PHOTO/JAMES FASSINGER
DETROIT — On April 1, 2014, hundreds of Detroiters, retired pensioners and unionists picketed the federal courthouse in Detroit to object to the corporate ‘plan of adjustment’ filed by Detroit’s Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and his corporate law firm, Jones Day, on behalf of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder.
April 1 had been the deadline for filing such objections. Although Judge Steven Rhodes extended the date until April 28, Detroiters didn’t wait. Hundreds of objections have been filed by individuals and organizations, with over 100 more filed en masse on April 1.
The Jones Day/Snyder ‘plan of adjustment’ would cut pensions by up to more than a third, plus loss of health care benefits and cost of living adjustments, for a total of over half the value of earned pensions, including police officers who don’t receive social security. Although the corporate press is full of lies and distortions about contributions from the State, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and foundations ‘softening’ the blow to pensioners, Detroiters know the real deal: for people barely surviving on an average of about $19,000 per year, these cuts (if ever finalized and imposed) to state constitutionally-protected public pension benefits would force cruel choices between necessities like heat, food, medicine and shelter. They are the kind of austerity policies that kill.
The objections filed by Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management (D-REM) state:
“Detroit’s bankruptcy was caused by revenue collapse as a result of capital flight, speculative and predatory investment by banks, including subprime mortgages, residential racial housing segregation, withdrawal of state revenue sharing and associated factors beyond the control of the city itself, including the Wall Street banking, bondholder and bond insurer interests who are making claims in this proceeding. The failure to address these structural causes of bankruptcy, in lieu of brutally unjust social austerity measures imposed on Detroit’s People, evidences the absence of meaningful, fair or equitable solutions in the plan of adjustment.” (See http://www.d-rem.org/bankruptcyobjection/ for the whole document)
In the long run, merely speaking out against the bankruptcy will not solve Detroit’s issues with corporate dictatorship and plunder. The call has gone out for shutting down the city on May Day: http://www.d-rem.org/shut-down-detroit-may-1. Also on May 1, a Peoples Grand Jury will issue summons for Crimes Against Democracy by the Governor, Emergency Managers and their institutional co-conspirators, followed by Peoples indictments and hearings in the summer. Between now and then, the bankruptcy proceedings will refine the latest amended ‘plan of adjustment’ issued on March 31, further putting the screws to workers and Detroiters. The fight back is escalating.
“The restructuring and rebirth of Detroit will not be delivered by a state-imposed Emergency Manager, nor through Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceedings, foundation contributions, closed door deals, or other devious and misleading corporate schemes. Detroit’s rebirth will be the result of the people’s unrelenting demand for democratic self-governance, equal access to and management of the natural and economic resources of the city.” (http://www.d-rem.org/peoplesplan/)
You have a weapon of resistance we in San Bernardino don’t have: the fact that, while civilian automobile production has moved away from Detroit, you still produce a large share of US military vehicles. A general strike would be far more effective in Detroit what it would be here. Time to begin to grasp that powerful weapon, no? iHasta la victoria siempre!