Vol. 74/No. 35      September 20, 2010

Auto workers comprised the bulk of the rally. Sponsored by the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the United Auto Workers (UAW), contingents were also organized by the Service Employees International Union; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; and other labor groups. A contingent from the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement also marched.

Participants were overwhelmingly drawn from Detroit and the surrounding working-class suburbs, the traditional center of the U.S. auto industry. The majority were African American.

Michigan’s official unemployment rate for 2009 was 13.6 percent—16.6 percent for Hispanics and 21 percent for Blacks.

Participants included some of Michigan’s most prominent Democratic Party politicians. A major theme of the action was a protectionist call for “a trade policy that will create jobs [and] support manufacturing in America.”

“The owners get rid of union jobs, lay off workers, then bring in contract work at much less expense,” Cass Ford, an auto plant electrician told the Militant. “We need better jobs and housing.”

Malcolm Morris, 20, said, “I’m here for schools and jobs. I can’t get a job.”

Others at the march drew attention to other aspects of the social crisis bearing down on working people. “I came because I’m tired of the government politicians not caring,” said Theresa Wells Dixon who helps run rehabilitation facilities for homeless and others in need.

The August 28 protest was organized as a building action for the October 2 national march on Washington for jobs, justice, and education. The Washington mobilization, first announced July 12 at the 101st annual convention of the NAACP in Kansas City, Missouri, has the backing of a broad array of unions and civil rights organizations.
 
 
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