We Are All Detroit Statement by the Committees of Correspondence for D emocracy and Socialism We all have a stake in the outcome of the power gra b and bankruptcy of Detroit. The move to rob pensions from some 30,000 active and retired ci ty workers and the selling off of property owned by the people of Detroit – city parks, public services and works of art at one of the most celebrated museums in the country – is a threat to us all. The contract between the city and its workers to fu nd a pension plan is no less valid as contracts between the city and its corporate partners. Bond s peculators’ losses should not be covered by workers’ retirement income. No pension fund in the country will be safe. Next wi ll be Social Security. Using the same rationale – that we can no longer afford to sustain a “greedy” middle class – the basis is laid for the complete shredding of the social contract betwe en capital and labor won in bloody struggles of the last century. The right to income security in old age, health care, civil rights and voting rights, collective bargaining and the promise of a rising standard of living, good housing and education in return for productive labor that creat es all wealth is being torn apart. Democracy hangs in the balance. Republican Gov. Ric k Snyder and the Republican-controlled State Legislature refused to follow the will of the people of Michigan who overturned by a 58% margin the law used to take over cities with a so-c alled Emergency Financial Manager. The patently illegal and unconstitutional measure gives power to EFMs – unelected Czars – to strip mayors and city councils of all authority, includin g their salaries, tear up union contracts and sell off public assets, services and property at bargain basement prices. Flint, Pontiac, Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Allen Park, Detroit – six cities an d three school boards in Michigan – are now under dictatorial EFM rule. All except Allen Park ha ve majority African American populations. These cities are largely former auto manufacturing centers deserted by GM, Ford and Chrysler in pursuit of race-to-the bottom profits. More than ha lf of the 1.5 million African American population of the state are now under rule of an un elected EFM czar. The Governor and legislature thwarted the public’s will on the EFM referendum at the same time they enacted the anti-union Right-To-Work (for less ) law in December, a measure to further weaken unions and drive down wages. This and other reactionary legislation passed over the last several months in Michigan, as in other Republican controlled state governments, has been orchestrated by the corporate funded right-wing ALE C, the American Legislative Exchange Council. The banks will be the big winners in bankruptcy. De troit’s EFM, Kevyn Orr, will guarantee it. His law firm represents the banks that hold Detroit’s d ebt. The debt figures themselves are politically contrived and exaggerated. The Governor has denied Detroit $220 million in tax revenue-sharing and other funds earmarked in Presid ent Obama’s first term stimulus package. Instead, the money was used to balance the state’s budget while blaming city leaders, mainly African American, for budget shortfalls and “misman agement.” The UBS AG bank – which pled guilty to interest rate-rigging in a U.S. Justice D epartment lawsuit – lent the city $1.5 billion in 2004 in a predatory scheme, causing two defaults af ter the 2008 financial meltdown. The defaults triggered debt ratings to plunge and inter est rates to rocket. The city’s tax base has been decimated with the loss of over half of the city’s population due to the auto industry’s near total abandonment of the c ity. With an unemployment rate in double digits, 50% of young people have no jobs and no pro spect of getting one because there is no public transportation out of the city where the job s are located. A power grab and theft of this magnitude assumes th at the country will not care that a predominantly African American city – the largest b lack majority city outside of Africa – is plundered. This is a pilot project for finance capi tal, a test run for every other city and town in the country. The Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism stands with unions, community and religious organizations, and all the people of Detroit who are fighting back. We stand with the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest fed eration of labor unions, which issued a statement on July 25 th calling on President Obama and the Congress to mak e an immediate financial transfusion to Detroit. Additionally, the AFL-CIO calls on the State of Michigan to give comparable financial support to Detroit, the larges t of Michigan’s cities. In solving the budget crisis, we the people must de mand of our President and Congress enactment of legislation to revitalize our urban ce nters in the interest of the working class, not the banks. In the face of corporate irresponsibilit y, we must have a government-sponsored jobs program to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure and our urban centers, develop new manufacturing industries to transition to a green, sustainable environment for the future of our children and our planet. We urgently need it for De troit and for us all. July 27, 2013
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 07:59:39 +0000