By GEORGE CORSETTI
Editor's note: The destruction of Poletown in Detroit in 1981, consequence of a deal between General Motors and Mayor Coleman Young produced a ghastly tragedy for the inhabitants, but also engendered a truly great radical documentary by Detroit's George Corsetti and others. And now, guess what, the Michigan Supreme Court has said it all shouldn't have happened. Here's Corsetti, on capital's blunt instrument, eminent domain, and what it meant in human terms. It also shows Ralph Nader in a fine light. AC.
Mayor Coleman Young of Detroit was an unfriendly witness to one of the Congressional red-hunting committees back in the day. Was aligned with the CPUSA through the National Negro Labor Council. http://www.wsws.org/public_html/iwb12-29/young.htm http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2005w03/msg00290.htm
Some photos of East St. Louis slums, http://omor.com/b/archives/000963.html#000963
"And he's free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis..." Randy Newman
Rednecks Lyrics by Randy Newman
Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show With some smart-ass New York Jew And the Jew laughed at Lester Maddox And the audience laughed at Lester Maddox too Well, he may be a fool but he's our fool If they think they're better than him they're wrong So I went to the park and I took some paper along And that's where I made this song
We talk real funny down here We drink too much and we laugh too loud We're too dumb to make it in no Northern town Keepin' the n-words down
We got no-necked oilmen from Texas And good ol' boys from Tennessee And colleges men from LSU Went in dumb - come out dumb too Hustlin' 'round Atlanta in their alligator shoes Gettin' drunk every weekend at the barbecues Keepin' the n-words down
We're rednecks, we're rednecks We don't know our ass from a hole in the ground We're rednecks, we're rednecks We're keeping the n-words down
Now your northern n-word's a Negro You see he's got his dignity Down here we're too ignorant to realize That the North has set the n-word free
Yes he's free to be put in a cage In Harlem in New York City And he's free to be put in a cage in the South-Side of Chicago, the West-Side And he's free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland And he's free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis And he's free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco And he's free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston They're gatherin' 'em up from miles around Keepin' the n-words down
We're rednecks, rednecks And we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground We're rednecks, we're rednecks We're keeping the n-words down
We are keeping the n-words down