Labor activists marched in solidarity with Occupy Detroit on November 6, 2011. The demonstration attracted over 700 people from unions and the community. (Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe), a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
WORKERS WORLD PARTY PUBLIC FORUM
A Revolutionary Analysis of the Michigan Ballot Initiatives
VOTE TO REPEAL PUBLIC ACT 4
VOTE YES ON THE “PROTECT OUR JOBS” INITIATIVE TO DEFEND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Saturday, September 22, 2012, 5 p.m.
5920 Second Avenue, Detroit
Just north of Wayne State University and I-94, one block west of Cass, at Antoinette
Dinner served -- $5 donation, $1 unemployed
For more info, call 313-459-0777
This November, the working class in Michigan will have the unusual opportunity under capitalism to vote on issues that will have a genuine bearing on our livelihoods.
The Vote to Repeal Public Act 4 is an opportunity to vote No to the banks’ robbery of our communities. The banks caused the economic crisis and destroyed the tax base of cities like Detroit, Flint, Pontiac and Benton Harbor with their fraudulent and racist predatory loans resulting in hundreds of thousands of foreclosures in the past 5 years. These same banks now get first lien on city tax dollars for debt service payments.
Public Act 4, the Emergency Manager Act, guarantees these banks “payment in full of the scheduled debt service requirements on all bonds, notes and municipal securities,” even if it means busting union contracts, laying off pubic workers, cutting more city services, shutting and privatizing schools, attacking the pension system for retirees and selling city assets.
The vote to repeal Public Act 4 is a vote against racism, as the primarily African American cities in Michigan have been targeted for the imposition of financial managers.
The “Protect our Jobs” initiative is an opportunity to vote to uphold union rights and say no to union busting “right to work” laws. It will put a brake on the war against unions which has reduced union representation to less than 10% of the workforce in the U.S. and 17% in Michigan. While the union ballot initiative has some weaknesses, it must be supported as a progressive step in combatting the union-busting drive in this era of low wage capitalism.
Come to a Workers World Party public meeting to discuss these ballot initiatives, to analyze their significance in the light of the current economic and political situation facing the working class, and to help organize a mass campaign to get out the vote in support of them.
Special Report: The Great Chicago Teachers’ Strike
No comments:
Post a Comment