May Day Demonstration in Detroit Targets Banks, Emergency Management
8:26 AM, May 2, 2014
By Robert Allen
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
To watch some of the videos shot during May Day in downtown Detroit just click on the website below:
http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/9191/may_day_protest_we_won_t_rest_until_we_kick_gov_snyder_s_ass_out_of_detroit#.U2SHNvldW5I
Another Real News Network story on May Day demonstrations internationally mentions Detroit at the following link:
http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11809
Protesters entered a bank and a hotel during a May Day march through downtown Detroit today, shouting opposition to looming cuts for pensioners amid the city’s bankruptcy proceedings.
Loudly chanting “Show Orr the door,” the crowd inside the Westin Book Cadillac waved signs and fists but showed no resistance as police calmly escorted them back outside. Kevyn Orr, the city’s state-appointed emergency manager, has been living in a two-bedroom condo in the building.
Officers on horseback and in patrol cars kept a moving traffic barrier around the crowd as it moved through downtown streets, from Hart Plaza to Central United Methodist Church. There were no reports of arrests, according to Detroit police.
Numerous retired city workers were in the crowd, wearing tags reading “No” as they encouraged their peers to vote against a plan to get the city through bankruptcy. Signs reading “No emergency manager; make the banks pay” were plentiful as protesters insisted that banks, not pensioners, take the hit as the city emerges from more than $14 billion of debt.
“I have to vote, ‘no,’ ” said Arthur Vardiman, 63, who worked 32 years driving a bus for the city before retiring in 2004. He said he’s had a defined pension, but “now it looks like somebody’s trying to flip the script.”
With some pensioners living on $700 to $800 per month, Vardiman said they could lose their homes or cars among, “emotional and economic impacts.”
Darlene Somes of Warren, held a sign reading “Jobs, pensions, city services ... The banks owe us!” while standing by a statue at the edge of the crowd in Grand Circus Park. Asked what made her decide to protest, she replied, “I don’t know why people aren’t here every day.”
Other activists took the opportunity to air their thoughts on same-sex marriage rights, mass transit and more general economic issues. Carrie Addis, 32, joined the protest with her 7-week-old son Sebastian after seeing friends talk about it on Facebook. She’d been involved in the Occupy movement and more recently protested in September for the Detroit Coalition Against Tar Sands.
“I’m hoping for a rekindling of the passion that we had a couple years ago,” said Addis, who said she’s finishing a master’s in biology from Wayne State University.
The organized protest started with a breakfast at United Auto Workers Local 600 in Dearborn, where people gave impassioned speeches about the state of the city and concern about a Republican state government making decisions for a city of mostly Democrats.
Additional speeches and discussion were planned for the rest of the day at the church. May Day, also known as International Workers Day, is marked by demonstrations across the world.
This article corrects a previous version that mis-stated Carrie Addis’s level of education. The Free Press regrets the error.
Contact Robert Allen: rallen@freepress.com or www.twitter.com/rallenMI.
May Day Celebration In Detroit Brings Pension Cut Protesters
May 1, 2014 2:11 PM
By Christy Strawser, CBS Detroit
DETROIT (CBS Detroit) - Hundreds of people showed up for the International Workers’ Day rally in downtown Detroit, an event dedicated to protesting cuts to the bankrupt city’s pension system.
The rally was tied to May Day, an international celebration of workers and workers’ rights.
Woodward Avenue near Grand Circus Park was briefly closed for the event.
One speaker with a bullhorn said protesters were there to chase Mike Ilitch, Roger Penske, Chase Bank, and other corporate entities out of town.
“This is our city, we built this city, we built this economy and we’re not playing, we are sick and tired of these lying dogs,” the speaker said.
“Our ancestors ended slavery, they built the UAW,” he added.
The banks were the target of several speeches, marked by, as one man said, “their racist foreclosure practices.” “Those banks owe us,” he said. “It’s the banks who should take care of the blight.”
Chants of “they owe us” broke out, followed by rousing choruses of “Make them pay.”
“Hands off the pensions, take it from the banks,” was another popular chant.
The Detroit demonstration was peaceful, but there were incidents of violence at other May Day celebrations. The New York Times reported 40,000 riot police had to use tear gas and water cannons to quell crowds in Instanbul, who were protesting government corruption.
Detroit, which is currently embroiled in the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in American history, has been pushed to the brink after years of borrowing to pay the bills, and the outcome for its workers is still unclear. The city is working with its unions on pension agreements, with a tentative agreement agreed upon earlier this week. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but the city has long said it can’t afford to pay pensioners the money that’s been guaranteed to them by past union contracts
“The workers, united, will never be defeated,” the crowd chanted.
May 1, 2014 at 4:26 pm
Protesters voice opposition to pension changes, Michigan's EM law
Tony Briscoe
The Detroit News
Watch this video of the May Day demonstration in downtown Detroit by clicking on the website below:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140501/METRO01/305010120/Protesters-voice-opposition-pension-changes-Michigan-s-EM-law
Detroit — Several civil rights groups and community leaders led several hundred people through the streets of the downtown Thursday afternoon to protest a number of issues, including pensions, foreclosure and eviction policies as well as Michigan’s emergency manager law.
Rev. Charles Williams II of the National Action Network (NAN) led the crowd of protesters at the front of the march, which wound by the Federal Building through Grand Circus Park.
“We are here to mobilize this 2014 against corrupt banks, against gentrification, against pension cuts and the (Detroit) Emergency Manager (Kevyn Orr)” Williams said.
Protesters shouted “No justice, no peace” and many carried signs, like one that read “Cancel Detroit’s debt, the banks owe us!” The demonstrators were escorted by more than a dozen police officers who blocked off streets along the route.
Tensions flared when some protesters went to march inside of the Westin Book Cadillac hotel. In another instance, one demonstrator was nearly nose-to-nose in a heated argument with a bicyclist who apparently didn’t agree with the group’s message.
Among the crowd was pensioner Barbara Hunt, 70, a retired nurse with the health department, who hoped the crowd’s message would be heard by Orr.
“I can’t afford to lose my pension,” she said. “I can barely afford it now, so I hope this brings some other retirees out here.”
Former City Coucilwoman JoAnn Watson addressed the crowd at the foot of the statue of former Detroit Mayor Hazen Pingree.
“With the backing of Wall Street and conspirators, but taking millions of dollars out of Detroit’s pockets. somebodies got to go to jail tonight,” Watson said.
Members with the United Automobile Workers and Moratorium NOW! were a part of the demonstration.
Earlier this week, Orr pitched the city’s debt-cutting plan to lawmakers. The Legislature’s financial support is seen as crucial to getting retiree groups to settle their pension claims and speed Detroit’s exit from bankruptcy by October.
Orr has said he wanted lawmakers to receive a broad overview of his plan and how Gov. Rick Snyder’s $350 million pledge toward a settlement fits into a so-called “grand bargain” to limit cuts inflicted on nearly 34,000 vested city pensioners. In recent weeks, Detroit has forged tentative settlements with its two pension funds, its largest labor union and retiree groups to limit cuts in exchange for their commitment to get retirees to vote for Orr’s debt-cutting reorganization plan.
Meanwhile, the fate of a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the state’s Emergency Manager law will soon be determined by a federal judge. U.S District Court Judge George Caram Steeh ruled Wednesday that he will issue a written decision on a request from the state Attorney General’s office to toss out the complaint that alleges Public Act 436 dilutes the right to vote. The lawsuit, representing nearly two dozen plaintiffs, was filed last year as the new law went into effect, giving state-appointed emergency managers in several Michigan cities and school districts the power to amend budgets, change contracts and consolidate or eliminate departments.
Jennifer Teed, 43, of northwest Detroit, said Thursday’s events were about standing together for the rights of workers and pensioners and in opposition of the emergency manager law.
“The people of Detroit need to stand up for what’s right and what’s really important,” said Teed, a member of Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management. “I feel very pushed out with what’s happening in the city.”
“People feel especially disenfranchised because of the loss of our vote,” she added in reference to the emergency manager act. “We are losing our rights, our own democracy. This is not legal.”
Williams said Thursday also served as a platform to kick off NAN’s statewide and national effort to register and mobilize voters.
“We are not going to win these fights without changing the political landscape,” he said.
Staff writer Christine Ferretti contributed
TBriscoe@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2541
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140501/METRO01/305010120#ixzz30d8AlMrV
 |
| Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, speaking at May Day in Detroit. |
By Robert Allen
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
To watch some of the videos shot during May Day in downtown Detroit just click on the website below:
http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/9191/may_day_protest_we_won_t_rest_until_we_kick_gov_snyder_s_ass_out_of_detroit#.U2SHNvldW5I
Another Real News Network story on May Day demonstrations internationally mentions Detroit at the following link:
http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11809
Protesters entered a bank and a hotel during a May Day march through downtown Detroit today, shouting opposition to looming cuts for pensioners amid the city’s bankruptcy proceedings.
Loudly chanting “Show Orr the door,” the crowd inside the Westin Book Cadillac waved signs and fists but showed no resistance as police calmly escorted them back outside. Kevyn Orr, the city’s state-appointed emergency manager, has been living in a two-bedroom condo in the building.
Officers on horseback and in patrol cars kept a moving traffic barrier around the crowd as it moved through downtown streets, from Hart Plaza to Central United Methodist Church. There were no reports of arrests, according to Detroit police.
Numerous retired city workers were in the crowd, wearing tags reading “No” as they encouraged their peers to vote against a plan to get the city through bankruptcy. Signs reading “No emergency manager; make the banks pay” were plentiful as protesters insisted that banks, not pensioners, take the hit as the city emerges from more than $14 billion of debt.
“I have to vote, ‘no,’ ” said Arthur Vardiman, 63, who worked 32 years driving a bus for the city before retiring in 2004. He said he’s had a defined pension, but “now it looks like somebody’s trying to flip the script.”
With some pensioners living on $700 to $800 per month, Vardiman said they could lose their homes or cars among, “emotional and economic impacts.”
Darlene Somes of Warren, held a sign reading “Jobs, pensions, city services ... The banks owe us!” while standing by a statue at the edge of the crowd in Grand Circus Park. Asked what made her decide to protest, she replied, “I don’t know why people aren’t here every day.”
Other activists took the opportunity to air their thoughts on same-sex marriage rights, mass transit and more general economic issues. Carrie Addis, 32, joined the protest with her 7-week-old son Sebastian after seeing friends talk about it on Facebook. She’d been involved in the Occupy movement and more recently protested in September for the Detroit Coalition Against Tar Sands.
“I’m hoping for a rekindling of the passion that we had a couple years ago,” said Addis, who said she’s finishing a master’s in biology from Wayne State University.
The organized protest started with a breakfast at United Auto Workers Local 600 in Dearborn, where people gave impassioned speeches about the state of the city and concern about a Republican state government making decisions for a city of mostly Democrats.
Additional speeches and discussion were planned for the rest of the day at the church. May Day, also known as International Workers Day, is marked by demonstrations across the world.
This article corrects a previous version that mis-stated Carrie Addis’s level of education. The Free Press regrets the error.
Contact Robert Allen: rallen@freepress.com or www.twitter.com/rallenMI.
May Day Celebration In Detroit Brings Pension Cut Protesters
May 1, 2014 2:11 PM
By Christy Strawser, CBS Detroit
DETROIT (CBS Detroit) - Hundreds of people showed up for the International Workers’ Day rally in downtown Detroit, an event dedicated to protesting cuts to the bankrupt city’s pension system.
The rally was tied to May Day, an international celebration of workers and workers’ rights.
Woodward Avenue near Grand Circus Park was briefly closed for the event.
One speaker with a bullhorn said protesters were there to chase Mike Ilitch, Roger Penske, Chase Bank, and other corporate entities out of town.
“This is our city, we built this city, we built this economy and we’re not playing, we are sick and tired of these lying dogs,” the speaker said.
“Our ancestors ended slavery, they built the UAW,” he added.
The banks were the target of several speeches, marked by, as one man said, “their racist foreclosure practices.” “Those banks owe us,” he said. “It’s the banks who should take care of the blight.”
Chants of “they owe us” broke out, followed by rousing choruses of “Make them pay.”
“Hands off the pensions, take it from the banks,” was another popular chant.
The Detroit demonstration was peaceful, but there were incidents of violence at other May Day celebrations. The New York Times reported 40,000 riot police had to use tear gas and water cannons to quell crowds in Instanbul, who were protesting government corruption.
Detroit, which is currently embroiled in the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in American history, has been pushed to the brink after years of borrowing to pay the bills, and the outcome for its workers is still unclear. The city is working with its unions on pension agreements, with a tentative agreement agreed upon earlier this week. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but the city has long said it can’t afford to pay pensioners the money that’s been guaranteed to them by past union contracts
“The workers, united, will never be defeated,” the crowd chanted.
May 1, 2014 at 4:26 pm
Protesters voice opposition to pension changes, Michigan's EM law
Tony Briscoe
The Detroit News
Watch this video of the May Day demonstration in downtown Detroit by clicking on the website below:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140501/METRO01/305010120/Protesters-voice-opposition-pension-changes-Michigan-s-EM-law
Detroit — Several civil rights groups and community leaders led several hundred people through the streets of the downtown Thursday afternoon to protest a number of issues, including pensions, foreclosure and eviction policies as well as Michigan’s emergency manager law.
Rev. Charles Williams II of the National Action Network (NAN) led the crowd of protesters at the front of the march, which wound by the Federal Building through Grand Circus Park.
“We are here to mobilize this 2014 against corrupt banks, against gentrification, against pension cuts and the (Detroit) Emergency Manager (Kevyn Orr)” Williams said.
Protesters shouted “No justice, no peace” and many carried signs, like one that read “Cancel Detroit’s debt, the banks owe us!” The demonstrators were escorted by more than a dozen police officers who blocked off streets along the route.
Tensions flared when some protesters went to march inside of the Westin Book Cadillac hotel. In another instance, one demonstrator was nearly nose-to-nose in a heated argument with a bicyclist who apparently didn’t agree with the group’s message.
Among the crowd was pensioner Barbara Hunt, 70, a retired nurse with the health department, who hoped the crowd’s message would be heard by Orr.
“I can’t afford to lose my pension,” she said. “I can barely afford it now, so I hope this brings some other retirees out here.”
Former City Coucilwoman JoAnn Watson addressed the crowd at the foot of the statue of former Detroit Mayor Hazen Pingree.
“With the backing of Wall Street and conspirators, but taking millions of dollars out of Detroit’s pockets. somebodies got to go to jail tonight,” Watson said.
Members with the United Automobile Workers and Moratorium NOW! were a part of the demonstration.
Earlier this week, Orr pitched the city’s debt-cutting plan to lawmakers. The Legislature’s financial support is seen as crucial to getting retiree groups to settle their pension claims and speed Detroit’s exit from bankruptcy by October.
Orr has said he wanted lawmakers to receive a broad overview of his plan and how Gov. Rick Snyder’s $350 million pledge toward a settlement fits into a so-called “grand bargain” to limit cuts inflicted on nearly 34,000 vested city pensioners. In recent weeks, Detroit has forged tentative settlements with its two pension funds, its largest labor union and retiree groups to limit cuts in exchange for their commitment to get retirees to vote for Orr’s debt-cutting reorganization plan.
Meanwhile, the fate of a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the state’s Emergency Manager law will soon be determined by a federal judge. U.S District Court Judge George Caram Steeh ruled Wednesday that he will issue a written decision on a request from the state Attorney General’s office to toss out the complaint that alleges Public Act 436 dilutes the right to vote. The lawsuit, representing nearly two dozen plaintiffs, was filed last year as the new law went into effect, giving state-appointed emergency managers in several Michigan cities and school districts the power to amend budgets, change contracts and consolidate or eliminate departments.
Jennifer Teed, 43, of northwest Detroit, said Thursday’s events were about standing together for the rights of workers and pensioners and in opposition of the emergency manager law.
“The people of Detroit need to stand up for what’s right and what’s really important,” said Teed, a member of Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management. “I feel very pushed out with what’s happening in the city.”
“People feel especially disenfranchised because of the loss of our vote,” she added in reference to the emergency manager act. “We are losing our rights, our own democracy. This is not legal.”
Williams said Thursday also served as a platform to kick off NAN’s statewide and national effort to register and mobilize voters.
“We are not going to win these fights without changing the political landscape,” he said.
Staff writer Christine Ferretti contributed
TBriscoe@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2541
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140501/METRO01/305010120#ixzz30d8AlMrV
No comments:
Post a Comment