Maureen Taylor To Receive NAACP Freedom and Justice Award

Update: See Maureen Taylor's NAACP award acceptance speech.

Dear Family and Friends,

Our own Maureen Taylor will be one of the people receiving a Freedom and Justice Award from the Detroit NAACP on its 100th birthday on May 6, 2012. We are very proud of her and the work she has continued to do! The dinner is the largest one in the U.S. for the NAACP.

Maureen, State Chair of MWRO, has given her life to fighting in the interests of the working class, in general; and in particular, to that section of the working class that have been forced into poverty. She understands and educates that we must build a new society where we will not be facing homelessness, we don't have to face a day without food, health care, quality and free education, etc.

Maureen's history will speak for itself because each day she is engaged in what are the next steps of the struggle. Maureen is a true leader of the working class.

You know, for me it is a joy to work with her and for all of us to gain knowledge and learn from each other.  General Baker and I have had the opportunity to have her with us for years and have watch her develop into a loving and great leader.

Thank you in advance,

Marian Kramer
Co-Chair,
National Welfare Rights Union

Maureen Taylor and Marian Kramer React to Lansing Decision

The bipartisan Michigan Board of Canvassers on Thursday, April 26, 2012, voted along partisan lines -- two Democrats in support and two Republicans against -- and did not validate the 206,000 signatures against Public Act 4, the Financial Manager law.

Listen as Maureen Taylor and Marian Kramer of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization respond to the decision as residents from across the State of Michigan react with disbelief!

Welfare Warriors Respond to Smiley and West

For the past few weeks, rebroadcasts of Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West's national television discussion, "Remaking America: From Poverty to Prosperity," has been shown on PBS stations. Conversations from this series include a range of professionals with their solutions to poverty. They include personal-finance expert Suze Orman, filmmaker Michael Moore, poverty expert Jeffrey Sachs, urban-revitalization strategist Majora Carter, and others.

In response, Pat Gowens, Director Welfare Warriors, had this to say:

Dear Tavis Smiley,

Instead of inviting wealthy guests to explain poverty, please include the
experts on your show: people living in poverty and the people organizing to
end the war on the poor.

You asked, "Why do the poor stay poor?" For the same reasons the rich stay
rich. Intergenerational class mobility is US folklore. You asked "Are poor
people superfluous?"

Poor people keep this country (and all others) functioning, generation after
generation. Without poor people we would have no food and few children. Poor
farmworkers provide all of our food. Poor mothers reproduce and produce the
majority of children and poor women care for the children of all classes
whether in daycares or as nannies. Without poor people we would have no
restaurants, malls, fast-food industry, service industry, temporary worker
agencies, hotels, tanneries, and foundries.

Poor people work the sub-poverty wage jobs, the jobs with the most growth in
the US, the least benefits and the most danger.

Without poor people we would have no prison industrial complex, no massive
job creation for professional poverty pimps, few social service careers, and
far fewer wars.

But poverty is not just about bad wages.  Poverty is also a result of the
majority of work generating no wages: unwaged motherworkers; unwaged
caregivers of the sick, the injured, the elders, the dying; and unwaged
caretakers of animals, crops, and communities. Doing the unwaged work leaves
few hours in a day to generate income. Unlike Europe, the US provides no
economic support to motherworkers and children. Nor does the US provide paid
sick leave or paid maternity leave to most workers.

Just as there are more sub-poverty jobs each decade, there are also more
people with disabilities who can not generate income. Disability also causes
poverty.

Your wealthy panel of "experts" did not include even one token sub-poverty
worker, one unwaged worker, one disabled person, one anti-poverty activist.
And there was no mention of the violent war on the poor.  Poverty after all
is violence.

Ignoring the "elephant in the studio"-- the motherworkers, farmworkers,
injured workers, children, disabled people, elders, and the sub-poverty wage
workers--smacks of prejudice against the poor. Excluding the activists
working to stop the war on the poor is incomprehensible.

Please consider becoming the vanguard, a leader in giving a voice to victims
of poverty and those who are fighting the war on the poor. Whether
harvesting food in the US or mining coltan in the Congo or doing the unwaged
caregiving for dependent people, victims of poverty are at the mercy of a
violent worldwide economic system that elevates its status and wealth by
standing on the backs of the poor. This must be changed.

Pat Gowens, Director Welfare Warriors
Editor, Mother Warriors Voice, a 25-year-old international
mothers-in-poverty publication

A FEW POVERTY EXPERTS:
Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Diana Spatz (LIFETIME), Pat Albright, Margaret
Prescott (Every Mother Is A Working Mother), Dotty Stevens (Survival News),
Marian Kramer (Michigan Welfare Rights), Charles King (Housing Now), Arturo
Rodriguez (United Farm Workers), Pat Gowens

Detroit Premier of film "Opening Our Eyes"

Abandoned Detroit homes during Winter as captured by the filmmakers

Please join Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and filmmaker Gail Mooney for the Detroit film premier of Opening Our Eyes. (View trailer)

Filmed over 99 days in six countries, this mother and daughter film making team interviewed 11 "people who are making a positive change in our world." It is an inspiring story about the power of one person to make change in their part of the world.

Two of the interviews include Maureen Taylor and Marian Kramer from MWRO -- Detroit-based welfare rights activists who fight for the dignity and rights of poor and low-income people in Michigan and beyond.

This FREE screening will be held:
When: Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 6pm
Where: The University of Michigan-Detroit Center (3663 Woodward Ave at Mack/MLK).

Beat the 100 degree heat and enjoy the film in air conditioning!

For more information, contact MWRO at 313-964-0618.

MWRO Protests Censorship by WHPR

As reported in the Michigan Citizen, MWRO has ceased its weekly television and radio broadcast on WHPR-TV 33, 88.1FM in Highland Park, Michigan.

On Tuesday, April 21, 2009, the station owner, RJ Watkins, informed Marian Kramer and Maureen Taylor, co-hosts of the popular, "Ask Welfare Rights Show," that they would not be allowed to criticize former Highland Park Emergency Financial Manager, Arthur Blackwell--a friend and investor of Mr. Watkins.

The previous night, Marian Kramer attended the City of Highland Park City Council meeting where Mr. Blackwell and his supporters tried to distract from the firing of Mr. Blackwell who paid himself nearly $300,000 from the city--after agreeing to oversee finances for his native town for $1 per year!

MWRO and other community shows on WHPR pay an hourly fee for broadcast and production assistance. Following this censorship, the Michigan Citizen interviewed Mr. Watkins as saying that MWRO could talk about Mr. Blackwell "at home or on the telephone, but I have a right to say they don't talk about it on the air."

Marian Kramer retorted: "Maybe that is so, but it is our right to stop people from supporting the station."

Read Marian Kramer's full story about these incidents at the People's Tribune. Ms. Kramer is consulting with an attorney about reporting the matter to the proper authorities, and possibly boycotting the station.

Michigan Welfare Rights Organization broadcasted the "Ask Welfare Rights Show" on WHPR for over eight years. It provided regular updates and information about available public assistance benefits, "Know Your Rights" facts, and commentary on issues pertaining to low-income and poor people in southeast Michigan.

For more information or to voice your concern, call the MWRO office at (313) 964-0618.

(Image from MWRO)