Protesters confront police outside Camden Yards, Bmore.
By B.D., First of May Anarchist Alliance – Detroit Local
ORGANIZE AND FIGHT BACK!
This is not the time for “peace” marches. This is not the time for “healing” in our communities. This is the time to rise up and fight back. From Baltimore to Ferguson to New York to Detroit to Minneapolis to Seattle, people are fighting back against the police murders of our people.
In Baltimore, a gang of police chased down Freddie Gray, dragged him from his bike, threw him down and broke his neck. Freddie Gray, age 25, went into a coma and died a week later from a broken spinal column. These police acted as mad dogs. And these brutal, insane scenes are repeated again and again across this country.
People of Baltimore are resisting the ongoing police attacks. People have fought back against the police and the authority of the state. The governor and mayor called out the National Guard, and a 10 pm curfew has been in place for nearly a week. The prosecutor has filed some charges against the six police who killed Freddie Gray, but they already are out on bail. We all know how difficult it is to get any kind of conviction against a cop in this country. An 18 year old from Baltimore, charged with breaking out the window of a police car on Monday, remains in jail with bail set at $500,000, while the cops who killed Freddie Gray have bail set at less than half of that amount. The system places a higher value on the window of a cop car then on the life of Freddie Gray. This is not the time to declare “victory.” This is the time to organize the resistance throughout the country. Continue Reading…
Jerome Jackson Remembered (view PDF, here)
By First of May Anarchist Alliance – Detroit Branch
Jerome Jackson, our good friend and a fighter for justice, died on Sunday, May 11, 2014. Jerome, in recent months, had been battling cancer, but his death is untimely and came much too soon. Jerome died at his home in Inkster, Michigan, a home he had battled to save for the past five years.
Jerome had been shot in the back at age 14 in 1969, and the shooting left him a paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair. But Jerome’s spirit and his determination to fight against injustice were never confined. He became a leading fighter for the rights of persons with disabilities and was an active and leading member of Detroit Eviction Defense. Jerome lived independently and with dignity at his home in Inkster for the past ten years.
Continue Reading…
Here is M1 Detroit’s Latest strategy
document regarding the
eviction defense work we are engaged in:
1. Eviction Defense at a Crossroads April 2013
That is actually the third strategy document that M1 people have put forward publicly within the eviction defense work over the last year in a half. There have been a number of internal discussions but these documents were our public positions on what was happening The other two can be found here:
2. Eviction Defense Discussion Document September 2012
3. Thoughts on Organizing and Strategy Eviction Defense April 2012
*The April 2012 piece was submitted to Detroit Eviction Defense by our caucus within it at the time which was called The Committee for a General Strike. That what we were calling our grouping within the occupy and anti-eviction work and it was within this committee that the bulk of Detroit M1 came together based on political affinity which resulted in several of our joining M1.
It is useful to see how our thinking has developed from a year ago through these three pieces. Each piece is directly talking about what was happening within the work at the time so while you can’t exactly compare them, you can see what has come to the front of our thinking as most important and what now seems less important.
OVERTHROW THE DICTATORSHIP
OF THE BANKS!
Download the Flyer Here
DOWN WITH THE EMERGENCY MANAGER, THE GOVERNOR AND THE CITY GOVERNMENT
OVERTHROW THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE BANKS
NOT ONE PENNY TO THE BANKS WHICH HAVE DESTROYED OUR CITY
CANCEL THE DEBT
NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE US;
WE CAN ONLY RELY ON OURSELVES
BUILD A GENERAL STRIKE OF ALL WORKERS AND THE COMMUNITY TO TAKE DIRECT CONTROL OF OUR CITY, OUR NEIGHBORHOODS AND OUR WORKPLACES
Rick Snyder has appointed an emergency manager as dictator of Detroit. Mayor Bing and the City Council have gone along. This comes a few months after the people of Michigan voted to overturn the emergency manager law by a solid majority. They stood in long lines to vote. It didn’t matter. A few weeks after the vote, the lame duck legislature passed a new emergency manager law to replace the old one. Business as usual. The vote of the people meant nothing. Capitalist democracy is a sham and a shell game to fool the people and to protect the rich and the powerful.
The central provision of the old emergency manager law and the new one is the same: take the assets and resources of the people of Detroit and pay the banks and the bondholders first and in full. Any crumbs left over can go to schools, ambulances, fire services and other city services. This means the banks and Continue Reading…
