National Conference to Reclaim Our Cities
National Conference to Reclaim Our Cities
Workers World Party project
The Workers World Party instigated National Conference to Reclaim Our Cities was held Friday, November 11 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.[1]