Some of 15,000 protesters who marched on Wall Street banks and billionaires May 12

NYC Mayor Bloomberg plans disastrous budget cuts

LABOR NOTES

May 13, 2011

By Mark Brenner

Wall Street protest 2009

Sick of bankers and corporate honchos making out like bandits, 15,000 people marched through the caverns of Wall Street yesterday. Unions and community groups rallied together against staggering layoffs and budget cuts.They aimed much of their fury at Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He plans brutal cuts to education and services for the poor, while millionaires will pay even less tax next year and banks continue to rack up huge tax breaks.Wall Street protest 2009

If Bloomberg’s budget passes, teachers could see 4,100 layoffs. Meal services and housing assistance for low-income people living with HIV could be eliminated. Childcare and senior centers are on the chopping block.

Eight separate marches converged on Wall Street, as unions and community groups rallied together to demand the city end corporate property tax exemptions and renegotiate contracts with big banks that the city pays to manage payments.

Instead of gathering to listen to big-name speakers at a main stage, activists from a broad swath of groups traveled the crowd holding small-scale teach-ins and performing street theater, explaining the services at stake and how taxes really work to each other. Stilt-walkers, drum corps, and musical accompaniment turned interludes into impromptu dance breaks.

Wall Street bail-out protest 2010

“This budget crisis would be over if the banks had used the bailout money to help the people,” said Kevin Scrobola of Communications Workers Local 1103. “Now we’re being asked to pay the price for the rich? I don’t think so!”

Last year corporate profits exploded, jumping 29 percent to $1.65 trillion. CEO salaries saw a similar bounce, and Wall Street executives raked in $21 billion in bonuses, the fifth highest payout ever.

Recent reports from the GAO, the federal auditing agency, show that two out of every three corporations are paying zero federal income taxes, and most of the Fortune 500 pays a lower proportion of their earnings in federal taxes than working folks. Meanwhile, corporate giants like General Electric, Bank of America, and Boeing have gotten away with paying no taxes at all.

And after tossing some of that money to politicians, the wealthy have made sure the lion’s share stays in their pockets. Individual tax collections are lower than at any time since Eisenhower was president, and even the Obama administration is doing its part for the top 1 percent, extending the Bush tax cuts until 2012.

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has refused to renew a millionaires’ tax worth $4.6 billion a year—which protesters Thursday demanded legislators reconsider.

But you wouldn’t know that Corporate America is rolling in it. Politicians from city hall to the White House point to their empty coffers and say the only place to find any loose money is in the pockets of firefighters, lunch ladies, and janitors.

That’s why thousands of people swarmed lower Manhattan Thursday.

“We’re here to bring the fight to the banks, and demand an end to the tax breaks for the rich,” said Brunilda Leow, a janitor with Service Employees 32BJ. “Union members or not, we all deserve dignity.”

Eduardo Soriano-Castillo contributed to this article.

http://labornotes.org/2011/05/payback-time-activists-shine-light-billionaires-and-bankers

By Diane Bukowski  (more photos and video links still coming)

Snyder passes by Whirlpool HQ (under construction) in Benton Harbor, to jeers of "Recall Rick" and hundreds of sign-waving protesters (Photo by Brett Jelinek)

BENTON HARBOR – Benton Harbor’s showdown with Gov. Rick Snyder, who was Grand Marshal of the region’s Blossom Time parade May 7, was loud and well-attended by hometown people, union and community activists from across the state, and even from Madison, Wisconsin.  All Snyder could hear as he walked across the bridge over the St. Joseph River from wealthy white St. Joseph to poor Black Benton Harbor were chants of “Recall Rick!”

Rev. Edward Pinkney and friend greet Snyder as other protesters turn their backs to him

Hundreds of protesters kept up with Snyder all the way down Main Street, past Whirlpool’s new global headquarters, which is under construction on the Benton Harbor side of the river. Snyder, who appeared taken aback at the anger and strength of the protest, jumped into his black SUV with darkened windows as soon as he got to City Hall, and got out of the city.

“A Michigan governor has never participated in a Blossom-Time Parade before,” nationally-known Benton Harbor activist and NAACP President Rev. Edward Pinkney told VOD.

Snyder has made deep cuts in education funding

Snyder evidently wanted to make the point that he had no apologies for Public Act 4, and no fear of the residents of Benton Harbor, the first Michigan municipality to be subjected to emergency manager rule under the law. (See VOD story on Benton Harbor EM Joe Harris and his order banning the city’s commissioners and mayor from conducting any city business at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6939.  

Also read Rev. Jesse Jackson’s statement on Benton Harbor by clicking on   TIME FOR BENTON HARBOR TO RISE UP Jesse Jackson).

Benton Harbor High School Marching Band led the parade

“The people here don’t know yet, they haven’t taken the time to figure out the issues,” Pinkney said as he watched residents enjoy the appearance of the talented Benton Harbor High School Marching Band during the parade.  “But we’ve got to take this battle to a whole other level. It’s for the children. The school district here is in bad shape. I’ve been meeting with the schools superintendent to demand zero tolerance, not just for students, but for teachers, parents and the school board, which is controlled by Whirlpool. You have to follow the money trail, see who’s getting the contracts.”

Terrance Shurn's killing by police gave rise to Benton Harbor rebellion in 2003

Pinkney has campaigned for years against the Benton Harbor judicial system, which funnels the largest percentage of Black youth in the state into the prisons, most of them victims of frame-ups according to their supporters.

Pinkney has also campaigned against rampant police brutality, which resulted in a rebellion by youth in Benton Harbor after police killed Terrance Shurn during a high-speed chase in 2003. He is calling for a city-wide protest on June 18, the eighth anniversary of the uprising.

 “Zero tolerance” policies in the schools are disproportionately enforced against students of color, according to a recent study by the Michigan American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), called “The School-to-Prison Pipeline.” (Click on Michigan ACLU School to Prison Pipeline to read report.)

Benton Harbor became notorious nationally even prior to the 2003 rebellion. In 1991, the body of a 16-year-old Black youth, Eric McGinnis, was pulled out of the river. The last person to see him alive was County Sheriff Stephen Marschke, who has long been suspected in his death. Former Governor John Engler later appointed Marschke to head the state parole board.

McGinnis had gone over to the St. Joseph side for some entertainment. Alex Kotlowicz investigated the teen’s death for five years, and eventually wrote, “The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and America’s Dilemma.”

While some marched in the protest, Benton Harbor residents primarily were out in force with their children to see the Blossom Time parade, which for the first time featured the Benton Harbor High School marching band at the beginning, according to one bystander.

"We're not for Snyder!!"

Several Benton Harborites threw fists and shouted: “We’re not for Snyder!” But others wanted to know what the protest was about, indicating the amount of political education that still needs to be done among the grass roots.

The local newspaper, the Herald-Palladium, published an article the day of the parade headlined “Protesters: we’re anti-EM law, not Whirlpool.” It tried to distinguish the May 7 protest from a tide of earlier demonstrations that led to national news commentator Rachel Maddow’s condemnation of PA 4 and its link to Whirlpool and corporate America.  (Click on:  http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/05/07/local_news/4664460.txt.) 

Traverse City and Benton Harbor oppose Whirlpool

Whirlpool was not mentioned from the podium during a brief rally prior to the march, but protesters carried signs condemning its takeover of prime public lakefront property. The speakers did target the nation’s corporations, which, as Maddow noted, are chomping at the bit to profit from privatization and takeovers allowed under P.A. 4.

.“We’re here for our kids and our grandkids,” UAW International President Bob King said. “We are so blessed to be in America, where for hundreds of years there has been a rule of the people. What some extremists are trying to make it today is a rule of money. Let’s be really clear—budgets are moral documents. Those who believe in family values, but want to eliminate the earned income tax credit for low-wage earners, tax pensions, take $460 per pupil away from K-12 education—that is immoral.”

UAW Intl. President Bob King (in blue sweatshirt) confers with Rev. Pinkney on how to conduct march

King said the UAW’s legal department has 30 to 40 attorneys currently researching legal grounds to challenge PA 4 in the courts.  State Rep. Fred Durhal said the state’s Congressional Black Caucus is meeting with Rainbow PUSH, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the UAW and AFL-CIO to join in the court battle and coordinate the overall campaign. It was unclear if this is the same coalition meeting every week at the AFSCME Council 25 hall, which is planning a class action lawsuit along with other activities challenging PA 4. (Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=7001.)

“We may win it through the courts, but that’s not the battle,” King said. “We have to be marching, rallying, demanding justice every day of our lives.”

King fell short of recommending that the unions exercise their economic clout through direct action such as a general strike. To date, rallies and protests have not stopped what some has characterized as the onward tide of neo-fascism in Michigan or nationally.

King and his members, in red T-shirts, turned out in relatively large numbers for the Benton Harbor action, although King was not at state-wide rallies in Lansing against P.A. 4 in February, March, and April.

UAW Local 6000 represents 17,000 state employees, according to Ray Holman, the union’s legislative liaison with the Department of Human Services.

“These attacks on collective bargaining and the rights of working families mean people in Michigan as a whole are going to suffer, and it’s going to get worse,” Holman told VOD. “Snyder is trying to privatize a lot of state government, and that’s going to be disastrous.”

He said much of the privatization is illegal because it involves federal funds.

Under Governor Jennifer Granholm, the state had already privatized most of its foster care functions, which led to the Department being placed under a federal consent decree citing massive abuse of children in the system in 2008.

The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform (NCCPR), said a recent report from the federal monitor still “found huge problems at DHS – including illegal budget cuts, understating abuse in foster care and the mass expulsion of children from the homes of relatives.”

Holman said a bill is pending in the legislature (SB 179, section 620) which would also farm out State Emergency Relief (SER), Medicaid eligibility determination, and other work currently done by state employees. He said the number of assistance payment workers has been cut back so drastically that those remaining now carry caseloads of 800 to 1,000 families.

On the St. Joseph side, residents there lined the streets primarily for the parade, although a small group of teachers with the Michigan Education Association carried signs condemning Snyder’s education budget cuts. Snyder raided last year’s $500 million surplus in last year’s education fund to give huge tax breaks to corporations.

Kathy Knight, a first-grade teacher in the Benton Harbor school district, decried the cuts.

“It’s been tough here,” she said. “Benton Harbor is a mini-Detroit. There have been a lot of cutbacks, and the teacher to student ratio is increasing, leaving us less time for each individual student.”

Mary Peterson works as a teacher at the Blossom Land Learning Center in Berrien Springs, a county-wide school for “mentally impaired and significantly multiple-impaired students” from ages 3 to 26.

“Our main concern is the kids,” she said. “They are cutting back funding, and we have to take so much out of our own pockets to provide necessities in the classrooms. We are short-stafffed, so besides teaching, we also take care of feeding, suctioning and diapering the students. They require us to have additional post-graduate education, but they do not pay for it.”

Neither teacher, however, expressed concern about the Benton Harbor EM takeover. According to Benton Harborites, most teachers in the system live in St. Joseph.

Typifying the response of many whites in St. Joseph and even young whites in Benton Harbor running gentrified businesses downtown, one man watching the parade with his family hollered, “Why don’t you take pictures of NORMAL people?”

Expensive yachts and boats lined the St. Joseph side of the river, along with signs touting numerous new luxury residential developments, many on Benton Harbor’s shorelines.  Benton Harbor’s poverty-stricken neighborhoods, however, reminded one young Detroiter who attended a march there two weeks earlier of the rural South, where she was born and raised.

“It’s not any better there now than it was before the 60’s,” she said.

To follow ongoing activities in Benton Harbor by local activists, click on  http://bhbanco.blogspot.com . Rev. Edward Pinkney can be reached at

City workers and Coalition of Black Trade Unionists demonstrate at CAYMC May 27, 2010

Click on Hood Research city budget analysis in detail for further information. There is a link to the Hood Research website on VOD at right under links.

Hood Research’s monthly meeting is this Saturday, May 14 at 2PM  8222 Joy Road Part of the Agenda includes a discussion on the Budget for the City of Detroit.

This Friday Hood Research is sponsoring a Black History Tour right here in the City of Detroit.  For Details call, 313.931.2700

 Hood Research is on Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/HoodResearch Pictures from its Black History Tour to Battle Creek are posted. Stay tuned for pictures related to more problems with city vehicles. 

Go  http://HoodResearch.org for further updates. 

BING DEMANDS MORE CONCESSIONS!

Commentary from AFSCME Local 207 (Water and Public Lighting Depts.) 

Mayor Dave Bing cozies up with Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder

Mayor Bing is demanding that city unions and even the pension boards cave in to more concessions just 6 months after he imposed the worst concessions in Detroit city workers’ history. While Bing is still working out the details, he is clearly out to radically reduce our pensions and increase our health insurance costs. Bing is threatening us with a state-imposed financial dictator to void our union contracts if we don’t submit to his demands. AFSCME Council 25 is meeting with the City Friday May 13th to hear his proposals. They are currently saying they are against opening the contract to negotiate more concessions (the contract doesn’t expire till July 2012). Local 207’s response to Bing’s attacks on Detroit is:
 
• Don’t Open the Contract!
• Hands off Our Pensions!
• No More Health Insurance Concessions!
• No Emergency Financial Managers! No Dictatorships!
• Fight to Save Our City, Our Schools, Our Neighborhoods, Our Jobs!
 
The fight to defend public education is the cornerstone of our fight to defend our city, our services and our jobs. These are inseparable issues. If we show the community that city workers are helping to lead the fight for Detroit, we will build the unity all Detroit needs to defeat the many attack against us as the powers-that-be attempt to enforce a new form of Jim Crow, second-class status on our community, including the assault on our wages and benefits.
 
If we raise enough hell, Bing, Snyder and their super-rich, tax-dodging backers will be afraid to impose a dictator over our city. If Bing fears the consequences of a takeover of the whole city, then he has nothing to threaten us with. The rich have no right to treat us like dogs, and we not stand for it! Let’s start taking united actions with all those who are fighting to save our city. Come demand that they stop the attack on our schools, and stop the attack on city workers. DETROIT: RISE UP! 
 
ATTEND LOCAL 207 MEMBERSHIP MEETING – THURS. APRIL 12 – 4:30 PM

Bail-out workers and residents with tax dollars, not the banks!

 

PROTESTERS VOW TO CONTINUE FIGHT AFTER ARRESTS OF YOUNG MOTHERS DURING CATHERINE FERGUSON SIT-IN APRIL 15

Ricktator Snyder looks on grimly after presenting Roy Roberts as new DPS EM

On Tuesday March 10^th, students, parents and community members will make clear that having a new face in the EFM’s office changes nothing about the fight for public education in Detroit. Roberts will be granted no honeymoon.                     

“Roy Roberts is no more qualified than Bobb. He is not an educator; he’s just a wealthy businessman, who, like Bobb and Bing, doesn’t even live in Detroit. Bobb is “training” Roberts to take over the job of dismantling public education in Detroit. Snyder, Bobb, Bing and Roberts have nothing good planned for the students and the people of Detroit,” said Joyce Schon, BAMN attorney who has represented the Detroit School Board.

DPS teachers protest school closings

 “The attack on public education is the most devastating and shameful civil rights attack of this century. Without public education, we get the new Jim Crow – permanent, second-class citizenship, imposed on Black and Latino students by force. This is not about individual buildings.  It is about whether the people of Detroit have value.  But we can defeat it if we are prepared to take some bold actions,” said Shanta Driver, BAMN National Coordinator.

“The student sit-in on April 15^th at the Catherine Ferguson Academy paved the way and gained national attention for our cause of defending public education and resisting the school closures.  But to win, we must spread the occupations city-wide. If other schools slated for closure follow the example of the brave Catherine Ferguson occupiers, we save all of our schools and save Detroit,” said Nicole Conaway, a science teacher at CFA who joined her students in the occupation of Catherine Ferguson.

“Everyone who cares about Detroit and the future of its young people should march and rally and demand, not beg, that our schools remain open and public,” added Monica Smith, Detroit BAMN organizer and attorney who participated in the CFA occupation.

For more information, contact Monica Smith 313.585.5657 or Joyce Schon 313-434-7075 or call 855-ASK-BAMN   (855-275-2266), or email BAMN Coordinator Donna Stern at donna.stern@bamn.com .

Maryanne Godboldo (l), sister Penny behind her, and attorney Wanda Evans leave court with supporters May 4

UPDATE from Justice4Maryanne Committee

Ariana is HOME! Mother and Child Reunion Party this Sunday 1-3 p.m.

Our prayers have been answered. Ariana was released into the care of her Aunt, Penny, today. Thank you so much for all of your calls, letters, emails, donations and other forms of support. Your outrage with DHS and CPS was finally met with a small act of Justice today. The FIGHT is NOT over – Maryanne will be in court on May 11th to have her parental rights recognized by the court until the trial begins on June 8th. So – we still have a LONG way to go. But we have MUCH cause to celebrate now that Ariana is back home with her family.

 The Justice for Maryanne Action Committee presents: A Mother and Child Reunion Celebration. This Sunday May 8, 2011. 1-3pm Hartford Memorial Baptist Church – Vincent Room. Dr. Charles G. Adams, Senior Pastor. Charles C. Adams, Presiding. 18700 James Couzens Drive Detroit, Michigan. Please join us for this brief but powerful celebration welcoming Ariana back home this Mother’s Day.

By Diane Bukowski

DETROIT – Wayne County Juvenile Court Judge Lynn Pierce ruled May 4 that Ariana Godboldo-Hakim must be released from the Hawthorn Psychiatric Center and placed in her aunt’s home by May 6.

An army that included police tanks, helicopters, and officers armed with assault weapons seized the child from her mother Maryanne Goldboldo Mar. 25 at the request of state Child Protective Services. Godboldo still faces felony charges for resisting what she and her attorneys contend was an illegal kidnapping of the 13-year-old girl.

CPS said they seized Ariana because her mother had taken her off the psychotropic medication Risperdal, among other allegations. However, Godboldo signed a consent form which is in the court file saying she had the right to do so at any time.

Supporters of Maryanne Godboldo at prayer vigil outside Hawthorn Center where Ariana is being held

“A show cause order is now issued for Friday at 1:30 p.m.,” Pierce said. “Any parties who do not cooperate will be found in contempt of court [at the hearing]. I’m not going to have anyone stonewalling the placement.” She added later, “I have not heard anything today indicating that Ariana’s placement in her aunt’s home is detrimental to her welfare.”

The courtroom was packed with supporters of Godboldo and Ariana’s father Mubarak Hakim. The family has received support from around the world as well.

Mubarak Hakim, Ariana's father, said he has been visiting her every day and she is getting worse at Hawthorn

Dr. George Mellos, acting chief of clinical affairs for Hawthorn, and Dr. Margaret Betts, a well-known Detroit M.D. and allopath, who is to treat Ariana on her release, reached agreement on a joint medical treatment plan for the child April 29. Ariana has not yet been diagnosed for a disorder her mother believes was related to a series of vaccinations she received.

Her court-appointed guardian ad litem, David McGuire, said on the record May 4 that he was satisfied with the plan, and that it was “more detailed” than most he had seen.

Pierce ruled April 22 that Ariana should be placed as soon as a medical treatment plan was agreed on. During interim discussions in Pierce’s chambers April 29, however, CPS representatives continued to stall. Evans said she immediately filed motions for the May 4 hearing to effectuate Ariana’s release.

During the May 4 hearing, Evans and Roger Farinha, Hakim’s attorney, argued for the child’s immediate release from the psychiatric facility and return to her family.

Hartford Ministry dancers performing "Testify," choreographed by Penny Godboldo-Brooks

“We are asking first that the child be placed with Maryanne Godboldo,” Evans told Pierce. “You have the authority to release her to her mother while an investigation is pending. The medical professions have indicated that their plan can’t be put into place until the child returns home. Penny [Godboldo-Brooks] elected to have Maryanne take the child first, but if the court doesn’t allow that, she should go to Penny immediately.”

The two-hour hearing became heated as state Child Protective Services (CPS) supervisor Jeannine Washington and an Assistant State Attorney General objected to the doctors’ agreed on plan.

Maryanne Godboldo weeps outside Hawthorn Center after prayer vigil, crying for her child

Washington testified that she received a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice in 2007 and had been employed by the state for three years. She said she was assigned to the Godboldo case only after Ariana was seized from her home.

She and the assistant AG asserted at length that the treatment plan was “too vague.” Despite the fact that Washington had already done a home assessment and a criminal check on Ariana’s aunt and her husband, they said extensive paperwork regarding foster care licensing, educational plans, and other matters still needed to be completed before Ariana could be released from Hawthorn.

“Are you aware that the doctors are recommending Ariana’s release immediately?” Farinha asked during cross-examination of Washington. “Have you and your supervisor discussed the harm that is being done to her by remaining in a mental hospital setting away from her family?”

Dr. Margaret Betts

Washington said they had done so, but had not documented the discussions in writing.

Evans asked Washington, “You’re not an M.D. or psychiatrist, are you? But you don’t think the medical plan is detailed enough?” Washington insisted that it wasn’t.

Evans said that legally the licensing process and other matters can be completed after placement, but Washington took issue with that as well.

After leaving the witness stand, Washington almost jumped on Farinha across the table at which they were both seated, while the hearing was still in progress.

Pierce denied requests by Evans and Farina to present their own witnesses, including Dr. Betts, who was in the courtroom, and Penny Godboldo-Brooks, saying she was ready to rule without their testimony.

After Judge Pierce ruled, the state assistant AG placed the state’s objection to her ruling on the record.

Evans said afterwards, “We’re closer to Ariana’s coming home than we were last Friday. I’m happy with that as long as she is home on May 6. Our position has always been that the child has been traumatized by her removal and her condition has deteriorated while she is away from her mother, placed in a facility where she knows no one.”

Rukiyah Shabazz during church rally for Maryanne Godboldo

Hakim said he had been visiting his daughter every day at Hawthorn, and agreed with Evans’ assessment. Another relative said they have had to go through four locked gates just to visit the child, and that it appeared she had a cigarette burn on her hand during the last visit.

Her mother filed a police complaint against Hawthorn after they took the child to Children’s Hospital, saying she had contracted a sexually-transmitted disease.

The Department of Community Health has yet to supply a list of all complaints filed against Hawthorn in the last five years, requested under the Freedom of Information Act by VOD.

 “CPS is doing all this to punish the mother,” said attorney Allison Folmar, who is representing Maryanne Godboldo in her criminal case. “The child never should have been removed in the first place. There was no emergency.”

Family friend Rukiyah Shabazz added, “Ariana is a political prisoner. They are punishing her too. The state has no place interfering with her care.”

Dr. Betts said after the hearing that she had been visiting Ariana regularly at Hawthorn.

“The child is being traumatized on a day-to-day basis by people she doesn’t know or trust, experiencing the psychological trauma anyone feels on being locked up,” Betts said. “We cannot fully determine appropriate care until she is back home and reacquaints herself with her family. She has a medical team that is ready and willing and I plan to see her the day she comes home. This whole process has been eye-opening and unbelievable, something I never would have expected in a free country.”

She said Dr. Mellos told her he was “appalled” because he has never had to go through the same complications with any other child. She said he told her Ariana was basically dumped at Hawthorn, with no medical records accompanying her.

Another hearing in the case is scheduled for May 11.

There will be a Community Circle Dance Concert fundraiser for the Godboldo Justice Fund Sat. May 14^th at 6 p.m., at the Virgil H. Carr Cultural Arts Center, 311 E. Grand River in downtown Detroit. For more information, go to    http://justice4maryanne.com  

Maryanne and Penny Godboldo, a master dance teacher, join dancers performing "Testify" at support rally at Hartford Memorial Church

Osama Bush Bin Laden

By Dr. Publico, May 2, 2011 The American Tribune

Breaking News ^[1]alerts us that Osama bin Laden has been killed.  There’s very little in the way of analysis in the nation’s corporate media, but I guess that’s to be expected.  There’s always more to the story…

I suppose it’s fitting that the CIA reportedly had a direct hand in the military apprehension of Osama; they helped create him in the first place.

 Osama bin Laden ^[3](54) was born in 1957 in Saudi Arabia (bin Laden means “son of Laden”) to one of the world’s wealthiest families.  His father, Mohammed ^[4](1908-’67) was originally from Yemen, built a construction business and came into favor of the Saudi royal family.

 Today, the Saudi Binladen Group ^[5]is a multi-$billion construction and holding empire with operations all over the world.  Among close business connections are Bush and Carlyle, Inc., Cheney and Halliburton, Inc., etc.

In 1979, Osama—a fundamentalist Wahhabi ^[6]—traveled to Afganistan to fight the Soviets.  He opposed all forms of pan-Arabism, socialism and democracy.  He was dedicated to biblical Sharia law ^[7]thru violent jihadism ^[8].

Under the Reagan Doctrine ^[9], the CIA sponsored and supplied arms, training and financial aid to these Mujahideen as “freedom fighters” against Soviet expansion. 

Women in Afghanistan under the U.S. supported Taliban; they were forbidden to read, work outside the home, etc.

 Osama was a central conduit for paying jihadists from around the world to travel to Afghanistan, dealing with the CIA-Pakistani bureaucracy (he had a degree in economics and business administration), and establishing CIA-staffed training camps.

But Osama also had his own agenda, building a separate faction loyal to him and his Wahhabi vision: To wage worldwide jihad after the Soviet defeat.  He was building Al Queda (“the base”) by 1988.  When the Soviets left in 1989, Osama and his force returned to Saudi Arabia.  (An estimated 70-to-80% were Saudis.)

General David Patraeus greets President Barack Obama in Iraq

Pan-Arabist Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of 1990.  The Saudi royal family welcomed US forces as they bordered on both nations.  Osama opposed this sacrilegious violation of Saudi soil and turned to terror ops.  He was banished by the Saudis and fled to the Sudan.

Conducting his terror campaign from there, he was forced to leave in 1996.  With the aid of the Taliban, the Pakistani ISI ^[11], and other allies, he reestablished Mujahideen training bases.  From there, he trained and exported Al Queda cadre creating terror cells throughout the world.

 These forces were built mostly independent.  While Al Queda central would call for strategic operations for various causes, the tactical when-and-where were decided by the individual groups.  Yet, Osama primarily relied on his own inner cadres ^[12]. 

USS Cole

To wit:  Jun ‘96, The Khobar Towers, 19 Americans killed by 4 Saudi jihadists; Aug ’98, Nairobi Embassy, 12 Americans killed by 14 jihadists (13 Saudis); Oct ’00, USS Cole, 17 Americans killed by 2 Saudis; Sep ’01, WTC Towers+, 2,977 total killed by 19 jihadists (15 Saudis); May ’03, Riyadh compound, 9 Americans killed by 9 Saudis; and Dec ‘2004, Mosul mess tent, 18 Americans killed by 1 Saudi.

While the politicians and the corporate media cooperate in downplaying the terror connections of their business and state allies, the reality is otherwise.

9/11

The first response of Bush & Cheney to the 9/11 attack was to shut down all civilian air traffic—all but the Saudi/bin Laden family ^[14]flights out of America, while forbidding the FBI ^[15]to interrogate them, or even check the names on their manifest. 

It’s kind of like the old joke of, “Why didn’t the shark attack the lawyer in the water?”  Professional courtesy.

   Nevertheless, good riddance to Osama bin Laden. 

Iraqi father with dead daughter: collateral damage

Now:  When are we going to stop all the “collateral damage”?

   When are we going to put the corporate genie back in the bottle?

Article printed from American Tribune: http://americantribune.org

URL to article: http://americantribune.org/?p=9761

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AFSCME and other unions and community groups rally in Lansing April 13 against takeovers; coalition is now planning legal action against PA 4

By Diane Bukowski

DETROIT – Detroit’s two pension systems filed a motion for “declaratory and injunctive” relief against Public Act 4, better known as the Dictator Act, on April 18 in federal district court.  The motion says there are sufficient grounds to believe that the city of Detroit will soon be subject to action under PA4.

A coalition of unions and community organizations, which initiated the historic “We are the People” rally in Lansing April 13,  also expects to file suit against the Act, according to its representatives.

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson on capitol steps April 13

“We are about education, litigation and agitation,” said Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, who co-chaired a special meeting of the coalition April 20, with AFSCME International Representative Herbert Sanders. Watson compared their contemplated lawsuit to Brown v. the Board of Education, which was supported by the massive civil rights movement prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision to desegregate public schools.

Sanders said the coalition’s attorneys have been meeting “for a couple of months” to devise appropriate strategies for the court action.

The pension systems’ lawsuit, filed by three attorneys from Clark Hill, PLLC, asks the federal court to declare PA 4 unconstitutional and bar its implementation. It says the Act “impermissibly” overrides the City Charter and collective bargaining agreements, and disenfranchises citizens and members of the city’s General and Police and Fire Retirement systems. It also says it violates Internal Revenue Service provisions. (Click on Pension lawsuit v Act 4 Michiganemergencyofficerchallenge to read entire lawsuit.)

Detroit police, firefighters and other city workers demonstrate May 6, 2010 against $6 B pension heist

It specifically asks the court to declare one section of PA 4 that relates to pension funds and retirement systems unconstitutional.

It says, “Section19(1)(m) of the Act – the gravamen of this action – provides that an emergency manager may, under certain circumstances: (a) remove any serving trustee of a local pension board for any reason or no reason at all; (b) arguably replace the serving trustees and assume and exercise the authority and fiduciary responsibilities of a local pension board as sole trustee of the pension fund for any reason or no reason at all; and (c) arguably require the municipal government to participate in, and transfer the assets of the local retirement system to, some other retirement system for any reason or no reason at all. MCL § 141.1519(1)(m).”

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (r) appoints former Democratic House Speaker Andy Dillon as State Treasurer

Defendants in the suit are Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and State Treasurer Andy Dillon, who has been training individuals to possibly take over as Emergency Managers in more than 45 Michigan municipalities and school districts.

The suit raises claims that Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder have been meeting secretly to target the retirement systems.

Bing presents proposed budget to City Council last month

In this year’s budget address, says the suit, “. . . the Mayor used the Act and the potential appointment of an emergency manager for the City of Detroit as justification to demand significant concessions from Plaintiffs, and indicated that Governor Snyder and his administration knew of and supported the Mayor’s proposals and plan.”

Bing has submitted a proposed budget for this year which defaults on the city’s obligations to pay into the systems, and cuts retiree pay-outs and benefits unilaterally.

Benton Harbor rally against EM Joe Harris, Snyder et al. April 27

Benton Harbor’s EM, Joe Harris, also told Fox 2 News April 25 that Snyder and Bing were meeting secretly “to work out some type of agreement where there is a Memorandum of Understanding where the mayor will get support by the state to help him accomplish his goals.”  (http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6939)

Bing earlier campaigned for the pension systems, worth $6 billion, to be turned over to the Lansing-based Michigan Employees Retirement System while Jennifer Granholm was still Governor.

Gary Brown on WJR with Frank Beckmann

The suit also says the City Council is considering the approval of a “consent agreement” with Dillon that could also abrogate provisions of union contracts, the charter, and affect the pension systems.

It notes, “On April 18, 2011, Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown appeared on WJR radio and indicated his support for a consent agreement between the City of Detroit and the State Treasurer, intimating that discussions or negotiations of such an agreement by the City of Detroit and the Governor and/or State Treasurer already have occurred.”

Former School Board Pres. Carla Scott also signed a "Consent Agreement" before state/Bobb takeover

The Detroit Board of Education reached a “consent agreement” with the state in 2008, but that did not stave off Granholm’s appointment of Robert Bobb as emergency financial manager. Detroit School Board member Marie Thornton was the sole no vote on the consent agreement.

Chris White of The Coalition to Restore Hope to DPS said at the time that “[Board President Carla]Scott continues to push an agenda that includes a state takeover of the school district. This is a spiritual battle we’re in against outside interests. The education of our children and those yet to be born is something we can’t negotiate on.”

PA 4 “arbitrarily” sets an 80 percent funding level as a trigger for a pension system takeover, according to the suit. Detroit’s two systems have consistently been funded at or close to 100 percent over the past decades.

Former Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow with Standard and Poor's rep Stephen Murphy at Council in 2005

A portion of PA 4 directly targets Detroit, says the suit, since it says the “net value of pension bonds or evidence of indebtedness” shall not be used in determining funding levels.

In 2005, the City of Detroit, under former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, issued $1.44 billion in “pension obligation certificates,” or bonds, which it later used in part to meet its employer contribution requirements to the pension system.

The retirement systems hotly contested the risky borrowing at the time. The City Council narrowly voted to approve it after Wall Street executives from Standard and Poors and Fitch came to the table. They said they would lower the city’s bond ratings unless it either agreed to borrow the money or laid off thousands of workers. (Go to Pension bond stories MC   to read stories by this reporter and former Michigan Citizen reporter Bankole Thompson on the deal.)

Agnes Hitchcock of Call 'em Out in Feb. 2010

In a comment that accurately portended the future, Agnes Hitchcock of the Call ‘em Out Coalition said, “The state took over the schools to control a $1.5 billion construction bond proposal. Now it looks like we’re telling them that the city is a good thing to take over as well.”

Later that year, despite the Council’s vote to approve the bonds and Kilpatrick’s lay-offs of 1400 city workers, S & P downgraded the city’s bond ratings to BBB-, one step above junk level, anyway.

In 2008, the City narrowly avoided defaulting on the bonds and subsequent state receivership by agreeing to have proceeds from casino taxes go directly to a bank trustee so he could chop off the portion owed on the bonds before handing over the rest to the city. (Read VOD article “How the Banks Destroyed Detroit: at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6196 .)

According to the U.S. federal courts website, a judge has not yet been assigned to hear the lawsuit. Actions so far have involved service of the lawsuit by the plaintiffs on the defendants, and the appointment of an attorney to represent the defendants.

The labor/community coalition against PA 4 meets every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at AFSCME Council 25, 600 W. Lafayette at Third. The meetings are open to the concerned public.