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

New D-DOT CEO Ronald Freeland (at mike) and Mayor Dave Bing show off new buses Feb. 22, 2012

Detroit route cuts and lay-offs still to go into effect 

By Diane Bukowski 

February 22, 2012 

DETROIT – Two days before public hearings on drastic cuts to Detroit bus routes and jobs, Mayor Dave Bing announced the city’s acquisition of 46 new buses, funded with federal dollars given to Detroit. He also introduced a new D-DOT CEO, Ronald Freeland, of the private start-up company Envisurage, Inc. 

During the press conference, held at the newly re-opened Shoemaker Terminal on Detroit’s east side, Bing admitted that he supports Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan for a Southeast Michigan Regional Transit System (SMRTS) which would include Detroit. 

Ronald Freeland and Dave Bing Feb. 2, 2012

“I have bought into Gov. Snyder’s plan, which would include the counties of Wayne, Oakland, Washtenaw and Macomb,” Bing said. “But we have to fix the problems we have in D-DOT first, so D-DOT can be folded into the new system. We are still looking at a reduction in routes, and lay-offs are still part of our fiscal stabilization plan.” 

Hearings on route reductions and the lay-offs of 78 D-DOT drivers and   mechanics are set for Friday, Feb. 24. (Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/02/16/drastic-detroit-bus-cuts-finally-acknowledged-hearings-feb-24/  for hearing schedule and other issues.)

Bing said only 15 of the buses will be on the road by the end of this month, with the remainder expected to be in service by May. He said that the delay is due to “training” drivers to operate the new buses, which have GRS tracking systems and other devices. Buses marked “Training” and “Shoemaker Terminal” could be seen cruising around the site. 

NEW D-DOT CEO PART OF ANTI-WORKER ENVISURAGE CO.

Ronald Freeland

According to his bio, Freeland had been Vice-President and Mid-Atlantic District Director at T.Y. Lin International, a private global, multi-disciplinary engineering services firm since Aug. 2010. T.Y. Lin International has offices in Rochester, N.Y., where Envisurage CEO Mark Aesch spent the last seven years as CEO of the Rochester Genesee Regional Transit Authority.

Freeland’s bio also says that he has “more than twenty-five years of experience in the transportation industry in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., including projects involving railroads, motor carriers, automakers, and highway authorities He served as the Executive Secretary of the Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA) since February 6, 2007.” 

Mark Aesch, Envisurage CEO and Freeland's real boss

Freeland said he would be working as part of the Envisurage team. Mark Aesch is CEO of that company. VOD asked Freeland about the Envisurage work order published in VOD’s first article on the cuts (click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/02/09/bing-to-slash-bus-routes-d-dot-jobs-feb-24-contractor-gets-big/),   It denigrated D-DOT workers essentially as lazy and inefficient and said significant staff and route reductions would have to be made. 

“I don’t think any responsible management team looks to get rid of workers,” Freeland responded. “But we need to look at what kind of transportation is needed in a smaller Detroit, and how many employees would be needed. Some might have to be laid off.” 

He said he plans to meet with Henry Gaffney, President of Amalgamated Transit Union Div. 26, who represents D-DOT drivers, in the next two weeks. He has made no arrangements to meet with Leamon Wilson, President of AFSCME Local 312, representing bus mechanics.  

DETROIT SPENT AT LEAST $13.8 MILLION FROM FEDS ON BUSES

New bus interior

Bing said the city purchased the new buses from Gillig. Gillig is a California-based company now owned by the multi-billion dollar investment fund Henry Crown & Co. of Chicago, whose chief competitors include the likes of the infamous Carlyle Group. Before his death, Henry Crown was reputed to have ties with the Chicago mob. 

Gillig buses cost at least $300,000 each for normal diesel-powered buses, according to an article on the Ann Arbor Transit Authority’s Gillig buses. That means that the city of Detroit used federal funding of approximately $13.8 million for buses, and additional federal funds to upgrade D-DOT terminals and facilities, all of which will likely become part of a new regional transit system. 

But that is not the worst of this scenario.

DEMS SPONSOR ANTI-DETROIT REGIONAL TRANSIT BILLS 

State Rep. Bert Johnson at forum against PA4 Feb. 21, 2012

A set of six bills pending in the State Senate and House, sponsored by a bi-partisan crew, would create a regional authority with a ten-member governing board that includes only one representative appointed by the Mayor of the City of Detroit, despite the fact that D-DOT is the largest system in the region, with 48 bus routes that serve 138 square miles in Detroit and an  estimated 140,000 people each day.

Sponsors include Senators Tom Casperson (R-UP), Bert Johnson (D-Detroit, Highland Park),  Michael Kowall (R-Oakland County),  and Rebekah Warren (D-Washtenaw County).

State Reps sponsoring a virtually identical House bill include a shocking number of Democrats. They are Vickie Barnett (D-Farmington Hills), Tim Bledsoe (D-Grosse Pointe),

State Rep. Fred Durhal campaigns against PA4 in Benton Harbor

Charles Brunner (D-Bay County), Phil Cavanaugh (D-Redford, Livonia, Dearborn Hts.), Bob Constan (D-Dearborn Heights), Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids), Fred Durhal (D-Detroit), Andrew Kandrevas (D-Downriver Wayne County),  Marilyn Lane (D-Macomb County, part), Ellen Lipton (D-Huntington Woods), Lesia Liss (D-Warren, Centerline), Matt Lori (R-Constantine), Rick Olson (R-Saline), David Rutledge (D-Ypsilanti), Wayne Schmidt (R-Traverse City), Dian Slavens (D-Canton), Thomas Stallworth (D-Detroit), Jon Switalski (D-Warren), and Jim Townsend (D-Royal Oak).

The SMRTA would be funded in part by an increase in motor vehicle registration fees, tax levies, bond purchases and other arrangements approved by the board, which will disproportionately affect the poorest residents of Michigan. 

Gov. Rick Snyder and Mayor Dave Bing cuddle it up

Snyder earlier touted this plan after SMART (the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation) ran into problems related to its non-compliance with federal requirements guaranteeing the rights of workers whose systems receive U.S. funds. After its unions complained, SMART laid off workers and cut routes. 

The groups Transportation Riders United (TRU) and MOSES are also pushing the bills. TRU was set to go to Lansing in their support Feb. 23, a day before hearings on the bus cuts.

The legislation includes Senate Bills 909 through 912, and House Bills 5309-5311. (Click on  Regional Transit Authority 2012-SIB-0909[1]) 

Gov. Snyder's chief of staff Dennis Muchmore and Rev. Chas. Williams II at PA4 protest outside Snyder's home Jan. 16, 2012

“We need quality transportation, and this bus rapid transit is that opportunity,” the Rev. Charles Williams II of Historic King Solomon Baptist Church, president of Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES), told the Detroit Free Press Feb. 2. 

Johnson, Rev. Williams, and others among the bills sponsors have campaigned vociferously against Public Act 4, the emergency manager act which currently threatens the city of Detroit. But they have said nothing about the threats these regional transit bills pose to Detroit’s citizens and workers. 

Sec. 5 of Senate Bill 909 says: 

“(1) An authority shall be directed and governed by a board consisting of all of the following:

• (a) One governor’s representative appointed by the governor.
• (b) Two individuals appointed by the county executive of a  county within the public transit region that has a population of not less than 1,200,000 and not more than 1,500,000.
• (c) Two individuals appointed by the county executive of a county within the public transit region that has a population of not less than 800,000 and not more than 850,000.
• (d) Two individuals appointed by the chair of the board of county commissioners of a county within the public transit regionthat has a population of not less than 330,000 and not more than 380,000.
• (e) Two individuals appointed by the county executive of a county within the public transit region that has a population of not less than 1,800,000 and not more than 2,000,000. One of the 2 individuals appointed under this subdivision shall be a resident of a city within the public transit region with a population of at least 600,000.
• (f) One individual appointed by the mayor of a city within the public transit region with a population of at least 600,000.” 

This means that the Detroit representative will be vastly outnumbered on the board, even when certain matters require a super-majority (4/5) vote. Those matters include placing on the state ballot the levy of a special tax assessment and its amount, and approval of a motor vehicle registration fee hike and its amount. 

Where is Detroit's power now?

The only three matters requiring a unanimous vote are construction of a rail passenger service, “a determination to acquire an existing public transit authority or agency,” and having state voters decide if the regional authority would assume responsibility for the acquired agency’s debt, “swap losses” (on debt interest), pensions, health care or other existing post-employment benefits. 

No mention is made in the bills of dealing with unions representing transit workers in Southeast Michigan. 

The bill specifies that its provisions supercede those of local governments. One glaring problem is the fact that the City of Detroit charter requires a vote of the city’s people before any assets of D-DOT are sold or transferred. That requirement, which also applies to the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department, was already ignored by Mayor Bing and the City Council last year when they sold off the Oakland-Macomb County Interceptor without a popular vote. 

DWSD worker Andrew Daniels-El holds city charter at rally Jan. 28, 2009

Only a simple majority of the board is required to approve contracts (which are not subject to set-asides for minority vendors unless required by federal law), rates, routes, and bond purchases (not backed by the authority; payment of bond principal and interest  would come from individual agencies’ revenues, e.g. those of D-DOT.) 

Both the Senate and House Bills were referred to committee Jan. 26, 2012. Given the make-up of the sponsors and support from Snyder and Bing, they are virtually assured of passage.

STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY/AFSCME COUNCIL 25 FLIERBUS CARAVANS FROM DETROIT AND FLINTDETROIT BUS DETAILS

CLICK ON PA4petitionflyer02_28_2012[1] to print out copy of flier above.

PA4 BUSES FROM DETROIT AND FLINT

 CLICK ON PA4Detroitbus02.29.2012[1] AND PA4Flintbus02.29.2012[1] TO PRINT OUT FORMS TO BE FAXED IF YOU WANT TO TRAVEL ON BUSES:

DETROIT BUS DETAILS

FLINT BUS DETAILS

 

Union and community members from across Michigan massed at the state capitol in Lansing April 13 of last year to oppose passage of PA4

By Diane Bukowski

February 21, 2011

Al Garrett, President Michigan AFSCME Council 25

DETROIT – Michigan AFSCME Council 25 President Al Garrett says there is now hope on the horizon for the state’s beleaguered cities, particularly Detroit and other majority-Black cities facing Public Act 4 takeovers. 

“Roughly 210,000 petition signatures for a referendum to repeal Public Act 4 in this November’s election have been collected so far,” Garrett told VOD. “We will be delivering the petitions to the state board of canvassers in Lansing February 29.” 

Volunteers are feverishly meeting at AFSCME halls across the state to verify the petition signatures before they are submitted, Garrett said. A total of 161,000 certified signatures is necessary to place the issue on the ballot. 

“This shows the citizens of Michigan are willing to stand up and fight to maintain Michigan as a state with democracy,” Garrett said. “It was nothing but sweat equity that went into the collection of these petition signatures. We paid no one to collect them. Our AFSCME halls across the state from its southern to its northernmost boundaries have been focal points for the campaign. We are quite satisfied with the massive response.” 

 

Youth join city workers rally Aug. 20, 2009

Garrett said Stand Up For Democracy and AFSCME Council 25, which has 60,000 members across the state, plan to turn the petitions in 30 days ahead of the deadline to get the referendum on the ballot. According to the State Constitution, once the state board of canvassers certifies the petitions, Public Act 4 will be frozen. Michigan Attorney General Rick Schuette said earlier that he has not decided whether PA 4’s predecessor, Public Act 72, would be restored.

 Some experts have said that PA 72 no longer exists and cannot be put back in the state’s law books. This could mean a host of developments. 

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette

First of call, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette has already ruled that everything done by Detroit’s emergency review teams, appointed Dec. 1 and Dec. 21, by Governor Synder, is null and void because they violated the state’s Open Meetings Act by meeting in secret. 

He also ruled that Highland Park schools’ emergency manager Jack Martin must step down because his appointment was likewise based on secret meetings. 

Garrett said the lawsuit contending that EM review teams must be subject to the Open Meetings Act originated in AFSCME Council 25’s offices. It was filed in the name of AFSCME organizer and Highland Park school board member Robert Davis. 

 

Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, first victim of PA 4, leads march last year

Secondly, with possibly both PA 4 and PA 72 off the books at least until November of this year, it is likely that the appointments of other emergency managers under PA4 may also be invalidated, in Benton Harbor, Detroit School District, Flint, Inkster school district, Muskegon Heights school district, and Pontiac, where the current EM has put all the city’s assets on the auction block.

 “It pretty much says to our folks that we don’t have to be victims,” Garrett said.  “If we are willing to stand up and fight, we can win. This whole campaign has given our membership more resolve. Even though we have yet to hear from President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder about violations of the National Voting Rights Act under PA 4, the people have spoken, and they will be heard.” 

Gov. Rick Snyder earlier told U.S. Rep. John Conyers and others in a meeting that he planned to mount a legal challenge to the PA4 referendum. Garrett said that attorneys from both AFSCME Council 25 and elsewhere are preparing to fight any challenge. That is why the petitions are being turned in 30 days earlier, to permit time for legal maneuvers. 

Garrett said Council 25 has amassed a large database from the PA4 drive, which will be used in an upcoming campaign for a Michigan constitutional amendment to guarantee the right of workers and unions to collective bargaining. (See Labor Notes story below).

For further information, go to http://laborweb.afscme.org/sites/MI_C_25/index,cfm, Contact information for the organizers is available in the postings at the beginning of this article.

 For a recap of developments so far in the EM war on Detroit and the state’s other majority Black cities is available in the Final Call article by this author, at http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/02/20/final-call-michigan-gov-accused-of-disenfranchising-detroit-other-majority-black-cities-in-the-state/.  

 http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_8621.shtml

Youth from By Any Means Necessary and Occupy movement brought large delegations to march against PA 4 which converged on Gov. Snyder's house Jan. 16, MLK Day, 2012

FINAL CALL NATIONAL NEWS

By Diane Bukowski, Contributing Writer
Updated Feb 20, 2012 – 3:37:35 PM

DETROIT – Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s blitzkrieg move to take over the city of Detroit, the world’s largest majority-Black city outside of Africa, and disenfranchise its residents under Public Act 4 has not slowed down, despite mass efforts to stop it, according to opponents.

Under PA 4, appointed emergency managers (EM’s) have the unilateral power to strip municipalities of all their assets, remove elected officials, raid treasuries, abrogate union contracts, take over pension funds, and even dis-incorporate cities.

Gov. Snyder and State Treasurer Andy Dillon have targeted majority-Black cities and school districts almost exclusively. So far, EM’s are running Benton Harbor, Detroit schools, Flint, Highland Park schools, Inkster, Muskegon Heights schools, and Pontiac. Although at least 80 communities across Michigan are in deficit, predominantly White communities do not face the PA4 lash, say critics.

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson is a chief leader of fight against PA 4

“It was the law in the United States that Africans were three-fifths of a person, that we could not vote, could not own property,” said Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson during a public hearing Dec. 1, the day Gov. Snyder announced the first step in the takeover process, a 30-day “initial review.”

“It was against the law for us to escape from slavery, but it was the unpaid slavery of Africans on which this country was built,” Ms. Watson declared. “We have the right to self-determination and freedom, the right to control our own destiny. No way in heaven are we going to let somebody come in from Lansing and take our city.”

Ms. Watson, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, most council members, and UAW President Bob King denounced Gov. Snyder’s move at a press conference that evening. They called on Gov. Snyder at least to repay $220 million the state owes Detroit under a previous agreement, which would staunch the city’s expected deficit of $150 million.

Youth in Benton Harbor rally against Snyder's appearance there

Gov. Snyder has refused to do so, despite the state’s recent announcement that it expects to end its fiscal year with a budget surplus of up to $1 billion. The surplus resulting from cuts in revenue-sharing funds to municipalities, aid to the schools, and public assistance.

The statewide Michigan Forward organization has collected over 190,000 petition signatures to repeal Public Act 4, which would, once verified, stop Gov. Snyder’s move in its tracks until the Nov. 2012 election. But Gov. Snyder has told U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit) and others that he plans legal action to block enforcement of the referendum process.

Masses of people have turned out for public hearings, rallies and marches. Black elected officials across the state have brought pressure to bear on Gov. Snyder.

Slavemaster Snyder targets majority-Black governments in Michigan

“It is our understanding if you choose to appoint an Emergency Manager to oversee Detroit, that would mean that approximately 50 percent of all the African American citizens in the State would be living under the authority of unelected managers,” Congressman Conyers and 65 elected officials wrote Gov. Snyder on Dec. 15.

Rep. Conyers also wrote U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Dec. 2 asking him to begin an investigation of violations of the national Voting Rights Act in Michigan. To date, according to a Conyers’ aide, Mr. Holder has not even sent a courtesy response. Instead of visiting Detroit as part of his campaign kick-off tour in January, President Barack Obama went to well-to-do, majority-White Ann Arbor. Mr. Obama has made no statement denouncing the takeovers in Michigan.

Gov. Snyder moved to the second step of the EM takeover process Dec. 21, announcing a 60-day review.

Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor addresses Jan. 2 rally; attorney Jerome Goldberg is at his right Photo/Dale Rich

Wall Street’s Moody’s and Fitch Ratings agencies have said that an EM takeover of Detroit will cause the banks to call in $400 million of outstanding city bonds immediately, one-third of the city’s budget.

“The state appointment of an emergency manager would in turn trigger a termination event (default) under the city’s swap agreements,” Moody’s said Dec. 13. The “swap agreements” relate to $1.5 billion in pension obligation certificates the city borrowed in 2005.

Detroit is paying $579 million on its debt to the banks in the current fiscal year. The city’s total outstanding debt is an estimated $12 billion, including pension obligations.

During a rally of 2,500 Jan 2, attorney Jerome Goldberg, of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition proposed a moratorium on Detroit’s debt service. Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy campaigned for a 10-year moratorium during the Great Depression, in order to feed the city’s starving masses.

“Detroit has lost one-fourth of its population, because of the criminal, illegal and fraudulent practices of the banks,” Mr. Goldberg said. “Eighty-seven percent of Detroiters who bought homes have been victims of racist, predatory mortgages which resulted in foreclosures. We want to recover the billions the banks have stolen from us.”

Edith Lee Payne as a young woman at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Aug. 28 March on Washington/ Photo by Rowland Scherman

On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Jan. 16, over 3,000 marchers from all over the state converged on Gov. Snyder’s home in an exclusive gated community near Ann Arbor.

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

Marchers chanted, “Who who who are we? We are the people’s army!” “Dictators and Snyder say good-bye, we’ll run this state and occupy!” and “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!”

Bishop Walter Starghill and members of Face to Face Outreach Ministries at Jan. 16 march on Gov. Snyder's house

“Other cities with financial problems way worse than Inkster, like Allen Park, have not faced EM takeovers,” Bishop Walter Starghill Jr. of the Face to Face Outreach Ministries in Inkster said. “We want elected officials, not anyone who does not know Inkster and what it can be. We want our share of the state surplus.”

Some of the young participants from Occupy Detroit and By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) began an occupation blockading the entrance to the compound. March organizers announced the end to the march at that point, but young people continued to rally.

Mari-Cruz Lopez of BAMN read parts of Dr. Martin Luther’s speech to the Aug. 28, 1963 March on Washington.

Mari Cruz Lopez reading Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s' words during march on Snyder's house

“When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir,” Dr. King declared. “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’

“But we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us on demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. … there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”

Petitions to overturn PA4 can be picked up at AFSCME Council 25’s office at 600 W. Lafayette in downtown Detroit. For further information, contact the office of Councilwoman JoAnn Watson at 313-224-4535, AFSCME Council 25 at 313-964-1711, Moratorium NOW! at 313-319-0870 or go to http://michiganforward.org.

FCN is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties. Original content supplied by FCN and FinalCall.com News is Copyright 2012 FCN Publishing, FinalCall.com. Content supplied by third parties are the property of their respective owners.

Some of 3,000 marchers who converged on Gov. Rick Snyder's house on Dr. MLK Day, Jan 16, 2012

By Congressman John Conyers, Jr. 

Conyers to Hold Forum on Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law   

(DETROIT) – House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-M14) will host a Democratic Judiciary forum concerning the legal implications of the Emergency Manager Law.  The forum will start at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February, 21, 2012 and will be held at Soul Harvest Ministries in Highland Park.

 Currently, there are six emergency managers in place under the Michigan Emergency Law (Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint, Pontiac, Detroit Public Schools, Highland Park School District) and a review for an appointment is ongoing with respect to the cities of Detroit and Muskegon Heights. 

Due to the controversial nature of the law, several lawsuits have been brought challenging its constitutionality, and a petition drive is pending which would suspend the law subject to a statewide referendum in November. 

Congressman Conyers addresses rally against PA 4 Jan. 2, with City Council members JoAnn Watson, Kwame Kenyatta and Brenda Jones to his right

At the same time, other states such as Indiana are considering adopting emergency manager laws similar to Michigan’s statute. This forum will consider a range of issues, including the EM law’s possible impact on voting rights, representative form of government, and the right to contract; as well as the legality and appropriateness of effort in Lansing to reinstate the law notwithstanding the referendum process.  Witnesses will include preeminent constitutional, voting rights, and bankruptcy legal experts as well as representatives of impacted communities, safety officials, and unions. 

In December, Representative Conyers wrote the U.S. Department of Justice to ask the Attorney General to review the law’s constitutionality.  That same month, Representative Conyers along with Representatives Clarke and Peters, 55 State Legislators (9 State Senators and 46 State Representatives) and 8 Detroit City Council Members, wrote a letter requesting a meeting with Governor Snyder to discuss the Emergency Manager Law.  

Soul Harvest Mnistries, Highland Park

WHAT:  Forum to Discuss the Legal Implications of Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law 

WHERE:  Soul Harvest Ministries   16300 Woodward                                      Highland Park, MI, 48288 

WHEN:  Tuesday, February 21, 2012.  5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. 

WHO:    Participants 

•  The Honorable John Conyers, Jr , Michigan’s 14th Congressional District and Ranking Member House Judiciary Committee 
•   The Honorable Hansen Clarke, Michigan’s 13th Congressional  District                            
• The Honorable Gary Peters, Michigan’s 9th Congressional District                              
•  The Honorable Bert Johnson, Michigan’s 2nd Senate District
•  The Honorable John Olumba, Michigan’s 5th House District
•  The Honorable Joanne Watson, Detroit City Council 

                                *Other participants to be added* 

Brandon Jessup, PA 4 referendum initiator, with petition at PA 4 rally Jan. 2

Panelists

•  The Honorable Fred Durhal, Jr.,  Michigan’s 6th House District and Chairperson Michigan Legislative Black Caucus
•  The Honorable Thomas Stallworth,  Michigan’s 8th House District
•  The Honorable DeAndre Windom, Mayor, Highland Park, Michigan                               
•  Professor Kenneth N. Klee, UCLA School of Law
•  Professor Jocelyn Benson, Wayne State University Law School
•  Al Garrett, President, Council 25, AFSCME
•   Officer Joe Duncan, President, Detroit Police Officers Association                               
•  John Philo. Legal Director, Sugar Law Center
•  Brandon Jessup,  Chairman, Michigan Forward 

                                *Other panelists to be added* 

Contact: Matthew Morgan – 202-226-5543 DaVonne Darby – 313-961-5670

Detroiters including ex-prisoners support last year's Geogia prison strike

The Georgia prisoners who led the massive December 9^th, 2010, prisoner strike have organized the December 9^th Georgia & International Prisoners’ Rights Movement to challenge the Governor and the Department of Corrections to meet their demands to be paid for their labor, to have decent living conditions, education and medical care, for an end to cruel and unusual punishments, a halt to harsh mandatory sentencing, fairness in parole decisions.

At noon on Saturday, February 18, prisoner families, friends and supporters will hold a mass meeting at Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue Library to organize and launch statewide protests and demonstrations, legislative actions and a national effort to challenge the State’s violations of prisoners’ human rights before the International Criminal Court and the United Nations.

Prisoners were viciously beaten after weeks-long strike

The December 9^th Movement includes black, Latino, white, Christian, Muslim, Rastafarian and other prisoner organizations, along with The Ordinary People Society, The Nation of Islam Southern Region, The Michael Lewis Legal Defense Committee, The National Action Network Southern Region, The Committee to Free Chip Fitzgerald, The Prodigal Child Project, The National Justice Coalition, Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People’s Movement, Project South.  The Steering Committee includes prisoner leaders, Pastor Kenneth Glasgow, Elaine Brown and Charles Muhammad.  Despite that many of the December 9^th leaders have been brutalized and locked in isolation, the Movement has grown inside and continues to petition the Department of Corrections for their human rights.

Dec9movement@groups.facebook.com

PRESS CONFERENCE HELD LAST YEAR TO SUPPORT GA. PRISONERS

Detroit’s Early-Morning Bus Service Faces Cuts: MyFoxDETROIT.com

By Diane Bukowski

February 16, 2012

DETROIT — Fliers have been circulating around the city for the last month asking Detroiters to take up the fight against bus cuts that were planned for Feb. 24.

VOD broke the story in a thorough article Feb. 9. (To read, click on: http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/02/09/bing-to-slash-bus-routes-d-dot-jobs-feb-24-contractor-gets-big/. In addition to the cuts, the article focused on the management contract Mayor Dave Bing awarded to contractor Parsons/Brinckerhoff, which subcontracted to Envisurage, whose CEO is Mark Aesch. 

Mark Aesch

According to Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) International officials, quoted in the article, Aesch was a vicious boss, serving as CEO of the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority from 2004 through 2011. A PB/E work order (copy included in earlier VOD article) said he is moving to cut D-DOT city jobs and regionalize transportation.

Mayor Bing’s press representative did not see fit to respond to VOD press inquiries, but COO Chris Brown finally acknowledged the cuts to the Detroit News, saying they will involve:

• Discontinuing bus service from 1-4 a.m.
• Route 11/Clairmount weekend service only will be discontinued.
• Route 46/Southfield Sunday service will be discontinued.
• Eliminate Route 78/Imperial Express.
• Route 49/Vernor service will end at the Rosa Parks Terminal in downtown Detroit.

ATU Local President Henry Gaffney addresses 2009 public hearing on bus cuts

According to DDOT, the elimination of service from 1-4 a.m. will save only 6 percent of its daily costs. Brown declined to tell the News about specific staff cuts.

The cuts are to begin March 3 instead of Feb. 24 as originally planned.

Public hearings: FRIDAY FEB. 24, 2012

• Northwest Activities Center, 18100 Meyers from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 6-8 p.m.;
• East-side Wayne County Community College (at Interstate 94), 5901 Conner, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.  

A service document detailing all changes and route alternatives can be obtained from the following locations on or after Friday:

• DDOT main office, strategic planning/scheduling, 1301 E. Warren
• Detroit Public libraries
• Community access centers
• Online at www.ridedetroittransit.com. Click on

Occupy Detroit is currently considering protests against these cuts. Stay tuned to Voice of Detroit at http://voiceofdetroit.net for coverage of hearings and announcement of protests, plus financial analysis of the problem.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder hugs Mayor Dave Bing as he presents Damon Keith award to him Feb. 14

D-DOT gets most of its funding from the state and federal governments, and has 16 new buses paid for by USDOT funds in its terminals. It is likely Aesch is moving to takeover D-DOT and SMART, as advocated by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, and establish an authority like RGRTA, at the same time reaping the benefits of state and federal funding.

Snyder gave Mayor Bing the Damon Keith award Feb. 14, indicating opposition to regionalization cannot be expected from Bing.

On February 16, the date listed on D-DOT’s website for its regular monthly “customer comments” meeting, D-DOT riders including several in wheelchairs took city buses to get to the hearing, scheduled for 5 p.m. They were greeted by a notice on the headquarters door that the hearing was canceled, to be replaced with the Feb. 24 hearings.

What would Rosa Parks do?

“I walked all the way from Woodward and Warren to be at the meeting on time,” said D. Griggs, who regularly attends the meetings. “No notices went out that the meeting was canceled. Here we are a week before the cuts are supposed to go into effect, and I haven’t seen anybody mobilize to stop them or offer alternatives. D-DOT is part of the city’s charter, they should not be eliminating it by regionalization.”

Emily Harris has been wheel-chair bound for many years. Referring to friends she brought with her, including another man who is in a wheelchair, she said they are already experiencing terrible service.

“We waited on the Woodward bus for hours. At least four buses passed us up before one stopped and the driver asked the passengers to make room for the wheelchairs. My housekeeper can’t make it on time from where she lives in Hamtramck to my home.”

Antonius Whitley added, “What about the people who go to work on Saturday and Sunday? I have to start from John R and Dequindre. The buses at Woodward and the Fairgrounds are already packed when they leave. People have to squeeze together, and then buses come back to back four at a time.

The mainstream media did not announce the cancellation of the Feb. 16 meeting when it covered the cuts and announced the Feb. 24 meeting.

DDOT customers who showed up for the canceled hearing Feb. 16; (l to r) Emily Harris, Antonius Whitley, D. Griggs, Ella Sanders and William Estell

February 16, 2012

Detroit, MI  — “SAY YEAH YEAH ~ A FELATASTIC EXHIBITION” is the official local artist exhibition for FELA, the Tony Award winning Broadway stage production at the Music Hall. It was designed to help celebrate the creative and social consciousness spirit of FELA Kuti, the Nigerian musical powerhouse and fighter for his people.   

The exhibition contains artwork created with oils, acrylics, photos, fabric and fused glass.  Over twenty artists provided pieces that range in size from about 5 X 6 inches to a towering wall hanging nearly 9 feet tall representing figurative, 3 dimensional, abstract and other styles.  

Fela Kuti

The list of artists reads like a Metro Detroit Who’s Who including Erin Moran, Michelle Smart, Tylonn J. Sawyer, Sabrina Nelson, Timothy Orikri, Tony Roko, Jide Aje, Catherine Peet, Christopher Batten, Omo Misha, Ifoma Stubbs, Robin Sandow, Gigi Boldon, Jeff McFarland, Nivek Monet, Asia Hamilton, Jocelyn Rainey, Tracey Bozeman, Renee Dooley, Lavern Homan, Jessica Caremore and Halima Cassells.  

This Exclusive Exhibition Can Be Viewed 10 A.M. To 8 P.M.,

Tuesday Thru Saturday Through April 9 At The Virgil H. Carr Cultural Arts Center

311 East Grand River / 313-965-8430

http://www.facebook.com/events/183325475106135/

Marchers protesting EM’s converge on Gov. Rick Snyder’s home near Ann Arbor on MLK Day Jan. 16

 Wednesday, February 15, 2012, 12:41 PM

By Jonathan Oosting | joosting@mlive.com MLive.com .

State financial review teams operating in Detroit and the Highland Park Public Schools held a series of private meetings in violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act, according to an Ingham County Circuit Court Judge, who reportedly has voided their work.

Judge William Collette last week issued a temporary injunction ordering the Detroit review team to comply with the Open Meetings Act. WDIV reports Collette ruled today that all work by the team is null and void.

Collette also voided the work of the Highland Park schools review team, according to The Detroit News, including the recommendation of an emergency manager.

Robert Davis

Today’s ruling came in response to lawsuits filed by Robert Davis, a Highland Park school board member, union activist and vocal critic of Public Act 4, Michigan’s controversial emergency manager law.

Gov. Rick Sndyer appointed the Detroit review team in late December after a preliminary examination revealed “probable financial stress” in Detroit, and he appointed Emergency Manager Jack Martin to run the Highland Park schools last month.

The Snyder administration has argued that review teams are not subject to the Open Meetings Act, which is designed to promote transparency in state government, and a spokesperson said last week that the state would appeal Collette’s preliminary injunction.

It’s not immediately clear what today’s ruling means for the review process in Detroit or Martin’s job in Highland Park, but the ruling could have implications for municipalities and school districts across the state currently under control of an emergency manager.

“We will abide by whatever process guidelines are mandated by the judge’s ruling and cooperate accordingly,” Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said in a released statement. “We have been open and transparent about the City of Detroit’s financial condition and will continue to do so.”

The Michigan Treasury and Snyder’s office have not yet responded to a request for comment.

The Detroit review team had up to 60 days to review the city’s finances and was expected to present its findings later this month to Snyder, who could decide to appoint an emergency manager or sign a consent agreement with city officials.

Harry Belafonte waves to Martin Luther King Jr. (right) at a 1965 civil-rights march in Montgomery, Alabama.

 Posted by Black Star Journal February 15, 2012

(VOD editor: this story brought to mind yesterday’s Damon Keith award, presented to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, as Bing cuts bus routes and jobs drastically, and Snyder moves to take Detroit over with an emergency manager.)

BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA,                             Staff Reporter 

February 13, 2012

It was both a walk down memory lane and a call to action when singer, actor, civil rights activist and international humanitarian Harry Belafonte spoke at St. Sabina Church.

Part of a Black History Month program that also brought Princeton Professor Cornel West to the South Side church on Sunday, Belafonte, espousing incendiary views on racism and capitalism for six decades, did not hold back during his presentation Friday night. 

U.S. President Barack Obama ordered Wall Street bail-out

Criticism of President Barack Obama’s bailout of Wall Street banks, comparison of the Occupy America movement to the 1960s civil rights battle, and an urging of African Americans and the poor toward an uprising to alleviate racism and poverty were among topics covered by an 84-year-old luminary who has sat with many of the world’s heads of state.

“I find myself at this time of my life with a lot of questions I thought we had answered,” said Belafonte, who was born in Harlem, N.Y. in 1927, was the first African-American man ever to win an Emmy Award and was a key confidant to Martin Luther King Jr.

“The last time I saw Dr. King, he had come to our home in New York, which was not uncommon as we plotted strategies for campaigns we were waging, and he was in a surly mood,” Belafonte told some 1,000 who braved a snowstorm to hear him.

Greece burns in wake of general strikes, street rebellions Feb. 13, 2012

“King said, ‘We have fought long and hard for the goals we’ve achieved, but therein lies my deepest concern, that in this struggle for integration, which we are achieving, I do genuinely believe that we will be integrating into a burning house,’’ Belafonte said.

“I never understood how prophetic that was until subsequent history revealed itself.”

Deeply entrenched in the civil rights movement, Belafonte was a friend who would bail King out of jail, and who, with such notables as Julian Bond, John Lewis and Dick Gregory, founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). 

What future does this country hold for Black youth?

So many of the gains of that movement have been lost, he charged, ticking off decimated and disinvested inner-city communities devoid of a middle class; continuing disparities yielding low funding of public education and high incarceration rates of minority youth; and high poverty and unemployment rates that still more greatly afflict minorities.

“But for all the battles that we’ve won, we have yet not won the war,” Belafonte said.

In 1960, he was named cultural adviser to the Peace Corps, and in 1987, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He has earned worldwide recognition for his dedicated work on behalf of African children stricken by poverty and HIV/AIDS, as well as his outspoken advocacy for the poor and oppressed across the globe.

“And when I’m accused of dishonorably criticizing our president, somebody has tried to turn this into a personal affair,” Belafonte said of his more recent criticisms of Obama’s economic policies. “I like Barack Obama. I think he’s a nice young man. There’s a lot about him that fills me with a sense of pride. His presence as president of the United States of America means that we did something right in the civil rights movement.

Musician Bob Marley also called for people's uprising against poverty and racism

“But all of these truths do not exempt him from the moral responsibility that he has in his governance of this country. What Dr. King taught us was that without an angry people, without the poor rising up in indignation against their conditions, our leaders will never be pushed to do what they must do.”

A World War II U.S. Navy veteran, Belafonte found work as a local club singer to pay for acting classes in the late 1940s but instead found music his calling. His breakthrough 1956 album, “Calypso,” was the first LP ever in history to sell more than 1 million copies. A prolific actor as well as singer by the late 1950s, he won the Emmy for his 1959 TV special, “Tonight with Harry Belafonte.” He was the organizer of the multi-artist recording, “We Are the World,” which won the 1985 Grammy Award for record of the year and raised millions for emergency famine and health aid to Africa, and was awarded the National Medal of the Arts from President Bill Clinton in 1994.

“When I look at young people in the Occupy Wall Street movement, and hear, ‘Why don’t they go get a job?’ I think, where have I heard that before? When we gathered in the early days of our own rebellion, they said, ‘Why don’t you all go smoke a joint somewhere and get lost?’ ” Belafonte said. “What we’re facing now is an opportunity among young people trying desperately to find their way. The pundits say, ‘Where are their leaders?’ Their leaders are found in history. ‘What do they want?’ Take a look at what we wanted, and you’ll find it’s the same menu. What’s missing is that rage.”

Colombia leads the world in murders of trade unioinists, abetted by AFL-CIO

VOD editor: the following is an excerpt from an article, which can be read in its entirety by clicking on The Wikileaks Revelations on the role of the AFL-CIO in Latin America. VOD is publishing this to expose not only the role of the AFL-CIO in Colombia (similar to that in many other Latin American countries), but to question the leadership of the union movement in the U.S. 

While unions in countries like Greece and Italy are conducting general strikes against the horrific austerity policies there (see article below) unions in the U.S. have yet to call on the economic clout held by their members to fight similar attacks. This article makes one wonder what type of meetings are going on between top union leaders in the U.S. and the forces which are carrying out austerity measures here.

By Alberto C. Ruiz

Colombian union leader dead in the streets

There are about a dozen Wikileaks cables which reflect meetings between the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center and the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, and they are quite revealing.    For example, there is an embassy cable from August 11, 2008, entitled, “COLOMBIAN UNIONS, IDEOLOGY, AND THE ARMED CONFLICT.”   

And, in this cable, the Solidarity Center’s Rhett Doumitt [the same AFL-CIO staffer directly involved in aiding and abetting forces that carried out the coup against President Chavez in 2002] professes strong views on this subject to the U.S. Embassy, in particular to Ambassador Brownfield.

Rhett Doumitt (right), Solidarity Center Andes Director; Bill Camp (center), Sacramento CLC California; Nancy Hall (left), CWA Dallas Texas

Thus, in this cable, Mr. Doumitt is said to have “complained of a ‘Stalinist’ approach taken by Communist and other hard-left labor leaders within the CUT,” the largest labor confederation in Colombia.   The cable continues:

In 2006, they affiliated with the Social Democratic international confederation, which later became the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Even then, RHETT DOUMITT of the AFL-CIO affiliated Solidarity Center said the Communists literally ‘turned the lights out’ at the convention in a last ditch attempt to block this affiliation.

Further in the cable, DOUMITT complains that the politics of the labor movement in Colombia impede positive, practical advances on labor issues. In the April 22 monthly ‘labor dialogue’ meeting with President Uribe, the confederations focused discussions on the investigations of the Colombian congressmen associated with the parapolitical scandal.    CGT (Confederacion General de Trabajadores Democraticos) International Relations Secretary Jose Leon Ramirez notes there was no discussion of labor issues at the meeting. Still, DOUMITT says the unions have made progress in moving away from their traditional polemic cold war perspectives.

Colombia is strategically located. bordering on Venezuela and Brazil, which have elected socialist and progressive presidents

Another cable from another meeting indicates identical complaints to the Embassy by Doumitt about the Colombian labor movement elevating its political concerns – e.g., about the “parapolitical” scandal which involved scores of politicians collaborating with the paramilitaries who, among other things, have been hunting down labor leaders – over purely labor concerns.   

In this cable, dated February 5, 2009, Doumitt complained that “the public’s perception that the unions value politics over pocket book issues for workers also limit union membership.  Doumitt complained that the politics of the labor movement in Colombia impede positive, practical advances on labor issues, but noted that some unions are moving away from their traditional socialist ideologies.”

Colombian union march

Still, in another cable dated September 5, 2008, Doumitt seems to side with the Colombian government in terms of the debate over the figures of unionists killed in Colombia.  Thus, the cable states:

The tenor of these cables is repeated in other Latin American countries, such as Ecuador, where the Embassy reported on a meeting with Solidarity Center officials who told the Embassy “that unions generally have a bad reputation all around. Younger workers see them as either communist or irrelevant, and most Ecuadorians seen them as essentially selfish actors.” 

In a January 22, 2007 cable emanating from Peru, and entitled, “GOP Wins Battle Against Radical Teacher’s Union,” the local AFL-CIO representative is cited as siding with the government in this legal victory which, among other things, limited the number of teachers (from 314 to 30) who could engage in full-time union activity and still receive their teachers’ salaries.  Continue reading →