The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

What about My Neighborhood?

Aug 5, 2013

“Downtown Becomes Boom Town.”

“Teens in T-shirts Clean Up Detroit.”

“Thousands of Volunteers to Clean Up the Neighborhoods.”

The Detroit newspaper headlines would make a poor soul jump for joy ... things are so much better! But then comes the question that keeps going unanswered: “What about my neighborhood?”

What about the hundreds of real Detroit neighborhoods where homeowners get no assistance from anybody, no volunteers in matching T-shirts, and no dollars from the banks or the city or the state?

Why if our neighborhoods could get some real financial assistance, we’d fix them up ourselves! Detroit has enough unemployed builders, painters, steelworkers, landscapers, you name it, workers to do the job (the ones who built Detroit in the first place, remember?). And we’d even have a few bucks left over for some matching T-shirts!

P.S., 10% wage cuts against police and firefighters and chopping pensions surely won’t help us keep our neighborhoods in better repair!