BUST WALL STREET, NOT UNIONS! PUBLIC EMPLOYEES MOBILIZING FOR NATIONAL STRIKE APRIL 13!

Hundreds mass for “People’s Rally” at Michigan State Capitol in Lansing Feb. 23

 Capitol occupations and protests across country lead the way

By Diane Bukowski

LANSING – As tens of thousands of workers, students and community members occupied state capitols in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio, and thousands more rallied here at Michigan’s capitol and elsewhere, the American Labor Improvement Association (ALLA), called for a “National Day of Protest” by public employees Wed. April 13, from 12 noon to 5 p.m.

The protest will take place at “YOUR LOCAL COUNTY, STATE, FEDERAL AND PUBLIC WORK LOCATIONS,” according to a flier published by Michigan AFSCME Council 25, representing 60,000 public workers in the state.  (See flier below.)

City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson (l) and State Rep. Coleman Young II flank Al Garrett, Pres. of Michigan AFSCME Council 25, representing 60,000 public workers

 “I commit to you AFSCME’s resources in this struggle for all working people, white, Black, Brown, green, all colors,” said Co. 25 President Al Garrett during a rally of at least 2,500 on the Michigan state capitol steps in Lansing Feb. 23, called by Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson. “This governor is setting up a dictatorship! Victory comes if we stay together!”

The Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ) said, “The The 97-union South Central Federation of Labor of Wisconsin is laying groundwork for a general strike if Gov. Scott Walker succeeds in enacting legislation that would strip most bargaining rights from most public employee unions.”

The paper said that the federation, which represents over 45,000 workers, voted Feb. 21 to endorse national work stoppages by union and nonunion workers.

Click on  http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_64c8d7a8-3e8c-11e0-9911-001cc4c002e0.html to read entire WSJ article. Also click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TmSNPpzkWc&feature=player_embedded#at=100 to watch video from Wisconsin published on AFSCME website, http://www.standforpublicservice.org/.

Youth at top of capitol steps led the way

“Two weeks ago who would have thought there would have been 70,000 people on the Capitol Square demonstrating on behalf of worker rights?” Federation President Jim Cavanaugh told the WSJ. “We have had an awful lot of statements of support from around the country.”

 (Click on VOD Alternet article, “Wisconsin ignites workers’ uprisings across the U.S.”, at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=4920, to read about protests in Ohio, Indiana, New York City, Atlanta, Boston and elsewhere).

“Bust Wall Street, not Unions,” declared signs carried by protesters in Lansing.

(Go to http://www.youtube.com/KennySnod#p/a/u/0/CVoejXESaJk to watch video of rally on capitol steps.)

Detroit youth demand NO TAKEOVERS

Hundreds came on five buses and in car pools that left from Detroit’s Northwest Activities Center. Firefighters and other union members from across the metropolitan area joined the protest on the steps, on the capitol grounds, and in committee hearings taking place in the House and Senate buildings across the street.

 The protesters chanted, “Whose city? Our city! Whose water? Our water! Whose pensions? Our pensions! Whose state? Our state!”

Dozens of Detroit Public School students stood at the top of the steps, chanting, “Public education is a right, by any means necessary we will fight!” and “They say Jim Crow, we say hell no!” They and several DPS teachers led a portion of the ralliers onto the State House of Representatives floor, which they briefly occupied before being turned away by Capitol guards.

Warren Schools clerical workers joined protest to stop school district takeovers

State Schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan just authorized the closing of 70 more DPS schools and other cuts proposed by DPS czar Robert Bobb, to ensure that the district pays its mammoth debt to the banks (see separate upcoming article).

Outside, Councilwoman Watson condemned anti-union and anti-home rule attacks represented by dozens of bills introduced by the Republican majorities in the House and Senate. In particular, packages of legislation in the House and Senate would allow state officials to establish virtual fiefdoms under emergency financial managers (EFM’s) across the state, as well as take control of Detroit’s Water and Sewerage Department.

Firefighters join Water Dept. workers

“Some of us will stay outside, some of us will go inside and have a confrontation with the governor,” Watson said. “Under these bills, our city charter would be removed, they are about to take over the water, there will be an emergency financial manager over the city, not voted on by you, not controlled by you, not even a city resident. We won’t let them dismantle pensions, the rights of unions, home rule, not today, not ever! YOU are in charge, you are not victims; this is OUR city, OUR state, OUR water, OUR land.”

Watson called on protesters to continue their fightback at a rally Sat. Feb. 26 at 12 noon at Triumph Baptist Church at 2760 E Grand Blvd. in Detroit. 

AFSCME Local 1023 President Sheila Pennington

The crowd chanted in response, “The people united will never be defeated.”

 In concert with the legislative attacks, Snyder introduced a budget Feb. 24 declaring his intentions to slash revenue-sharing for the cities, cut funds for schools, and otherwise assault local governments, forcing them into the hands of the EFM’s.

(Go to “Class War in Michigan at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=4622 to read about House Bills 4214-18, which were passed by the House despite the Feb. 23 rallies. Upcoming story will feature community responses at the Feb. 23 Senate Education Committee hearing on their version of the bills, which are being fast-tracked for Snyder’s signature.)

Linda Willis (r): Schools, Not Jails

“These attacks are happening all over the country, and then they have the audacity to turn around and blame it on us,” Cecily McClellan, Vice President of Detroit’s Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE), said. “They waste trillions of dollars on two wars, and now they want to defund our schools, our cities, our state government. This is about their taking control—we are looking at fascism, we must stand up!”

APTE President Dempsey Addison added. “These politicians have been been hired by the corporations for their own interests. They are destroying a public school system that is worth over $750 billion nationwide. They want us to sacrifice our children, our pensions, to send our sons and daughters to lose their lives on foreign soil for democracy, but we are losing democracy right here.” 

Whose city? Our city!

Sandra Hines of the Coalition to Restore Hope to DPS pointed to the revolution in Egypt as an example of what people in this country must undertake.

“Ever since we got off the boat from Africa, we have had to overcome so many obstacles, and we HAVE overcome,” Hines declared. “Now we have to have revolution in our hearts. Those people in Egypt showed us a real revolution in our lifetime. We’ve got to follow in their footsteps and have a real revolution in Detroit!” 

Bust Wall Street, not DWSD!

Mike Mulholland, Secretary-Treasurer of AFSCME Local 207, which represents Detroit’s water and sewerage department workers, said, “We did not create the financial crisis! The bankers did,, but they got paid off, while we get laid off. We are gathering here today because we have no choice!”

He called on the protesters to join students Wed. March 2 at noon at Wayne State University’s Gullen Mall and then march from there to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center where public workers from the Detroit, Wayne County and the state will demonstrate.

State Senator Coleman Young II recalled the state’s proud labor history.

EFM threat affects local governments everywhere in state

“It was a group of like-minded men and women who stood together and saved labor, saved the middle class and really reinvented the great state of Michigan,” Young cried out. “This state is where we had the battle of the overpass, where we put the world on wheels, where we showed everybody what solidarity is about. We forged our rights in blood, sweat and tears. We are for job creation, and no more privatization. We WILL own our constitutional rights and liberties, control our water department, and defeat taxes on pensions!”

“We get what we are organized to TAKE!” emphasized Maureen Taylor of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO). Marian Kramer of MWRO added, “We cannot let this stop here. We have to constantly battle the capitalists like you battle a tank!”

Rev. David Bullock, state-wide chair of Rainbow:PUSH and pastor of St. Matthews Congregational Church in Highland Park, agreed.

Even Dearborn firefighters, led by woman who says "I've had to fight all my life!" joined the protest; shown here walking to committee meeting

“There are more than businesses in Michigan,” Bullock said. “There are workers and families who need a recovery too. The last time I read my history book, we were freed from slavery years ago. The last time I read my history book, America was the land of the free and the home of the brave. We must get ready to fight this fight, not just during the first quarter, not just at half-time, we have to see it through to the end.”

On the capitol grounds, Linda Willis, with the Moratorium Now! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs, carried a banner reading, “Jobs and Education, Not War or Jails.”

In a statement, the Coalition declared, “Don’t balance the budget on the backs of the workers and poor. TAKE IT FROM THE BANKS AND THE CORPORATIONS. THERE’S PLENTY OF $$$!”

American Labor Improvement Association calls for general strike