At bottom is a running compilation of links and literature in BAMN’s fight to build the new civil rights movement to restore democracy and defend public education in Detroit. JOIN BAMN: Form a BAMN chapter in your area, and/or join the EON/BAMN caucus of the teachers unions and build the new civil rights and immigrant rights movement to end the New Jim Crow!
DETROIT TEACHERS, STUDENTS, AND COMMUNITY DEMAND:
- Restore the full, real democratic rights of the people of Detroit now. End all takeovers—over our schools, over our city government, and over the teachers’ union, the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT). Abolish all Emergency Manager regimes; fire EM Earley. All real power in Detroit needs to be of the people, by the people, for the people.
- No more attacks on our public schools! No more school closings, no more charters, no more selling our schools to charter companies. Our children are not for sale.
- Reject the Snyder Plan, along with the mountain of lies told to sell it. The Snyder Plan is merely a lightly veiled scheme for the mass closure of our public schools and the mass chhttps://www.bamn.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=9718&action=editarterization of what is left. Any “new money” will merely be a subsidy for more charter schools and an end to all but a token few real public schools. (See Steve Conn, “Address to the Third Mass Membership Meeting: Defeating the Snyder Plan” May 3, 2015)
- End the scapegoating of teachers. Restore teachers’ democratic and union rights. Reduce class sizes dramatically now. Smaller class sizes and the restoration of teachers’ democratic and union rights are now essential emergency measures to start repairing the terrible damage Snyder’s attacks have inflicted on the education of Detroit’s young people.
- Restore all the EAA schools to the Detroit Public Schools—no more EAA “Snyder schools.” The Governor’s personal takeover of the EAA schools is a cruel scandal. The “Snyder schools” are among the worst in the country. They are an experiment that has failed brutally for our children. The disastrous EAA experiment must be ended.
1/11/2015: Steve Conn Flyer for President of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT)
Includes program on which DFT teachers elected him.
1/25/2015: Conn “State of the Union” Address to DFT Teachers General Membership Meeting
5/31/2015: Conn 4th Presidential Address to DFT Teachers General Membership Meeting
6/29/2015: Conn response to charges seeking to remove him from office
10/24/2015: Appeal letter to the AFT International union to reverse the coup against Steve Conn
11/29/2015: “NO ‘trustee’ takeover of the DFT / On December 1, 2015 Honor the brave legacy of Rosa Parks / Detroit demands DEMOCRACY”
Calling Rosa Parks day of action leading to FIRST outbreaks of “Snyder flu” in Detroit schools.
12/1/2015: BAMN leader and Detroit School of the Arts student Markeith Jones speaks to news media during sick-out at DSA
12/1/2015: EON/BAMN leader and Detroit teacher Nicole Conaway speaks to news media during sick-out
1/10/2016: Elected DFT President and BAMN leader Steve Conn addresses news media
1/11/2016: Corporate media (Detroit News) editorial: “Fire DPS strike ringleaders”
No better praise than to be attacked by the movement’s enemies.
1/13/2016: “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize”
“The ‘Snyder flu’ sickout has become Detroit’s most dynamic action to defend our civil rights and our public schools. And there is only one remedy that can cure the “Snyder flu”: restore the democratic rights of the people of Detroit, terminate Snyder’s regime of Emergency Manager takeovers, and stop the Snyder Plan from destroying public education.”
