Newsletter: March – February 2023

Peace WTP fam, these past few weeks we have been responding to, advocating with and supporting our people. From gathering our community to tell their stories, to holding legislators accountable, and organizing town halls to gain support for our issues. Our Executive Director provided a great reminder of our role in this work and said “Our people deserve excellence and that, I think, is what will be required for us to win. We must be all these things – educators, neighbors, listeners, agitators, and ultimately builders.” Again, thank you for your support and we hope you keep building with us! Let’s dig in–

Welcome our new Managing Director!

picture of Miguel Rodriguez

We are excited to welcome Miguel Rodriguez who will join We The People Michigan as Managing Director. Born and raised in unincorporated East Los Angeles, he was shaped by the rich, multi-generational history of student activism and social justice organizing that sprung from his hometown. Miguel started organizing as a response to anti-immigrant legislation in California and through this work, became committed to building power from the bottom up. As a young adult he made a radical decision to move to Chiapas, Mexico—home of the Zapatista Movement—where, for ten years, he worked on building a solidarity network of BIPOC organizers sharing and learning from each other and directly from Indigenous Zapatista communities. Miguel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA and has spent the last decade dedicated to youth leadership development domestically and internationally. He brings deep project management experience to We the People and offers a breadth of knowledge built from working alongside organizers tackling social inequities in the US, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. Having recently landed in Michigan, Miguel is excited to embed himself in the long history of organizing in the state and looks forward to learning and growing from the gifts, skills and talents of people from this beautiful state. When he finds time, Miguel enjoys one of his many hobbies– collecting comic books, gravel-biking, gardening, hiking and baking.

Energy Democracy Town Halls & Legislative Briefing in Lansing

pictures of our Detroit Organizer Kamau, Policy Director Yvonne, legislators and community members.

On March 1st we teamed up with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition to hold DTE accountable and power our communities with reliable, affordable energy for all. We gathered 152 community members for our Energy Democracy Town Hall, and some shared their stories of how DTE has harmed them. Numerous community members also committed to take action; 45 people committed to talking to 5-10 neighbors and others committed to hosting a meeting in their neighborhood on DTE. The next day, we participated in a legislative briefing where we talked to legislators about the political harm of DTE and what is possible in Michigan if we move away from investor-owned utilities. To continue with our town halls, we also gathered in Westland Michigan to talk about the impact of DTE power outages and provide ways we can take action together. Needless to say, there’s work to do! But we’re starting it with a bang!

Drive SAFE Town Hall

picture of Migrant Leaders School participants

On March 10th the Migrant Leaders School organized a town hall in Hartford, Michigan to seek the support of representative Pauline Wendzel of District 39th for the Drive SAFE bills. Even though Representative Wendzel was a no show, there were various church leaders, local business owners, and working class folks across the 39th district who collectively gathered more than 300 letters of support for the Drive SAFE bills. These bills would restore the right of all Michiganders, which they had until 2008, to access a state ID or driver’s license with proof of identity and Michigan residency, regardless of citizenship status. We cannot say we need immigrants to participate in our workforce on the one hand, but deny them the means of transportation to do so on the other. It is a matter of fairness, dignity and justice.

GET INVOLVED

State lawmakers plan hearing on power outage response

picture of workers in the process of fixing power lines

State lawmakers will hold a hearing next week in response to recent storms that cut power to hundreds of thousands of Michiganders and businesses across the state. In addition, the Michigan Public Service Commission is planning town hall meetings to hear complaints from residents. The commission is scheduled to hold two in-person town halls in areas hard hit by the ice storm. One is on March 20, from noon to 2:30 p.m. at American 1 Credit Union Event Center, 128 W. Ganson St. in Jackson. On the same day, a town hall is set for 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Fordson High School’s auditorium, 13800 Ford Road in Dearborn. Read more below!

Mexican Town Documentary

picture of Sandra, of Migrant Leader School, Catalina, Cultural Strategy Lead, and Mexican Town film crew

On February 13th, we met with a film crew all the way from Mexico city to talk about the work the Migrant Leader School organizers are doing to gain bipartisan support and pass the Drive SAFE Bills. Sandra, a leader of the Detroit chapter, spoke about her leadership and advocacy. Her story will be highlighted in the upcoming documentary named Mexican Town. Learn more about the film below!

MEXICAN TOWN DOC