Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Today at 3:00, East Quad Auditorium

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 18. February 2005

MOLLY SECOURS: AIRING THE WOUNDS OF ACTIVISM
Part of the V-Day 2005 College Campaign

Sponsored by V-Day, MSA, P&J and Abeng
questions? bigv(at)umich.edu

MSA vote on PIRGIM chapter, Tuesday, 22 Feb.

Posted by Murph on 18. February 2005

Students for PIRGIM has had a strong presence in the Daily the past several days, and is going before MSA on Tuesday evening to ask to be granted Chapter status (which would require money from MSA), so that they can take on more ambitious projects. I asked PIRGIM members Audrey Vesota and Pam Baker to explain what this process means:

Students for PIRGIM and many other active members of the campus community are hoping to re-establish a proud tradition of student activism by bringing a full-fledged PIRGIM chapter to the U-M campus. If our student group becomes a chapter, we would be able to work with professional staff and link up with a strong national network of more than 80 Student PIRG groups across the nation. This would allow us to work much more effectively on the issues that matter to students: issues such as tenants’ rights, textbook affordability, higher education funding, voting rights, and environmental public health. We are a non-partisan organization that works on issues that affect a broad public and student interest.

In order to make a real impact on these issues, we will need the resources to pair students’ energy and activism with professional experience and expertise. This model has worked successfully for U-M in the past, and continues to thrive at campuses across the country. In addition to making a real positive impact on the issues that affect students, a PIRGIM chapter would teach students the hands-on skills of civic engagement, from meeting with legislators to holding a press conference. We would also establishment an internship program in the model of Project Community (Soc. 389) that would give busy students faculty guidance and an opportunity to earn academic credit for intensive organizing work.

That’s why we are requesting that the Michigan Student Assembly allocate one-third of the neccessary funds to our group to establish a pilot chapter for one year. (The national PIRGs will chip in the remaining two-thirds of the funding for the first year.) We are asking for any and all students, community members, or organizations that are supportive of our project to demonstrate that support by signing onto an endorsement letter and/or coming to the MSA meeting on Tuesday, February 22nd at 7:30, in the 3rd floor of the Union. We will provide PIRGIM buttons as physical marker of support. Let’s show MSA that working for the public interest and student rights is in everyone’s best interest.

Questions: Please contact,
Carolyn Hwang cchwang@umich.edu 732-644-8834
Rese Fox britfox@umich.edu 734-576-3540
Pam Baker pamrbak@umich.edu 734-646-3135

The proposal before MSA can be read at PIRGIM’s website.

Some of the recent press on the group’s activities:
> Ann Arbor News, 3 February: College text costs are out of line, report shows
> Michigan Daily, 8 February: PIRGIM looks for ways to lower textbook prices
> Michigan Daily, 14 February: Rebuttal from a textbook publisher
> Michigan Daily, 14 February: The Daily’s endorsement
> Michigan Daily, 15 February: letter of support from Washtenaw County Commissioner Jeff Irwin

Somewhat deeper googling will show articles on the group’s activities this past fall with Voice Your Vote, campaigning in favor of the Ann Arbor greenbelt initiative a year ago, and supporting Accessory Dwelling Units in Ann Arbor (a position which wins them mention from The Goodspeed Update as part of “a critical mass of progressive voices in the city which could breathe new life into city politics”).

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Sen. Carl Levin on campus Tuesday

Posted by Murph on 17. February 2005

From e-mail:

The University of Michigan College Democrats Present:

A Discussion With United States Senator
CARL LEVIN (D-MI)

Tuesday, February 22nd
4 PM
Kuenzel Room, Michigan Union

VALIDATING THE SCRUTINY: The Straight Dope on Coke

Posted by MarkDilley on 17. February 2005

“In response to Thursday’s “Surviving Scrutiny” event at the Business School, which will include Coca-Cola rep, Karen Flanders, discussing “the challenges of multi-national business in a world where corporations are coming under increasing scrutiny,” the UM Killer Coke Coalition presents a counter event to hear from those directly affected by Coca-Cola’s numerous labor and human rights violations.”

via Michigan IMC

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PROTEST COCA-COLA'S LABOR AND ENVIRONMENTAL ABUSES

Posted by MarkDilley on 17. February 2005

Meet at 4:45pm today, outside Hale Aud. in the B-School (Hill and Tappan) wearing red to hand out fact sheets and PROTEST Coke and the fact that university money is being used to host a panel of corporate speakers (Erb Institute/CEMP Speaker Series, Net Impact and Starbucks present Surviving Scrutiny: Corporations in the Age of Global Business, starting at 5pm). The discussion will include a representative from Coca-Cola who will try to paint a rosy picture of Coke’s record, despite the fact that it is:

Causing Severe Water Shortages for Communities Across India (water table has dropped 125ft)
Polluting groundwater and soil around its bottling facilities
Distributing its toxic waste as “fertilizer” to farmers
Selling drinks with extremely high levels of pesticides (farmers have started to buy Coke in place of pesticides)

Be there in solidarity tomorrow for: the people of India (indiaresource.org)
the Coke union workers in Colombia killed off by paramilitary associated with Coke (killercoke.org)
the child laborers in El Salvador on the sugar cane plantations Coke subcontractors buy from (hrw.org/children/labor/elsalvador)
the Africans working for Coke who have AIDS/HIV but whose health needs are ignored by their employers (healthgap.org/camp/mnc.html)

Students Stage Walkout At Local High School

Posted by MarkDilley on 17. February 2005

DETROIT—Students at the Communication And Media Arts High School in Detroit staged a walkout to protest the district’s decision to close the school at the end of the year.

About 400 of the school’s 540 students participated in the demonstration outside the building in the 14000 block of Mansfield

via WDIV

More on the Ohio Newpaper strike

Posted by MarkDilley on 17. February 2005

(As reported here earlier) and from an email:

“The Youngstown (Ohio) newspaper union (the Youngstown Newspaper Guild) is on strike, and the Ann Arbor News (and all other papers owned by the Newhouse family) has been sending editors to replace the striking workers. The guy I talked to is the editor of the community observer and they are publishing a story on this coming out tomorrow. he suggested calling someone named Pettigrew (owner of AA News?) and asking why they are doing this…

here are some links:
> http://www.nwguild.org/guildlog.html
>http://www.business-journal.com/VolunteersHelpVindy.asp
>http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/10361717.htm ”

Planning Commission rejects school site plan

Posted by Murph on 17. February 2005

The Ann Arbor Planning Commission last night rejected the school district’s request that the new high school site be annexed into the city, a requirement for receiving water and sewer service, and also rejected the school’s site plan. Whether either of these actions is meaningful is another question. The Ann Arbor News notes,

The [site plan] rejection has no impact on the new school since school district projects are exempt from municipal zoning and building codes. The Ann Arbor School District submitted the plan as a courtesy.

And,

In 1994, the city and township came up with an agreement that the township will not contest annexation of the school land. Planning Commissioner Eric Lipson and school Trustee Nelson said that agreement automatically annexes the land once requested by the school district.

But it was unclear to other members of the Planning Commission whether the city had to grant that annexation.

Comment [8]

WCBN Annual Fundraiser in Progress

Posted by Brandon on 16. February 2005

Support Radio Free Ann Arbor 88.3 FM!

The annual WCBN on-air fundraiser started on February 11, 2005. Be sure to pledge for your favorite show and receive great thank-you gifts like nifty CD wallets, hats, mugs, and of course T-shirts.
Listen for special events all week, including A2 Dub Project live on Dancehall Reggae Saturday Feb 19!

You can donate to WCBN online, year-round. Our secure pledge form is here.

Or, call 763-3500!

Roadblock Tour protests I-69 plan

Posted by Murph on 15. February 2005

An event this Saturday:

WCC AMNESTY PRESENTS

R O A D B L O C K

Winter 2005 Tour

This Saturday (Feb 19th) 7:00 @ 1510 Hill ST (behind Luther Co-op)

Please come to this Free Event focusing on how NAFTA and the Planned I-69 super Highway will be effecting our lives. for questions contact Ben Ayersock@yahoo.com

As they create global connections between their zones of production and consumption, we must create connections between the local and global struggles against neoliberalism, ecocide, and corporate globalization.

The emergence of multinational bodies (e.g. the World Trade Organization) and the creation of massive free trade zones (e.g. ASEAN, EU, or NAFTA), which have heralded the emergence of a new era of unfettered corporate domination of the earth, are not the only or even the most important aspects of globalization. Instead, we must also begin to examine and resist the gigantic infrastructure projects that are necessitated by the exponential expansion of trade across borders.

The purpose of the Roadblock tour is precisely this – to hopefully begin a discussion about roads, particularly new, international superhighway projects, and the role that they play in corporate globalization. We will examine, in particular, the Plan Puebla Panama that is being planned to open up Central America to new depths of exploitation, and I-69, the NAFTA superhighway that is intended to run through the Midwestern U.S. as a vital foundation for the Free Trade Area of the Americas and as a connection to the highways of the Plan Puebla Panama. More importantly, we will explore the history of resistance to road projects and the potentials that exist today to undermine these socially and environmentally devastating superhighways and with them, corporate globalization.

We will be travelling throughout the northern U.S. Please check out the tour website, www.geocities.com/theroadblocktour, to get updated information about our dates. We will also be carrying an extensive pamphlet and zine distro to offset gas
costs.

I-69 currently runs from Port Huron, MI, to Indianapolis, IN. The proposed extension project, which has been in the works since 1991, would run down to the Mexico border at Laredo or Brownsville. The route number does not appear to be intended as a metaphor for international trade.

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