Leaders, community mobilize for fightback rally Jan. 2, will focus on petition drive to repeal PA 4
More actions at auto show Jan.9; Gov. Snyder’s house MLK Day Jan.16
By Diane Bukowski
Councilwoman JoAnn Watson speaks at rally September 10, 2011
DETROIT – The New Year will open with a city-wide rally Monday, Jan. 2, to save Detroit from the clutches of an emergency manager. Organizers say there is no time to waste if Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s planned takeover is to be stopped.
They believe it would further devastate the city with a massive loss of jobs, city services, and any hope for Detroit’s youth. Under Public Act 4 (PA4), a takeover would mean the complete disenfranchisement of the people of the largest Black-majority city in the world outside of Africa.
The rally, called by City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, U.S. Congressmen John Conyers and Hansen Clarke, and community groups including Moratorium Now!, will be held at Tabernacle Baptist Church on Grand River and West Grand Blvd. at 5 p.m.
“We will not be re-enslaved,” Councilwoman Watson told an organizing meeting in Council chambers Dec. 16. “The state still owes us $220 million, which would immediately resolve our deficit. The state additionally has never sent the $2 billion in federal American Recovery Act funds it received to our cities.”
Youth rally against Detroit takeover in Lansing Feb. 23, 2011
Councilwoman Watson was the first leader to initiate a fightback against the legislation that would become PA 4, bringing thousands to rally on the Lansing capitol steps in February, and co-coordinating legal actions afterwards.
Organizers present at the meeting included Isaac Robinson and Marion Brown of Congressman Conyers’ office, WHPR talk show hosts Richard Hairston and Lee Gaddies, who is also president of the 5,500 member Bagley Community Council, the city’s largest block club, Sherry Gay-Dagnogo of the National Congress of Black Women, attorneys with the National Lawyers Guild, representatives of Moratorium NOW! and Occupy Detroit, and many rank-and-file community members.
They resolved that the Jan. 2 rally will focus on the mobilization of thousands of Detroiters to circulate petitions for the referendum to repeal PA 4. Once at least 161,000 valid signatures are collected, the Act will be frozen until Michigan voters have their say at the polls in November, 2012.
The act incorporates cities already under an emergency manager, and knocked the original legislation, PA 72, off the books. That should mean that managers currently in place in Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint, Hamtramck, Highland Park, and the Village of Three Oaks, and the school districts of Detroit and Inkster, would have to step down pending the November, 2012 vote, in addition to the suspension of efforts to take over Detroit.
State Attorney General Bill Schuette, however, has said that he has not decided whether PA 72 would be reinstated if PA 4 if frozen.
This Jan. 4 photo shows Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's home near Ann Arbor. Snyder said Wednesday that he's staying in his home so his daughter doesn't have to change schools. Snyder plans to use the official governorâs residence in Lansing for meetings and receptions. (AP Photo/Kathy Barks Hoffman)
Organizers said the Jan. 2 rally will be only a first step. They also proposed actions at the opening of the International Auto Show Jan. 9, and outside Gov. Snyder’s home in Superior Township on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Jan. 16, 2012. Revs. David Bullock of the Rainbow:PUSH coalition and Charles Williams II of the National Action Network have put out the call for that action.
Several organizers favored targeting international commerce at the Ambassador Bridge, and the Detroit casinos, which oppose an increase in state and city taxes on them from 18 percent to 23 percent, proposed by State Rep. Rashida Tlaib in a House bill this session. There was also a call for an economic boycott of Michigan businesses if Snyder does not back down.
U.S. Congressman Hansen Clarke and John Conyers, Jr.
Councilwoman JoAnn Watson announced that U.S. Congressmen Conyers, Clarke, and Gary Peters sent a letter with the signatures of sixty-six elected local, state and national leaders to Gov. Snyder Dec. 15, asking that he meet with them prior to taking any further action under PA 4. The state is currently conducting an initial 30-day review of Detroit’s finances, the first step in imposition of an EM.
(Click on Conyers and elected officials letter to Snyder re EM to read entire letter.)
The signatories include all of Detroit’s state delegation along with other Democratic legislators, and eight of nine Detroit City Council members. Council member Gary Brown, who has been pressing for a “consent agreement” with the State, did not sign the letter.
Slavemaster Snyder uses PA 4 lash on Michigan's majority-Black cities
The letter notes that PA 4 destroys both voting and collective bargaining rights in Michigan.
The leaders add, “We also have a particular concern that the Emergency Manager law may be being disproportionately applied to disenfranchise persons of color. As a matter of fact, it is our understanding if you choose to appoint an Emergency Manager to oversee Detroit, that would mean that approximately 50% of all the African American citizens in the State would be living under the authority of unelected managers.”
State Sen. Phil Pavlov plots to pass PA 4 legislation at hearing Feb. 8, 2011
The letter continues, “We would also note our serious concern that your Administration may be pursuing additional stop-gap legislation in an effort to thwart any voter led initiative seeking to revoke the underlying Emergency Manager Law. If true, that would mean that not only would voters in covered jurisdictions be unable to elect their own representatives, but voters state-wide would be prevented from using the initiative process to best reflect their own views and judgments.”
State Sen. Phil Pavlov has introduced Senate Bills 0153 through o158, which would effectively perform the same functions as PA 4. The bills are currently in the Senate Education committee and allegedly not expected to be acted on before the current session expires.
On Dec. 1, Conyers additionally wrote U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, with a copy to Rep. Lamar Smith, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, asking that the Justice Department review and take action against PA 4. Conyers contended that the act violates the U.S. Constitution’s contracts clause and the Voting Rights Act.
Click on U-S-Representative-John-Conyers-Jr-s-Letter-to-Attorney-General-Regarding-Michigan-Emergency-Manager-December-1-2011[1] to read letter.
Inquiries by VOD to Gov. Snyder’s press representative Sara Wurfel and to a representative of U.S. Attorney General Holder regarding their responses to the letters had not been answered before press time.
The organizing committee for the Jan. 2 rally will meet again Friday, Dec. 23 at 4 p.m. in council chambers. For further information, call City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson’s office at 313-224-4535.
Rally in Benton Harbor, first city to be hit by PA 4
