Pissed over GM vs. Poletown...
Alright. I have one hell of a story to share with you all. Today in my Sociology 100 class we watched a video called Poletown Lives. We are studying Social Movements and this was our professors example.
Poletown was a city on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan. Basically, in 1980 GM motors decided they would build a new plant in Detroit, but to do so they would have to tare down and destroy all of the community of Poletown. In doing so they would displace about 4500 people. The people weren't asked and never signed anything basically they were told they had to leave. Obviously, the people of this community stood up for themselves. They wrote letter asking GM to not tare their town down and even gave suggestions on how the plant could be built without having to destroy Poletown. No backing was given to these people until Ralph Nader helped them out. Now, Im not a fan of Nader but I do have a lot of respect for him now. These middle to lower income people were fighting against a mulitbillion dollar coperation. Some of these people had been born in Poletown and lived there for almost 60 yrs!! Things seemed to make a turn around in favor of the community until they found out that the Arch Dyasis (as in Italy) sold their two Catholic Churches out from under them for 2.2 Million Dollars. The priest at one of the parishes stood up for his community and was silenced loosing his job and never being reasigned. Finally, the community started demonstrating in front of GM and sending flowers to the Chairmans wife for mothers day hoping that her mothers day would be as nice as the elderly ladies who wouldnt have a home thanks to her husband. Slowly things got worse. The residents were sleeping with their shotguns in fear of vandalism. Then fires began to break out. Some of the community thought that the politicians had a lot to do with the unexplained fires because they were hoping to destroy the city bad enough that it could be condemned and then torn down.
On the last day before the destruction of Poletown was to occur, all of the residents and supporters locked themselves into the remaining Catholic Church. A few days later the city turned off their electric and water. Then on the day the bulldozers were to come and tare the church down the police tore the doors off the church and rushed inside. They arrested all that were there including 4 70 yr old women. YES FOUR 70 YEAR OLD WOMEN!!! The police were going to let the women go but they refused to leave without their men. The charges were dropped. Nonetheless, the tearing down of the church began. On this video these people were wailing and bawling their eyes out as the steeple with the cross was the first thing taken down.
In the end the town was gone. The priest who stood up for his community died from a heartattack 6 mnths later as did several others. Some were put into nursing homes.
One of the women said, "they are taking away homes that we have worked our whole lives for to make cadillacs and this is suppose to be progress."
I cant tell you how upset I was and still am over this even though it happend some 25 yrs ago. This just doesnt seem like it could happen in the Country where we are suppose to be free and to be able to have our own piece of land and happiness. There is something incredibly wrong with a country that will throw its citizens out of their homes, some of whom defended this country just to make FUCKING CARS!!! I am soo pissed about this that I swear I am boycotting for the rest of my life GM products. I am also going to try to avoid buying alot of popular items that I know are mass produced. Its just wrong and I know i probably sound like a hippy or an anarchist, but I dont want to be a part of country that claims to Capitalist but in actuallity is based of Cooperate Facism.
Another sad aspect of this is I seemed to be the only one in my class of 80 ppl, disturbed and depressed after viewing this video. Everyone walked out laughing, chit chatting and going on with their lives while I went to the nearest bathroom and cried for like 5 minutes. I dont get human beings.
Well, check out more on Poletown. Just type Poletown in your search engine. I think our generation needs to become more active in our society if we ever want to make a change or at least a lasting mark.
Poletown was a city on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan. Basically, in 1980 GM motors decided they would build a new plant in Detroit, but to do so they would have to tare down and destroy all of the community of Poletown. In doing so they would displace about 4500 people. The people weren't asked and never signed anything basically they were told they had to leave. Obviously, the people of this community stood up for themselves. They wrote letter asking GM to not tare their town down and even gave suggestions on how the plant could be built without having to destroy Poletown. No backing was given to these people until Ralph Nader helped them out. Now, Im not a fan of Nader but I do have a lot of respect for him now. These middle to lower income people were fighting against a mulitbillion dollar coperation. Some of these people had been born in Poletown and lived there for almost 60 yrs!! Things seemed to make a turn around in favor of the community until they found out that the Arch Dyasis (as in Italy) sold their two Catholic Churches out from under them for 2.2 Million Dollars. The priest at one of the parishes stood up for his community and was silenced loosing his job and never being reasigned. Finally, the community started demonstrating in front of GM and sending flowers to the Chairmans wife for mothers day hoping that her mothers day would be as nice as the elderly ladies who wouldnt have a home thanks to her husband. Slowly things got worse. The residents were sleeping with their shotguns in fear of vandalism. Then fires began to break out. Some of the community thought that the politicians had a lot to do with the unexplained fires because they were hoping to destroy the city bad enough that it could be condemned and then torn down.
On the last day before the destruction of Poletown was to occur, all of the residents and supporters locked themselves into the remaining Catholic Church. A few days later the city turned off their electric and water. Then on the day the bulldozers were to come and tare the church down the police tore the doors off the church and rushed inside. They arrested all that were there including 4 70 yr old women. YES FOUR 70 YEAR OLD WOMEN!!! The police were going to let the women go but they refused to leave without their men. The charges were dropped. Nonetheless, the tearing down of the church began. On this video these people were wailing and bawling their eyes out as the steeple with the cross was the first thing taken down.
In the end the town was gone. The priest who stood up for his community died from a heartattack 6 mnths later as did several others. Some were put into nursing homes.
One of the women said, "they are taking away homes that we have worked our whole lives for to make cadillacs and this is suppose to be progress."
I cant tell you how upset I was and still am over this even though it happend some 25 yrs ago. This just doesnt seem like it could happen in the Country where we are suppose to be free and to be able to have our own piece of land and happiness. There is something incredibly wrong with a country that will throw its citizens out of their homes, some of whom defended this country just to make FUCKING CARS!!! I am soo pissed about this that I swear I am boycotting for the rest of my life GM products. I am also going to try to avoid buying alot of popular items that I know are mass produced. Its just wrong and I know i probably sound like a hippy or an anarchist, but I dont want to be a part of country that claims to Capitalist but in actuallity is based of Cooperate Facism.
Another sad aspect of this is I seemed to be the only one in my class of 80 ppl, disturbed and depressed after viewing this video. Everyone walked out laughing, chit chatting and going on with their lives while I went to the nearest bathroom and cried for like 5 minutes. I dont get human beings.
Well, check out more on Poletown. Just type Poletown in your search engine. I think our generation needs to become more active in our society if we ever want to make a change or at least a lasting mark.