Michigan Welfare Rights Organization

The Water Front Tour Opens in Detroit with a Splash!

Water Tour News (Submitted by Liz Miller on 09/30/2008)

The Detroit area, was a natural venue for the opening of the 6-month tour of The Water Front throughout the Great Lakes region. “With the recent passage of the Great Lakes Compact and the approaching elections, this couldn’t be timelier” said Sam Finkelstein, the tour organizer, as he introduced the film. Residents from the area gathered in Marygrove College, a leader in urban social justice education. “This film shouldn’t just touch you,” said Marian Kramer, who is featured in the film and was at the screening, “it should grab you” – and she gestured as if she was choking. And it did just that, the viewers were grabbed by this film and the subsequent discussions. “How can our water be defined as a product?” asked Lynna Kaucheck of Clean Water Action, as she highlighted the underlying economic and political issues that result in situations such as those we experienced in Highland Park. This screening was a great way to launch this historic tour to over 30 cities!
Sam Finkelstein, Food & Water Watch
September 26, 2008

Message to the Grass Roots

'Cipients Speak!

by Maureen D. Taylor, State Chair, MWRO

WITHERING HEIGHTS

April 17, 2008 - We are witnessing phenomena that no American worker has ever seen before. The wheels of society are coming off, and the train wreck is straight ahead. Capitalism can no longer sustain itself on the usual principles of exploit and exploit again. There is no fat left to trim, so corporations are coming after our very throats. Gone are the days when mega-companies had the capacity to “pimp” foreign workers in other countries with the “Sixth Fleet” as the bully sitting off in the harbor to ensure corporate victories.

There is a new player at the table, called “technology” and it is the most ruthless combatant of all. It takes no prisoners, leaving only the bodies of American dreamers scattered here and there. Technology used to enhance work, make jobs easier and force production to go higher. We could make more with better machines. Things have change. Technology has now replaced workers, and we are not ready to accept that reality even though we see it every day. There is no need to provide decent employment and wages for the American worker any longer. Workers routinely work 8-9-10 hrs a day with NO benefits while the heads of these corporations earn millions of dollars in salaries and stock options. There is no need to stop home foreclosures of ordinary workers. There is no need to feed ordinary workers. There is no need to educate ordinary workers. Why provide healthcare, since we are NEVER going back to work again. No water? No utilities? Children randomly killing each other? Seniors dying before their time? Homeless shelters filled? Corruption in government??? Why not? We deserve just what we are getting because we have no further value since we can’t produce wealth for the master any longer.

This is the future for Detroiters and for all workers unless we start to organize in self-defense. The world is at stake. The lives of our children and grandchildren are at stake. The kind of world we want is in danger unless we take a stand. There are patterns we have to start to recognize if we are to survive. This enemy is just like “Jaws.” The eating frenzy is fierce as they bloody the waters of humanity. They consume the weakest among us first…poor helpless children and their poor, unorganized parents. Welfare recipients are provided just under $4/per day, per meal per family member. Criminal! Cognitive problems, brain strains come with under nourished children who grow up to be under nourished adults with learning disabilities. Every time we allow poverty to continue and grow, we put another nail in the coffin of another unnamed child.

We get what we are organized to take. To the American worker, whether you are employed or unemployed…the future of this country is in your hands. Organize…do something!

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