Action! Motown '97: 100,000 flood Detroit

by Chris McKie

This article was reprinted from the June 28, 1997 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

They came. And they kept on coming.

A sea of steelworkers wearing green T-shirts; auto workers wearing blue; others wearing orange or red.

They came, first by thousands, then by tens of thousands - their spirits buoyed by their numbers and a National Labor Relations Board ruling that the Detroit newspapers deliberately broke the law when they forced 2,000 newspaper workers out on strike two years ago.

By the time the program began more than 100,000 unionists and friends from 40 international unions and 45 states had crowded into Detroit's Hart Plaza in support of the city's newspaper workers.

They were joined by a thousand-member contingent from Toronto, Canada and union representatives from France and England.

This, then, was Action! Motown '97 on the afternoon of June 21: The first-ever national AFL-CIO solidarity demonstration in support of a strike and Detroit's largest non-holiday demonstration since 250,000 people marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in the Motor City in 1963.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney described the Detroit newspapers as a "major example of unchecked corporate greed" who have put their workers out on the street.

"We're here to raise the focus on these issues to the national level," he told the World in an interview before the march began.

"We're here to tell them they won't get away with it."

During the mile-long march to the plaza, union banners from as far away as Los Angeles and San Francisco waved in the breeze. An occasional cheer greeted the "boom" of an overturned newspaper vending machine as it echoed above the sing-song chants of "We are the union - the mighty, mighty union" and "I don't know but I've been told/ Detroit newspapers got no soul/ Hell no, hell no, hell no/.All them scabs has got to go!"

Norman Roth, recording secretary of the 3,500-member Chicago Area United Auto Workers Retirees Council, took time out from his harmonica to point to a handful of "revolutionaries" standing on the corner chanting, "The only solution - a Communist revolution!"

"We may need a revolution," Roth said, "but today the issue is winning this strike. That's serious business - probably the most serious workers can undertake."

A fast-paced program of speeches and music brought representatives of the six striking unions, religious and political leaders and members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council, including Sweeney and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, to the microphone.

"This fight is now our fight," Sweeney said to cheers, "and now you will pay the price," he said, pointing to the offices of the Detroit News.

Then, speaking to the city's newspaper workers, Sweeney said, "You have won the battle of Detroit. Now our job is to win the battle outside Detroit."

Edgar Scribner, president of the Metropolitan Detroit AFL- CIO, said the demonstration was a stand in behalf of Caterpillar workers who have been without a contract since 1991, with Staley workers who saw their union busted a year-and-a-half ago and the 4,500 members of the Steelworkers union who have been on strike against Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel since Oct. 1.

"When they take on one of us, they take on all of us," he said.

Trumka drew cheers and whistles when he warned that the labor movement was "breathing down the necks" of the management of the Free Press and News. "And the next thing you know, we'll have your butts in our pockets!" he thundered, his remarks interrupted by blasts from the horn of a passing cruise vessel.

Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Council, drew an ovation with his appeal for unity and struggle. "We've marched too far, we've fought too hard, we've bled too much," he said, "to turn back now."

Lowery said the world was moving away from the era of anti- communism to an era "that has not yet defined. And we - all of us - must participate in that redefinition," he added.

Other speakers included Maryann Mahaffey, chair of the Detroit City Council, who praised the men and women who have overcome "despair and hardship" in their battle against the newspapers. "Workers are the heart and soul of our country,"she said. "And labor unions are its muscle and guts."

Falice Brown, well-known Detroit performing artist and playwright, presided over the program which ended with Ann Feeney leading the assembly in a spirited rendering of "Solidarity Forever."

Why they came; what it meant...

It was a sea of working people and their supporters. They came in all sizes, shapes and colors. They came to march and yell and fight for what they believe in.

World reporter Scott Marshall decided to ask some of them to put the "why?" into their own words:

We're here to show solidarity with these workers. We're here to raise the focus on these issues to the national level. The Detroit newspapers are a major example of corporate greed unchecked.

And what corporate greed! These workers made these newspapers what they are and then they're put out on the street. Well, we're here to tell them they won't get away with it. We're here for as long as it takes.

- John Sweeney, president, AFL-CIO.

I'm a laid-off auto worker. This is my fight as much as anyone else's. I'll march from here to Washington and back again if that's what it takes. But really I think we're going to have to march a whole lot more.

We have to think about all of us just staying home for a day to let them know that we're together and ready to fight. Maybe that would wake some people up! They can't make a cent without us.

- Jonetta Roberts, UAW, Michigan.

What are you here for? We're here for the same reasons. It all boils down to standing up to the guys on top. This is just the beginning.

The people here realize we have to stick it to the companies, 'cause they're sticking it to us. Every time we march like this we're telling millions of others that they've got to join us. It's the only way. We're united and growing.

- Eugene Samuels, Carpenters, Ohio

I'm here to protest the way these workers are being treated. Like all workers these days, we've made billions for the rich and now they want to shut us down. What about all the workers they don't need anymore?

It's like slavery again. They get through with you and out you go to die. This system no longer serves the people, only the rich and the corporations. A lot of people are waking up to that fact."

- Al Ellis, retired UAW, Illinois.