Democratic Socialists of America
Greater Detroit Local
Our Newsletter
May 2009Agenda for May 2nd DSA General Membership Meeting
Join us on May 2nd for our next DSA general membership meeting. Our speaker is Sister Mary Ellen Howard, Director of the Cabrini Clinic, a free clinic in downtown Detroit. Sister Mary Ellen gained national attention last month when she interrupted Governor Granholm at the Obama Health Care Task Force town hall meeting in Dearborn to demand assistance for an uninsured woman with ovarian cancer. She will discuss this incident, as well as the impact of the recession on the uninsured in Michigan, at the meeting.
1. Treasury Report
2. Report on Jobs with Justice—Support for Rally on Immigration Reform
3. Report on MichUHCAN—Support for “Health Care Heroes” Dinner
4. Report on Michigan Alliance to Strengthen Social Security and Medicare
5. Report on Detroit Area Peace with Justice Network
6. MSU YDS Update—Proposal for Taking a Summer Intern from YDS
7. Report on Education Committee—next DSA Forum
8. Old Business—Pontiac Living Wage, Renegotiate NAFTA, new DSA Banner
9. Op-Ed Piece—What Socialists Really Think
10. Report on Meeting with Gary Peters’ Staff
11. Michigan Policy Summit on Saturday, May 16th 0A
12. Speaker: Sister Mary Ellen Howard on “The Impact of the Recession on the Uninsured in Michigan”
“Innovation Broker” Developing Detroit as Green Manufacturing Center”
Deborah Groban Olson
For over 100 years, Detroit successfully organized its life around the needs of several major global companies. The future of these companies, at least as local employers, is in grave doubt. Over those 100 years the world has changed. Today, in order for a local community to thrive in the global economy, it needs a clear strategy aimed at protecting the needs of local residents and locally rooted businesses, especially when those diverge from the needs of global companies.
Companies (particularly employee-owned ones) whose primary focus is on keeping local people employed are quick to change products or business strategies and slow to lay off employees. For example, from 2000 – 2008, Ohio lost 29% of its manufacturing jobs, yet the 24 manufacturing companies that were members of the Ohio Employee Owned Network, over the same period, lost only 1% of their jobs. (Ohio ESOP Survey – Kent State University).
Detroit needs to reinvent itself from its strengths: Detroit/southeast Michigan is the manufacturing technology capital of the world. We have 230 R&D centers for the auto manuf acturers and suppliers, which is the highest concentration of manufacturing technology knowledge anywhere. (J. Cleveland for MEDC, 2005) Even companies that manufacture overseas have technology design centers in southeast Michigan.
We have all become accustomed to the concept that today’s economy is a knowledge economy. Yet we do not eat, drink or wear knowledge; we are physical creatures surrounded by a built environment of things.
The new green economy needs a myriad of products that are highly engineered. As William McDonough & Braungart say in Cradle to Cradle, the future of green manufacturing is making things the way nature does, engineering them so that all parts can be recycled or reused, supporting instead of destroying the natural world. Doing this requires diverse knowledge, capacity, teamwork and imagination.
Ford and GM, together, hold approximately one-third of all green technology patents and related value. (Malackowski, Detroit News, 12-2-09). There is a huge amount of unused intellectual property in the auto industry. Historically, the auto industry has not licensed out technology that it invented but did not use. So long as gas was cheap in the US, there were not sufficient economic incentives for the auto companies to develop their green technology. Many valuable technologies they could not affo rd to put in cars languish on shelves in southeast Michigan.
Over the past 5 -10 years, hundreds of thousands of highly skilled manufacturing technology workers, including engineers, scientists, technicians and managers have been laid off or taken buyouts. There has been some brain drain from the region, but many of these people remain. They have—our region has—the knowledge and skill needed to invent, produce and market the new green products which the growing real and political climate change will demand.
The non-profit Center for Community Based Enterprise (C2BE) is focused on reorganizing our local smarts and skills for the benefit of local residents, locally rooted businesses and communities. We are organizing entrepreneurial resources that can be easily shared by the large numbers of skilled people here who know how to make complex things efficiently, but may lack some entrepreneurship skills or knowledge.
It is neither realistic nor efficient to push every talented engineer or craftsman through “entrepreneurship training”. Rather, such people should have an opportunity to participate in new or refocused businesses where they share their skills, take some entrepreneurial risk, and get the benefit of other people’s managerial, marketing, purchasing, intellectual property licensing, information technology, product design or other skills. C2BE is currently organizing a mission-driven sister company, Ingenuity US (IUS), as an Innovation Broker that will create and operate this new business model.
C2BE is an information and education resource that supports and connects entrepreneurs, community and resources to grow “community-based enterprises” (CBEs), which we define as companies that are: sustainable; locally rooted; intentionally structured to provide community benefit; and committed to paying living wages. C2BE is a membership organization that welcomes members and contributors; learn more at our website or contact Debbie Sullivan at dsullivan@c2be.org or (313) 331-7821.
Ingenuity US’ goal is to build a group of locally rooted, sustainable businesses, based on abundant underutilized resources of Detroit and southeast Michigan. It will create profit-making, sustainable, community-based or employee-owned enterprises by finding and developing business opportunities and initiating businesses with the region’s working people and inventors. Ingenuity US will foster cooperation between these businesses and existing local businesses, where possible and mutually beneficial. It will focus on proprietary products or on service businesses that inherently require and benefit local workers.
IUS will accomplish this by creating a capital structure unique to the United States, but practiced successfully in Europe (see, for example, Mondragon). This structure will retain at least half of the company’s profits in the company for reinvestment or to capitalize other community-based enterprises, which will follow the same model. This will create a pool of “patient capital” that is committed to using profit and reinvesting it to benefit local communities—unlike capital that is beholden to outside shareholders, venture capitalists or other non-productive stakeholders.
C2BE and IUS are actively looking for existing businesses interested in product diversification, skilled people interested in helping develop community-based businesses and investors who agree with our rooted capital structure. For more information, please contact Deborah Olson at dgolson@c2be.org or (313) 331-7821.
Michigan
State University (MSU) has been a busy and exciting place lately,
filled with both political and non-political events. As such, MSU YDS
has been working hard to keep pace with the rest of the community and
to turn the simultaneous mix of energy and frustration on campus into a
force for social progress.
MSU YDS Update
Recent Activities
Recent Activities
YDS National Conference
In
February, four members of MSU YDS made a trip to New York City to
attend the YDS National Conference. This was a great opportunity for
learning and intellectual armament. The conference was composed of a
series of speaking events, each of which was followed by a selection of
workshops that YDSers could choose to attend. Speakers included Amy
Goodman of Democracy Now! Radio, Bill Fletcher Jr, Joe Schwartz, YDS
National Coordinator Erik Rosenberg, and many others. Topics of
discussion ranged from the Employee Free Choice Act and single payer
healthcare to the student debt crisis and the importance of independent
media in creating a powerful American Left. Some of the workshops
attended by MSU YDS members focused on topics like anti-racist action,
immigration, building a YDS chapter, and the importance of organizing
in progressive movements.
Possibly
even more import
ant, however, were the networking opportunities that MSU YDS members
found at the event. YDSers from around the country were present at this
event, including people from as far away as Las Vegas and California.
MSU YDS made many new contacts with whom they might cooperate on events
in the future; this is especially true in the case of some of the other
Midwestern chapters that were present at the event. MSU YDS co-chair
Allison Voglesong was especially instrumental in creating these new
contacts, and in planning and facilitating the trip as a whole.
“Finding a
Way Out” Panel Event
More
recently, on Thursday, March 16, MSU YDS held a panel discussion about
the economic crisis entitled “Finding a Way Out.” Panel members
included MSU professor Dr. Rita Kiki Edozie from James Madison College;
Dr. David Green, Chairperson of Metro-Detroit DSA; Allison Voglesong,
MSU YDS Co-Chair; Peter Klein, MSU YDS member and Chairperson of MSU
YCL
; and the panel moderator Reid Holzbauer, also an MSU YDS member.
The
event drew roughly thirty attendees from a wide variety of political
backgrounds (members of the MSU College Republicans and College
Democratics attended), which made for an engaged and productive
discussion. This event was a success both in terms of the advertising
and organizing experience gained by MSU YDS and the new member who
joined MSU YDS as a result of the event.
MSU YDS says
no to Tuition Hike!
Michigan
State University’s Board of Trustees is currently considering a
2009-2010 budget that could include an 8.9% tuition hike. To the
disappointment of many MSU students, who are already stretched beyond
their means to keep themselves in school in the midst of this economic
crisis, MSU’s student government ASMSU voted against supporting a
tuition freeze. In response, a group of students attended an ASMSU
meeting on March 31st
in order to voice their dissatisfaction. Among these students were
several MSU YDS members, who presented a statement opposing the tuition
hike and expressing their frustration with a student government that
had failed to stand up for its constituency. The statement can be read
on the MSU YDS blog at http://therevolutionarytimes.blogspot.com.
6th National
Race Conference
MSU YDS members recently
attended the six national Race in 21st
Century America conference, which was held at Michigan State
University. A three day event that ran from April 8-10, this year’s
conference focused on the topic of healthcare in communities of color.
The race conference20was headed by Dr. Curtis Stokes of James Madison
College, and featured such prominent names as former Surgeon General M.
Jocelyn Elders, Michael Erik Dyson of Georgetown University, Evelyn
Hu-DeHart of Brown University, and Charles W. Mills of Northwestern
University. This event was especially relevant due to the deeply
entrenched racial inequality that still pervades American society, and
because of the discourse about race that has surrounded the recent
election of America’s first black president. It was a great opportunity
for YDS members to learn and to engage the greater academic community
in discussing racial conflict in our country and how we might better
address it.
Current and Upcoming Activities
Renegotiate
NAFTA
MSU
YDS has been working with Detroit DSA to gather signatures for the
DSA’s Renegotiate NAFTA campaign by making sure that the petition is
present at all YDS events. MSU YDS is currently considering organizing
social events and other unique activities around the Renegotiate NAFTA
campaign as ways of gathering signatures within the often apolitical
environment on MSU’s campus.
Gathering
Support for EFCA in the MSU Community
On April 16th,
MSU YDS will be hosting YDS National Coordinator Erik Rosenberg, who
will be speaking on the Employee Free Choice Act and its importance for
the progress and solidification of democracy in America, and especially
for the student community, of whom many graduate into the American
workforce every year.
Education All
Around
MSU
YDS is currently considering participating in or hosting several unique
activities that would boost both internal and external education
efforts as well as making MSU YDS a more prominent actor in the East
Lansing community. The first of these is the East Lansing Housing
Cooperative’s skill-share. At this event, college students and members
of various co-ops near MSU’s campus will be gathering to share useful
(and some not-so-useful) skills and abilities with other attendees.
Recognizing that the cooperative community is often home to a wide
variety of leftist political beliefs, MSU YDS Co-Chair Allison
Voglesong has proposed that MSU YDS be present at the skill share and
use this as an opportunity for education, engagement, and recruitment.
On
the other end of the spectrum, having noticed a need for more internal
education efforts and organization within the organization, Ms.
Voglesong has suggested that MSU YDS use an upcoming weekend to hold a
Strategic Action Planning Meeting (SPLAM). This daylong event would be
an opportunity for MSU YDS members to share resources for personal
education and research, to brainstorm future events and activities, and
to work on creating an organizational history and documentation, which
will help turn MSU YDS into a long term movement, one that will be able
to last and carry on its particular efforts and campaigns even after
the current MSU YDS has graduated.
Creating a
Presence in the Community
An American Socialist’s Impressions of Cuba
David Green
My wife, Teena, and I visited Cuba from February 2nd through February 9th. We were allowed to travel to Cuba as part of a religious mission from our synagogue donating medication to various clinics on the island.
As a democratic socialist, I approach Cuba with a certain set of biases. On the one hand, I am enormously impressed with the Cubans’ success in reducing inequality on the island over the last 50 years. On the other hand, I refuse to become a propagandist for an authoritarian regime (notwithstanding Cuba’s legitimate critique of bourgeois democracy). Cuba is not a socialist paradise. However, the Cubans have made significant advances in social welfare over the previous regime—and with little resources.
One of the most impressive features of Cuban society is its health care system. The Cuban system demonstrates what can be accomplished when health care is viewed as a human right rather than a commodity. In Cuba, there is one primary care doctor for every 150 citizens. Each primary care doctor is responsible for all routine preventive care measures (e.g., pap smears, mammograms, prostate screening, rectal exams) for the population under his or her c are. No one “falls through the cracks” in the Cuban health care system. If a woman does not show for her annual pap smear, the nurse from the community clinic will go to her home to remind her. Above the level of the community clinics are the polyclinics where patients in need of specialists or higher tech diagnostic testing are referred. Patients in need of invasive diagnostic testing or around-the-clock acute nursing care are referred to the hospital.
Among the health care facilities we visited was a clinic for high risk pregnancy in the city of Trinidad (population 60,000). This clinic was staffed by two family practice physicians, six nurses, and a social worker. In addition, the patients were examined weekly by an obstetrician from the nearby polyclinic. Patients with concomitant medical problems were seen by the appropriate specialist from the nearby polyclinic on an as needed basis. In the last few weeks of their pregnancy, high risk pregnant women (defined as diabetic, over age 40, under age 16, or multiple gestation) throughout the province surrounding Trinidad would come to stay at the clinic until they delivered—thus facilitating closer monitoring and safe delivery. During their stay, the women receive education on the care of their newborns, including breast feeding, vaccinations, and child development. The cost of all of this care is assumed by the health care system. There are no out-of-pocket expenses for the patients. I asked one of the physicians directing the clinic about their infant mortality statistics. She told me there were two deaths per thousand births in their patient population. This compares with an infant mortality rate of six deaths per thousand births in the United States in the general (not high risk) obstetric population.
Another positive feature of the Cuban health care system is that medical education in Cuba is free. In fact, medical students receive a stipend from the government to cover living expenses while they are in school. The catch: upon completion of medical school, each Cuban physician owes the government three years of service and may be assigned anywhere the government deems necessary. In fact, Cuba sends thousands of physicians abroad (mainly to other Latin American countries and to Africa) to provide free medical care to indigent populations as a form of foreign aid.
Despite the relative poverty in Cuba, the government is actually expanding health care services. In its most recent five year economic plan, Cuba has committed itself to providing universal dental care in addition to universal medical care.
Along with their health care system, the Cubans are justifiably proud of their system of free universal public education. This system covers primary, secondary, and even university education. Since the Revolution, the literacy rate in Cuba has jumped from around 30% to over 90%. In fact, Cuba’s literacy rate exceeds that of the United States (CIA-Book of Facts).
We visited the University of Havana during our trip and were impressed with the campus. The classrooms were modern. There was an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity. We saw posters advertising guest lecturers from around the world—including Noam Chomsky.
In addition to education, the Cuban government also subsidizes culture. We attended a performance of the National Ballet of Cuba and found it to be on a par with the best professional ballet companies in the United States. Cuba has also nurtured a domestic film industry whose movies have won prizes at film festivals around the world.
Now for the negatives—The command economy in Cuba (as has previously been experienced in the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea) has failed to raise living standards on the island nor does it produce the variety or quality of goods that consumers demand. This, along with the abrupt withdrawal of subsidies from the Soviet Union in the 1990s and the economic20strangulation associated with the American embargo, has led to the development of a dual economy in Cuba. Simply put, there are two kinds of stores in Cuba: peso stores in which certain staples such as rice, chicken, beans, and clothing can be purchased with a ration card and pesos which the average Cuban earns in wages and dollar stores in which anything can be purchased but only with hard currency (i.e., foreign currency exchanged for what are called convertible pesos, or cucs). Prices in the peso stores are cheap (heavily subsidized by the government), but the selection is poor, the quality is shoddy, and lines are long. The dollar stores, by comparison, are luxurious. They are well-stocked with a wide selection of high quality products. These stores are generally air-conditioned (The peso stores are not.), service is excellent, and there are no lines. The problem is that most Cubans do not have access to hard currency and are therefore excluded from the dollar stores.
The presence of a dual economy in Cuba has had perverse consequences for the population. For example, our tour guide was a former university professor who left his job at the Medical College of the University of Havana in order to have access to the hard currency which tourists give to their guides as tips. We frequently encountered Cubans begging outside our hotel—not for food, but for soap, toothpaste, and shampoo—items which they were unable to purchase in adequate quantities at the peso stores.
Alongside the economy, the other great problem in Cuba is the government’s poor record on human rights (though not nearly as poor as the American press would have us believe). Freedom of speech is restricted in Cuba. Dissidents are jailed. We encountered state security police at each of the hotels in which we stayed. There are no free elections in Cuba. One must be a Communist Party member in order to run for the Parliament in Cuba, and only members of Parliament are eligible for leadership positions in the government. There is no freedom of the press in Cuba. I read English translations of Granma (the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party) filled with simplistic, self-serving propaganda.
On the other hand, freedom of religion is respected in Cuba. In fact, we visited the Patrinado (the largest Ashkenazic synagogue in Havana) and saw pictures of Castro celebrating Hanukah with the congregation in 1998. Apparently, he was intrigued by the story of a small Jewish guerilla army defeating the powerful Selucid Greeks in 168 B.C.E. to gain national independence.
To a much larger extent than the American press recognizes, there is freedom of movement in Cuba. For example, we learned that the Cuban Jewish population had shrunk considerably since its peak in the 1950s—due to the fact that over half of this population chose to emigrate to Israel, Canada, or the United States.
Cubans have also made significant progress in confronting racism. Prior to the Revolution, racial discrimination in Cuba was every bit as bad as in the United States. In fact, slavery was not abolished in Cuba until 1886. After fifty years of affirmative action programs instituted by the Castro regime, the Parliament is fully integrated. Cubans of African descent are represented in the leadership. Mixed couples are common. The head of the internationally respected Cuban biotechnology institute (a product of the Cuban educational system) is Black.
What should be the goal of American socialists with respect to our foreign policy toward Cuba? Three words: Lift the embargo. The Obama Administration has already changed the Bush policy regarding remittances to the island and travel restrictions on Cuban Americans visiting family in Cuba. Our embargo has crippled the Cuban economy and has had no effect on human rights abuses in Cuba. Were we to lift the embargo, the Castro regime would have no further excuses for the failure of its economy or its human rights record. It would experience considerable internal pressure to change.
Progressive Hero Aldo Vagnozzi Dies at Age 83
Detroit DSA lost a good friend on Sunday, March 22nd when former State Representative Aldo Vagnozzi died of pancreatic cancer. He was 83.
Vagnozzi was born in Rosetto, Italy in 1925. His family emmigrated to the United States when Aldo was 8. He was drafted out of college in 1943 and served as an interpreter with Italian prisoners of war. After discharge from the army, Aldo attended Wayne State University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. He went on to edit both the Michigan State AFL-CIO News and the Detroit Labor News.
Vagnozzi served on the Farmington School Board from 1969 to 1973. He was elected to the Farmington Hills City Council in 1987 and served as Mayor from 1995 to 1999. He ran unsuccessfully for the Michigan State House in 2000, losing narrowly to the House Majority Leader Andrew Raczkowski. He ran again in 2002, and won. He was re-elected in 2004 and 2006. Detroit DSA supported Aldo in each of his State House races, though he hardly needed our help in 2006, when he won by a 62%-38% margin.
Throughout his years in the legislature, Aldo was a consistent voice for working people. He sponsored a resolution in the House calling on the Governor to enact universal health care for the people of Michigan. He pushed for a20ballot initiative to raise the state minimum wage. When the Bush Administration attempted to privatize Social Security, Aldo held town hall meetings in his district to educate constituents on the pernicious consequences of this policy.
During a time when red-baiting was still an effective political weapon, Aldo never backed away from his association with DSA. “The socialists are my friends,” he said.” They are as free as anyone else to express their political views. I welcome their support.” We will miss him.
Save these Dates!
Calendar of Events
MAY
Friday, May 1st—May Day March with immigrant workers—Marchers will gather at Patton Park (corner of W, Vernor and Woodmere) at 1 PM and will march to Clark Park on Vernor where a rally will be held at 3 PM.
Saturday, May 2nd—DSA general membership meeting from 10 AM until noon at the Royal Oak Senior/Community Center, 3500 Marais Avenue, Royal Oak
Saturday, May 2nd—Michigan Peace Team is presenting an evening with Michael Moore at the Democratic Club of Michigan. Call Kim Redigan at (313) 563-8323 for more details.
Thursday, May 14th—Michigan Coalition for Human Rights presents Wayne State University Professor Osumaka Likaka on “Congo: Greed and Human Rights Violations in Central Africa” at Barth Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral at 7 PM.
Saturday, May 16th—Michigan Policy Summit at Cobo Hall in Detroit—Register on line at www.mipolicysummit.org
JUNE
Sunday, June 14th—DSA Executive Board meeting from 10 AM until noon at the home of Helen Samberg (30785 Hunters Drive, Apartment 23, Farmington Hills)
Friday, June 19th—Michigan Universal Health Care Access Network’s Fourth Annual “Health Care Heroes” Dinner at 6 PM at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church—For more information, visit the MichUHCAN website at www.michuhcan.org or contact Val Pryzwara at 734-812-0664.
JULY
Saturday, July 11th—DSA general membership meeting from 10 AM until noon at the Royal Oak Senior/Community Center, 3500 Marais Avenue, Royal Oak
NOVEMBER
Friday, November 13th-Sunday, November 15th—DSA National Convention at the Best Western University Plaza in Evanston, Illinois adjacent to Northwestern University
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