Marian Kramer

Marian Kramer has been at the forefront of the struggle of the poor, and a leader in the fight to stop the privatization of water in Detroit, Michigan. She has been the front lines of the welfare rights and civil rights movement from its origin in the 1960s. Kramer serves as the Co-chair of the National Welfare Rights Union.^[1]

Marian Kramer was married to General Baker.

National Welfare Rights Organization

Founding conference/Leadership

By Allen Harris CHICAGO– With tremendous enthusiasm, fighting spirit and unity, the League of Revolutionaries for a New America was established during a convention held in Chicago on April 29 and 1995.

Attending were 73 delegates and 67 observers, as well as representatives of 30 areas and the national office. They came from 22 states, the District of Columbia and the Lakota Nation.

The meeting was the second national convention of the organization founded in Chicago in April, 1993 and originally called the National Organizing Committee.

Ranging in age from 17 to 80, the participants were Native American, white, black, Latino, Asian and Arab. They were urban, suburban and rural. They were secular and Christian, Muslim, Jewish and people of other faiths.

On the Steering Committee were General Baker, Marian Kramer, Jitu Sadiki, Abdul Alkalimat, Tonny Algood, Ethel Long-Scott, Dottie Stevens, Beth Gonzalez, Jo Ann Capalbo, Nacho Gonzalez, Manuel Torres, Laura Garcia, Stephanie Shanks-Meile, Claire McClinton and Lenny Brody.

Detroit United States Social Forum

Jennifer Cox June 2010 ·

Poverty Summit, United States Social Forum — with Cheri Honkala, Dottie Stevens, Marian Kramer and Mary Bricker-Jenkins at Detroit, MI.

Revolutionary Union Movement

In 1968 and 1969, former Wayne State students such as General Baker, Marian Kramer, Ken Cockrel, Ken Hamblin, Luke Tripp, Charles Johnson, and others organized the Revolutionary Union Movement in Detroit’s auto plants, which culminated in the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. Some of the organizers who split from the League joined former SNCC leader James Forman and founded the Black Workers Congress.^[2]

Malcolm X conference

A conference, Malcolm X: Radical Tradition and a Legacy of Struggle was held in New York City, November 14 1990.

The "Black Women and Black Liberation: Fighting Oppression and Building Unity" panel consisted of;

Chairperson:

Vivien Morris, Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Panel:

Fran Beal, Frontline Political Organization

Vernice Miller, Center for Constitutional Rights

Barbara Ransby, Ella Baker - Nelson Mandela Center

Maxine Alexander, editor Speaking for Ourselves

Marian Kramer, National Welfare Rights Union

30th Anniversary speaker

In October 2, 1993, the Institute for Policy Studies celebrated its 30th anniversary by holding a conference "Progressive Thought in the Post WWII Era" featuring discussions about a wide range of public policy issues. The panelists discussed a progressive approach to public policy issues since World War II. A key part of the conference was a panel consisting of Garry Wills, Northwestern University history Professor; Eleanor Holmes Norton, member of the House of Representatives; Marian Kramer, President of the National Welfare Rights Union. It was moderated by IPS founder Richard Barnet.^[3]

Black Radical Congress

In March 1998 “Endorsers of the Call” to found a Black Radical Congress included Marian Kramer, National Welfare Rights Union^[4].

National Conference to Reclaim Our Cities

The Workers World Party instigated National Conference to Reclaim Our Cities was held Friday, November 11 2005, thru Sunday, November 13 in Detroit in the Wayne State University Student Center Ballroom.

People from the throughout the state of Michigan and delegations from New Orleans, Cleveland, Baltimore, New York and other cities will converge on the Wayne State University campus to develop strategies for the rebuilding of urban areas around the country. Under the theme: "Money to Rebuild New Orleans and all U.S. Cities, Not for War," this national meeting of grassroots, labor and peace activists will call for the feeding of the cities and the starving of the Pentagon.

Demanding funds for jobs, housing, Social Security, schools, healthcare and the environment, the conference will focus on the Bush administration's budget which slashed 150 domestic programs while it pushes the spending for war to over half a trillion dollars a year. Organizers of the event say that it is time to launch a struggle to win the right to healthcare, quality education, decent housing, food, utilities, and jobs at living wages.

A partial list of endorsers for this event includes: Maryann Mahaffey, President of the Detroit City Council, JoAnn Watson, member of the Detroit City Council, Donald Boggs, President of the Metro-Detroit AFL-CIO, Nathan Head, President of the Metro-Detroit Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Ed Rowe, Pastor of Central United Methodist Church, Marian Kramer, Co-President of the National Welfare Rights Organization, the Gray Panthers of Metro-Detroit and Workers World Party members David Sole, President of UAW Local 2334and Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor of the Pan-African News Wire.

All day Saturday, November 12, there will be plenary sessions and workshops to discuss solutions to the urban crises across the United States and the role of the increasing militarization of both domestic and foreign policy of the national government.

This conference was open to the general public and was sponsored by the WSU student chapter of the the Workers World Party front Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice.^[5]