From the Facebook page of Detroit photojournalist, Valerie Jean
“We want an economy that gives life. Protects the water and food systems. A system that houses everyone and cares for all of us. We simply will not allow the Epstein Class to have the last word.” — Valerie Jean
The first thing I noticed when I arrived downtown for the protest against the Reindustrialize Conference held in Detroit in June was military vehicles. There was a huge flatbed in front of the conference that had big wooden boxes, one that said “human blood platelets.”
The tech bros, billionaires, and war profiteers did not hide why they were gathering. They intend to make surveillance tech and war machines here.
On the front page of the Reindustrialize website, you will see a fighter jet, and as you scroll down to the tracks presented at the conference, you will see National Security, AI and Automation, among others. Under the marquee sponsors of the event, the first sponsor is Mayor Mary Sheffield’s big initiative, Move Detroit; right next to Lockheed Martin.
The economy is ripe and ready for war and surveillance technologies to fill its insatiable desire to create billionaires and trillionaires out of a select few while creating Hell on earth for the rest of us. Capitalism has always been a system of death.
Recently, economists around the world have sounded the alarm, saying it’s either the capitalist system or life on Earth. We can’t have them both.
The demonstrators that gathered [across the street from the conference] were rightfully and visibly angry. Mad as Hell that the only future these monsters see for us is war and occupation. Totally irritated that our newly elected mayor didn’t have any better ideas other than a war economy for Detroiters. They held signs that said NO TECH FOR BOMBS AND BORDERS and WAR-PROFITEER-SURVEILLANCE OUT OF DETROIT. They loudly chanted “FUCK DAN GILBERT” and “LOCKHEED MARTIN WE KNOW YOU; YOU DROP BOMBS ON CHILDREN TOO!”
People attending the conference stood across the street, laughing, filming, and being rude to protesters. The thing is, this fucked up shit is not funny. We want an economy that gives life. Protects the water and food systems. A system that houses everyone and cares for all of us. We simply will not allow the Epstein Class to have the last word.
