“PEOPLE’S ARMY” MARCHES ON GOV.’S HOUSE VS. EM’S ON MLK DAY; WHAT WILL OBAMA DO?

Defend Democracy! Stop Gov. Snyder E. Manager!  A No Struggle, No Development! Production By Kenny Snodgrass (comments at end of article.) 

Marchers demand an end to EM’s in majority-Black cities like Detroit WHAT WILL OBAMA DO? 

By Diane Bukowski 

January 25, 2011 

DETROIT – This week, U.S. President Barack Obama plans to visit Michigan as part of his campaign kick-off for President in November, 2012, according to recent reports. He is beginning today in Iowa and then will travel to Arizona.

It is unclear if he will come to Detroit, where the city’s residents are in imminent danger of being returned to the status of Blacks in the South prior to the civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That movement included the heroic voter registration drives, the integration of the public school systems, and the National Voting Rights Act that Dr. King and hundreds of thousands fought and died for.                                                                                                     

President Obama’s visit to Michigan will be a momentous opportunity for the nation’s first Black president. But will he address the fact that Detroit residents are in danger of losing those same voting rights to Emergency Managers, as have the residents of other majority-Black cities in Michigan, and that majority Black school districts are being decimated  and  replaced by charter schools to        What Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did at     make way for new “gentrified,”               the Edmund Pettus bridge in Alabama white-dominated neighborhoods?   

 To date, the Voice of Detroit has received only a noncommital response from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Zochitl Hinojosa regarding a letter U.S. Congressman John Conyers (D-Detroit) sent to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s Dec.2. The letter asked that the USDOJ open an investigation into violations of the National Voting Rights in Michigan due to Public Act 4, the Emergency Manager, or “Dictator” law as some have termed it. (Click on U-S-Representative-John-Conyers-Jr-s-Letter-to-Attorney-General-Regarding-Michigan-Emergency-Manager-December-1-2011[1] to read letter.) 

Hinojosa replied on Jan. 23, “We are reviewing the letter and decline further comment at this time.” She implied that no response has yet been sent, almost two months after the letter was received. 

On Jan. 24, a member of Conyers’ staff said that his office has not received even a courtesy reply indicating the USDOJ will look into the matter, explaining that they do not comment on investigations until charges are brought. Eighty communities across Michigan are in deficit and many have been for years. However, predominantly white communities do not face the PA4 lash.

“As we come to grips with the reality that fully two-thirds of the states in the United States have legislated some form of voter suppression policy, according to Ben Jealous of the National NAACP, clearly Public Act 4 is not just significant in Michigan,” Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said in a recent release. “This is a part of a national agenda to place a chilling effect on the potential electorate of 2012; and the campaign to re-elect President Barack Obama.” 

But therein lies the rub. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  The attack on Michigan’s Black electorate, or Obama’s failure to respond to the demands of Blacks in the U.S., by cutting the military budget and ending wars abroad to fund the cities and provide jobs, and to overcome attacks on the voting rights of Black peoople? 

“Years ago, WEB Dubois made the decision not to participate in the election because of neither party’s willingness to confront the chronic problems of black unemployment and racial inequality,” Dr. Boyce Watkins, editor of Your Black World.com, said in a recent video conference. “Given that black people are worse off economically than they’ve been in two decades, should the same option be considered today?” (Video at end of story.) 

What about the option to devote the people’s energies instead on mass direct action like that initiated by the national Occupy Wall Street movement? 

MLK DAY MARCH ON GOV. SNYDER’S HOUSE: “THE PEOPLE’S ARMY” 

On the national Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday Jan. 16, 3,000 Michigan residents came from all over the state to converge on Governor Rick Snyder’s mansion in the exclusive gated community of Valleyview Estates. 

Edith Payne, who marched with Dr. King, said “The EM law desecrates the memory of Dr. King and all he died for. Our government needs to obey U.S. and state laws, and Public Act 4 violates those laws.” Payne is one of the litigants in a lawsuit against the act, which Snyder has stalled by getting the state Supreme Court to override the Ingham County Circuit’s right to hold an initial hearing on the suit. 

It was an awesome spectacle. Marchers chanted, “Who who who are we? We are the people’s army!” and “Dictators and Snyder say good-bye, we’ll run this state and occupy.” They came from Benton Harbor, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Inkster, Muskegon Heights, Pontiac, Washtenaw County, and numerous other areas suffering under Snyder’s soft-spoken but dictatorial rule. 

Wealthy whites living in the compound brought their children to the gates to see all the Black, working and poor people gathering outside. Snyder never moved to the governor’s mansion because he wanted his daughter to continue attending school in their wealthy district rather than in Lansing, which is 23 percent Black, with a per capita income of only $19, 408.

Marchers raised the issue of the $1 billion Michigan budget surplus just announced by Snyder and the state legislature. The surplus resulted from huge cuts in funding for education and revenue-sharing to the cities, and the public assistance cut-offs of tens of thousands of mainly women and children, in a state where jobs are few. 

It was a windfall for the banks, which will claim a large part to re-pay the state debt. Like the little pig on a current commercial, corporate executives meanwhile are going “whee, whee, whee” all the way to the bank to celebrate their own $1 billion tax break. 

Retirees are left paying taxes on their pensions for the first time, as breaks like the homestead property tax rebate are being steadily eliminated, and union contracts are being busted, downgrading workers’ wages and eliminating their benefits. 

Marchers chanted, “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out” as they proceeded miles down Valleyview Drive to Snyder’s home. “We don’t need emergency managers, we need emergency re-investment,” they shouted, and   “We want our money, we want our share!” 

As Councilwoman JoAnn Watson has repeatedly raised, the state of Michigan owes the city of Detroit over $220 million in revenue-sharing funds, part of a deal negotiated under a previous governor in which the city agreed to cut its income tax rates. Snyder has made the specious argument that he is not obligated to carry out what another governor negotiated. Even though the money would cover Detroit’s expected deficit of $155 million, he said it would only represent a “stopgap measure.” 

Marchers on Jan. 16 were barred by only a scarce few state troopers from actually entering the compound, although there was an open walkway gate.

 WHAT WOULD DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. HAVE DONE?

Some of the young participants from Occupy Detroit and By Any Means Necessary began an occupation blockading the entrance to the compound, but march organizer Rev. Charles Williams II of the National Action Network told them it was time to leave. He declared the march over by 5:30 pm, although it was supposed to last until 7 p.m. according to his own Facebook posts. 

Speeches by Williams, Bullock, and other organizers are featured in the video above, by Kenny Snodgrass, and need not be repeated here. 

According to an article in Ann Arbor.com, Williams also spoke politely to Gov. Snyder’s chief of staff Dennis Muchmore during the rally, asking him to relay the marchers’ message to Snyder, who was nowhere to be seen, and who certainly did not welcome marchers to his home. 

“We certainly recognize the concerns and we share those concerns, and we want to make sure that all of these cities are vibrant and have got a financial status for the future that can be sustained,” Muchmore told AnnArbor.com afterwards, using Snyder soft-speak. 

“I think everybody has a concern about what happens to cities or school districts or townships when they have a problem financially,” he said. “We think that in each of these situations, what we’ve got to do is try to find some kind of common ground between the community to solve the problems. If we can do that, we will do that.” 

State worker at march on Governor’s house; public assistance has been cut off to thousands of recipients

Such Snyder soft-speak may be making inroads with some Black politicians, including City Council President Pro-Tem Gary Brown who has advocated  a “consent agreement,” as Snyder has done.  Brown and Council President Charles Pugh met with members of the review team Jan. 24, although Council members JoAnn Watson and Kwame Kenyatta refused to do so, citing the unconstitutionality of Public Act 4.

But during an NAACP “Allies, Activities and Issues” meeting the same day, Pugh’s aide Quantez Pressley said Council members are experiencing doubts about the matter.

“After several conversations with [Snyder] administration officials along with the State Treasurer,” Pressley said, “many Council members are nervous about the prospect of a consent agreement as thethe state envisions it. It looks like an emergency manager under another name.”

The Detroit Public Schools lasted three months in 2008 under a draconian “consent agreement” before former Gov. Jennifer Granholm decided a complete state takeover was in order for a second time. 

As Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said last year, “A consent agreement consents to the takeaway, the giveaway of Detroit. It has a trigger that says if you don’t pay your bills on time, or numerous other situations, you end up on a slippery slope to an emergency manager (EM) within seconds. There is nothing to be gained from giving away our city, we don’t have that right.”  (Click on VOD story http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/12/31/no-pa-4-consent-agreement-or-em-for-detroit/.)

 VOD asked Rev. Maurice Rudd, an ally of Williams, whether their organizations would call for a tactic that would hit the powers that be in their pocketbooks, namely a  boycott of Michigan businesses,  if the current petition drives and lawsuits to defeat Public Act 4 fail or are stymied by state legislation or the governor.  

“We haven’t decided that yet,” Rudd said. Rev. Jesse Jackson of Rainbow:PUSH  responded to the idea with an emphatic “No” last September outside Detroit’s state building, during a march against the imminent public assistance cut-offs of thousands. 

Jackson was also in town to attend Rainbow:PUSH’s Global Automotive Summit at the MGM Grand Casino the following week, during which he wined and dined with the world’s top auto executives. Autoworkers later expressed their views on the matter during a protest outside the “International Detroit Auto Show.” (Click on  http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/01/13/workers-demand-good-jobs-for-all-no-detroit-takeover-outside-auto-show/ ) 

VOD spoke to some of the marchers to get their perspectives. 

Charles Nash, a former school board member from Muskegon, now mentors youth for a non-profit agency. 

“Muskegon Heights schools have been taken over by an EFM, who is looking at the possible shutdown of our school district, or combining it with another one,” Nash said. “This will cause unemployment, and force students to attendother districts.” 

Muskegon Heights is 76.3  percent Black. 

“When you destroy the tax base through lay-offs and unemployment, and diminish revenue streams, there will be no more local services,” said James Barber of Muskegon County. “Only the wealthy folks at the top are benefiting.” 

Bishop Walter Starghill Jr, of the Face to Face Outreach Ministries in Inskter, said, “Other cities with financial problems way worse than Inkster, like Allen Park, have not faced EM takeovers. We’ve done everything they asked for, but are still faced with an EM. We want elected officials, not anyone who does not know Inkster and what it can be. We want our share of the state surplus, we pay taxes, but they’re financing everyone else.” 

Inkster Mayor Hilliard Hampton said at the NAACP meeting Jan. 24 that the city’s EM review team has now sent its report to State Treasurer Andy Dillon, and that he does not expect positive results. He called on Black mayors all over the state to join forces to stop the racist takeovers.

Inkster is 72.3 percent Black.

The Flint Journal reported that that city’s EM Michael Brown has now sent his financial plan for the city to State Treasurer Andy Dillion, pending release to the public. Brown has already laid off at least ten employees, and terminated the city’s civil service commission and ombudsman office.A young organizer from Flint at the march said Flint is the only city in Michigan which still has an occupy camp. He was among those who sat down outside the gates of Snyder’s enclave to increase the militancy of the protest. 

Flint is 56.6 percent Black.

Mari Cruz Lopez was among many youth who attended the march representing the By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) coalition. She read a telling statement from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s. speech to the Aug. 28, 1963 March on Washington. 

“In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capitol to cash a check,” Dr. King proclaimed. “When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.  This was a promise that all men, yes Black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable’ rights of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds. 

“But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity in this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us on demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. . . .This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality . . . .And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”

Video above from Kenny Snodgrass, videographer, whose comments follow:

Sunday January 15, a press conference was held to “Stop The Emergency Manager Law!” This has been used to come into cities having economic crises, but people feel it is only a new way of taking over our cities’ government and taking away our democracy!

A press conference was held at The Historic King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit, MI. Some of the people attending were Senior Pastor Charles E. Williams II, Associate Pastor Rev. Charles E. Williams Sr., Rev. Al Sharpton, Congressman John Conyers, Charles Simmons, esq, Associate Minister Sandra Simmons, etc.

Then on Monday they celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday by going to the Governor’s house in the Ann Arbor MI. area, where they rallied and march for the rights of Michigan citizens: Who Will Run The City Of Detroit? People came from Benton Harbor, Detroit, Flint, Pontiac, Ecorse, Highland Park, Muskegon etc. —

A No Struggle, No Development! Production By Kenny Snodgrass, Activist, Photographer, Videographer,

Author of From Victimization To Empowerment… eBook available at http://ebookstore.sony.com/search?keyword=Kenneth+Snodgrass

www.YouTube.com/KennySnod http://www.trafford.com/07-0913

Discussion between Dr. Boyce Watkins and Yvette Carnell on her article at http://www.yourblackworld.com/2012/01/23/yvette-carnell-on-president-obama-and-the-black-community-what-went-wrong-and-how-to-fix-it/