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The CM collective has taken a number of measures in order to cut costs, including printing in black and white and reducing the size of each issue. We are committed to rebuilding and expanding our advertiser base (our largest single source of revenue), and building alternative fundraising avenues.

What is more, we have several new volunteers in the collective dedicated to creating high-quality, truly progressive media for Southeast Michigan and beyond.

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Onward,
The Critical Moment Editorial Collective

Paul Abowd, Matthew Cross, Clara Hardie, Chris Lee, Carmen Mendoza-King, Adele Nieves, Bryan G. Pfeifer, Fred Vitale

a guy told me how to pick up a girl
at a bar
he compliments something
arbitrary
like her shoes
asks her if she comes here often,
what her favorite candy is,
what her favorite drink is, and
believes he sounds charming,

he’ll be the same guy
once he’s middle aged
and married,
that goes up to a cashier
and says,
“if there’s no price tag,
doesn’t that make it free?”
and cracking up
he won’t notice that the cashier’s laughter
isn’t natural, but

small talk, the artificial
fruit flavoring of life,
a series
of prepackaged conversations

no surprises
efficient language,
bad jokes
and kind gestures
mass produced.

journalists go to school to learn how to write
sound bites for newspapers,
and feel qualified to analyze
political science,
like a wild life painter
who has never been in the wilderness
using colors he learned to make associations,

candy tastes cherry
when it’s been dyed with red 40
and it tastes lemon
because of yellow 5 and yellow 6,
with no real difference in flavor
it will taste the way we think it should.

i was at a public clinic
to get an s.t.d. test,
it turned out to be
a harmless heat rash,
but in the waiting room
i ran into a girl i kinda know.

neither of us were visibly sick,
i said hi and she said it back
the conversation was a
modified starch
strictly avoiding the usual questions of

“how are you doing?”
“what brings you here?”
i did not want the word to get around
that i might not be as desirable
as i appear

so i told her i liked her shoes,
then seeing the magazine rack
asked if she had read the new
time or newsweek,
she responded that she didn’t like
consumer driven writing
it lacks substance. and

sensing my awkwardness,
she said, “i was eating out the other day, and
i noticed some pain,
i think it might be an infection
from a cavity i had filled.”

i faked a laugh, “that’s what brings me here too,”
short, sweet, and to the point.

"Rosetta Street"

"U.S. 285"

"Stranded"

The University of Michigan continues to hold hands with Coca-Cola following the January release of an investigative report on the company’s facilities in India. Many states in India have banned Coca-Cola from being sold within their borders over concerns about pesticides in the products. New Delhi activists smashed Coke bottles in August 2006 and protested shops where the drinks were on sale.

Alternatively, the UM administration is satisfied with a letter from the company promising to address environmental issues raised in the report that violate the U’s ethical Code of Conduct for vendors. Unsatisfied students maintain that Coke’s neglect of the Code should get it kicked off campus.

Coke Accused of Environmental Abuse

In November of 2004, Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality accused Coca-Cola of violating the U’s ethical Vendor Code of Conduct (VCC), established in 2003 to set an ethical and socially responsible standard for vendors’ business practices. Students filed a complaint with the VCC Dispute Review Board, which cited environmental abuse in India and union busting through the murder of labor organizers in Colombia. The Coca-Cola case is the first to test the VCC process.

Specific allegations against Coke in India included depletion of water in extremely drought-prone areas. Students referenced the Kerala High Court’s December 16, 2003 ruling that Coca-Cola’s extraction of ground water was illegal. The largest Coke plant in Kerala was shut down by a march of thousands of community members.

Students asserted that Coke plants had damaged farmers’ livelihoods by polluting surrounding ground water and soil. They said, Coke also distributed its toxic waste byproduct to farmers under the guise of fertilizer.

Tested in July 2003 by the BBC at the University of Exeter, dangerous concentrations of cadmium and lead were found in the sludge being put on crops by farmers with their bare hands. Coca-Cola denies knowing the “soil additive” would threaten health of farm workers.

The fourth complaint was the presence of pesticides found in Coca-Cola products on the market in India. In August 2003, a Delhi-based NGO called the Centre for Science and Environment released findings of high concentrations of DDT, malathion and lindane in the products. They contained 24 times the standard amount of pesticide residue for bottled water sold in the European Union. Believed to affect the liver, kidney, and neural and immune systems, lindane was the most commonly found pesticide, present in 100 per cent of the samples. Some contained 140 times the proposed level of individual pesticides in soft drinks.

Coca-Cola refused to print pesticide percentages on product labels despite the legal demands of Indian governmental bodies.

Students Take Action

In July 2005, a national commission of six students and seven university officials first convened to set a fair, independent
assessment protocol for investigations in India and Colombia. After it consulted with stakeholders over three months, five subject-matter experts helped draft guidelines which were all rejected by Coke.

Fed up with the corporation’s attempt to control the process of developing independent investigation guidelines, student representatives pulled out of the commission in October 2005. They claimed Coke was hiding behind the commission as new cases of human rights violations surfaced in Turkey, Indonesia, Guatemala, and Peru. The remaining group would eventually dissolve.

U of M cut $4.1 million-dollar contracts on the 2006 New Year. Coke missed UM’s second deadline requiring them to name third-party monitoring groups and protocols to investigate allegations in India and Colombia. After four months of banishment, Coke informed the university on April 10th that it would allow two specific organizations to assess its practices in India and Colombia. The contract was renewed within two days.

Jump-started by SOLE, the Coalition to Cut Contracts with Coca-Cola (CCCC) was then a 5,000-student group consisting of 20+ student groups. They acted as messengers for the affected communities in India and Colombia.

CCCC did not approve of Coca-Cola’s choices for independent third-party assessors: the United Nation’s International Labor Organization (ILO) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). Two weeks prior to the reinstatement of Coke the student coalition presented a packet of information to administrators. The packet advised against the ILO’s investigation in Colombia, insisting that the UN agency was closely tied to Coke. TERI was also deemed illegitimate as an independent third-party assessor.

A press release from the India Resource Center (IRC) called attention to Coca-Cola India Limited’s sponsorship of the group (University of Michigan Reinstates Coca-Cola Contract Prematurely April 12, 2006). IRC supports movements against corporate globalization in India and has been a close ally with UM students. TERI’s website lists Coca-Cola amongst 69 members of the TERI–Business Council for Sustainable Development, India. Having conducted various projects for Coca-Cola regarding water resources, one survey published by TERI in December 2001 named Coca-Cola among the most responsible companies in India.

The press release also mentions a 2003 Earth Day event organized by TERI: the Vice-President for Public Affairs and Communication at Coca-Cola India was a keynote speaker. Twelve days after this information was presented to the administration, uniformed coalition members received phone calls from the media asking for student reactions to Coke being brought back. Their response, “It is now clearer than ever that the University administration is accountable to corporate money - not to its obligations to respect human rights, worker rights or the student body,” CCCC members wrote to the Michigan Daily (Coke restored behind students’ backs April 13, 2006).

Investigation in India

Six plants were studied by TERI in the villages of Kaladera, Mehndiganj, Nabipur, Nemam, Pirangut, and Sathupalle. Amit Srivastava (IRC) noted that plants in Plachimada and Ballia were absent from the list though these communities have been some of the most vocal in protesting Coca-Cola’s practices.

Coca-Cola claims, "Our compliance with regulations and standards has been validated”, in a response to the TERI report posted on www.cokefacts.com. Although TERI declares that Coke generally meets government guidelines, it adds, "Absent or weak governmental regulations and norms should be countered by strong company policies and self regulated norms." Currently, the company's own standards to safeguard soil, groundwater, and water bodies remain unmet or are inadequate. Compliance with existing wastewater requirements "should be ensured at the earliest," the report advises. TERI also suggests that Coke promptly adopt more stringent criteria for the quality of wastewater applied on land around bottling plants, which may identify the source of faecal coliform and other physicochemical pollutants present in treated wastewater of almost all the plants assessed.

According to the IRC, alleged pollution of water and land around plants were "not examined in detail by the assessment". TERI reported that the rates of wastewater infiltrating the soil could not be verified at any of the sites though it is prescribed by state pollution control boards. According to the IRC, Coca-Cola failed to provide TERI with Environmental Impact Assessments from all six plants. Srivastava maintains that "if TERI was truly independent of Coca-Cola, they could have pressured the company to provide the EIAs". TERI's report implies that structures to measure environmental impacts are either missing or insufficient. The organization recommends that Effluent Treatment Plants be redesigned to more efficiently remove pollutants from wastewater byproduct and include flow-measuring devices.

TERI gave specific recommendations for half of the assessed plants, noting that the Kaladera watershed is overexploited and that Coke’s “operations in this area would continue to be one of the contributors to a worsening water situation and a source of stress to the communities around". TERI identifies Mehndiganj and Nabipur’s aquifers as "critical to overexploited condition" as well. Regarding the year-round cultivation of water-intensive crops such as rice in both areas, TERI condones respect for riparian water rights.

Resentful Communities

TERI encourages assessment of water availability "from a perspective that is wider than business continuity" when choosing locations for bottling plants. TERI relayed that some communities harbor resentment, believing “that the setting up of water intensive units, such as a Coca-Cola plant, does not add value to the local area". For example, "The community in Kala Dera, where the report has recommended a shut down, is very happy with the news. Likewise, other communities in India that have campaigned against Coca-Cola’s abuses of water resources are quite glad that their concerns have been validated," Srivastava related.

TERI promotes Coca-Cola "proactively joining hands with farmers, local governments, and other stakeholders to develop and implement measures for improving the water scenario". Possible measures include supplying piped drinking water to more communities; setting up water-harvesting structures; establishing sprinkler and drip irrigation systems; or setting up social infrastructures such as educational or health institutions.

Suggesting compensations such as these could be seen as TERI letting the company off easy. The IRC, which acts as a telephone line between villages affected by Coke plants in India, takes a harder line: "Coca-Cola must cease all its bottling operations in water-stressed areas in India immediately". Srivastava agrees with TERI that Coke should instantly act to meet company guidelines on pollution.

Students React

"It seems to me that the report concludes quite incontrovertibly that Coke is in violation of the Vendor Code of Conduct," said Sayan Bhattacharyya, a Rackham Graduate School student and member of CCCC. At a campus forum with university administrators, Bhattacharyya and other students demanded that the university suspend purchasing on these grounds.

In a letter to the editors of the Michigan Daily (1/17/08), a Senior member of CCCC, Lindsey Rogers, wrote, "As students, we cannot assume that the University is acting in our best interest or the best interest of the community - local, national or international. Rather, we must be prepared to be the conscience of this university. We must insist that the University uphold its own standards and values."

The University says it will reassess its relationship with Coca-Cola once a report from the ILO is released on the company’s labor practices in Colombia. Student activists are considering filing more complaints with the university regarding Coca-Cola’s oppression of unions in Turkey and Indonesia.

Amig@s del M.A.R. es una organización sin fines de lucro establecida en Puerto Rico en el 1995 por el Sr. Alberto De Jesus (Tito Kayak). Esta con la idea de promover “conciencia ambiental” a todos los sectores puertorriqueños y del mundo! -Concepto “Manatiburón”. En la organización Amig@s del MAR no todas nuestras manifestaciones son de forma revolucionaria. El concepto manatiburón (manatí - tiburón) se creó con el proposito de establecer una manera sencilla y pacifica de cumplir con nuestros ideales ambientalistas (este viene siendo el concepto manati), donde damos charlas a instituciones educativas de cualquier nivel y hacemos recogidos de playas, rios entre otras cosas.

El concepto tiburón es la forma “revolucionaria”, la utilizamos cuando medios no nos permiten fomentar nuestros objetivos de mejorar el ambiente. El concepto tiburon es voluntario, aqui ni se obliga ni se le paga a nadie para que haga actos de desobediencia civil u otros…

Amig@s del M.A.R. is a nonprofit organization established in 1995 in Puerto Rico by Mr. Alberto
De Jesus (a.k.a. Tito Kayak), with the purpose of promoting environmental consciousness throughout
Puerto Rico and the world. While Amig@s has a reputation for radicalism, the organization’s approach is varied based on the issue. As their mission statement says,

"The organization utilizes a dual approach, what we call manatiburón (manatee/shark). On the one hand, we look for peaceful and simple ways to fulfill our environmental ideals (like the manatee), such as when we talk to educational institutions of all levels or collect samples from beaches and rivers, among other things. The flip side is the shark, the more “revolutionary” approach, and is only used when we are prohibited from working peacefully towards our goals of improving the environment. Participation in this organization (or the tiburón concept) is voluntary. We do not force nor pay anyone to participate in civil disobedience or anything else to that effect.

The government of Puerto Rico, acting on behalf of corporate interests, has encouraged development on the historical beachfront grounds of El Paseo Del Caribe in Puerto Rico. Building on these lands is illegal, and environmentalists have warned the developments will cause serious damage to public beaches.

Also, it is in violation of the civil rights of the people of Puerto Rico. In response, Amig@s held radical demonstrations; earlier in 2007, Tito climbed a construction crane, then narrowly escaped capture by the authorities in his kayak; hence, his “new” name.Amig@s has gotten the attention of activists and supporters around the world. Raquelle Seda, a Wayne State University student and native Detroiter, understood he could silently participate by donating money to the cause, but instead opted to become more actively involved. She organized the first Amig@s del M.A.R. fundraiser at the Puerto Rican Club in Detroit on December 14, 2007.

This was one of many activities organized by Latinos around the country in response to the struggle in Puerto Rico. Raquelle says although she’s not a member of Amig@s or a stanch environmentalist, she does recycle and believes
government should play a bigger role in regulating the environmental actions of big corporations and businesses. She believes in the work Amig@s is doing: “They are action orientated. Besides conducting lectures, developing recycling programs, and coordinating beach cleanings, they also act on their revolutionary principles: they protest against the illegal environmental actions of big corporations, and battle government for the right to keep their land.”Government abuse of power is of course not limited to Puerto Rico; powerful interests influence and manipulate governments to dominate people and control the environment for their benefit and profit on a global scale.

Thus in addition to taking on policymakers and big corporations in Puerto Rico, Amig@s protests in solidarity with people all over the world, against oppression in general. According to Global Voices Online, in 2000, Tito “climbed the Statue of Liberty and hung a Puerto Rican flag from her crown to protest the colonization of the Puerto Rican nation.” Also, in 2005 during discussions at the United Nations on the political situation in Puerto Rico, he attempted to exchange the UN flag in front of the UN building with the Puerto Rican flag.

Two years later he hung the Palestinian flag from an Israeli military tower in the West Bank. In this, he affirmed his solidarity with Palestinians against the Israeli border wall and in support of their independence. As Tito Kayak says, “We have to unite despite the politics forced on us. They are robbing us of our land, the land of the people, and we won’t let it happen! This is a call for morality – we have to do the work the government won’t!

The system uses its power to abuse our land. We must demonstrate for justice – La Lucha! Amig@s doesn’t have an official chapter in Detroit, as there is not a large Puerto Rican population. But since the fundraiser, they are considering bringing a chapter to Michigan, similar to affiliate chapters in Florida and New York, in order to bring awareness about environmental issues and continue the fight for a revolutionary movement.

If you would like to get more involved or help establish the Amig@s del M.A.R. Michigan Chapter, please send an e-mail to the Critical Moment Editors: editors@criticalmoment.org and we’ll put you in touch with Raquelle. For more direct information about Amig@s del MAR, write to: amigos-del-mar@hotmail.com. Para más información sobre Amig@s del MAR puedes escribir a cualquiera de los siguientes correos: amigos-del-mar@hotmail.com

CM: Rev. Pinkney please give our readers some background on the struggle for justice in Benton Harbor.

RP: It started in 2003-2004 when they decided to take over the city of Benton Harbor. It started with Cornerstone Alliance, Whirlpool, and a big part of the city commissioners. And we decided we were going to recall one of them. So we got together and we recalled Glen Yarbrough [the most powerful political figure in Benton Harbor - editor]. So, he went to [Berrien County Prosecutor] James Cherry, who said that if he could find someone that was paid $5 to vote, he could start an investigation. So they went out and got Mansel Williams and paid him $10 to say I paid him $5.

They only had six or seven votes that they could find that were signed by somebody else. So they set aside the election; they actually stole the election. And the following Monday they came out and arrested me and charged me with voter fraud. They had my bond at $100,000, but I got out the next day. The first trial ended in a hung jury. We figured we had won. We were still fighting them taking over the city of Benton Harbor -- Whirlpool, Harbor Shores, planning commissioners, Cornerstone Alliance. They were all working together against the people that live inside the city; so their whole plan was to drive the people of Benton Harbor out of the city. We did everything we could to stop them.

Right now, we’ve got them in a stalemate; they are protected by the federal government only because we went out there and did what we had to do. But they still got me. Without me, this whole thing would’ve blew up. So what we are thinking of doing is continuing to fight this battle, hold up our end of the deal. The second trial I was convicted on all 5 counts and we’re appealing, in fact we are in court right now. We are just waiting for the transcript to come. Once the transcript comes, we are going to take it to a whole different level. [From this second trial, Rev. Pinkney was placed on probation, on an electronic tether and forced to pay thousands of dollars for court costs, tether rental, etc. -editor]

CM: So Judge Butzbaugh jailed you for quoting the Bible?

RP: Absolutely. My first amendment rights. He said it was a violation of the probation which isn’t true. It is freedom of speech. They also seized my computer from my home that is violation of the privacy protection act. That was a no-no too. We’ve got to go back for a hearing at the end of this month, I think.

But we’re right on top of them; we’re trying to stay focused. He says that was a threat on his life, quoting from the Bible. Sounds to me like he’s got a date with the devil.We think we’re going to beat them down but we’ve got to beat them down in public. But we can’t beat them down [in court.] They don’t practice law here. They don’t really know the law.

CM: What is Whirlpool up to?

RP: They are trying to drive all theAfrican-Americans out of the city and have a recreation program for people coming from Chicago, people coming from the rich areas, we plan on stopping it. It’s just that simple.They can’t have Jean Klock Park for the beach which they want for the golf course; we didn’t want that. We are in stalemate. But they’re definitely continuing to press for it; we’re talking about a billion dollar project.

CM: What role has race played in your struggle and in the attacks on you?

RP: It has been racist from the start. If you think about driving all the African-Americans out of Benton Harbor, that’s racism. [Benton Harbor is 92% African-American.] I’ve been spearheading the struggle against racism so they went after me. It’s a personal attack. If I were anybody else, they probably wouldn’t have done it; they probably wouldn’t have even taken the vote to trial. By it being me, by me being Black, they decided that was the best option.

CM: Isn’t Benton Harbor poorer than St. Joseph’s?

RP: Very poor. 70 percent of people living in Benton Harbor are unemployed. 90 percent of them live below the poverty level. St. Joseph’s couldn’t exist with Benton Harbor. It is designed to keep us down. [St. Joseph is the twin city of Benton Harbor which is nearly all white, the home of Whirlpool.-editor]

CM: What are the main issues facing the people of Benton Harbor in this struggle and what are your solutions?

RP: They are trying to drive the African-Americans out by not providing jobs for them. They told us that there were going to be 2000 jobs [from this project], but after we reviewed everything there weren’t going to be any jobs for the people of Benton Harbor.We were proposing to bring a factory here as a matter of fact, a textile plant. They did everything they could to stop the project. In order to bring the factory here, we have to wait until I get free. The key thing is to bring jobs into this community. They have no intention of bringing jobs for the African- American people.

CM: Young people are probably leaving because there are no jobs, no future.

RP: Absolutely. If they can drive you out of here, that is what they want to do.

CM: How is your health?

RP: I saw the doctor the other day. Everything is ok. He checked my back out. I’m sleeping on the floor with six other people. I’m no young guy so it’s hard to get up.

CM: What are the conditions in the jail?

RP: Terrible. Just terrible. There are over 500 people in a jail for 350. They got people all over the floor.

CM: Have you been singled out?

RP: They singled me out by putting me in this cell; I’m locked down 24/7. We have no hot water, no exercise; we can’t hardly walk in this small room. No recreation. There are eight people in my cell with two beds.CM: Who has declared support for you?RP: The Black Caucus, most of them as individuals. We want John Conyers to do a complete investigation of the whole system. It’s really not about me, it’s about everybody. We had over 2,500 letters of support sent to the judge. Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders has supported me.

CM: What do you want people to do right now to help?

RP: Write letters to the governor, congress people and send them to my attorney. Let them know that they cannot
take away my first amendment rights.

Beginning in 2000, students in the U.S. began studying in Havana free at the Latin American School of Medicine (LASM). Originally 500 students were offered scholarships annually. This has been increased to 1,000 for the seven-year medical school program. The only condition is that the students make a commitment to serving poor communities in the U.S. after receiving their medical licenses.

Chinere Knight and Ese Agari of Detroit, both graduates of Cass Technological High School, began their studies at the LASM in Havana in the fall of 2007. Knight heard about Cuba’s cutting edge status in medicine from her mother, Desiree Ferguson, who visited Cuba in 2001 for the National Conference of Black Lawyers. Ferguson was co-chair of the international gathering.

Over 3,400 students from 23 countries, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean, are already at the LASM, also studying free. The school was established in the wake of the terrible hurricanes that caused many deaths and extensive damage in Central America in 1997.

“It showed you that, yes, we are in America and we have all these resources, but once you go through the bureaucracy and you go through the prejudice and the bias, you might not get the assistance that you should,” Knight told the Michigan Citizen, a Black news weekly in Detroit that published a feature article on these students in August 2007.

Detroit City Council member JoAnn Watson helped facilitate Knight’s and Agari’s scholarship process, logistics and fundraising with many supporters of Cuba in Metro Detroit.

The Rev. Dr. Lucius Walker Jr. spoke to the Detroit City Council about the Cuban medical school program in December 2006. Walker, Director of the Inter-Religious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) and founder of Pastors for Peace, was the keynote speaker for the Jan. 21, 2008, annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. rally in Detroit. Pastors for Peace administers the scholarship process for the Cuban medical school program. The first graduating class in the program with students from the U.S. received their diplomas in December 2007, along with their colleagues from all over the world.

Such events are in stark contrast to the U.S. where, confronted with an educational system rife with institutional oppression and massive economic barriers, poor, working class and students of color are virtually excluded from pursuing medical degrees, as well as higher education in general. Entrance exam fees and tests alone can cost thousands of dollars. Poor students in the U.S. wanting to obtain an M.D. are regularly forced to go deep in debt through often high-interest loans, or rely on loved ones also facing potential economic disasters such as layoffs, foreclosures and bankruptcies, particularly in Michigan.

The majority of U.S. students who have graduated from the LASM or are currently in the program are people of color and/or women. This reflects the demographics of the Cuban medical system. In the U.S. medical system, it’s just the reverse.

Cuba: A Beacon of Hope

A December 2004 New England Journal of Medicine article, “Affirmative Action, Cuban Style,” cites health indicators in Cuba as being “on par with those in the most developed nations.” According to the World Health Organization, Cuba has twice as many physicians per capita as the U.S., and the infant mortality rate is less than most cities in the U.S.

Much of this information is kept from the American public by the corporate media, but many North Americans caught a glimpse of the realities of Cuba’s medical system in Michael Moore’s latest documentary SiCKO! In the film, Moore brings rescue workers, sick from their exposure to pollutants in the wake of the attacks of 9/11, to Cuba, in hopes that they might receive the medical attention they are being denied by the for-profit health care system of the United States. Not surprisingly, they receive the care they need.

With a population of about 11 million, and facing severe obstacles due to the criminal blockade the U.S. has unilaterally imposed on the country, Cuba has sent more than 60,000 medical personnel to countries on every continent since its first internationalist brigade of 56 medical personnel to Algeria in May 1963. Cuba’s supply of medical personnel to the world exceeds even that of the World Health Organization.

But no Cuban doctors are allowed in the U.S.

Despite a dire need for healthcare services in this country, the blockade prohibits Cuban healthcare professionals from entering the U.S. The effect of this blockade was starkly exposed during Hurricane Katrina when Cuban medical personnel – with vast experience in dealing with tropical storms – were mobilized and ready to assist those devastated by the hurricane and subsequent floods. Both they and Venezuelan medical personnel were on planes, waiting on tarmacs in their respective countries. They were refused entry by the U.S. government, while mostly poor Black people were left to languish and die from a lack of basic medical equipment or untreated ailments.

Students like Agari and Knight are intent on remedying this situation by studying in Cuba and then returning to the U.S. to practice in their communities. They see hope for humanity in Cuba where becoming a doctor is motivated by humanitarian internationalism, not profit

"If we do want to improve our level of health and eradicate diabetes and hypertension, than we need to figure out some alternative way to do it. I think Cuba’s medical system offers that,” Knight told the Citizen.

Part of what motivated Knight was her work as a volunteer in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The experience, according to the Citizen, strengthened her belief in the social responsibility of medical professionals. While volunteering, she conducted interviews with other volunteers, and began studying the official procedures of FEMA and its terribly inadequate response to the disaster.

Knight added, “You have an obligation to work, when you come back to the U.S., in an underrepresented community, where there’s need. And you dedicate yourself to that for your entire career. I said, ‘that’s not a problem, I do that anyway.’”

People called the campaign every day in January to sign up to go to Lansing on Jan. 29, when a demonstration took place outside the Capitol Building prior to Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s “State of the State” address. Activists are pressuring the governor to use her emergency powers under the law to declare a state of economic emergency and impose a moratorium to halt foreclosures for a five-year period.

MECAWI organizers report that the Jan. 29 demonstration has received the endorsement of the Greater Lansing Area Network Against War and Injustice. Activists with the North Star Center, a radical community group in Lansing, contacted MECAWI to also lend their support.

The editor of a community newspaper in Benton Harbor called about the demonstration and offered to set up a town hall meeting to publicize the campaign for a moratorium. She stated that 60 percent of the homes in that predominantly Black city are in tax foreclosure.

A Growing Campaign

The response to the demand for a moratorium is overwhelming.

On Dec. 13 community activists leafleted and petitioned a mortgage fair sponsored by state Attorney General Mike Cox at Cobo Hall in Detroit. Activists were ejected from the hall by security for attempting to give moratorium information to the thousands of people attending in an effort to find some relief from the foreclosure process. Only banks and lenders were allowed to give out information inside. Undaunted community activists distributed moratorium literature outside.

A Detroit News article on Jan. 5 reported on a MECAWI community moratorium meeting and channel 2 Fox News reported on MECAWI’s call. At this meeting many living in Metro Detroit participated including United Community Housing Coalition coordinator Ted Philips, who is involved in stopping tax foreclosures in Detroit. Philips advised on how to forestall evictions and told meeting participants about show-cause hearings Jan. 7-9 for Wayne County tax foreclosures which activists leafleted.

The moratorium campaign was also bolstered by an hour-long community radio and television program hosted by Agnes Hitchcock on Jan. 5. MECAWI organizer and people’s attorney Jerry Goldberg was Hitchcock’s guest and reported an overwhelming positive response to the moratorium call. On Jan. 9 Goldberg was interviewed by the public radio station in Boston. MECAWI received an e-mail from a woman in Massachusetts who heard the interview on her local NPR station and was moved by the foreclosure crisis in Michigan that Goldberg described. She sent a donation along with a message of solidarity.

From Jan. 9 to 13, a crew from the government-run Korean Broadcasting System in South Korea met with MECAWI activists. The KBS television station is putting together a one-hour documentary on the subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S.

According to MECAWI organizer Mike Shane, “The KBS crew came to Detroit from Florida. They said they thought much of the crisis in that state is from investors losing money from the practice of ‘flipping’ houses. In Detroit the producers could see that a much deeper crisis is at work, a crisis of unemployment, racism and urban degeneration.”

Shane said that the KBS crew was “stunned” by what they saw in Detroit and expressed disbelief that nothing was being done by the government to help people. “Like in so many other places around the world, the Korean TV team had held a view of life in the U.S. based on Hollywood lies, and at first they couldn’t comprehend that the richest country in the world has such dire poverty, with so many people losing their homes.”

The KBS crew followed MECAWI activists to a neighborhood in northwest Detroit on Jan. 12 where Thelma Raziya Curtis faces eviction from the home her daughter owns, a home that has been part of her family for decades but is now in foreclosure. Curtis was interviewed extensively and filmed as she went about her daily activities.

Organizers went door to door in the neighborhood, distributing literature, petitioning and talking to residents about Curtis’ plight and the struggle for a moratorium on all foreclosures and evictions. Everyone expressed concern for Curtis’s situation and many asked to be contacted if necessary for more support.

At the Jan. 5 community meeting participants unanimously agreed to fight to keep Curtis in her home. An emergency response task force is in place to plan an action to prevent the bailiff from evicting Curtis.

The KBS crew filmed a block on Strathmoor Street where 10 out of 12 houses stood empty, where most of them had items taken by poor people looking to make a little money from bricks, pipes, abandoned furnaces and the like. They filmed other areas in Detroit with block after block of fields and vacant homes.

On Jan. 11 MECAWI organizers and community activists packed a hearing of the Housing Task Force of the Detroit City Council hosted by progressive Council member JoAnn Watson. The participants overwhelmingly supported the foreclosure moratorium campaign.

Watson reported that a resolution was passed unanimously by the City Council in late December calling on Gov. Granholm to declare a state of emergency in the city and a moratorium on foreclosures. She said that legislation was being drafted to beef up the city’s blight ordinances so that banks and financial institutions would face stiff fines for abandoning foreclosed homes and allowing them to be stripped. Progressive attorneys are drafting language that other municipalities will be able to use as well. Foreclosures in the metro Detroit area are up 100 percent from a year ago, with over 72,000 homes now in foreclosure.

Build the movement!

Says Goldberg, “The racist and predatory lenders aren’t going to solve the crisis they’re responsible for. Nothing is abating the situation. All the proposals are like putting a thumb over a bursting dam. The only way to get a state of emergency declared and a moratorium on foreclosures is by mass pressure. Our task is how to build this movement.”

For more information on the struggle for a moratorium on foreclosures in Michigan, call or visit www.mecawi.org.