Metro Detroit DSA Endorses Rashida Tlaib
by Jonathan Flatley
At the May 2 General Meeting, the Metro Detroit DSA voted unanimously to endorse Representative Rashida Tlaib in her bid to be re-elected to Congress in Michigan’s 13th District. Brenda Jones, who came in second in the 2018 Democratic Primary, is again challenging Tlaib. The primary election is scheduled for August 4.
The vote followed a virtual town hall with Tlaib on April 13. There, in conversation with DSA members, she expressed her admiration for DSA, which she called her “chosen family.” Commenting on the endorsement, Carlos Salazar (Electoral Committee co-chair) observed that “Rashida Tlaib is a flagship member of our organization and it’s great to be working with her again. Helping out her campaign is like a feedback loop, in that we grow leftist power by getting her elected, which attracts more people to DSA, which then increases leftist power, and hopefully allows us to get more people elected.”
Activists in the Detroit area know Tlaib well because she has long been a ubiquitous presence at protests and marches, fighting oppression in its many forms, whether it is a question of environmental justice or a $15 minimum wage. Her activism entered the realm of legend in 2013 when she climbed over a fence to retrieve a sample from the huge piles of black dust piled on Detroit’s riverfront. The dust was blowing into homes and parks, and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality was gaslighting everyone, saying that the dust did not pose any dangers. But, when tested, those samples revealed that the dust was pet coke, a cancer-causing poison. As a direct result of Tlaib’s intervention, the piles were removed.
She always shows up for DSA, too. Many Detroit DSA members will remember her in 10-degree weather in front of Cobo Hall (now the TCF Center) in January 2019, megaphone in hand, fiercely and fearlessly protesting GM’s plan to shutter its factories after receiving billions in taxpayer money to bail it out after the last financial crisis.
After her election in 2018, she quickly entered the national consciousness as a member of “the squad,” and the one with a real talent for capturing the public mood, no matter how profane (“impeach the motherfucker”) that mood might be. But she was also the first to sponsor a Green New Deal bill; she moved to end racist redlining in the auto insurance industry; and she has supported a COVID bill that has the scope to actually get us through the crisis.
She is the oldest of 14 children, born and raised in Detroit, and the proud daughter of Palestinian immigrant parents. Unsurprisingly, she has become a regular target of attacks from the right and from white supremacists in particular. Her constituents know what’s up though: around Detroit, on porches and in store windows, you can see “Defend Rashida” signs.
If you’d like to join Detroit DSA’s campaign to re-elect Rashida Tlaib, sign up here.
