“The working class must draw a battle line in Detroit. I am calling on workers and young people to organize action committees in every workplace, neighborhood and school to prepare a general strike to throw out Orr, repudiate the city’s debt and replace the City Council with a council of workers, which will rebuild the city in the interests of working people, not the rich.” “The working class has to build an independent political party of its own that will fight to unite black, white and immigrant workers together in a common struggle against capitalism, which is the source of poverty and unemployment. Collier called for a 90 percent tax on incomes over $1 million. This proposal drew an audible gasp from many in the room, in particular the supporters of Duggan, whose corporate backers include a who’s who of the corporate elite in Detroit, including Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert and Penske Corp. CEO Roger Penske. In response to a question about pensions Collier insisted that pensions were “contractural obligations, not simply a promise. He called for the public ownership of the banks and giant corporations under the democratic control of the working class. With workers in control of the economic levers of society, said Collier, “They would find that there is plenty of money both to fund pensions and rebuild the city.” The night did not go by without several candidates appealing to race, in particular Tom Barrow, a former favorite of the trade union bureaucracy, who called for “black empowerment,” in the city. The reactionary and absurd nature of this demand is self evident, given that the present mayor, the majority of the City Council, the emergency manager and the president of the United States are all African Americans.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 11:40:46 +0000
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