Detroit Emergency Demonstration At DTE Energy: Demand a Moratorium on Utility Shut-offs, July 24, 4:00pm

Moratorium Now! Coalition rally outside the home of Anthony King on the west side of Detroit. Sandra Hines speaks at the microphone demanding the reversal of the foreclosure of the King home. PANW editor Abayomi Azikiwe next to Hines. (Photo: Alan Pollock
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

For Immediate Release

Media Advisory

Event: Press Conference and Demonstration at DTE Energy
Location: DTE Energy Officies, One Energy Plaza, Near Bagley and Third Ave.
Time: Friday, July 24, 4:00-5:00pm
Sponsor: Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions, Utility Shut-offs
Contact: 313.671.3715 or 313.887.4344
E-mail: tentcity@peoplessummit.org
URL: http://www.peoplessummit.org

Moratorium NOW! Coalition Calls for Emergency Demonstration at DTE Energy Demanding an Immediate Halt to Utility Shut-offs

Our thoughts and concerns go out to the Detroit family that has loss four love ones as a result of the corporate policies of DTE Energy. Vaughn, Mar'Keisha DeMarco and DeMonte Reed are no longer with us because of the negligence of a leading profit-making company located downtown.

After DTE Energy officials acknowledged in the newspapers recently that they had received information that could have prevented the shut-off of services for the Vaughn Reed family, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition is demanding that the termination of utilities services be halted immediately in order to prevent the further deaths of people in the Detroit metropolitan area.

The Detroit area is experiencing unemployment and foreclosures rates at an astronomical level. Inside the city over 25% of working families have suffered job losses and the consequent economic problems that follow.

The growing unemployment figures, the rising rates of utility shut-offs, the lack of health care, home foreclosures and evictions clearly illustrate that Michigan is in an economic state of emergency. Therefore, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs is demanding that Gov. Granholm officially declare an economic state of emergency and immediately place a halt on all foreclosures, evictions and utility shut-offs throughout the state.

Banking institutions, the auto companies, and insurance firms have, all combined, received trillions of dollars in government handouts to maintain their operations. At the same time, millions of workers are losing their jobs, homes, apartments, health care and pensions every year in the United States.

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition is calling for the building of an effective movement to fight the worsening crisis facing working families in this region as well as throughout the country. Please join us in working toward this effort on Friday, July 24 at a demonstration and press conference outside the corporate officies of DTE Energy between 4:00-5:00pm.

Representatives of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition are available for comment to the press by contacting the organization at the numbers listed above.

Abayomi Azikiwe,
Media Liason