In far too many cases, when Radicals work towards, or, propose broad, sweeping, and bold changes to our collective material conditions, more often than not, they run into the issue of trying to figure out how to pragmatically go about reaching their goals of a changed society.
And, on the part of this publication, we will readily admit to all of our listeners/readers that we have been struggling with the same issue when it comes to the advocacy of establishing a Metropolitan Parliament for Metro Detroit.
There are more than a few concrete roadblocks to establishing (what we'd argue is) this more equitable form of government, most of which are political in nature such as the fact that even though there are laws on the books that allow for the establishment of a Metropolitan Government, yet, there are no current laws on the books that would allow citizens to vote on establishing any Metropolitan Government.
But, even if those obstacles were to be taken away, the biggest issue that would face any new form of government here in Metro Detroit would be how would it be able to economically sustain itself, and, if a Radical government were to be elevated into power, what resources would the government need to implement transformative policies. To set a course for a better future for our home, Radicals must have a comprehensive plan.
These questions are in desperate need of answering, because, if the Metropolitan Parliament were to be just as inefficient, corrupt, and dysfunctional as the 140 smaller municipalities that it sought to replace, Reactionary Conservatives, Fascists, and "deficit hawks" from the right & center will seek to kill any and all talk of municipalities or regional governance forever.
To steer clear of "Doomerism" and any potential failure in this difficult project, this publication wishes to highlight a few policies, that, if Radicals were to campaign on and win power, they'd not just secure the position of a Radical government by implementing popular policy, but also ensure that the Metropolitan Parliament itself has the full support of the public no matter if Radicals are in power or not.
So, what are some policies that would ensure the survival of this new form of government? We'll start with the most impactful one:
1: A Wealth Tax on Billionaires
Why Does There Need to be a Wealth Tax?
We are fast approaching a new era in World history where the Socioecopolitical situation where the vast majority of Earth's population exists as second-class Citizens. This is far from being hyperbolic fear mongering, a Pew Research Center study identifies that 84% of people across 36 nations see income inequality as some sort of issue.
The struggle to force the rich to pay what they owe to society has been one of the most contentious and defining struggles within the 21st century. The rise and fall of the global Occupy Movement was the initial spark that fueled the promising popularity and eventual defeat of Social Democrats like Bernie Sanders here in the US, Radicals like Podemos in Spain as well as Syriza in Greece, and Democratic Socialists such as Jeremy Corbyn in the UK. While their strengths and pitfalls could warrant an entire book's worth of analysis, they all knew that the trajectory of Wealth Inequality would eventually plunge our globalized society into untold misery if it wasn't stopped.
Radicals here in Metro Detroit must build a project that does not repeat the same mistakes of these groups, especially since our goal is to erect a fundamentally Radical and egalitarian form of government that has never before been established. We can wage the rhetorical battle via publications such as this and by spreading the word about establishing this new form of government on the internet, but, ultimately, we're doing nothing but twiddling our thumbs and navel gazing unless we actually go out into our communities whether they be urban, suburban, or rural, and put our theories into practice.
The first task we must partake in is to physically illustrate just incomprehensible it is to have one billion of something:
The Mind-bending Math of One Billion Illustrated
As these allegories are presented to all of our readers/listeners out there, it is our genuine hope that you are radicalized by the inherently exploitative system that our current crop of establishment politicians upholds through their policies as well as learn how to reject the advances of "Reformers" who wish to keep this current system in place by assuming that tinkering around the system's edges will be enough to ensure collective flourishing, or even more naively, the continued survival of our species.
So, let's illustrate what amassing billions is similar to:
Example #1: Let's say that we built a space elevator to the moon, which would be 1.261 billion feet away from Earth. Now, let's assume that the space elevator broke down, yet, you are able to walk the entirety of the 238,900 mile distance to the moon's surface, assuming that you walked a steady and brisk pace of 4/MPH (6.4/KPH) it'd end up taking you 59,725 hours, or, just over 6 1/2 years to cover that distance.
Example #2: Let's say you started stacking single dollar bills on top of each other, you'd have $13,000 to equal the height of an average kitchen counter, to have a stack of money taller than the tallest person who ever lived, you'd only need $15,000. To have $1,000,000, you'd only have a stack of money taller than the Statue of Liberty. Amassing enough money to be comfortably taller than the tallest building in the World, the Burj Khalifa, would net you $10,000,000. To have a stack of money with a combined value of $1 billion dollars, however, would be 67.9 miles tall, in other words, it'd fit the height of the Burj Khalifa inside of it 131.7 times.
Example #3: If the government were to start a "trust fund" for you by depositing $1 for every second you were alive after you were born, it'd take you less than one day to make the median American salary, it'd take you a bit over eleven days to become a millionaire, and, to inherit a billion dollars in wealth, it'd take you around 31 years. Now, let's say that you wanted to inherit the combined wealth of Metro Detroit's seven most wealthy families, if your trust fund account were to start accruing today, assuming that we unlocked the biological technology to live forever, the date would be October 22, 4625 by the time that you'd achieve their combined $82,200,000,000 in wealth.
2: The Requisition of Existing Businesses for Public Benefit
The Difference between Requisition and Expropriation
There is an important and crucial political distinction between what's known as "Requisition" and the concept of "Expropriation", The former is the act of the government compensating business owners for the state takeover of their assets, while the latter is the extra-legal process of taking over private assets for public use. This distinction is important to go over, and Expropriation must be rejected because it is no secret that the American political experiment is hyper-obsessed with individual "property rights" and the logical reaction of any businessman or industrial owner in the case of any Radical-led government attempting to take "their property" without fair compensation would be to litigate the issue to death in the Capitacratic-friendly judicial system.
This would almost immediately relegate any Radical-led government in the Metropolitan Parliament to be bogged down in the losing side of the argument and win us little to no support among the public. If a Radical-led government is to be successful, it has to be ruthlessly pragmatic in it's decision making abilities when it comes to it's methods of action when taking on the Capitalists.
Why is the Requisition of Businesses Needed?
There is an increasing amount of people who are rightly upset and disturbed at the sheer power that corporations are able to use against the public's interests, while, governments from the municipal level all the way to international economic organizations appear to be weak and ineffective. It's because our governments have no power nor capacity of expertise while companies have an overabundance of it is the reason why industries must be put under public ownership. By laying claim to the businesses that produce such immense wealth for their CEO's and shareholders, we can have institutions under democratic control that bring immense wealth to communities starved of it.
Okay, Well, What Businesses Will a Radical-led Metropolitan Parliament Requisition?
To this question, this publication will make a few of it's readers/listeners disappointed with our stance, but, we must emphatically assert that we are taking such a position to ensure the future success of a Radical Metropolitan Parliament. Basically, we are taking the stance of "strategic silence" on the issue. The reason for this is because no one knows how long it's going to take to elect a Radical-led government, let alone establishing a Metropolitan Government in the way that we've been advocating, in between those milestones, a slew of restrictive and backwards legislation could be introduced to hinder Requisition by any future government. So, to us at least, we are rolling with the assumption that the less we put out in the public about our desired forms of Requisition, the better.
Won't the Rich Just Leave the Metro Area if Their Assets are Democratized/Their Wealth is Taxed?
This is often a rebuttal that the more Conservative-minded politicians and media pundits like to entertain when Radicals propose any policies that aim to correct the vast income inequality that exists within our current system. According to them, we must do everything within our power to keep "job creators" within our cities/metro areas in order to keep the machine of state running. They see any and all policies aimed at the immensely wealthy as "policy bombs" that will destroy the Socioecopolitical ecosystem within a given area. But, needless to say, their concerns aren't ever warranted.
Why? Well, because of what economists call the "agglomeration effect", for those of you out there who refuse to torture yourself by learning and applying economic principals, the agglomeration effect put into simple English is the economic benefits and drawbacks of a bunch of independent firms within one industry dominating the labor market within a given city (think finance for New York City and London, Movies with Los Angeles, etc.). Let's say that Radicals get their way in the Metropolitan Parliament and form government and, to dodge all of the recommended policies in this report, the "Big Three" auto makers decide that they'll simply move out. They'd be confronted with the fact that they'd literally have nowhere to set up any new interaction of the "Motor City", seeing as the broader Metro Detroit area is the largest urban area on the American-Canadian border. Even if there was a metro area with the same geographic benefits that Metro Detroit has, they'd immediately run into the issue of supply chain insecurities because all of the smaller auto oriented firms would still be located here.
This concrete counterexample is a powerful one, as it lays bare the fact that people create wealth for corporations and their shareholders and CEOs would find themselves in drastic financial hardship if they ever attempted to close up shop and relocate to the mythical "more favorable business climate".
3: Devolving All MDOT Roads, Highways to the Metropolitan Level, A General Rewrite of the RTA Charter, and Placing All Railroads in the Greater Metro Detroit Area Under Public Ownership
The Broken Status Quo: Terrible Roads, Underfunded Transit, and a Lack Of Vision
In the time before the mass-adoption of the automobile, cities used to be more people-oriented, and they were forced by circumstance to actually invest in means of transportation that could carry masses of people to and from where they needed to go. As the industrial Capitalists made their influence on Metro Detroit's municipalities be known, and expanded their war on public transportation to other cities, they ended up killing any and all alternatives to the car, and replaced the once ubiquitous and efficient streetcar with their busses.
Now, the sheer weight of the car-oriented environment that the auto industry paved the way for is crushing the power of the public purse. A 2023 study conservatively concluded that the state of Michigan needs to allocate $4 Billion every year just to keep our transportation infrastructure in good repair. And yet, the bipartisan "good governance" coalition of establishment politicians in Lansing have just signed a budget that allocates half of that figure, which both Democrats and Republicans cited as a win.
Needless to say, this represents a gigantic problem for the people of Metro Detroit, who, exist in an ever-expanding footprint of urban sprawl as we live in a region that has only experienced 1% growth since the 1970s. The only alternative that we have to a constantly crumbling road network, obviously is using public transportation, at least, you'd think. However, Metro Detroit has one of the lowest budgets for public transit in all of North America, which, will stay the state of play unless Radicals do something about it.
Ever since it's defeat at the ballot in 2016, Southeast Michigan's Regional Transit Authority (RTA) has been utterly rudderless in coming up with a plan that'd create a comprehensive plan that wasn't just some gift to the auto industry. In all fairness to the RTA, though, the bill that created the authority has "poison pill" provisions within it that requires a unanimous vote by it's governing board to propose things such as regional rail or proposing funding instruments that aren't property taxes. So, while some of the most car-dominated metropolitan areas such as LA are actively planning for and putting in high capacity rail transit, our "transit advocates" within Metro Detroit are trying to remove counties and "problem areas" from future transit plans rather than proposing more ambitious, broader, and more comprehensive transit plans that'd actually get voters excited
Finally Living in the Fast Lane: Our Proposal for a Transit-Rich Metro Detroit
Regional transit is one of the best categories to advocate for a wealth tax, because combining all of the bus networks in the region (Transit Windsor's 117 buses, Detroit Department of Transit's (DDOT) 220, and the Suburban Mobile Authority for Regional Transportation's (SMART) 255) would create a pool of 592 busses, yet, the needs of riders are far greater than these operators can handle separately in a region this big. All the systems suffer from terrible frequencies, poor maintenance, and "ghost busses". Assuming that all of the providers consolidate into one agency and immediately setting out to reduce frequencies to ~15 minutes via quadrupling the fleet of buses and hiring drivers at a livable wage in Metro Detroit ($21.23/hour) it'd only cost $1.499 billion dollars, so, essentially, the average citizen within the region could literally see a drastically improved bus network without having to ever pay out of pocket for it.
This won't be enough though, Metro Detroit must have comprehensive rail-based transit if we want to be seen as comparable rivals to "global cities" such as Chicago or Toronto. Luckily, our railways, roads, and highways are perfectly laid out for a massive LA Metro-style rail system, all that needs to happen is for a Radical Metropolitan Parliament to levy the Wealth Tax into a funding source for what could become the most accessible transit network in the Western hemisphere.
4: The Freedom of Movement for All Citizens Within the Greater Metro Detroit Area
What Once Was: Easy Access and Travel For All
Within many people's living memory, there was a point in time where cross-boarder travel was simple and painless, all you needed to do to get into Canada from the US or vice versa was to produce a government issued ID to the border patrol, and hell, most for most of the border, there were vast swaths of land that were basically unmanned which allowed relatively frictionless movement between the two countries.
Now, however, with the steady erosion of civil liberties that we've seen since 9/11 from (to borrow a concept from the followers of MAGA) "The Uniparty", we exist in an increasingly restricted, authoritarian, and surveillance obsessed state. Some of our American readers might mistakenly assume that life across Metro Detroit's southern border is better for the common citizen than it is in our decaying and repressive current government. But, we will immediately address this mistaken idea.
Canada: Another Prime Example of Late-Stage "Liberal Democracy"
In the popular consciousness, life in Canada is assumed to be more "humane" or, "progressive" than it is here in America. Their cities, as we hear from mainstream Urbanists, enjoy some of the best public transportation and livability in North America while certain cities here in the US, not being able to buy a car essentially relegates your existence to de-facto house arrest. Many articles and think pieces have been created idolizing the Canadian healthcare system, while countless Americans die from preventable diseases because of the lack of access to affordable healthcare.
But, unfortunately, like most things in this World, perceptions of how different life is elsewhere, is heavily reliant on propaganda. The Canadian housing crisis has reached every single corner of the country, with cities such as Windsor in our shared home of Metro Detroit feeling it's full effects, and it looks to get even worse as the province of Ontario seems poised to end rent control, while the current government are refusing to suggest that home prices need to come down as a part of it's housing policy.
Things are so dystopian in Canada, the government legitimately tried to pass a law that allowed for medically assisted suicide for people who were suffering from depression and other mental illnesses, so, instead of improving the material conditions of it's citizens, the federal government in Canada would rather kill you for being depressed because your money doesn't go as far as it should. When Radicals say that Liberals are "the friendly face of Fascism" this is exactly what we mean.
A Truly Unified Metro Detroit: Crafting a City Unlike Any Other
As the immature, asinine dick-measuring contest continues between Trump and Carney regarding trade, Metro Detroit has the opportunity of a lifetime to create a form of urban government that is unlike anywhere else in the World. The American side of Metro Detroit is already built up by countless acres of suburban sprawl with the odd walkable district thrown in here and there, the Canadian side of Metro Detroit, however, has such untapped potential for people-oriented urban growth that it's insane a government that crossed both sides of the fictitious border hasn't been set up yet.
What if I told you that there is currently a municipality within Metro Detroit that was almost twice the size of the City of Detroit, but, most of it was covered by vast farmlands and it contained good rail connections. Would you think that, if it was beholden to a region-wide government, it'd be filled with the same "sameness" that exists over on the American side? This publication doesn't think so. We know that the only that that is going to fix our housing crisis is through an unparalleled building effort that ties deeply affordable units (i.e. $300-$400 dollar one bedroom units) with Urban Cartography, to eliminate the distinctions between "rich" or "poor" neighborhoods, create spaces that are purpose-made for human interaction (such as public squares), establish a comprehensive rail-based transit system that allows the region to become a "24 hour city" and allow the accumulation of wealth within this new government to establish free public events open to everyone.
5: Publicly Funded Elections, and Democratic Accountability Within Political Parties
Confronting the Damage Left By the Citizen's United Ruling
Because this country is so relatively young by international standards, we have never really tackled the distinction between what separates "Democracy" from the American notion of a "Republic", the fact that the gang of aristocrats we call "the founders" dreamed up a voter base so narrow and homogeneous as compared to the demographics of the average American voter today, it's the task of Radicals, locally, and nationwide, to give birth to a system of governance that blurs the line between Direct Democracy and Representative Democracy where politics is not just a spectator sport, or, a boujie club of the well off, but an accessible, and well regarded institution that everyone can interact with.
This lofty idea, however, has to confront the issues that the supreme court ruling Citizen's United poses. For those of you readers/listeners who don't know about it, or, forgot it happened because we've been suffering from terrible news for over two decades now, the Citizen's United vs. FEC (2010) ruling strengthened the concept of "corporate personhood" and determined that since corporations were "legally" ruled to be the equivalent of persons, they should be allowed to donate as much money during political campaigns as any other private citizen should be able to. This one ruling has been so corrosive to the concept of Democracy that it's actually hard to articulate the damage that it has done to this country. We'll see first hand how Citizen's United affects the congressional races for the midterms, as spending on electioneering has been ballooning with every single election cycle.
(If you'd like to see a bit of hard-hitting journalism during the time that the Citizen's United Ruling was passed, we'd advise you to look at this clip of Keith Olbermann elaborating the consequences of the ruling on American Democracy (which has been proven to be scarily prophetic).
Breaking the Stranglehold of Metro Detroit's Capitacracy Using Their Own Weapon: Finance
In the opinion of this publication, there is no credible way to fully eliminate the threat that the Citizen's United ruling poses against implementing a radically Democratic form of government which wouldn't just be litigated into extinction if it doesn't kill the ruling's precedent, as well as the other legal rulings that have been made in it's wake.
The story of the creation of "Corporate Personhood" and the unshackling of their abilities to purchase elections started way back with the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo ruling where the supreme court determined states implementing spending limits on candidates for office was illegal (this ruling, which, some constitutional scholars consider to be the lengthiest ruling ever passed down by the supreme court, would later be quoted in the majority ruling for Citizen's United). The ruling opened a Pandora's Box of precedent for the legalization of corruption. Later, in Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. FEC (1996) the supreme court determined that any political party had the "Right" to spend unlimited amounts of money on attack ads even if they supported no alternative candidates. Then, with the case of Randall v. Sorrell (2006), any cap on financial contributions to political candidates were ruled "unconstitutional". Finally, just a year after Citizen's United, when the supreme court ruled on the case of Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett (2011) , the supreme court struck down a state's ability to enact a limited form of campaign spending caps for candidates.
For all of our readers/listeners, this portion of our report may make you feel as if there is no way around corporate dollars perverting the concept of Democracy. At first glance, the situation may seem hopeless, however, we take a radically optimistic stance in the face of these gargantuan setbacks: the only way we can reverse the tide of money in our politics is to fully democratize our election system, funding, expenditures, and all. If the letter of the law rules out any limits on donations whether public or privately funded, then, the Metropolitan Parliament, once established, should have a dedicated fund for all of it's positions. For every public or private dollar given to a candidate, the Metropolitan Parliament would give a matching dollar to all of their opponents.
I know that there are those of you who are skeptical of the cost of a proposal like this. There's no doubt that there will be candidates who end up spending millions of dollars to become the Mayor of the Metropolitan Parliament, however, this publication will again appeal to Strategic Silence when it comes to the possible revenue streams that'd have to be created in order to pull this off. What we will say for the moment, though, is that we've already seen the influx of millions of dollars from across Metro Detroit as well as the rest of the nation in regard to the funds raised by Mary Sheffield and Solomon Kinloch for this year's Detroit Mayoral Race, and there's enough ink that's been spilled and buzz about the different types of political factions that exist within the city of Detroit that might extrapolate well into a larger regional context. But, that analysis will come at a later time.
A True Citizen's Democracy: Putting the Political Class Under Public Ownership
Hopefully this portion of our report is read clearly and revisited over and over again as we enter one of the most uncertain and turbulent Socioecopolitical times that has existed in the republic since the secession of the South and the beginning of the American Civil War.
Currently, there is mass dissatisfaction with the two-party system, and our political system is starting to show the fatal flaws of both of our completely undemocratic parties. The sycophantic Republican party is currently poised to legally allow president Donald Trump to seek a third term, while the geriatric led, incompetent, and rudderless Democratic party, fresh off of an utterly embarrassing loss in the 2024 presidential election, is scrambling to somehow compose a solid base of support among voters despite the fact that they're suffering from record unpopularity from those same exact voters.
We'll try not to spoil the certain aspects of Democratization among all political parties who would hold office within the Metropolitan Parliament, as that will be saved for another time. But, we'll divulge a few general points:
#1 You must achieve 4% of the seats within the Metropolitan Parliament to be recognized as a political party.
#2 Political parties can have collective leadership and forgo having just one leader if the party's membership votes in favor of it.
#3 Political parties must have a platform/manifesto published/accessible no later than 70 days before election day.
#4 All policies within platforms/manifestos must be ratified by the membership in a convention of said membership for all parties during election time.
#5 A leader/the collective leadership of a political party can be only removed from power by a simple majority vote by the party's membership.
#6 All political parties would be legally obligated to produce challengers for elected incumbents.
#7 All elected members of the Metropolitan Parliament who switch their political party membership would be legally bound to stand in a special election.
6: A Bill of Rights for Strikers and Protesters
The Unsustainable Status Quo of Splitting Political Power from Economic Power
The average American spends 90,000 hours at work, which amounts to 1/3rd of our lives when controlling for life expectancy. Believers in our current system would like to suggest that work "gives us meaning", or like to incorrectly suggest that "working for a wage is natural". And yet, the workplace is the only portion of our lives where we are seemingly comfortable with not having democratic ownership or any say in what we do, when we do something, or, how we do it.
With our society hurling down the dangerous path of corporate control of our elections and the broader political system, we must come to the realization that the only way to beat the CEOs, shareholders, and the wealthy is to allow the people a means of economically crippling the corporation without the working class being subject to being fired, or, being dispossessed of what little they have to their name.
The plight of the worker, though, is the same struggle of the Citizen. What this publication means is that just as workers face the brutal choice of forced labor or unimaginable hardship in the economic sector, the Citizen faces the impossible "alternative" of voting for career politicians who'll only listen to the elements of the Capitacracy and only care about their positions, or, settle for the Liberal Reformer who'll eventually sell themselves out to the Capitacratic power system in exchange for the bare minimum of change.
To win an Authentic Democracy, both of these issues need to be fundamentally addressed, the only way this can be achieved is by giving the people a means of expressing their frustrations with the current Socioecopolitical order.
Parallel Power
A Radical-led Metropolitan Parliament would encourage strike actions to be taken, full stop. The only way to achieve this would be by outlawing corporations from employing strikebreakers, end intimidating workers into rejecting unions, legally recognizing wildcat strikes, and forbidding public utilities and banks from financially retaliating against striking workers by financially assisting strikers.
As for protesters, a Radical-led Metropolitan Parliament would end the need for groups to achieve "protesting permits", eliminate the act of protesting from civil infractions such as "disturbing the peace" or, engaging in "disorderly conduct", and finally, allow protesters to occupy any and all public property for as long as they see fit.
These changes are simple, and there are numerous other ways to reassert the rights of workers and Citizens, but, these proposals will go a long way towards creating a society full of politicized Citizens who are at liberty to express themselves as they see fit.
7: The Collectivization of All Municipal Debts and Democratizing the Bankruptcy Process
Too Many Poor Cities Are Struggling While a Wealthy Few Are Stagnating
We've already touched upon the effect's of Metro Detroit's stagnant population growth when we went over our proposals for a transit system, but, this issue is extremely relevant to those who live in legacy cities and inner ring suburbs.
One of the more alarming trends that Citizens must put up with is the fact that, while many centrally located urban areas are gentrifying and adding wealth, poverty is moving out into the suburbs. But, this is not a uniform expansion of poverty onto Metro Detroit's vast stretches of urban sprawl, this phenomenon is more so affecting inner and middle ring suburbs. As people of lower incomes are being priced out of living in or near the greater downtown area, and as firms are relocating there from the suburbs, there is a massive fiscal cliff that is heading for many communities since their tax bases are shrinking. But, since these trends affect the entirety of Metro Detroit, the exurbs and rural areas will be "on the hook" as well. For example, in the vast majority of school districts within Metro Detroit, city, suburban, rural, and all, showed declining K-12 enrollment according to a recent Crain's Detroit.
If Radicals don't act swiftly, the most vulnerable communities among us will be under the thumb of the undemocratic and authoritarian Emergency Manager system that has questionably been left intact by the self-described "pragmatic" Whitmer administration.
Making Public Debt Subordinate to Mass Democracy
We can see how bankruptcy has affected cities across America, no better example of this is the turmoil that the City of Detroit experienced when it's financial deck of cards were toppled. Then-Mayor Dave Bing was forced to throw the fate of the City at the feet of the federal courts and hope for the best. This resulted in the economic "shock therapy" of the Grand Bargain that was used to embolden the local Capitacratic class by giving away all of the city's assets that could've been used to raise revenue.
Since Dave Bing would later come out and nakedly admit that the local Billionaire class are the true rulers of Detroit, Radicals are obligated to push the issue of democratizing the bankruptcy process as a straightforward issue of our Citizens either being ruled by Law or the Billionaires
On this issue though, we have already partially given out our position on how Radicals should approach the issue and will cite our previous report "Detroit's Returning Debt Crisis". However, a little more elaboration is needed to give a clear policy program:
After a merger happens, a Radical-led government should quickly pursue debt consolidation with Metro Detroit's creditors. In the negotiations, collateralization must absolutely be ruled out , in favor of what? We'll cite Strategic Silence for a final time as any commitment at this point could be preempted or outlawed. But, the most important part is that any deal reached between the creditors and any government should be put before the people in a special referendum. If the public agrees, then the settlement is finalized, if the public shoot down the settlement, however, the government and the creditors will be forced to make a new settlement, and, if the government embarks on any settlement that the people have rejected, a special election would automatically be triggered for the entirety of the Metropolitan Parliament.
Conclusion: Radicals Can Win, But, We Need to Play Our Cards Right
At this moment in American politics, the traditional two party system appears to be done for. The MAGA movement is fueling populism within the Democratic party, despite the lukewarm embrace of figures like Zohran Mamdani, we believe that the leadership of the Democratic party will try to find their "new Obama" and prioritize slogans more than solving problems. Mass dissatisfaction in national politics will shift the focus of the question "what should the state be able to do" to the local level, and Radicals within Metro Detroit have the ability to rewrite the established rules of politics. Any political campaign we embark upon here must be open to the prospects and promises of Regionalism, because, if we decide to ignore the issue, the Capitacracy will shape our cities in their own image and kill all of the potential liberatory projects that we could ever implement.
It is hoped on the part of this publication that these simple policies will spark the imagination of local Radicals who wish to dream about a better Metro Detroit that isn't beholden to the forces of the Capitacracy and their failed "Market Urbanist" projects for our cities. Their time is done, and our time is close to coming into fruition.
Links & Sources:
1. A Megacity Mindset: The case for a Metropolitan Parliament in Metro Detroit-https://blacklabeldetroit.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-megacity-mindset-case-for.html
2. Metropolitan Government Michigan Compiled Laws Service- https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Search/ExecuteSearch?docTypes=MCLs&contentFullText=metropolitan%20government
3. Doomer Wikipedia- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomer
4. Economic Inequality Seen as Major Challenge Around the World- https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/01/09/economic-inequality-seen-as-major-challenge-around-the-world/
5. Why Occupy Wall Street Failed 10 Years Ago- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGgZvjdaYhg
6. Global Tipping Points 2025: Everything You Want to Know- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA1KsGxzfyk
7. Noam Chomsky - Property Rights- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9OeYtubaek
8. MDOT pushes back start date for two-year I-696 project- https://archive.ph/FJNUs
9. Strategic silence- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_silence
10. DEPARTMENT OF STREET RAILWAYS (D.S.R.) 1941 STREETCAR ROUTE MAP- https://www.detroittransithistory.info/DSR/RailMap-1941.html
11. Wealth tax would be deadly for French economy, says Europe’s richest man- https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/sep/21/wealth-tax-would-be-deadly-for-french-economy-says-europe-richest-man-bernard-arnault
12. Economies of agglomeration -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_agglomeration
13. Transborder agglomeration -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transborder_agglomeration
14. The General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy - Things You Might Not Know -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_1cGr4bOjQ
15. Michigan Transportation Infrastructure Needs and Funding Solutions-https://publicsectorconsultants.com/michigan-transportation-infrastructure-needs-and-funding-solutions/
16. Governor Whitmer’s Budget Fixes the Damn (State AND Local) Roads -https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/news/press-releases/2025/10/13/governor-whitmers-budget-fixes-the-state-and-local-roads
17. Urban sprawl -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_sprawl
18. Metro Detroit -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Detroit#Demographics
19. Detroit: The Rise and Fall of a Public Transit System -https://www.economyleague.org/resources/detroit-rise-and-fall-public-transit-system
20. Regional Master Transit Plan -https://www.detroittransit.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Regional-Master-Transit-Plan-2016-Summary.pdf
21. A Visual Breakdown Of LA's Measure M -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ewd4oUD9TI
22. Detroit's Great Transit Grift Seems Poised to Continue -https://blacklabeldetroit.blogspot.com/2025/06/detroits-great-transit-grift-seems.html
23. Civil Liberties After 9-11: The ACLU Defends Freedom -https://www.aclu.org/documents/civil-liberties-after-9-11-aclu-defends-freedom
24. What is the Uniparty? -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtMVEFQe_AM&t=21s
25. What American Transit Could Learn From Canada -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr8E17ykczE
26. About Canada's health care system -https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/canada-health-care-system.html
27. More than 26 000 Americans die each year because of lack of health insurancev-https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2323087/
28. 'Why now?' County leaders express concern over Windsor decision to replace Housing Corp. board -https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/why-now-county-leaders-express-concern-over-windsor-decision-to-replace-housing-corp-board
29. 90 and fighting eviction: Inside a rent hike fight at a Windsor seniors' building -https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/seniors-rent-windsor-ontario-affordable-eviction-jewish-peretz-1.7642297
30. Average housing price must fall to fix ‘crisis,’ federal minister says -https://globalnews.ca/news/11486300/housing-canada-robertson-affordability-committee/
31. Canada Backtracks on Allowing Euthanasia for the Mentally Ill -https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2024-03-05/canada-backtracks-on-euthanasia-for-the-mentally-ill
32. Friendly Fascism (book) -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_Fascism_(book)
33. Carney ready to resume US-Canada trade talks halted by Trump over Reagan ad -https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-all-trade-talks-with-canada-are-terminated-2025-10-24/
34. Lakeshore, Ontario -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeshore,_Ontario
35. Urban cartography -https://morphocode.com/wp-content/uploads/resources/morphocode-urban-cartography-ebook-web.pdf
36. The cities that never sleep -https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20120510-travelwise-the-cities-that-never-sleep
37. Citizens United v. FEC -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC
38. When Did Companies Become People? Excavating The Legal Evolution -https://www.npr.org/2014/07/28/335288388/when-did-companies-become-people-excavating-the-legal-evolution
39. Cost of Election -https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/cost-of-election
40. Buckley v. Valeo -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckley_v._Valeo
41. Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. FEC -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Republican_Federal_Campaign_Committee_v._FEC
42. Randall v. Sorrell -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_v._Sorrell
43. Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Free_Enterprise_Club%27s_Freedom_Club_PAC_v._Bennett
44. The many shades of 'Detroit Democrats' -https://www.detroitonemillion.com/p/the-many-shades-of-a-detroit-democrat?r=4x64ia&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
45. Poll: A sizeable chunk of Americans think neither party 'fights for people like you' -https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/poll-sizeable-chunk-americans-think-neither-party-fights-people-rcna202884
46. Trump does not rule out seeking third term - but says he will not use VP loophole -https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c797q57ple9o
47. This Is What the Future of the Democratic Party Should Be -https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000010479590/this-is-what-the-future-of-the-democratic-party-should-be.html
48. Democratic Party Favorability -https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/favorability/democratic-party
49. Should We Be Happy At Work? -https://www.forbes.com/sites/dedehenley/2018/04/30/should-we-be-happy-at-work/
50. Work. -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvk_XylEmLo&t=76s
51. Protest permit -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protest_permit
52. Map: Gentrification Alley and Air Quality in Detroit -https://detroitography.com/2023/06/05/map-gentrification-alley-and-air-quality-in-detroit/
53. Why poverty is rising faster in suburbs than in cities -https://theconversation.com/why-poverty-is-rising-faster-in-suburbs-than-in-cities-97155
54. Ecorse facing financial shortfall, considering jobs cuts -https://www.wxyz.com/news/ecorse-facing-financial-shortfall-considering-jobs-cuts
55. Most Michigan school districts are losing students. See where yours ranks. -https://www.crainsdetroit.com/crains-forum-education/michigan-school-district-enrollment-mapped
56. How 'shock therapy' created Russian oligarchs and paved the path for Putin -https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/03/22/1087654279/how-shock-therapy-created-russian-oligarchs-and-paved-the-path-for-putin
57. Detroit: Possibility of Real Privatization, Savings -https://www.mackinac.org/19777
58. No BS News Hour – June 2nd, 2019 -https://www.nobsnewshour.com/no-bs-news-hour-june-2nd-2019/
59. Welcome to Super City, USA -https://www.businessinsider.com/lower-home-prices-build-houses-america-regional-government-super-cities-2025-8?utm_source=reddit.com&utm_source=reddit.com
60. A Market Urbanism Manifesto -https://www.planetizen.com/blogs/115774-market-urbanism-manifesto
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