by Joanne Coutts

“The questions were many and good….there was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to…to stop it…the only people permitted to ask questions were those who never did.” Catch 22

Luckily for us the Detroit Community Outreach Ordinance of 2020 means that the City cannot apply Catch 22 to Detroiters who want to comment and ask questions about our budget. …

by Ken Jackson

by Joe Hill

Difficult working conditions and alienation from our coworkers can make us feel powerless, but we have power when we organize.

I work as a Behavior Technician in Detroit, helping children with autism, ages 2–6, with communication, hygiene, and pre-academic skills. This work is not easy but it can be very rewarding. During the pandemic my coworkers and I have felt especially vulnerable to COVID-19. Our clients are not required to wear masks, because of their unique needs — but our company is unwilling even to provide resources for social distancing. …

by Jane Slaughter

A Detroit DSA member helped lead a union organizing drive this summer and fall where every single worker signed a union card and then voted for the union. Now they’re bargaining a contract that will, they hope, give them raises and end management’s arbitrary and disrespectful approach to scheduling.

It’s a small shop, with just 10 workers in the summer peak season. The steps in many unions drives are similar: you discover what the issues are that have people dissatisfied. You find leaders. You make sure everyone is talked to. You allay fears with solid information.

DSA…

by Ken Jackson

The Summer of 2020 was a lite version of the Second American Civil War, which saw a rise of mass protests all over the world in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Already working together in the mutual aid effort to combat the effects of COVID-19 on the working class community, allies in the fight for social and environmental justice found themselves back to back, fists ready to fight a fatal virus with one hand and white supremacy with the other. …

by Megan Shanklin and Liam McCormick

Detroit: I Do Mind Dying by Surkin and Georgakas is a thorough history of black revolutionary labor organizing in Detroit in the 1960s and 1970s, tracking the lifespan of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (the League). This history is generally left out of mainstream accounts of the 60s and 70s, perhaps because of how radical and powerful the movement was. …

by Michael Stepniak

On January 13 and 14, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged disgraced former Governor Rick Snyder and a ghoul’s gallery of public leaders-turned-conspirators with crimes related to their roles in the Flint Water Crisis, from misdemeanor neglect of duty to felony manslaughter and extortion. The man at the top, Snyder, received the lightest misdemeanor charges.

Infrastructure is a redistribution of wealth in massive, physical form. Public infrastructure is a delivery system of the stuff that makes a city: people, goods, electricity, water, and internet. …

by Ken Jackson

The Detroit Socialist is produced and run by members of Detroit DSA’s Newspaper Collective. Interested in becoming a member of Detroit DSA? Go to metrodetroitdsa.com/join to become a member. Send a copy of the dues receipt to: membership@metrodetroitdsa.com in order to get plugged in to our activities! Detroit DSA’s Newspaper Collective meets biweekly on Mondays at 5:30PM.