Dining for dollars to build a movement against poverty in MI

Dear MI Poor People's Campaign Community,

Greetings! As we emerge from the chill of winter, we are fortunate to live in a state where spring gently unfolds the beauty and fragility of our natural environment. It's also a time when we often reflect on the sacredness of life and our spiritual connections. Among our most vulnerable, poor and low income communities, it has been another harsh season of struggling with the basics of survival: affordable and accessible housing, utilities, living wage incomes, adequate food and water, medical care, transportation and more.

Throughout April, the national Poor People's Campaign is launching the Truth and Poverty Tour across more than 30 states. Michigan PPC members will participate with a caravan to poverty impacted communities beginning in Benton Harbor and Kalamazoo. Your contributions will help us fund the outreach work.

In support of this, there will be three fundraising dinners in Southeast Michigan to fund the April tour and the legal defense of PPC arrestees at last summer's 40 Days of Action at the MI Dept of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). You are warmly invited to participate:

• Saturday, April 6th -- Fundraising in Detroit for Justice and Power -- Individual dinner tickets $25; Tables $200, all contributions are are welcome! Starts at 5pm at IBEW Local 58.
  

• Saturday, May 4th -- Faith Leaders and Communities Across Michigan Rise Up for Justice! -- Dinner tickets $25. Starts at 5pm at the Islamic Organization of North America, Warren, MI. Tickets available on Eventbrite and at the door.

• Saturday, May 11th -- MI PPC Fundraising Reception: Music, art, speakers at Riverside Arts Center, 76 N. Huron St, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. Tickets available on Eventbrite and at the door.

Please support these fundraisers in any way possible. If you would like help organize a PPC fundraiser and/or 'Introduction to the PPC' event in your community (e.g., dinners, house parties, workshops), please contact the MI PPC Coordinating Committee at Michigan@PoorPeoplesCampaign.org -- along with any interest you have on how to assist with upcoming tour planning and fundraising dinners.

Finally, we provide you with an update on the trials and legal defense of residents who were arrested during last summer's 40 Days of Action:

• Detroit trial of 7 defendants (aka #Gilbert7) for blocking the Quicken Loans building and QLine light rail train on 6/18/18: Of 22 arrested PPC activists, seven sought a jury trial. On 1/29/19 two defendants were found not guilty of Blocking a Street Car. The jury was hung on the remaining 5 defendants and on 4/2/19 a victory settlement was reached with Detroit prosecutors for only civil infraction tickets of impeding traffic. The protests and defense focused on gentrification, foreclosures, water shut-offs, and corporate profits on the back of poor Detroiters. Read more here.

• Lansing trial of 14 defendants (aka #MDEQonTrial) for blocking MDEQ parking lots on 6/4/18: Thirty persons were arrested outside of the MDEQ building parking lot. See video on PPC action at MDEQ. Fourteen defendants will begin a jury trial in Ingham County court on 5/14/19 in a justification defense of actions to protect the water, air and soil harms against residents and the environment under MDEQ's watch. We hope to pack the court! More info to come soon.

Both trials have been generously supported by the movement solidarity labor of the National Lawyers Guild in Michigan and other private attorneys. After several years of defense work on behalf of activists, they have requested modest support for trial expenses. We wholeheartedly agree and are raising legal defense funds this spring too.

As always, thank you for pledging to build this movement to end poverty; and for the national call for a moral revival that challenges the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation's distorted morality.

In Solidarity and Appreciation,




The Michigan PPC Coordinating Committee

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Second of two reflections from the MI PPC Washtenaw Co Summit: La'Ron Williams

During the opening General Session of the Moral Fusion Summit on January 26, 2019 in Washtenaw County, MI, Rev. Joseph Summers and La'Ron Williams made powerful remarks to the Summit audience.  We present the text of those talks in these next two posts. Here are the remarks from La'Ron Williams:

Talk given by La’Ron Williams at the Poor Peoples’ Campaign Moral Fusion Summit: Challening the Racial-Economic Caste System in Washtenaw County.

What makes us a nation?. . .

We have no official national language . . . We don’t share a single religion . . . We aren’t of a single culture or “race” . . . What we are at this point is a group of people poised on the edge of having to make a hard choice. A nation is an idea . . . an idea . . . and the way that we move from this point forward will be the manifestation of the idea that we collectively decide to strive for …. the collective idea that we declare. 

……………………………………………….

In the year 1640, three men, all indentured servants held in bondage in the colony of Virginia, tried to escape together. Two of those men were what we today would call “White”, although history tells us that that term wasn’t used to describe human beings yet. The third man was “Black”. They were caught and they underwent a trial in which they were convicted and sentenced. The two White men were sentenced to four additional years of service, but the “Black” man, a man named John Punch, was ordered to serve for life. Now that case holds significance for two reasons:

1.     In the colonies that would become the United States, it was the first documented case of different punishments being handed out on the basis of physical appearance/background.

2.     It signaled the beginning of a practice that caught on like wildfire.

Up until that time, it was common for indentured servants to rebel, and when they did, they did it together – They didn’t care what each other looked like. But that court ruling acted to drive a wedge between “Black” and “White” indentures. What was once a united front of people fighting to end their suffering under a commonly recognized enemy was shattered by a simple idea that had no basis in reality.

It was a “divide and  conquer” strategy – a tool – that worked so well it eventually was adopted by all of the colonies. By 1681, the word “White” was encoded into law as a racial identifier. I repeat, it was consciously used as a tool to divide one group of poor folks from another. It worked then and still works today – so well in fact, that it has been expanded to operate across all kinds of lines of difference: gender, skin color, body size, religion, country of origin, income, and so on and so on . . .

In 1640, and for more than the next 300 years, the class status of that Black man, John Punch, and everybody who looked like him, including my own ancestors, was locked into the unfolding American social fabric. Our place was at the bottom – as slaves. Unable to hold political office, with no guarantees to education, and with no control over our own bodies, our class status was cemented to racial identity. 

One of two reflections from the MI PPC Washtenaw Co Summit: Rev Joseph Summers

During the opening General Session of the Moral Fusion Summit on January 26, 2019 in Washtenaw County, MI, Rev. Joseph Summers and La'Ron Williams made powerful remarks to the Summit audience.  We present the text of those talks in these next two posts. Here are the remarks from Rev. Joseph Summers:

“The Caste System and the Politics of Moral Fusion” Remarks given by the Rev. Joe Summers at the Poor Peoples Campaign’s Moral Fusion Summit of January 26^th, 2019

When you hear the long term impact of growing up in poverty in this country that Professor McLoyd just spoke about, it is simply unacceptable that 25% of our youth are growing up in poverty.  It’s simply monstrous and here I don’t mean to insult monsters!  This has been going on far too long, and it’s something we are going to change.

My name is Joe Summers, for over thirty years I’ve been the Pastor of the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation and a community activist.  The first thing I want to say today is how grateful I am for your being here today.  Your presence here is making a concrete difference in helping us figure out what should be the agenda for the Poor Peoples’ campaign as we strive to challenge the racial-economic caste here in Washtenaw county.  We are in the bottom 8% of counties for income mobility so clearly we have work to do.

What we are doing here today has been inspired by the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina where people came together around a diverse area of social concerns, had people from each area of concern agree on what should be the primary goals in that area, and then collectively commit themselves to working towards all these goals.  Though they began with far fewer people than we have here today they can now mobilize up to 100,000 people at a time in North Carolina.  That’s the kind of thing we are hoping to once again be able to do here in Michigan because we will need those kinds of mobilizations if we are going to be able to achieve the kinds of systemic changes that we are needing in this country, in Michigan, and in this county.

I want to take a few moments to talk about a couple of the key concepts behind this strategy.

Media Advisory: Jury Frees Two Members of "Gilbert 7" Water Warriors; Jury Deadlocks on Remaining Five

For Immediate Release

Michigan Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

1/29/19

***Media Advisory***

Contact: Sylvia Orduño, smorduno@gmail.com

Jury Frees Two Members of “Gilbert 7” Water Warriors  

Head juror to speak out at press conference

DETROIT – Activists are holding a press conference to discuss their legal victory and future action after a jury agreed their nonviolent protests against water shutoffs was justified in light of the harm caused by them.

Last year, members of Michigan Poor People’s Campaign, dubbed the “Gilbert 7,” blocked the Q Line and the entrance to Quicken Loans to draw attention to the inequities of massive public subsidies for billionaires like Dan Gilbert versus massive water shutoffs for low-income Detroit families.

Kimberly Vann, the forewoman of the jury that found two members of the group “not guilty,” will appear at the press conference to discuss her view of the case. A mistrial was declared on the other members of group, as the jury was deadlocked on a verdict.

Who:

Kimberly Vann, jury forewoman

Gilbert 7 Members of the Michigan Poor Peoples Campaign, their legal team and supporters
The People's Water Board

What: Press Conference – Legal Victory and Future Actions    

When: Tuesday, January 29, 3:00 p.m.

Where: Central United Methodist Church, 23 Adams at Woodward 

Detroit trial update: Jury still in deliberation at end of Monday, Jan 28

(Reposted from email, 1/28/19 -- to learn more, follow #Gilbert7 on twitter)

Friends and Family,

Just a note to update you on the latest with the #Gilbert7 trial in Detroit's 36th District Court.  The jury reconvened for deliberations at 9:00 a.m. today in the effort to deliver a unanimous verdict in the case against the seven members of the MI Poor People's Campaign on trial for "obstructing a street care."  After deliberating much of the day the judge adjourned the trial and jury deliberations at 2:30 p.m. closing the courthouse down due to the weather. 

The jury will begin deliberations again on Tuesday, January 29th at 9:00 a.m. toward determining a unanimous verdict of guilt or innocence.  It is entirely possible that at some point Judge Larry Williams, Jr. will declare a mistrial, which might have multiple possible outcomes, including a decision by the Prosecutor's Office to pursue another trial against the seven defendants.  Other possibilities include the prosecutor asking that the defendants plead no contest to the charges, or offer possible dismissal of charges under certain conditions.  At this point we just don't know how things will go or how long the judge will continue to require the jury to deliberate.  

We will continue to keep you informed.  Thank you for your continued support of the Gilbert 7 and the Poor People's Campaign.  No matter the outcome of this trial, we will collectively continue to advocate with and on behalf of people impacted by poverty, racism, war, materialism and environmental devastation.

Forward together!

Greg Olszta

For the Washtenaw Poor People's Campaign

UPDATE: #Gilbert7 Trial Underway for Detroit MI PPC Arrestees

Dear Michigan PPC Social Justice Defenders:

Greetings! We wish to provide you with an update on the court proceedings for 7 MI PPC defendants; and how YOU can use your social media to call for Quicken Loans' to act justly.
During last summer's 40 Days of Action, more than 300 Michigan residents marched in downtown Detroit on June 18th against water shutoffs, gentrification, corporate welfare, housing evictions against poor seniors; and public financing for a privately managed and named M-1 light rail system.

Tell @QuickenLoans on facebook and twitter that good businesses work with low income residents, not against them! #Gilbert7 #Detroit #PeopleNotProfits #DetroitWaterAffordability #CommunityBenefits 

 

 Among the peaceful protestors, 23 moral fusion direct action-trained residents were arrested for blocking the "Q Line" trains and Quicken Loans headquarters office doors (at the Compuware Building).

#Gilbert7 is the hashtag name for the seven MI PPC defendants who demanded a jury trial for their arrests. They are:

• Sister Barbara Beesley, Immaculate Heart of Mary.
• Marian Kramer, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization.
• Richard Levey, Attorney.
• Greg Oltsza, Washtenaw Poor People's Campaign.
• Tommy Tackett, Youth organizer.
• Yexenia Vanegas, Elementary school teacher.
• Rev. William Wylie-Kellermann, Author and Pastor Emeritus at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.

Pack the Court! 36th District Court, 9:30am-4pm on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2018. (Arrive early enough to pass through security -- no phones, cameras, computers, writing instruments or notepads allowed in court. )


One of the defendant's, Yexenia Vanegas, provides this account of the court proceedings:

"The Gilbert 7 trials have been going on for two full days now. The jury was picked on the first day and on the second day the Prosecutor laid out their story then rested their case. We have heard testimony from the prosecutor’s witnesses, which included folks from the Detroit Police Department as well as the private company Rock Security, owned by Dan Gilbert. Tomorrow, January 24, 2019 starting at 9:30 am it is our turn -- the defense, Gilbert 7 -- to lay out our narrative. We initially had a long list of expert witnesses -- many of whom are excellent organizers -- however, the city prosecutor presented a motion to strike all expert witnesses from our list because they believed it was not relevant to the “crime.” The judge allowed only one expert witness: Maureen Taylor (Detroit) and one fact witness: Reverend Gerald Caldwell (Flint). The rest of the testimonies will come directly from us, the #Gilbert7.



 Join Richard Levey's call to action on facebook: 'I am standing up to Dan Gilbert and his abetters who put buildings and profits over people and beloved community. JOIN US!!'

Tell @QuickenLoans on facebook and twitter that good businesses work with low income residents, not against them! #Gilbert7 #Detroit #PeopleNotProfits #DetroitWaterAffordability #CommunityBenefits 

 

Stay up-to-date on the latest Michigan Poor People's Campaign news on our facebook page or website, and on the National PPC website.


With appreciation and in solidarity,

The Michigan PPC Coordinating Committee




P.S. You can help support the legal needs of the MI PPC with a contribution today at
https://www.michiganppc.org/p/donate.html
Also, please ask your friends and family to join the MI PPC by signing up at
https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/join-campaign-get-involved-state/

Press Release: #Gilbert7 Trial for MI PPC water rights and anti-gentrification activists

Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann, of the 'Gilbert 7' at King Day press conference

(Photo: Kim Hunter)

For Immediate Release 
Michigan Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival 
Monday, January 21, 2019
Contact: Sylvia Orduño, smorduno@gmail.com

King Day Call for Affordable Water for Detroit Families 
Michigan Poor People’s Campaign members speak out before court appearance
 
DETROIT – The “Gilbert 7” members of the Michigan Poor People’s Campaign and their supporters held a King Day press conference at St. Matthew and St. Joseph’s Church to talk about their nonviolent action, its connection to King Day and why, like King, they risked arrest.  Last summer, they blocked the Q-Line and the entrance to Quicken Loans to call attention to the tens of millions in public money given to wealthy people like Gilbert even as Detroit families are forced to do without water because of high water bills. The seven defendants will appear in 36th District Court Tuesday before Judge Larry D. Williams, Jr.
 
“We are going to court tomorrow as an indictment of a racist system that attacks poor, mostly black and brown people,” said Rev. Bill Wylie Kellermann of the Michigan Poor People’s Campaign. “We saw it with the disastrous Emergency Managers unleashed mostly on black and brown voters. We see it in Detroit’s amazingly uneven development between African American neighbors and the whiter more affluent downtown and Midtown areas and we see it with the massive water shutoffs and foreclosures driving black families from their homes. Elected leaders need to take a moral stance with their constituents instead bowing to wishes of the wealthy.”

The activists also spoke out about a new report from the Haas Institute that cites work of Detroit activist groups such as We the People of Detroit to support income based water bills.

“Martin Luther King Day is the perfect day to highlight nonviolent action taken for racial and economic justice,” said Marian Kramer of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization. “We are working to strike down racist policies such as billionaires like Gilbert getting massive tax subsidy handouts from a city that declared bankruptcy and is depriving thousands of mostly African American families access to water because their bills are too high. That sort of racism is cited in the Haas Institute report on Detroit’s water crisis. People are forced to do without water for drinking, cleaning and proper sanitation because of high water and sewerage bills and rates. That spreads serious disease as noted in Haas report which, calls for a Water Affordability Plan as Detroit’s water warriors have been doing so for years.

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Daily Kos reports on MI PPC trial date in defense of MDEQ actions

Reposted from Daily Kos

Michigan Poor People’s Campaign activists receive trial date following protest arrests

Dawn R Wolfe  

Community

Friday January 18, 2019 · 12:06 PM EST

Michigan Poor People's Campaign organizer Yexenia Vanegas addresses a crowd of activists gathered at the Michigan state Capitol building on June 4. (Photo attribution: Dawn R. Wolfe)

 

Activists with the Michigan Poor People’s Campaign have been granted a consolidated jury trial of charges that followed a June demonstration that ended with the arrest of 14 protesters. A Lansing judge granted the request on Jan. 15. 

The June 4 protest, which took place at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, was part of a national campaign titled “40 Days of Action” and carried out by state chapters of the Poor People’s Campaign across the U.S. At the Lansing protest, roughly 600 activists took part in actions to bring attention to the plight of fellow Michiganders who either lack clean water or have been denied water because of their inability to pay for it.

The 14 activists who appeared in court on Tuesday were among approximately 30 who were originally arrested for either blocking the doors to the MDEQ building or blocking workers from exiting the building’s parking lot. The others, who for various reasons were unable to face the time and potential consequences of going to trial, have opted to participate in a diversion program.
Judge Louise Alderson set a court date of March 5 for the activists. They are charged with disorderly conduct (a misdemeanor), and face possible consequences that include 90 days in jail if convicted. But while the stakes are potentially high, the activists who were arrested at the demonstration in the state capital agree with their fellow activists who are dealing with similar charges in Detroit that going to court is “morally and politically the right thing to do.”

The Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, one of the co-founders of the national Poor People’s Campaign, was in court on Tuesday to see if her case would be joined with the other activists’ in a single trial. Theoharis said that she chose to be arrested—not just on June 4 in Michigan, but several times nationwide—because “nonviolent civil disobedience is what these times call for,” citing issues ranging from lead contamination and ongoing poverty to 15 million people in the U.S. being unable to afford water at all. As Daily Kos reported in September, as many as a quarter-million Detroit households alone were subjected to water shutoffs from 2014 to 2017 because of their inability to pay high bills.

Michigan PPC organizer Sylvia Orduño added that she and her fellow activists are going to trial because “we truly believe we’re not guilty. … We were within our rights and responsibilities to try to go to the next level of bringing attention to these issues and trying to get a response,” she explained. Orduño added that her organization and other activists have reached out to government representatives in other ways, from contacting the governor’s office and state congressional representatives to writing letters directly to agencies, including the MDEQ. Despite those efforts, she said, “[the government and agencies] failed, and they keep finding ways to ensure that corporate representatives get what they need, while residents don’t get action or results.”

Dawn Wolfe is a freelance writer and journalist based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This post was written and reported through our Daily Kos freelance program.
 

Press release: MI PPC water activists' press conference 1/16/19

For Immediate Release

Michigan Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

January 16, 2019

Contact: Sylvia Orduño, michigan@poorpeoplescampaign.org

Anti-Water Shutoff Activists Rally Before Court Appearance

Arrested for nonviolent protests blocking MDEQ

LANSING – Before their day in court, members of the Michigan Poor People’s Campaign spoke out to demand clean, safe, affordable water for all and an end to racial bigotry at the root of the water shutoffs.

Activists highlighted their demands months ago by blocking the entrances to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). They stand by this action despite having been arrested because of the harm massive water shutoffs cause families.

Rev. Gerald Cardwell of Flint

“We are being prosecuted for putting our bodies on the line so thousands of mostly black and brown families can have safe, affordable water,” said Rev. Liz Theoharis, vice chair National Poor People’s Campaign. “The real crime is that those families are being forced to do without while there is a Water Affordability Plan that could allow them to pay what they can afford. Instead of blaming and shaming people with low incomes, elected officials at all levels need to embrace the win-win of affordable water for all.”

Thirty members of the Michigan Poor People’s Campaign took part in blocking entrances to the MDEQ, and about half were arrested. They are demanding a jury trial and spoke in front of Lansing 54A Court on West Michigan Avenue.

NLG Attorney Julie Hurwitz

“We believe a jury of our peers will side with us and say it is legal and moral to take nonviolent action so the MDEQ does its job to protect human health and safety,” said Claire McClinton of the Flint Democracy Defense League. “We believe if the families in Flint, Detroit, and Highland Park were mostly white and affluent, we would not have to fight for their right to safe affordable water. But that’s indicative of why the Poor People’s Campaign exists, and why we are making national call for moral revival.” 

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The defendants are represented by the Detroit and Michigan Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild

Lansing Fox 47 News report on the January 16, 2019 press conference

Lansing WILX 10 news report on the January 16, 2019 press conference