"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will." - Fredrick Douglas
America is in economic crisis. Michigan is in economic crisis. Kent County is in economic crisis and our cities are in economic crisis. Federal support has helped to avert disaster but such aid is limited and scheduled to end. Homes have been lost, jobs eliminated and businesses shut down. Health care is too costly; our schools are failing. We need to overcome the “greed is good” mentality. Our current economy works well for those at the top. It doesn’t work well for the rest of us. We must remake Michigan. We need to use our resources, wealth and power to help people, not just the rich and powerful.
Change will not come easily. We need to develop a movement and we need to express our position so powerfully that decision makers will have to listen to us. That is the way it has always been. That is how America won its independence; that is how the abolitionists succeeded and that was the success of the civil rights movement. That’s American history. Any time an injustice is overturned it’s because people brought their situation to those in power and demanded a solution.
People need to get organized. We need leadership with many individuals taking responsibility for the movement. We need an agenda that addresses issues of jobs, housing and banking. We need to put people back to work at jobs that pay a living wage and that
rebuild our neighborhoods. To address the housing crisis we need to demand that banks receiving government support immediately institute a moratorium on foreclosures and freeze interest rates on adjustable mortgages. We need to shrink our financial sector and prevent banks from being too big to fail.
We do not lack for solutions; we lack the power to implement the solutions. The only way to build long term power is for people to come together, small businesses and labor, churches, families, and minorities of all kinds. We need organization and a common vision. Broad-based indigenous leadership must knit together the diverse interests of their various local institutions. Everyone must have a stake. More people need to become organizers and everyone needs to exercise leadership.
We need people to coordinate the effort; we need full-time organizers. Organizers facilitate the grass roots bubbling up of organizing skills. Organizers do social change planning and strategizing. Organizers must be technicians, detached observers of an issue but they also inspire the community. Organizers cultivate leadership and facilitate the exploration of the community’s vision. They have the passion and fire the anger. Organizers care deeply about social justice and can change the world.
We need a populist movement. We need to develop a progressive social contract. The community needs to come together, determine common solutions to our problems and negotiate these solutions with the elected officials. Then we must hold the elected officials ac
countable. Nationally, we need an equitable tax system including restoration of the inheritance tax which only affects the superrich. On a state level we need to preserve health care for the most vulnerable and restore revenue sharing to keep police and firemen in our neighborhoods. On a local level we need to limit tax breaks for businesses which fund glitzy projects downtown when the City can not mow neighborhood parks or enforce the housing code. We need to serve all our citizens. We can achieve our goals through shared leadership, discipline and a realization that we are better as a community by achieving a common good rather than by maintaining a greed is good mentality.
Frank Lynn trains and consults in community organizing. He has helped develop numerous systems change strategies and has worked with many community based groups throughout Michigan and across the country. He currently works at Disability Advocates of Kent County and can be reached at
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Published in
Local Politics
