The legal and political battle to maintain the gains of the past Civil Rights Movement, and the gains of our unions are historically linked. The UAW and other unions supported the past Civil Rights Movement financially and politically. When Martin Luther King was murdered, he was in Memphis to support and AFSCME garbage collectors’ strike. Our city jobs were integrated by Affirmative Action.

Society at the Crossroad

Today our society is at a crossroad. Either we defend the gains of the past by building a new Civil Rights Movement, and fighting for more equality and social justice, or we let the right-wing attacks against Affirmative Action to win and encourage their efforts to segregate our society.

Three years ago Affirmative Action was suffering defeats in California and Texas. All the so-called authorities pronounced it dead or dying. It was then that CIR hooked up with Michigan State Senator, and arch-racist, David Jaye, who conducted a public political campaign to find some white people who would be willing to say that U of M’s Affirmative Action was a form of so-called "reverse discrimination" against them. BAMN immediately began organizing; knowing that Affirmative Action could be saved if we fought! They sponsored a new coalition of students and prospective students to intervene in the case called United for Equality and Affirmative Action (UEAA).

CIR and Jaye finally got three people to be their legal stooges. CIR then filed one lawsuit with two white people claiming that U of M’s undergraduate school discriminated against them as white people. They filed another suit on behalf of a white woman named Barbara Grutter against the U of M’s Law School.

U of M: Afraid of the Fight for Equality

U of M decided to defend it’s policies, but only on the limited basis of defending "diversity", which they argue is necessary to give middle-class white students from essentially segregated neighborhoods and schools some introduction to people who aren’t white. While it’s true that diversity is a good thing, it is not a sufficient basis on which to defend Affirmative Action in the long run. That requires exposing the racism and inequality which Affirmative Action is needed to offset. And U of M doesn’t want to talk about it’s own role in that.

So two separate groups of students were organized to enter the case in defense of Affirmative Action independent of what they knew would be a weak-kneed legal strategy pursued by U of M.

One group sponsored by the NAACP attempted to "intervene" in the undergrad case, and UEAA, sponsored by BAMN, sought intervenor status in the Law School case. Federal Judge Bernard Friedman denied their motions. They appealed to the 6th Circuit Court in Cincinnati. BAMN organized a busload of students to picket and fill the courtroom. Both student groups won the appeal, and were given "intervener" status as defendants.

Late last year Federal Judge Patrick Duggan ruled without trial that U of M’s current undergrad admissions policy was legal. In December 2000 BAMN again packed a hearing and convinced Friedman that a trial was necessary so BAMN could make the case that Affirmative Action is necessary to help offset a racist society. The trial began Jan. 16. CIR has presented their weak, racist case, and U of M has presented its uninspired evasive defense of "diversity", attempting to dodge the real questions of racism and inequality in education.

Putting Racism and Inequality on Trial

Now BAMN is pursuing it’s declared aim of "put racism on trial." Their case is an exciting breath of truth in the courtroom. They have so far presented Harvard Professor Gary Orfield as an expert to show how unequal education is in this country, had former Cass Tech student Erika Dowdell explain the adversity she had to overcome to get to U of M, and the racism she faces there. Then they presented Jonathan Hope Franklin, the preeminent historian, and chair of Bill Clinton’s Initiative on Race to give the fight for equality an historic content. Then they presented Jay Rosner, an expert on how standardized tests like the LSAT are biased against black students, and do not predict who will become good lawyers.

It’s Movements That Make History

Even the U of M’s high-paid lawyers have been impressed with BAMN’s legal strategy. But their legal strategy is based on the idea of building a new national integrated mass militant civil rights movement, not on brilliant legal arguments alone. The new leaders of local 207 also realize that in our contract fight that a bold and active movement of the members is the way to win, not just clever arguments at the negotiations table. Come to the trial!

Picket City Council Hearing! Thursday Feb. 8, 9am Oppose the Water & Sewerage Rate Increases for Residential Customers! Coleman Young Municipal Center (City County Building) Then Attend the City Council Hearing on the Increases At 10am, in the Council Chambers, 13th Floor!