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michigan
Trump’s Visit to Howell, MI Turned a Dog Whistle Into a Bullhorn
The former president spoke of sending outside police to Detroit to Intimidate voters in a place with a troubling history of white supremacist and far-right activity.
Sep 04, 2024
When former U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would speak in Howell, Michigan on Tuesday, August 20, the dog whistles could be heard loud and clear. It was a signal to the president’s white nationalist supporters that he was still on their side. Howell accrued a reputation for open racism and white supremacism when Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Robert E. Miles set up shop just north of the city. Although Miles died in 1992, cross burnings continued, and the house of a farmer who had spoken up for a proposed Drag Bingo event was vandalized with pro-Klan graffiti as recently as 2021.
During Trump’s speech, which was recorded although not open to the public, he fantasized about sending Livingston County police to Detroit to intimidate voters. “I’d love to have them working there [in Detroit] during the election.” Trump defended his appearance in Howell with a rhetorical question: “Who was here in 2021?” The answer was President Joe Biden. Be that as it may, Biden did not decide to campaign in the city a month after neo-Nazis had demonstrated their love for him in the same city.
One month to the day before Trump’s speech, on July 20, neo-Nazis and Klansmen marched through the city of Howell. Neo-Nazis sieg heiled and shouted “We love Hitler! We love Trump!” in a rally that coincided with the former president’s visit to Grand Rapids. On August 17, the day Trump announced his stop in Howell, a similar rally occurred in Brighton. Many Michiganders who saw pictures or videos of the rallies probably naively shook their heads at what they imagine is a purely Howell or Livingston County phenomenon.
The history of white supremacism and neo-Nazism in Michigan is not just Howell’s history, but all of our history.
Yet, those who say that neo-Nazis and Klansmen aren’t who “we” (here meaning Michiganders outside of Howell) are, could not be more incorrect, in fact, dangerously so. The Ku Klux Klan flexed its political muscles across the state throughout the 1920s. In 1925, the Klan-backed candidate Charles Bowles almost won the mayoralty of Detroit. The Michigan KKK pushed a statewide ballot issue that would have banned parochial schools in a fit of bigotry against Catholics. Prominent Michiganders such as Dan F. Gerber, founder of Gerber Baby Foods, were Klan members.
Although the 1920s Klan declined amidst sexual and financial scandal, its torch was picked up in Michigan by the Black Legion. The Legion, immortalized in a 1937 Humphrey Bogart film, launched violent attacks against Catholics, immigrants, Blacks, and labor unions. In his autobiography, Malcolm X states that his father was murdered by the Legion. The group was blamed for a total of around 50 murders. Prominent political figures were counted as members, including the mayor and chief of police of Highland Park. It was only a federal investigation brought about by the Legion’s murder of federal employee Charles Poole that ended the group’s reign of terror.
The German American Bund, founded in 1936, was dedicated to spreading the ideas of Nazism in the United States. Like the Legion, the Bund was memorialized in film: 1939’s Confessions of a Nazi Spy. In 2017, the Oscar-nominated documentary A Night at the Gardenrecounted the 20,000 strong rally the Bund held in Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. The Bund has multiple Michigan connections. Bund fuhrer Fritz Kuhn worked in a Detroit Ford plant before founding the group. The group also built summer camps for young American Nazis across the United States, including Camp Will and Might in New Jersey, Camp Siegfried in New York, Camp Hindenburg in Wisconsin—and Camp Eichenfeld, about 12 miles north of Pontiac, near US-10.
Camp Eichenfeld bustled during the summer months. The leader of the Detroit Bund John H.B. Schreiber said that the camp, which flew a flag with a Nazi swastika alongside the Stars and Stripes, hosted between 500 and 700 people every weekend. Bundists also packed into the German-American Restaurant on the northeast corner of E. Jefferson and E. Grand Boulevard in Detroit for monthly outings. Today, the story of Detroit’s Nazis is nearly entirely forgotten, buried in old issues of The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. It was only with assistance from employees at the Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library that I learned about it. The national Bund reeled under investigations from federal officials before finally closing up shop for good after the U.S. entered World War II.
This was not the end of fascist activities in Michigan, though. Demagogues like Father Charles Coughlin and Christian nationalist Gerald L.K. Smith preached the fascist doctrine in print and over the airwaves. Smith made an unsuccessful run for Senate that garnered over 100,000 votes. A new group, the National Workers League, continued where the Bund had left off. The League was one of the groups that incited a riot against the Sojourner Truth Housing Project, because most of the families living in the project were Black. Parker Sage, the head of the League, and Garland Alderman, the secretary, were arraigned after the riots. Those charges were dropped so that Sage, Alderman, and William Robert Lyman, also of the League, could be indicted in Washington D.C. for sedition. After a 1944 mistrial caused by the death of the presiding judge, the charges against the League members and their co-defendants on the far-right were dropped.
Even members of Congress from Michigan echoed pro-fascist sentiments. Congressman Roy O. Woodruff inserted a letter into the Congressional Record that included the alarming phrase: “We do not need to fear Hitler.” Another Congressman, Clare E. Hoffman, saw a beneficial side to Nazism. The U.S. “might now profit…” he advised, “from what Hitler has done by adopting at least some of his decent methods of production…” Hoffman’s speech was given as France was falling to the Nazis. Two months before Pearl Harbor, Congressman George A. Dondero said in Congress “The greatest danger menacing the United States today is not invasion or attack by the Axis Powers but the trend of socialism and communism.”
Running the license plates of the far-right demonstrators, Livingston police determined that several were not residents of Howell or Livingston County. That should give pause to those living outside of Howell who think they and their neighbors are paragons of tolerance. The history of white supremacism and neo-Nazism in Michigan is not just Howell’s history, but all of our history. We must now decide if it will be our future as well.
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Trump Campaign: Where's Kamala? UAW: In Michigan With Union Autoworkers
"To me, this election is real simple," said United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain. "It's about one question, a question we've made famous in the labor movement: Which side are you on?"
Aug 08, 2024
Part of former U.S. President Donald Trump's GOP presidential campaign strategy has involved repeatedly asking, "Where's Kamala?"
On Thursday, one of the nation's largest labor unions resoundingly responded: "At UAW Local 900 in Wayne, Michigan with 150 autoworkers."
That's what United Auto Workers communications director Jonah Furman said on social media as Vice President Kamala Harris and her Democratic running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, joined UAW members at the Local 900 hall in Wayne following the union's endorsement for president
"To me, this election is real simple. It's about one question, a question we've made famous in the labor movement: Which side are you on?" UAW president Shawn Fain said at the swing state rally.
"On one side, we've got a billionaire who serves himself and his billionaire buddies. He lies, cheats, and steals his way to the top. He is the lapdog of the billionaire class," said Fain, who has called Trump a "scab."
"On the other side, we've got a badass woman who has stood on the picket line with working-class people," he continued. "Kamala Harris is a champion of the working class."
In 2019, Kamala Harris—then a U.S. senator from California running for president—walked a picket line with striking UAW workers in Reno, Nevada.
President Joe Biden made history last year as the first U.S. president to join striking workers on a picket line when he rallied with UAW members outside of a General Motors plant in Belleville, Michigan as they fought for a fair contract. The Biden-Harris administration has often been called the most pro-labor presidency in modern history.
"You know, every time Donald Trump gets the chance, he trashes our union," Fain said. "He comes to Michigan and talks about how he's gonna bring back the auto industry... While he was the president of the United States, auto plants were fleeing the country."
Speaking at Thursday's rally, Harris said, "I am so deeply honored, as a lifelong supporter of union labor, for Tim and I to have the endorsement of the UAW."
"When you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for," she added. "We stand for the people. We stand for the dignity of work. We stand for justice. We stand for equality. And we will fight for all of it."
Harris has won the endorsement of labor organizations including the AFL-CIO, National Education Association, National Nurses United, and—despite a dubious Trump promise to stop taxing tips—the service industry unions SEIU and UNITE HERE.
"We know which side we're on," Fain said Wednesday in a statement endorsing Harris. "We're voting for Kamala Harris in 2024. Because she's walked the walk. Because she supports working-class people when we fight for more. And because we don't need another billionaire in the White House."
"Donald Trump is no friend of the working class," Fain added. "Donald Trump is a scab. I'm a UAW member, and I'm voting for Kamala Harris for president."
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'Uncommitted' Leaders to Harris: 'Voters Need to See You Turn a New Page on Gaza'
"It's clear to us that Vice President Harris can lead our country's Gaza policy to a more humane place," said Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh. "We hope she will meet with us so we can move forward to discuss an arms embargo."
Aug 08, 2024
Leaders of the Uncommitted National Movement aimed at pushing the U.S. government to end its support for Israel's assault on Gaza called on Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday to commit to a policy change and to follow through with her statement—made to them in a brief meeting Wednesday evening just before her campaign rally in Detroit—that she was open to discussing an arms embargo.
Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh, two Michigan voters who co-founded the Uncommitted National Movement earlier this year, spoke with Harris and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, about the deep personal connection many people in the crucial swing state feel to the 2.3 million Palestinians who have been under siege in Gaza since last October.
Elabed broke down in tears as she told Harris that she meets "with community members every day in Michigan who are losing tens and hundreds of family members in Gaza."
"Michigan voters want to support you, but we need a policy that will save lives in Gaza right now," Elabed told the Democratic presidential nominee. "Right now, we need an arms embargo. Will you meet with us to talk about an arms embargo?"
According to a statement released by Uncommitted after the rally, Harris "shared her sympathies and expressed an openness to a meeting with Uncommitted leaders to discuss an arms embargo."
On Thursday morning, however, Harris' national security adviser, Phil Gordon, said on social media that the vice president "does not support an arms embargo on Israel" and "will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups."
Elabed and Alawieh responded to Gordon's remarks by saying they would "continue engaging because people we love are being killed with American bombs."
"When we told Vice President Harris that members of our community in Michigan are losing dozens and hundreds of their family members to Israel's assault in Gaza, she said back: 'It's horrific,'" said the leaders of the movement, which includes 700,000 supporters across the country. "It's clear to us that Vice President Harris can lead our country's Gaza policy to a more humane place. We hope she will meet with us so we can move forward to discuss an arms embargo."
Elabed and Alawieh urged Harris to unite the Democratic Party "by correcting course because our democracy cannot afford to pay the bill for disregarding Palestinian lives should it come due in November."
The leaders engaged with Harris and Walz amid outrage from human rights groups over a leaked video that apparently showed Israel Defense Forces members gang-raping a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman military base. World Health Organization officials on Wednesday warned that without a cease-fire, polio virus that has been found in wastewater in Gaza could spread widely and cause an epidemic among a population that has suffered mass displacement since October, and United Nations experts said last month that famine has taken hold in the enclave due to Israel's blocking of humanitarian aid—which Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich suggested Monday was "justified and moral."
As several House Democrats told the Biden administration in March, advocates for an arms embargo on Israel are only demanding that the federal government follow U.S. laws, including the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act—Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which states that the U.S. cannot provide military aid to any country that is prohibiting or restricting the delivery of U.S. assistance into an area.
"We want to support you, Vice President Harris, and our voters need to see you turn a new page on Gaza policy that includes embracing an arms embargo to save lives," Alawieh, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, told Harris on Wednesday evening.
Although the leaders' meeting with the Democratic ticket reportedly left them feeling relatively hopeful about Harris' "openness to engaging with the demands of Uncommitted voters," the vice president's reaction to a group of protesters who chanted, "We won't vote for genocide!" during her rally speech left some advocates calling on Harris to bring the same empathy regarding Gaza that Elabed and Alawieh saw to her public appearances.
Harris first responded to the protesters by saying, "I'm here because we believe in democracy. Everyone's voice matters. But I am speaking now." After the chanting continued, she said, "If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking."
Human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid said Harris had missed "a golden opportunity to show empathy to people in deep pain because their family is suffering torture, famine, displacement, and genocide."
"They don't want Trump to win," said Rashid. "They want the suffering to stop. Don't push them away. Invite them in. She should remedy this ASAP."
Hours before the rally and Harris' meeting with Elabed and Alawieh, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) posted on social media a video taken at an event he held in Portland, Maine on July 27, in which an attendee told the senator that there are many uncommitted voters across the country "who are absolutely wanting to see Donald Trump defeated, but the big issue is Gaza."
"What can we do to convince Harris that she must take a different position now?" asked the voter.
The American people do not support Netanyahu’s horrific war.
We must remind the Democratic Party: If they want young people to get involved in the political process, they must change their approach to Gaza. pic.twitter.com/u7IXjXBjs2
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 7, 2024
Sanders approached the issue with support for voters who are unsure they can back a candidate who won't terminate the billions of dollars in military aid the U.S. has provided to Israel since last October, noting that opposition to the current U.S. policy is hardly radical; numerous polls have shown a majority of Americans don't support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's U.S.-backed actions in Gaza and that conditioning military aid could improve support for the Democratic candidate.
"What we have got to do in a grassroots way is, say to the Democratic Party, is that the policies that you have right now regarding Netanyahu are wrong," said Sanders. "And if you really want to get young people involved in this campaign, the time is now to change those policies.
The Sunrise Movement, a member of the Green New Deal Network, which endorsed Harris days after Biden announced he was stepping aside in the presidential race, called on the vice president to "accept the meeting invitation from the Uncommitted National Movement and turn the page on Biden's unconditional support for Netanyahu."
"Millions of young people are watching what you do next," said the Sunrise Movement. "Don't miss this moment."
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