On June 12, Dr. Sullivan and Mrs. Richie Jean Jackson’s home–a key hub in planning the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March–formally opened at the Henry Ford Museumâs Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Mich.
Michigan
No Kings Day 2
October 26, 2025A roundup of participant reports: an estimated 7 million rallied for No Kings Day 2 in 2,700 locations on Oct. 18, 2025. The joy of collective revolt mixed with oppressive awareness of the paramilitary occupation of cities like Chicago. But hardly a day goes by without new episodes of self-organized resistance.
đ Eyes on Education: Back to school
October 5, 2025A view of the educational situation in several states of the U.S., from budget cuts and ideological repression to language discrimination and the introduction of AI in classrooms.
The âResistanceâ speaks: âNo to Trumpâ
June 24, 2025Reports from participants in the June 14, 2025, “No Kings” demonstrations across the nation. Thousands took to the streets, plazas and sidewalks, not only in every state and every significant sized city, but in tiny towns and suburbs. No one wanted to miss the opportunity to oppose Trump’s cruel, inhuman, destructive policies.
Handicap This!: March 2025
March 30, 2025Takes up: potential budget cuts in New Jersey affecting people with disabilities; a plan in Nova Scotia, Canada, to relocate all of its citizens living with disabilities from institutional settings; and Frances Vicioso, a Black-Latina storyteller with mental illness and physical disabilities, leading a âBlack Disability Historyâ webinar.
Detroit immigration raids and resistance
February 11, 2025Susan van Gelder presents a mix of reports, information, commentary and dialogue about the ICE raids against immigrants in Southwest Detroit, as well as the actions to resist it.
Detroit braces for Trumpâs ICE invasion
February 4, 2025Rumors about ICE are spreading in Southwest Detroit. In a school, student absences are already elevated. Meanwhile communities are gathering resources and planning activities. The sooner we gather, more people can be helped.
Resistance grows to library book bans
September 30, 2024Far-right campaigns aim to ban sex and LGBTQ+ themed books from childrenâs and teenâs sections in public and school libraries. Nevertheless, resistance finds multiple paths to defend the freedom to read.
Youth in Action: High school students demand safety
December 13, 2023On Nov. 21, 2021, a student shot dozens of their peers in an Oxford, Mich., High School, killing four. Two years later the surviving students demand the resignation of the board members who didn’t do anything for their safety.
Readersâ Views: November 2023
November 24, 2023Readers’ Views on: Israel/Palestine; Revolt in Iran; in Canada for 2SLGBTQIA+; Trump, Biden too old to run; Racism in Tennessee; Prisoners miss ‘N&L’; Memorial for Paul Geist and Dan Bremer; Texas targets pregnant women & refugees; Ohio targets women and democracy; Revolutionary history; and Raining on those with disabilities.
Palestinians and Jews look for solutions together
November 23, 2023Susan Van Gelder reports on two meetings in Michigan supporting both Jewish and Palestinian people affected by the Israel-Hamas war in the West Bank.
Preventing recidivism
June 13, 2023Prisoner writes about how to reduce refidivism as within the first year post-release from prison, three of every five citizens will relapse back into a state of consciousness that begets physical bondage; one of those five will be murdered; and only the remaining one will maintain enough freedom to gain a job, have a child, and struggle to survive. If prison is perceived as a rehabilitation center, then our tax dollars will be used to restore citizens back into a mental, spiritual and physical state of freedom, justice and equality.
Win for Michigan workers
January 24, 2023At last over 600,000 Michigan workers will receive increased minimum wages and earn paid sick leave, thanks to a court ruling this summer overturning a 2018 law the state legislature had quickly and cynically passed.
Michigan MAGA threats
November 12, 2022Curtis reports on the state of electoral politics in Michigan, including racism, violence, misogyny and fraudulent Trump supporters.
Votes that matter
November 8, 2022The election of 2020 gave a giant push for the Right to turn elections into weapons for abrogating rights and freedoms, especially those of women and minorities. It is a primrose path to outright fascism.
Voices from the Inside Out: What is criminal justice reform?
September 25, 2022A critical view from a prisoner against the criminal justice system: “If the criminals running the justice system arenât held accountable, the criminal justice system will always be corrupt.”
War on teachers is a war on students
September 10, 2022In school districts across the nation all eyes are on 4,500 striking teachers in Columbus, Ohio, who agreed to return to the classroom after a three-day strike under a âconceptual agreement.â This army in red T-shirts sparked widespread parent refusal to log in to remote classrooms set up while the teachers were out.
Readers’ views, November-December 2020: part two
November 28, 2020John Lewis, todayâs struggles, and the needed philosophic dialogue; Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Putin: an opposing view; Amy Barrettâs fanaticism; Torture at Soledad; Pipeline battles.
Detroit Dispatch #10: Concerns about the election
October 4, 2020Against bureaucratic hurdles, community leaders and activists in Detroit, Michigan are trying to encourage the vote for the November election, especially among young adults.
Cops protect fascists
August 28, 2020Police turned over the streets of Kalamazoo to an armed fascist militia, and only targeted counter-protesters.
Stop NestlĂ©’s water grab!
June 12, 2020Nestlé Corporation is now being allowed to withdraw up to 400 gallons of water per minute from three wells in northern Michigan, including a well near the headwaters of Twin and Chippewa Creeks, Michigan. It is unsustainable.
Queer Notes: March-April 2019
March 10, 2019Queer Notes on the Auckland Pride Festival; Denise Ho Wan-sze; two newly-elected Democratic governors making strides for Queer rights; and a history of Comptonâs Transgender Cultural District in San Francisco.
Detroit celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 26, 2019Participant report from Detroit’s 16th Annual Martin Luther King Day Rally.
Michigan post-election voter suppression
December 18, 2018Report from Detroit about the Michigan legislature passing bills to reverse the results of the election, and about plans to oppose from below the suppression of democracy.
Flint water battles
September 27, 2018Michigan’s Attorney General chose the easy route of spending money prosecuting 15 scapegoats as a substitute for replacing the lead service lines that continue to poison citizens of Flint, Michigan.
Voting is broken in Michigan
September 26, 2018Michigan voters describe examples of how voting in Michigan is seriously flawed, leading to voter disenfranchisement.
Demonstrations for refugees cover the entire U.S.
July 25, 2018âFamilies Belong Together!â was the rallying cry for in over 700 cities and towns across the U.S. and some in other countries. Rallies of tens of thousands were held June 30 in Chicago, Los Angeles, and several other cities.
Detroit copsâ abuses
August 29, 2017Detroit police invaded our neighborhood, indiscriminately stopping people and impounding cars.
Michigan prisoners rise up!
March 21, 2017Michigan prisoners protest in various ways–including a hunger strike–the inhumane, unhealthy, unlivable conditions in Michigan Department of Corrections prisons.
Detroit teachers and parents fight school closings
March 16, 2017Report on the resistance against the closure of “low quality” schools in Detroit, Michigan.
Union betrayals
November 30, 2016Latina union activist in Detroit questions how working people lost out in the school board elections and the ballot measures in the recent election and, noting that the AFL-CIO supported the Dakota Access Pipeline, asks, “Which side are you on?”
Readers’ Views, November-December 2016, Part 2
November 27, 2016Readers’ Views on The Dialectic of History Vs. Retrogression; Prisoners, Supporters Speak.
Fires in Canada, drought in India inspire creative revolt
July 3, 2016The wildfires sweeping Alberta’s tar sands region provide a window onto the state of the environment and the multidimensional worldwide struggle against pollution and climate chaos fueled by capitalism’s drive for production for the sake of production.
I. Discontent, revolt and reaction in the U.S.
May 6, 2016Part I of the Draft Perspectives 2016: Discontent is seething in the U.S. among workers, youth, Blacks, women, LGBTQ, including elements of the new society. Fear of revolution is powering neo-fascism opposing the revolt.
The anguish that is Flint, Michigan
March 8, 2016Greed and racism promulgated the crisis in Flint, where water with high lead content was used by the mostly poor Black residents for over a year, poisoning an entire city with especially terrible consequences for Flint’s children.
Journey to Deathâs door
January 29, 2015Stepping across the threshold of this particular Deathâs door, I was greeted by the spectacle of ancient and sick prisoners in wheelchairs being rolled silently through the hallways, looking like so many ghosts in some haunted asylum.
Aramark excels in dishing up maggots
November 24, 2014Lapeer, Mich.âRecently over 100 Aramark Correctional Services (ACS) employees have been fired and banned from Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) prisons for smuggling in drugs, cell phones and other contraband, sex with prisoners, and, most recently, paying one prisoner to kill another at a prison in Kincheloe. ACS has proven incapable of maintaining sanitary kitchens and food lines and has failed to follow the MDOC menu, consistently running out of food as itâs being served, failing to follow required cooking procedures, and making numerous menu item substitutionsâall in violation of its three-year, $145 million contract with the MDOC….
Readersâ Views, July-August 2014, Part 2
July 7, 2014From the July-August 2014 issue of News & Letters
UNCHAINING THE DIALECTIC
Raya Dunayevskayaâs 1953 breakthrough on Hegelâs Absolute Idea enabled her to illuminate a path not traveled by previous generations of revolutionaries. She is quite emphatic in raising the importance of âUnchaining the Revolutionary Dialecticâ (May-June 2014 N&L), and capturing what [=>]
Detroit retirees fight for public workers
Intense pressure builds as 38,000 retired Detroit City workers approach a voting deadline on the fate of their pensions and healthcare benefits under the Plan of Adjustment of the unelected Detroit Emergency Manager for the cityâs bankruptcy filing.
Same-sex marriage
May 20, 2014Roundup on advances and resistance on same-sex marriage in churches and states.
Detroit fights blight, but who profits?
April 5, 2014We donât want our neighborhoods razed for âprofit-making capitalist folks.â Detroit residents are concerned with improved quality of life in our communities.
The art of Arab Spring
April 3, 2014âCreative Dissent: Arts of the Arab World Uprisingsâ is an exhibit which magnificently captures the voices, images and revolutionary ideas of participants in the Arab Spring.
Prison privatization is a crime
February 13, 2014On Dec. 1, Aramark Correctional Services will begin running Food Service for the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC), creating another sector of low-wage workers in Michigan. In a state struggling with a high unemployment rate and flooded with low-wage dead-end jobs, 60,000 in the fast-food sector in the metro Detroit area alone, why would the state government choose to add to these statistics?
Detroit workers fight for jobs and pensions
December 4, 2013Yesterday, a judge approved Detroit bankruptcy. Emergency manager Kevyn Orr outrageously claimed that the attack on workers’ pensions would be “thoughtful, measured and humane.” Read the News & Letters article for a view from the other side of the class struggle.
Readers’ Views, September-October 2013, Part I
October 11, 2013Readers’ Views, September-October 2013, Part I
Detroit defends homes
September 11, 2013Detroit Eviction Defense came out of the Direct Action Workgroup of Occupy Detroit about two years ago. We work with people who want to save their homes. We have saved about 60 so far.
Detroiters organize in class war
May 8, 2013The entire state of Michigan voted against the harsh emergency manager law, Public Act 436, last November only to have the lame-duck state legislature vote it right back in before year’s end. On the day, March 28, that Act 436 took effect, Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager fired the interim superintendent of schools. … Meanwhile, neighborhoods languish under mounting piles of trash, abandoned houses, stores, factories and vehicles. City services are reduced by mandatory budget cut “furloughs.” The challenge for Detroit residents is: can we stand up and organize ourselves for quality living and working conditions, some of which includes wresting support and services from our unelected new leaders? Can we articulate and realize a future Detroit developed for human needs?
The politics of degenerate capitalism
May 2, 2013The rulers are not about to sit back and let revolt freely develop. All sorts of reactionary ideas and attitudes have been ushered into the mainstream of politics and the media.
Readersâ Views, March-April 2013, Part 2
April 26, 2013AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY
When the Green Movement started in Iran over the 2009 election, the so-called leaders were part of the government who were against Ahmadinejad. The growth of the movement of women and youth got so big it became “out of control” by the so-called leaders. The government leaders got scared because [=>]
Attacks on organizing
April 6, 2013The number of unionized workers in the U.S. last year dropped by 400,000 members, to 14.3 million workers. Assaults on unions like right-to-work legislation in Indiana and Michigan and laws narrowing the right to union representation in Wisconsin had a huge impact on unions. The most important development is the transformation of union leadership from being militant fighters to contract concessionary specialists and corporation supporters.