LOCAL 207 ORGANIZER

On June 23, 2003, we achieved a historic victory for civil rights: the U.S Supreme Court upheld affirmative action in the University of Michigan case Grutter v. Bollinger. By marching and rallying together we achieved what most believed to be impossible – we beat President George Bush, who argued against affirmative action at the Supreme Court, and we won a shining victory for civil rights and equal opportunity in these most conservative of times.

Now we must defend this momentous victory. Within days of the Supreme Court’s decision in Grutter, Ward Connerly, a University of California Regent (and architect of California’s devastating anti-affirmative action state constitutional amendment Proposition 209), announced his plan to sponsor an anti-affirmative action ballot measure in Michigan. Ward Connerly’s aim is to nullify the Supreme Court’s Grutter decision. He has been joined by some of Michigan’s most rabid right-wing Republicans, including Leon Drolet and Joe Brandenburg.

If passed, Connerly’s Michigan ballot proposition would ban all affirmative action program and all equal opportunity programs for minorities and women throughout Michigan. Every affirmative action program in education, employment, including outreach programs, would be legally barred. If Connerly succeeds in Michigan, he will take his racially divisive anti-affirmative action campaign to other states. We can defeat Ward Connerly, but only if we stand and fight now.

We must stop Ward Connerly’s campaign before it gets off the ground. Keeping this proposal off the ballot is the only sure way to beat it. The experience in California shows that anti-affirmative action ballot propositions packaged as an affirmation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 can succeed through a combination of ignorance and appeals to white racism. We must stop him from getting the financial resources and building the political organization he needs in order to collect the 317,757 petition signatures necessary to get his segregationist proposal on the ballot for November 2004.

We can help defeat Connerly by building the national boycott of Coors Beer, a major funding source of his campaign against affirmative action. AFSCME should also give as much support as possible to the Civil Rights March in Ann Arbor November 7, 2003. To help build this campaign, call 313-526-9023. Vote for the Resolution to Defend Grutter (see back of flier).

Council leaders are asking delegates to vote for a substantial dues increase from our locals. This would force local officers to ask their members for a dues increase, or further reduce the locals’ ability to fight for our members. Either option would further demoralize our members and weaken our union. Council officials say that the dues increase will be used to provide health coverage for Council staff retirees. But they really want it fund the campaigns of Democratic Party politicians. These “Republicrats” then stab us in the back, like Kilpatrick and Granholm did when they tried to cut a charter school deal with the Republicans which would further impoverish Detroit’s public schools. These same politicians vote to privatize our jobs and demand contract concessions. We should use our dues to build actions like the recent Detroit teachers’ call-in/demonstration. That had more influence over the politicians than giving them our dues. If our members have to survive with the pitiful raises they get, then the Council should have to do the same. Vote NO to any dues increase!

Privatization is used to profiteer from the misery of workers and poor people throughout the world. It is one of the driving forces of the unjustified war in Iraq. Much of the $87 billion that George Bush has asked for this year alone, including the military portion, will be sucked up by U.S. companies. The same transnational corporations that target our jobs are privatizing water in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Privatization (especially of water) has spawned global opposition. Bolivians staged a general strike and street rebellion to get rid of it. Atlanta, Georgia recently abandoned privatized water after many “boil water alerts” due to United Water Corporation’s practice of neglecting necessary maintenance. AFSCME Local 207 defeated the privatization of over 200 jobs at the Detroit sewage plant. But we can’t defeat privatization with good intentions. We publicly denounce and demonstrate against any politician, Republican or Democrat, who paves the way for privatization. Last month, the Republicans, Governor Granholm and Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick plotted to put fifteen new charter (privatized) schools in Detroit, which would have drained precious funds from public education. In a bold response, the Detroit Federation of Teachers shut down Detroit’s schools and rallied 5,000 strong in Lansing. That’s what’s need to beat privatization.

Defend Our Grutter v. Bollinger Affirmative Action Victory

Whereas, Council 25 sent three buses to the April 1, 2003 March on Washington to Defend Affirmative Action. AFSCME played a historic role in securing the first civil rights victory in decades; and

Whereas, We can and must continue our progressive activist role and defend our victory by stopping California businessman Ward Connerly and the far-right wing Republicans from getting an initiative on the ballot in Michigan to outlaw affirmative action in education, contracts and employment; and

Whereas, Stung by our affirmative action victory at the Supreme Court (Grutter v. Bollinger), Connerly has teamed up with some of Michigan’s most divisive Republican legislators. Together they seek to gather 317,757 signatures to get an anti-affirmative action initiative on the ballot in November 2004; and

Whereas, Connerly and his right-wing associates are dedicated to overturning the gains of the past civil rights movement. They won the enactment of anti-affirmative action propositions in the states of California and Washington; and

Whereas, Connerly’s Proposition 54, which would have outlawed the gathering of data which shows patterns of discrimination in health, housing, education, employment, etc. was soundly defeated by California voters on Tuesday, October 7; and

Whereas, The Coors family (owners of Coors Brewing Company) has donated at least $100,000 to Connerly’s anti-affirmative action crusade; and

Whereas, Last winter in Kalamazoo, Coors forced overtime concessions out of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers by subjecting them to a six-month lockout; and

Whereas, We must defend AFSCME’s historic goals of equality, integration and justice by defending the victory in Grutter against this attack. The only sure way to defeat Connerly’s Michigan initiative is to keep it off the ballot. We can do that by stopping him from getting the funds and political organization he needs to win. If we mobilize and fight now we will succeed in defending Grutter – and we can use that victory to launch a long overdue offensive against the Right’s domination of U.S. politics, and begin building a more just, united society.

Now, Therefore Be it Resolved: That AFSCME Council endorses the boycott of the Coors Brewing Company, and

Be it Further Resolved: That AFSCME Council 25 will circulate the “Civil Rights Pledge” to all subordinate bodies, and encourage them to support and organize the Coors boycott; and

Be it Finally Resolved; That AFSCME Council 25 will send copies of this resolution to all major news media.