National and local political leaders will join a panel of esteemed economists and journalists for a town hall discussion of the economic collapse and how Detroit — and the country — can recover. Putting the needs of workers and citizens (not bankers and stock market speculators) at the center of the conversation, the panel will examine local solutions as well as the role of Detroit in the national economy.

The event marks the publication of Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover (Nation Books, 2009) by Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel and other editors at the magazine.

Moderated by The Nation Magazine’s John Nichols, this discussion will feature:

• Documentarian and activist Michael Moore (invited)
• Representative John Conyers (D-MI)
• Bestselling author Barbara Ehrenreich
• Detroit City Council Member and Radio Host JoAnn Watson
• Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and founding Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• Elena Herrada, co-chair and founding member of the Committee for the Political Resurrection of Detroit
• Detroit Local UAW 235 member Dianne Feeley (American Axle)

This event will also preview national and local organizing efforts leading up to the 2010 United States Social Forum (USSF), to be held in Detroit. The USSF is a convening of hundreds of thousands of social and economic justice advocates from around the country chartering a course for a reversal of inequality at home and abroad.

The Detroit City Council passed a resolution supporting this event.

Sponsoring Organizations

For more than four decades, the Institute for Policy Studies has transformed ideas into action for peace, justice, and the environment. It is a progressive multi-issue think tank. www.ips-dc.org

The Nation is America’s oldest news weekly and the widest read journal of political thought in the country. Read breaking news and coverage of the financial crisis at thenation.com. http://www.thenation.com

Devoted to the welfare recipients, low-income workers, and economically disenfranchised residents of Michigan, the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization has maintained a goal to organize individuals to fight cuts and attacks against the poor. http://www.mwro.org/

For 150 years, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church has been a figure in the heart of Detroit. St. Peter’s has served the community through faith and been a home for Manna Community Meal and Young Detroit Builders.

Detroit’s Central United Methodist Church has promoted a faith-powered, justice-seeking, reconciling, and peace-loving world for all people and those in Detroit. Centralumchurch.com

Centro Obrero/Critical Movement magazine aims to support movements for social justice by giving a voice to those excluded and misrepresented by the dominant media in the Southeast Michigan area. criticalmoment.org

Published since the 1970s, The Michigan Citizen has been a leading voice on the state of African Americans’ economic and social development throughout Michigan’s urban communities. michigancitizen.com

Labor Notes is a media and organizing project that has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in the labor movement since 1979. labornotes.org

The Detroit Community Organizing Network is an emerging community-based network whose purpose is to establish a framework for strengthening structures of community organizing in Detroit.