JUSTICE SPEAKING TOURSpeakers for a New America
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"I see the Justice Tour as a chance to help people realize what's going on in other places similar to theirs. My town and other towns in Michigan are increasingly threatened by poverty and deindustrialization. To see that other communities are affected in the same way will, I hope, help people see the power that lies within their united hands." -- Atlee McFellin, Michigan student |
America is in crisis. As industry shuts down, whole towns are dying or taken over by corporations and real estate developers. People are standing up, fighting for necessities like water, utilities, health care, and for justice. Often theyare met with firings and even arrests. The Justice Tour puts a spotlight on the immorality of a system that cares only about corporations. It puts fighters against injustice together to strategize on how to win these battles and to discuss a vision of a new America.
Speakers include:
Rev. Edward Pinkney, pastor of New Birth Church of God and Christ, works to reform 
the court system in Benton Harbor, Michigan, a
town with 70% unemployment and more people in prison per capita than anywhere
in the world. The community exercised their democratic rights in a recall
election of a commissioner backed by Whirlpool, the corporation that
runs Benton Harbor. After a successful recall election, Rev.
Pinkney was arrested for alleged "vote fraud."
The jury failed to convict him, but the prosecutor is retrying him. This assault on democracy illustrates what other cities
in America could be like if people don't act. Let's make a stand at Benton
Harbor!
Marian Kramer, one of the founders of the national welfare rights movement in the 1960s and a leader in the fight
to turn water back on for 40,000 Detroit households says, "Malcolm X said
that if you live south of the Canadian border, you live in the South. Highland
Park, Michigan is run by an appointed, not elected, manager - that's the plan for
all cities. Water is the next gold. It is being privatized for the benefit
of those who will make maximum profit."
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Bob Lee, editor of the People's Tribune says, "As we carry on the fight we must unite
our forces locally, statewide, and finally across the country. We must
go to our communities and family by family show them this is their struggle
and they must make their will felt. There are only two paths: submit and
sink lower and lower to the corporations, or take them over and run them in the interests of the public, reclaim our country and
create a decent future for ourselves." People's
Tribune) |
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Richard Monje, Education Director, Chicago midwest region, UNITE-HERE Union. Much of his work is in states like Michigan and Ohio, organizing low-wage workers. "We have to galvanize around a vision of how to reconstruct the government with a program based upon the needs of people. Republicans and Democrats have done this from the standpoint of their interests. We need a program from the standpoint of the poor and working people." |
Maureen Taylor, Director, Michigan Welfare Rights Union, fighting to
turn water back on for up to 40,000 Detroit residents who had their water
shut down for lack of payment. Maureen ran for Detroit City Council on a grassroots campaign to turn water back on for Detroit's poor.
And more.
Call 800-691-6888 or email info@speakersforanewamerica.com for a free Justice Speaking Tour packet to bring speakers to your city. Web: speakersforanewamerica.comn Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022. Visit the BANCO inter-active website for more information at BHBanco.blogspot.com