VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

  UPDATE MAY 9, 2013: Rest in Power, Malcolm el Shabazz

TATEMENT CONCERNING THE HARASSMENT FROM THE POLICE/FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION WHICH RESULTED IN MY UNJUST ARREST & DETAINMENT IN FEBRUARY 2013, AND PLACED A HALT ON MY TRAVEL TO TEHRAN, IRAN TO PARTICIPATE IN THE INTERNATIONAL FAJR FILM FESTIVAL.

Published by Cynthia McKinney

MALCOLM X at London Airport, July 9, 1964. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images)

I sincerely appreciate the care & concern of the People over my well-being after Press TV’s report of the most recent events which have transpired regarding the F.B.I.’s harassment of me.

Given the storm of lies, and half-truths that come with being associated with being the descendant of El Hajj Malik el Shabazz, also known as Minister Malcolm X, any and everything that I do; great or small, good or not so good, real or imagined is subject to controversy. However, in this missive I will take this opportunity to properly & fully disclose what transpired.

In the beginning of 2012 I had been informed that I was under investigation by the F.B.I.’s Counter Terrorism Task Force Unit located in Goshen, N.Y.

The agents of this division-and in collaboration with others-have visited several residences of which I was known by them to frequent. However, they would never come when they knew me to actually be there. They would leave their cards with the residents asking them to tell me to call them, and then would tell surrounding residents to observe the house and to notify them if they saw me.

These are the homes of long-time friends, and very close supporters. Yet, when federal agents begin knocking on someone’s door on multiple occasions to snoop, and ask questions, whether one is guilty of an offense or not, it’s enough to coerce people into distancing themselves from you. This cheap tactic employed by the F.B.I. is a means of agitation & harassment. They seek to neutralize my networking abilities.

They have visited locations in California, Chicago, Miami and most aggressively in New York.

Attorney William Kunstler, right, escorts Qubilah Shabazz to the Minneapolis Federal Building Monday morning, May 1, 1995, where a settlement was reached in the murder-for-hire case against Shabazz, a daughter of the late Malcolm X. Shabazz was scheduled to go on trial Monday on charges of plotting to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. At left is family attorney Percy Sutton. (AP Photo/Jim Mone) The charges were later exposed as an FBI frame-up and Ms. Shabazz was acquitted.

People were advising me that if I had nothing to hide, then I should just contact them as requested and cooperate. Though I must say that in these kind of matters I am of a particular ethic. For one, I have been engaged in no criminal activity of their concern, and they could have located me if they so chose. Secondly, I don’t recognize the authority in them beckoning me.

It wasn’t even until my mother [Qubilah Shabazz] informed me that they had been contacting her that I truly became agitated. She advised me to see what they had to say, and so I obliged the next time they came around looking for me. My encounter was with 2 federal agents of Goshen, N.Y.’s Counter Terrorism Task Foci Unit. The primary agent identified himself as Special Agent Tom Brozicky.

Former U.S. Congresswoman and Presidential candidate in Detroit Aug. 27, 2011 during tour against US/NATO war on Libya. Photo: DIane Bukowski

They expressed concern over-as they put it-my “international travels”; I have lived & studied in Damascus, Syria for over a year, and now the U.S. is instigating conflict within the very same region; I went on ex-congresswoman/former presidential candidate Cynthia Mckinney’s delegation along with Dr. Randy Short to Libya, and met with Leader Muammar Gadhafi one week prior to N.A.T.O. intervention and I was most recently getting ready to travel to Tehran, Iran to be a participant of the International Fajr Film Festival and give a lecture addressing the issues of Hollywood and violence: – Modern Violence & Terrorism-– Provoking clashes between religions & populations.

Logo for International FAJR Film Festivan in Tehran, Iran.

I was picked up by authorities after I filed for a visa to Iran, and 2 days prior to my departure, a detective squad from the City of Middletown Police Department surrounded me in the street about 2 blocks from where I was residing. They asked me my name, and I gave them an alias, but they were already well aware of who I actually was. I didn’t tell them my real name because I didn’t know what was going on. When I was brought before a Judge of City of Middletown court I was surprised to be informed that I was being charged with Grand Larceny, and False Impersonation charge. Then I was sent to jail, and told to appear again 7 days later. Then following court date the bogus charge of Grand Larceny, which they only put to justify stopping me in first place, was dropped. And they left me to face the False Impersonation. I was offered 90 days for the offense of giving the authorities the wrong name which I declined before bailing out after 2 weeks.

When I was being held within the belly of the beast on trumped up charges, to my rescue came the journalist at Press TV based in Iran. My relationship with powerful & progressive news outfit began in April of 2012, and prior to that I had discussions with their journalist regarding current events internationally. I developed a positive rapport with some of them, and as a result was invited to travel to Iran to discuss the impact of Hollywood in stereotyping Muslims, Iranians and African people.

“Betty and Coretta,” film which slandered Malcolm X and NOI, starring Angela Bassett and Mary J. Blige.

From January 15th through 18th, 2013, I was a featured interviewee for the Press TV documentary “The Façade of the American Dream”. And prior to my date of departure to Iran, Lifetime television released a television bio-picture called “Betty & Coretta” which was a sensationalistic misrepresentation of my grandparents, my mother and me. This film aside from being poorly acted, and shallow in depth also threatened to inflame old controversies, and open unhealed wounds and to remind the public of sad outcomes without ever identifying B.O.S.S.I., the C.I.A., F.B.I. and other forces that set the climate for my grandfather’s assassination, and made my family a long-suffering casualty of COINTELPRO, and other anti-Black repression programs. Naturally, anything done to stir up old hatred of The Shabazz Family will impact me as the name-sake, and first male heir of Malcolm X, and whether I am high or low in fortunes does not exempt me from this reality.

Betty Shabazz interviewed after the assassination of her husband El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X) Feb. 21, 1965.

The formula for a public assassination is: the character assassination before the physical assassination; so one has to be made killable before the eyes of the public in order for their eventual murder to then deemed justifiable. And when the time arrives for these hits to be carried out you’re not going to see a C.I.A. agent with a suit & tie, and a badge that says “C.I.A.” walk up to someone, and pull the trigger. What they will do is to out-source to local police departments in the region of their target, and to employ those that look like the target of interest to infiltrate the workings in order to set up the environment for the eventual assassination (character, physical/incarceration, exile) to take place.

For several months prior to my arrest in late January, 2013 I faced a pattern of harassment from law enforcement which is usually reserved for important figures. On Thursday, November 1, 2012 @ 11:53pm in the park circle area of Middletown, N.Y. I was stopped by officers of the Middletown Police Department, and given a ticket for “J-Walking” (crossing in the middle of the street), which then escalated into a “Disorderly Conduct” supposedly because of the exchange of words that I had with the officers.

I told them that they couldn’t possibly be serious for writing me a “J-Walking ticket”, that I didn’t appreciate how they were treating me and that they shouldn’t be looking at me as less of a man because they were in police uniform. For this I was arrested, the officers stole the little amount of money that I had on me, they then stripped me and threw me in a freezing precinct cell for the remainder of that early morning. I was finally taken before the “Judge Steven Brockett” around 1:30pm. He gave me an unreasonable bail, and then ordered that I be remanded to the Orange county Jail.

Middletown auxiliary police.

This penalty may seem a bit extreme or harsh to most of you, but here is where it gets worse: On Tuesday, October 30th, exactly 2 nights prior to this incident, the same officer “J Berman” who wrote me the ticket for “J-Walking” & “Disorderly Conduct” stopped me coming from out of a store in the same area, and questioned me as to what I was doing.

I told him that I was coming out of the store. He asked to see what I bought which was a pack of sun flower seeds. I had actually just so happened to be eating a few while he was talking to me, and I spit one of the shells on the ground. At this point officer “J Berman” threatened to write me a ticket for littering. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded, but I went home that night.

Middletown police cars.

Yet, it still doesn’t even begin there. I had an encounter with other officers of the Midletown Police Department one week prior to officer “J Berman’s” threats to write me a ticket for spitting a sun flower seed on the ground: I was coming out of a restaurant with my mother, and her friend. As the 3 of us entered the car to leave 2 police cars converged on our vehicle, and boxed us in. My mother was petrified. With guns drawn I was then ordered to step out of the back seat. I asked them why to which they replied that I had several warrants for my arrest. I told them that they were mistaken, but I still complied with their request. Humiliated in front of all on-lookers I was then thrown on the car while the officers ripped through my pockets. After they were done they said that it was my lucky day because I actually didn’t have any warrants at all, and so I was free to go! One of these officer’s name was “R. Ribeiro”…

You may wonder if it could possibly get any worse than this. Well, it does! Approximately 3 weeks prior to the public humiliation of my mother, and me by “R Ribeiro” and another officer of the Middletown Police Department I found myself subject to the discriminati

Middletown Mayor Joseph DiStefano.

on & prejudice of Mayor Joseph M. Destefano of Middletown, N.Y. himself. A friend, and I went out to eat at a restaurant in Middletown, N.Y. which is owned by the Mayor, and to our surprise he appeared from nowhere and asked us to leave. When we inquired as to why he stated that officials of the Middletown Police Department told him not to let us patronize his establishment. Mind you that this goes without incident.

As I stand for the people, God-Willing, I would pray that the same people wouldn’t hesitate to stand for me. If these unjust & heinous actions are tolerated & allowed to be done to me without recourse, then no one is safe. Just as Huewy P Newton of the Black Panther Party stated that police are in the white community to protect & serve, yet occupy ours like a foreign troop… I tell you that we shouldn’t fall victim to the conditioning of feeling inferior or fearful at the presence of law enforcement for no apparent reason.

With that being said, I was not arrested by federal agents. I was taken in by a squad from the City of Middletown, N.Y.’s Police Department. I was not being held in an “undisclosed location” so to speak. I was actually being held in the Orange County Jail in Goshen, N.Y. However, from the time that I was booked at the precinct, to standing before a Judge the next day who told me to come back in 7 more, to being processed at the Orange County Jail and up until 7 days later I was not permitted to make any calls to notify anyone of my status; as though I had just been kidnapped from of the street.

BELOW: PRESS TV INTERVIEW WITH MALCOLM-LATIF SHABAZZ

Unfortunately, until this day my family hasn’t been fully abreast of my situation as I haven’t had the opportunity to properly consult with any of them. Dr. Randy Short who notified Press TV of my situation is a close comrade of mine who was on our delegation in Libya. Media reports from Press TV about my situation were not intended to create controversy. In reality, I have a few associates that are affiliated with this reputable International media outlet, and they had expected to meet with me in Iran.

So when I disappeared, and rumors spread, the inability to get concise information from a credible source prompted them to rouse public attention on my behalf, for which I am grateful. In April of 2012 I had the opportunity to be a guest analyst/contributor on Press TV. This network has a large following all over the world, and millions find it’s news, documentaries and programming to be both an educational, and insightful alternative to the conglomerated, and highly biased mainstream American & British news media. Regarding the Source magazine, nothing that they published was vetted by me, and was made by persons, at best, vaguely familiar with my situation. Further, I have never had an affiliation or relationship with The Source, nor have they ever directly consulted with me about anything.

Also See:
COINTELPRO 101 & COINTELPRO Documentary|
COINTELPRO: The Untold Story
All Power to the People!
SILENCING DISSENT
SUPPLEMENTARY DETAILED STAFF REPORTS ON INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES AND THE RIGHTS OF AMERICANS – FINAL REPORT BOOK III
THE COINTELPRO PAPERS BY WARD CHURCHILL AND JIM VANDER WALL

 Spoke earlier at EM supporter Horace Sheffield’s church

Advocates city pastors coalescing to buy land on behalf of the people

Published on May 18, 2013

Honorable Louis Farrakhan, NOI, At Detroit’s City Council Meeting – – A No Struggle, No Development Production! By KennySnod * *

Most of Detroit’s vacant lots are in the neighborhoods, due to predatory lending and fraudulent bank foreclosures.

Minister Farrakhan called on the Detroit community yesterday and today to buy the valuable property that’s now for sale in Detroit. About the importance of uniting, he said, we could choose what part of downtown we want to own.

Farrakhan pointed out that there shouldn’t be any division between Islam and Christianity. Urging African people to develop more African pride, he said, “You’re the people of God. … You’re the builders of civilization.”

He preached about the important of self-reliance and family values, the importance of “Black Empowerment” saying we, Detroiter’s can rebuild Detroit if we ground ourselves in good morals.

This was the first time Minter Farrakhan has been to Detroit since 2007. He pointed out the Nation of Islam was started in Detroit, and he felt an obligation to help!  (The majority of the City Council audience were members of the Nation of Islam, unlike at the evening rally.)

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

1} From Victimization To Empowerment… www.trafford.com/07-0913  eBook available at www.ebookstore.sony.com
2} The World As I’ve Seen It! My Greatest Experience! {Photo Book}
3) YouTube: I have over 405 Video’s, over 148,000 hits averaging 5,000 a month on my YouTube channel @ www.YouTube.com/KennySnod

Rev. Horace Sheffield III

VOD editor Diane Bukowski, who also writes for the Final Call, the newspaper of the Nation of Islam, attended Minister Farrakhan’s evening lecture at Fellowship Chapel. Story is coming on that. Meanwhile, it is noted that Rev. Horace Sheffield’s church, where the Minister spoke May 16, occupies a former Detroit public school in a city where more than half the public schools have been closed. Sheffield has advocated that the state limit on charter schools be lifted.

Other city ministers such as Rev. James Holley  of Little Rock Baptist Church, who was acknowledged at the evening hearing, have bought multiple city properties including recreation centers, privatizing them. Workers at these properties are not unionized, and are not being paid union wages and benefits.

Rev. David Bullock speaks at MLK Day, 2012 march on Gov. Rick Snyder’s house, with Rev. Charles Williams II at his left. Also present (top) Rev. Charles Williams, Sr. (r) Rev. Edward Pinckney.

Sheffield has openly supported Detroit’s Emergency Manager, Kevyn Orr, appointed by racist right-wing Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, on his radio show. Sheffield additionally attacked Revs. David Bullock and Charles Williams II, who along with Council members JoAnn Watson, Brenda Jones, and Kwame Kenyatta, have been in the leadership of the struggle against the emergency manager acts and the takeover of Detroit by the state and the banks.

That takeover has been facilitated by the other six members of the Detroit City Council, Charles Pugh, Gary Brown, Saunteel Jenkins, James Tate, Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., and Andre Spivey. The first five voted for the disastrous PA4 consent agreement, and all six voted for contracts with consultants including EM Orr’s law firm, Jones Day. Jones Day represents nearly all the banks that have laden Detroit with an unmanageable burden of debt. It was Spivey who invited Minister Farrakhan to speak. Councilwoman Watson requested his presence earlier, in February before Orr’s appointment by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder March 25, 2013.

Council Sell-out Six: (l to r) Cockrel Jr., Jenkins, Brown, Pugh, Spivey, Tate.

Related article:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/05/16/detroit-em-orrs-report-envisions-a-nightmare-future/

(From bottom left clockwise) EM KEVYN ORR’S REPORT PROPOSES CUTS TO OR ELIMINATION OF RECREATION, BUSES, STREET LIGHTS, RETIREES BENEFITS, WATER DEPT, AND BELLE ISLE.

Massive cuts to street lighting, bus service, DWSD, recreation, land, workers, pensions and health care 

No concrete proposals to cut city’s debt, only lip service 

By Diane Bukowski 

ANALYSIS

May 16, 2013 

Detroit EM Kevyn Orr and Stephen Brogan, head of Jones Day, Detroit’s “debt-restructuring consultant.”

DETROIT – Detroit’s Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr painted a nightmarish vision for the city’s future in his May 12 report to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. It is a vision born on Wall Street and, as Orr admits, imparted to state and city officials who have colluded in the plan, largely through last year’s Public Act 4 “consent agreement.” (Click on Orr report for full document.) 

Orr has said the April 4, 2012 “Financial Stability (consent) Agreement,” passed by City Council on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, provided a “roadmap” for his plan. 

That plan is so drastic one young man who read it, a business administration major at Wayne County Community College, said he could not believe it is real. “It must be a scam,” he remarked. Unfortunately, however, Orr is dead serious. 

Detroit Public Lighting Dept. workers fix lights on Belle Isle. Orr proposes to eliminate PLD, may have plans for Belle Isle as well.

His Detroit nightmare:  

A city with 46,000 instead of 88,000 streetlights.

Large tracts of the city considered to be “surplus” and “distressed” will be left in the dark and possibly sold off. The Public Lighting Department, including its revenue-generating provision of lighting to public buildings, and its electricity grid, will be taken over by an unspecified “third party,” clearly the for-profit DTE. This will take place over a 5-7 year period, raising the question of whether Gov. Rick Snyder will extend Orr’s term beyond 18 months.

City and federal funds for D-DOT to be slashed.

More cutbacks in bus service, already operating on a skeleton basis, due to further cuts in city general fund subsidies. The newly-formed Regional Transit Authority just cut D-DOT’s federal funding from 65 percent to 49 percent of the region’s allotment, although D-DOT is the largest system in the area with the most ridership. 

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department subject to huge cuts, regionalization. DWSD will be under the EM’s unfettered control since U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox dismissed the 36-year federal oversight decree on March 27, 2013, the day Orr was appointed. Water Department unions are challenging Cox’s orders and a “Root Cause Committee’s” recommendations in federal court. These include a possible workforce reduction of 81 percent and further regional control. But Orr will now backstep to the state level, where unions face more reactionary courts.

DWSD is third largest water/sewerage department in country.

The city’s remaining 17 recreation centers placed in a “Recreation Trust” operated by an independent board which will introduce “fee-based” service and include private foundations. 

City assets may be outsourced, transferred or sold. Regarding the city’s assets (which include Belle Isle, DWSD, etc.), “the City will evaluate all options, including preserving the status quo, entering into partnerships with other public entities, outsourcing of operations, and transferring non-core assets to other private or public entities in sale, lease or other transactions.” 

MORE consultants have been hired to review Police and Fire Departments. With regard to both, Orr says there will be “additional investment in IT, infrastructure, equipment, fleet, facilities and personnel.”  He also proposes contracting out a central jail to the Michigan Department of Corrections, and “shared services and contracting out, as well as labor efficiencies,” for the Fire Department. 

City workers protest against designs on their pensions, demand jobs for the youth.

Other city departments will be evaluated to see if they will go the way of the now extinct Health and Wellness, Human Services, and Workforce Development Departments. 

Retiree health care benefits, or “low hanging fruit” as Orr spokesman Bill Nowling called them, likely to be eliminated. Orr says they are too expensive, accounting for $200 million from next year’s budget. He claims the total amount over the next 30 years is $5.7 billion.

Pensions are endangered despite state laws guaranteeing them. Orr and a task force are reviewing current actuarial assessments by Gabriel, Roeder and Smith that the General Retirement System is 83 percent funded, with the Police and Fire System 100 percent funded, both at adequate levels. Orr claims, without citing a source, that they are underfunded by $0.6 billion. 

Michigan Employee Retirement System (MERS) board members.

He notes that valuations do not include payment on the city’s Pension Obligation Certificates debt of $740 million for DGRS, and $740 million for PFRS. Orr says also that pension funds must comply with new federal GASB reporting guidelines by 2014, which will further diminish their value.  He says, “As of June 30, 2011, market values of the plan assets were significantly lower than actuarial values by about $660 M and $428 M respectively (DGRS and PFRS). 

In 2008, Mayor Bing proposed giving the $6 billion pension funds to the private Michigan Employee Retirement Systems, which kicks out members funds if they fall below a certain percentage of funding. Under MERS, Highland Park retirees frequently failed to get their checks. 

Orr’s plan DOES NOT INCLUDE: 

Detroit, the world’s largest majority-Black city outside of Africa, must have reparations.

Reparations from the banks and mortgage companies to 235,000 city residents driven out, and to the city, for massive predatory lending and mortgage fraud resulting in illegal foreclosures, as confirmed by a U.S. Senate investigative committee.

Payment of state debt to Detroit estimated at over $300 million, including revenue sharing, corporate debt estimated at $800 million, millions more owed by private entities which have received loans from the CDBG Sec. 108 program. Orr projects an “accumulated unrestricted deficit of $386.6 million for June, 2013,  but does not include proceeds from the state escrow account of $137 million. No plan is set forward to collect those debts, which have been acknowledged by State Treasurer Andy Dillon. 

Implementation of union plan to cut health care costs by dumping Blue Cross Blue Shield administration of plans, among other proposals, which would ameliorate the alleged $5.7 billion cost of retirement health care. 

March in downtown Detroit May 9, 2012.

A MORATORIUM ON THE CITY’S ALLEGED $15 BILLION DEBT TO THE BANKS, which many are challenging as predatory, usurious and illegal, Banks to whom the city owes money, such as UBS AG, are being sued by numerous entities for interest rate-rigging; UBS AG just paid a $1.5 billion fine to the U.S. Department of Justice for such practices. 

Orr says the city’s debt is unmanageable, including, “liabilities of approximately $9.4 billion in special revenue bonds, state revolving loans, pension certificates of participation (POC’s), mark-to-market swap liabilities, unlimited and limited tax general obligation bonds and other funded City Debts.” 

He alleges the city plans “a range of alternatives that COULD include, among other things, rescheduling principal amortization without reduction in principal to provide near-term debt service relief; permanently reducing the principal amount of debt outstanding . . . reducing interest rates, as appropriate, to achieve targeted cost savings . . .issuing new debt to provide certain cash recoveries to creditors.” 

One local media pundit recommends that people come en masse to Orr’s required public meeting (a date for which has not been set) to demand such debt relief. 

However, Orr’s proposals in this area, unlike those regarding cuts to services, workers, and residents, are vague. He has set up no task force to talk to the banks. He has set up no study group to examine how much of the debt Detroit owes is due to predatory lending (such as the $1.5 billion UBS POC loan), and $437 million in questionable swap liabilities cited in Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Only Wall Street profits from Detroit crisis.” 

The city hired Orr’s law firm, Jones Day, as the consultant to deal with debt-restructuring, and Orr says he is meeting with them regularly. Jones Day, however, represents virtually all the banks holding the City’s debt, and its attorneys have a history of representing racist, right wing clients and foundations. Although Orr denies a conflict of interest, even Crain’s Detroit Business blasted the city for hiring Jones Day to assist Orr as emergency manager. 

COMPENSATION FOR DISCRIMINATORY WALL STREET CREDIT RATING PRACTICES.  

Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings and Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poor’s push $1.5 billion POC loan from UBS on Detroit City Council.

Orr says the city’s credit ratings are at junk levels, B/B by Standard & Poor’s, CCC/CC by Fitch, and Caa1/Caa2 by Moody’s. He does not propose a task force to study whether these agencies conspired with the banks to further rob the city through higher interest rates due to the low scores. The U.S. government is currently suing Standard & Poor’s for such a conspiracy, and there is outrage all over the globe at the credit rating agencies, which are actually PAID by the banks. 

In the case of Detroit’s $1.5 BILLION POC loan, representatives of Standard and Poor’s CAME TO THE CITY COUNCIL TABLE IN 2005 TO PUSH THE LOAN, issuing veiled threats that they would downgrade the city’s credit ratings otherwise. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick threatened to lay-off thousands of city workers if the Council did not agree to the disastrous loan. Later, Wall Street junked Detroit’s credit anyway, and Kilpatrick laid off 1,500 city workers. 

Related articles:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/05/09/people-demand-moratorium-on-detroit-debt-reparations-as-em-readies-attack/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/18/detroit-city-council-says-yes-to-banks-in-jones-day-vote-people-say-no/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/08/costly-jones-day-em-contract-faces-council-vote-tues-apr-9-come-at-9-am/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/08/only-wall-street-wins-in-detroit-crisis-reaping-474-million-fee/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/08/reek-general-strike-battled-imf-austerity-measures-em-to-bring-same-to-detroit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/08/reek-general-strike-battled-imf-austerity-measures-em-to-bring-same-to-detroit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/03/27/detroiters-march-in-cleveland-tell-jones-day-and-banks-get-out/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/03/26/vampire-capitalism-comes-to-detroit-mi-and-dekalb-county-ga/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/03/24/from-detroit-to-cyprus-banksters-in-search-of-prey/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/03/19/wall-street-v-woodward-ave-will-detroit-em-address-predatory-interest-rate-swaps/

AND MANY MORE: JUST PUT “BANKS” IN VOD SEARCH ENGINE.

      **ALSO APPEARANCE AT DETROIT CITY COUNCIL AT 9 A.M.**                     

                              In the Name of Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful.

I bear witness there is no god but Allah and I bear witness that

Muhammad is His Servant. 

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Returns to Detroit

 Contact: (313) 283-7245 

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan (National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam) announced that he will be returning to the city of Detroit on May 16th and 17th. 

During a live radio broadcast on the Rock Newman Show (WOWC 1480 AM) in Washington, D.C., Minister Farrakhan told the listening audience he had been asked to come speak to the city council, members of the clergy as well as the residents of the city. While he highlighted the importance of Detroit’s rich legacy, Minister Farrakhan also underscored its present condition acknowledging: 

“Detroit is where the Nation of Islam started. Detroit is almost considered now, a dead city. So we’ll come back to Detroit where we began and look at the condition of Detroit, pool our resources and try to buy properties in Detroit and start rebuilding one of the greatest cities in America where we’re concerned.” 

Additionally, Minister Farrakhan laid out a vision on how the city’s blight can once again be transformed through a unified effort focusing on the best interest of the city: 

“We have a duty to that city. We’re going to come and see what we can do to help the school system, to help the government, to help the people. And then let’s try to own the city since the property is cheap and falling down why don’t we pool what resources we have and start buying up buildings and making them worthy and creating opportunities. That is what we need to do when we come to Detroit.”

 The public address will take place on Friday, May 17th at Fellowship Chapel located on 7707 W. Outer Drive in Detroit. Doors open at 5:30 pm and the program begins at 7 pm. For additional information, please contact Muhammad Mosque No. One at (313) 283-7245 or (313)713-5181.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan broadcasts new segments of “The Time and What Must Be Done” every Saturday at 6 p.m. Central Time, 7 p.m. EST at http://www.noi.org/thetime/. Also see The Final Call’s You Tube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/FCNN. Segment #16 is below.

Top: Detroit EM Kevyn Orr andf Jones Day boss Stephen Brogan (center); Gov. Rick Snyder (l) and Mayor Dave Bing (r).
Second row: Sandra Pierce, chair Financial Advisory Board (l), State Treasurer Andy Dillon (r), third row (l to r) Ken Whipple, co-chair FAB, Charles Pugh, City Council Pres. Kriss Andrews, City Project Manager; bottom: council members (l to r) Ken Cockrel, Jr., Saunteel Jenkins, Gary Brown, Andre Spivey, James Tate. PHOTO MONTAGE BY VOD, DOES NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT MR. BARROW’S POSITIONS.

“Conservatives Play Chess, City Leaders Play Checkers and Get Played Out,” Barrow Says

May 10, 2013     

• Contact: Tom Barrow 313-922-7769 Option 4
• Text: Keyword “BARROW” to 313131
• http://www.BarrowForMayor.Com  

Mayoral candidate Tom Barrow testifies at City Council Jan. 28, 2013.

DETROIT – Mayoral candidate Tom Barrow today put on his psychic turban to predict the anxiously awaited report by Emergency Financial Manager Kevin Orr due out next week.

“First the set up,” said Barrow. “He will claim things are much worse than he ever thought,” and then will come the sting. “He will claim that because things are so bad, he will move at lightning speed to a near complete privatization of Detroit’s core services and  regionalization into suburban- controlled authorities” Barrow predicted.

“Oh yes, he will recommend that the state take over the city’s pension funds because that’s where a lot of money sits.”

Barrow explained further.

Public of the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

“This entire plan was mapped out years ago in the conservatives’ play book commonly known to insiders as the Michigan Privatization Report published in 2001.

“Since its release, Bing, Dillon, Gov. Snyder and conservative republicans all over the U.S. and their accomplices have all been setting it up and are now the playing pieces are being moved to the end-game, which is the end of democracy and self-governance to be replaced by a corporate republic,” declared Barrow.

The report, issued by the conservative Mackinac Policy Center, detailed every step of the process to strip the state’s largest city of its assets through outright sales, privatization of core city services, regionalization and destruction of employee unions.

“While the Conservatives play chess, our leaders play checkers and get played out,” Barrow says. “Their plans have been brain-stormed, think-tanked and game-simulated all to ensure that their success is thorough, total and defensible due to the contrived financial crisis they themselves create.”

Michigan State Treasurer Andy Dillon

At a meeting in December where he accompanied City Councilmember JoAnn Watson, Barrow, an expert in municipal finance and accounting, personally challenged Michigan State Treasurer Dillon on the incorrect conclusions he has made about Detroit’s finances and concluded after extensive questioning of the Treasurer that the so-called financial crisis was “contrived”. To date, neither the Treasurer nor the Governor has disputed Barrow’s conclusions.

“Step by step, here is how they play the game and now, the king will be checkmated as Kevin Orr follows the script written for him and other emergency managers throughout Michigan,” Barrow offered, “and next week we will see these predictions come true in his report.”

READER NOTE: THE FOLLOWING SUBJECT HEADLINES ARE TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM THE MICHIGAN PRIVATIZATION REPORT; THE ITALICIZED PORTION IS A QUOTED EXCERPT FROM THE REPORT OF THEIR ASSIGNED “MISSION”; AND THE STEP-BY-STEP CHESS MOVES TO ACCOMPLISH THE OBJECTIVE OF PRIVATIZATION:

Privatization: The Motor City’s Renaissance Engine

Motor City Needs Budget Boost: Privatizing Detroit City Services

Detroit’s Cobo Hall regionalized under former Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr.

MISSION: If properly implemented, an aggressive privatization campaign including sales of city assets could provide Detroit with the revenue it needs to pay creditors, improve services, and maintain its infrastructure during the next decade. Privatization of city services also could prevent Detroit from becoming the first major American city to have its democratically elected leadership replaced with an appointed financial oversight panel – a fate that befell one of its suburbs, Ecorse, in the 1980s.

Asset Sales: Accounting for Privatization

MISSION: In the end, government asset sales shift assets away from non-productive political uses and toward their most productive economic uses. At the same time, such sales reduce the costs taxpayers must pay for the maintenance and improvement of government-owned facilities. Government asset sales are just one of privatization’s many win-win scenarios.

The Conventions of Privatization: Selling Cobo Center. Regionalized asset where Detroit now has minority voting power.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

______________________________________

City Council approved plan for Public Lighting Authority which will reduce number of city’s street lights.

Detroit Lighting Department

Step 1: Turn off the lights in strategic areas to create crisis.

Step 2: Get media to select Detroit residents of color, and comments they want street lights!

Step 3: Contract with DTE to provide lights

Step 4: Repeatedly publically decry loss of lights in neighborhoods

Step 5: Get conservative legislature to create new Lighting Authority for Detroit

Step 6: Appoint EFM

Step 7: Surprise! Lights come back on.

Step 8: EFM unilaterally gives Lighting Dept. to new state created Authority, Detroit has

minority voting power.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

______________________________________

Privatization Should Drive Detroit Transportation

City of Detroit bus mechanics honor their leader, Leamon WIlson, president of AFSCME Local 312 for 20 years, during his funeral April 15, 2013. He died at the age of 55.

Step 1: Mayor Bing cuts bus service – creates self inducing crisis

Step 2: Get media to select Detroit residents of color, and comments they want buses!

Step 3: Repeatedly publically decry loss of Bus service and late busses.

Step 4: Legislature creates Regional Transportation Authority

Step 5: Suburban Controlled SEMCOG Board, Changes Funding formula to steal $7 million from DDOT to give to FAILING low ridership suburban bus system.

Step 6: Now de-funded and deliberately choked, EFM Kevin Orr forces DDOT to Regionalize into the newly created Transportation Authority. Detroit given minority voting position despite being by far the overwhelming users of public transportation by its citizens.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

__________________________________

For Whom the Private “Belle Isle” Tolls

AFSCME Local 542 Pres. Phyllis McMillon speaks at rally to save Belle Isle Sept. 2012.

MISSION: Of all of Detroit’s assets, Belle Isle, the 985-acre island park situated in the Detroit River just inside the U.S. border with Canada, could very well be the city’s most attractive privatization opportunity.

Step 1: Mayor Bing deliberately neglects Belle Isle keeps concessions closed;

Step 2: Repeatedly publically falsely decry that Belle Isle filthy and dirty.

Step 3: Have media find residents of color to exclaim they want island cleaned up!

Step 4: Bing coordinates the Belle Isle crisis with Gov. Snyder to pressure citizens to give it up and make it a State Park for 99 years.

Step 5: Attempted blackmail of the Detroit City Council with threat of EFM unless they give over Belle Isle to the state. But, unforeseen public outcry scares off Council majority.

Step 6: Snyder makes good on his threat, EFM appointed.

Step 7:  Using phony steps (1) and (2) as basis, Snyder’s EFM, Kevin Orr recommends state take-over of Belle Isle and negotiates his own terms to give it away forever.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

______________________________________

Water Privatization Can Help Detroit Avoid Drowning in Debt

DWSD worker on strike to save department and Detroit Sept. 30, 2013.

Step 1: Have suburban controlled board hire restructuring consulting firm to tell the suburban director what they want to hear about restructuring the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

Step 2: Release report from self serving, but objective-appearing restructuring firm, that Water Dept. has to fire 80 percent of its union employees.

Step 3: Conservative Republican-appointed Federal Judge mysteriously and unexpectedly releases Detroit Water Department from 45-year old Consent Decree and Oversight.

Step 4: Create phony public claim that Detroit is drowning in Bond Debt and point at DWSD even though its bonds are being paid as agreed and are guaranteed by revenue from customers as anticipated. Keep those facts secret.

Step 5: Find residents of color to agree (Failed to Find Any.)

Step 6: Because of Detroit African-American community’s sensitivity to Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, have conservative Republican Governor appoint a Black Emergency Financial Manager.

Step 7: EFM recommends REGIONALIZATION/PRIVATIZATION/LEASING of DetroitWater and Sewerage Department.

Step 6: Detroit loses control Detroit of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and begins to pay higher rates for its own former asset.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

______________________________________

“It doesn’t take a mind-reader to know what comes next,” lamented Barrow, 64, “the August 6 primary will be a referendum on the city’s leadership and their losing streak with the conservatives now in control of the city, and we hope the voters choose better players who have studied offense rather than the defense players we have in the game right now.”

VOD ANALYSIS OF ORR’S REPORT WILL BE PUBLISHED SHORTLY.

Pastor Charles Williams II leads march as it takes off outside New Center McDonald’s May 10, 2013.

“WE ARE WORTH MORE!” — http://detroit15.org/.

D15 organizers estimate 400 workers walked off or did not show up

They join workers in St. Louis, New York, Chicago in national drive 

By Diane Bukowski 

May 11, 2013 

DETROIT – The bright faces of Detroit’s youth on the march March 10, to double their wages at fast food outlets, lit up the gray skies of a city battered for decades by the nation’s most vicious assault on working and poor people. The assault has included skyrocketing youth unemployment, police victimization, and incarceration.

MacDonald’s workers April Jones (l), with baby, and Tequila VanHorn (r), lead march as it takes the streets.

 The signs workers carried as they took the streets outside Detroit’s New Center MacDonald’s, after hitting five chains with one-day walk-outs, said it all: “WE ARE WORTH MORE!” 

Workers walk out at Detroit Burger King May 10, 2013.

Metro Detroit MacDonald’s, Popeye’s, Burger King, Long John Silver and Subway outlets were hit by the strikes. Fast food employees have begun a rolling national strike wave. They walked out in St. Louis May 8 and 9, and New York City and Chicago last month. 

April Jones, who works at the New Center MacDonald’s, wheeled her one-year-old baby Kristan Johnson in a stroller during the march of hundreds, chanting, “$7.40’s got to go!” and “What do we want? $15! When do we want it? NOW!” 

Detroit Popeye’s workers strike.

“We have had no raises,” she said. “I’ve worked here since 2008, and they told us there would be no raises. I leave there every day with my back and body hurting. We are doing manager’s jobs, but we still get only floor worker’s pay. I can’t see raising my child on $7.4o an hour. I have my own place. I have to pay rent and DTE, and buy food and clothing for my baby. I need $15 an hour!” 

Tequila VanHorn, 21, is expecting her first child. She works with Jones at the same MacDonald’s. 

Youth from local high schools joined the march, knowing their futures are also at stake.

“We have to fight for our rights, do what we can to survive,” she declared, speaking along with Pastors Charles Williams II and Willie J. Rideout after the march. “$7.40 is not right!  I started at the McDonald’s three years ago, and I’m supposed to be there right now. Along with no decent pay, we get no appreciation. At least if I have to work hard, if I have a bad day, let me smile knowing I can support my baby.” 

High school students including brothers James and Andrew Williams, 16 and 17, and Jerome Winbush were among dozens of other youth who joined the workers, recognizing that their futures are also at stake. 

Tequila Van Horn rouses the crowd with Pastors Charles Williams II and Willie Rideout behind her.

“This is the first time I’ve been to anything like this,” Winbush, who attends Detroit Central High School, said. “I feel it’s good. I feel that we won today.” 

Dozens of exhilarated older people, many who came of age during the movements of the 1960’s, also participated. 

The strikers are also demanding the right to unionize. Michigan was the birthplace of the union movement in the 1930’s, but last year, incredibly, it became a Right-to-Work state under the extreme right-wing leadership of Governor Rick Snyder and the majority of the state’s legislators. 

Detroit itself, which has lost over 237,500 residents due to predatory lending and foreclosures and over half its public schools, while paying billions in predatory debt to the banks, expects its Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr to declare his plans for yet more assaults on its residents May 13. 

MacDonald’s worker shiields herself from rain as drummer gives rhythm to chants.

D15 is coordinating the fast food workers’ campaign in the Detroit area, according to its website at http://detroit15.org/. It has support from local ministers, the Service Employees’ International Union (SEIU), the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 876, and the “Good Jobs Now!” movement.  D15 organizers estimated at least 400 workers participated in the walk-outs here. 

“There are now more than 50,000 fast-food jobs in the Detroit metro area, more than twice as many as in the auto-manufacturing sector,” says D15’s website. “Fast food jobs are projected to grow by 12.3% in the area by 2018 – more than twice as fast as the projected growth rate of the region’s workforce as a whole. But these jobs are the lowest-paying in Detroit, with many workers earning Michigan’s minimum wage of $7.40 or just above it.

Young marchers’ faces were filled with hope.

“These are billion-dollar companies that can afford to pay their employees better. When workers join together and are paid a living wage, not only will it strengthen the economy but it will also reduce crime in our neighborhoods.”

According to D15 organizers and other observers, the walk-outs in Detroit began at 6:00 a.m. when 20 McDonald’s workers at 10400 Gratiot on Detroit’s east side walked out. Management called in other workers to replace them, but they also joined the strike.  Seven workers at a Long John Silvers in suburban Warren walked out shutting down that outlet, while Subway workers at the city’s Renaissance Center did the same. Likewise, workers at a Burger King on W. Eight Mile and a Popeye’s on Grand River in Detroit also left their jobs.

Marchers take W. Grand Blvd.

The workers are demanding no retaliation and are calling on the public for mass support.

McDonald’s worker Keith Bullard, of Inkster, has started an online petition for support on MoveOn.

“This morning, I walked off my job at McDonald’s,” he said in an email to news outlets including VOD. “I’m a 29-year-old husband and a father of two. My wife can’t work because of health problems—and the $7.50 an hour I make at McDonald’s just isn’t enough to cover my family’s basic needs,” he said.

Workers say it’s hell to work at McDonald’s and other chains.

I’m not alone. All across Detroit, many more workers like me are also striking— Join us. My coworkers and I need as many folks standing up with us as possible. 

Together, we’re launching the D15 campaign—for workers, for families, and for Detroit—and standing up to the enormous corporations we work for to make sure they get a simple message: Workers like us should be paid a fair wage that lets us make ends meet.  

We’re standing up and saying it has to stop. Say you’re with us by adding your name today! Click here to sign the petition, and then pass it along to your friends.” 

Related articles:  

http://www.thenation.com/blog/174270/fast-food-strike-wave-spreads-detroit 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/10/fast-food-strike-detroit-protests-living-wage_n_3252944.htm 

http://www.labornotes.org/2013/05/detroit-fast-food-workers-join-strike-wave

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/09/nationwide-wave-of-fast-food-strikes-hits-st-louis/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fast-food-workers-in-detroit-joining-a-growing-wave-of-walkouts-over-wages/2013/05/09/54765852-b8e8-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html

Marchers return for rally next to MacDonald’s.

From Aaron Petkov, with photos:

Big day today! Organizers are expecting the strike of fast food workers in Detroit to be the biggest in the country. Be out in New Center at 4pm tomorrow to fight for a living wage and the right to unionize!

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

FAST FOOD WORKER STRIKE HITS DETROIT

May 10, 2013 at 6:51 am

By Associated Press

Detroit — Workers at a fast food restaurant on Detroit’s east side have walked off the job as part of an effort to push for higher wages.

Detroit pastor Charles Williams II says workers want $15 and hour, better working conditions and the right to unionize. The one-day protest starting Friday morning at a McDonald’s on the 10000 block of Gratiot is one of about 50 that organizers say they’ve planned around Detroit.

The D15 campaign says many workers make $7.40 an hour or just above it.

A message seeking comment from a representative of the restaurant was left Friday morning by The Associated Press.

Workers at more than 30 fast food restaurants in St. Louis walked off the job Thursday in a similar one-day strike. That followed strikes at fast food chains in New York and Chicago.

NC student union Civil disobedience protest.

By Paul Shepard 

May 3, 2013

http://newsone.com/2432613/north-carolina-student-power-protests

VOD: thanks to Keith Hines for posting this on Facebook, alerting VOD to what may become a highly significant movement among our youth.

The progressive pushback continues against a series of proposed laws in the North Carolina legislature that seem designed to weaken voter rights, environmental laws, and health care for the poor: On Monday, a group of 17 ministers, civil rights advocates, and students got themselves arrested in pre-planned acts of civil disobedience outside the state General Assembly. On Wednesday, another five college students were arrested, after protesting outside the General Assembly. The students, who identify themselves as members of the NC Student Power Union, were all released on bond.

In a statement released to the press and in video clips the N.C. Student Power Union has uploaded onto Youtube, the students say they see the laws proposed by the Republican-led legislature as casting a direct and threatening cloud over their futures.

“My family struggles with finances and we have a hard time making ends meet so the last thing we need is for a millionaire sitting in the North Carolina General Assembly to take my financial aid away,”said Dhruv Pathak, a student at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

NC Student Power Union demonstrates on May Day, 2013

A proposal before the General Assembly would cut nearly $200 million to the state university system.

Other proposals would hit at voting rights by shortening early voting provisions and eliminating Sunday voting and same-day registration entirely.

Another new law would weaken environmental law by easing restrictions on the controversial practice of fracking for oil reserves – a method some scientists say fouls drinking water supplies.

One change that has already been signed in to law by Gov. Pat McCrory cuts benefits for the unemployed.

Students on the march in North Carolina.

“In the past few months, I’ve watched as opportunities for social uplift and living a quality life have been snatched away from people in our state,” said Zaina Alsous, a University of North Caroilina-Charlotte student who was also arrested. “Health care, rights in the workplace and even the right to vote have all been attacked and our futures are being stolen away to serve the interests of the corporations and the mega wealthy.”

As the protests mount, the Republican-led sponsors of the conservative agenda have been strangely silent. It probably serves their interests best to lie low and wait for the little dustup of a few ministers and students to blow over.

But if by some chance, the student protests grow and even get the backing of some grown, established folk, Republicans might have to start answering some tough questions, such as why has the state government decided to make such a dramatic and sudden shift to the right and whose interests is it serving?

Go to http://studentpowernc.org/ to follow NC Student Power Union’s activities.

Some of the hundreds who attended rally against the banks, including Flagstar, May 4, 2013.

 Hundreds rally May 4,  form coalition of activists from many sectors

EM Kevyn Orr has other plans, to be outlined Mon. May 13 

By Diane Bukowski 

May 9, 2012 

DETROIT – Organizers said May 4 that Detroit must mobilize immediately against the criminal global banks which have evicted 270,000 families, shut down half the city’s public schools, and devastated city services and jobs, charging $600 million last year alone in debt payments.

Attorney Vanessa Fluker and city retiree Andrea English both spoke at the rally.

Time is short. The people must rise, said speakers with the Moratorium NOW! Coalition against Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs. They demanded an immediate moratorium on payment of city and schools debt to the banks, and billions in reparations.

Underscoring their concern, Detroit’s Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr said today that he will present a plan Monday, May 13 giving “a detailed look at the depth and breadth of the financial crisis we’re in.”

Detroit EM Kevyn Orr and his white shadow Gov. Rick Snyder.

Orr’s spokesman Bill Nowling said, “It’s really going to be a very accurate snapshot of the situation from a financial standpoint and a need-for-restructuring standpoint for the city. The depth of the financial crisis is steeper than we thought…Anyone who reads it will have a pretty good picture of the situation the city faces.”

Nowling added that, “We’ve had a chance to pop the hood and look around now” since Michigan Governor Rick Snyder appointed Orr March 25.

MORATORIUM NOW! presents analysis based on city’s debt documents

Moratorium NOW!, however, didn’t just “pop the hood.” Their analysis given at the May 4 meeting was based on 3,000 pages of the city’s debt instruments obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. It is diametrically opposed to that likely to be given by Orr. Orr’s law firm Jones Day, acting as Detroit’s “debt re-structuring” consultant, represents the very banks speakers said are responsible for the condition of the world’s largest Black majority city outside of Africa.

“Those banks are guilty of criminal actions,” said Andrea Egypt, a Detroit city retiree who co-chaired the meeting. “With their predatory lending, their instruments of fraud and usury, their seizure of homes, land and assets, they conspired to destabilize our finances and destroy the lives of our residents, creating urban blight and crime. They set up the conditions for the financial collapse of the cities across the country and the world.”

Andrea Egypt

Egypt said that Orr, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, and the City Council are ignoring “the elephant in the room.”

“They are blaming everything on the unions, city workers, and legacy costs for retirees.” Egypt explained. “But they will make sure that Detroit won’t miss one payment on its debt service. Even President Barack Obama has done nothing to stop this situation. WE have to do this.”

Nationally-known anti-foreclosure attorney Vanessa Fluker agreed.

“Why aren’t these banks paying US back for the 270,000 homes our people lost?” she asked.  “None of this will change until the people change. We must get out in the streets first, then the laws change. The Bible itself tells us to stand up against the wicked and evildoers.”

THE BANKS OWE REPARATIONS TO DETROIT

City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said the wealth of the banks and corporations was built on the slave trade.

City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson

“This is much bigger than Detroit,” Watson said. “This goes all the way back to the way this country was built, off the unpaid labor of our ancestors. The profits from the slave trade paid for the War of 1812 and the Louisiana Purchase. They built Wall Street, the insurance companies and the banks. We must demand reparations.”

Abiyomi Azikiwe of Moratorium NOW! said, “Kevyn Orr is an agent of the banks in total disregard of the will of the people. The corporate media has never bothered to mention that the vast majority of the people in Michigan voted against Public Act 4. The type of re-structuring that Orr is talking about is to aid the banks only. Across the country, Jefferson County Alabama, the home of the civil rights movement, Providence, Rhode Island, Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Stockton, California—all of our cities are being held hostage by the banks. The municipal bond market is a $3.7 billion industry.”

Azikiwe said the crisis is global, leading to huge uprisings and general strikes by the people in Greece, Spain, Italy, France, Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. The LIBOR scandal, involving criminal interest-rate rigging by numerous global banks, began in Britain but soon spread across the ocean to the U.S., where the City of Baltimore and dozens of municipalities, pension funds and other debtors are suing the same banks Detroit owes money to.

Mike Shane

In Britain and Japan, banking executives have been arrested and tried for their roles in the scandal. (See links below this story for previous VOD articles relating to LIBOR and the banks.)

The highlight of the meeting was Mike Shane’s slide show presentation analyzing the role of the banks in Detroit’s downfall step by step. A black and white version of the presentation is available in PDF by clicking on Banks slide show B W. To see the slide show in full color, click on http://moratorium-mi.org/pp-slides-from-the-may-4-2013-rally-public-rally-and-peoples-assembly-to-save-detroit/

“WE HAVE YOUR CITY! PAY UP OR ELSE!”

The slide show cited Detroit’s foreclosure crisis as the beginning of the current disaster, saying the banks targeted African-American and Latino communities for sub-prime loans, which were eight times more profitable than conventional loans. They used “massive fraud and deception in underwriting these loans,” Shane said.

Detroit, which had the nation’s lowest foreclosure rate in 1996, had 67,000 foreclosures between 2005 and 2009 alone, eventually losing 237,500 people, nearly twice as many as New Orleans lost after Katrina. In 2012, Shane said, almost half of unpaid Wayne County taxes, $57 million, was owed by the banks on homes they had essentially stolen.

Shane said the Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations, which Attorney Fluker testified in front of, found that Wall Street banks which Detroit owes money to engaged in a criminal conspiracy, in a massive report which he held up.

“Our investigation found a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest, and wrongdoing,” the report said. Banks cited in the report included Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, NY Mellon, Citibank, and UBS.

UBS PENSION LOAN—KILPATRICK’S REAL CRIME

UBS in particular played a catastrophic role in Detroit’s economic decline. In 2005, representatives of Wall Street ratings agencies Standard and Poor’s and Fitch came to the City Council table in collusion with UBS to push a $1.5 BILLION pension obligation certificate debt on the city, meant to cover the city’s entire outstanding pension payments for 30 years.  Despite loud protests from the pension boards, the unions, and the community, the Council eventually caved and voted unanimously for the deal.

Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings and Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poor’s (center) at City Council table Jan. 2005, Also present, KIlpatrick’s CFO Sean Werdlow (l) and Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams (r). Photo by Diane Bukowski

Shane noted that Detroit was only the second city to agree to such a proposal, but that many cities followed course afterwards.

This reporter covered the session where the Council deliberated on the deal.

Then Councilwoman Sharon McPhail, who later supported Kilpatrick.

 Councilwoman Sharon McPhail, who sat on the Police and Fire Pension Board, told then Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, “This is a very risky transaction. Your own people at your own economic forum called this one of the seven deadly sins of finance. If the deal doesn’t do what is expected, we could face receivership under the Local Government Fiscal Responsibility Act. If the stock market does well, that $1.2 billion in unfunded pension liability could go away, but we’d still owe it in bonds.”

Kilpatrick responded, “So what?”

The market did go south in the great 2008 economic collapse, and Detroit defaulted on that debt several times, resulting in the banks getting ALL of the city’s casino income taxes and state revenue-sharing funds to vet, cut out their tons of flesh, and then return the scraps to the city.

Shane said that additional losses resulting from interest rate swaps on the pension obligation certificate debt totaled over $439 million, as detailed in an article in Bloomberg Businessweek, titled “Only Wall Street gains from Detroit crisis.”

SWAP AGREEMENTS CAUSE HALF-BILLION $ LOSS AT DWSD

He said the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, an enterprise agency whose bonds are backed by revenue, lost over $546 million terminating interest-rate swap agreements not related to the POC’s,  profiting banks like JP Morgan Chase greatly.

His slides showed that the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), a trade organization of market participants, sets the standards for default and termination events, which result in raising the interest rates on outstanding debts to an additional nine percent over the “London Inter-bank Offered Rate” (LIBOR).

He concluded that the banks therefore dictated the appointment of Detroit EM Kevyn Orr, in order for them to get paid first, before the needs of the city’s people are met.

The current EM act, Public Act 436, decrees that the chief duty of the EM is to ensure “The payment in full of the scheduled debt service requirements on all bonds, note and municipal securities of the local government, contract obligations in anticipation of which bonds, notes and municipal securities are issued, and all other uncontested legal obligations.

He noted that Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts just left his job, because his mission was accomplished. DPS debt records show that it paid down its obligations to the banks by 2012-13 after closing half the district’s schools and laying off tens of thousands of workers. The previous year, it paid $523.8 million on its debt, or 89 percent of total per-pupil state aid. In the current year, that amount has declined to $63. 8 million, or 16 percent of state school aid, which has also declined with the student population.

Hurricane Wall Street

Shane concluded by calling for prosecution of the banks, a moratorium on debt payments, and “tens of billions of dollars” in reparations or restitution from the banks.

While Kevyn Orr’s chief duty is to “re-structure the debt,” said attorney Jerome Goldberg at the end of the meeting, it is highly unlikely he will take a tough stance with the same banks his law firm, which is the city’s re-structuring consultant, represents.

Instead, Hurricane Wall Street will be further visited on the people of Detroit and cities across the U.S.

Other speakers included, Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellerman of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Helen Moore of Keep the Vote No Takeover; Elena Herrada, elected DPS board member; Aliya Moore, Oakman School parent group chair, the Rev. Charles Williams, chair of the Michigan chapter of the National Action Network, and poets and performance artists B. Thomas and At Peace from the Conscious Coalition Collection. 

Abolitionist hero Frederick Douglass

On Aug. 4, 1857, Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others.”

For more information, go to http://moratorium-mi.org/ and www.detroitdebtmoratorium.org.

Download PDF of VOD stories on banks and Detroit at VOD Banks articles.

LONG LIVE ASSATA SHAKUR!

 HANDS OFF ASSATA–SHE IS NOT A TERRORIST!

May 4, 2013 by Jamahiriya News Agency

 By Eugene Puryear

FBI post attacking Assata Shakur

On May 2, the Federal Bureau of Investigation suddenly announced that they had placed Assata Shakur on its “Most Wanted Terrorists” list, making her the first woman to be so designated. The state of New Jersey also raised the bounty on her head to $2 million. These government actions came on the 40th anniversary of the shoot-out in which police allege that Shakur killed an officer.

It is clear that these are the vindictive attempts of the Empire still outraged that a rebel could escape, survive outside its reach, and continue to expose its long history of exploitation and oppression. The recent provocations are part of a long-term smear campaign by the U.S. government to erase her revolutionary legacy.

The FBI’s accusations target Shakur as an individual, but the labeling of her as a terrorist is an attack on all revolutionaries.

Collage from Assata Shakur.org

Shakur has been living in exile in Cuba for the last 29 years. So what changed in the recent days and weeks to now put her on the “Most Wanted Terrorists” list? The FBI presented no evidence against her and revealed no terrorist plots. Assata’s real crime, FBI spokesman Aaron Ford said, was that from Cuba she continues to “maintain and promote her … ideology” and “provides anti-U.S. government speeches espousing the Black Liberation Army message”—an ideology and message that the U.S. government has declared “terrorism.”

Attack on Assata Shakur is an attack on Cuba.

In other words, President Obama’s and Eric Holder’s FBI is charging Shakur with a political crime, the advocacy of revolutionary politics and Black liberation as “terroristic” and “criminal.” According to the outrageous “War on Terror” legal doctrines currently employed in Washington, she could be targeted for assassination. In addition, the designation of Shakur as a terrorist helps them justify the targeting of socialist Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism.”

The defense of Assata Shakur is therefore part and parcel of a general defense of the right to espouse revolutionary politics, of Black liberation and of free speech more generally.

‘I wanted a name that had something to do with struggle’

Assata Shakur was born JoAnne Chesimard, and her change in name was reflective of her desire to fully identify with the revolutionary struggles of her African heritage. Assata means “she who struggles,” her middle name Olugbala means “love for the people,“ and her last name Shakur was taken in honor of her comrade Zayd Shakur.

Comrades of the Black Liberation Army.

It is no surprise that the U.S. government now seeks to further criminalize Shakur. In fact, it is just the latest extension of the government’s counter-revolutionary COINTELPRO initiative waged against the Black liberation movement in the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, the U.S. government was so fearful of the growth of revolutionary movements that J. Edgar Hoover even declared the Black Panther Party, of which Shakur was a member, the “greatest internal threat” facing the ruling class. It used a wide range of tactics, all the way up to assassinations of leaders, to disrupt this radical movement.

It must be recalled that the government described much of the political activity of the era—in the anti-war movement, the Black freedom movement, the fight for independence of Puerto Rico, and solidarity with revolutionary Cuba, among other struggles—as explicitly criminal.

Troops on the streets of Detroit during the 1967 rebellion. DFP

Of course, while they were locking up and killing activists and revolutionaries within the country, the U.S. government was engaged in a wide-ranging brutal and murderous campaign in Southeast Asia. They were dealing cosmetically with the terrible conditions of poverty and class oppression inside the United States, while deploying troops to suppress growing rebellions among oppressed Black, Latino and Native peoples. They were launching coups in multiple nations. They were attempting—and sometimes succeeding—in assassinating revolutionary leaders. They were backing apartheid and Portuguese colonialism in Africa.

When Martin Luther King Jr. famously said that the U.S. government was the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today,” he laid bare the essence of the “American Century.”

Child of the 1960’s.

It was in this world context, which in its core features is unchanged today, that Assata Shakur grew up. Millions took part in the growing movements against the injustices of the U.S. government and Shakur was one of those millions. As a college student, Shakur did not use her degree as an “escape valve” to distance herself from the mass of poor, oppressed and exploited people. Instead, she joined—body and soul—in the fight for their collective liberation.

Out of the mass movement in the United States, a wing emerged that advocated for various forms of armed struggle as a way to expedite the revolutionary movement and give solidarity to peoples of the Third World. Assata was part of this trend—and she and her comrades were targeted for severe repression, often framed and incarcerated under false pretenses.

Assata Shakur is not guilty

Shakur was falsely convicted of having killed an officer on May 2, 1973. While driving on the New Jersey Turnpike, Assata, Zayd Shakur, and Sundiata Acoli were stopped by state troopers, allegedly for having a “faulty taillight.” A shootout ensued where one state trooper killed Zayd Shakur, and another trooper, Werner Foerster, ended up dead. Shakur was charged with both murders, despite the fact that the other trooper, James Harper, admitted he killed Zayd Shakur.

Assata had been, following police instructions, standing with her hands in the air, when she was shot by Trooper Harper more than once, including a bullet to the back. Trooper Harper lied and said he had seen Shakur reach for a gun, a claim he later recanted. He also claimed she had been in a firing position, something a surgeon who examined her said was “anatomically impossible.” The same surgeon said it was “anatomically necessary” for her arms to have been raised for her to receive the bullet wounds she did. Tests done by the police found that Shakur had not fired a gun, and no physical or medical evidence was presented by the prosecution to back up their claim that she had fired a gun at Trooper Harper.

While she was in trial proceedings, the state attempted to pin six other serious crimes on her, alleging she had carried out bank robberies, kidnappings and attempted killings. She was acquitted three times, two were dismissed and one resulted in a hung jury.

Shukur was put on trial in a county where because of pre-trial publicity 70 percent of people thought she was guilty, and she was judged by an all-white jury. Without any physical evidence to present, the prosecution had to rely totally on false statements and innuendo aimed at playing on the prejudices of the jury pool against Black people, political radicals, and Black revolutionaries in particular. Finally, after years behind bars, the state secured her conviction for the Turnpike shooting.

Terrorism double-standard and potential of assassination

President Barack Obama and CIA director John Brennan at his swearing in.

Being placed on this Most Wanted Terrorist list means that hypothetically Shakur could be targeted for assassination. The legal white paper released by the Obama administration around the confirmation of CIA Director John Brennan stated that the United States would pay no attention to another nation’s sovereignty in choosing targets who they deem to be “terrorists.” The massive expansion of the security powers and the methods used in the “War on Terror” are being fashioned to target revolutionary militants.

Placing Shakur on the Most Wanted Terrorists list is also a significant attack on Cuba. On May 1, 2013, the United States refused to remove Cuba from the “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list. The next day, Assata became a “Most Wanted Terrorist.” By claiming that Cuba supports “terrorism” and is harboring a “terrorist,” the government provides itself with a pretext to continue the illegal blockade of Cuba and starve the revolution of trade.

Luis Posada Carriles

Further, the United States does absolutely nothing to apprehend, convict or punish in any way the violent anti-Cuba groups who routinely and openly boast from U.S. soil of planning terrorist attacks on Cuba. Despite having killed thousands of Cubans, none of these organizations or individuals have ever been placed on America’s list of “Most Wanted Terrorists.”

For instance, Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative who currently walks free in Miami, publicly admitted to The New York Times that he had engaged in a campaign of fatal hotel bombings in Cuba. In 1976, Posada was a key figure in the bombing of a Cuban airliner where 73 people perished. In 2000, Posada was caught attempting to set up a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro as he spoke to university students in Panama. If successful, the attack would have killed hundreds.

Threat to political prisoner solidarity work

Ominously, by criminalizing Assata Shakur, the government has also taken a step towards criminalizing the broader movement in support of political prisoners. Many political prisoners in this country have also been alleged to be members of the Black Liberation Army. If Shakur is a terrorist simply for giving speeches in support of the BLA, what about those convicted of crimes alleged to have taken place while they were members? Will political prisoner support groups now be targeted as “supporters of terrorism” or “terrorists” themselves?

Political prisoner Imam Jamil Al-Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown of the Black Panthers) is in prison for life, framed up in the killing of a Georgia police officer.

The new attacks on Shakur aim to have a chilling effect on those who seek to express their support for political prisoners. This is especially true when one considers that drone strikes and indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay are the typical U.S. responses to those accused of terrorism.

The placement of Assata Shakur on the Most Wanted Terrorist list is another example that the U.S. government, and the capitalist class it represents, will go to any length to intimidate, repress and defeat potential threats.

Because Shakur remains a symbol of resistance, and is unrepentant in her politics, the government will never stop their attempts to smear, kidnap or kill her. But millions of people know the truth. Her legacy cannot be whitewashed or dismissed; it cannot be distorted. So even though she is in Cuba, the government remains afraid of her example. They know that while decades have passed, the conditions still exist to give birth to a million Assata Shakurs.

Related:
NY Black is Back Coalition Calls for Demonstration to Support Assata Shakur!
Assata Shakur, Black Freedom Fighter, Is Now On FBI Most Wanted Terrorist List

http://www.assatashakur.org