critical moment summer 2015

CRITICAL MOMENTA PUBLICATION BY DETROITERS FOR DETROITERS

SUMMER 2015 Vol. 1 NO. 1 FREE

20th Year Anniversary of the Detroit Newspaper Strikes

Detroit 1995: Here an off duty Sterling Heights cop named Lt. Jack Severance kicks a striking newspaper worker while he was being held by an uniformed underling. This photo ended up being on a bill board near old Tiger stadium visible from I-75 freeway.

THE DETROIT

INSIDE

Grace Lee Boggs Celebrates her 100th Birthday.page 2.

Fifth Estate Celebrates 50 Years of Radical Publication. Page 2.

Felons … or Freedom Fighters? Page 2.

How White Activists Can Be Better Allies To Black Social Movements. Page 3.

Updates from the Courthouse - Reverend Edward Pinkney. Page 4.

Ask a Local Farmer: Plant the Pests Away. Page 5.

D15, Fight for $15, breathes life into local labor movement. Page 6.

Mad Mike Comic. Page 8.

Critical Moment Briefs. Page 9.

Abundant Bodies Media heading back to AMC. Page 9.

The Fighting Labor Songs of Maurice Sugar. 0.

Index

About Critical Moment. Page 11.

Contribute to the Paper. Page 11.

Advertising Info. Page 11.

20th Anniversary of the Detroit Newspaper Strike

Critical Moment interviews activist and former striker Barb Ingalls ... pg 7.

It’s been twenty years since the labor strikes that rocked the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, and it’s worth stepping back and taking inventory of what’s changed in Detroit’s media landscape in the last two decades. For starters, no one could’ve predicted the effect Twitter, Facebook and the Internet in general would’ve had on the notion of “news” and how people stay informed. It now feels quaint to think that either the News or Free Press offer any kind of genuine perspective of “the average Detroiter,” or are even anything more than a mouthpiece for big corporate interests, speaking directly to their predominantly white readership in the suburbs. Last summer, local freelance journalist Anna Clark wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review about Detroit’s mass media “inability to write anything critical about Dan Gilbert” and their falling victim to a “savior complex.” We agree, and would take a step further and say that Detroit’s usual media players are so out of touch that they’re on the verge of an institutional breakdown. You know there’s a serious problem when Nolan Finley, the News’ most notorious racist, pens an op-ed titled “Where are the black people?” in response to the overwhelming whiteness at the new businesses popping up around the Cass Corridor. This is the same man that hasn’t met a wealthy white business owner he didn’t think should be given big chunks of the city and whose sycophantic support for Detroit’s various Emergency Managers seethes with a certain hatred of city residents. What did he expect? The policies and positions of The News (and Free Press for that matter) advocates are a certain kind of violence against the people that have kept this city going, which at last guess by the U.S. Census Bureau is still over 80% black and a good deal brown. These are predictable outcomes of an agenda that follows Governor Snyder’s desire to hand the city over to private interests. The News and Free Press are now owned by the same parent company, and laughably share the same building and printing resources, though there is some talk that the joint operating agreement may be dissolved soon. The weekly alternative paper Metro Times is owned by a Cleveland based company, moved their operations to Ferndale and is approximately seventy percent ads. Metro Times managing editor Michael Jackman wasted no time in taking The Michigan Citizen to task for “being victims of their own passions” when The Citizen announced earlier this year that there would no longer be a print version. The Michigan Citizen has always been a strong friend of and advocate for marginalized people in Detroit, and it is a great tragedy to see the print edition go. Maybe Jackman would’ve been more satisfied to see The Michigan Citizen sell off the paper to an outside media conglomerate and move their operations to the suburbs.

A person can drive themselves mad trying to make sense of Detroit’s corporate media landscape, and not in a good way. We feel our time is better spent supporting and engaging on the ground efforts to disrupt the mainstream media vortex. The following issue of Critical Moment looks back on some of Detroit’s media history and towards platforms where we speak for ourselves. The interview with Barb Ingalls on the newspaper strike and coverage of Allied Media Conference paint some of the picture, but that’s only the start. Grassroots media work over the past three months has included successful press conferences and the hugely informational website http://d-rem.org. We have had the support of Curt Guyette & Diane Bukowski in their writing, Kate Levy in her video work, and countless others pushing back against the mainstream, development-for-the-few narrative of Detroit’s “recovery.” As a result of constant agitation and struggle, we have had impact on major corporate media in recent months, forcing the water affordability and tax foreclosures into their spotlights.

We are building a new, deeply people-based media without corporate support and almost completely volunteer run. We have successfully won two postponements of the tax foreclosure fire sale. We have seen a city council resolution and a state hearing in Lansing supporting a serious investigation of water affordability. We have achieved so much because we reflect and concentrate the efforts of all the work in the streets around water and housing into the media world. Critical Moment is just a small piece of that puzzle and we thank you all for your continued support. Keep up the heat, keep writing and publishing outside of the mainstream vortex and most importantly, keep supporting one another.

With much love, respect and solidarity,

The Critical Moment Collective

From the Collective

Fifth Estate Celebrates 50 Years of Radical Publication

As The Fifth Estate approaches our fiftieth anniversary in November, we have a number of events planned to mark the occasion from museum displays to a staff reunion and a dance party celebration with Detroit’s Layabouts. We want to celebrate our long existence, but also historians and museum curators have become interested in what we’ve published over the last half century, and the impact of the ideas contained in our articles. Two Detroit museums will offer exhibits of Fifth Estate material this fall focusing mainly on the early years when we published a weekly and bi-weekly tabloid, but also recognizing our current status as an expanding anarchist magazine. A display at the Museum of Contemporary Art-Detroit (MOCAD), “You Can’t Print That! 50 Years of the Fifth Estate,” will feature a reconstruction of our 1960s office with pre-computer printing technology, posters (rock and roll and anti-war), art, and the FE button and bumper sticker shop. There will be a festive opening at MOCAD on Thursday, September 10 at the institution’s Mike Kelley Homestead. The Detroit Historical Museum will have an exhibit, “Start the Presses: 50 years of the Fifth Estate,” featuring back issues, photographs, artifacts, and memorabilia that highlight the history of the Fifth Estate. It will be open to the public on

Saturday, August 29.

If you have material you think will help exhibit our history for either of the museums, please let us know. We are particularly interested in filling in gaps in our collection of past issues, especially the first ten editions. Also, letters, photos, and other items you may have that should be preserved. Even if they are not used in the exhibits, we will offer them to the University of Michigan’s Labadie Collection which archives radical items for historical research.

We are in the final planning stages of a dance/party/concert celebration featuring Detroit’s Layabouts on Saturday, September 19. The band played for our 20th anniversary party, so we thought we’d bring them back for an encore. Members, who are scattered as far away as Mexico, are reconstituting the group for what they say will be the final performance of their 34-year run. The Layabouts played at anarchist gatherings in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Toronto in the 1980s and are known for their radical, anarchist lyrics and irresistible ska/rock, dance beat.

The venue for this event and a planned staff reunion haven’t

been set as of this writing. But, once they are known, we will announce the details through our email list and social media sites. If you’re not already connected, you can get updates through our web site at FifthEstate.org or by emailing [email protected]. And, the Fifth Estate is making it into another exhibit. The Modern Art Museum of the City of Paris is presenting an exhibition dedicated to Andy Warhol, which runs from October 1, 2015 to February 7, 2016. As part of the exhibition’s catalogue, they are translating an excerpt from an article in our November 15-30, 1966 issue, “Warhol Here For Mod Wedding.” “Here” was the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit which became a venue for a three-day Carnaby Street Fun Festival featuring a wedding at which Lou Reed’s Velvet Underground with Nico provided the music. Warhol’s wedding gift to the couple was an inflatable Baby Ruth candy bar measuring five feet long. The Festival in Detroit also featured the Yardbirds, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Sam the Sham and Dick Clark. Whether or not you are able to attend any of these events, we hope you have found the Fifth Estate as stimulating and thought-provoking to read as we have to produce it.

Please visit fifthestate.org for subscription information and to stay up to date on the anniversary celebrations.2 - CRITICAL MOMENT - SUMMER 2015

Happy 100th Birthday Grace Lee Boggs!Local activist to mark start of her 101st revolution (around the sun)

Detroit’s own Grace Lee Boggs, the local activist, author and philosopher known for her work with Detroit Summer, as well as her involvement with the labor, black power and civil rights movements, will be turning 100 years old this summer.

Her actual birthday takes place on June 27, but there will be multiple days of events. The first will be a June 26 birthday celebration from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (315 E. Warren, Detroit), which will be a fundraising event for the Boggs Center and Boggs School. The following day the Church of the Messiah will be sponsoring a Grace Lee Boggs 100th B-day Celebration Eastside Peoples Fest & Silence the Violence March. For more information on that, check graceleeboggs100.org for updates.

In honor of Grace’s big 100, the Boggs Center is calling on everyone reading this to be a solutionary by committing to 101 minutes of community service. From all of us here at Critical Moment, Happy Birthday Grace!

Felons … or Freedom Fighters?The City of Detroit has announced that it will be prosecuting people who turned their water back on after the city (or its scab contractors) have turned it off. They will be charged as “felons.” Critical Moment strongly disagrees.

These people are not felons. They are freedom fighters. They are not “stealing” water. The City of Detroit does not “own” the water. It belongs to all of us. The City provides an essential service by treating and moving the water around. We demand affordable water. People who cannot afford water should not be denied water. It is a powerful condemnation of a society that will cut off water from people too poor to pay.

The policies and laws implemented by the City of Detroit with regard to water are not in the peoples’ interest. They serve the corporate model being imposed on the City, a new model that wants to privatize all that is public to generate private profits from our water.

If we would say anything to these people besides “We are on your side!” it is that they should find common cause with each other and people who are blocking trucks and other forms of disruption of water shutoffs of poor people.

Turn the tables. It is predatory bankers and DWSD management with their scab contractors (Homrich and others) who are the true felons. Cringing before powerful corporate owners, the State Legislature, Governor as well as the Mayor and City Council show political and moral cowardice depriving people of water too poor to pay for it while banks are paid exorbitant interest rates on predatory loans and big businesses are given a free water ride.

If you are a Detroit resident who has been charged, or if you are an attorney representing someone facing charges - The Detroit and Michigan Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild would to speak you. You can find their contact information at www.michigannlg.org.

Image Courtesy of the Boggs Center

SUMMER 2015 - CRITICAL MOMENT - 3

As the Black Lives Matter movement kicked off last year, young people of color took to the streets to express outrage at a string of police murders that reflected long-standing racial discrimination and violence in the law enforcement community. At a lot of these rallies, white supporters joined in, and at times some offered “support” that ultimately wasn’t wanted. Blogger Aaron Groggans documented this on his blog, The Well Examined Life, in a post called “Dear White People: Ferguson Protests are a Wake Not a Pep Rally.” On social media, white “supporters” were criticized for trying to co-opt the movement by using the slogan “All Lives Matter,” which took the focus off the folks most directly affected by police brutality. It’s quite evident there’s some tone-deafness in the white community, even among activists, on how to act at rallies and engage in other movement activities. With that in mind, Critical Moment put together a short list of things to keep in mind when interacting with Black social movements.

Acknowledge Your Privilege

As a white activist, you need to have an adequate understanding of the environment framing your activism. This is a practical endeavor. Doing so makes it easier to work with other people and helps you develop a better appreciation for the challenges you face. It may even make you question how you are going about your work and force you to realign your activities to better reflect your values. Not doing so can sabotage your chances of getting anything done, and, frankly, makes you come across as an obnoxious person others want to avoid.

Understanding racism and its many consequences is essential to doing your work as an activist. We live in a society designed to accommodate the needs of whites at the expense of other groups. Although this reality is often unacknowledged, whites in this society are beneficiaries of a system based on slavery, racism and genocide. This means they tend to receive preferential treatment and as a group have greater access to resources than historically oppressed groups.

On an institutional level, these advantages manifest themselves in policies like insurance redlining and the war on drugs. You can see it when a white college grad uses the “old boy’s network” to get a job or when white journalists create narratives that reflect their own worldviews to the exclusion of others. This doesn’t mean white folks can’t suffer from poverty or be beaten by a cop. Statistically, though, they’re less likely to find themselves in these situations and white skin privilege often means that the consequences can be less severe.

White people often have a difficult time owning up to their privilege. It seems so “normal” that it’s practically invisible--something that applies to other types of privilege as well. Anyone concerned with justice, however, has a moral duty to grapple with the realities of how the society works and an obligation to struggle to make it better. In order to have a fuller picture of things, it’s important not to just focus on the negatives either, by acknowledging the many contributions people of color have made to this society while living in this unjust system.

Understanding privilege doesn’t mean constantly whining and obsessing either.Calling out other white people in the movement can be healthy, but should never be self-serving. Ideally, becoming aware of systemic inequalities should kick-off a process of self-reflection that allows you to use your privilege to challenge the social order that exists and work towards a better one.

Be Respectful

It should be common sense not to say idiotic things that offend the people you’re working with, though sadly this is not always the case. Being respectful, however, involves a lot more than simply memorizing a list of things not to say. Developing a sense of context is also crucial. Due to cultural differences (and this country’s shameful history) words and actions often mean very different things depending on who’s speaking them. Skills like active listening and knowing what and why things are appropriate to do and say are just as important for activists to know as learning how to organize a successful rally. Be mindful of your actions, and, when you make a mistake try to avoid being defensive. Own up if you do something wrong, apologize for it and strive to do better in the future.

Organize in White Communities and Institutions

As a white activist, others who share your background are usually more likely to listen to you based on your privilege, cultural upbringing and appearance. Use this to your advantage to organize for social justice.

Challenge racist thinking and behavior. Often times, folks who claim to be anti-racist activists try to distance themselves from bigoted whites. Sure, they’re annoying to be around, but avoiding them doesn’t do anything to change the status quo. Call them out on their behavior. Better yet, make them look ridiculous and destroy their credibility as opinion leaders.

Organizing doesn’t just stop with one-on-one interactions, though. You have access to resources and institutions that your allies may not have. Leverage them. Use your privilege to challenge racist policies, link different struggles together and call for better alternatives. This can take many forms: starting conversations, writing letters to the editors, holding rallies and teach-ins in white communities. One example might be starting a local petition to fight water shutoffs in Detroit. Another would be organizing a fundraising drive for the Black Lives tMatters movement at your local church or college. Use your creativity. Taking action is what matters.

Remember, You Are Playing a Supporting Role

The Black Lives Matters is first and foremost a movement of black people fighting for their own dignity and survival. Be conscious that the spotlight shouldn’t be on you. As a white activist, your role is to assist and support the actions of black people in the movement. You may not always agree with everything--and you’re certainly entitled to your own opinions--but at the end of the day that doesn’t really matter. Keep an open line of communication with black activists who can let you know the best way you can help out.

We hope you find these tips insightful. Now get out there and get to work!

How White Activists Can Be Better Allies To

Black Social MovementsBy Critical Moment Staff Writers

4 - CRITICAL MOMENT - SUMMER 2015

On April 14, 2015, in Berrien County, St. Joseph Michigan, the court showed its true colors.

Reverend Edward Pinkney was in the courtroom that day looking frail and much thinner than he was on December 14, 2014. That was the day the earth stood still when he was found guilty of felonies he did not commit.

He was convicted by an all-white jury of five felony forgery charges allegedly for changing dates on a recall petition. Judge Schrock was visibly showing delight in his face when he read the sentence in the courtroom. “Mr. Pinkney, he called him, you are sentenced to 2 1/2 years to 10 years in prison”.

Rev. Pinkney was surrounded by deputy sheriffs who immediately handcuffed him. He was swiftly taken to Jackson Prison like a hardcore criminal. A place Reverend Pinkney should not be.

Reverend Pinkney’s wife, Dorothy Pinkney, was in shock, and her face filled with tears. She was immediately surrounded by her friends and supporters who comforted her. I was numb in disbelief of what happened in this racist courtroom in Berrien County.The sad part about it is that this scenario in the criminal justice system has played out over and over again.

Now four months later, on April 14, 2015, myself and others carpooled from Detroit, Michigan heading out into the darkness at 4:00 a.m. in support of Reverend Pinkney. I drove my faithful vehicle with my activist comrades in the car.

We arrived before 8:00 a.m. at the Berrien County Courthouse.

I was so ready to pull out the protest signs to start the demonstration, but my friends and I decided to wait until after the hearing was over to begin the rally.

The hearing began at 8:30 a.m. The KKK racist Judge Schrock presided over the evidentiary hearing. There were two motions; one was presented by prosecuting attorney Michael Sepic saying that the Whirpool puppet Mayor James Hightower of Benton Harbor was due restitution from Reverend Pinkney. Hightower, I might note, is up for re-election this year.

Strangely enough Mayor Hightower was not present in the courtroom for the hearing, although he was seeking restitution claiming psychological and economic damage stemming from the recall attempt to remove him from office. Mayor Hightower blames Reverend Pinkney for all his troubles stating he was a victim; he said to the prosecutor. Judge Schrock sided with Mayor Hightower in the December 2014 sentencing hearing.

On April 14 Judge Schrock said that Reverend Pinkney will pay restitution of $1736.17. Ironically Mayor Hightower was not present in Court, claiming he had other business to attend. Mike Sepic, the prosecutor, said to the judge, you can dismiss this case if you want, making reference to Mayor Hightower’s absence.

Moreover, Mayor Hightower is a salaried employee at a private hospital and did not lose any wages during the trial or recall effort last year. The human resource

director was called by the defense Attorney Parish.

During the court proceedings, the audio was very low. You could hardly hear the defense Attorney Tat Parish, nor Judge Schrock, and the witnesses for the defense and prosecution.

The question that came to mind was whether the sound system was turned down deliberately by the court or were the voices intentionally whispered so that most of the supporters could not hear this charade of injustice in the courtroom.

The other motion discussed in the courthouse regarded Gail Freehling, the former juror who was one of the all-white juries which found Reverend Pinkney guilty without evidence. Gail Freehling took the witness stand and during the cross-examination she was hesitant in her responses to the questions that the defense Attorney Tat Parish asked her. Freehling’s answers were abrasive, evasive, and it was obvious she was not telling the truth.

Freehling claimed she did not know any county officials,however as the chairperson of the annual parade in Three Oaks she worked closely with several Berrien County officials and is openly connected to Sharon Tyler, the county clerk, on social media.

During Gail Freehling’s testimony, she claims she did not know Sharon Tyler, the county clerk, or other Berrien County employees.

In some instances, she looked at the judge when she did not have an answer to the defense attorney’s questions. It was evident

that the judge was coaching the witness to say something that won’t perjure herself.

Freeling repeatedly lied on the witness stand about her relationship with Berrien County employees. Unfortunately, the Judge allowed her to leave abruptly from the court, accompanied by her attorney who said nothing during the hearing.

This court displays the most blatant racism in the state of Michigan. The judge ruled on both motions against Pinkney saying that Mayor Hightower deserved restitution and then denied a motion by the defense for a new trial.

Even though there were clear connections established between the former juror and the county clerk Sharon Tyler, the judge ruled there was no evidence that Freehling had ties with city officials.

Also, Judge Schrock denied an appeal bond for Reverend Edward Pinkney. Reverend Pinkney handcuffed, was taken back to prison.

I know he won’t quit now, he’s a fighter. We are fighters and us, his supporters, will not waiver until victory for Reverend Pinkney is WON!

Outside after the hearing a rally was held to protest the horrible outcome of the proceeding.The bigoted Judge Schrock already had his mind made up; that Reverend Pinkney was going back to prison.

Observers in The CourtMarcina Cole, activist, organizer

4620 Cass Avenue →Detroit →313-831-1400 →casscafe.com

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Report from Marcina Cole, who was at the courthouse:Modern Day Lynching#FreeReverendPinkneyNow!


Ask a Local Farmer: Plant the Pests AwayBy Meg Marotte

Dear Detroit Farmer Lady,

I’ve got a couple questions for you. First off, I’ve heard that some plants grow better near each other than others and some shouldn’t be planted together. What can you tell me about that? Also what should I do about insects and critters eating my crops. Is there a way to stop them and still remain organic? I don’t want to accidentally create 12-foot-tall killer mutant slugs by using too many pesticides. It’s hard enough to deal with the pests I’ve got now! And while we’re atit: what is blight and how can I keep it off my tomatoes?

Committed to Really Overcoming Pests

Dear CROP,

Great questions! There is so much to say about companion planting that will not fit my humble little column so allow me to merge your questions slightly and recommend a book to you. Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening by Louise Riotte is a wonderful guide to this broad subject.

I would like to focus this column on companion planting for pest control. Many plants can ward off pesky problems in your garden. Here are a few suggestions of what to plant in your garden to keep it healthy as well as techniques when you start to see those proto-mutant slugs rear their evil heads. Identifying the bugs may require some work, but don’t give up.

Aphids: These bright green bugs are a common garden pest. Predatory wasps kill aphids. Any plant that attracts these wasps is good to include in your garden. Some are buckwheat, nasturtiums, and sunflowers. Fragrant plants like anise, chives, and mint may mask the scent of aphid-attracting plants and deter the aphids.

Bean Beetles: Plant summer savory and rosemary near your bean plants to ward off beetles.

Tomatoes Hornworms: Borage and opal basil will detract hornworms and enhance the flavor of your tomatoes. Avoid planting dill near tomatoes as is will attract hornworms.

Cabbage Worms: Borage, clover, geranium, and thyme are all good to plant near your cabbage.

Flea Beetles: Familiar to any gardener, this pesky bug turns the leaves of your favorite plants into delicate lace with their many millions of tiny bites. Catnip, hyssop, mint, and sage are good at repelling flea beetles. If you are experiencing an infestation try making a tea of catnip and sprinkling it on the affected leaves.

Japanese Beetle: These common pests affect many fruit trees as well as beans, tomatoes, and peppers. Plant catnip, chrysanthemums, geranium, and chives around your garden to drive them off but be careful to avoid placing chives and beans too close together as beans are not compatible with plants in the allium family.

Squash Bugs: Squash and their relatives melon, pumpkin, and zucchini are often attacked by squash bugs. Planting catnip, dill, lemon balm, mint, and nasturtiums near plants may help reduce their effects. Scattering dill leaves directly on the squash leaves adds to their effectiveness.

Slugs: Using trap crops su ch as comfrey, marigolds, and calendula may be effective at

luring slugs away from the plants you wish to save. Slugs devastate lettuce and cabbage while doing little damage to heartier plants like comfrey. Plant chervil in with your lettuce to deter slugs and enhance to flavor of

your salad mix.

Powdery Mildew: This is a nasty white fungus that can cover anything from squash to tomatoes. At the first

signs of it make a chive tea to spray on it’s leaves. Many farmers have touted the use of

spraying diluted milk on plants afflicted.

Cucumber Beetle: Plant radishes, dill, or oregano in with your cucumber plants.

Tomato Blight: Blight is a fungus that affects the plant after it has fruited. There is no

magic cure to stopping blight. Preventative

measures may be taken to reduce the likelihood

of this plant destroyer from getting to your

tomatoes. First, never plant tomato plants in

the same spot twice. Second, don’t plant your tomatoes too

close together. This is a fungus so make sure your

tomatoes have space to air out. Try to

trellis your plants so that their limbs are off the ground.

Lastly, water early

in the day so that the plants have a chance to dry

out during the day. If you see signs of blight, remove affected plant and

burn.

Some multi-use organic

methods include:

Marigolds: These puffy orange flowers are widely regarded as keeping away

a multitude of pests including mosquitoes as well

as attracting beneficial insects.

Cedar shavings: Made from cedar trees, these shavings are a popular bedding

for pets. They are renowned for their insect repellent

properties. Try mixing in with your mulch as a

preventative measure.

Diatomaceous earth: This popular product found in most hardware stores is a

naturally occurring fossilized hard-shelled algae. It’s fine powder

breaks down the exoskeleton of most beetles and effectively dries up slugs. It must be

reapplied after every rain.

Well CROP, I hope this gave you and our fellow readers some food for thought. Combatting

garden pests requires a lot of trial and error, however, the peace of mind you get from

knowing your garden is pesticide-free is well worth the trouble. Planting a diversity of herbs,

vegetables, and flowers is key to keeping your garden healthy.

Recordkeeping of what you planted in which location can

help create an informed guide for rotating crops. Thanks so much for writing in and let me know

what worked for you.

If you would like to write in to Ask a Local Farmer, just email [email protected] and put farmer in the subject line. See you in the dirt!

4620 Cass Avenue →Detroit →313-831-1400 →casscafe.com

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D15, Fight for $15, breathes life into local labor movement5,000 fast food workers and allies rally at Wayne StateBy Nacazqualtia Tecetiani.

While many are quick to say that there once was a need for unions or that unions simply aren’t relevant anymore, the D15 movement is a living, breathing, fighting rebuttal of that tired narrative. D15, the Fight for $15 campaign’s local component has been in existence since 2013, fighting for a $15 hourly wage and the right to unionize. This past April, almost 5,000 fast food workers and their supporters rallied at Wayne State University to demand better wages, better working conditions and ultimately the means to a better life.

If a single person could survive on a $30K-a-year salary—granted they were guaranteed a 40-hour-week at $15—it’s almost unbelievable that anyone could raise a family at this rate. A $30,000 yearly salary would just barely bring a worker above the poverty line. Even for manufacturing and production lines, $15 is considered a high wage by some. Whether true or not, often times the loudest voices prevail and the reverberations create this echo chamber of popular opinion. “Why should someone make $15 for flipping burgers” is the sentiment shared most often. Consider for one moment the production line pace in which these workers have to perform, it’s not much of a leap of logic to place fast food workers in the same category of any assembly line manufacturer. In addition to food line assembly, workers duties include customer service, cashier, stock room and janitorial services. Overall, it’s high stress, high intensity work.

Justice, a single mother of two, works at an area Wendy’s and is involved with the movement in the Michigan Fight For $15 campaign. “The money’s not enough, it doesn’t last, not when you

have 10 or more bills, rent and then on top of that, kids,” she told Critical Moment. “We deserve more, we’re not greedy, we just want to take care of our families.”

The single biggest fear of the workers who wanted to organize was fear of losing their job. When asked what her response was to those workers, Justice replied: “You can’t get fired for standing up for your rights. We’re just trying to make a way out of no way!” Tyrone, who has been working at Taco Bell for the past 17 years, explained his situation this way: “I started out when minimum wage was $3.35, then it went up to $4.35, $5.15, now $8.15, and I never got any raises that whole time.”

This begs an important question: why are

these companies only paying the minimum? In a time when CEO pay has skyrocketed, subsidized by “Performance Pay,” the six biggest fast food corporations have saved over $64 million in tax deductions in 2011/2012 according to report from the Institute for Policy Studies. “What really opened my eyes was when I learned about how much money corporations are making,” remarked Tyrone. “We need to organize for better wages and benefits because the work is hard, but we get paid little. We need $15 and a union for all fast food workers, so I’m gonna stay with this fight. I’m confident that hard work pays, so I’m not giving up.”

In response to the growing mobilization of workers, politicians have crafted legislation

to address this growing movement of the hardest working and most underpaid segment of the American working class. Although not always for the best, these legislators recognize the effectiveness of these organizations. Many living wage and minimum wage laws have been passed, some beneficial, others detrimental to organizing efforts. Such was in the case of the Michigan GOP who actually changed the existing minimum wage laws to invalidate the ballot initiative for $10.10/hr (by changing the wording of the law before it went to ballot). Los Angeles recently held its own referendum for a living wage. New York state has even gone as far as creating a Fast Food Wage Board to investigate whether its even possible to survive on minimum wage.

While legislative efforts have proven fruitless locally, the grass roots is constantly growing

from the bottom up. Scott, an organizer with D15 said they seek to “build solidarity with other unions, to unify the struggle.” The American Dream should be accessible to all and not just a distant memory of the ‘golden years’. This generation understands the economic realities of the era. Having more skills than available jobs, assuming a lifestyle of indebtedness and the necessity of economic organization.

Justice reminds us, “If you don’t stand up for yourself, no one else will. Organize.”

To learn more about the organizing efforts of D15, and how to get involved, please visit http://detroit15.org/ or find them on Facebook as ‘Detroit 15.’

Photos by Charlie Hall


STOP THE PRESSES! Twenty years ago, Detroit became embroiled in a titanic newspaper strike

Critical Moment interviews activist and former striker Barb IngallsBy D. Sands

Photos by Daymon J. Hartley

Twenty years ago this July, 2,500 newspaper workers from the Detroit News and Free Press engaged in the most contentious strike our region has seen in a generation. Confronted with dramatically unfavorable changes in working conditions, the Michigan Council of Newspaper Unions voted to strike after bargaining broke down with the Detroit Newspaper Agency [DNA], the partnership that managed operations for the two papers on behalf of the Gannett and Knight-Ridder newspaper syndicates. The Teamsters quickly followed, launching union members into a bitter, bloody struggle. Barb Ingalls was working part-time and became a dedicated striker. Critical Moment spoke with her recently to get a better picture of the historic labor battle’s significance with two decades of hindsight.

What was your job when the strike happened?

I was in the old printer’s position. We built the ads that went in all the papers. I worked for the partnership that was created by the JOA. You have to go back to the Joint Operating Agreement for the whole story. In 1989, at the insistence of Gannett and Knight-Ridder, the Justice Department granted a Joint Operating Agreement, which kept the two editorial voices separate, but created the DNA. So where I worked, I worked for both newspapers.

What role did the newspapers have in precipitating the strike?

They bargained to impasse and refused to go any farther. As far as I can glean, the sticking points were staffing levels and merit pay. My union had very little to argue with. Our

stuff went through very quickly, but because we were with the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions, we sank or swam for the rest of them.

Why do you think the papers did this? Why not settle?

To bust the union. To make an example for all other unionized newspapers and to save themselves a ton of money. I think the whole thing was planned, and a few things went wrong for their plans.

What can you tell me about the general tenor of the strike?

The company was very violent. They were ready to physically crush us. There were a lot of terrible confrontations in Sterling Heights and in Detroit. It became pretty obvious how entirely prepared and ruthless the company was going to be. For instance, finding every single off-duty officer in the metropolitan area completely armed with full riot gear, waiting for us on Mound Round [near 16 Mile, a major printing plant], was just a complete shock. I mean they called it Treasure Island, the median on Mound Road, because that’s where all the money was. There were Redford Township, Livonia cops, Ann Arbor Cops. Cops from everywhere came out to pick up overtime.

Any particular incidents that stick out in your mind?

Another striker and I drive out to Sterling Heights. We pull up and all we can smell is pepper spray in the air. All these people milling around. We cross over to the newspaper side. That was the night of “Jack the Kicker.”

That night an off duty Sterling Heights cop grabbed a striker out of the line, threw him on the ground, kicked him into unconsciousness. I thought I was in a newsreel from the 1930s. It was at that moment I realized that this was genuinely right and wrong. Guys in cutoffs and t-shirts carrying picket signs versus cops you saw in pictures of Eastern Europe. Just unbelievable.

Another was the night we were at Clayton Street in Detroit and a cop went after my husband and beat him into the ground. After that, it’s like: “I’m not leaving the fight until it’s over.”

And other unions were supporting the strike?

Everyone in a union all over the country came out. The UAW, I have a debt of gratitude to them that can never be repaid. The rank and file members, officers. They went out of their way, but also the IBEW, the Wobblies. Every union. It was not an unusual thing to meet people from almost anywhere out at Sterling Heights. The solidarity was just amazing.

What was your role?

My union president asked me to go to work right on the Human Services Committee. I was contacted by the UAW and the AFL-CIO, and we printed up the first newspaper called the Detroit Union….It was mostly Detroit News writers that worked with me. We put out three issues before basically we got kicked out. We sort of quit, because we didn’t like the interference from the more corporate unionists. I went to

...continued on page 8


MAD MIKE by Alpaca Stevedore work with the Sunday Journal at that point, and I ran the classified ads.

Any conflicts with scabs?

All the time. [laughs]. I used to really like bothering scabs. We used to throw pennies at them. “Come one, you’ll do anything for money. Here’s a penny,” we’d bark at them. Walk down the street and bark at them. Harassing scabs was more fun than it really should of been. I’ve rethought that strategy a lot since then. It’s not helpful, but it felt really good at the time. And they used to hang out the windows and wave dollar bills at us. They were terrible.

Tell us about the community support for the strike.

The community was overwhelmingly in favor of the strike. People would watch TV, leave the TV on, and drive down to Sterling Heights. It was unbelievable, but everybody supported it. You would go down streets and every house would have a “No Scab Paper” sign. The newspapers have never been even close to getting over the losses of subscribers and ads.

How and when did the strike end?

The strike ended in 1999 with a whimper. The official strike strategy was around the legal cases of unfair labor practices. We won every single court case. All the way up to the final appeal, when we lost.

That night, I had to go to work. Oh my god! I could not speak. Everyone was staring at me as I walked in the room and sat down at my desk. I could hear people whispering and I heard the boss say: “Just stay away from her.”

What’s the legacy of the strike? Is there anything good that came out of it in your eyes?

For me, Yes. For the newspaper business, we held off in Detroit what happened in other cities. They’re finally doing the things that they meant to do 20 years ago. They have lost millions and millions of dollars; they’ve spent millions and millions of dollars. They thought we would fold in nine months. We thought they would stop in nine months. And we made them hold out for nearly six years.

I think the bad news of the strike is that there’ll be no more long strikes like that in America. For me and for people like me, I wouldn’t have done it any other way. What else could you do? It still kills me that we lost. I think we could have won it. Maybe not, that’s a lot of money they were pouring into it.

Any lessons for young union activists today?

Yeah! So about halfway through the Sunday Journal…it seemed to me it just wasn’t working, so I started going on the road with a group of strikers and we were following something called the corporate campaign. During that time, the head of the Teamsters union was Ron Carey. He hired a bunch of very innovative organizers. They devised this corporate program which included going to all the Gannett and Knight-Ridder shareholder meetings. We also went after the worst bastards at their homes, workplaces, where they partied.

We followed the scab writer Mitch Albom around a lot. Just a disgusting excuse for a human being. Every time he did a public appearance, union members would show up at his signings and give ‘em hell and chase ‘em out. It was amazing and it was effective.

We even made Rosalyn Carter, the famous wife of Jimmy Carter, quit the board of Gannett. Soon we convinced the unions to pay 50 strikers to do this work full time. It was called the Workers Justice Committee. I must have been in New York City and Boston 20 times during those years.

We crashed the Harvard Business School commencement. We chased them up and down the Detroit River in boats. We did all sorts of stuff to keep the strike alive. To keep them understanding that the fight wasn’t over.

One October, we went to every single house in Roseville. The newspapers had launched a campaign that the strike was over and everyone could subscribe to the paper again. We went to every single house and said, no its not true. No newspapers delivered in Roseville after we were done.

Anything else you want to say?

An injury to one is an injury to all. If you don’t think it can happen to you: look at this group of newspaper writers, photographers, graphic designers. They thought they were white collar professionals, and they got their heads busted in just like everybody else.

The stress that people went through on a day-to-day basis was just a killer. It was not unusual to go into a corner in the Sunday Journal office and find someone just huddled in a corner weeping. It physically hurt me. It was impossible to understand how your employers could hate you so much they could try to run you down. It can’t be underestimated.

I can forgive a lot of things: I really think we should have handled the scabs differently. But it took almost 20 years to come to that. Learning about people and knowing about strategy, we could have done a lot more. We could have had a better inside game. But I will loathe those corporate bastards ‘til the day I die for what they did. Motherfuckers! Quote me on that.

This is an edited version. The full interview can be read at: www.critical-moment.org.

Newspaper Strike Cont.....


In its second year, the Abundant Bodies Media track at Allied Media Conference (AMC) is centered on discussing fat experience by uplifting the voices of Indigenous, Black, People of Color, Dis/abled, Super-sized, Trans and Queer fat people. The track was created in 2014 and continues to grow, building a fat community space at the conference each summer.

Political organizing around fat stigma and discrimination has grown over the last two decades as discourse surrounding the “obesity epidemic” has continued to be a focus in the media. Fatness as a political issue is not new with political action against fat discrimination dating back to the 60s and earlier. In 1973, members of the Fat Underground wrote a Fat Liberation Manifesto calling for the human rights of fat people, the abolition of the diet industry - which they believed was infiltrating the medical industry. The diet industry continues, with annual profits of $60 billion, more than is spent on college tuition.

Fat individuals still lack access to basic health care needs. They are often told to lose weight as a treatment or denied treatment until they lose weight. Fat people also deal with significant

levels of discrimination in the workforce, education, medicine, politics and all other institutions. Fat people are forced to see their bodies as the embodiment of an epidemic while lacking the ability to organize for better treatment because they are told it is their own fault.

The track challenges these narratives by creating a space for individuals to explore how we think about our own bodies, bodies as individuals and as a society, to break down negative connotations surrounding fatness as a health concern, to see ourselves as individuals who deserve equal access to social, economic and institutional power.

The track includes sessions that discuss 101 topics related to fatness and challenge people who haven’t thought about fatness politically. Rarely do we think about fatness outside of being a health concern and even more rare is it to contextualize how fat stigma relates to other forms of institutional oppression. There will be a session to discuss how we moralise food and how that relates to how we think about our bodies.

Interactive workshops are also part of the track

to give participants the ability to move their bodies and explore their own experiences in their bodies more deeply. An accessible yoga session for different body types allows for everyone to find new ways to move, as well as a body inclusive dance session accessible for disabled and fat people alike. A body mapping workshop allows participants to create visual representations of their bodies to explore and a workshop centered on belly love gives people new ways to think about that specific part of their body.

Through the track, organizers hope participants learn to think differently about their own bodies, while also acknowledging the toxic narratives about fat people in our society. With most organizing attempting to deconstruct mainstream narratives around fatness being located outside of the Midwest, this track provides a much needed political space for people to imagine new ways to think about bodies, shame, self love, and fatness.

To learn more about the Abundant Bodies Media track at Allied Media Conference, please visit http://abundantbodies.tumblr.com or https://www.alliedmedia.org/amc

Water Shutoffs Resume, Activists Testify At State Hearing

Detroit is again denying its residents access to water, and activists are once more calling on it to stop. Starting May 26, crews of outside contractors hired by Detroit’s Water Department resumed cutting off homes from the water supply over delinquent payments.

The Detroit Free Press reports the city sent out around 3,000 shutoff notices from May 11 to May 24, giving customers 10 days to pay their bills. A similar round of utility cutoffs were halted last year, after UN special rapporteurs on water and affordable housing visited the Motor City on a fact-finding mission and found officials were violating its citizens’ human rights.

On the weekend of May 29, about 300 activists converged in Detroit to discuss the issues at the International Social Movements Gathering for Water and Affordable Housing. Citizens from around the state then went to Lansing on June 3 to testify at a state hearing on water safety and affordability sponsored by State Reps. Stephanie Chang of Detroit and Sheldon Neely of Flint. Detroit People’s Water Board Coalition bused in Detroit families and residents to participate in that event, many of whom advocated a water affordability plan as solution to the city’s water crisis.

Wayne County Extends Foreclosure Deadline

The Wayne County Treasurer’s office in downtown Detroit got a lot of foreclosure-related foot traffic on June 8. That day, hundreds of property owners queued up inside to meet a delinquent tax deadline that would allow them keep their land holdings. Meanwhile a feisty group of activists, some carrying signs that read “Black Homes Matter,” rallied outside demanding a moratorium on the tens of thousands of properties at risk of being foreclosed on by thecounty.

Due to the overwhelming lines, Treasurer Raymond Wojtowicz budged on the time limit, moving the deadline up three days to June 11. This marked the third shift in the date. After originally being bumped from March 31 to May 12, it was then bounced to June 8. Last fall Wojtowicz’s office began proceedings to foreclose on 75,000 properties. By the beginning of June, 40,000 of those property owners had settled their bills with the county or enrolled in installment plans and other settlement programs, according to The Detroit News.

Activists with the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shutoffs are vowing “a summer of resistance to stop foreclosures and water shutoffs” in the city.

In related news, Judge David Perkins of Michigan’s 36th District Court, on April 27, dismissed a motion to evict 12 families from Detroit’s Gratiot McDougall neighborhood. The families have been working with the group Detroit Eviction Defense to save their homes. They hope to negotiate a settlement with developer Peter Barclae.

New Campaign Launched To Ban Fracking In Michigan

On May 22, Michigan activists kicked off a new campaign for a statewide ballot initiative to end fracking, also known a hydraulic fracturing, in the state. Fracking is a process that uses a pressurized liquid solution of water, sand, and chemicals to bust up rocks to obtain natural gases and other resources. To find out more, visit banmichiganfracking.org.

Detroit Charter Schools Hold Votes On Union Membership

It’s been two years since teachers and staff at Detroit’s Cesar Chavez Academy schools voted to unionize. During that time, however, employees with two other Detroit charter schools systems have been busy with their own union drives. Both involve efforts to join the Michigan Alliance of Charter Teachers & Staff (Michigan ACTS), a branch of the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan.

On May 6, University Yes Academy staff voted 27-18 to accept Michigan ACTS as their collective bargaining agent. In the run up to that vote, the school’s management New Urban Learning

vowed to leave the institution at the end of the school year.

The election drive for the seven campuses of UPrep Schools, which include charter schools with University Preparatory Academy and University Preparatory Science and Math, has been even more contentious. Although by official vote counts, the election to join the union got 19 more no votes than yes votes, UPrep Schools’ operator Detroit 90/90 called into question the right of 30 Teach for America (TFA) teachers to participate in the lead up to the vote. Twenty TFA teachers did vote in the election, and their ballots are still up in the air, awaiting a decision from the National Labor Relations Board.

Highland Park Faces Dissolution Over Water Bills

As if Highland Parkers didn’t have worries enough with dysfunctional lighting and water systems caused by corporate abandonment and a series of state-appointed Emergency Managers, now residents may face the dissolving of their city due to unpaid water bills. It’s one of the ideas being floated around in talks surrounding the establishment of the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), which was incorporated last year in negotiations linked to former Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s plan of adjustment for Detroit’s bankruptcy.

The GWLA is set up to be a regional water authority that puts control of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) into the hands of six board members: two from Detroit and one each from Wayne, Oakland, Macomb Counties. Under the authority’s articles of incorporation, its suburban partners have a June 14 deadline to sign lease agreements to make use of Detroit’s water system or the GWLA will dissolve.

Debts from Detroit and Highland Park, totalling about $32 million, have proved a sticking point for Oakland County. Highland Park, in particular, has been struggling for the past several years to deal with a faulty water system and related billing issues that have left them unable to operate their own water infrastructure. In 2012, the city’s mayor arranged for residents to start receiving water from Detroit’s system. Last year, a Wayne County Circuit Court judge ordered Highland Park to pay $20 million in unpaid bills to DWSD.

The exact specifics of the proposal to dissolution proposal are unclear, because negotiations over the regional water authority are cloaked in secrecy due to a gag order by federal judge Sean Cox.

Dissolving it would be financially advantageous to the city of Detroit, as it would extend the responsibility for covering the arrearages to its suburban neighbors. Oakland County. Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Macomb County Executive have openly scoffed at the idea of dissolution, however, as has Highland Park Mayor DeAndre Windom. As a counterproposal, Patterson has suggested using a state bond to resolve the unpaid debts.

The Highland Park Human Rights Coalition has been active for years in organizing against this series of governmental attacks. Taking land from current homeowners legally and without paying for it, in land speculation and development along the Woodward Corridor, appears to be a good reason for the unpaid bills and the talk about bankruptcy.

Highland Park Renaissance Academy High School To Close

Like the state of Michigan’s plans to save Detroit’s schools, their efforts in Highland Park have resulted in tragedy.

In May it was announced that Highland Park Renaissance Academy High School would be closing at the end of the school year. According to WJBK, parents of students got a letter informing them of the closure, citing a drop in enrollment that left the school fiscally unsalvageable. For the coming school year, students of the former school will now be attending classes at DPS, Educational Achievement Authority, or an alternate charter high school in Highland Park.

Highland Park’s school district is run by a state-appointed emergency manager, Dr. Don Weatherspoon. Under an agreement with the previous emergency manager, the Leona Group oversees operations of the district’s charter schools. Last year, Highland Park High School was closed and high school students were moved to their charter schools, Renaissance Academy High.

CRITICAL MOMENTS NEWS BRIEFS

Abundant Bodies Media heading back to AMCby Amanda Levitt


The Fighting Labor Songs of Maurice Sugar: An interview with Tony Paris by D. Sands

Tony Paris knows all about the activist labor lawyer Maurice Sugar. He’s the lead attorney at the Detroit-based national legal advocacy organization that carries his name, the Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice. Carrying on Sugar’s legacy, the nonprofit law center provides legal advocacy and support to community groups, workers’ rights organizations and individuals seeking systemic change for a better world.

So naturally, Paris has deep familiarity with Sugar’s work, but he’s also got a solid grasp of a completely different side of the man’s life too: his songs. A singer and musician himself, Paris has reworked the legendary lawyer’s songs in poems into a contemporary style and occasionally performs them around town. Intrigued, Critical Moment reached out to Paris to learn more about the professional and musical parallels between these two idealistic Detroiters.

To start with, tell us about Maurice Sugar. Who is he and what did he do?

Maurice Sugar was a labor attorney, social/political activist, and a songwriter/poet. Although he was a brilliant and meticulous lawyer, his commitment to worker mobilization and direct action made him particularly unique and successful in the eyes of the left. His philosophy of legal practice included involving workers as active participants in the process, packing the courtroom, engaging in civil disobedience, etc. and in this way, he believed that even under a capitalist system, the Constitution could serve the working class. He was never satisfied with the status quo and constantly tried to push the law toward justice.

More specifically he was kind of a true outlaw revolutionary. He spent 10 months in jail in 1918 for failing to register for the WWI draft and conspiracy to obstruct its operations because the war conflicted with his beliefs as a pacifist and Socialist. He was disbarred for this and not readmitted again until late in 1923 with the help of Judge Frank Murphy (future Mayor of Detroit, Governor of Michigan and United State Supreme Court Justice). Some of the main highlights of his career include his involvement with the Ford Hunger March in 1932, the Flint “sit-down strikes” against General Motors, the fledgling Detroit branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the newly developing fields of unemployment insurance benefits and workers’ compensation and fighting against the City of Dearborn over their handbill ordinance. He’s probably best known as the General Counsel for the UAW-CIO from 1939 until 1947.

He was targeted for his beliefs but never backed down. He faced constant death threats and intimidation from the right, specifically from the Black Legion, a northern offshoot of the KKK that was centered in Detroit, being that he was one of the few white attorneys who would represent black clients.

What can you tell us about the Sugar Law Center?

The Sugar Law Center was founded in 1990 as a project

of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), a larger national progressive organization of lawyers of which Maurice Sugar was a founding member. He imagined the Guild as a “clearinghouse” for progressive attorneys toward a “united front in anti-fascist struggles” and the NLG’s maxim is “to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property rights.” Now Sugar Law Center is its own 501(c)(3) organization but we remain affiliated with the National Lawyers Guild. Sugar Law remains dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights of working people and their communities. Driving our work is the principle that civil, economic and social rights are inseparable from human rights.

What about yourself. What work do you do at the Sugar Law Center?

At Sugar Law, I specialize in workers’ rights, mostly regarding plant closings and mass layoffs, wage and hour actions, unemployment insurance benefits, and employee organizing and NLRB filings. Every day, I hear stories of workers who have fallen through the cracks of our system and are at the end of their rope. Workers who gave themselves to a job or to a city for years and years only to be tossed aside. I know that the themes Maurice Sugar was touching on are universal and absolutely applicable to today.

What can you tell us about Maurice Sugar’s songs?

Maurice Sugar wrote songs and poems about all types of struggles working people of the time were facing. He took a large and sometimes complicated issue, oftentimes related to one of his cases, and put it in a simple and short poem that could better resonate and relate with the rank and file workers. Many of his songs dealt with fighting back generally and standing up to bosses (“Bosses and Judges,” “Fight!”, “Strike! Be a Man”) or specifically to a tactic like sit-down strikes (“Sit Down!,” “Bring Me My Robe and Slippers, James”). Another major theme of his lyrics involved workers not being able to eat and survive even when they worked hard and followed the rules (“Soup Song,” “We Are the Ones,” “A Dollar Seventy-five,” “Gotta Quit Living On Confidence”). He even addressed unions that were not properly fighting for their members actual concerns (“I Belong to the Company Union”). They were performed at picket lines, union meetings/dinners, even by other folk singers and choirs. They were archived and published by folks like Alan Lomax and Pete Seeger.

What’s your background in music?

At this point, I’ve probably played music for a little over 10 years. My primary band, “The Adrays” having early incarnations probably beginning 2006. We played our first actual show in 2007.

How did you come to be playing Maurice Sugar songs?

I’ve worked at the Sugar Law Center since early 2007 and when I began, I had already known a bit about who he was and some of the history of the early union movements in

Detroit. But I didn’t really learn that he was also a songwriter/poet until the first time I went to the Buck Dinner (which Maurice Sugar first began in 1929) in 2008 and they played “Sit Down!” and the “Soup Song.” So I felt like even more of a kindred spirit with him because I’m an attorney who writes songs. I went through an entire archive of his songs, poems, and correspondence regarding them at the Walter Reuther Labor Library and I was hooked.

How did you tweak the music in the songs to make them more suitable for modern ears?

I have done that with a couple of his songs, specifically with a poem he wrote called “We Are the Guys” where I modernized some of the lyrics (changing the title to “We are the Ones” so women are included), wrote chords/music to it, and slightly changed the lyrics to emphasize the theme’s continuing relevance. The goal of course being to make it sound a little more modern--but still keeping true to his ultimate message.

I don’t think that Maurice Sugar could actually write musical tablature or anything like that so he would send some his songs/poems out to have others do that for him. And many of his poems that I found don’t seem to have any musical notation with them whatsoever. So I have to figure out how—based on the meter, rhythm, and rhyme scheme—it may sound best as a folk or folk rock song.

Who do you perform them with?

The few times where we’ve played these songs out to the public we didn’t come up with a separate band name or anything like that. But I mainly play them with a band called Blue Pontiac from Pontiac, Michigan, who are good friends of mine and share a mutual respect and affinity for roots music.

Why do you think it’s important to perform Sugar’s songs?

Maurice Sugar’s stories, cases, and songs need to stay alive. Not just because of their historical significance, but because the themes apply so well to the working poor of today. More importantly, he was operating on two separate tiers of the movement—the streets and the courts—telling essentially the same story and argument, just in different styles/genres. He was trying to explain complicated theoretical revolutionary doctrine and legal jurisprudence in those songs so that even an uneducated, oftentimes newer immigrant worker can understand, internalize, and be inspired by—and that’s pretty much everything. I also don’t think that he got a fair shake in his eventual ouster from the UAW with the red-baiting that occurred following World War II, so I’d like more people to know just how important he was in the early union movement as Detroit’s automakers grew.


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Summer 2015 Critical Moment Collective

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