Occupy Detroit marches through Rosa Parks Terminal Oct. 28, 2011
By Diane Bukowski
Protester says Rosa Parks would not have tolerated Detroit's bus situation.
Occupy Detroit took to the streets Oct. 28 because people can’t rely on the city’s buses, marching from Gand Circus Park through the Rosa Parks Terminal at Michigan and Cass and then down Woodward to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, They demanded demand that Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and all government funding sources immediately get buses back on the street. Riders have reported three-hour delays in buses showing up. They are also packed and frequently forced to bypass long lines of waiting riders.
Union presidents Leamon Wilson, representing the bus mechanics of AFSCME Local 312, and Henry Gaffney, representing the bus drivers of ATU Local 26, testified earlier that the delays are due to the city’s refusal to hire new mechanics to replace more than 50 who have retired and others who have left. Over 250 buses are in the yards waiting for repair as a result.
Joe McGuire opens rally for buses at Grand Circus Park
Bing has refused to hire more mechanics, and instead threatened workers with mass suspensions and discharges, while the City Council has joined the fray on his side, unanimously passing a resolution calling for mechanics’ work to be contracted out. Wilson has repeatedly said that contracting out is a big part of the problem because buses are shipped long distances for repair, and when they come back, Local 312 mechanics frequently have to repair them all over again due to the contractors’ incompetence.
Marchers proceed down Washington Blvd.
Some are calling for regionalization of the bus system as a solution, but in fact SMART buses recently laid off workers and are forcing riders from Detroit to pay surcharges for each ride on monthly DDOT-SMART bus cards that are supposed to cover all rides.
For detailed information from union and community leaders, and bus drivers and mechanics on the crisis, click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/09/20/bus-workers-riders-blast-bing/. Also see story below by Keith Hines on the Great Trolley Riot of 1891, where the community came out en masse to support striking workers of the city’s privately owned trolley system. As a result, Mayor Hazen Pingree founded Detroit’s public “Department of Street Railways” (DSR) and numerous other public service institutions, including the Public Lighting Department and Detroit’s public hospital.
After marching through Rosa Parks terminal, protesters proceeded to Woodward, down to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, for a rally.
Workers on strike at the Chrysler Warren Stamping Plant, October, 2007
Statement on the Chrysler ratification despite skilled trades’ rejection, from two tradespeople at Chrysler Warren Stamping
October 27, 2011
The contract between Chrysler and the United Auto Workers is being imposed on the entire membership by the International Executive Board of the UAW. A majority of skilled trades workers and a substantial minority of production workers voted against this agreement.
Skilled trades workers on the shop floor have been denied a voice in this decision, made less than 24 hours after the last vote was cast at Warren Truck. Trades workers had been adamant in their opposition to the brutal restructuring of their work, misnamed skilled trades “rationalization.” The skilled workforce at Chrysler has seen their numbers cut from 12,000 to 5000 since reductions began under the 2003-2007 agreement. If our union would have opposed this program, skilled trades workers would have applauded their efforts.
We now wonder how many skilled workers will be left in the plants at the end of this contract. Over thirty skill sets will be reduced to five; there will be three working groups where it is up to trades workers to give each other on the job training. Under the expanded “autonomous maintenance” program, production workers are forced to take over many of our daily tasks. Outsourcing will continue. Building maintenance will now be done exclusively by outside contractors. Tradespeople whose classifications are being eliminated will have to transfer to a “related trade” where they will be at the bottom of the seniority list for three years. Brick masons, carpenters, painters and other building tradespeople will have to exit skilled trades or find their way back through another apprenticeship.
Eventually there will be too few of us to keep up with the variety of unfamiliar tasks we will be asked to perform, and safety will suffer.
The company and our union leadership are refusing to address our legitimate concerns, with the rationale being that our biggest complaints were just about “economics.” This is not true. As skilled trades workers we are extremely concerned about the integrity of our respective trades, work rules, safety, training, maintaining lines of demarcation, and prohibiting the outsourcing of our work.
While we have our particulat complaints, UAW-represented Skilled Trades Workers at Chrysler do stand in solidarity with the production workers on the shop floor. We share their hopes and aspirations for fair and equal compensation for our labor. We hope that by rejecting this agreement we can further the fight for a more equitable society.
This imposed “ratification” by the UAW leadership is yet another example of the union’s failure to confront the greed of Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne. We feel that the massive propaganda effort to win ratification through the fear of arbitration by the administration was wrong and the implied threat to move new work to locals that approved the contract was unconscionable. Without this fear factor, we are sure the contract would have been shot down by the entire membership.
We call on President Bob King and Vice President Holiefield to reopen the contract provisions pertaining to skilled trades. We are betting that when Chrysler releases its third quarter results Friday you will have further proof that the company can well afford to treat its workers fairly.
Contact: Martha Grevatt, 216-534-6435; Alex Wassell, 734-629-7226 (skilled trades workers at Chrysler Warren Stamping)
WHO IS UNION AND WHO IS COMPANY? WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? United Auto Workers Vice President UAW Chrysler Department General Holiefield (L), UAW President Bob King (2nd L), Chrysler Group LLC Senior Vice President Manufacturing Scott Garberding and Chrysler Group Vice President Employee Relations Al Lacobelli (R) answer questions from the media during opening ceremonies of the Chrysler UAW Contract Negotiations at Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan July 25, 2011
Protests result in at least one loan modification, attorney says; BOA, largest U.S. bank, under federal order to review all loans for illegality
By Diane Bukowski
October 24, 2011
DETROIT – “Immediately after the Occupy Detroit marches on the Bank of America’s downtown headquarters Oct. 18 and 21, BOA contacted Moratorium NOW! attorneys relative to stopping the eviction of a homeowner who’s been fighting BOA for four years,” attorney Jerry Goldberg told VOD Oct. 24. “They are offering to place him in a loan modification program to save his home.”
Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said in a broadcast on Chicago’s WVON-AM radio the same day that the Occupy marches across the country represent the first time people have gathered nationally en masse to march on the banks, lauding their stand.
Keisha Newburn with daughter Divine Angel marches at BOA Oct. 18; she said her grandmother was "destroyed" by the loss of her home
“The banks got bailed out, we got sold out,” hundreds of protesters chanted outside BOA both days. They had marched from the Occupy Detroit site in Grand Circus Park down Woodward Avenue to target BOA. “Shame, shame, shame!”
“My grandmother lost her home after 21 years,” said Keisha Newburn, who brought her baby Divine Angel Newburn in her stroller on the Oct. 18 march. “It destroyed her. That was 21 years of watching her grandkids grow up in that house. I was raised there. Detroiters have got to come together in more protests to stop foreclosures. All the banks are doing is letting the vacant homes go to waste in the neighborhoods.”
The Oct. 18 march served as a press conference to announce the Oct. 21 action. At least three times more protesters showed up Oct. 21. (See video above.)
Young Occupy marchers are rising up directly against capitalism
Many signs carried by the marchers condemned the capitalist system, a characteristic of Occupy actions across the country as people of all races, sexes and ages become aware that their suffering is directly related to the global economic crisis caused by the greed of the corporations and the banks.
Major media coverage of the marches was broad. Reporters and TV crews who arrived at the 12 noon time set for the Oct. 18 press conference waited anxiously outside the BOA offices in the Guardian Building for a half-hour as marchers made their way to the site.
Attorney Jerome Goldberg of Moratorium NOW! talks to Channel Four reporter
“Bank of America is the largest bank in the country,” Goldberg told the media as they waited. “They took over Countrywide and Merrill Lynch and have laid waste to poor and working class communities nationally. Bank of America and all the banks have been guilty of massive fraud in carrying out foreclosures. As a result, they are now under a federal order to review every one of their foreclosures for illegal activity.”
The Federal Reserve system lists the Bank of America, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., at the top of all the country’s banks in terms of assets. As of June 30, 2011, BOA had $2,264,435,837 in assets according to their National Information Center website at http://www.ffiec.gov/nicpubweb/nicweb/top50form.aspx.
Bank of America takes mortgage payments and forecloses anyway
In a letter to Detroit BOA president Brian Moynihan, Occupy Detroit demanded that the bank immediately implement a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions.
“Bank of America received $45 billion in federal TARP bailout funds,” says the letter. “It continues to be bailed out by the federal government through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which guarantee $2.1 trillion in Bank of America loans, many of which were fraudulent and as a result are in default. Bank of America and its affiliate Countrywide signed contracts to receive over $7 billion in additional taxpayer funds to modify loans and keep families in their homes, but continues to refuse to modify loans and keep families in their homes.”
Marcher demands end to U.S. wars, bring troops AND federal dollars home to rebuild cities
The Moratorium-MI coalition has been fighting the foreclosure Katrina for at least five years, demanding that the state legislature and governors declare a moratorium on all foreclosures, evictions and utility shut-offs for at least two years.
The Coalition’s banners demand that U.S. President Barack Obama take action through executive orders, bypassing Congress. Many excuse Obama’s lack of action, saying that Congress ties his hands. Notably, there is a survey on Chicago’s WVON website at http://www.wvon.com/ asking “Should Pres. Obama use Executive Order privileges to help Mainstreet, in spite of GOP gridlock?” Over 85 percent of responders checked “yes.”
“Today the federal government, through its takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac along with the Federal Housing Authority, owns at least 75 of all mortgage loans,” the coalition says on its website at http://www.moratorium-mi.org/ .
Detroit, over 86 percent Black, is one of the cities hardest hit by foreclosures
“It’s time for the federal government to bail out the people and not the banks. President Obama should immediately declare a two year moratorium on all foreclosures and evictions, during which times the loans could be renegotiated to their real value, with the banks eating the losses for the fraud they practiced. Rather than selling off government owned housing to investors and sharks, the government should train our youth to rebuild these homes and reoccupy them with the millions of homeless and unemployed.”
A Bank of America customer uses a Bank of America ATM in Charlotte, North Carolina May 11, 2011. REUTERS/Chris Keane
Bank of America has additionally earned the wrath of its customers for enacting a $5 monthly fee beginning next year, for customers who use their debit cards to make purchases. Currently, debit card withdrawals from other bank machines are tagged with individual fees by BOA and other banks, but purchases made at retail outlets such as gas stations and drug stores are not tagged.
Presidents Ahmadou Toumani Toure of Mali, Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania, and African Union President Jean Ping outside a tent erected at Gaddafi's Bal al-Aziziya residence in Tripoili, Sunday April 20th 2011 (EPA)
KRISTA LARSON and MARTIN VOGL, ap
Oct. 24, 2011 3:11 p.m.
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Moammar Gadhafi’s regime poured tens of billions of dollars into some of Africa’s poorest countries. Even when he came to visit, the eccentric Libyan leader won admiration for handing out money to beggars on the streets.
“Other heads of state just drive past here in their limousines. Gadhafi stopped, pushed away his bodyguards and shook our hands,” said Cherno Diallo, standing Monday beside hundreds of caged birds he sells near a Libyan-funded hotel. “Gadhafi’s death has touched every Malian, every single one of us. We’re all upset.”
While Western powers heralded Gadhafi’s demise, many Africans were gathering at mosques built with Gadhafi’s money to mourn the man they consider an anti-imperialist martyr and benefactor.
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. Gadhafi backed some of the most brutal rebel leaders and dictators on the continent, but tens of thousands are now gathering at mosques built with his money and are remembering him as an anti-colonial martyr, and as an Arab leader who called himself African. (AP Photo/Harouna Traore, File)
Critics, though, note this image is at odds with Gadhafi’s history of backing some of Africa’s most brutal rebel leaders and dictators. Gadhafi sent 600 troops to support Uganda’s much-hated Idi Amin in the final throes of his dictatorship.
And Gadhafi-funded rebels supported by former Liberian leader Charles Taylor forcibly recruited children and chopped off limbs of their victims during Sierra Leone’s civil war.
“Is Gadhafi’s life more important than many thousands of people that have been killed during the war in these two countries?” asked one shopkeeper in the tiny West African country of Gambia, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing recrimination.
Some analysts estimate that the Gadhafi regime invested more than $150 billion in foreign countries, most of it into impoverished African nations.
“Gadhafi was a true revolutionary who focused on improving the lives of the underdeveloped countries,” said Sheik Muthal Bin-Muslim, from the Gadhafi mosque in Sierra Leone’s capital that was built with Libyan funds. Muslim worshippers were planning an all-night vigil in honor of the slain Libyan leader.
In Bamako, the capital of the desert nation of Mali, one huge Libyan-funded mosque was built right next door to the U.S. Embassy.
And in Uganda, Gadhafi built a mosque that can host more than 30,000 people. Libyan-funded companies — everything from mobile phone companies to cookie factories — are valued at $375 million and employ more than 3,000 people in the small East African country. Schoolchildren and Muslim supporters lined the roads, waving Libyan flags, whenever Gadhafi visited.
“Gadhafi was a godfather to many Ugandans,” said Muhammed Kazibala, a head teacher at a Libyan-funded school in the country’s capital.
The Libyan leader also built a palace for one of Uganda’s traditional kingdoms. It was a fitting donation for a man who traveled to African Union summits dressed in a gold-embroidered green robe, flanked by seven men who said they were the “traditional kings of Africa.”
Gadhafi used Libya’s oil wealth to help create the AU in 2002, and also served as its rotating chairman. During the revolt against Gadhafi, the AU condemned NATO airstrikes as evidence mounted that his military was massacring civilians.
Gadhafi’s influence even extended to Africa’s largest economy: The Libyan leader supported the African National Congress when it was fighting racist white rule, and remained close to Nelson Mandela after the anti-apartheid icon became South Africa’s first black president. Continue reading →
Col. Muammar Gadhafi witn Venezuelan revolutionary leader Hugo Chavez
by the Foreign Ministry of Venezuela
The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela most energetically condemns the policy of barbarism executed by NATO and its allies in Libya, which has plunged that brother nation in war and subverted the institutional order of that country by force.
The crime committed on 20 October 2011 against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is emblematic of the crimes perpetrated against the Libyan people by the colonialist powers throughout the months since the beginning of the war and demonstrates that what is done in that African nation is a violent policy of regime change in violation of the most basic principles of international law.
NATO’s illegal and unilateral military aggression against a country that was not making any war sets a sad precedent that could be used, at the empire’s convenience, against any other nation of the South which stands in the way of its policy of domination.
Venezuela reaffirms its absolute commitment to peace and reiterates its rejection of the culture of death imposed by the Western elites who are now burning down the world in order to monopolize the sovereign resources and wealth of peoples.
Nelson Mandela with Col. Muammar Gadhafi in front of his home, where his infant daughter was killed in U.S. bombing in 1986; Libya has always been a staunch ally of the South African people
October 25, 2011
STATEMENT: The African National Congress Youth League salutes Colonel Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, the ANTI-IMPERIALIST MARTYR, a brave soldier and fighter against the recolonisation of the African continent.
Brother Leader was ruthlessly killed by rebels armed by NATO forces, who invaded Libya because of its Natural resources.
Brother Leader resisted imperialist domination of the African continent and never agreed to the continued draining of natural resources from beneath Africa’s soil.
ANC Youth Leader president Julius Malema signs during a meeting in East London
He understood and appreciated that Africa’s natural resources should be economically used to benefit the people of Africa.
That he was killed in combat is an inspiration to many Freedom Fighters across the continent and the world, particularly to the generation of Economic Freedom Fighters. Like Colonel Gadaffi, as Economic Freedom Fighters we will fight to the bitter end and ready to pay the highest price for the retaining of South Africa and Africa’s natural resources to the rightful owners.
As Economic Freedom Fighters, we are ready to fight tirelessly to protect and defend the sovereignty of our countries. As Economic Freedom Fighters, we are ready to defend the political freedom and liberation, and de-colonisation handed to us by the generations of anti-colonial Freedom Fighters.
The political liberation handed to us by the generation of anti-colonial Freedom Fighters should be defended because it is the platform upon which we will transfer wealth from those who owned and controlled it under colonial and apartheid domination and continue to do so now.
The struggle for economic freedom and liberation will never be easy, because imperialist agents will infiltrate the oppressed and exploited people and portray anti-imperialist fighters as enemies of the people. The struggle for economic freedom will never be easy because like Gadaffi was betrayed, there will be so many betrayals and sell-outs along the way, who will co-operate with imperialist forces to banish and demolish Freedom Fighters.
The only appropriate send off we can give to Colonel Gadaffi, the ANTI-IMPERIALIST MARTYR, a brave soldier and fighter against the recolonisation of the African continent is by re-committing ourselves to the struggle for total economic freedom in our lifetime. The question we should ask is WHO IS NEXT? Rest in Peace Brother Leader!
ISSUED BY THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS YOUTH LEAGUE
Contact Floyd Shivambu, ANC Youth League Spokesperson
Anti-Gaddafi fighters stand in front of damaged cars, October 21, 2011, after an attack by NATO on a convoy of Gaddafi's loyalists in Sirte on Thursday. REUTERS/Esam Al-Fetori (LIBYA
Press TV
Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:28AM GMT
An Israeli intelligence source says US and British forces had surrounded the hideout of former Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi two weeks before he was captured and killed.
On Monday, the Israeli intelligence news service DEBKA quoted US sources as saying that American drones kept the building in Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte under surveillance, while it was surrounded by US and British forces.
The DEBKA underlined that both the US and the UK had boots on the ground in breach of the UN mandate which allowed the implementation of a no-fly zone over Libya.
In addition, the intelligence news service’s special report said some of the accounts of Gaddafi’s last days suggest that he abandoned the precautions which kept him safe for years and was not afraid to use the satellite and cell phones which gave his position away.
Gaddafi was captured and killed on Thursday by the [counter] revolutionaries after NATO warplanes targeted his convoy west of Sirte.
The news comes as US, French and German officials compete to claim credit for locating Gaddafi’s convoy.
The Israeli report confirms that, working through NATO, US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy managed to finish off Gaddafi.
On Tuesday, October 25, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, of the Nation of Islam, discussed the recent killing of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi and Western action and policy toward the North African country on the Cliff Kelly Show over the airwaves of WVON-AM 1690, Chicago’s Black talk radio station, between 4 pm and 6 pm Central Time (5-7 PM Detroit time.)
A round table discussion of U.S. policy and developments in Libya followed from and include noted activists, Pan Africanist and human rights advocates. After the segment with Min. Farrakhan, the on-air panel discussion about Libya included Abdul Akbar Muhammad, international representative of the Nation of Islam; Zaki Baruti of the Universal African Peoples Organization; Ali Baghdadi of the Arab Journal; Conrad Worrill of the National Black United Front; and activist Pat Hill of Black People Against Torture.
Libyans take pictures with their mobile phones of the body of strongman Moamer Kadhafi in Misrata on October 20, 2011. Note bullet hole in his left forehead.
Appearing on the Alex Jones Show today, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen said his sources in Libya provided information revealing Moammar Gaddafi was set-up in an assassination plot.
Early on October 19, Twitter messages from Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte reported the presence of white flags across the devastated town. Flags were reported at multiple locations in the town, leaving some to believe the rebels were surrendering,
The use of white flags to signal surrender is an ancient tradition going back to the Eastern Han dynasty in China and the Roman Empire. Violating the widely accept convention is considered an act of extreme treachery.
Under both the Geneva and Hague protocols of international humanitarian law, it is forbidden to kill or injure persons hors de combat (outside of combat) and doing so constitutes a major war crime.
Madsen’s sources said Gaddafi was told to surrender to the al-Qaeda rebels besieging Sirte before morning prayers at 5 am, but that it was decided to surrender after the sun was well up in the sky so the white flags would be clearly visible.
According to official accounts, however, Gaddafi was attempting to flee Sirte and avoid surrender.
He was wounded in a Predator drone attack and subsequently killed by crossfire, either from the rebels or Gaddafi supporters. Video footage released hours after the attack, however, clearly reveals a seriously wounded Gaddafi abused by a crowd of rebels. A choppy cell phone video then shows the body of the deposed leader.
A NATO rebel fighter later bragged that he had killed Gaddafi.
Both Madsen and Jones said the official cover story does not make sense. If Gaddafi wanted to escape Sirte, why didn’t he do it under the over of darkness? It makes little sense to attempt an escape convoy in broad daylight in rebel territory with U.S. predator drones likely on constant patrol.
Many men from Calipatria ASU who have been on the mass Pelican Bay hunger strike remain in the hospital at Centinela according to prisoner advocate Kendra Castaneda on Thursday.
Castaneda stated in an email to the Examiner that many men from Caliatria ASU who were on California’s Pelican Bay hunger strike are still hospitalized an suffering at Centiela where they were eventually transferred “after falling to the ground.”
According to Castaneda, the men are reportedly suffering “organ damage from the mass retaliation the prison did to them during both of the hunger strikes.”
In retaliation for the strike, the men were subjected to withholding water, withholding fluids, and denying medical access until an inmate dropped to the ground or lost 22lbs.
“That mass retaliation was ordered by Calipatria’s Warden Leland McEwen during the hunger strikes,” she stated.
“Please pray for these men.”
Mediators who met with hunger strike representatives at Pelican Bay, one of whom had been transferred to Corcoran due to the strike, confirmed on October 13 that prisoners there decided to stop on day 18 of the strike after nearly 3 weeks.
The prisoners had cited a memo from California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) that detailed a comprehensive review of every Security Housing Unit (SHU) prisoner in California whose SHU sentence is related to gang validation according to Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Solidarity.
“The review will evaluate the prisoners’ gang validation under new criteria and could start as early as the beginning of next year,” the group reported.
“This is something the prisoners have been asking for and it is the first significant step we’ve seen from the CDCR to address the hunger strikers’ demands,” stated Carol Strickman, a lawyer with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.
“But as you know, the proof is in the pudding. We’ll see if the CDCR keeps its word regarding this new process.”
Gang validation is a practice CDCR uses throughout California prisons.
Hundreds of prisoners who have been validated at Calipatria have been held in Adminstrative Segregation (Ad-Seg) for as long as four years, awaiting transfer to Pelican Bay where they will go into solitary confinement.
