The United States Army will be deploying troops to nearly three-dozen African nations in the coming year.
Chaplain conducting service at Fort Riley, Kansas.
Soldiers based out of Fort Riley, Kansas’ 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division will begin training in March 2013 in order to prepare for a project that will send troops to as many as 35 African nations, the Associated Press reports. Citing a growing threat from extremist groups, including those with ties to al-Qaeda, the Department of Defense is hoping to install American soldiers overseas in order to prepare local troops there for any future crises as tensions escalate.
Earlier this month, DoD sources with insider knowledge told the Washington Post that US troops will soon be en route to the nation of Mali in order to thwart the emerging threat of Islamic extremists, including al-Qaeda aligned insurgents. With the latest news from the Pentagon, though, Mali will be just one of many African nations hosting US troops in the coming year. According to the AP’s update this week, soldiers will be sent overseas in the new year to assist only with training and equipping efforts, and are not necessarily permitted to participate in military operations. Should the Pentagon ask the troops to engage in battle, however, the secretary of defense could sign off on an order that would allow as much.
Pres, Barack Obama with AFRICOM chief Gen. David Rodriguez and his wife.
“If they want them for (military) operations, the brigade is our first sourcing solution because they’re prepared,” Gen. David Rodriguez, the head of U.S. Army Forces Command, tells the AP. “But that has to go back to the secretary of defense to get an execute order.” Additionally, the AP says that US troops will head specifically to Libya, Sudan, Algeria and Niger in order to prepare for any advances from al-Qaeda linked groups.
Americans will also train and equip forces in Kenya and Somalia, reportedly, in order to stand up to al-Shabab militants. Despite the troops being deployed to more than half of the countries in Africa, though, the AP reports that Uncle Sam will try to avoid giving the impression that the United States is leaving a substantial footprint across the continent.
“The challenge we have is to always understand the system in their country,” explains Rodriguez. “We’re not there to show them our system, we’re there to make their system work. Here is what their army looks like, and here is what we need to prepare them to do.” Sources speaking with the AP say that the United States has already prepared nearly 100 different exercises and training programs to conduct with African troops during the coming year.
PENTAGON PREPARES MILITARY OPERATION IN MALI
U.S. troops in Mali/Photo AFP Robert Nicklesberg
Published: 08 December, 2012, 00:39
It’s only December, but it looks like the Pentagon has all planned out how they’ll spend a good part of 2013. US officials now claim that the Defense Department is busy preparing a military operation in the nation of Mali.
FILE – In this March 19, 2011 file photo, supporters of besieged Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi cheer as they rally in support of him in the city of Bamako, Mali. While Western powers herald the death of Gadhafi, killed Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011, many Africans are mourning a man who poured billions of dollars of foreign investment into desperately poor countries. (AP Photo/Harouna Traore, File)
United States officials with knowledge of the matter tell the Washington Post that the Department of Defense and the US State Department will assist next year in a mission to overthrow Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qaeda who took under control a significant part of Mali, a small West African country that is still picking itself up after a coup this past March. Earlier this year, military officers displaced the administration of then-President Amandou Toumani Toure, claiming that he was reluctant in addressing the extremist issue himself. However since then the military junta failed to improve security in the country and retake control of the northern part of Mali captured by the Islamists.Now the US is claiming that it’s ready to help the military rulers, even though it may be a clear violation of American laws: the Pentagon cannot assist first-hand with people responsible for ousting a democratically elected leader. That doesn’t mean, however, that Washington won’t find a way to send support overseas.
According to testimonies from officials speaking to the Post, both the Pentagon and State Department will assist opposition to the terrorists by training, equipping and transporting troops to tackle what Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Delaware) has called “the largest territory controlled by Islamic extremists in the world.” Speaking on the record, though, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for Africa tells the paper that US influence might not end there.
Amanda J. Dory, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Africa Policy.
“There’s plenty of other forms of information and intelligence that are circulating that give us enough insight for planning purposes,” the Defense Department’s Amanda J. Dory tells the Post this week. According to the paper, Dory also floated the possibility of US warplanes being deployed to North Arica to provide troops there with aerial protection. “We definitely don’t know how that would work out,” Dory says. In advance of next year’s expected war, the State Department and the Treasury announced this week that they have blacklisted two Mali extremist groups, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, as terrorists officially in the eyes of Uncle Sam. The Associated Press reports that doing such will make any of those groups’ members ineligible to receive assistance from the US or conduct business, the start of crippling sanctions expected to continue until eventual military intervention.
Johhny Carson, assistant secretary for African Affairs under US President Barack Obama
Meanwhile, though, the wheels are indeed in motion in terms of starting to send US support towards Mali. On Wednesday, Johnnie Carson, assistant secretary for African Affairs under US President Barack Obama, said “We have sent military planners to [the Economic Community of West African States] to assist with the continued development and refinement of the plans for international intervention.” Carson acknowledged that US assistance will be needed in order to overthrow al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, but added, “it must be African-led; it must be Malian-led.”
Testifying to Congress, Rep. Dory adds that AQIM and its affiliates “took over administration of northern cities and began imposing a harsh version of Sharia law” in Mali. “This expanded safe haven and control of territory allows al-Qaeda and affiliates to recruit supporters more easily and to export extremism.”
Gov. Snyder announces EFM review, “stricter” consent deal in 2013
Residents call for new fight-back strategies
By Diane Bukowski
December 22, 2012
DETROIT – City Council’s narrow approval of the Miller-Canfield contract Dec. 11 and other items in Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s “Milestone Agreement” with the state, along with the Hantz Woodlands land sale, has only accelerated the war on the nation’s poorest major city.
The Council’s “Fatal Five,” many of whom met with Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s chief of staff Dennis Muchmore prior to the meeting, acted after State Treasurer Andy Dillon threatened to appoint an emergency financial manager under the now defunct Public Act 72.
A week later, on Dec. 18, Snyder empaneled a six-member review team to begin the EFM process anyway, and is now threatening as an alternative to impose a “stricter” consent agreement under a new “emergency manager” act voted in during the state legislature’s lame duck session.
“King” Rick Snyder.
“My administration has worked, and will continue to work in collaboration, with Mayor (Dave) Bing and city officials to ensure a revitalized and successful Detroit,” Snyder said in a statement. “However, given the financial crisis that continues to grip the City of Detroit, we must move quickly to ensure city residents have continued access to essential services they expect and deserve.”
Snyder ignored the fact that Detroit’s financial crisis has been caused by its huge debt to banks like UBS, which recently agreed to pay $1.5 billion in fines resulting from its criminal interest-rate rigging in the “LIBOR” scandal. (Click on The City of Baltimore and other municipalities and states are suing UBS and other global banks to recoup their losses fr0m those “LIBOR” deals, but Detroit’s leaders insist on blaming the people. (Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/12/19/ubs-admits-fraud-in-1-5-billion-libor-rigging-settlement/.)
Marie Thornton is applauded at town hall meeting opposing $500 million school bond Jan. 28, 2009.
Life-long community activist and former Detroit School Board member Marie Thornton strongly opposes Snyder’s assault. She conducted a civil-rights style protest at the Dec.11 council meeting, lying down on the floor after Council President Charles Pugh at first ordered her to leave because he didn’t like her comments, and repeatedly insulted her. (See video at top of story.)
“Pugh came up to me and others in the audience before the meeting and asked us if we were going to be ‘good,’” Thornton recalled. “I am old enough to be his mother. He tried to remove me prior to the meeting and during the meeting, but I was determined not to let him succeed.”
Audience member Tyrone Travis called out repeatedly, “Get your hands off her,” and “assault” as police surrounded her, begging her to get up so they could take her out. Pugh eventually relented and told Council police hovering over her to let her stay.
Thornton got over 93,000 votes in the 2005 Detroit school board elections, ranking third because of voters’ admiration for other protests she conducted against school board practices, protests Pugh disparaged as “disruptions.”
Charles Pugh boasts to media about vote for Detroit PA4 consent agreement April 4, 2012.
Pugh refused to apologize for wrongly blaming Thornton on Dec. 4 for the “grapes of wrath” protest Call ‘em Out leader Agnes Hitchcock conducted against the board’s vote to close 50 schools in 2005. During her term, Thornton opposed numerous costly private contracts and hundreds of school closings, despite constant attacks on her instigated by Board president Jimmy Womack.
She was the only board member to vote “No” on the consent agreement which led to former Governor Jennifer Granholm’s imposition of an EFM on the district. A recent report revealed that 51 percent of children attending DPS now live in poverty, up from 39.4 percent in 2007. More than half the district’s schools are now closed.
“Everyone should have sat on the floor Dec. 11,” Thornton told VOD, “including the Council members who voted no. We are living under lawless officials. I watched the Council relive Public Act 72 , which is dead, and act as if they didn’t know it. They are playing into the hands of Gov. Snyder. They should never even have conducted a second vote on Miller-Canfield because the agenda said no reconsiderations were to be voted on. That was nothing but a dog and pony show in violation of the Open Meetings Act.”
Mayor Dave Bing (2nd from l) and top staff Jack Martin, Chris Brown (now disappeared), and Kirk Lewis listen intently to advice from Michael McGee of Miller Canfield at Council session June 12, 2012.
As during Council’s previous meetings, hundreds of residents waited in the hallways for hours, unable to see or hear the proceedings, only to be allowed in for one-minute comments.
The Council voted 8-1 against the Miller Canfield contract Dec.4, citing the firm’s conflicting role on behalf of the state in writing the original “emergency manager” Public Act 4, the so-called Detroit “consent agreement,” the “Milestone Agreement,” and brokering the $137 million state loan deal.
The Council “Fatal Five” who voted “Yes” to Miller-Canfield Dec. 11 were Pugh, Gary Brown, Saunteel Jenkins, James Tate, and Kenneth Cockrel Jr. The same crew approved the April 4 “Fiscal Stability (consent) Agreement.”
Detroit’s ruling Financial Advisory Board, dominated by corporate kingpins.
That pact essentially put the city under the control of 13 emergency managers, including a nine-member corporate-dominated “Financial Advisory Board,” Program Management Director Kriss Andrews, CFO Jack Martin, Dillon, and Snyder. All can override the decisions of Detroit’s elected officials.
Rally to save Belle Isle Sept. 22, 2012.
It led to the unilateral imposition of “City Employment Terms” on city workers despite an earlier union pact which would have saved the city at least $68 million, the closure of three federally-funded city departments, a proposed 90-year “lease” of Belle Isle to the state, wage and benefit cuts, and threats to the city’s pension system.
Many residents who spoke at hearings before the Council vote April 4 asked the body to wait until after the Nov. 6 referendum vote on Public Act 4, which birthed the proposed consent agreement. Michigan voters resoundingly repealed the act. A case is now pending before the state Supreme Court challenging Snyder’s use of Public Act 72 to maintain EFM’s in most of the state’s majority-Black cities.
PA4 and PA72 opponent Robert Davis, Highland Park school board member.
However, neither City Council nor the city’s major unions have joined plaintiff Robert Davis in that suit or in filing one of their one, despite the fact that Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Young cited MCL 8.4 in a hearing before the Court ordered the PA 4 repeal referendum on the ballot.
“Whenever a statute, or any part thereof shall be repealed by a subsequent statute, such statute, or any part thereof, so repealed, shall not be revived by the repeal of such subsequent repealing statute,” MCL 8.4 says.
“Public Act 72 does not exist,” Thornton said. “But the Mayor, the City Council and the state won’t let it die. Snyder could not get away with what he is doing if the Council would stand up to him. As far as the upcoming city elections in 2013, it’s going to be the same game but different players. The powers that be want to control Detroit in any lawless way possible because it is the largest city in the state, with the most people and the most resources.”
Nicholas Cosmo, CEO of Agape World, under arrest in 2008 for Ponzi scheme like the one Hantz is facing litigation over. Michael Kessler, hired by Council to review workers comp claims for fraud, exposed Cosmo.
In addition to the Miller-Canfield contract, the Council voted for a $300,000 one-year contract, with one-year renewal, with an outside firm to search for fraud in the city’s workers’ compensation and benefits process, which the Milestone Agreement required to be retained before Dec. 14, 2012. The firm is Kessler International of New York City.
But the Council’s “Fatal Five” blithely voted to approve the largest land sale in the city’s history, 143.8 acres for $520,000 to Hantz Woodlands, LLC.
They were well aware that Hantz’ parent company, Hantz Financial, is embroiled in litigation over a $2.2 billion Ponzi scheme the company recommended to investors, and that it paid a $675,000 settlement in 2005 for “fraud stemming from misleading, inaccurate and fraudulent representations, misstatements, omissions and patently incorrect statements about its independent status.”
John Hantz’ Indian Village estate includes to homes and two carriage houses. Shown is one living room with 12-foot ceilings, favorite art pieces, including (left to right) a Frederic Remington sculpture (one of four in the home), a Handel desk lamp, a Tiffany floor lamp, a Wilson Irvine painting (above the sideboard), a large painting by T.M. Nicholas, and a Handel lamp. The collection, Hantz says, “is about quality and the ability to pass on.” However, he said Hantz Woodlands is about “creating scarcity.”
Actor/activist Danny Glover at Timbuktu Academy rally against Hantz Woodlands deal Dec. 8, 2012.
The Hantz hearing was attended by at least 600 people, all but a few in opposition to the deal. During the hearing, as one speaker pointed out, it was clear that Pugh at least had already made up his mind, since he told another speaker who inquired whether Hantz would pay taxes on the land, “Oh, yes, they WILL pay taxes.”
Riverbend Community Association President Jay Henderson asked the audience, “What will you do if the Council votes against your wishes?” He later told VOD that Detroit residents must create new direct strategies to win back control of their city in the New Year.
On Dec. 4, the Council had unanimously supported Councilwoman JoAnn Watson’s request that Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon send a “letter of demand” to State Treasurer Andy Dillon for the $30 million he was withholding from the city until Council obeyed his demands. But on Dec. 11, they turned down the resolution which would have authorized that letter.
Instead, they approved the following resolution authored by Watson:
After the council votes on Miller-Canfield and Hantz, the audience erupted in anger. According to Cecily McClellan of Free Detroit-No Consent, not only Council police but deputy sheriffs from county courts in the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center were summoned to eject them forcibly from Council chambers.
Videos of the Council session Dec. 11 and its public hearing on Hantz Farms Dec. 10 have not been posted in their archives as is normally the case.
SELECTED PUBLIC COMMENTS FROM COUNCIL MEETING DEC. 11
Valerie Burris speaks at Council meeting Nov. 20, 2012.
Valerie Burris: I’m wearing red in support of the unions in Lansing today and in support of our children being slaughtered in the streets because of the policies of the city. No to Miller Canfield. No to the bogus consent agreement. Stand up and fight for the people.
Cecily McClellan: The Council very much aware that the state has no jurisdiction over you to force you to approve these contracts. This is clearly extortion. The Council is very much aware that PA4 is dead and PA72 as Robert Young indicated cannot be revived. This will not provide you cover. You need to stand your ground, not be disrespected. The citizens fought hard and long to repeal PA4. We restored your responsibility so now stand up and do your job.
Lynnette Bowens in earlier photo.
JoAnn Jackson: The people of Detroit voted Nov. 6, Asians, Blacks, Latinos and whites, we all voted no on PA 4. We the people pay your salaries and we want you to vote no on anything dealing with an emergency manager. If you don’t we are taking to the streets and get rid of every one of you.
Lynnette Bowens: “I see this contract with Plante Moran, and one for a workers comp fraud audit. Do we no longer have any city employees in the accounting department? The health care dependent eligibility audit—do we no longer have a Human Resources Department. Miller-Canfield—have we gotten rid of our law department? I see there is also a a resolution to increase the contract procurement threshold for the City Council, a resolution to circumvent your authority.
Keith Hines at Council session Nov. 20, 2012.
Attorney Richard Mack, AFSCME Council 25: – What this honorable body should consider is that this cash crisis has been created by Dillon holding the city’s money. The city borrowed $104 million, and $86 million is left. Twenty-four$ million has already been paid. So prior to the Nov. 13 Milestone Agreement, someone came along and changed the contract under which you would get your money. This body can go to court and contend that Dillon is abusing his discretion.
Keith Hines: I’m going to take 10 seconds to say “The Trolley Riot of 1891.” (He referred to a worker-community uprising in Detroit during which workers on the city’s horse-drawn trolleys struck for better pay and conditions, and riders supported them, demanding electrification of the private trolley system. Large crowds took over the trolleys and ran many into the river. This was the beginning of Detroit’s public sector.)
Edith Lee Payne: Different corporations including Mike Illitch owe the city in excess of $800 million. There is no financial crisis, this is strong-arming and extortion by the state, which also owes money to city. The Council should initiate forfeiture proceedings against Bing, he has mismanaged every single department.
Ann Grimmett in earlier photo.
Ann Grimmett: Why is this meeting not in the auditorium. It is such disrespect to the citizens of Detroit when they are not allowed to participate in whole meeting. This is a terroristic tactic. (Many speakers commented on this issue. VOD is recruiting plaintiffs and attorneys for an Open Meetings Act lawsuit like those already filed by unions after the right-to-work vote in the state legislature. If successful, such a lawsuit would void all actions taken during the meeting.)
Julia Enright, Pres. AFSCME Local 1023: ask you again to really look at the fact that the City of Detroit is owed money, and turned down savings from its unions. But this past Friday longevity payments were given to non-union employees and appointees. (Her contentions were later confirmed by city officials. Unionized workers have not received longevity pay, ranging from $150 to $750, since 2009.)
Morris Mays (center) and Jackie Taylor (r) at Council session Nov. 20, 2012.
Chris Griffiths: Vote No on the Hantz land grab and Miller Canfield. They cannot resurrect PA 72 from the dead. Only Jesus resurrected someone from the dead. This reminds me of slavery days. You guys are doing the exact same thing the white people did to us.
Morris Mays: You are afraid to face the public in an open meeting. I want to exercise my right and authority to have the Corporation Counsel present so she can open up the books on you and break out the law on you so when you get ready for privatization. I hate what you’re doing, the people hate it.
“WHERE IDEAS HAVE VALUE” Founded 1993 Opinions-Research-Consultations Alternative Think Tank, Activism-Services
Recently in the sports arena there was a big controversy over a sports columnist questioning the “Blackness” of an athlete. This issue has been a fixture of late in the post racial era especially during the election of the first person of color in the white house as America’s president.
President Barack Obama was also subject to a number of barbershop and beauty salon conversations in the Black community regarding his commitment and advocacy of the Black community given not only his bi-racial DNA but also his wilingness to discount and marginalize a Black agenda to appease and pander to the white electorate. It was an internalized race based litmus test that was warranted on many levels in not just the Black community but other venues in our nation.
Black unemployment rate ranges from 40 percent in some areas to 90 percent among youth.
President Obama during all of his presidential campaigns deliberately avoided and navigated around the issue of race and his ‘Blackness’ in part for fear of offending the white electorate and creating a premise that he would be concerned only with Black Americans and not the entire country’s agenda. Obama’s wilingness to handcuff his approach to ‘Blackness’ and reflect a Black agenda has proven to be lethal and fatal for many segments of the Black community, from the high rates of Black unemployment in the domestic area to the foreign policy template where he discounts Africa to attend to the issues of the Middle East and Europe. There is a real time reality which comes when our elected Black officials position our concerns at lower tiers of importance.
Sculpture of boxing champion Joe Louis’ fist in downtown Detroit. His victory over Max Schmeling was considered a victory for Blacks across the U.S.
The question and relevant issue of ‘Blackness’ of course is deeper than a cosmetic obsession and focus. The issue of ‘Blackness’ and the lack of it has been a staple of the Black community since our illegal and inhumane entry into America. Our ‘Blackness’ has been a portal and conduit for the ruling class and even other minority groups to wage havoc and contempt for our very existence and humanity. The insertion and presence of ‘Blackness’ is a cultural utility of the highest order and we must always object and reject those attempts to make it impotent.
More tham 50,000 people marched to support affirmative action April 1, 2003 in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which returned a verdict essentially upholding the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policies.
The Utility of ‘Blackness’ has allowed us to survive the insanity of oppression and every manner of indignity. We have employed and engaged the Utility of ‘Blackness’ to assist us secure employment, educational opportunities, and a myriad of hidden opportunities that were lost to us because of our Black heritage. Black people have used ‘Blackness’ to disarm Uncle Toms, Black apologists, shallow liberals and many others who discounted our basic dignity and value as a matter of fact and custom. In far too many circles and bandwidths of life in our nation it is fashionable to indict and ridicule the exercise and behaviors of ‘Blackness’.
The Utility of ‘Blackness’ created a loyal and devoted ethos and principle within the Black community. It allowed us to navigate around racism and it required people who secured opportunity to look out for others who were not as blessed or selected because of their Blackness. This utility helped the first wave of the Black middle class to create a duty to give back. It also created a defense against those who sought to disenfranchise Black issues. Many people in powerful bandwidths in our nation have been held in check for fear of ‘Blackness’ biting them in the ass from harassment on the job to policies which have fostered the low expectation of soft bigotry.
Dance for self-determination at Kwanzaa ceremony in Euclid, Ohio.
The litmus test of ‘Blackness’ was created by us and for us on the souls of Black people. It has allowed us to disarm and put into check those with Black faces who seek to engage in intra-racism and color-ism. Many people who reject to the Utility of ‘Blackness’ often undervalue and fail to appreciate this authentic Black cultural norm created by Black people in America! This was an internal cultural tool and adaptation which never required the approval or validation of the white majority culture. The protocols and nuances of ‘Blackness’ have been a priceless asset and process which deserve our continued usage and defense from even those other Black folks who seek to remove it from our community.
Those who seek to indict, object, ridicule and make the Utility of ‘Blackness’ a negative force must be ignored. The Black communities’ assets should not be abandoned, displaced or marginalized. It is imperative that we continue to evolve and tweak all of our internal cultural and racial protocols and not run from them to appease others in this “post racial” era.
Right to Work Wrong For Michigan! – – A No Struggle, No Development Production! By KennySnod *
Published on Dec 17, 2012
Demonstrators occupy the capitol in Lansing Dec. 12. Where is Christmas for the hundreds of thousands of unemployed, poor, and homeless, whose numbers will grow with Right to Work? Photo by Kenny Snodgrass
Right to Work Has Got To Go! The people of Michigan are fighting for our families and our future. Dick Devos will pay the cost for taking our rights away! Please protect the rights of our working families, don’t let them be hurt by this “Right To Work Bill.” We need to build a strong middle class, Dick Devos. Tell the Republicans “No” to the so called “Right to work bill” which will only hurt our families, our cities, our union and our work place. Dick Devos, why do you and the Republicans want to hurt the American families to make yourself rich? Please protect the rights of our working class families, the 99%! Let’s send a loud message to our Lansing politicians that the Right To Work bill is WRONG for Michigan.
No Struggle, No Development Productions!
By Kenny Snodgrass, Activist, Photographer, Videographer, Author of 1} From Victimization To Empowerment–The Challenge Of African American Leadership; The Need of Real Power”
The passage of the union-busting “right-to-work” law in Michigan is a severe legal setback for the labor movement and for the workers, the oppressed and all the progressive masses in the state. If not turned around, it will encourage right-wing, anti-labor forces across the country.
However, it must be emphasized at the outset that so far this is purely a legislative setback. It has not been implemented. The working class has not been defeated in the class struggle. Rather, the labor leadership was politically outmaneuvered by a cabal of right-wing billionaires and their political puppets in the legislature and the governor’s mansion. These forces conspired to put this reactionary legislation on the fast track without even giving the legally required time and processes for the masses to mobilize against it.
The worst thing the labor movement can do now is accept this reactionary legislation as a fait accompli and look to the electoral arena in 2014 — a distant attempt to regain ground lost in the legislature.
Right to Work Bill, Is Wrong For The 99%! – – A No Struggle, No Development Production! By KennySnod * (video above) .
There’s a lesson to be learned from the earlier failure of the Wisconsin so-called recall movement. In this period, as the billionaire Koch brothers and their like pour massive funds into the electoral arena and into advertising and propaganda, the labor movement is at a distinct disadvantage fighting on electoral territory alone. To be on much more solid ground, the movement must rely on its real strength — the mobilization of the workers, the communities, the students and all the oppressed in the class struggle.
Workers agitate for direct action in Lansing. Photo: Kenny Snodgrass.
To delay the struggle until the 2014 elections and fail to mobilize the workers for struggle now would allow this legislation to be enforced, so that a legislative sleight of hand is turned into a real and profound setback for the workers. Such a delay would result in a totally demoralizing, one-sided class struggle, in which right-wing billionaires are allowed to bust unions.
From Wisconsin to Lansing, struggle & fightback
The unions should take their cue from the fact that between 15,000 and 20,000 workers and their allies from around the state and other parts of the country turned out in Lansing on short notice to try to stop the legislation. They were in a militant, fighting mood, even though they were confronted by an emergency situation in which the approval of the legislation was virtually assured.
Workers and community occupy Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin,
The unions should also bear in mind the heroic phase of the Wisconsin struggle when workers, students and community activists occupied the Capitol, while tens of thousands of workers and activists from all over the country poured into Madison. For two weeks they tried to stop the attempt to outlaw collective bargaining among public sector workers. Support for the Wisconsin struggle came from all over the world, including Europe and as far away as Egypt.
At that time, the question of a general strike was posed for the first time in decades by the labor movement — although it was quickly abandoned.
That struggle was never allowed to reach its potential because it was diverted into a “recall” struggle, which was really a gubernatorial election by another name. And the bosses — who had been on the run while the occupation and the mass demonstrations continued to grow — were back in charge in the electoral arena with their millions in campaign funds to bolster Gov. Scott Walker.
It is still a question whether, if Walker had been defeated in the recall by the Democratic Party candidate, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barnett, the law would have been overturned.
The Michigan law, dubbed “right-to-work-for-less” by the unions, is potentially an even-more-sweeping challenge to workers’ rights than the Wisconsin law. To bank on an electoral challenge in 2014, or a recall, or winning a legal challenge in the courts is folly and dangerous.
Lansing should be beginning, not end
Say Yes To “Collective Bargaining!” – – A No Struggle, No Development Production! By KennySnod * * Say Yes To “Collective Bargaining!” No to “Right To Work” (Video above)
In both Wisconsin and Michigan, the workers have shown their willingness to rise to the occasion if given the chance and the resources. It is more fruitful to look upon the Lansing mobilization as a beginning of the mass struggle, not the end.
Admittedly, it will be a long and strenuous road to build the kind of struggle required to overturn the Michigan law. But the basis for such a mobilization exists. The right-to-work law is not the only reactionary legislation being rammed through.
Detroit’s sewage workers struck for a week against the assault on Detroit.
The Republican-controlled Michigan legislature passed dozens of bills in its final sessions, including a bill revising the vicious “emergency manager” bill that had been defeated at the polls in November.
The revised bill, like the previous one, still gives the governor the right to appoint what amounts to a municipal dictator, called a manager, with the power to override city laws and elected officials and tear up union contracts, among other powers. Continue reading →
UBS admits massive criminal fraud amounting to many billions of dollars, but the Detroit Free Press today featured a large photo of a 17-year-old Black youth from Detroit who has been charged with house break-ins. WHO IS THE REAL CRIMINAL HERE?
Swiss bank UBS’ fine is the second largest paid by a bank. Last week, Britain’s HSBC agreed to pay the largest penalty — $1.92 billion.
Reuters: By Katharina Bart and Tom Miles
December 19, 2012
Marchers at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center May 9, 2012 challenge banks.
(VOD editor: I have been on break for a short while, but stories from last week are coming. However, I had to post this one immediately. The City of Detroit borrowed $1.5 billion from UBS in so-called “pension obligation certificates” in 2004, despite strenuous opposition from the pension boards, the unions, and the community. Since then, the city has defaulted twice on that debt. UBS is largely responsible for Detroit’s deficit.
Baltimore and other cities across the U.S. are suing the banks involved in the LIBOR scandal (see VOD story links below). WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH DETROIT’S LEADERSHIP THAT IT HAS NOT JOINED THIS BATTLE AGAINST THE BANKS, BUT INSTEAD CONTINUES TO SLASH JOBS AND SERVICES FOR WORKING AND POOR PEOPLE?
As Councilwoman JoAnn Watson would say, WAKE UP DETROIT!
ZURICH — Swiss bank UBS was hit with a $1.5 billion bill and admitted to fraud Wednesday in order to settle charges of manipulating global benchmark interest rates.
The penalty agreed with U.S., U.K. and Swiss regulators is more than three times the $450 million fine levied on Barclays in June for rigging the Libor benchmark rate used to price financial contracts around the globe.
It is the second-largest fine paid by a bank and comes a week after Britain’s HSBC agreed to pay the biggest ever penalty — $1.92 billion — to settle a probe in the United States into laundering money for drug cartels.
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti: WE WANT YOUR MONEY NOW!
“We deeply regret this inappropriate and unethical behavior. No amount of profit is more important than the reputation of this firm, and we are committed to doing business with integrity,” UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti said in a statement disclosing the extent of the wrongdoing, which took place over six years from 2005 to 2010.
UBS said it will pay $1.2 billion to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, $260 million to the Financial Services Authority and $64.5 million from its estimated profit to Swiss regulator Finma.
The FSA said at least 45 people were involved in the rigging, which took place across a range of Libor currencies.
A similar admission by Barclays in June touched off a political firestorm that forced its chairman and chief executive to quit.
Why do Council President Charles Pugh and Mayor Dave Bing continue to attack the people of Detroit instead of taking on the real criminals, the banks? Are they criminals themselves?
The Libor benchmarks are used for trillions of dollars worth of loans around the world, ranging from home loans to credit cards to complex derivatives.
Tiny shifts in the rate, compiled from daily polls of bankers, could benefit banks by millions of dollars. But every dollar a bank benefited meant an equal loss by a bank, hedge fund or other investor on the other side of the trade — raising the threat of a raft of civil lawsuits.
The steep fine for UBS comes despite the bank, since 2011, cooperating with law-enforcement agencies in their probes. The bank said it received conditional immunity from some regulators.
UBS has had a tough 18 months after suffering a $2.3 billion loss in a rogue trading scandal, management upheaval and thousands of job cuts.
Additional reporting by Martin De’Sapinto, Huw Jones; Sarah White; Steve Slater; writing by Alexander Smith.
Wall Street came to the Detroit City Council Jan. 31, 2004. Shown are then Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow, Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings, Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poors, and then Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams (under former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick) putting the squeeze on City Council to approve $1.5 billion POC loan. PHOTP: DIANE BUKOWSKI
Danny Glover addresses standing-room only crowd at Timbuktu Academy Dec. 8, 2012, in opposition to Hantz.
Packed community meeting featuring Danny Glover says NO to largest land sale in Detroit history
Hantz Financial facing lawsuit over its recommendation of $2.5 billion Ponzi scheme to investors; paid $675,00o in 2005 to settle fraud claim
City Council to hold public hearing today, Dec. 10 at 6 p.m., and vote Dec. 11 at 10 a.m. with little notice to area residents
By Diane Bukowski
December 10, 2012
Proposed area for Hantz Woodlands; Hantz has already purchased many properties in the area from Wayne Co. Treasurer and state land bank authority.
DETROIT—After virtually no notice to east-side residents, except a hastily called hearing today, the City Council plans to vote on the largest private land sale in Detroit history, 143.8 acres for $520,000, to Hantz Woodlands, LLC , during its 10 a.m. meeting Tues. Dec. 11.
That’s about $3,616 an acre, or 8 cents a square foot (correction noted per reader comment).
“HANTZ OFF OUR LAND,” Urban Network bookstore owner Yusef Shakur and many from the community involved are saying instead. “Broken down houses do not mean we are a broken people,” Charity Hicks adds.
The Hantz Group, based in Southfield, is owned by multi-millionaires John Hantz and Mike Score. Its parent company, Hantz Financial Services has 20 offices in Michigan, Ohio, and Georgia, more than 500 employees, and $1.3 billion in assets under management.
Earlier, in 2005, “Hantz Financial agreed to pay a $675,000 settlement for fraud stemming from misleading, inaccurate and fraudulent representations, misstatements, omissions and patently incorrect statements about its independent status,” according to Ward Harris of the McHenry Group, in an article in The Inside Edition at http://www.enewsbuilder.net/mchenrygroup/e_article000451796.cfm .
He said he originally wanted to purchase “10,000 acres of vacant private and city-owned property here into the world’s largest for-profit urban farm.” But after adverse reaction from the community, he and Score claim they only want to grow trees on a smaller swath of land.
City documents describe it as follows: “1,558 parcels totaling 143.8 acres of surplus City-owned lots within an area defined by (a) Mack Avenue, Van Dyke Avenue, Kercheval Street, and Maxwell Street, on the west side of Indian Village, and (b) Mack Avenue, Fischer Street, E. Jefferson Avenue, and St. Jean Street, on the east side of Indian Village.”
Michael Score, who became president of Hantz Farms in 2009.
But the documents add that Hantz Woodlands “intends to develop the Property for the purpose of planning and maintaining hardwood trees and conifers, and conducting such other uses as are or will be consistent with applicable law, regulations, and ordinances, including zoning.” (Click on CC Agenda 12 11 12.)
They say that if the city adopts an ordinance to facilitate urban agriculture, which the City Planning Commission did Dec. 6, Hantz will re-apply to use the land for that purpose.
Danny Glover at Dec. 8 meeting against Hantz land grab.
During a packed meeting at the east-side Timbuktu School of Science and Technology Dec. 8, featuring actor/activist Danny Glover, many area residents said that the City has not allowed them to purchase even lots adjacent to their own. They called instead for a Community Land Bank Trust, to keep the land in the hands of the people.
Much of Detroit’s land is vacant due to the hurricane of bank and tax foreclosures that has devastated city neighborhoods over the last decade, policies of urban removal and gentrification, as well as the shutdown of schools and other city services.
“This violates the City Charter and the State Constitution, because the land is set to be sold at an undervalued rate, “said Lottie Spady of the East Michigan Environmental Council. “There is no fair and transparent process by which the average citizen can purchase land. There is no community benefits agreement in this deal, and no obligation expressed to this generation and those to come. The land is right next to wealthy Indian Village and only a mile from the Detroit River. There is no soil remediation proposed. If trees are grown and cut for sale, they would have to be classified as toxic waste.”
Linda Bane
Linda Bane of the Riverview Village Community Block Club said despite a Hantz agreement with the Lower East Side Action Group (LEAP), to which she belongs, and support from the Warren-Conner Community Development Corporation, residents like herself have been left out of the loop.
“I am LEAP’s community contact person on this,” Bane said. “I met Mike Score at a meeting almost two years ago, and I have been to numerous meetings since, but I have been ignored. I’ve been out knocking on doors in my neighborhood, and most people know nothing about the plan. They say they have tried to buy lots themselves without success. One man tried to buy a whole block to start a community co-op, but he was denied. We really want to purchase the land ourselves. It would provide all sorts of opportunities for our community.”
Kwamena Mensah
Kwamena Mensah of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, and manager of the west-side community D-town Farm, said the question is self-determination.
“We are opposed to this land grab,” he said. “The same thing is happening in other cities and countries in Africa and Latin America. We support a community land bank trust.”
A speaker from South Africa who grew up in Soweto agreed.
“We are fighting for OUR land,” he said. “The Creator made it for the human race, with all its resources. The land can feed the whole planet Earth if it is not held by selfish and greedy people.”
Speaker from South Africa.
The reference to land grabs in Africa is all the more compelling because Score spent four years in Zaire (Congo) working on an agricultural development scheme there, according to the Hantz website.
To a standing ovation, Danny Glover, who had flown in from Savannah, Georgia, then took the mike.
“We are at a critical moment in the history of this city, this country, and the planet,” Glover said. “There is work to be done, protracted work, not a sprint but a long-distance run. Every single one of our voices must be heard. We are in the presence of an incredible shift, not just in people’s consciousness, but also in the way people are treated by those who have power. “
Lottie Spady
He recalled Detroit’s history as a city of promise, where people employed at the auto plants and their off-shoots, many who migrated from the Jim Crow south, could get decent jobs and raise their families in their own homes. He said the city since has been virtually “eviscerated,” and recalled the reaction of Detroiters during the 1967 rebellion.
“That was reaction to frustration, to being alienated from what we need for our very existence,” Glover explained. “The reaction came from people not able to find work, not knowing what to do.”
He said the Hantz “land grab” is symbolic of something much larger.
“But our truth cannot be denied,” he asserted. “We have to get to work knocking on doors to bring people to the table. This is not a fait accompli, but it is one moment in a long journey, on which YOU will be the architects of your own destiny.”
From Hantz website.
THE CORPORATE PLAYERS:
The Hantz Group, Inc. with its subsidiary Hantz Financial, Inc. is a mid-sized brokerage firm based in Southfield, Michigan at 26200 American Drive that has 260 affiliated financial advisers. It also has an office in Taylor. It operates in Michigan and Ohio. It offers broker/dealer and investment advisory services, including financial planning, tailored ongoing advice, tax planning, retirement, saving for retirement, college savings, risk management, disability, long term care, estate planning, and life insurance; business planning, executive compensation, employer access, individual blue cross enrollment, educational, and benefits services for corporate clients; commercial risk insurance agency services; and underwriting services for life and disability insurance for individuals. The company was founded in 1998. Its website is at http://www.HantzGroup.com .
Hantz Group members; photo by E.L. Conley.
Hantz Farms, LLC, owned by Hantz Group CEO John R. Hantz, who is also CEO of Hantz Farms. Hantz Farms owns properties, purchased either from the Wayne County Treasurer or the Michigan Fast Track Land Bank Authority, at 3438 McClellan, 17414 Dwyer, 2526 Fischer, 3075 Belvidere, 17433 St. Louis, 3038 Belvidere, 3070 Belvidere, 1527 Pennsylvania, 1540 Belvidere, 1805 Fischer, 1523 Holcomb, 17403 Dwyer, 17409 Dwyer, 17415 Dwyer, 17421 Dwyer, 17475 Dwyer, 17456 St. Louis, 17426 St. Louis, 17473 St. Louis, and 17400 St. Louis, according to Wayne County Register of Deeds records.
Hantz Woodlands, LLC was just incorporated on May 4, 2012, and maintains an office at 17403 Mt. Elliott in addition to the Southfield location. The Mt. Elliott address is not located in the affected area. The Wayne County Register of Deeds shows that Hantz Woodlands currently owns no property in the county.
Some of what Hantz wants to use for farmland. Environmentalist Lottie Spady said anything grown here would amount to “toxic waste.”
John R. Hantz: according to Fortune Magazine, “is a wealthy money manager who lives in an older enclave of Detroit where all the houses are grand and not all of them are falling apart. Once a star stockbroker at American Express, he left 13 years ago to found his own firm. Today Hantz Financial Services has 20 offices in Michigan, Ohio, and Georgia, more than 500 employees, and $1.3 billion in assets under management.” He is CEO of Hantz Financial, Hantz Group, Inc. Hantz Farms, LLC, and Hantz Woodlands, LLC (the last just incorporated in May, 2012.) Wayne County Land Records show he and/or his wife Josephine own properties at 2505 Iroquois, 2550 Iroquois, 1763 Iroquois, 1352 Bedford, 2504 Seminole, 18330 Fairway Drive, 1480 Seminole, 9090 Dwight, 2539 Iroquois, 14421 Harbor Island, 2253 Burns, 2940 Seminole (tax-delinquent under the name of Ursula Wells for over $20,000), and 293 Moran.
Car ferry crossing the Kasai River in Bandundu Region, Zaire. Photo is from Oakland University website on agriculture in Africa. Residents shown don’t appear very happy at incursion of strangers.
Michael Score has been the President at Hantz Farms, LLC at Hantz Group, Inc. since December 2009. Mr. Score has 30 years of experience in agricultural production, food system economic development and community development. Mr. Score has assisted more than 200 entrepreneurs in efforts to achieve their dreams and build sustainable communities through food system business development. For over four years, Mr. Score was involved in international agricultural development … in the Republic of Zaire (Congo). Following their return to the United States, Mr. Score worked for nine years as an Agricultural Educator with the University of Kentucky. Mr. Score served as Coordinator of a Kellogg-funded state-wide study of sustainable agriculture. He then returned to Michigan State University Extension as an Agricultural Educator serving as an Innovation Counselor with the MSU Product Center. Mr. Score received his Master of Arts in Rural Sociology in 1997. Mr. Score graduated from Michigan State University (MSU) in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Crop and Soil Sciences.
Matt and Tania Allen in their Indian Village home.
Matt Allen is the Senior Vice President of Hantz Farms, LLC and recently joined the Hantz Group after concluding a governmental appointment as Press Secretary for the City of Detroit under former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. A former broadcast journalist, Allen also has experience in the mortgage industry as a loan consultant and has 7 years of retail management experience with Dayton Hudson, Target and TJX. (VOD—During his time with Kilpatrick, Matt Allen was involved in a domestic dispute in his home in Indian Village, where news reports said he put his wife’s head through a window. His wife was Black.)
Detroit Project Management Director “Kriss” Andrews, a joint Snyder-Bing appointee, tells City Council austerity measures including lay-offs, attack on pension funds, will continue even if it votes for contested contracts, during meeting Dec. 4, 2012. Andrews has no experience in public sector “turn-arounds,” only with private corporations.
After burying Detroit in credit grave, Wall Street gives Michigan “historically low” rate on $100 million bond re-financing
Dillon threatens EFM if Detroit doesn’t toe the line under “consent agreement” that should be dead in wake of PA4 repeal
City Council to meet again Tues. Dec. 11, 10 a.m.; Councilwoman Watson wants demand letter to release $30 million in state loan funds
By Diane Bukowski
December 9, 2012
DETROIT – Gov. Rick Snyder and the State of Michigan are likely laying siege to Detroit, threatening an emergency financial manager takeover, as part of a pact with Wall Stree. In return, the state got a “historically low” interest rate of 1.16 percent on a $100 million state bond re-financing deal, among other factors.
State Treasurer Andy Dillon
“The eagerness of bond purchasers to invest in Michigan is a testament to the strong financial turnaround that is taking place,” State Treasurer Andy Dillon said in a release Nov. 28. “The bold actions that Governor Snyder has taken to balance the state budget and make Michigan the Turnaround State have made an impression on investors throughout the country, as reflected in the historically low rate we received on this deal.”
The Bond Buyer reported earlier that Dillon, Snyder and state budget director John Nixon met with all three major rating agencies in New York City Oct. 11 to try “to regain Michigan’s triple-A rating . . .This meeting comes ahead of a . . .$100 million general obligation bond deal set tentatively for Nov. 8.”
Wall Street downgraded Detroit’s debt the same day the state announced its deal.
Moody’s investor ratings firm sent the city to debtor’s dungeon, with rates plummeting from B3 to Caa1, and Caa1 to Caa2, as a result of Michigan voters’ defeat of Public Act 4 Nov. 6, and legal challenges to the use of PA 72 in its place. They even lowered debt ratings for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), which is not in deficit.
This means investors in Detroit will profit from heftier interest rates, if they invest at all.
Marchers in Benton Harbor, first victim of PA 4, including Rev. Edward Pinkney at left, May 7, 2011.
Dillon’s communications office has not responded to an inquiry from VOD asking whether the two events are related.
Dillon is now threatening to impose an “emergency financial manager” on Detroit under Public Act 72, telling the Detroit News he met with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and at least some City Council members to discuss the possibility. He claimed he would ask for a 3o-day review of the city’s finances this week as a first step in the process.
Robert Davis
“There’s been a further deterioration of finances since I last met with the city,” Dillon told the News. “We have to move more quickly than we currently are moving to resolve this.”
However, a case is currently pending before the Michigan Supreme Court asking that the Court affirm that PA 72 is dead. Appellant Robert Davis cites state statute MCL 8.4: “Whenever a statute, or any part thereof shall be repealed by a subsequent statute, such statute, or any part thereof, so repealed, shall not be revived by the repeal of such subsequent repealing statute.”
If the Court rules in Davis’ favor, no such EFM could be imposed.
The Council is set to meet Dec. 11 at 10 a.m. to further discuss issues involved, with residents wondering whether they will succumb to Dillon’s threats of an EFM just they did to threats of an EM when they voted 5-4 for the PA 4 consent agreement.
Atty. Michael McGee of Miller Canfield, signer of proposed contract amendment.
Issues on the table include an amended contract renewal with the Miller-Canfield law firm, a co-author of Public Act 4, the consent agreement, and a $137 state loan connected to it, which the Council deemed conflicts of interest. It is also set to vote on the sale of 1,558 parcels of land to Hantz Woodlands (see separate story below).
Miller Canfield’s $69,000 contract has been amended to eliminate language allowing the law firm to advise on “Annex B” of the Financial Stability (consent) agreement, which relates to demands on the city’s unions. The Financial Advisory Board’s attorneys advised it that sections of the consent agreement axing the city’s duty to negotiate with its unions were the only parts eliminated by the repeal of Public Act 4. (Click on Miller Canfield for copy of MC item on council agenda for Dec. 11, 2012.)
Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson
Their advice was in line with State Attorney General Bill Schuette’s declaration that PA 72 has been restored, a matter that is still unresolved.
Will the Council call what appears to be Dillon’s bluff?
It can do that by voting for a resolution from Councilwoman JoAnn Watson as follows:
During the Dec. 4 meeting, City Councilwoman Watson cited recent recommendations from Daniel Cherrin, formerly communications director to former Mayor Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., and now a public affairs and strategic communications consultant.
“Dan Cherrin says the state is ready to sit down with the Mayor and City Council and put everything on the table, including the $224 million in state revenue-sharing funds it owes Detroit,” Watson declared.
Joe Louis Arena at its current location. Owner Mike Illitch has announced a $670 million project to build a new arena in the Cass Corridor area, while tens of thousands of Detroiters are homeless, unemployed and poor.
She added that Joe Louis Arena, the Detroit Medical Center, and numerous other entities, additionally owe the city up to a total of $800 million including the revenue sharing funds. She demanded that the city re-hire 80 revenue collectors it laid off to get those debts paid. She also said the city needs to take advantage of the re-election of President Barack Obama and go to Washington to ask for funding assistance in return for the record voter turn-out supporting Obama in cities like Detroit.
“We should renegotiate the debt the city owes to the banks and bondholders,” Watson went on. “There is no way we should be paying $579 million to the same folks who have been putting our folks on the streets through foreclosures, overcharging and exploiting our citizens while their executives get paid huge bonuses.”
Watson recommended that the City Council draft its own “Milestone Agreement” to counter the one signed by Dillon and Bing.
Financial Advisory Board VP Kenneth Whipple, former CEO of Consumers Energy, and Pres. Sandra Pierce, former CEO of Charter One Michigan, whose parent company, the Royal Bank of Scotland, is one of many global banks currently being sued by cities across the U.S. for criminal manipulation of interest rates, in LIBOR scandal.
“We need to operate from a position of power and knowledge,” Watson said. “We are the leaders elected to represent our people, not outside people.”
She clearly referred to Detroit Project Management Director Walter “Kriss” Andrews (in photo at top), being paid $220,000 a year essentially to “de-structure” Detroit, and the nine-member Financial Advisory Board. Andrews previously worked as a so-called “turn-around” expert only with private companies. He has no experience in the public sector, whose goal is service to the people, not profit.
Andrews took what was supposed to be Bing’s seat at the table Dec. 4, while Bing was visiting San Francisco to keep a sports bet with that city’s Mayor.
Andrews alleged that the City faces a deficit of $47 million June 30. Since then, daily media reports have arbitrarily raised the figure to $68 million.
People vs. the banks and state at council meeting: Tyrone Travis, Sandra Hicks, Catherine Phillips.
He said that even if Dillon releases the $30 million, it will not solve the city’s fiscal problems and painted a picture of austerity measures stretching far into the future.
Corporation Counsel Crittendon has had several closed sessions with the City Council to discuss the impact of the repeal of Public Act 4 on the very existence of the FAB and officials like Andrews appointed under the city’s PA 4 consent agreement. It is expected that she may take legal action.
Council Pres. Pro-tem Gary Brown, Pres. Charles Pugh: will they sell out to the banks and state Dec. 11 as they did April 4?
During public comment, many urged the immediate removal of all consent agreement-related entities and personnel, and against the Miller-Canfield contract.
“We stand strong and steadfast against any contract that would include Miller-Canfield,” said Cecily McClellan of Free Detroit-No Consent. “We are not getting the truth about the city’s finances from them or others.”
She and others urged people to call 313-744-3381 to join a campaign to recall Mayor Dave Bing for his complicity with state officials.
“If the Mayor and City Council were looking out for the interests of the people, they would be demanding that the state pay the money it owes Detroit, the $224 million, and other $200 million from local wealthy businesses,” Whitney Mitchell said. “The Michigan Finance Authority is unethically withholding $30 million from the city. The news media is not telling the whole truth.”
June Nickleberry, Pres. AFSCME D-DOT Local 214.
June Nickleberry, President of AFSCME Local 214 representing clerical and maintenance workers at D-DOT, along with Ed McNeil and Catherine Phillips of AFSCME Council 25 and its attorney Richard Mack, said the city would save a total of $180.2 million under plans proposed by the Coalition of City Unions in January.
In a hand-out to the Council, they spelled out additional outstanding revenues due to the city totaling $457 million, and savings from other sources totaling $116.7 million. (See list below presented by Mack.)
Russ Bellant added to testimony by this reporter calling on the Council to stand up to the banks, including Swiss-headquartered UBS, which is the lender on what now amounts to over $2 billion in so-called “Pension Obligation Certificates.” He noted that the U.S. government is currently negotiating with UBS on another matter described in a Bloomberg.com article.
“Hundreds of wealthy Americans are revealing they have offshore bank accounts as the U.S. and Swiss bank UBS AG negotiate to resolve a lawsuit seeking the identities of 52,000 Americans suspected of tax evasion,” said Bloomberg in a July, 2009 article at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ajTou_vRuqkE .
Tyrone Travis called on Detroiters not to depend on the Council, but to look to the people for solutions.
Community member (center)expresse outrage at Council meeting Dec. 4, 2012, as Ed McNeil (l) and Les Little (r)listen.
“We are going from the pillar to the devil,” he said. “Ladies and gentlemen out there in TV land [Council sessions are televised], you had better organize yourselves,” he declared.
One speaker quoted from the 94th Psalm:
“Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? How long shall they utter and speak hard things? And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. . . .Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law; That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. . . And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off.”
To download and print copy of CCU chart above, click on CCU savings.
Governor Rick Snyder, who signed PA 4, a law giving unprecedented and dictatorial powers to unelected Emergency Managers, was invited to be the Grand Marshall of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph’s annual Bloomtime Parade in Michigan. Benton Harbor is the first municipality where new EM powers have
been used to strip power from all of its elected officials. Hundreds of Michiganders from across the state came to Benton Harbor to protest Snyder. Photo by Brett Jelinek.
Brandon Jessup, CEO of Michigan Forward, initiated successful referendum drive to overturn PA 4.
First, thanks to Brandon Jessup for sending along the 68 page new EM bill that [was to be discussed in the Michigan House Education Committee at 9 am December 6]. The bill referenced in the committee posting only had 4 pages, hence the draft 3 version attached was not provided.
This bill is substantially the same as PA4 that voters clearly rejected a month ago. Just as clearly, Snyder is telling Michigan voters that their action means nothing to him and he is going to try and run this bill again. Voters authority does not exist for Snyder.
Here are the particulars from one quick review:
The term Emergency Manager is reused throughout the bill; no EFM. The EM shall have all the powers of elected executive and legislative officials. (P 25, line 23 to P 26, line 12)
The State Treasurer or State Superintendent of Public Instruction can impose an EM at their “sole discretion.” (P.11, lines 1 to 6)
Upholds PA 4 actions, even though our repeal of PA 4 nullified those actions. (P 13, lines 1 to 10; P 64, lines 21-23; P 67, line 16 to end of bill)
Allows impairment of contracts, including collective bargaining agreements (P7, lines 10 to 16), where local units can “exercise powers under federal bankruptcy law.” See also P 33, line 21 to P 34, line 23 for Unionbusting.
The EM can be paid in part by private parties (P27, line 5 to 8), an old Granholm/Bobb practice that was not in PA 4.
Can bar local officials from access to facilities (P 30, lines 6 to 13)
Can take over a pension fund and dismiss its board (P 34, line 34 to P 36, line 13)
Can transfer City functions to other public bodies and dissolve local government (P 39, lines 9 to 27)
End compensation for elected officials (p 41, line 25 to P 42, line 16)
Remove elected officials (P 63, line 25 to P 64, line 4)
Republicans in both chambers are balking at the EAA power grab legislation. We will see if they will balk at snubbing the voters, even if they personally support EMs, as they did in 2011.
AFSCME Council 25 President Al Garrett and Secretary-Treasurer Larry Roehrig are holding a special tele-townhall meeting for Council 25 members tonight (Saturday, December 8th) at 6:00 PM to update you on the Right-to-Work legislation currently being considered by lawmakers and Governor Snyder in Lansing.
In the event you do not receive a call at 6:00 PM, feel free to join the call by dialing (888) 886-6603 and then entering 20652 and then the pound (#) key.
There will be a question and answer period during the call and at the end of the call you will be directed to Governor Rick Snyder’s voice mail so you can leave him a message urging him NOT TO SUPPORT Right to Work legislation.
Please note, if you cannot be on the call tonight, there will be another tele-townhall meeting on Monday, December 10th at 6:00 PM. We wil send the call-in number for that tele-townhall on Monday morning.
HANTZ AD FROM WEBSITE: THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT LAND THAT IS CURRENTLY TWO-THIRDS OCCUPIED BY HOMES; THE REST LIKELY COMES FROM FORECLOSED PROPERTIES WHOSE RESIDENTS HAVE BEEN EVICTED.
Hantz Woodlands is announcing on its website that they plan to hold a “public hearing” separate from the City Council’s at 4 P.M. Monday. Click on Hantz flier for meeting before Council hearing.
