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

Abayomi Azikiwe

By Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor Pan-African News Wire, Global Research, 

April 30, 2013 

A new push is being made by corporations and banks in Detroit to drive even more working class, poor and nationally oppressed people out of the city. This fact is being illustrated by recent developments in the downtown area and its environs where low-income people are being forced to move from several apartment buildings.

Local multi-millionaire Mike Illitch owns the Detroit Red Wings, the Tigers, Little Caesar’s, and a multitude of properties in downtown Detroit and the Cass Corridor area. He can afford to build FREE housing for the displaced residents.

The Cass Corridor, a heavily depressed area that has been neglected by the City government and the business magnates for years, is now the apparent focus for the construction of a new sports stadium. The owners of the Detroit Red Wings may be attempting to take control of sections of the Corridor in order to either gentrify the district or engage in “developments” that will not benefit the interests of the current residents.

Residents in three apartment buildings on Henry Street between Cass and Second Avenues received a hand written notice on April 20 saying that they had to move out within thirty days. Another document which appeared to be a “Notice to Quit” was also handed over to the residents.

However, neither of these documents appeared to be validated by 36th District Court where Landlord-Tenant matters are handled. Since the tenants are mostly senior citizens, single parents, people living with disabilities and marginalized workers, the supposedly new owners, who have not come forward to publically claim responsibility for the illegal attempts to evict, feel that they can get away with these blatant acts of disregard for hundreds of people.

Residents of Cass Corridor Berwin apartment building.

All together there are over 200 apartment units spread out between the three buildings. Some of the residents have lived in the buildings for over thirty years while others are newcomers.

One resident told this writer that he had just moved in one month ago. He said that he paid the first month’s rent and a security deposit in addition to purchasing furniture for the apartment.

This resident is now irate that he has been told to move by May 20. He wants to take some legal action to recover his money and obtain resources from the new owners to relocate.

Cass Corridor residents at meeting.

This is the sentiment among other residents as well. A meeting was held on Sunday afternoon April 28 in a vacant lot across the street from the apartments.

The residents are angry and frustrated and are looking for assistance. Members from various organizations including the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs, attended the meeting.

However, since it is not clear who really owns the building now it will take some serious inquiry and political action to uncover those that are responsible. Residents of the apartments have also been told that their electricity, gas and water will be shut-off after May 20 creating even more uncertainty.

Griswold residents IPhoto Deadline Detroit–see link to article below.)

The situation in the Cass Corridor is being replicated throughout the central city area. Two other large apartments downtown are also being taken over by new ownership where the residents, who are Section 8 renters, are being ordered to move. (VOD: now add a third–the Griswold Senior Apartments.)

These developments are taking place at a time when the federal government and private industry are not building low-income housing. Detroit, which is now under emergency management under the aegis of the banks, is being exploited at an even deeper level than what has prevailed over the last decade.

The foreclosure and eviction crisis hit the city of Detroit with vengeance beginning in the mid-2000s. The U.S. Census report indicated that approximately 237,000 people left the city during 2000-2010, which is 25 percent of the population.

At present, the City government, although heavily dominated now by pro-corporate surrogates, virtually has no authority in light of the state-imposed Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr. As one resident said during the tenants meeting on April 28, “we are basically on our own now.”

Foreclosures Continue Throughout the State

Members of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition traveled to Coldwater, Michigan in the southwest region of the state on April 24 to support the Murray family who are facing foreclosure. The Murrays have been fighting to maintain their home for the last four years and are represented by anti-foreclosure Atty. Vanessa Fluker of Detroit.

The judge in the case ruled against them and ordered the family out of the home within ten days. The Murrays had placed over $40,000 in an escrow account while they exhausted all of their legal options in the case taking it all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court.

In Portage, Michigan, also in the southwest region, the Benthin/Mac family was facing imminent eviction during the week of April 22. As a result of an e-mail and phone campaign, they were able to win a temporary stay of eviction.

Moratorium NOW! demonstrates on behalf of Baxter Jones family. WW Photo: Abiyomi Azikiwe

Noting the continued problems of home foreclosures, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition called for a demonstration outside the Detroit headquarters of Bank of America on Friday, April 26. Members of Detroit Eviction Defense, the UAW and other groups joined in the protest as well.

On May 20, UAW Local 600, the largest of its kind in the country, will be hosting a public hearing with officials of the banking arm of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Finance Housing Administration. Homeowners are being encouraged to participate to expose the damage being done by the federal government which is the major player in the foreclosure process at present.

Although hundreds of billions of dollars have been allocated for federal housing programs through TARP and HAMP, most of the funds have not been spent because the banks are refusing to participate in efforts to keep people in their homes. Several agreements between the banks and the Justice Department related to fraud and discrimination have not resulted in a shift in federal housing policy.

Only a mass movement led by working class and nationally oppressed people can lead to the adoption of policies that recognize housing as a fundamental human right. The current phase of capitalist development is resulting in the further impoverishment and marginalization of tens of millions of people throughout the U.S. 

Related articles and websites:

Are Detroiters being evicted to make room for a new Red Wings arena?

Low-income tenants kicked out of Cass Corridor buildings by new owner

http://moratorium-mi.org/

http://peoplebeforebanks.org/index.php?art=5#fanniemae

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130422/BIZ/304220419

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/4721/meet_the_downtown_residents_who_say_they_are_being_pushed_aside_for_the_new_detroit

The Feds are coming!

Help us tell them to Stop Foreclosures

At People’s Hearing Monday, May 20, 4-6 PM

UAW LOCAL 600 HALL 10550 Dix Ave. at Wyoming  See map.

Over 100 people rallied on Feb. 13 against Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac evictions. Now we can give them the message directly!

During the bank crisis, the U.S. government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two failing companies that insure and buy mortgages from banks. Since then Fannie and Freddie have been relentlessly evicting families who have trouble paying inflated mortgages. The Feds don’t even grant a hearing to homeowners trying to resist unjust foreclosures and save their homes!

Yet the Constitution says the government can’t seize people’s property without ‘due process.’ You’re invited to sign our petition and tell the president to stop caving in to the banks and stop federal agencies from evicting hard-pressed Michigan families.

We support a federal court challenge brought on behalf of a disabled Vietnam vet— and all other Michigan families facing Fannie Mae foreclosure — calling for a due-process hearing where people can expose potential bank fraud and predatory lending before foreclosure. 

The banks that write mortgages engaged in such fraudulent practices that regulators are making them cut the mortgage principal for many families facing foreclosure. But once Fannie and Freddie take over, they refuse to do the same to help people save their homes.

We are fighting for three things the federal government can do:

1) Due Process for All: As government agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now governed by the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says that no person shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” The case opened Feb. 20 in Detroit.

2) Principal Reduction: Fannie and Freddie should help families in need by by reducing
mortgage principal to reflect current market values. Families facing foreclosure
can hear from homeowners at the rally who have successfully resisted.

3) Halt Foreclosures & Evictions: Fannie Mae has declared moratoriums for hurricane victims. The 75,000 Michigan families foreclosed on in the last year are also victims— of mass unemployment and mortgage banking fraud. 

Ask friends, neighbors & co-workers to sign this petition

Download petition (legal size)
Petition on letter-size paper . Flyer explains why petition matters

________________________________________________________________

For compilation of some of VOD’s many articles relating to the devastation the global banks have wrought on Detroit and the world, click on VOD Banks articles.

A Seattle Police officer with a baton tries to fend off protesters during a May Day anti-capitalism protest that ended with demonstrators clashing with police on Wednesday. Ted S. Warren / AP

By Eric M. Johnson, Reuters May 1, 3013SEATTLE — Protesters clashed with police in Seattle on Wednesday as a May Day rally that began peacefully turned violent after dark, with demonstrators hurling objects at officers who responded with flash-bang grenades and pepper spray.

One protester was seen using a skateboard to smash windows at a Walgreens drug store in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, and others overturned trash cans and lined up newspaper display racks to block police.

LA May Day protest banner

Officers in riot gear, some riding in armored SWAT vehicles, repeatedly used the flash-bang grenades and tried to disperse the crowd.

Seattle police said that as of 9 p.m. local time (12 p.m. ET), 11 adults and two juveniles had been arrested for assaults and property damage. Several people were shown on local TV stations being taken into custody.

 Seattle police said in a tweet that one officer was injured by a thrown object. His condition was not immediately clear.

The violence broke out as darkness fell in Seattle following a day of May Day rallies in cities across the U.S. West that were planned by a coalition of organized labor activists, students, civil rights advocates and members of the clergy to call for an overhaul of immigration laws.

Los Angeles May Day march.

In Los Angeles, thousands of protesters marched through downtown waving American flags and carrying signs with the slogan, “Stop deportations.”

The demonstrators chanted in Spanish, “Obama! Escucha! Estamos en la lucha!” (“Obama! Listen! We are in the fight!”), as they marched down one of downtown’s main thoroughfares.

The march spanned across more than two large city blocks, and one police officer told Reuters that unofficial estimates put the size of the crowd at roughly 3,500 people. No arrests were reported.

Protesters march on Wednesday, May 1, 2013, in downtown Phoenix during a May Day rally to show support for national immigration reform. Photo: Matt York

In Arizona, where a state crackdown against illegal immigration was signed into law three years ago, several hundred people joined a late-afternoon rally outside the state Capitol in Phoenix, ahead of a march through downtown.

The protests come about two weeks after a bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced an 844-page bill, backed by President Barack Obama, that would rewrite many U.S. immigration laws.

A centerpiece of the measure would create a path to legal status and ultimately citizenship for many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

It also aims to secure the U.S. border with Mexico against illegal entry and to make it easier for industry, particularly high-tech businesses and agriculture, to hire workers from abroad when needed.

Related:

Occupy LA sues city over mass detentions

NBC News in depth: Immigration Nation

People hold a banner that reads in Spanish “Proud of our work” at the front of the May Day march to Revolution Square in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. AP / Ismael Francisco

http://blogs.sacbee.com/photos/2013/05/around-the-world-on-may-day.html for photos of huge May Day rallies world-wide.

Young Detroiter angrily denounces bus route cuts announced by by Detroit Mayor Dave Bing in 2011.

                                                                                 From Tom Barrow, 9-BARROW (922-7769),Option 4

TEXT: Keyword “BARROW” to 313131

 MAY 1, 2013 

DETROIT  — Detroit mayoral candidate Tom Barrow today criticized the vote by the SEMCOG Board that deprived the Detroit Department of Transportation of its much-needed federal subsidy of $7 million when the panel voted 22-8 last week.

Mayoral candidate Tom Barrow and family.

When the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments voted to change its funding formula to population rather than usage, which favored ridership and the users of the bus systems, for many years of allocations, it dramatically changed the relationship between Detroit and its suburban neighbors.

“This is not the regional cooperation envisioned by even Dave Bing’s administration, this is regional theft,”  declared Barrow, 64, “and as we contemplate more regionalization of Detroit’s assets, Detroiters must evaluate the benefits of this concept because the reality in this instance just stinks to high heavens.”

Prior to this decision, federal funds for DDOT maintenance were targeted to Detroit’s bus system, DDOT, with a formula that was based on bus ridership, receiving 65% of the funds due to its dominance with approximately 115,000 daily ridership; SMART (Southeast Michigan Rapid Transit) has just 36,000 riders daily.

SEMCOG Executive Director Paul Tait

The new formula is now illogically based on population, not riders, with Detroit buses now receiving less than half of its historical allocation and SMART now receiving 51 percent of federal funding, and Detroit 49 percent.

The much-touted regionalization model fails the most basic test of its concept, and that is cooperation and coordination, Barrow said.

“Here is the most likely scenario: the loss of this subsidy will force the suspension of bus lines and loss of maintenance dollars, allowing the Emergency Financial Manager to then use this as an excuse to give away the bus system to the newly created regional authority, and then raise bus fares on Detroiters” Barrow stated.

In a Barrow administration, any talk of regionalization will begin with an agreement that Detroit officials will appoint the majority of the board.

Child carries sign: Jim Crow is dead, during Dr. MLK Day march in 2011 from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. High School.

Barrow asserted “We must always be in a position to protect our assets, our jewels, from this kind of rapacious behavior that reeks of the old South and its poll taxes, grandfather clauses and rewriting of the rules to benefit one group over another, and that will end when I am elected.”

“The essence of cooperation is mutual respect, and this decision clearly and unequivocally says to Detroiters that our suburban partners have neither respect for us as citizens and most certainly do not respect the current City leadership. That has to change or we are in for more stripping of federal dollars in the regionalization hoax that has been perpetrated against us.”

Barrow plans to address this issue in a letter to Transportation Secretary LaHood and his recently announced successor, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx.

“We cannot rely upon this present Mayor or Kevyn Orr to represent our interests in the forceful way needed that results in protecting Detroit, not surrendering it,” concluded Barrow.

Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh addresses the RTA supporters crowd in the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) office in 1001 Woodward. Transportation Riders United and regional transit supporters held a march, from Rosa Park Transit Center to the SEMCOG offices in 1001 Woodward, and birthday party including balloons and cake for the first meeting of the Regional Transit Authority with its county representatives. (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive.com)

 D-DOT FUNDING CUT A DIRECT RESULT OF BING AND CITY COUNCIL MAJORITY’S COLLUSION WITH SNYDER ADMINISTRATION, FEDS

May 1, 2013

By Diane Bukowski

Detroit — Why Detroit Mayor Dave Bing or the City Council majority should express shock at the cut in D-DOT funding is beyond comprehension. Their collusion with the administration of Michigan “Ric-tator” Snyder, as well as unfortunately, President Barack Obama’s Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, opened the door for the complete dismantling of Detroit’s transportation system.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and Mayor Dave Bing in Detroit Oct. 12, 2012.

LaHood came to Detroit last October to champion regionalization of transit along with Snyder and Bing, allegedly to open up the door for a light rail system. Their hidden agenda is now plainly revealed.

Bing said from the beginning that he and Synder were “joined at the hip,” while Council members Charles Pugh, Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. and James Tate journeyed to Lansing to help the state draft the Public Act 4 consent agreement which opened the door to current Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr. Five council members voted for that on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination April 4, 2012.

The Council majority of Pugh, Cockrel Jr., Tate, Gary Brown, Saunteel Jenkins, and Andre Spivey has since voted to approve costly contracts with Miller Canfield, the firm which helped draft PA 4; Ernst & Young, being sued by New York and New Jersey for complicity in the downfall of Lehman Brothers in 2008; Miller Buckfire, now owned by Stifel Financial, repeatedly sued for fraud, Milliman, notorious for attacking pension systems, and finally, the crowning blow, the contract with Jones Day, Orr’s law firm. They have willingly handed over control of Detroit to the banksters who are gang raping the city. 

These five Council members voted for the consent agreement; Andre Spivey joined them in other disastrous votes.

  Now they want to sue to stop the de-funding of D-DOT, and guess what–ORR SAYS NO! Today, Council members Saunteel Jenkins and Gary Brown complained about cuts in the City Council’s budget which will eliminate their Detroit police security detail. They have good cause for worry. How much longer can they remain in office before Detroiters rise up in fury and exact justice for the people of the poorest city in the country?

Related articles:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/01/18/the-gang-rape-of-detroit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/27/hundreds-pay-tribute-to-warrior-union-president-leamon-wilson-as-state-continues-dismantling-d-dot-detroit/

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“Comprehensive Violence Reduction Task Force” does the opposite

 Joseph may have been shot 50 times in hail of gunfire 

Tests allegedly show police shot each other  

By Diane Bukowski 

April 29, 2013 

Matthew Joseph

DETROIT – Members of the regional multi-agency “Comprehensive Violence Reduction Task Force” shot 23-year-old Matthew Joseph to death in a hail of gunfire at Linwood and Hooker on Detroit’s near west side April 2.  Sources including witnesses at the scene and others familiar with the case say that he was shot as many as 50 times as he sat in the driver’s seat of his car, never exiting the vehicle. 

As partially confirmed in daily media reports, they say ballistics tests show “friendly fire” was responsible for the shootings of the two Detroit police officers at the scene, who worked with the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Detroit division. They are Patrick Hill, who remains in critical condition with wounds to his head and chest, and Sgt. Joseph Pacholski, who was shot in the leg and has since been released. 

Matthew Joseph’s car in between two unmarked police cars. This aerial photo was taken some time after his killing. It shows police crime tape roping off the scene and does not appear to show him still in the car, accounting for the open car door.

“The car was smashed between two police cars, and the driver was hanging off the side of his seat belt, dead,” said one neighborhood resident who was at the scene for several hours. “The gunfire sounded like New Year’s Eve, and we heard police sirens all over.” 

Photos of the scene show the driver’s side window of the car smashed out by the gunfire.

“I was driving to see a relative, and the SUV that ended up in front of the victim’s car almost ran me up on the side of the road,” said another resident who stayed at the scene.

“I stopped at West Grand Boulevard and McGraw and saw them pull some guy out of a car, and lay him on the ground. Then the cop in the Tahoe took off, and there were police cars coming from everywhere. The Tahoe pushed the Magnum [car which Joseph was driving] from the front, and another black police car hit it from the back.” 

VOD has since learned that the man lying on the ground actually jumped from his car prior to the police stop.  He and a young woman in Joseph’s car, who has not been identified, were later arrested. He remains in custody on a probation violation, while police say the young woman, thought to be a friend of Joseph’s, was released. 

“I didn’t actually see the cops getting shot,” the second witness, who estimated she was about 50 feet from the cars involved, said. “There was too much gunfire from everywhere. Then the trainees came out of the Police Academy from across the street, and started pushing us back. We stayed at least two hours, and no ambulance came to the scene to take the people out of the car the dead man was in. We waited. I wanted to see why they were letting people sit in the car so long.” 

Meanwhile, the wounded officers were rushed to nearby Henry Ford Hospital.

Memorial teddy bear for Matthew Joseph at scene of his killing. Votive candles were at the base of light pole.

The second witness said police in the two cars which penned Joseph’s car in were dressed in black street clothes, and that the cars were unmarked as well. She said she also saw at least 20 Detroit police cars, and “a few” State police cars at the scene. 

“The Detroit police cars came flying down the street, about as many black unmarked cars as blue and white cars,” she said.  “The man who was killed was still in his car. I don’t think he ever got out of that car. One lady was at the scene crying and fighting to get down there, saying ‘They killed my babies,’ but the police stopped her.” 

Police allege they were pursuing Joseph as a suspect in a March 28 killing at the McNichols Riviera Motel. Daily media has reported that the victim was a crack cocaine dealer who was the son of a retired Detroit police officer. There is, however, no arrest warrant for Joseph on file at Detroit’s 36^th District Court. 

Neither police nor the media have released the names of the man killed at the motel, who was reported to be 23 years old, or that of his father.  During a visit to the motel recently to locate witnesses, VOD observed a black and white car with no police insignia in the parking lot, but was not able to obtain the information requested from those present. Daily media has reported that “nefarious activity” regularly takes place at the motel. 

Glass with candle and Matthew Joseph’s name at site of memorial.

The day after Joseph’s killing, the daily media blew up with stories on Joseph’s criminal background, saying outright that he shot the police officers and painting him as a “bad seed” from his childhood on. 

One report said, “When Detroit police officers stopped a car being driven by a homicide suspect on the city’s west side Tuesday evening, a woman in the car, a police source said, cried out: ‘He’s got a gun!’ The driver opened the car door and began firing at police, striking an officer in the head and a sergeant in the leg, a source said. Police fired back, a source said, killing the suspect, whose hand was reportedly still gripping his gun after he was shot.” 

Officer Patrick Hill

Daily media reported later that it was likely that Officer Hill, at least, was the victim of “friendly fire.” At that point, Detroit Police Chief Chester Logan announced that an investigation by the Michigan State Police was underway. However, they themselves are not a disinterested party, having been involved at the scene of Joseph’s death. They are also members of the “Comprehensive Violence Reduction Task Force.” 

The daily media stories included reports from Joseph’s Third Judicial Circuit Court files and from his juvenile records as well, which normally are not open to the public or media. 

VOD requested Joseph’s adult criminal files weeks ago from the court clerk’s office, but to date has not received a call that they are available. VOD can only surmise that police immediately provided the records to the daily media reporters involved to justify the shooting, painting Joseph as an armed and dangerous thug. 

Close-up of Matthew Joseph’s car after his body was removed, shows window shot out.

Records located on-line show that Joseph, born 12/29/89, served time in the state prison system for what appear to be two incidents, on Dec. 19 and Dec. 23, 2006, involving charges of armed robbery and felony firearms. He was sentenced on May 22, 2o07 by Third Judicial Court Judge Bruce Morrow to terms of up to 15 years. He was paroled after five and a half years on Oct. 2, 2012. 

VOD also requested a copy of Joseph’s autopsy report, which is a public record. In the past, VOD has received such reports in a timely fashion without problems. However, the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office responded to VOD’s Freedom of information Act request as follows. 

“The above request has been received and reviewed. After a diligent search for the requested records, I have determined and certify that the records do not exist. An autopsy can take 30-90 days or longer to complete, depending on the length of time for test results to be received. Therefore, your request is denied. We encourage you to contact the undersigned at the Office of the Medical Examiner in 30 days to check on the status.” 

Police training academy across the street from site of Matthew Joseph’s death was once a public Detroit high school.

Vanessa Denha-Garmo, the spokeswoman for Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, emailed the response, but did not respond to a request for a statement on the cause of Joseph’s death. 

Daily media reports, however, quoted the Examiner as saying that Joseph died from “multiple gunshot wounds,” contradicting an original police report that he was shot once. A source familiar with the case told VOD that Joseph was shot 50 times. 

Attempts to speak with Joseph’s family have so far been unsuccessful. VOD has learned that they may be filing a wrongful death lawsuit in his case. Attorneys frequently advise clients in such instances not to speak with the media. 

(VOD: it is the policy of this newspaper not to name witnesses cited in police brutality case stories, due to the potential of retaliation. This policy is based on the author’s extensive experience covering such cases. Meanwhile, statements from witnesses in this story are being further validated. Other witnesses are asked to contact VOD at 313-825-6126.)