RIVERSIDE, California (Reuters) – A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday granted bankruptcy protection to the California city of San Bernardino, paving the way for a precedent-setting battle between bondholders and California’s giant public pension system.
The case is being closely watched by other U.S. cities, including Detroit, which declared the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy last month, where budgets are burdened by soaring pension costs.
San Bernadino City Hall.
Judge Meredith Jury of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California ruled that San Bernardino was eligible for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection despite opposition by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or Calpers. The $260 billion pension fund is the city’s biggest creditor and America’s largest pension fund.
“I am ruling as a matter of law that the city is eligible,” Jury said. “I don’t think anyone in this courtroom seriously thought the city was anything but insolvent.”
A city must be insolvent and have proof to have negotiated in good faith with creditors to be eligible for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy.
Michael Gearing, an attorney appearing for Calpers, called Jury’s decision a “dangerous precedent” that will encourage other cities to “create a crisis because they have a large number of creditors.”
Amy Norris, a Calpers spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement: “Calpers is considering its options for appeals.”
San Bernardino, a city of 210,000 located 60 miles east of Los Angeles, filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2012, citing a $46 million deficit and arguing that it had effectively run out of cash to meet its daily obligations.
The city must negotiate with its creditors and produce a final bankruptcy plan on which the judge will ultimately have to rule. Whether pension and other debt payments, including to holders of $50 million in pension obligation bonds, will have to be treated equally or not will remain a key issue – one that could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
LIKE OTHER CREDITORS?
Calpers argues that it should not be treated like other creditors and must be paid in full because California state law says the fund must always be fully paid, even in a bankruptcy. Bondholders argue that federal bankruptcy law trumps state statutes and say Calpers should be forced to fight with other creditors over how much they are paid under an exit plan.
Stockton, CA City Hall.
Another California city, Stockton, which was also found eligible for municipal bankruptcy protection in April, is expected to present an exit plan in September. Creditors will be asked to vote on the plan.
The judge overseeing that case said dealing with Stockton’s obligations to Calpers will probably be unavoidable under an exit plan.
In an unprecedented move, San Bernardino stopped paying its $1.2 million bimonthly employer payments to Calpers for a year after declaring bankruptcy, the first California city to halt payments to the fund.
It resumed paying Calpers last month but continues to renege on payments to other creditors, including holders of $50 million in pension obligation bonds.
Calpers said the city still owes the fund $14.3 million in arrears and that it will “aggressively pursue all past due contributions, resulting interest and penalties.”
“These payments are statutorily required and necessary to deliver on the pension benefits promised to San Bernardino employees as a form of deferred compensation,” the powerful pension system said.
But the judge questioned who will provide for those payments.
“If Calpers gets all the money they want, under what they say is their statutory right, who isn’t going to get paid? All the employees? How is that going to help Calpers?” she said.
The case is In re San Bernardino, 12-bk-28006, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California (Riverside).
(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Tiziana Barghini, Dan Grebler and Stacey Joyce)
In a surprise move, the 40,000-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union announced its disaffiliation from the AFL-CIO yesterday. The news comes just a week before the federation is set to hold its national convention in Los Angeles, the nation’s biggest port and an ILWU stronghold.
The ILWU, known for its militant traditions and progressive politics, has been drawn into turf wars with other unions in recent years—particularly in the grain export terminals of the Pacific Northwest, where longshore workers have been locked in a high-stakes battle over master contract standards since 2011.
ILWU Pres. Robert McEllrath (center).
In an August 29 letter to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, ILWU President Robert McEllrath cited these ongoing juristictional battles as part of the union’s decision to disaffiliate. The skirmishes hit close to home: McEllrath comes out of Vancouver, Washington’s Local 4, where members of rival unions are crossing ILWU picket lines, and debate over the disputes was squelched at this summer’s state labor convention.
“[The AFL-CIO] wants to organize these big conventions, and rally to pat themselves on the back, doing nothing to promote the working-class,” said ILWU Coast Committeeman, Leal Sundet, who supported the union’s decision to disaffiliate.
ILWU supports single-payer health care plan, not Obamacare.
Sundet also chided the federation’s position on immigration reform. The AFL-CIO is backing a bill that he contends will only make things harder for working-class immigrants, because it is “designed to give [only] highly-paid workers a real path to citizenship.”
It’s clear, however, that the overriding factor in the break is fallout from the ILWU’s ongoing struggle to maintain its longstanding contract standards—and jurisdiction—for 3,000 longshore workers who handle grain along the Puget Sound and Columbia River. Sundet is in the middle of the storm, heading up grain negotiations for the union.
Grain Strain
Longshore workers in the region move nearly 30 percent of all U.S. grain exports, including half the nation’s wheat shipments.
After talks broke down in December between the ILWU and the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association, two of the four employers—United Grain and Columbia Grain—imposed their “last, best, and final offer,” in hopes of provoking a strike. Meanwhile the union hammered out a separate deal with TEMCO, a joint venture between global agribusiness companies CHS and Cargill.
In both cases ILWU members have been rankled by Electrical Workers (IBEW) and other union members crossing their picket lines, escorted in by the company’s private security forces. Adding insult to injury, the IBEW has initiated internal AFL-CIO procedures to contest ILWU jurisdiction over maintenance and repair work in multiple ports in the region.
The lockouts follow on the heels of a pitched battle over 25 jobs in Longview, Washington, in 2011. ILWU members squared off with grain giant EGT after the company announced it would operate its new state-of-the-art terminal with the more compliant Operating Engineers (IUOE) union. After months of picketing and direct action—including occupation of the grain terminal, a blockaded train shipment, and scores of arrests—the ILWU finally reached an agreement.
Despite the militancy, the EGT contract loosened work rules and staffing standards compared to the master grain contract.
The solo agreement with TEMCO mirrored some of these concessions. But the employer holdouts are banking that they can spread more of the concessions EGT got, such as regular 12-hour shifts, bypassing seniority, and greater flexibility to use supervisors for bargaining unit work.
Solidarity Divided
ILWU members see the turf battles with rival unions as an additional, unwelcome hurdle to surmount, in an already difficult employer battle.
Several hundred ILWU members and supporters marched to Mitsui-United Grain’s Vancouver headquarters on March 8, 2013, led by International President Robert McEllrath and International Vice President Ray Familathe. Photo by Jared Moultrie, ILWU Local 4.
Attempts to bridge the divisions using the machinery of the AFL-CIO have sputtered, according to Cager Clabaugh, president of ILWU Local 4. One particularly galling example for Clabaugh, a former state fed vice president, was a move to scuttle discussion of the conflicts at the Washington state AFL-CIO convention in July.
“We’re at the state labor convention for three days, a half-mile from the picket line of my membership where we’ve been locked out for five months, and nobody’s even brought up our lockout, not once,” Clabaugh said. “Our resolution gets shot down, not even considered. We can’t even talk about labor inside the house of labor, and that’s wrong.
“It made me sick watching these big unions play politics instead of figure out a way to support solidarity.” Clabaugh said. “If only as much focus and effort was put on trying to figure out a way to let their members do the right thing, or even educate members on why we don’t cross picket lines, why it’s important.” Continue reading →
Full Video Brawl Black Students Fight White Police At Granny’s Restaurant In Detroit.
From Brainfood Videos on YouTube; submitted to VOD by Fige Bornu
August 29, 2o13
After a brawl with the police, two brothers are charged with assaulting officers but they say they’re the real victims and have the proof to prove it: the whole fight was caught on video. It all started when 20-year-old Tywonn Mitchell and Naybon Moore, 26, were driving to Grandy’s Coney Island back in May. They say that’s when Detroit Police began profiling them, tailing their car. The brothers pulled into the restaurant and the police car backed away, so they thought everything was fine.
But then the officers followed them into the Coney Island, and asked to see their IDs. The brothers asked to know what they had done wrong, (as you can hear in the video), both of them aware of their rights. One is studying criminal justice and the other is studying law. That’s when one of the brothers flipped his hands, and it turned into a full-on brawl. The brothers were taken into custody. Fast forward three months now, and they are charged with assault and battery on a police officer, obstruction of justice, and resisting arrest. But they claim, they are the real victims here.
Detroit Police Department tells us, when the incident happened the officers admitted they used force and a command level investigation was conducted.
The officers say when they were investigating inside the Coney Island, one of the officers extended his hand and asked one of the brothers to step back, but he slapped the officers hand in return. At that point the police officer responded with force. The use of force was deemed appropriate and reasonable after intensive review of the video and interviewing the brothers.
Additional VOD comment: Police officers have no legal right to ask to see your ID unless you are driving at the time. They CANNOT just stop you on foot and demand to see it.
Milliman execs stayed in “the world’s most expensive hotel” for this conference; now Milliman has established an office in wealth capital Dubai.
DETROIT – In response to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes’ demand that city consultant Milliman, Inc. appear in court Aug. 28 to defend its secrecy requirement on negative pension fund liabilities reports, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr said that Milliman has withdrawn that requirement, in a “Motion for a Protective Order” filed Aug. 23.
“There have been releases or information provided by the city about those reports, but they are not actual actuarial statements,” Atty. Robert Gordon, representing the retirement systems, told Judge Rhodes during the last bankruptcy hearing Aug. 21.
The retirement systems have objected that the Milliman reports, which claim the systems are $3.5 billion under-funded, are based on admitted “guesstimates.” A recent report by Morningstar, a major investment research firm, says the systems’ own actuarial reports, which show them to be in good shape, are in line with accepted practice in the industry.
“Since the August 21, 2013 hearing, the City has taken steps to ensure that all interested parties have appropriate, unrestricted access to the materials in the data room,” Orr’s motion says. “Moreover, the City has approached Milliman about the limitations on access to its materials, and Milliman has agreed to amend its contract with the City to eliminate access restrictions. Those having access to the data room will no longer be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement with Milliman.”
Detroit EM Kevyn Orr.
The Milliman reports are among 70,000 pages of bankruptcy-related documents in a city “data room,” which have also been subject to a general NDA requirement.
Jones Day attorney Gregory Shumaker told Judge Rhodes that Orr wants to keep secret “cash projections related to the city’s financial future.” He said different scenarios might develop, and that not all the information in the room is relevant to the case.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes.
“Doesn’t the city want every one of its citizens to see what city’s financial future is projected to look like?” Judge Rhodes asked. “Generally speaking speculation and conjecture are not the basis for confidentiality . . . .this is bankruptcy: what’s not relevant?”
Despite backing down from his original position, Orr still wants Judge Rhodes to grant a protective order on the documents.
He is asking Rhodes to rule that “The Debtor may redact personally identifiable information of the City and third parties contained in any and all documents and materials that it provides to interested parties. Personally identifiable information shall include names, physical and electronic addresses, telephone numbers, social security numbers, financial account numbers, and any other information whose disclosure would create an undue risk of identity theft or other unlawful injury.”
He does not explain what “other unlawful injury” might include. The motion also argues, “Although Fed. R. Civ. P. Rule 26(b)(1) and Fed. R. Bankr. P. Rule 7026 generally permit broad discovery of any non-privileged and relevant matter, the Court ‘may, for good cause, issue an order to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense.'”
Former Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow with Fitch Ratings’ Joe O’Keefe during City Council session Jan. 31, 2005
For example, Sean Werdlow, who was Detroit’s Chief Financial Officer during negotiations over the $1.5 billion “Pension Obligation Certificate” (POC) loans from UBS AG and SBS Financial in 2005 and 2006, promptly took a top management position with SBS after the deal was solidified.
Names relevant to the POC loan would also include Wall Street ratings agency representatives Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poor’s, and Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings, who lobbied for the loan with the Detroit City Council during its session Jan. 31, 2005, a highly unusual and possibly collusive action.
The motion is to be argued during the next bankruptcy hearing Wed. Aug. 28 at 10 a.m., among other matters.
Former UBS AG banker Peter Ghavami leaves the Manhattan Federal Court in New York July 24, 2013. He and two other UBS traders were given prison terms for fraud related to municipal bonds. REUTERS Eduardo Munoz
Rhodes also ordered Orr and two other city witnesses to subject themselves to six hours of depositions by objectors to a “Forbearance Agreement.” That agreement would allow the city to continue paying UBS AG, SBS, Bank of America and Citigroup on costly “swap agreements” connected to the POC loan during the pendency of the bankruptcy, although at a 25 percent discount.
A hearing on the agreement itself is to be held Monday, Sept. 9 at 10 a.m.
Meanwhile, Judge Rhodes is also expected to rule on swap insurer Syncora, Inc.’s objection to release of casino taxes held hostage to ensure payment on the POC loan and related swaps, by Aug. 28.
Orr previously obtained a “Temporary Restraining Order” against Syncora which forced it to release the funds, which amount to about $178 million a year. Extensive arguments were put forward on both sides of the issue Aug. 21.
Protest against EM Orr’s “public meeting” June 10, 2013. David Sole is second from left.
Two objectors to the Forbearance Agreement, Attorney Jerome Goldberg representing city retiree David Sole, and Attorney Gordon representing the pension systems, argued that not only should the casino taxes be released, but that the city should cease payment on the swaps as well.
Jones Day attorneys repeatedly said Aug. 21 that the city has continued to pay on the swaps despite the bankruptcy stay, arguing that this allows the release of the casino taxes. Orr ceased payment on the POC loan itself on June 14, prior to the bankruptcy filing.
“We feel this whole issue is major,” Goldberg said during the hearing. “Tons of money are involved. It goes to the efficacy of the forbearance agreement, and the fact that less funds will be available for city workers’ pensions because of money going to the banks. We have raised valid arguments on whether the automatic stay does apply [to the swap payments themselves.]”
Gordon expressed concurrence with Goldberg’s arguments.
Objectors want not only casino taxes released, but an end to payment on swaps.
In the Sole motion against the forbearance agreement, Goldberg addressed the issue of the swaps and the casino taxes. Goldberg agreed with Jones Day attorneys that the casino taxes do not constitute “special revenues” that can be exempted from the bankruptcy stay.
“ . . .pursuant to both Michigan law and City of Detroit ordinances which incorporate the law, casino tax revenues are for general public purposes, and specifically are not to be appropriated for the payment of Interest Rate Swaps,” his objection reads.
The full objection asserts that “ . . . [T]here are numerous issues that must be examined, based on (1) the criminal indictments of several UBS and Bank of America executives who dealt in the banks’ municipal bond departments; (2) issues concerning potential fraud with regard to calculations of interest using the Libor as an index as well as the “ISDA fix” with regard to the setting of termination fees; (3) the huge differential the banks are netting from the City of Detroit relative to the meager interest rate actually being paid on the bonds; and (4) the role the banks played in issuing massive quantities of subprime mortgages to Detroit’s population which created the current financial crisis, that at least rate examination by the Court before it okays a forbearance agreement that removes the POCs and connected Interest Rate Swaps from the bankruptcy proceedings.
Protesters demand the banks pay for Detroit’s crisis, outside BOA offices in the Guardian Building Aug 19, 2013.
“The potential exists that this honorable Court may find the claims by UBS and Bank of America ripe for disallowance or equitable subordination. The potential that this could occur, especially in light of the cost to the City of Detroit of hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to the banks for doing what amounts to nothing, and thus depriving pensioners, city workers and community residents of compensation for the years of labor and years of paying taxes, should weigh heavily in favor of the Court denying the City of Detroit’s Motion for Approval of the Forbearance Agreement and allowing the interest rate swaps to remain part of the bankruptcy.”
In his Proposal for Creditors issued June 14, Orr himself noted obscurely, ‘The City has identified certain issues related to the validity and/or enforceability of the COPS that may warrant further investigation.” He has not done so
Robert Davis
In other matters before Judge Rhodes Aug. 21, Attorney Andrew Paterson agreed, in response to Rhodes’ repeated insistence, that his client Robert Davis will not challenge Orr’s right to hold office as Emergency Manager. In exchange, the city was to withdraw its contention that Davis’ Open Meetings Act lawsuit against Gov. Rick Snyder, State Treasurer Andy Dillon, and the Emergency Financial Loan Board, violated Rhodes’ extended stay. That OMA lawsuit contended that the defendants operated secretly in appointing Orr.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Rhodes held a session closed to the public and the media, and not recorded, with the parties directly related to the casino tax issue.
U. S. Trustee Daniel M. McDermott/Facebook
Meanwhile, U.S. Trustee Daniel M. McDermott appointed a so-called “Retirees Committee” over objections that it was premature under Chapter 9 law, because no bankruptcy eligibility determination has yet been made. A hearing on that is not set until Oct. 23. McDermott’s office never responded to an email inquiry from VOD about the legitimacy of the committee.
Members of the Committee are:
Edward McNeil, representing members of the Detroit, Michigan Retiree Sub-Chapter 98 of AFSCME
Michael J. Karwoski, a retired city attorney who asked for broad notice to all retirees of bankruptcy proceedings during an earlier hearing
Ed McNeil, exec. assistant to Al Garrett, pres. AFSCME Co. 25, testifies against PA 4 consent agreement April 2, 2012 at City Council.
Shirley Lightsey of Southfield, president of the Detroit Retired City Employees Association (DRCEA)
Donald Taylor, a retired police officer and president of the Retired Detroit Police & Fire Fighters Association
Wendy Fields-Jacobs of the UAW.
Lawyer Terri Renshaw of Onsted.
Gail Wilson Turner, a former deputy police chief.
Gail Wilson, an attorney previously with Southfield Public Schools and the Legal Aid and Defender Association.
Robert Shinske, of Dearborn, treasurer for the Detroit Fire Fighters Association.
No one is on the committee representing the boards of the Detroit General Retirement System and/or the Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System, whose 23,500 members elect the majority of their trustees. Instead of using those systems to contact retirees, as Karwoski suggested, Rhodes contracted “claims and noticing” functions to a California firm, Kurtzman Carlson.
Susan Glaser, DGRS president and long-time pension board trustee.
No general notice went out to all retirees that they could apply for the committee. Notices are posted on the bankruptcy court and city websites, but all retirees do not have access to a computer or even general awareness of what it happening. Kurtzman Carlson did send out a “Notice of Commencement of Case Under Chapter 9,” to retirees’ home addresses, indicating that it has obtained those addresses independently of the pension systems, without retirees’ consent.
McDermott’s notice of the committee formation gave the committee “fiduciary” responsibilities, although the Retirement Systems hold all retiree-related assets.
The Detroit Free Press reported, “Committee members have a fiduciary duty to negotiate with Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr’s team about any future changes to retiree pensions, health care and benefits included in the restructuring plan Orr says he will propose by the end of the year. The committee would make recommendations for the retirees, who would have the final vote on any plan that changes their benefits.”
The Free Press reported inaccurately that the DRCEA and the RDPFFA represent all 23,500 city retirees. In fact, DRCEA Pres. Shirley Lightsey said in a letter to EM Orr that their membership is 6500. RDFFFA Pres. Don Taylor told the Freep itself in a videotaped interview (see below) that his organization also has 6500 members.
The Freep quoted the associations’ attorney saying thay they want a “third opinion” on the funding levels of the pension systems, other that of Gabriel, Roeder and Smith, the official actuaries for the retirement systems and city consultant Milliman, Inc.
No details have been provided on how a vote by 23,500 geographically scattered retirees will take place, and how information about any negotiations will be disseminated to retirees. The only parties with full lists of retirees’ names and addresses are the retirement systems themselves and the City of Detroit. Since the city is the debtor in the case, and retirees are creditors, it would be inappropriate for the city to mail any voting notices.
Numerous objections to Detroit’s eligibility for bankruptcy have been filed, citing protections in the Michigan State Constitution for public pensions. The legitimacy of any “vote” contrary to those protections will likely be hotly disputed by the retirement systems.
Rally to save Detroit’s Oakman Orthopedic School from closure, at Fisher Bldg. July 24, 2013.
25-City Alliance Demands Stop To School Deserts
August 26, 2013
DETROIT – In light of school closings throughout the country targeting low-income communities of color and led to school deserts, Detroit will join a national 25-city coalition to call for a moratorium on school closings, turnarounds, phase outs and charter expansions.
MLK Day March in Detroit from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. High School, 2011.
As the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the March On Washington, Journey for Justice (J4J) members’ agenda is similar: racial justice and equal opportunity for all children – regardless of color, class or community – to a quality and safe education.
Detroit students, parents and advocates will hold an Education as A Human Right Day rally in front of Detroit Public Schools headquarters to protest the closure of Oakman Orthopedic Elementary School, and to demand a stop to all school closings that destabilize entire communities, create no right-of-access of public schools for at-risk
students; and do not deliver improved academic performance of displaced low-income students of color.
Rally to Save Oakman May 15 2013. MLive photo
Detroit Parents, students and community members demand:
Removal of Oakman Orthopedic School from closure list, as well as
other closures/consolidations unilaterally made by the Emergency
Manager
An End to Emergency Management of DPS and an End to School Privatization
Sustainable School Transformation that partners parents and schools
to work collaboratively for school improvements
National Journey for Justice Alliance demands include:
Moratorium on all school closings, turnarounds, phase outs and
charter expansions
Its proposal for Sustainable School Transformation to replace
failed intervention strategies for struggling schools.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to be held accountable for
discriminatory, top-down policies that target communities of color and
have not improved student outcomes.
Rally at Oakman School May 15, 2013. MLive photo
WHO: Hundreds of students, parents and community representatives from across Michigan are expected to join Detroit’s “Education as a Human Right Day” on Wednesday, August 28th, in coordination with national actions with our following allies across the country: -Oakland, Calif.; San Jose, Calif.; Los Angeles; Hartford, Conn.; District of Columbia; Atlanta; Miami; Chicago; Wichita, Kan.; New Orleans; Baltimore; Minneapolis; Camden, N.J.; Englewood, N.J.; Paterson, N.J.; Jersey City, N.J.; Newark; New York; North Carolina, Boston; Eupora, Miss.; Jackson, Miss.; Philadelphia; South Carolina.
WHEN/ “Education as a Human Right” Day to Save Oakman Orthopedic Elementary
WHERE: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 3 p.m.
Detroit Public Schools Headquarters, Fisher Bldg, 3011 W. Grand Blvd
WHY: A clear pattern of documented racial and economic discrimination has demonstrated that while there have been advances in the nation, as shown by the election of the nation’s first Black president, the federal administration’s policies have embodied education strategies that continue to perpetuate racial and class bias and support inequality in the quality of education.
ABOUT JOURNEY FOR JUSTICE ALLIANCE
Journey for Justice is a national grassroots alliance whose goal is to bring the voice of those directly impacted by discriminatory school actions into the debate about the direction for public education in the 21st century and to promote equality in education for all students and sustainable, community-driven school reform for all school districts across the country. Earlier this year parents in 10 cities filed Title VI Civil Rights complaints with both the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice.
DPS DISREGARDS ITS OWN DATA, FOIA LAW, AND SPECIAL EDUCATION RULES IN RUSH TO CLOSE BELOVED COMMUNITY SCHOOL
By Dr. Thomas C. Pedroni August 16, 2013
Former DPS Emergency Manager Roy Roberts could at times be disarmingly candid. One of those moments came in April, as he unveiled the district’s new strategic plan. Closing more schools every year, he acknowledged, was a losing plan.
Former DPS EM Roy Roberts with boss Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder
“When the team came to me with schedules for reviewing the list of schools that might have to close, I was extremely uncomfortable,” Roberts confided. “I said if this was a Fortune 500 company with a board of directors, and the leadership team continued to bring that board plans year after year that did nothing to stop a loss of market share or a plant closing, the board would fire the entire team.”
Roberts, who had unparalleled authority over DPS affairs, didn’t fire his team. Instead he set the district on a new course. Since 2009 DPS Emergency Managers had taken more than 100 schools off the books. Now he was reversing course. Only four schools– not 28– would be closed. And these would be the last.
As for those final four, “I do not take the closing of any school or program lightly.” Roberts noted with gravity. “In fact there is nothing that I take more seriously because I know the impact closing a school can have on a community.”
Oakman Orthopedic School
But Roberts’ seriousness in his decision to close at least one of those schools, Oakman Elementary/Orthopedic, is hard to discern.
Oakman serves approximately 300 PreK to 5 children, about 40 percent of whom have special needs. Because special and general education students comingle from their first day of school, young children grow up seeing the humanity in each other. This goes a long way to eradicating the fear and stereotypes that lead to stigmatization.
Protest organizer Helen Moore of Keep the Vote No Takeover at rally outside Oakman School May 15, 2013.
The school’s distinctive features include accessible entryways, a single floor layout, rooms for performing diaper changes and catheterizations, and a wheelchair accessible greenhouse and playground. School personnel form a tight-knit, loving community of professionals who take tremendous pride in every facet of the school.
Roberts, in a communication to the school’s families in April, explained the need to close the school:
“Facility Condition: Very bad flooring, requires new bathrooms, as well as complete security and mechanical system upgrades at a cost of over $900,000. Sharply declining enrollment: Just 288 students in a school with capacity for 446; approximately 50% of seats un-occupied. Lost 50% of enrollment since 2009.”
But the district has been unable to substantiate any of these claims.
Oakman parents organization chair Aliya Moore addresses July 4 rally outside Detroit EM Kevyn Orr’s home in the Book Cadillac, demanding indepence for Detroit and for its schools. DPS Board members Elena Herrada (l) and Rev. David Murray (2nd from r), along with Helen Moore were among participants.
Enrollment numbers for Oakman are readily available on the DPS website. Rather than declining 50 percent, enrollment has actually increased since 2009, when it stood at 265.
DPS in 2003 determined the school’s capacity to be 290. With an official enrollment of 288 today, the school is operating at 99.3 percent capacity, not 50 percent.
The district maintains that the building capacity is now 446, even though neither the square footage of the building nor the composition of its student body has changed. School leaders, who were never consulted in increasing the school’s stated capacity, surmise that the district has simply inflated the number by over 50 percent by assuming there are no classrooms for students with physical and other health impairments in the building. By law, such classrooms are capped at 10-15.
My Freedom of Information Act request for the district’s rationale for increasing the stated capacity was answered with a single line on a single page stating the school’s present enrollment.
Students after police pepper spray atack during 2007 protest against school closings outside Northern High School.
School personnel also dispute the estimated $900,000 in needed upgrades. My Freedom of Information Act request for an itemization of the needed repairs was answered, again, with a single line on a single page stating the current annual operating costs—and no itemization of needed upgrades.
When I informed the district’s Freedom of Information Act coordinator that I had not received any of the requested information, which by law the district must provide, she told me that I was welcome to file an appeal.
For now I’m filing a different sort of appeal, publicly and directly, to incoming Emergency Manager, Jack Martin.
Mr. Martin, we need a plan for the district to win, not a plan for failure. Please revisit your predecessor’s unwarranted decision to close this commendable school.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (center left) leads 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
“Proximity to Power has always been their Dream.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.–assassinated before he could achieve his ultimate goal.
“US Wars Meant to Maintain Unjust Predatory Overseas Investments! Look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the country. This is a role our nation has taken, … refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that comes from the immense profits of overseas investments. This is not just. ” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
By BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Wed, 08/21/2013
BAR Executive Editor Glen Ford.
The commemoration of the March on Washington has been ruined. President Obama, the global assassin, protector of Wall Street, and reigning Great Mass Incarcerator, will star in the production on the National Mall. “Dr. Martin Luther King serves as a mere prop in the ceremony.” In their embrace of Power, the organizers have desecrated the Black American legacy of struggle.
For those who seek an independent Black politics that is faithful to the historical Black consensus for peace and social justice, the inclusion of President Barack Obama in the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington is a desecration. The ancestral sanctum is to be utterly defiled by the presence of the very personification of imperial savagery and a ballooning domestic police state.
Of course, the organizers of this monumental self-debasement – this obscene groveling at the feet of Power – see Obama’s participation as the ultimate testimony to Black progress. Proximity to Power has always been their Dream. Dr. Martin Luther King serves as a mere prop in the ceremony, which seeks to draw a straight line from the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, through the 1963 mass march, to the First Black President’s embrace of the 2013 commemoration – a kind of holy trinity.
Barack Obama, “President of the Imperialist United States”–Angela Davis, Detroit, 2012
For the Black Misleadership Class, the great social movement in which Dr. King played such a pivotal role was brought forth, not to confront Power, but to integrate it. President Obama is the perfect blending – the literal embodiment of Black Power, in the warped worldview of the 2013 organizers. Dr. King has no place in this abomination, except to mark the tolling of the bell on his dream to overcome the three evils inherent in imperial capitalism: racism, militarism and materialism.
It is a funereal occasion.
“For those that spent much of the next 50 years jockeying for greater opportunities to join structures of power, there is no shame in hosting the nominal head of Empire at a great public ceremony.”
Not that the actors were so different in 1963. But, back then, the grasping Black classes had not yet been launched on the trajectory that would give them a stake in the imperial order. Their status was still aspirational. Years of tumult would unfold – and Dr. King’s assassination – before the system would deign to offer serious silver to the Judases in his entourage and the larger movement. For those that spent much of the next 50 years jockeying for greater opportunities to join structures of power – the “burning house” that Dr. King feared he was leading his people into – there is no shame in hosting the nominal head of Empire at a great public ceremony. Rather, such an event is the pinnacle of success – especially for folks that imagine they have a special, complexional relationship with His Highness.
Black Panthers–vanguard of the revolutionary struggle in the ’60’s and ’70’s.
It has been so long since the dissolution of the Black Freedom Movement, the pretenders to Black leadership have forgotten how to speak the language of struggle. Non-violent “direct action,” Dr. King’s preferred tactic to “create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue,” has degenerated to mean simply marching down a street on a sunny day.
The 1963 march was not an example of direct action – quite the opposite. The purpose was to gather as many people as possible for an orderly and “dignified” demonstration of the movement’s mass following and broad support – and then get them out of town by sundown, as promised to the powers-that-be. The last thing the organizers wanted was that a quarter million marchers create a “crisis” in the heart of Washington – a scenario that Dr. King hoped to organize in the summer of 1968, but was interrupted by an assassin.
“The pretenders to Black leadership have forgotten how to speak the language of struggle.”
The 1963 march was so accommodating to the Kennedy’s demand for orderliness, Malcolm X dubbed it the “Farce on Washington.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X meet; their goals were not far apart.
“It ceased to be a black march; it ceased to be militant; it ceased to be angry; it ceased to be impatient,” said Malcolm. “In fact, it ceased to be a march. It became a picnic, an outing with a festive, circus-like atmosphere….”
It was also the biggest show of massed humanity in the history of the Nation’s Capitol – which certainly made the intended impression. But, accommodation with Power is not what created the movement that brought the throngs to Washington for the one-day “outing,” nor did strolling in the park carry that movement forward in the ensuing years of confrontation with power.
The 1963 March on Washington was sanitized by the organizers, themselves, whose goal was to impress the nation – including other Black people – with the size and the breadth of the forces the leaders could call on at that point in time. It did not seek confrontation on that day, although its immensity served as implicit warning that masses of people were deeply committed to social transformation, and might not always be so orderly.
“Accommodation with Power is not what created the movement that brought the throngs to Washington.”
Modern-day battleagainst poverty. Dr. King was assassinated before his next march, the Poor People’s Campaign, took place, to unite poor and working people of all backgrounds.
In that sense, the event on the Mall was quite unrepresentative of the movement. It was, as Malcolm described from the sidelines, “a festive, circus-like atmosphere” – but it also occurred smack in the middle of years of mortal combat with the “system.” When the march is taken out of the context of what happened before and after, all that remains is the “picnic” and the self-censored, deliberately non-confrontational speeches – most notably Dr. King’s vague “dreaming.” Which perfectly suits the needs of today’s Black Misleadership Class, who have no intention of confronting Power – ever! On the contrary, they cling to the garments of Power, in the person of the First Black President, and wrap themselves in the flag of Empire.
Dr. King rejected U.S. empire, and broke with President Lyndon Johnson over the “inter-related” issues of foreign war and and domestic poverty. There is not a shadow of a doubt that King would denounce Obama in the strongest terms, were he alive, today. Yet, those who pose as his political and moral descendants hug the presidential scorpion to their bosoms.
Malcolm’s critique of the 1963 March does not seem so dated if one substitutes the words “Obama” or “Democrats” for “white liberals”:
1960’s hippies though love would conquer all.
“The white liberals [Democrats/Obama] control the Negro and the Negro vote by controlling the Negro civil rights leaders. As long as they [Democrats/Obama] control the Negro civil rights leaders, they can also control and contain the Negro’s struggle, and they can control the Negro’s so-called revolt.”
This August 28th will be a day of control and containment – amid a love-fest with Power.
What’s the quickest, easiest — if least effective — way to deal with your downtown’s unsightly problem of homelessness? Making it somebody else’s problem.
Because the city government in Columbia, S.C., apparently cribs its planning for homeless outreach from old episodes of “South Park,” it has decided to get its big push broom out of the garage and just sweep the homeless out of the city center.
Children protest Tampa tactics against homelessness.
The Columbia City Council unanimously approved the plan, creating special police patrols that would enforce “quality of life” laws involving loitering, public urination and other crimes not necessarily restricted to the homeless population. Those officers would then offer the homeless a choice: Go to jail for their homelessness or be shuffled to a 240-bed, 24-hour shelter on the outskirts of town, which they wouldn’t be allowed to easily leave.
That second option isn’t jail, mind you, because the homeless are being confined with the help of a local charitable organization. It’s charitable incarceration, you see. The homeless can leave, but they need to set up an appointment and be shuttled by a van.
And just in case any of the offending homeless get any ideas about doing something crazy like, oh, walking into town, officials plan to post an officer — we can only assume it won’t be Brian Dennehy — on the road leading to downtown just to make sure they don’t walk back and go all John Rambo on the place.
Homeless man in Detroit rests at base of Mayor Hazen Pingree statute. The plaque on the statue says Pingree was the first to warn of the dangerous powers of the private corporations.
But, hey, it’s cool: That 240-bed shelter should totally hold the 1,518 homeless people currently living in the Columbia area. Besides, the city is partnering with a charity. Surely they’ll be able to make this exile of the homeless work, right?
Michael Stoops, director of community organizing at the National Coalition for the Homeless, told ThinkProgress, the plan is the “most comprehensive anti-homeless measure” he had ever seen proposed “in any city in the last 30 years.” He added: “Using one massive shelter on the outskirts to house all a city’s homeless is something that has never worked anywhere in the country.”
But there has to be a first time for everything. Maybe this policy doesn’t do anything to make the homeless less homeless. Maybe it doesn’t peek into bigger issues like South Carolina’s 8.1% unemployment rate or Columbia’s 7.9% rate — each higher than the national average. Maybe it doesn’t factor in a state foreclosure rate that ranks among the nation’s Top 10 and far outstrips the national average.
But a city marking the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement can’t get into trouble for segregating a whole portion of the population from the rest of the city just because it doesn’t like the way it looks, can it? Well, there is that whole “equal treatment under the law” business that applies whether someone is shaking a change cup outside of a Starbucks or not.
“The underlying design is that they want the homeless not to be visible in downtown Columbia,” Susan Dunn, South Carolina ACLU’s legal director said. “You can shuttle them somewhere or you can go to jail. That’s, in fact, an abuse of power.”
If homeless people in Tampa want to avoid jail, they’d better find a place to store their things and a bed to sleep in.
That’s because last week, the Tampa City Council passed a new ordinance, Item #60, allowing police officers to arrest someone they see sleeping in public or “storing personal property in public.” The vote was 4-3.
Advocates are outraged over this new law criminalizing homelessness. Holding signs reading “Sleeping Is Not A Crime” and “Homelessness Is Not A Choice,” many demonstrated outside the Council and testified against the measure, to little avail. A number of the protesters were elementary school children who handed out flyers and asked those passing by, “Where are they supposed to go?”
Homelessness is a major, pervasive issue in Tampa. A 2012 study found that, among mid-sized cities, Tampa and the surrounding area had the highest number of homeless individuals at 7,419.
Homeless family.
Exacerbating the problem is the lack of affordable homeless shelters, much less affordable permanent housing. “Most shelters in the Tampa Bay area charge $10 to $42 per night for a single person. They aren’t free,” Tasha Rennels, a Ph.D. student at University of South Florida, told Bay News 9. Though the City Council acknowledged that shelters in the city are full almost every night, they didn’t include any additional funding for new shelters or housing to go along with Item #60.
Tampa isn’t the only city taking on new anti-homeless measures. Last week, a Miami City Commissioner began an effort to throw homeless people in jail who were caught engaging in life-sustaining activities in public, such as eating and sleeping.
City retirees and their supporters joined in protest called by AFSCME Council 25 outside federal courthouse where bankruptcy hearings are being held, on Aug. 19, 2013
City retiree, pension funds object to “Forbearance Agreement”
Hearing set for Tues. Sept. 4 at 10 a.m. before Judge Rhodes
Hundreds protest banks’ role in devastation of Detroit Aug. 19
By Diane Bukowski
August 20, 2013
(Story on bankruptcy eligibility objections will be forthcoming shortly.)
Hundreds protested outside Bank of America offices in downtown Detroit Aug. 19, 2013.. Protest included street theater: here “Judge” Jerome Goldberg convicts “Bankula” of crimes, sentences him to 150 years in prison.
DETROIT – Eye-opening objections filed in the City of Detroit’s bankruptcy case Aug. 16 allege that Detroit creditors UBS AG, SBS Financial Services, and Bank of America may have been guilty of criminal activity related to the $1.5 Pension Obligation Certificates (POC) loans to the city in 2005 and 2006, and related interest swaps.
They also say those banks are continuing to rob the city through a “Forbearance Agreement” reached July 15, 2013, which is subject to approval by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes. Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr earlier boasted that this agreement will release the city’s casino tax revenue of $11 million a year, held as collateral to pay off the POC debt.
Gov. Rick Snyder, EM Kevyn Orr at press conference re: bankruptcy July 19, 2013.
“Detroit has been working its way to a level of insolvency for decades,” Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr said while announcing the bankruptcy filing July 18. “Part of the reason we’re here is that in 2005 and 2006, Detroit borrowed $1.5 billion to provide a solution for pension obligations, then hedged those with swap agreements for which we paid hundreds of millions. We went into default on those agreements in 2009 so we doubled down and pledged the city’s casino revenues to support the agreements. For some time, Detroit has simply not been on a sustainable footing.”
Orr claims that debt is part of an outstanding $3 billion the city owes its pension systems, although they are not a party to the transactions involved and objected strenuously to the issuance of the POC bonds. Then City Councilwoman Sharon McPhail termed POC’s “one of the seven deadly sins of municipal finance.”
Protest outside federal courthouse against bankruptcy Aug. 19, 2013.
City retiree David Sole, the city’s pension funds, and other creditors including insurer Syncora, Inc., have filed objections to “the Forbearance Agreement,” which would allow the city to pay the banks involved 75 cents on the dollar on swaps related to the debt, in return for the “release” of $11 million a year in casino tax revenues held hostage to ensure the city’s payments on the POC debt.
A hearing on the objections is set for Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2013 in front of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes.
City of Detroit retirees came out in force for courthouse protest Aug. 19, 2013.
The objections by Sole and the pension fund allege that the agreement will cost the city hundreds of millions more than what the discount saves. Despite the bankruptcy’s stay on debts, the city has continued to pay UBS and its partners on the swaps, Orr earlier admitted during a press conference July 19.
“The Interest Rate Swaps on Pension Obligation Certificates entered into by the City of Detroit with UBS and SBS/Bank of America constitute a drain of hundreds of millions of dollars to the banks from the City’s budget with nothing positive for the City in return,” Attorney Jerome Goldberg writes in the Sole objection.
“Basically, the Interest Rate Swaps obligate the City of Detroit to pay UBS and Bank of America 6.323% interest on $800 million in bonds, when the actual rate on the bonds is only 0.6056%. The banks, who on information and belief presented this ‘deal’ as a beneficial one for the City, pocket the difference between the interest paid to them and the actual interest rate on the bonds, as clear profit, amounting to at least $45.1 million according to Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s May 12, 2013 Financial and Operating Report.”
Numerous UAW members were part of protest at Bank of America Aug. 19, 2013.
The objection notes that UBS and Bank of America have both been charged with fraudulent practices related to municipal bonds, and are implicated in the global LIBOR and ISDAfix scandals. The two banks and many others allegedly rigged interest rates set by LIBOR (the London Interbank-Offered Rate panel) to benefit themselves and their clients. They have also been charged with rigging the ISDAfix, which affects calculations of termination fees associated with interest rate swaps.
Three UBS municipal bond executives were recently sent to prison, along with two others in LIBOR-related activities. A former Bank of America executive has also been indicated for municipal bond fraud.
UBS. Bank of America, others devastated Detroit with foreclosures, said protesters outside BOA Aug. 19, 2013.
“In addition, both Bank of America and UBS, as documented in countless lawsuits and consent judgments with the federal government and state governments including Michigan, and UBS were major subprime lenders and participants in the illicit mortgage activity that precipitated a virtual financial collapse in 2008, and that especially implicated cities with large African-American populations like Detroit,” Goldberg writes.
“The financial crisis that precipitated this Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing was in large part a result of the effects of predatory lending by the banks against the residents of Detroit, which resulted in tens of thousands of foreclosures in the city, a massive population decline and a precipitous decline in property values.”
All ages turned out for bankruptcy protest at courthouse Aug. 19, 2013.
The objection attaches a copy of a lawsuit filed by the Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System against financial institutions including UBS, “for losses suffered as a result of being sold allegedly fraudulent mortgage securities.”
Both Sole and the city’s pension funds, represented by Attorneys Robert Gordon and Shannon Deeby of Clark Hill, allege that the Forbearance Agreement includes no information necessary to assess its alleged benefits to the City.
(L to r) Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow, SBS rep Bill Doherty, Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings, Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poors, and Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams press for $1.5 POC loan from UBS, SBS at City Council table Jan. 31, 2005./Photo by Diane Bukowski
“. . .the Assumption Motion is devoid of material information necessary to assess the benefits of the Forbearance Agreement,” write Gordon and Deeby.
They say the motion fails to explain “(i) whether a valid termination event exists . . . .that necessitates the Forbearance Agreement in the first instance; (ii) whether the Swap Counterparties’ asserted prepetition liens validly extend to Casino Revenue generated postpetition; (iii) what claims, obscurely alluded to in paragraph 47 of the Assumption Motion, may exist to challenge the validity of the Swap Contracts and liens, which claims are being waived; and (iv) by what means the City intends to obtain funds likely in excess of $200 million in the next roughly 2-6 months to effectuate an Optional Termination.”
“Summer of Solidarity,” which is visting 13 cities across the U.S. to combine forces, participated in Bank of America protest Aug. 19, 2013.
Paragraph 47 of the city’s proposed Forbearance Agreement says in part, “Further, while the City has examined whether there are viable actions to challenge the Swap Contracts or the City’s pledge of the Casino Revenue to secure its obligations to the Swap Counterparties, litigation would be protracted, expensive and, in terms of success, uncertain. The Swap Contracts and related documents are exceedingly complex, as is any determination of the amounts owing and the rights of the parties thereunder. While certain creditors have informed the City of their views on these arrangements, regardless of the merits of these positions, the issues are extremely complicated and, accordingly, subject to a high degree of uncertainty.”
An obscure sentence in Orr’s “Proposal to Creditors,” issued June 14, 2013 during a meeting at the Detroit-Wayne County Airport, also says, ‘The City has identified certain issues related to the validity and/or enforceability of the COPS that may warrant further investigation.”
VOD editor Diane Bukowski (second from left) questioned Orr after he presented Proposal to Creditors at airport June 14, 2013. WWJ’s Vickie Thomas is at left.
Asked by VOD during a press conference after the meeting whether he would investigate criminal actions by the banks related to the POC’s, Orr said he would instead investigate the pension funds. The next week, he announced such an investigation.
“Party of Interest Sole believes that if the City of Detroit’s Emergency Manager exercised his statutory mandate under PA 436, Section 16, to conduct a criminal investigation of activities of the swap counterparties . . .the City of Detroit may have been in a much better position to negotiate with the banks to resolve the interest rate swaps which have cost the City tens of millions of dollars in desperately needed revenues and which will cost the City hundreds of millions more, even under the forbearance agreement which the City seeks to implement,” writes Goldberg.
UAW worker in protest outside Bank of America Aug. 19, 2013.
He suggests that Orr should invite the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate the City’s bonds with UBS and Bank of America, noting that UBS already entered into an SEC judgment “relative to illicit activity involving the City of Detroit Water Department bonds.”
“Emergency Manager Orr could also invite the SEC to intervene in this bankruptcy proceeding pursuant to Section 1109(a) of the Bankruptcy Code which is incorporated into Section 901. The SEC could bring the expertise and information gained by their extensive examination of illicit activity in the municipal bond markets into this Chapter 9 proceeding. Interested Party Sole and several other City of Detroit retirees have taken the initiative to enlist the support of United States Senator Carl Levin in prompting SEC involvement in this case,” writes Attorney Goldberg.
Attached to the motion is a letter sent by retirees to Levin, who headed a Senate Judiciary Panel in 2009 which reported massive fraudulent activity by the global banks, resulting in the economic collapse of 2008.
Syncora, Inc., which insured payment of the swaps, has also objected to the motion, claiming it was a party to the swap agreements but was not involved in negotiating the Forbearance Agreement. Syncora may have reached a settlement on its objections, according to news reports.
Former Detroit Corporation Counsel and mayoral candidate Krystal Crittendon distributed objections to bankruptcy for protesters to submit Aug. 19. The objections insist that lawsuits against constitutionality of the Emergency Manager law, PA 436, be heard prior to continue of bankruptcy proceedings.
Bankruptcy objection letter 2 (This is blank bankruptcy objection letter distributed by Krystal Crittendon Aug. 19. She advised that individuals should still file after eligibility objection cut-off date of Aug. 19 because letter alleges not enough time was allowed to file objections. According to Attorney John Philo, the judge in the Stockton bankruptcy case allowed nine months.)
Story is also forthcoming on Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management Forum held Aug 17, 2012. Above is a video showing a snippet of the conference: the people’s fighter Monica Lewis-Patrick speaking.
ONNAMOVE DETROITERS!
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT THE STOP THE THEFT OF OUR PENSIONS COMMITTEE (STOP) AT 313-680-5508; Moratorium Now at www.moratorium-mi.org; Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management at (313) 782-DREM (3736); Detroit Eviction Defense at http://www.detroitevictiondefense.com/, and numerous other groups.
Prisoners in cell in “Secure Housing Unit” at Pelican Bay State Prison, CA.
Supporters of prisoners who are on the 43rd day of hunger strike are expressing outrage at an order signed today by a federal judge allowing strikers to be force fed, disregarding international human rights principles.
“CDCR justifies asking for the order to force feed by claiming that the widespread hunger strike is ‘orchestrated’ by gangs, that the massive participation and support for the demands is coerced and that prisoners have signed ‘do not resuscitate’ directives under duress,” according to Claude Marks of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition. “This order violates all international laws and standards and gives the medical director of each prison authority to violate human rights laws instead of reasonably negotiating with prisoners.”
Thousands of prisoners have united to challenge the torture of prolonged isolation, demanding an accountable process to challenge the gang validations that have kept them in security housing for decades.
Continues Marks, “”This approach, much like Guantanamo, sets the US apart from all related international human rights standards.”
Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, s/n Ronnie Dewberry, is shown in pictures taken in 2012 and 1988. After over 20 years of refusing to allow prisoners in the Pelican Bay SHU to be photographed, administrators relented in the past few months, taking pictures that prisoners can share with their loved ones. Pelican Bay is so remote that many prisoners’ families are unable to visit often, so they treasure a recent photo. – Photo: Adithya Sambamurthy, CIR
by Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Collective
Aug. 14, 2013– I would like to reiterate that the Agreement to End All Hostilities, issued Aug. 12, 2012, is significant for all prisoners because CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) has encouraged prisoners in their 33 prisons to not only engage in self-destructive behavior but has also helped heighten racial hostilities – the catalyst for internal warfare, racial warfare and gang warfare – all of which has been magnified inside the prisons and throughout our communities.
Hunger striker supporters displayed photos and quotations from several of the movement leaders, including Sitawa, at the July 13 rally outside Corcoran State Prison. – Photo: Malaika Kambon
We decided to address these contradictions head on by engaging in a dialogue that was meaningful, sincere and honest with each respective entity. We realized that our responsibility was to end actions that were contrary to the growth and development of each and every prisoner.
We have been attempting to end hostilities for the last 13 years, but the CDCR was not a willing participant in the process. In 2000, we were allowed to get together and work on ending racial and gang riots and to end internal violence.
The CDCR, after realizing that we were successful in our attempts, became very irritable and obstructionist toward our work and proceeded to deliberately sabotage it. During a racial riot in 2000, a young prisoner was murdered by a prison guard. Young prisoners were being murdered in these racial riots; their actions were used by prison guards to justify their being shot for being armed with a weapon – i.e., a makeshift prison knife.
Protests outside the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown L.A. Monday, July 8, 2013, against solitary confinement in California prisons. (Michael Owen Baker/L.A. Daily News)
Countless prisoners have been murdered in cold blood under the CDCR’s “no warning shot policy.” The prison guards justify killing the prisoners because, they say, they thought they saw a weapon or witnessed one prisoner advancing on another. We consider this to be cold blooded murder. We called for an end to hostilities to eliminate giving prison guards an excuse to kill prisoners.
We realize that the justification for locking men and women away in solitary confinement on prison gang validations indefinitely while also subjecting us to a military debriefing process as the only way to program out constitute attacks to our physical and psychological well-being. Prisoners can no longer withstand such torture.
This process has led to many debriefings and mentally ill prisoners throughout CDCR: in PBSP-SHU, Corcoran SHU, Tehachapi SHU, Folsom SHU and San Quentin Adjustment Center (Death Row). As people who have suffered under such a brutal, diabolical system, we realize that it is our responsibility to help change the course of violent prison systems that have made their way to our communities.
A pair holds a solitary confinement protest sign outside the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown L.A. Monday, July 8, 2013, during a protest against solitary confinement in California prisons. (Michael Owen Baker/L.A. Daily News)
Orchestrated activities are carried out by debriefers and collaborators whose sole role is to maintain hostilities and deepen infiltration and entrapments within our communities in association with the law enforcement in the streets.
We had been talking about playing a greater leadership role for the last 13 years throughout the PBSP-SHU, but we were unable to agree collectively due to our isolation. So when powerful entities within the California prison system – Institutional Gang Investigators (IGI), Investigations Services Unit (ISU) and Office of Correctional Safety (OCS) – isolated us together in the short corridor, a super-max SHU, we were able to re-open our dialogue and agreed to ending the blatant attacks that our families, friends and associates were being subjected to – the same attacks that we were being subjected to in solitary confinement.
Guillermo Cuauhtemoc protests outside the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown L.A. Monday, July 8, 2013, against solitary confinement in California prisons. (Michael Owen Baker/L.A. Daily News)
We called for an end to hostilities to eliminate giving prison guards an excuse to kill prisoners.
We realize nothing productive can be done to change the current state of our situation, our prison environment, unless we end the hostilities between prisoners and end all racial and gang violence within the CDCR.
We feel that prisoners are the victims of a systematic process that manipulates them through racial and gang violence in order to prevent greater unity.
In solidarity, struggle, love and respect,
Sitawa
Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa is one of four members of the PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Collective who sit at the negotiating table whenever Gov. Jerry Brown authorizes the CDCR to negotiate the hunger strikers’ demands. Send our brother some love and light: Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (R. Dewberry), C-35671, Pelican Bay State Prison SHU, D1-117L, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532.
It is difficult to be a Mediator in a situation where no “negotiations with terrorists” are allowed to take place. But let’s start with that word “terrorist,” a grossly overused label in our post 9/11 era. It is meant to demonize. It is meant to conjure up fear and loathing. It is meant to justify any level of violence to counter the fear. Yet what we are dealing with in this non-violent struggle to improve prison conditions is a group of well-disciplined prisoners who have been working across their ethnic differences to adopt non-violent, historically grounded methods to focus attention on their grievances. And in between hunger strikes they reinforced their commitment to non-violence by issuing a Call to End Hostilities between so-called gang groups. So “terrorism” has no place in the discussion.
Rally during the first California prison hunger strike in 2011.
Taking a non-negotiation stance is reminiscent of hostage taking strategy. “We don’t negotiate with people who kidnap and hold hostages.” But when the Mediation Team questioned that terminology with the CDCR during the first hunger strike in 2011 we were told “but we are being held hostage by this strike.” Really? The prisoners themselves are bearing the suffering of their action, a hallmark in non-violent tactics. They have no power, except the moral power that the opponent feels as he/she/they confront the suffering of the strikers. All the power rests with the Department to either make the changes that are suggested, stonewall the demonstrators, and/or punish the demonstrators. So far the last two responses are the only ones they have chosen.
The Department claims that the leaders of the strike are forcing prisoners to refrain from eating. Yet every instruction they have issued, in our hearing, says the opposite. People should make their own decisions about whether to go on hunger strike and how long to remain on strike. People with pre-existing medical conditions should think carefully before going on hunger strike. People should accept re-feeding if their bodies are telling them they have had enough. The strike started with 30,000 prisoners and is down to a few hundred. If people were being forced to stay on, they don’t seem to be complying. Could there be some people in the system who feel peer pressure? Certainly. Could there be rogue actors, among the correctional officers or the prisoners, causing problems for people who start eating? Probably. But our Coalition has contact with prisoners and their visitors in institutions throughout the state and believes that a minimum of coercion, if any, is in play here.
A rally organized by LA’s Youth Justice Coalition ushered in a new era for California prisoners – the End to Hostilities – on the day it took effect, Oct. 10, 2012. A prisoner at Corcoran said recently, “The End to Hostilities has opened up a whole new world to us.” Spreading the spirit of solidarity to the streets is critical now that the California prison system has expanded eligibility for indefinite placement in solitary confinement from prison gangs only to street gangs. – Photo: Virginia Gutierrez
What do the prisoners themselves say about what they are doing? Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, one of the four representatives at Pelican Bay said this week, “As people who have suffered under such a brutal, diabolical system, we realize that it is our responsibility to help change the course of violent prison systems that have made their way to our communities… We called for an end to hostilities to eliminate giving prison guards an excuse to kill prisoners. We realize nothing productive can be done to change the current state of our situation, our prison environment, unless we end the hostilities between prisoners and end all racial and gang violence within the CDCR. We feel that prisoners are the victims of a systematic process that manipulates them through racial and gang violence in order to prevent greater unity.”
The only way the strike can end without any more participants dying is if the Department begins to see the prisoners as humans, not just as people who have committed crimes, usually decades earlier. Without this breakthrough there will be deaths.
Painting of Cesar Chavez depicts farmworkers who have died due to barbarous working conditions.
But an equally serious problem is that our own humanity is compromised when we demonize “the other,” and dismiss their humanity. Experienced practitioners of non-violence—such as Gandhi or Cesar Chavez—counseled that hunger strikes should only be used to raise issues within one’s community, where the moral imperative being lifted up can be embraced and real change can take place. When the opponent doesn’t feel that human affinity, all may be lost. It is sobering to remember that Cesar Chavez fasted to the point of permanently harming his own health, and died prematurely. We appeal to Secretary Beard and Governor Brown to demonstrate their humanity by making the reasonable changes that are being requested before it is too late. History will hold them accountable for these lives.
On behalf of the Mediation Team, Laura Magnani, American Friends Service Committee (415) 565-0201 Ext. 11
Hunger Strike Mediation Team
Dr. Ronald Ahnen, California Prison Focus and St. Mary’s College of California
Barbara Becnel, Occupy4Prisoners.org
Dolores Canales, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement
Irene Huerta, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement
Laura Magnani, American Friends Service Committee
Marilyn McMahon, California Prison Focus
Carol Strickman, Legal Services for Prisoners With Children
Azadeh Zohrabi, Legal Services for Prisoners With Children
Call Governor Jerry Brown Phone: (916) 445-2841, (510) 289-0336, (510) 628-0202 Fax: (916) 558-3160
Suggested script: I’m calling in support of the prisoners on hunger strike. The governor has the power to stop the torture of solitary confinement. I urge the governor to compel the CDCR to enter into negotiations to end the strike. RIGHT NOW is their chance to enter into clear, honest negotiations with the strikers to end the torture.
FEDERAL JUDGE GRANTS CALIFORNIA PERMISSION TO FORCE-FEED INMATES ON HUNGER STRIKE
August 20, 2013 01:49
SACRAMENTO, CA — A US federal judge ruled that state and federal prison officials in California will be allowed to start force-feeding inmates participating in a nearly two-month-long hunger strike, if the prisoners appear to be approaching their death.
The California Department of Corrections, in conjunction with federal officials, requested the permission on Friday, saying they were concerned about the health of approximately 70 inmates who have refused meals since July 8. Roughly 130 inmates across California remain on hunger-strike, protesting the policy of isolating gang leaders and violent offenders in solitary confinement indefinitely. Continue reading →
Protest against City of Detroit and DPS debt to the banks May 9, 2012 in downtown Detroit.
DPS as well as other Michigan cities, school districts face higher bond costs
Aug. 19, 2013/WSJ
Detroit’s public-school system is expected to pay a hefty yield premium as it looks to sell $92 million in debt Tuesday, about a month after the city sent shock waves through the municipal-bond market with its record bankruptcy filing.
Early discussions between potential investors and investment banks marketing the debt suggest the one-year debt could yield around 4.50%. That compares with 0.18% yield on a typical, one-year triple-A rated muni, according to Thomson Reuters Municipal Market Data.
“Detroit’s school system is paying” for the city’s bankruptcy, said Michael Camarella, vice president and senior portfolio manager on the Oppenheimer Rochester municipal investment team, which oversees about $33 billion in munis. “Anything with the name of Detroit or issued in the state of Michigan is facing a [price] discount because of Detroit’s actions.”
He said he couldn’t comment on his firm’s participation in the Detroit school deal, but said “obviously, given the yield, it is an attractive investment.”
Protest against closing of Oakman Orthopedic School in Detroit July 24, 2013.
Detroit’s bankruptcy, filed July 18, has sparked concerns that municipal bonds may not be as safe as many investors once assumed. Kevyn Orr, the city’s emergency manager, has proposed saddling some bondholders with significant cuts as the city looks to restructure more than $18 billion in debt. In the wake of the city’s filing, at least three Michigan local governments have postponed debt offerings, citing the higher interest rates investors are demanding.
While some cities and counties in Michigan may have the luxury of being able to delay their borrowings, Detroit Public Schools has a more urgent need. The district is using the proceeds of Tuesday’s sale, which is being sold through the Michigan Finance Authority, to cover operating expenses for 2013-2014 school year, which starts next month, bond documents said.
Slide shown at Moratorium NOW! meeting on municipal and school debt in Detroit.
Detroit Public Schools is a separate legal entity from the city of Detroit, and the city’s emergency manager, mayor and city council don’t have “any authority over the District,” bond documents said. The debt has a rating of SP-1, Standard & Poor’s second highest short-term debt rating.
Still, Detroit Public Schools have been under state control, under a separate emergency manager, since 2009, given its fiscal distress. Detroit Schools has lost more than 33,000 students, or 40% of its enrollment base, since 2010, according to S&P, as charter schools have become more prevalent and Detroit’s fortunes have dwindled.
The district’s general fund deficit shrank from $283.9 million to $76.3 million, according to its fiscal 2012 audited financials, due in part to a debt restructuring.
Detroit teachers struck for one day in 2001 to attend this massive protest in Lansing against charter school legislation.
Still, investors could be comforted by the fact Tuesday’s Detroit schools deal is backed by a pledge of state aid, which is allocated to pay bondholders before the school district gets its share of the money, said Robert DiMella, co-portfolio manager of the $965.3 million MainStay High Yield Municipal Bond Fund.
Greedy Banker vs. the World game. Banker says Detroit bankruptcy is “opportunity” to rake in more billions.
“The state backing on these bonds is very strong,” said Mr. DiMella, who said his firm would consider purchasing some of the Detroit school bonds. “We do believe Detroit’s bankruptcy is creating a lot of different opportunities but you have to be very careful.”
Detroit Schools’ enrollment could decline as much as 33%, and debtholders should still get paid, according to S&P. The estimated 51,070 students enrolled in Detroit schools for the 2013-2014 school year is down about 250 people from last year, and the district is projecting stable enrollment through fiscal 2016, S&P said.
The state aid pledged to the new Detroit schools debt is protected by state law, according to bond documents. Still, “the enforceability of this lien in the event of a Chapter 9 bankruptcy case of the District…is uncertain,” the documents said. A municipal bankruptcy isn’t currently being considered by the district’s emergency manager, according to S&P.
Protest against Detroit school closures and state-appointed board June 16, 2005.
Detroit schools also has some other outstanding debt backed by its state aid, and those obligations will get paid off before the debt being sold Tuesday would, said Josh Gonze, portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, which oversees about $10 billion in munis. State aid to Detroit schools could also be delayed or may decline, because it depends on student enrollment, he added.
Still, the high yield being offered on the school debt could make the risk of holding it worthwhile, said Mr. Gonze, who said his firm was considering participating in the deal. “It’s an enormous amount of yield” that is hard to find on other short-term debt, he said.
Amy Norris, a Calpers spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement: “Calpers is considering its options for appeals.”
