Detroit citizen efforts to control the police have been resisted time and again. It should be obvious that reform is not possible. We need new methods of creating safe, peaceful communities. Peace cannot be created by people whose violence is protected. These “cracks” in public safety are an opportunity for us to open up new ways of caring for each other.
Uplifting & Supporting our Community
The 55th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s ‘A Time to Break Silence’ speech takes place April 4th. A coalition of national partners encourages your participation in the webinar they are hosting an evening to include a pre-recorded reading of the speech and a live panel discussion with well-known activists hosted by a broad coalition of civil and human rights, peace, and justice organizations.
This speech went beyond civil rights to condemn militarism, racism, and extreme materialism, enforced by a culture of violence, as the source of the ills that plague U.S. society and stands as one of Rev. Dr. King’s greatest accomplishments. By holding national and local readings, with discussions and actions relevant to the issues of today, we evoke Rev. Dr. King’s prophetic lessons, ground ourselves in these timeless truths, and keep his words alive by using them to guide our thoughts and actions in our work for justice today. Please join them.
Register for the event and find more information on their intiative here.
Detroit Independent Freedom Schools
Deciphering Detroit post 2021 elections
Don’t forget to join DIFS as the group continue to host biweekly discussions to regarding reparations food sovereignty, capitalism, and more. You can register for one or all of the upcoming sessions, happening Saturdays 2pm – 3:30pm. The next session takes features the discussion: Land and the Theft of African Americans’ Homes in Detroit
The Boggs Center is Hiring!
The Boggs Center is seeking 2 candidates to work as co-directors in the space of programming and operations. If you’re interested in applying, applications are being accepted until March 31 with a start date in June 2022.
Find out more information and next steps to apply here!
What We’re Hearing
At the start of Black Feminisms Month, Movement 4 Black Lives held a critical discussion with movement leaders Rukia Lumumba, Marbre Stahly-Butts, and Ash-Lee Woodward Henderson. A Black Feminist’s State of the Union broke down Biden’s version and shared an on-point assessment of the state of this union for Black people. You can check out the full video here.
Oil & Water Don’t Mix
Shut Down Line 5 & Say No to Oil Tunnel
On March 17, 2022, 100% of the public comments given before the Michigan Public Service Commission called for the denial of the Enbridge oil tunnel permit and to shut down Line 5. You can watch the recap of the public meeting above or at this link.
Oil & Water Don’t Mix is calling for folks to continue submitting public comments to request the rejection of the tunnel permit.
They’ve made it easy for you to submit a comment here!
Catch episodes of Freedom Dreams here! Freedom Dreams explores the many paths to building a truly just future for everyone. Centered in abolitionist thinking, this podcast, produced by the Detroit Justice Center, expands beyond the realm of criminal justice into conversations around what we could be building and prioritizing instead of punishment and further harm to make our communities genuinely safe.
What We’re Reading
Resilient Neighborhoods: This faith-based Detroit nonprofit helps young Detroiters succeedChurch of the Messiah was recently featured in an article from Model D, highlighting the work of the church’s separate organization,
BLVD Harambee. BLVD — Building Leaders for Village Development — pairs with Harambee, meaning ‘all pull together’ in Swahili.
The article features young entrepreneurs, John Giovanni of Giovanni Enterprises and Ryan Smith of Stay Ribelle, along with comentary from Pastor Barry Randolph who leads the initiative at the church.
“Our thing was, how do we get people to a point where they are empowered? And they can change their life so they don’t have to come to the church to get food. They don’t have to get clothes,” says Randolph. “How do we help them make those next steps?”
Read more of the story here.
The New Economy Roundup spends this newsletter issue talking about putting the values of a care economy into practice, resources for anti-imperialist study, an upcoming series for May Day on radical municipalism around the world, the growing anti-eviction movement in Brazil, actions on International Working Women’s Day, participatory budgeting in Mexico, and more.
You can find additional readings within the subject matters mentioned above, along with archived newsletter issues here.
“The lessons are clear: changing white hearts or training more cops won’t do. To put out the fire this time requires dismantling the entire state and corporate machinery of violence.”
– Robin D.G. Kelley
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March 14th, 2022
Thinking for Ourselves
Cultures of peace
Shea Howell
I have chronicled every State of the City address since 1993, beginning with Coleman Young. Of the long list of mayors that followed, some speeches have been memorable. Dennis Archer got a standing ovation when he promised to pick up the garbage. Most have been fairly predictable efforts emphasizing “redeveloping” the city, providing better services, and creating jobs. One mayor after another has framed a vision of the city providing jobs, housing, services, and safety.
Duggan is no exception. But, increasingly, I find Mike Duggan’s efforts to be unsettling. His most recent address was especially troubling.
Duggan has completely blurred the distinction between the private, profit driven sector of our city and its people. Over the course of his administration, Duggan has touted public, private partnerships. While making it sound like these partnerships are ways of leveraging private businesses to provide public benefits, the opposite is true. Public money is used to support private businesses and enhance their profits, for dubious public gain. Virtually all of his development projects are based on these kinds of deals.
Studies of these partnerships (P3), while emphasizing their complexity and differing objectives, concluded that:
- “Contrary to the repeated advertising claims and popular mythology, we know very little about the performance of… P3s — event at the most elementary levels.”
- There is “no evidence” that these projects deliver “more quickly than projects funded in more conventional ways.”
- “P3s were 24% more expensive than … traditional procurement” projects.
- P3s should be “headlined ‘fabulous deals — for all but taxpayers.'”
In some ways these partnerships are an extension of the tired thinking of the 1950’s slogan “What’s good for GM is what’s good for the country.” It was following that line of thinking that we watched corporate capital leave Detroit and create all those abandoned buildings that so troubled Duggan.
But Duggan has taken this idea to new heights. Nearly the first 20 minutes of his State of the City could have been a commercial for General Motors. Staged with gleaming Hummers and pickup trucks in the background, Duggan invoked product names and corporate slogans. He celebrated the shift to an electric factory, producing electric cars, and 2,200 jobs for “metro Detroiters.”
He offered images of new developments, factories transformed into housing, and showed a smattering of African American faces to screen the white power structure that provided the venue for this speech and is doing most of the “renovation of our city.”
The willingness to sacrifice people for the promise of jobs and the use of public money to support private industry is symbolized by the very place from which Duggan delivered his speech. GM Factory Zero, of course, was in earlier days what most people called the Poletown Plant. Showing a slide that illustrated his shockingly shallow view of the problems raised by development, Duggan characterized the site where he was standing as the result of extraordinary efforts “clearing out the land in the 1980’s.” The city “cleared 400 acres” and now we have this new plant.
That clearing included 4,200 people and all their possessions and memories tied to place. 1,300 homes were demolished. 144 businesses were knocked down, along with 6 churches, a school and a hospital. This was all in the name of a never to be materialized promise from GM for 6,000 jobs.
Everyone knows that behind the slick slides is the refusal by Duggan to ask critical questions of how to develop a city that protects people and provides for enriched, joyful lives. Chasing big developments and empty jobs has only meant that the city becomes smaller, while white power brokers become richer and richer.
Yet in the shadows of so many of these old structures, people are moving to study, to rethink and to reimagine completely different ways of living. New ideas of collective life are emerging, far from the bankruptcy of the Mayor and his ideas.
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Uplifting & Supporting our Community
Detroit Independent Freedom School Movement Presents:
Deciphering Detroit Post 2021 Local Elections – Reading/Discussion Series
Don’t forget to register for DIFSM’s upcoming series which will encourage conversation emerging from the recent re-election of Detroit’s mayor who has been committed to facilitating corporate ownership rather than providing public services and safety.
The 5-week course starts March 12 at 2-3:30 pm where sessions will explore readings within the context of:
1. The slave trade, capitalism, and imperialism — taking us back to where economic/political problems began
2. The call for reparations to the African American community
3. The role of corporations in the governance of our city
4. The importance of food production and food sovereignty in our wellbeing now and in the future
Be sure to register in order to attend!
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Citizen’s Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT) and Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition (MEJC)
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CRAFT and MEJC urges everyone to sign on to this letter, supporting the need for EJ communities to take the lead on Michigan’s Climate Healthy Climate Plan. Deadline to sign on is TODAY, March 14 — you can support their efforts using this form.
CRAFT’s call for comment submissions focusing on the threat of nuclear power and the importance of truly renewable energy remains open and more information can be found here.
Funding & Training Opportunities
- The BlackOUT Collective is looking for Community Training host organizations– we offer Black Direct Action basics to communities interested in skilling up around DA. Our Community Training Program is a FREE opportunity for organizations to bring us to your cities (virtually, in-person, or a mix of the two) for a one or two-day Direct Action 101. More info about the program here, and interest form for hosts at this link.
- For those who have been trained by BlackOUT Collective before, and are in the process of planning for direct actions in formations/collectives/organizations led by Black people, our Action Fund is now open. We offer up to $1000 of financial support for all direct action-related expenses. Applications are here. (We are ONLY accepting applications from folks we have trained — sign up to host a Community Training, or contact PG Watkins [pg@blackoutcollective.org] for more info on upcoming training opportunities)
- The Davis Putter Scholarship Fund is an opportunity for student activists to receive up to $15,000 in grant funding for their education. More information on the application (Due April 1st)at this link.
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The Boggs Center is Hiring!
The Boggs Center is seeking 2 candidates to work as co-directors in the space of programming and operations. If you’re intersted in applying, the deadline has been extended until March 31 with a start date in June 2022.
Find out more information and next steps to apply here!
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Mutual Aid Call to Action
Solidarity Fund for a Black, gay man in danger within his apartment complex
- Damon lives in Walled Lake with his partner and has been the victim of racial & queer motivated harrassment by white tenants in his apartment complex.
- Racial slurs have been yelled at him through the walls of his home on multiple occassions with the possibility of his crawl space bein intruded and placed with surveillance devices.
- This ongoing effort has lasted for months by several tenants, forcing him out of his home which didn’t start until a new landlord gained ownership of the property. Damon and his partner hopes to move soon for their safety and funds will go towards that!
- Funds can be sent via CashApp ($HealinTheWaters) or Venmo (@AdrienneAyers) with “donation” in the for/about line — more information regarding additional needs for Damon can be found here
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?What We’re Watching/Listening To
Host Junius Williams, along with guests, Shea Howell, Kaleena Berryman, and Lakeesha Eure, discuss the importance of healing through organizing but uncovering how this may be possible. Through discovering what it means to heal, exploring what the blueprint may look like, and providing thoughts on how to protect and provide safe spaces for youth to heal and feel seen, this episode will expose the power in healing and the need for its persistance.
Our job is to put our arms around [our young people] and really try to create a kind of radical love that says that we not only just see you, but we’re here to protect and support you.” – Shea Howell
The episode is available on their website!
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What We’re Reading
In 2021, Planning War with Russiaby Russ Bellant
The mentioned 2021 documents from the U.S. State Department show that the U.S. has had long-term plans for a military buildup of U.S. and Ukraine joint forces. Included in these documents are statements about taking Crimea and Donbas, which means military confrontation. Clearly, the U.S. last year was planning to partner with Ukraine in that war. In response, Russia again proposed negotiations in December 2021 to the U.S. and to NATO on issues that they saw as a clear threat.
George Beebe, the CIA’s former chief of analysis unit on Russia said on Radio Free Europe, a CIA broadcasting station, that the negotiations would be tough but doable. But Washington dismissed them out of hand and refused to negotiate. Refusing to negotiate means we do not care about your concerns, even if you feel deeply threatened and we have broken our pledge to not expand against your borders. We are doing it anyway. Beebe said that “inaction on (the Kremlin’s) part is risky” for Russia. That is why he wanted negotiations.
On June 20, 1997 Joe Biden said on C-SPAN that the only thing that could provoke a “vigorous and hostile” response from Russia would be if NATO expanded as far as the Baltic states. The U.S./NATO has expanded into the three Baltic states and is expanding and base building in Ukraine. NATO has expanded into Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, all on the Russian border. Biden knew 25 years ago this would be seen as a threat that would freak them out (not Putin, but the whole government) and he accepts the risks to all parties to keep this going.
NATO expansion has been opposed by top appointees in U.S. military and intelligence agencies. George Kennan, the US policy architect in the late 1940s of the whole U.S. strategy to bring down the Soviet Union, condemned the expansionist policy. Current CIA Director William Burns said in 2008 that NATO expansion “engenders serious concerns about the consequences for stability in the region.” He predicted civil war and a possible larger war as a result. That was 14 years ago! Former Secretary of Defense for Bush Jr. and Obama, Robert Gates, also opposed NATO expansion to the Russian border.
The 2021 threats of escalation turned in 2022 to actual military action. The Ukrainian military and nazi battalions were sent east to restart the killing of Ukrainian citizens that were ethnically Russian that wanted to secede from Ukraine. There were already more than 14,000 deaths from military actions begun by the U.S. and Ukrainian leaders. The European Union’s monitoring group OSCE saw, in the period before the Russian invasion, a massive increase in ceasefire violations and explosions, with many occurring within the separatist zones, obviously from Ukrainian forces that were moved into the area. A huge exodus of mostly Russian women and children from the region began when the government assault began. An OSCE data table (a bit fuzzy) resulting from the escalation by Ukraine is attached.
There is not one sane U.S. citizen that would support such developments on our borders. The U.S. risked nuclear war over missiles in Cuba in 1962. Yet there is a hint of exploring nuclear weapons in Ukraine, a country where nazi leaders have been placed in high positions in their Defense and Interior ministries. The insanity has to stop.
The only solution that saves Ukrainian and Russian lives and cities is for the confrontation to cease. The U.S. and Russia must create a credible and binding ceasefire that binds their allies. The U.S. needs to say that they will honor the U.S. pledge made by Bush Sr. to not expand NATO and begin to return to NATO’s 1990 borders and Russia must say that they will withdraw their troops from Ukraine and keep them far from the borders of Europe. The death and destruction ceases. Then long-term demilitarization talks begin for all of Eurasia. Those who oppose a peace approach and want to cheer on Ukraine are sentencing more destruction and death to Ukraine. We cannot indulge an approach that sentences more deaths and possible nuclear confrontation.
If you agree, let’s start studying and working together. We as a people are better than this, even if the national media are not giving peace a voice. I hope to hear from you.
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The Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Annuonces mobilization against capitalist wars
Credit: @cgtchiapas
In a communiqué on March 9th, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) proposed the start of a world campaign against the wars of capital whatever their geography. They announced that they will participate in the demonstrations that will take place in Chiapas on March 13th.
ZAPATISTA SIXTH COMMISSION
Mexico.
To the National and International Sixth:
To those who signed the Declaration for Life:
To honest people around the world:
In agreement with some individuals, groups, collectives, organizations and movements of SLUMIL K’AJXEMK’OP, the Zapatista communities have agreed to call for mobilizations and demonstrations against ALL capitalist WARS, currently underway in various corners of the planet. It is not only in Ukraine. Also in Palestine, Kurdistan, Syria, the Mapuche people, the original peoples throughout the planet, and so many libertarian processes that are attacked, persecuted, murdered, silenced, distorted.
Responding to that call, we have agreed to participate in the mobilizations on Sunday, March 13th, 2022, and thus continue with the actions against the wars that the system perpetrates throughout the world.
We therefore propose the start of a world campaign against the wars of capital, whatever their geography. Organize concerts, meetings, festivals, meetings, etc. In short, the arts against wars.
We call on all honest people, groups, collectives, organizations and movements in Mexico and in the world, according to their times and ways -and preserving their independence and autonomy-, to join the activities to demand an end to wars, starting on Sunday 13th.
For their part, the Zapatista communities will demonstrate, on Sunday, March 13th, 2022, in their caracoles, in the municipal capitals of San Cristóobal de Las Casas, Yajalon, Palenque, Ocosingo, Las Margaritas, Altamirano and on the roadsides in the communities, with a some thousands of Zapatistas.
Against all wars: all arts, all resistances, all rebellions!
From the mountains of the Mexican southeast.
Zapatista Sixth Commission.
Mexico, March 2022.
“Beware:
At war
Or at peace,
More people die
Of unenlightened self-interest
Than of any other disease.”
– Octavia Butler
March 7th, 2022
Thinking for Ourselves
Cultures of peace
Shea Howell
The images of war coming from Ukraine are all too familiar. People, mostly women and children, fleeing their homes in search of safety. Young people holding guns, in the hope of defending against fire power deadlier than they could have imagined just a few weeks ago. Bodies left in streets filled with the rubble of bombed out buildings. The reality of war has been with us somewhere in the world my entire life of more than 75 years.
Often this brutality has been at the hands of my own government, surrounded by a hypocrisy that was impossible to ignore. As a young person opposing the war in Viet Nam, I was moved to act in response to the fire-bombing of villages and towns, knowing people were burned alive by a government claiming it was creating peace.
Over and over again, the US have reached for bombs to advance our interests in lands far away. Over and over again, we have killed people who wanted only to live their lives. In most recent memory the US brought “Shock and Awe” to the world. This is a military doctrine justifying the use of overwhelming power to destroy the “enemy’s will” to defend themselves by inflicting massive, destructive power. This doctrine justifies civilian casualties and the bombing of infrastructure. Articulated as an official tactic at the US National Defense University, it was the centerpiece of US military strategy in the Iraq war in 2003. Of course, its historic legacy goes back to the settler colonial assaults on indigenous people, including the wanton killing of women and children and the destruction of food supplies and the essentials of life to force people into submission. It was the essence of the Russian attacks against the Chechen Republic from 1994 to 1996. It is the guiding principle of the assault on Ukraine.
Recognizing hypocrisy does little to help us sort out how to respond to the pain of this moment. Most of us realize that the Russian invasion into Ukraine is a war crime, as Noam Chomsky recently observed, “ranking alongside the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Hitler-Stalin invasion of Poland in September 1939, to take only two salient examples.”
Naming it as such is important, but it does little to alter the realities facing people in Ukraine. We who believe in freedom and peace have an obligation to try and understand how the world got to this place, in the belief there will be a time after war, a time to rebuild, when we can find the wisdom to make choices that move us forward with a sense of our common humanity.
Among the many articles I have read this week, one that stays with me is a short article in Truthout about the choices Ukrainian Leftists are making. Some are taking up arms, some arguing for non-violent resistance, some are creating aid and support while resisting the military. Such choices forced on people are as ever present as war. Across Ukraine people are organizing spontaneously to help each other and provide resistance to Russian aggression. On activists explained, “The more important thing is that a lot of people organized spontaneously to help each other, to guard their neighborhoods and towns and villages and to confront the occupiers with Molotov [cocktails],”
Pacifists, opposing conscription, are also providing direct aid, helping people evacuate, providing food and assisting in medical help. At the moment, choices are seen as complementing each other, not in contradiction.
One peace activist concluded, “Underdeveloped peace culture, militarized education training rather obedient conscripts than creative citizens and responsible voters is a common problem in Ukraine, Russia and all post-Soviet countries. Without investments in development of peace culture and peace education for citizenship, we will not achieve genuine peace.” Cultures of peace are underdeveloped everywhere. This is perhaps one of the most important lessons for all of us.
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Rest in Power Mama Sandra
The Detroit community has gained an ancestor as the spirit of Mama Sandra is mourned and celebrated. She co-founded the Hush House, alongside her husband Baba Charles where the house serves as a museum curating the untold histories of Black Americans. As her words and presence held power and inspiration for many, her speech about Detroit as a city of hope from 2009 is a testimony to her known presence.
The community has called upon others for love and support at this time with a meal train, as they ask for food and monetary donations to support Baba Charles during his loss at this time.
More information can be found here.
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Uplifting & Supporting our Community
Detroit Independent Freedom School Movement Presents:
Deciphering Detroit Post 2021 Local Elections – Reading/Discussion Series
Don’t forget to register for DIFSM’s upcoming series which will encourage conversation emerging from the recent re-election of Detroit’s mayor who has been committed to facilitating corporate ownership rather than providing public services and safety.
The 5-week course starts March 12 at 2-3:30 pm where sessions will explore readings within the context of:
1. The slave trade, capitalism, and imperialism — taking us back to where economic/political problems began
2. The call for reparations to the African American community
3. The role of corporations in the governance of our city
4. The importance of food production and food sovereignty in our wellbeing now and in the future
Be sure to register in order to attend!
The Boggs Center is Hiring!
The Boggs Center is seeking 2 candidates to work as co-directors in the space of programming and operations. If you’re intersted in applying, the deadline has been extended until March 31 with a start date in June 2022.
Find out more information and next steps to apply here!
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Healing the waters & Feedom Freedom Growers presents:
Reiki and Wellness Initiative
For the next 3 months, Healinthewaters will provide free reiki sessions as an effort for accessible healing opportunities for Detroiters. Sessions are offered every Wednesday and Saturday from 11am – 4pm.
Booking information and instructions can be found here.
Mutual Aid Call to Action
Solidarity Fund for a Black, gay man in danger within his apartment complex
- Damon lives in Walled Lake with his partner and has been the victim of racial & queer motivated harrassment by white tenants in his apartment complex.
- Racial slurs have been yelled at him through the walls of his home on multiple occassions with the possibility of his crawl space bein intruded and placed with surveillance devices.
- This ongoing effort has lasted for months by several tenants, forcing him out of his home which didn’t start until a new landlord gained ownership of the property. Damon and his partner hopes to move soon for their safety and funds will go towards that!
- Funds can be sent via CashApp ($HealinTheWaters) or Venmo (@AdrienneAyers) with “donation” in the for/about line — more information regarding additional needs for Damon can be found here
Help an elderly, autistic man escape predatory slumlords & reunite with his sister
- Eastside Mutual Aid is calling upon help from community to raise funds for an elderly, autistic man currently facing dangerous housing conditions
- He’s currently left in isolation after losing his last family member in Michigan and hopes to reunite with his sister soon for assisted care and better living conditions.
- Funds are needed to help get him to his sister as she lives in Germany — they can be sent via CashApp ($ESMutualAid) or Venmo (@ESMutualAid) or find more information here
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What We’re Watching/Listening To
The National Council of Elders is happy to announce that their first episode is available after raising funds to launch their podcast. Their first episode features Joyce & Nelson Johnson of the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, NC where they discuss radical love.
The episode is available on their website, iTunes, or on Spotify!
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Detroit People’s Platform
Annual State of the City Watch Party
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Join Detroit People’s Platform as they gather for their annual watch party for Detroit’s State of the City address happening Wednesday, March 9 — 6:30 pm EST and broadcasted on their Facebook or Youtube page. The watch party will feature a panel discussion of community experts who will share People’s response to the address immediately after.
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What We’re Reading
DEMOS Institute of Critical Thought and the Left Alliance of Lithuania
Open letter from Lithuanian Left to Western European comrades
Dear Comrades,
We have read your call for peace in Europe while the autocratic regime of Putin is firing hypersonic weapons upon civil infrastructure in Ukraine and threatening to destroy our societies. We have firmly stood behind pacifist positions and made all efforts to deconstruct institutionalised warmongering. We, the Lithuanian Left, are wholeheartedly in favour of diplomatic solutions and other non-violent attempts to restore peace in Europe.
However, the position declared in the “Europe Peace Manifesto“ is plausible in peacetime only and it is no longer valid when Russian tanks and missiles are crushing civilians in their residential areas in Ukraine’s cities, towns and villages. Moreover, the call to neutrality is based on the wrong assumption that there are two morally equal sides to the story and that the war in Ukraine must be resolved between two “comparably guilty” parties.
We, the undersigned, are one of the very few organisations within the comradeship of Transform who experienced full Soviet occupation and were part of the Soviet Union. Therefore, we feel that our perspectives should be valued in these circumstances and consulted before declaring positions. And from our experience, we say that such a position will be taken as an insult to Ukrainians, foremost by the brave Ukrainian Left, which fights now directly with tyrannical military invasion. Formulating statements about peace without consulting with the progressives in our part of Europe is an exclusionary and Western-centric practice. Even NATO does not discuss Ukraine’s matters behind its back.
Putin is a reckless tyrant. He is the aggressor while Ukrainian society is the victim. Saying that negotiations will help resolve current situation is like calling to negotiate with Hitler or Franco while they invade Poland or encircle Madrid – and accusing those who are repressed and being killed by an unjust aggressor for taking up arms! Neutrality in this conflict implies that part of the blame falls under the victims and their refusal to be victims by fighting back for their and their children’s future. Putin’s speech on the 21 of February – we watched it in disgust and terror – when he accused Lenin and the Soviet Union of giving autonomy to its republics and claimed that it was the Soviet Union that created Ukraine and therefore paved the way for its independence later, together with his earlier claims, demonstrate his perverted belief in a new imperial autocratic Russia within the boundaries of the former USSR. Thus, if the tyrant is not stopped, other countries, including Lithuania, may also be under attack sooner or later.
We all know Putin’s ultimatum to reduce NATO to the state of 1997 so that he can freely occupy, if he decides so without any regard for the will of his own people, the previously occupied territories. In this sense, and only in this sense, NATO and the EU now are the only hope for a country like Lithuania. We also want to remind you that it was the absolute majority of Lithuanian people, including the people on the Left and ethnic minorities, who democratically decided to join the EU and did not oppose the membership in NATO in 2004. Nobody forced Lithuania (or any other Baltic state) to join NATO, it was our democratic decision.
Even though we fully stand behind the claim that „Weapons and wars should belong to the past, the future of Europe and humanity must be peace!”, we say that the beginning of peacebuilding is only possible when the autocratic aggressor who invades the sovereign country is fully stopped and punished. Otherwise, negotiating for a peace settlement with him is like following the fool’s gold. We ask you to imagine the hypothetical situation of a foreign aggressor rolling its tanks into beautiful Vienna or if Turkey launched its military might against Athens. What would the Austrian Left and the Greek Left do?
After the aggressor is stopped, our solidarity with Ukraine and the return to peace are inseparable from social reforms within the country. Hours before the bloody attacks started, Ukraine’s left-wing “Social Movement” has called on the government to nationalise strategic businesses and the property of billionaires to guarantee public access to medicine, transport, housing and food. Members of the movement argue that state policy during the war must be geared to the interests of workers. Residents of the country are invited to join volunteer circles, organise support networks in their communities and trade unions. But they are in dire need of a cogent and uncompromising response from the International Left. It must demand the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from the territory of Ukraine, for an end to military action and for peace, which will not be possible without social reforms in Ukraine. Solidarity with the Ukrainian Left, as well as with the country’s civil society, includes the demand that Western states write off Ukraine’s external debt immediately. Sanctions are needed against Putin’s regime and its oligarchic base. The cosmetic sanctions that our government and the West are pondering now are insufficient. We must call for significant taxation of the assets of the Russian oligarchs acquired with dirty funds, or the confiscation of the latter’s assets, both in the United Kingdom and in the countries of the European Union.
Contrary to the practices of some sections of the Lithuanian ruling class and the media, it is essential to express solidarity with the Russian people, who well understand that this war will only bring suffering and pain in the long run. For many years, their efforts to resist aggressive foreign policy have been repressed. Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, one member of Russia’s “Social Movement” wished her country’s army a “revolutionary defeat” out of love. According to her, Putin’s regime is trying to bring the country’s economy, culture, and society back into the dark past. Thus, as of now, only the defeat in the war will guarantee a future for Russian citizens, open their eyes to what Putin’s clique is disguising (the far-right – openly chauvinist – politics and social degeneration), and give them the courage to fight for economic democracy and social justice.
Demos and The Left Alliance express solidarity with Ukraine’s trade unions, civil society, national minorities, the LGBTQ + community and all exploited and oppressed groups. We fully support the anti-war movement in Russia and condemn the aggression of the Putin regime in Ukraine.
Signed by:
DEMOS institute of Critical Thought
Left Alliance of Lithuania
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I am just one of the people who is sick of the social order, sick of the establishment, sick to my soul of it all. To me, America’s society is nothing but a cancer, and it must be exposed before it can be cured. I am not the doctor to cure it. All I can do is expose the sickness.”
– Nina Simone
Detroit Voices: Mama Sandra – YouTube
Mama Sandra Simmons, our mentor, our shero, our spirit has joined the ancestors. I just found this you tube from when folks started Detroit City of Hope.
October 25th, 2021
Thinking for Ourselves
Beyond The Ballots
Shea Howell
Next week Detroiters go to the polls to elect a mayor, city clerk, council and police commission. There are also important proposals on the ballot, including one that would allow direct control by voters to enact ordinances and allocate the money for them, Proposal S. Also, Proposal R would create a task force to explore reparations for Black Detroiters related to housing and economic development and Propose E would legalize the therapeutic use of some plant/fungi based drugs.
Throughout the primary season, this election captured a tremendous amount of energy. More than 100 people indicated a desire to run for city council, nearly a dozen for mayor and many for police commission. Proposal P, an extensive revision of the City Charter, reflected the longing of people in the city to engage in meaningful ways with the decisions that affect our lives. Now, having seen the defeat of Proposal P, after a barrage of corporate initiated mis- information, and witnessing the influence of “dark money” and dubious endorsements on candidates, we are faced with choices dominated by incumbents. We have a Mayor who refuses to even debate his opponent, a City Clerk who owes $65,000 in back taxes (again), and two Council members under federal investigations for corruption.
As a result, the enthusiasm that surrounded the primary has waned. We are now seeing stories that describe voter apathy and dispiritedness. At the same time, more than 1000 people showed up at the first public hearing in Detroit on the new redistricting maps proposed by the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. More than 100 signed up to speak, the vast majority raising concerns about the impact of the proposed districts on Black representation. The current iteration of districts would greatly limit the representation of the city and of African Americans.
The contrast between corporate media efforts to talk about voter apathy and the demonstrated energies reflected in direct citizen participation is worth thinking about. Over these last few months we have seen sustained citizen action in the development of proposed charter revisions, widespread desires to serve in public office, countless hours spent testifying at city council and police commission hearings and widespread street protests. On any given day block clubs, community organizations, churches and volunteer activities of all kinds define a vibrant community life.
The lack of enthusiasm for the election next week is not an indictment of our citizens. It is an indication of how broken our electoral system is. It is a system designed to disempower people and put decision making into the hands of those who reflect the interests of corporate power. Those who seriously challenge vested interests cannot get a fair public airing on their beliefs. There are few forums offered to think about what we need for our future and how best two secure it. Those candidates who offered fresh, thoughtful and imaginative ideas for our future rarely make it through the primary process.
We have some serious thinking to do about how we will govern our common lives and concerns. What is abundantly clear is that “representative democracy” has become the representation of corporate interests in the public sphere. We need to develop new methods of decision making, new ways of giving responsibilities to those charged with carrying out the public will. The questions posed by this election go far beyond what we mark on our ballots.
Are scofflaw billionaires entitled to Detroit park land?Russ Bellant I cannot believe that this Mayor is again fronting for the Moroun empire by putting forward a proposal to City Council to give the Morouns part of Riverside Park for $2 Million so that they can build their second bridge. They are the same Morouns who unilaterally closed the park, fenced it off and put armed guards there to threaten anyone who arrived to enter the park a dozen years ago. I was there. I saw it myself. They did this to illegally begin building a second bridge at that site to span the Detroit River. They were finally halted. When Duggan was elected he supported the Morouns on their second bridge despite opposition from then Governor Rick Snyder. The same Morouns who let the train station sit as a high altitude symbol of neglect and indifference for many years. The same Morouns that have not paid hundreds of blight tickets from their many neglected parcels across the City. The same Morouns who bought the last large scale shopping center in Detroit, the Bel Air on Eight Mile, and demolished most of its buildings to put in a 40 acre truck terminal hundreds of feet from a residential neighborhood. The carcinogenic effects of diesel fumes on those residents does not phase them. Nor does the loss of jobs, City tax revenue, the benefit of keeping our spending dollars within our City bother the Mayor or his rubber stamps on City Council. On Thursday, a City Council committee recommended in a two to one vote to move the proposal to City Council for a vote. That vote is scheduled to occur on the day after the election, which means that Council members cannot be penalized by voters if they approve it. The measure was pushed through by Scott Benson with support from RoyMcCalister. James Tate voted no, saying there was no need to rush the decision. In Washington, they are investigating armed thugs who occupied public space and threatened its occupants. In Detroit, the City Council may reward a corporation that used armed thugs to occupy public space and threatened citizens, by transferring the land to them.
People Against Corporate Theft
For this Monday, October 25th a rally at Campus Martius in response to the announcement of World Economic Forum setting up a permanent site in Detroit, a statement was produced in protest of the looting of Detroit. Read the statement below:
The World Economic Forum, an organization of the capitalist elite, with representatives of Bank of America, Citi, J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Barclays, and the European Central Bank among others, are meeting in Detroit. They are setting up a temporary base of operations in Dan Gilbert’s Compuware building for what they are calling the “Global Centre for Urban Transformation” with an official launch announced for October 25th while the permanent site is being built on Gratiot.The WEF is an agency that upholds and facilitates multinational corporations’ control, exploitation and greed. They cloak insidious corporate thievery in words like “transformation,” “future city,” “public-private collaboration,” “economic growth,” and “revival” in campaigns to persuade the public to go along with their agendas.
Detroit was chosen because it exemplifies the most extreme contradictions in the current stage of capitalism. For the past eight years Mike Duggan, backed by Rick Snyder, and now by Gretchen Whitmer, has made it clear that the profiteering of corporations off of public space and resources is more important than the needs of Detroiters. The mayor has done everything in his power to ensure the exponential spread of gentrification that is pricing everyday people out of the city. Instead of redeveloping badly needed wastewater infrastructure, he is putting in bike lanes. Instead of creating a city wide publicly funded housing affordability plan, he is leaving poor and working class people to the whims of the market amid skyrocketing rents and stagnant wages. Instead of returning the $600 million in overtaxation, he is pushing subsidies for billionaires to carve up the 7.2 square miles of downtown rather than address material needs of a majority Black city in which well over 30 percent of people live in poverty.
The capitalists who make up the World Economic Forum have turned Detroit into a model of “Urban Destruction.” They have transformed Detroit, once a great center for the working class and oppressed, the city where the Black Liberation and Working Class struggles reached their zenith, into a center of poverty, evictions, water shutoffs, high infant mortality, and empty fields where working class neighborhoods once stood.
These are the same financial institutions that coerced tens of thousands of Detroiters into predatory and fraudulent mortgage loans, resulting in 65,000 bank foreclosures from 2005-2010 and driving one quarter of Detroit’s people out of the city. Dan Gilbert and Quicken Loans wrote many of these fraudulent mortgages for the banks, and coupled them with fraudulent property assessments that artificially overinflated home values and led to thousands of property tax foreclosures. Detroit, the city that once led the US in Black home ownership, is now a renter city with 35,000 tenants evicted every year.
These financial institutions bankrupted the city government, the school system and the water department with predatory loans, and usurped elected officials with appointed emergency managers. The emergency managers appointed by the state implemented the massive privatization of city services, a virtual shutdown of the Detroit Health Department, massive water shutoffs to pay off the bondholders, and a school system that was declared by the courts as unfit to provide access to basic literacy. Mike Duggan and the city council have facilitated this robbery of the people while giving massive tax breaks and captures to Gilbert, Ilitch, Ford, and numerous other private interests, just as the banks were bailed out by the federal government after their scheme collapsed.
One of the primary strategies of the WEF is to work through the liberal non-profit industrial complex to co-opt community into their project of dispossession and quell independent political opposition. Nonprofits are by and large beholden to philanthropic entities that are funded by private capital. They show up in the community with conditional budgets to superficially address structural inequality that they are incapable of solving, In reality, they are assisting in the appropriation of resources and assets (our tax dollars and government allocation), to expand the wealth and political control of private interests that are antithetical to the needs of the public. This is one of the ways public-private partnerships function under neoliberalism.
All of this has been done to create an environment in which the wealthy reap the profits while Detroit taxpayers foot the bill. This fifty-year project of theft in Detroit is the model that the World Economic Forum is upholding and intends to emulate wherever there are profits to be made. From a working class city of 1.8 million where workers could actually afford homes, Detroit has now been reduced to a city with 637,000 people. Once thriving neighborhoods now are centers of blight and empty fields, while the only development is downtown for the corporate elite. The people of Detroit say No to the World Economic Forum and the same bankers who pillaged this city. They are the ones who created the ongoing structural inequality in Detroit. They are not here to save us. The people of Detroit and the world deserve governance in the interest of the public, not the private entities that have exploited us. Throughout this project of racialized neoliberal dispossession, Detroiters have never stopped fighting for their schools, the right to water, the right to housing, and the right to their own public resources. The undersigned are a growing list of organizations committed to opposing the wholesale theft of Detroit and cities around the world by the members of the World Economic Forum and to demanding respect for the economic human rights of all people.
Uplifting & Supporting our Community
Feedom Freedom Windmill
Feedom Freedom Growers and CAN Art Handworks was recently chosen as one of six finalists in the 2021 City of Design Challenge. There was a lot of work over the summer put into developing and installing the prototype windmill at Feedom Freedom so that residents could see it and interact with it. This represented a concrete manifestation of the values promoted by the Eastside Solutionaries Collective.
However, we believe that the project is worthy of support and we are interested in talking to potential donors and funders, including some of those who were present at the Design Challenge showcase event last week. Enjoy this video which summarizes our project and reach out to Paul Draus (draus@umich.edu) or Rukiya Colvin (rukiya.colvin@gmail.com) to connect further on this project!
Field Street Block Club Association Harvest Fest!
Attenion Islandview neighbors! The FSBCA will have warm soups ready to serve and food on the grill, a Trunk or Treat, a bouncy house, and face painting for the kids. We will also be raising money for our Home Repairs fund for our block to help our longtime residents with critical home repairs. See more info on the facebook event.
Nox Library Abolition Books & Letter Writing Kits
Spend a lovely fall evening with us and Detroit ABC writing letters and learning about prison abolition! Interested in learning more about prison abolition, prisoner support, and writing letters to prisoners? Come to Gathering Coffee at 2831 E Grand Blvd on Saturday, October 30th from 5-7 pm to get some resources!
Follow Nox Library on Instagram
What We’re Reading
Ryter Cooperative Industries Monthly Newsletter
Ryter Cooperative Industries provides engineering and design support, project management, and educational services to empower our community through application of innovative technology, sustainable solutions, and collective creative ideas. In this issue of their monthly newsletter, and intro to Hour Detroit’s profile of renown Detroit food activist Malik Yakini, RCI was featured in the Belt Magazine’s article on Biden’s Justice 40 Initiative and how Detroit’s black-led businesses are key components to solving energy issues. Don’t miss the solar fun fact and job openings in the rest of the newsletter.
Read More: Ryter Cooperative Industries
“As more people of color raise our conciousness and refuse to be pitted against one another, the forces of neo-colonial white supremacist domination must work harder to divide and conquer”
― bell hooks
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September 27th, 2021
Thinking for Ourselves
Hantz Lessons
Shea Howell
More than a decade has passed since John Hantz announced his effort to create a vast urban farm on Detroit’s east side. The original idea was to develop the world’s largest urban agricultural business, combining traditional farming methods with indoor hydroponics. This was to be augmented by agro-tourism and, ultimately, a global innovation center. The plan promised 15 to 20 jobs in the first year, and 250 within the decade. Hantz was prepared to invest $30 million over 10 years. In defending his ideas in April of 2010, Hantz explained his motives. Farming is “land extensive” he said. Detroit “cannot create value until we create scarcity, and large scale farming could begin to take land out of circulation in a positive way.”
This past week we learned that Hantz in fact created value, at least for himself. Since 2019 he has sold 147 properties of the nearly 2000 he got from the city for pennies on the acre. It is estimated he received $2.8 million. He still has more than 90% of the properties that he can sell at any time.
Local activists fought back against this plan, saying it was nothing more than a scheme to allow Hantz to grab land that he would ultimately sell for an immense profit. In the course of this fight, Hantz shifted his goals for the land. After critics emphasized that large scale agriculture was likely to disrupt communities and posed serious ecological concerns, Hantz announced he would plant fruit trees. Neighbors objected to the absence of any viable means to actually harvest the fruit, and Hantz pivoted to offering to plant Christmas trees. Ultimately, he decided to plant hardwoods, changing his name from Hantz Farms to Hantz Woodlands. What he didn’t abandon was the desire to own nearly 2000 parcels of land. After contentious city council hearings and public gatherings, the City Council voted 5 to 4 for the deal. Under Emergency Management, Kevyn Orr and Governor Rick Snyder signed off on the final paperwork in 2013 after nearly five years of controversy.
There is much we can learn from this. First, there is the obvious recognition that local activists saw through this scheme from the beginning. We warned that the city was giving away land to a private developer who had no commitment to the ethics of urban agriculture. He was cynically manipulating the good will developed by local growers to make his development scheme palatable to city authorities.
We can also learn something about our city council. I attended most of the public meetings on Hantz Farms, including the final session prior to the vote in favor of the deal. Nearly 1000 people gathered to oppose it. Of the one hundred people who commented on the issue, only three were in favor. Yet the majority of the council disregarded the concerns of citizens.
How is it possible that elected officials can so easily dismiss the voices of the people who elected them?
Had they listened at all to what was being said, council members would have recognized that most people objected because the deal was unfair. Almost everyone talked about how they had tried and failed to get even one open lot, or to purchase a family home lost to foreclosure. In story after story people shared their efforts to build their community, only to be thwarted by the city. What emerged in this saga was not only the greed of John Hantz, but the failures of the city to provide even minimal support for most of its people and their dreams.
This year as we approach a city council election, we should remember John Hantz and ask our candidates whose voices they will listen to, whose dreams they will work to make real.
What We’re Watching
Detroit “Hacks” the House
CryptoHarlem is an inner city digital surveillance clinic. In this episode they sit down with the one and only @hypervisible Dr. Chris Gilliard and @combsthepoet Tawana Petty, Detroit super stars breaking the (surveillance) internet.TWITCH STREAM: Detroit “Hacks” the House
“Grievers” Author Event
Author adrienne marie brown in conversation with Siwatu-Salama Ra & Lottie Spady
Grievers is “a Queer Detroit based fiction/science fiction.” Next week, adrienne maree brown will engage in conversation with Siwatu-Salama Ra and Lottie Spady to celebrate the release of Grievers on October 5th, 2021 at 7pm. Two ticket options are available: A Free Ticket will give you access to the virtual event. A Book Ticket will give access to the virtual event and a copy of Grievers shipped to you.
Tue, October 5, 2021
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Get your tickets at eventbrite
Uplifting & Supporting our Community
Detroit Visionary Community FairA fair to create beloved community and solutions 
AMP Seeds Series
Stay connected to the Allied Media Conference with visionary voices from the AMP network. Two upcoming events:
Dismantling Barriers
The Undocumented Filmmakers Collective will be premiering a short film followed by a conversation on the triumphs and pitfalls of non-white filmmaking.
Oct 7th at 5pm ET – RSVP
Performance as Resistance
Performers can captivate our attention, embody space and reverberate energy while liberating themselves from their own bodies. Join us for an evening of song and dance hosted and curated by the Brown RadicalAss Burlesque co-founder, Una Osato.
October 21st at 5pm ET – RSVP
Read more about AMP in the September AMP News
Detroit People’s Platform
Pro-Democracy Rally for Majority Black DetroitDetroiters have a right to a city government that puts the needs and priorities of it’s residents first. We demand a return to a deeper form of democracy in Detroit, a democracy where the people hold political power and elected representatives sit in service to the common good.
Friday, October 1st – 5:30 – 7:00 pm
7700 Second Ave @ Pallister
What We’re Reading
Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition Newsletter
Keep up with the autumn highlights of the Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition. A letter from the director about living into our values, upcoming events, new initiatives, a teacher spotlight, and more.
Read the Coalition Commons: Seasonal E-Newsletter of the SEMIS Coalition Fall 2021
Ryter Cooperative Industries Newsletter
Ryter Cooperative Industries (RCI) is a project management company that encourages community development and empowerment through design and engineering support, project management, and educational services. They specialize in providing the services mentioned using renewable energy solutions, the application of innovative technology, and collective creative ideas.
Learn about their recent partnership with Design-Build Green Hub, read about how to join their team, or learn more about RCI.
Read the Ryter Cooperative Monthly Newsletter
“In 2001, the Associated Press published a three-part investigation into the theft of black-owned land stretching back to the antebellum period. The series documented some 406 victims and 24,000 acres of land values at tends of millions of dollars. The land was taken through means ranging from legal chicanery to terrorism.”
― Ta-Nehisi Coates
September 13th, 2021
Thinking for Ourselves
Critical Questions for Craig
Shea Howell
In a move that surprises no one, James Craig, the former police chief of Detroit, is set to formally announce his candidacy for the office of governor of Michigan this week. Almost immediately after indicating he was running on Fox news, big republican support started flowing in his direction. Most notable are the efforts of former Governor John Engler who is behind the “We Need the Chief” PAC formed to collect cash for the effort.
Craig’s candidacy is an opportunity for us to look at some fundamental questions about where we are headed as a people. Already, much is being made of two key issues that Craig has dodged: does he agree with most republicans that the 2020 election was stolen and does he think Donald Trump bears responsibility for the January 6 attacks on the US capitol? These issues illuminate core questions of whether or not as Governor Craig has a commitment to basic practices of democracy.
Craig’s anti-democratic, authoritarian impulses have been on display since the first day he took control of the Detroit Police Department. Under his leadership, without civilian input or oversight, Craig initiated wide spread surveillance technologies in the city. He has persisted on this path, in spite of research that clearly documents the inaccuracies of these technologies on people of color.
Further Craig was behind the widespread brutality used against demonstrators challenging police conduct and he has insisted on a petty, costly effort to charge leaders of the demonstrations with conspiracy. Courts have consistently sided with the demonstrators, tossing out charges and excoriating the claims of the chief and his supporters about Marxist conspiracies.
Behind these actions is an ideology that Craig has yet to make explicit. But a brief look at his public comments, his web site, and his penchant for repeating Trumpist positions should trouble everyone who cares about democracy.
When Craig made his initial announcement on the Tucker Carlson Tonight show he said he intended to hold Governor Gretchen Whitmer “accountable.” He went on to say, “We’re part of a movement. We are going to take the state back.” These two concepts raise very important questions given the context of our political moment. At a time when individuals organized to kidnap and put the governor on trial, invoking ideas of witch burnings, just what does Craig mean by “accountable?” Where does he stand on the prosecution of those men? How does an effort to punish them, led by the attorney general and local prosecutors fit with his claim that he will “hold rogue prosecutors accountable?”
At a time when militia movements and vigilante are being empowered by state officials, what does Craig mean by “local inclusion” and just what kind of “new laws” to “strengthen law enforcement across the state” is he thinking about? Are these those that are being enacted across the country to make protests and public demonstrations illegal?
And just what movement is he talking about? Is it the movement in support of local sheriffs and “sovereign citizens” movements that are rooted in white supremacy and the restoration of control by a small, wealthy elite? Just where does Craig stand in relation to the “constitutional sheriff movement,” a movement that is well on the way to developing storm troopers against all progressive and freedom seeking people.
All of Craig’s history in Detroit as well as his public comments show him to be a clone of Donald Trump. He is bringing an authoritarian, undemocratic ethos to government that is steeped in the willingness to use force against those with whom he disagrees. That is why republicans are so quick to embrace him and why the rest of us need to oppose
him.
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What We’re Reading
The Negroes of Friends Village
by Mark P. Fancher
The residents of this small, peaceful town don’t allow race, religion, ethnicity or anything else to disturb community harmony. But Friends Village is no Mayberry. In 1967 an act of racial terrorism attracts white supremacists, Black Power militants, the media and others to this usually tranquil hamlet, and the local townspeople – white and black – find themselves in the eye of a social storm. With humor, suspense and drama, The Negroes of Friends Village spins a compelling tale of how well-meaning people navigate the racial and social upheaval of the turbulent 1960s. The narrative paints a loving portrait of an African American community’s culture, foibles, courage, integrity, and wonderful characters.
\Purchase Online_______________________________________________________________89th Highlander Homecoming
Re-Opening Exhibit at Swords Into Plowshares Peace Center and Gallery
AMP Seeds Series AMP Seeds produces events that bring together visionary minds from across the AMP network for dialogue, resource-sharing, and reflection. These events offer a space to strengthen existing connections and forge new relationships that sustain our collective healing and learning while building the world we need.
Fall 2021 Seeds Series
Each event is free but requires registration via Eventbrite. Click here for more information and to RSVP for each event.
“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
? Frederick Douglass
August 31st, 2021
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Thinking for Ourselves
In Our Power
Shea Howell
This week, images of FBI agents raiding Detroit City Council offices and homes flashed across the news media. Council members Janee Ayers and Scott Benson, as well as staff members, were raided in a federal investigation into public corruption. This raid comes just weeks after the Council member Andre Spivey was charged with bribery. Of the nine council members elected in the last cycle, four are now tainted with real or imagined charges of corruption. All have been strong allies of the Mayor and have steadfastly backed corporate interests.
Over the last four years, I have been on the opposite side of most issues that Ayers, Benson, and Spivey have supported. Ayers and Benson in particular have done all they could to gut community benefit agreements, encourage surveillance technologies, limit citizen oversight, and scuttle a true water affordability plan. They have used their committee power to stall, delay, and dilute community driven efforts at increasing public accountability and budget transparency. For these reasons, neither Benson nor Ayers deserve to be reelected to the City Council.
But I take no joy in this wave of investigations. There is no doubt, whatever the outcome, media will portray these investigations as yet another sign that Detroit, a majority Black city, is exceptionally corrupt. This image of public corruption becomes another argument in the restriction of voting rights, fueling the white supremist idea that African Americans cannot govern.
To be sure, we have had a colorful history of public corruption, and much of it has been fueled by a media circus, catering to the white supremist imagination, attacking the achievements, as well as the follies, of powerful African Americans. For example, it came as a shock to most white folks in Southeast Michigan to learn that Coleman A Young, as mayor, not only fought corruption in the police department, but ran one of the most fiscally responsible cities in America.
These current raids are part of the work of the Detroit Area Public Corruption Task Force of the FBI, organized in 2012 , and still going strong. In 2019, the head of the task force acknowledged, “We definitely have a more significant corruption issue here in the Michigan region. But we are rooting it out a lot more than other people. We have a long-term campaign here to root out public corruption.”
In recent years the FBI has focused its efforts in Macomb County, securing more than a dozen convictions there. Yet media rarely emphasizes the corrupt nature of Detroits predominantly white neighbors. Since 2008, when Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was indicted for public corruption and racketeering, more than 100 politicians, union bosses, bureaucrats and police officers have been charged with corruption.
The best way to get rid of public corruption is to elect officials who are honest and wish to serve the people of the city. We have that opportunity this November. Many of the people running for City Council are people who have proven their commitment to the city, worked tirelessly to benefit people, and have a strong base of support.
In addition, many candidates, and a minority on the current Council, have been pushing for greater accountability and transparency in government. These citizen led initiatives are critical in providing a framework to protect all of us from corporate avarice.
We have the opportunity to create a progressive, imaginative, and thoughtful city government, committed to bold changes. This is in our power.
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Housing for Baba Baxter
Response to Defund The Military
Written by Frank Joyce
Last week Shea Howell wrote about the US military in the context of the withdrawl from Afghanistan, this week we feature Frank Joyce’s take.
So much flapping of the wings of the chikkens coming home to roost this week that I am driven to attempted satire.
I guess things were easier for them when the purpose of the U.S. military was to seize and hold territory. At first from sea to shining sea. Then beyond. That job was mostly completed by 1917 (Panama and the Virgin Islands. It’s a longish story.) The Marshall Islands in 1945 are sort of a footnote. (Also a longish story.) For reference purposes, 1898 was probably the peak what with the Philippines and Hawaii and various lesser conquests bearing fruit. (Pun intended.)
Controlling slaves and some of the other people of color within the conquered territory has always been a hybrid deal mainly designated to slave patrols, militias, police and in dire circumstances the national guard. Interestingly, in modern times Federal troops have mostly been used to control white people in selected desegregation struggles in the South and in subduing the rampaging racist all white Michigan national guard in Detroit in 1967.
Since the failure in Korea, (which helped to begat the failure in Viet Nam, insofar as one of its purposes was to overcome the Korea syndrome) the U.S. military has suffered one humiliating loss after another. Grenada? That’s all you got? Give me a break.
It’s admittedly a little fuzzy but the DoD did play a role in the most significant U.S. accomplishment of the late 20th Century which was the defeat of the metric system.
I looked it up. Here’s what the DoD said in 1971.
C. During the period of transition there will be no major advantages to the DOD and major disadvantages will occur. This is the period wherein the greatest costs will occur; psychological resistance to change will be greatest; extensive training and retraining of personnel must be undertaken; conversions will increase operational hazards; dual stockage and dual manufacturing capability will be required in certain instances; material and system acquisition and conversion will create forces with mixed equipment; and development of metric standards will be necessary.
D. The conversion of the country to the metric system could adversely impact on the ability of the United States to support its military forces during the proposed transition period. Without proper planning and adequate funding, the reduced flexibility and capacity of the support available would impact upon the capability of the Armed Forces to perform their mission, especially if an international crisis should develop at critical times during this period requiring the employment of major forces in a combat role.
Anyway, some selective concern over metric conversion costs notwithstanding, the main job of the DoD for a long time now has been to spend money. Just inconceivable amounts of money. With no apparent requirement to justify any return whatsoever.
In the wake of what seems to be judged, for the moment anyway, as some sort of twenty year rolling screw up in Afghanistan, it will be interesting to watch how the Pentagon goes about recalibrating its PR message so as to give some cover to those in charge of keeping the money pipeline in full flow.
Like they say in the MSM, we’ll be keeping an eye on this. Of course, the MSM won’t do that. They are an integral part of the machine. (Which could lead to my telling the story of that time I got cancelled in the NYT comments section for calling the U.S. military losers. True story. But I’ll save it for another day.)
Will the funds allocated to the 2022/2023 DoD budget be reduced? I’ll bet $20 that it won’t. I’ll bet $100 though that if the budget isn’t increased “liberal” members of Congress will declare that a victory.
Not that there aren’t a lot of other things that bear watching. I get that. But come on, isn’t being a spectator a core U.S. value too? Can’t we do a few things just for fun?
No? All right then. On serious note, don’t you think not having to learn that pesky metric system makes it all worthwhile?
What We’re Reading
Highlander Research and Education Center Newsletter
- Media Justice and the Lifeline Coaltion are partnering to spread awareness about an important monthly internet discount program as we go into a new school season
- From the Movement for Black Lives: “Black August commemorates the rich history of Black resistance. Started in California prisons in the 1970s by Black freedom fighters honoring the lives and struggle of Black political prisoners killed by the state, the Black August legacy is strong today, amplifying the powerful history of resistance and creating spaces for Black people to come together in community to recharge the revolution.” — Recap of #BlackAugust2021
- The Movement for Black Lives released a report last week detailing “how the federal government deliberately targeted supporters of the movement to defend Black lives during the summer of 2020 uprisings in order to disrupt and discourage Black organizing.” Learn how you can take action.
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