Green Party Of Michigan's Insurgent Campaigns Challenge Duopoly
SOUTHFIELD, MI — Douglas P. Marsh, Green Party of Michigan candidate for U.S. Senate, staged a protest outside WXYZ ABC Channel 7 studios in Southfield Monday night demanding equal time during the station's broadcast of a debate between duopoly candidates Elissa Slotkin and Mike Rogers.
Green Party of Michigan
October 18, 2024
Marsh, a community journalist and activist for the advancement of the working class, requested multiple times to participate in the debates and received no reply. In the afternoon on the day of the event, he sent another message demanding to participate under Section 315 of the Federal Communications Act of 1934 before approaching the studio and being denied entry.
Green Party of Michigan candidates Sami Makhoul (Wayne State Board of Governors), Clyde Shabazz (U.S. Congress 6th District), Douglas Campbell (U.S. Congress 11th District), and Stephen Boyle (Wayne County Commissioner 5th District) rallied to support Marsh and protest similar media bias against their campaigns, along with other members of the Green Party.
"It should not be just the Republican or the Democratic parties," said Makhoul. "We should all be treated the same."
"It's more than just voices. We have had a corporate takeover of just about every aspect of American life, including the two Titanic parties," said Campbell. "Corporate America owns them. Six corporations control 96% of the media you see and they like it that way. They want to preserve their advantage and naturally they're not going to offer any broadcast time to any anti-corporate party who'd like to dismantle that and get us back to a free market and a free country."
"This has to stop. The American people are not being heard on the issues. They'd like to talk about things like the genocide in Gaza, what's going on in Palestine and ending that," said Shabazz. "People need to hear about the Green Party's position on things like universal basic income and cash reparations—these are issues that are not being highlighted by the two mainstream candidates that you hear speaking here tonight."
"These two major political parties, the Democrats and Republicans, work very hard to keep real options off the table for working people," said Marsh. "These two candidates in here are fighting to see who is going to dump more money into the military industrial complex—they're fighting each other to say who is going to spend more on war abroad and weapons for genocide instead of investing in education; instead of giving reparations to descendants of slaves; instead of giving universal basic income to our most vulnerable; instead of providing Medicare for All—the funding for all these things is possible."
"There's a common theme here: the media, [channels] 2, 4, 7, 62, working for the Republican and the Democratic party because all of the PAC money, all of the individual campaign donations, they go to those two parties," said Shabazz. "They're then recycled into buying TV ads where they attack each other and the American people are always left with a choice of a lesser of two evils and they go back and forth with that without being left any real choices."
"We need to stop this war in Gaza. We need to stop the war in Lebanon. We need to stop funding Israel," said Makhoul.
"It's not whether it's rigged for the Republicans or for the Democrats—it's rigged for the Republicans and the Democrats!" said Detroit-based Green Party member and reparations activist Anita Belle. "When you understand that, then you understand you are not choosing the lesser of two evils. You're only getting a choice between a civil war or a religious war, or a civil war and a religious war. That's your choice. But if you don't want war, then you can vote Green. Nobody wants you to know that because look how much money is in war. But we live off of peace. We don't live off of war like corporations do."
Green campaigns throughout the state continue to fight to be heard in the lead-up to election day. Along with Marsh and Makhoul, John Anthony La Pietra will be on the ballot state-wide, running for Michigan State University Board of Trustees.
D.Etta Wilcoxon is appealing to regain ballot access in the race for the 13th U.S. Congressional District.
"They don't want to hear from the third party candidates at all. That's why I'm going through what I'm going through," she said. "They want to silence us."
Brenda K. Sanders is waging a campaign for the 12th U.S. Congressional District and Jim Casha is running in the 8th and Jim Bronke in the 5th. Aaron Wright and Eric Borregard are running for the State House's 47th and 48th districts, respectively, and Christina Marudas and Ryan Sample for the 23rd and 32nd.
Mary Kozonis-Marudas is running for Washtenaw County Commissioner 7th District and Stephen Boyle for Wayne County Commissioner 5th District. And in the Upper Peninsula, in Marenisco Township, Green Robert Dorgan is running for supervisor, facing a late-entering write-in opponent.
To support a Green campaign, join our party or to learn more, visit www.migreenparty.org.
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