DTE protest by Michigan Welfare Rights Org., Dec. 10, 2010/Photo: Daymon Hartley

DTE Energy raised rates $175 M Oct. 29, despite whopping $200 M second quarter profits due to  Snyder tax cuts

 Low-income customers face loss of assistance as a result of Obama LIHEAP cuts and state legislature

March and press conference Tues. November 1, 1pm – 3pm 

March from Grand Circus Park to DTE Energy Plaza, 2000 Second Ave. (map) 

Our Neighborhoods need: Clean, Affordable Energy now! Make Energy Shutoffs Illegal! Stop Dirty Coal Pollution with Clean Energy Solutions! Promote Green Energy Jobs! 

SPONSOR: PEOPLE AND ENERGY  (on Facebook)

Contact: Michelle Martinez, Sierra Club Detroit (313) 443-1046

Maureen Taylor, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (313)729-5558

Kady McFadden   Sierra Club Media Relations (312) 251-1680 X195

 __________________________________________________________

DTE RAISES RATES BY $175 M 

(Detroit Free Press  10 21 11) 

Waterfall and pool in front of DTE HQ cost $8 million, while thousands of Detroiters have no water, heat or lights

Customers of DTE Energy will see an increase in their electricity bills next month because the Michigan Public Service Commission authorized the utility to raise its rates by $174.9 million. 

The utility initially requested a rate hike of $443 million last year and implemented a $107-million increase in April, pending a review by the commission. After that review, the commission said Thursday that the utility could raise its rates by a total of $174.9 million. 

The hike represents a 1.5% increase for utility customers, but DTE didn’t have figures available Thursday on how that would translate into the average customer’s bills.

The rate increase comes when DTE is reporting improved earnings. For the second quarter of 2011, the utility earned $202 million, compared with $86 million in the second quarter of 2010. 

The quarter included benefits DTE gained when the state got rid of the Michigan Business Tax in favor of a flat corporate tax. The rate hike will go into effect Oct. 29. 

Cold winter isn’t only bad news for low-income families facing high heating bills

Published: Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 7:00 AM     Updated: Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 7:36 AM

By Ted Roelofs | The Grand Rapids Press MLive.com

Pres. Barack Obama and his family at Christmas Tree lighting; as a result of his cuts to LIHEAP, many families across the U.S. will have neither lights nor heat this winter.

With the prospect of further cuts in home heating assistance, predictions of a cold, snowy winter could equal a double dose of bad news for low-income West Michigan residents.

Federal funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program were cut from $5 billion to $4.5 billion for the fiscal year that ended in September.

Advocates believe Congress will approve $3.5 billion for fiscal 2012.

“We are looking at a situation where the funds are more limited than they have been in a long time,” said David Schroeder, coordinator of the Kent County Essential Needs Task Force.

“There are an awful lot of people struggling to make mortgage payments and to keep food on their table and also to make heat and utility payments.”

Schroeder said the area’s network of charities, churches and social service agencies are working to ensure low-income residents make it through winter with heat and shelter.

But he said he was “not entirely confident” no one would have their heat turned off.

At Heart of West Michigan United Way, officials are bracing for hundreds of requests for help with heat or electric bills.

FRIGID TEMPS PROMPT CITY OF DETROIT TO OPEN DAYTIME RESPITE CENTERS FOR RESIDENTS AND EXTEND WARMING CENTER HOURS FOR HOMELESS .

“The number of folks seeking assistance has always exceeded the resources available to provide assistance,” said Robert McKown, director of community engagement for the agency.

With unemployment seemingly stuck above 10 percent and rising poverty in Kent County, McKown said it is no surprise area charities are reporting “a great deal of need.”

For the last three months of 2010, the agency received 1,083 calls for assistance with gas bills and 1,225 calls for assistance with electric bills. If anything, it expects more this winter. For July through September this year, it received 1,314 requests for electric assistance and 866 for gas.

The state’s Department of Human Services, which helps administer the federal assistance program through the Home Heating Credit, could see its federal heating assistance funds reduced by one-third to one-half.

Last year, the state received $276.5 million in federal funds for home energy assistance.

Households with incomes below 110 percent of the federal poverty level, or $24,255 for a family of four, are eligible for the heating credits. They receive an average benefit of $388 per household.

Adding to the concern, a state appeals court in July struck down the financing system used by Michigan’s Low Income and Energy Efficiency Fund and the state Legislature has not enacted a replacement.

Money for the state program, which has been operating since 2002, was built into the rate base used by Detroit Edison and Consumers Energy Co., Michigan’s two largest utilities. But the appeals court ruled that lawmakers failed to authorize the fee when they rewrote state energy laws several years ago.

In addition, the state is poised to remove some 11,000 families from the welfare cash assistance rolls. Those cuts, which were to take effect Oct. 1, were temporarily halted by a court decision that found the state did not inform notified recipients of their right to a hearing.

In Kent County, 287 cases are slated for termination, including 767 children. The cuts are aimed at families and individuals who have received cash assistance for four years.

“We are doing what we can to take advantage of whatever resources we can,” said Schroeder of the Kent County Essential Needs Task Force.

E-mail the author of this story: localnews@grpress.com

Calling all Detroit area students!  Wayne State, Marygrove, CCS, UofD Mercy, WCCC, OCC, MCC, Oakland University, Eastern Michigan University, University of Michigan Dearborn and Ann Arbor!

Converge on November 9th to join the national movement taking the first major step towards ending the student debt crisis.

On November 9th Occupy Detroit will stand in solidarity with students and graduates across the nation who will be participating in a nationwide day of protest and education on the student debt crisis.

Our universities have increased tuition and cut services with impunity.  We pay more money for larger classes, less academic assistance, and to be taught by underpaid and overworked graduate students rather than the professors we came here for.

We are the most indebted generation in history.  Now is the time to say NO MORE!  Now is the time to demand the cancellation of student debt for all current and former students! Now is the time to demand the restoration of education as a fully funded public good! Now is the time to end the usury of America’s youth! Now is the time to achieve economic justice. Our generation’s movement is upon us, we are the 99%, and we will win!

Tentative schedule:

11:15 a.m. March leaves Grand Circus Park headed toward WSU.

12 noon. Rally begins at Wayne State University in the center of campus on Gullen Mall. March from Occupy Detroit converges with the rally.  Speak out against student loan debt! Trash your bill!!

12:45 p.m.  Depart for the Chase Bank in the Maccabees Building on WSU’s campus.  Members of Chase, the largest holders of student loan debt,  will move their money across the hall to Michigan First Credit Union. Demand that Chase end its usury of young people.

We stand in solidarity with all victims of the Great Debt Crisis who are facing foreclosures and utility shut-offs! We are the 99%!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=221934377873713

UNPAID STUDENT LOANS TOP $1 TRILLION

By: Tim Mak
October 19, 2011 07:44 AM EDT

Giving validation to Occupy Wall Street protests over the increasing burdens of student debt, a new report indicates that the total amount of outstanding student loans this year will exceed $1 trillion for the first time.

In addition, the amount of student loans taken out last year was greater than $100 billion, another new record, according to USA Today, citing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The $1 trillion of outstanding loans means that Americans now owe more on student loans than on their credit cards. While students have been racking up educational loans, American consumers have been paying down credit cards and home loans.

The average fulltime undergraduate student borrowed $4,963 in 2010, up 63 percent from a decade earlier, even after adjusting for inflation, the report says.

Meanwhile, with a greater loan burden, the percentage of borrowers that defaulted on their student debt also rose — from 6.7 percent in 2007 to 8.8 percent in 2009.

The Occupy Wall Street protests have been driven by many frustrations, originating from across American society. But perhaps one of the most common complaints has been that of overwhelming student loan burdens.

“I have about $75k in student loans. I will default soon. My cosigner, my father, will be forced to take my loans. He will default as well. I’ve ruined my family because I tried to rise above my class,” writes one testimonial on the 99 percent website on Wednesday.

The 99 percent website is one of the places where the Occupy Wall Street movement first got its inspiration.

“I am a young medical professional who BARELY makes it paycheck-to-paycheck because I have over $200,000.00 in student loan debt,” says another testimonial on the website Tuesday. “I pay almost $1,000 a month just in student loan repayment. I will have to do so for the next 30 years. How will I ever afford to buy a house, have children or save for the future?”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66347.html

To sign MoveOn.org petition to cancel student debt, which has already garnered almost 650,000 signatures, in support of H. Res 365, introduced by Rep. Hansen Clarke (D-MI), seeking student loan forgiveness as a means of economic stimulus, click on http://signon.org/sign/want-a-real-economic

Water Dept. worker Andrew Daniels-El speaks on city charter in January, 2009 at Call ’em Out meeting as Agnes Hitchcock and AFSCME Local 207 President John Riehl moderate.

By Joyce Moore

My name is Joyce Moore and I a former Detroit City Charter Revision Commissioner for the adoption of the 1997 Detroit City Charter. 

In this article I want to outline some of the events, the players, provide laws, and encourage you to vote “NO” on Proposal C.  

MAYOR 

Under both Charters that I have read, the Mayor will continue to be in complete control of all city services: 

Article 5. Sec. 5-102. The Executive Branch 

Except as otherwise provided by law or this Charter, executive and administrative authority for the implementation of programs, services and activities of city government is vested exclusively in the executive branch (In both Charters).  

Morris Mays (center) and others campaign against Charter revision at Occupy Detroit march

There is no shift in power, the Mayor will have more power. For example, many parts of the city are currently without street lights and yet when you go downtown you have street lights, and in addition, there are garbage trucks with brooms to sweep up overspills in certain areas of the city and not in other parts.  If this Charter passes, the Mayor will have more power in determining which districts that he favors will get city services, which ultimately from my perspective will impact on who will get elected to city council.  

I am encouraging you to continue reading this article as it will explain and further clarity, the havoc that has been brought upon the people of the City of Detroit by a RESOLUTION that should not have been neither presented nor adopted by any council members. 

CITY COUNCIL 

Below is Section 9-403 of our current charter which clearly states the following: 

Article 9. Sec. 9-403.   Revision Question. 

The question of whether there shall be a general revision of the City Charter shall be submitted to the voters of the city of Detroit at the gubernatorial primary of 2018, and at every fourth (4^th) gubernatorial primary thereafter and may be submitted at other times in the manner provided by law.  A primary election shall be held for the offices of Charter Revision Commissioners at the same election and shall be void if the proposition to revise is not adopted.  If the proposition to revise is adopted, Charter Revision Commissioners shall be elected at the ensuing general election for governor. 

THE FOLLOWING 

1.         The Detroit City Council’s malicious abuse of the legal process in constructing the February 3, 2009 resolution, which placed a charter revision question on the ballot, in the May 5, 2009, Special General Election. 

2.         Article 7 Section 22 of the Michigan Constitution, relevant part, stated: “under general laws the electors of each city… shall have the power and authority to frame, adopt and amend its charter…” 

Chris Griffiths, with APTE VP Cecilyn McClellan and Pres. Dempsey Addison march against revised charter during first Occupy Detroit march Oct. 14

3.         The general law under which the City of Detroit is incorporated is under the Home Rule Cities Act, No 279, Section 117.18, which provides two conditional ways to submit the question of whether Detroit City Charter may be revised, relevant part, states that: “any city desiring to revise its Charter shall do so in the following manner [as laid-out in this Sec 117.18] unless otherwise provided by Charter…” 

4.         The City of Detroit already operates under the 1997 Detroit City Charter, the above quoted dependent (Subordinate) clause – “unless otherwise provided by charter”, complies with Article 7 Section 22 of the Michigan Constitution, by granting cities with a Charter, the Autonomy to frame and revise their charter. 

5.         In November 1996 the voters adopted the revised 1997 Detroit City Charter which states in Section 9-403 that: “the question of whether there shall be a general revision of the City Charter shall be submitted to the voters of the City of Detroit at the gubernatorial primary of 2018, and at every fourth (4^th) gubernatorial primary thereafter and may be submitted at other times in the manner provided by law…” 

6.         Grammatically, the above provision, in paragraph 5, construction consists of one independent (main) clause –  “the question of whether there shall be a general revision of the city charter shall be submitted to the voters of the City of Detroit at the gubernatorial primary of 2018”.  And two dependent (subordinate) clause, respectively, “and at every fourth (4^th) gubernatorial primary thereafter and may be submitted at other times in the manner provided by law.” 

7.         On February 3, 2009, the Detroit City Council adopted their own constructed resolution beginning with the fourth statement, whereas the resolution, which states that: “the changes that are required in the 1997 City Charter necessitate that a revision of the charter begin before calendar year 2018 and, therefore, in accordance with Section 9-403 of the 1997 Detroit City Charter and may be submitted at other times in the manner provided by law”. 

8.         When the Detroit City Council adopted the February 3, 2009 Resolution that was introduced by Council Members Kwame Kenyatta and Brenda Jones with a vote of 6 to 2 to place the question for revision on the ballot for the May 5, 2009, special general election, citing Section 9-403 from the 1997 Detroit City Charter and arbitrarily used procedures from Section 117.18 Home Rule cities act, as an authority granting them permission to submit the charter revision question to the voters, they maliciously abused the legal processes laid out, respectively, in the City Charter and Home Rules Cities Act.  And thereby, violated the State Constitutional Right provided by Article 7, Section 22.  

9.         “A malicious abuse of legal process occurs where the party employs it [the Charter and home rules cities act] for some unlawful object, not  the purpose within it is intended by the law to effect; in others words, a perversion of it.” Lauzon v. Charroux, 18 R.I. 467,28A. 975. 

FURTHER NOTE THE POSTAL CARD 

 Most people have received the postal card (above)  in the mail recently circulated by the current Charter Commissioners, please note these two (2) statements:       

 “The Detroit Charter revision process is a legal process started by local  City Council members”.  (NOT BY THE PEOPLE)

 “Feb 3, 2009, City Council members Kenyatta and Jones sponsored a  resolution, approved 6 to 2, to place the charter revision question on the  May 5, 2009 ballot – calling for the charter revision question earlier than scheduled for 2018.”  

The definition of resolution is a written motion adopted by a deliberative body (Wikopedia) and in the Dictionary – Merriam-Webster’s: the formal statement expressing the opinion, will, or intent of a body or persons. 

In short, the will of the people was ignored and violated by members of City Council in creating a RESOLUTION for Charter Revision.   There is no city that has a charter that poses the question of charter revision as a RESOLUTION, except in the City of Detroit. 

There is a penalty when the Charter is violated.  It should be enacted upon each city council member that either initiated or voted  on such a RESOLUTION, as to the maximum extent possible by law . 

CITY CLERK 

The City Clerk has the responsibility to ensure that every proposal that is to be placed on a ballot is in compliance with the law and can challenge any proposal in a court of law. 

Specifically, to place the Proposal for Charter Revision, the City Clerk could have challenged the legality of the resolution as related to in Sec. 9-403, but did not.  However, we (citizens) pursued a law suit only to be bombarded by the courts with appeals and more appeals, with no results and finally to be lost in the mix after two (2) years, with the process of Charter Revision continuing.  

Tyrone Travis speaks at special community meeting Sept. 10, 2011

Although the people will vote, the question is whether their votes will be counted properly?  In the last election, Tyrone Travis and myself requested an extensive investigation of the City Clerk’s office with no response from the Justice Department in Washington as well as provided extensive documentation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the fraudulent activities of this office. 

One candidate running for Mayor clearly showed how the “absentee ballots/votes” were tainted in the last election.  (VOD ed: the Wayne County Election Commission found that nearly 50 percent of the votes in that election, including 100% of the absentee ballots, were not recountable due to numerous irregularities. Mayoral candidate Tom Barrow requested the recount, and appealed the fact that the election was allowed to stand to both the Appeals and State Supreme Courts, with no results.)

Tom Barrow speaks at Call 'em Out dinner Feb. 2010

Tyrone Travis and myself had done exactly the same thing in bringing attention to the tainted “absentee ballots/votes” even in 1996 and requested even then a Federal Investigation of the Clerk’s Office. Just for history, Tyrone Travis and I sued the Secretary of State Candice Miller back then, to bring the election at that time in compliance with State Law, ultimately to ensure that the votes would be counted properly.  Currently, we have recently heard how the computerized machines have gone down in the 2005 election and were re-initialized only to find that votes had been lost with no one bringing this information to the public’s attention until four (4) years later. Unfortunately, nothing has changed in protecting the votes of the people. 

DISTRICTS 

This Charter that is being proposed for the November 2011 Election is about Districts.  “Districts” was placed on the 2009 ballot illegally; again the City Clerk ignored her responsibility to the people. We showed how many suburbanites circulated petitions for Districts, not the people ofDetroit.   

We showed in the 2009 Election how the QVF (Qualified Voter File) through the City Clerk’s office was reduced by 45,872 Registered Voters from May 5, 2009 to August 4, 2009 to accommodate the number of signatures necessary to place the proposal for Districts on the ballot.  Specifically, when there is a petition drive for a proposal you have to know how many signatures are needed, which is why the PREVIOUS general election results are used.  The CURRENT QVF was used to place Districts on the ballot. 

This issue alone now possesses an even greater threat by using our Charter to determine who draws the boundaries of the Districts. Further, Districts will: 

• clear the way to take control of more of our assets, 
•  dilute the tax base, 
•  reduce the voting power for all the citizens, 
•  consolidate the voting blocks of those who wish to confiscate the most desirable and valuable areas in our city, and 
• finalize the concept raised as far back as 1972 of, a “City within a City.      

A clear example of these events is Midtown as part of Downtown.  It is one of the choice areas of the City for Districts and is being populated by rewarding people to move into this area.  

“NO” on CHARTER – PROPOSAL C 

The sad and devastating part is that most of the general public is unaware of the politics that is changing our city, partly because the mainstream media has not provided accurate information to the public and special interest groups have more input into the structure of our city than the people of the city. 

Have no doubt it is absolutely about money, power and greed.  Again I stress: 1.) people will go to the polls and vote, 2.) votes will be counted and 3.) there will be official results.  NOTE AND NOTE AGAIN, part of the demise of our great city with be, are the votes actually being counted properly?

 Therefore, the only choice that I have is to Vote “NO” on Proposal C.  I hope that this information helped in understanding the importance of voting “NO” on a proposal that was not to be brought to the people until 2018.   This new charter is about control of the assets and a new regionalization ofDetroit. 

Yours for a Better City! 

Joyce Moore,

FormerDetroitCityCharter Revision Commissioner (1993-1996) 

P.S.

BE PREPARED FOR A RECOUNT AND DISTRACTIONS!

F.Y.I.

To read both versions of the Charter, click on Detroit City Charter and on Revised City Charter for the Charter with revisions proposed.  

To stay current with the issues of the city and hear the truth and accuracy of “WHAT’S GOING ON” go to http://voiceofdetroit.net, an on-line newspaper written by Diane Bukowski, a Detroiter and life-long, writer.

Occupy Oakland holds its first General Assembly after retaking Oscar Grant Plaza in front of City Hall Tuesday evening and votes for a General Strike on Wednesday, Nov. 2.

                                                                                 Liberate Oakland! GENERAL STRIKE!Shut down the 1 percent Wed. Nov. 2

Protect OccupySF by packing hearing on the Avalos resolution Mon, Oct. 31, 10 a.m. Room 250, SF City Hall

by Occupy Oakland

Oct. 27, 2011

Below is the proposal passed by the Occupy Oakland General Assembly on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. In reclaimed Oscar Grant Plaza, 1,607 people voted – 1,484 voted in favor of the resolution, 77 abstained and 46 voted against it, passing the proposal at 96.9 percent. The General Assembly operates on a modified consensus process that passes proposals with 90 percent in favor and with abstaining votes removed from the final count.

PROPOSAL

• We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1 percent.
• We propose a citywide general strike and we propose we invite all students to walk out of school. Instead of workers going to work and students going to school, the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut down the city.
• All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them.

While we are calling for a general strike, we are also calling for much more. People who organize out of their neighborhoods, schools, community organizations, affinity groups, workplaces and families are encouraged to self-organize in a way that allows them to participate in shutting down the city in whatever manner they are comfortable with and capable of.

The whole world is watching Oakland. Let’s show them what is possible.

The Strike Coordinating Council will begin meeting every day at 5 p.m. in Oscar Grant Plaza before the daily General Assembly at 7 p.m. All strike participants are invited. Stay tuned for much more information, and see you next Wednesday.

OCCUPY OAKLAND RETAKES OSCAR GRANT PARK, OCCUPY SAN FRANCISCO THWARTS POLICE RAID

The 99 percent have continued Occupy Oakland and protected Occupy San Francisco. After a devastating early morning raid and a night of police repression and brutality, people did what they had to do: They returned to the site by the thousands.

This time the police stood down. In a triumphant return to Oscar Grant (Frank Ogawa) Plaza, 3,000 members of the 99 percent held their General Assembly. It was powerful. It was peaceful. And it could not be stopped.

Update, Oct. 27, 5pm Pacific: Olsen will undergo brain surgery "within the next one or two days." In the photo above, Veterans For Peace member Scott Olsen, who is identified as a former U.S. Marine and Iraq war veteran, lies on the street after being struck in the head by a police projectile in Oakland, California, during eviction of the Occupy Oakland encampment.

Injustices that mandate the continuation and growth of the Occupy movement abound. Oakland spent several million dollars on its campaign Tuesday to shut down free speech in Oakland – a campaign so brutal that Scott Olsen, 24, a Marine veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq who had been staying at Occupy Oakland, is hospitalized in critical condition, his skull fractured by a police projectile.

Meanwhile, despite parents’ impassioned testimony and the attendance at a School Board meeting of a crowd of 300, bolstered by occupiers, the board voted Wednesday to close five schools: Lakeview, Lazear, Marshall, Maxwell Park and Santa Fe.

Across the Bay in San Francisco, hundreds gathered to stop a planned raid ordered by Interim Mayor Ed Lee. Community organizations, labor unions and progressive members of the Board of Supervisors came down to defend the camp and risk arrest.

Supervisor John Avalos sits in support of Occupy San Francisco with thousands of protesters Wednesday night, Oct. 26, to prevent a raid threatened by Interim Mayor Ed Lee and Police Chief Greg Suhr. The presence of Avalos, who stayed until 4 a.m., along with several more supervisors, Public Defender Jeff Adachi and other elected officials, helped thwart the raid. – Photo: Jeff Chiu, AP

“We have a responsibility to protect the legacy of this city as a haven for free speech, as well as to protect the residents,” said Supervisor John Avalos, who stayed at the camp until 4 a.m. along with four other supervisors. They were responding to calls from labor and community groups to join the peaceful protest in a show of solidarity and an attempt to head off a violent clash as San Francisco police marshaled forces to raid the encampment. Avalos is also a candidate for mayor.

Periodically, he reported, they heard reports of police heading to the area and amassing in two different locations. Avalos says he did not receive any response from repeated calls to Interim Mayor Lee, Police Chief Greg Suhr or Suhr’s deputies. Helicopters began hovering over the protest site at 9 p.m., adding to the tension among protesters after the violent conflicts the night before in Oakland.

Occupy Oakland participants restore banner to Oscar Grant Park

This comes days after Avalos introduced a resolution supporting the goals of Occupy Wall Street and the right to peaceful assembly in San Francisco. The resolution, co-sponsored by Supervisors David Campos, Jane Kim and Eric Mar, would put the San Francisco Board of Supervisors officially on the record in support of the growing protest movement. It also explicitly called on the interim mayor to halt the crackdown on protesters and prevent further violence.

Supporters from Occupy Oakland streamed across on BART to stand with San Francisco – until BART shut down three stations in Oakland at 11 p.m. With hundreds picketing, chanting and rallying all through the night, the city wisely called off the raid.

“I have no doubt that the broad show of solidarity last night from the people of San Francisco is what prevented the police raid. I am proud that my colleagues and I were there to be a part of this small but significant victory.”

Community organizations, labor and faith leaders worked throughout the day yesterday, pushing both mayors to back off and let the encampments continue and calling people to come out and support. The mayors were told the movement would not be deterred and the people would come back.

Calls are being heard for the recall of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan. This movement is now too big to fail.

If you haven’t already, sign the petition to permanently prevent the raid in San Francisco.
Go visit your local encampment. Stay a while. Let’s find even more ways to connect Occupy, community organizing, labor and all of the 99 percent to keep this movement growing.

This story is based on a report from Causa Justa :: Just Cause, with additions by Bay View staff.

During the police raid by 500-600 officers from Oakland PD and 16 other jurisdictions on the Occupy Oakland camp in front of City Hall, the brutality by cops against peaceful protesters was crazy.

http://sfbayview.com/2011/call-for-general-strike-nov-2-%e2%80%93-plus-occupy-updates/

How to help Scott Olsen : Iraq Veterans Against The War has a link here and Veterans for Peace has a link here where you can donate to help cover Olsen’s medical expenses.

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) 

www.autoworkercaravan.org,  autoworkercaravan@gmail.com,

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

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.

Caracas, 21 October 2011