As part of a National Day of Action Against Austerity Measures today, about 300 people rallied at 3 pm in the Occupy Detroit camp in Grand Circus Park and, after speeches by occupiers and local leaders, marched through downtown Detroit to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center where they were joined by at least 100 workers representing the UAW, OPEIU Local 494, AFSCME Local 207, and the Teamsters Local 214 to protest brutal austerity measures being implemented all over the country depriving workers of fair wages and citizens of critical and necessary social services including transportation, housing, health care, education, and even food.
The 3 pm rally in Grand Circus Park featured a number of speakers who have first-hand understanding of the inhumanity of austerity measures.
Renee Dooley, a concerned parent with children attending Golightly, told the crowd of the horrible effects austerity has had on her school. “Children can’t learn in overcrowded classrooms,” she said.
“When we deprive children of education, we deprive ourselves of the future.” She indicated these cuts were going on in many districts, depriving kids of the basic supplies and staff that they need to learn.
Pastor Edwin Rowe of the Central United Methodist Church opened his talk by saying “The banks got bailed out but we got sold out.” He informed the rally of a government plan to give another $20 billion to the banks, funded by the people’s taxes, which is supposed to compensate them for foreclosure losses and insulate them from future lawsuits. “It’s just sin,” he said “we are foreclosing on ourselves! We need a moratorium on foreclosures.” Pastor Rowe also spoke about the loss of voting rights, of which he said “The Justice Department is just nowhere on this.”
Nina Chaker, a local Detroit teacher, also spoke to the rally about how austerity measures effect the educational rights of children. “We, “ she said, referring to teachers, parents and children, “are not failing. We have teachers that want to teach and children that want to learn. But resources are being cut while standards to judge us are being raised; we are not the ones who are failing, we have been failed!”
Maya Williamson, of UAW Local 6000, fired up the Occupy Detroit rally when she said the 1 percent are lying to the 99 percent when they say they must implement vicious austerity cuts. “We’ve [already] given them the money, but they squander it on the 1 percent. We are taking back our cities, towns, and states; we are telling corporate America: NO MORE.”
Joe Michauk is a former Free Press employee. He shared his feelings with the rally by saying “I lost my job and my boss don’t care, I can’t get a new one where the pay is fair!”
Raphael, an Occupy Lansing protester and singer and lyricist from the punk band ‘Army of God’ shared some lyrics he composed for the occasion, which really touched the crowd:
Thank You Occupy Detroit
by Raphael
It’s way past due for an occupation
It’s the wave of hope in every nation
Storm the city park for a long vacation
I’m so ready for the occupation
I’m sick of the tricks of the 1 percent
Sick of wondering where the money went
Sick of choosing health care food or rent
I’m breaking out my occupation tent
Occupy Detroit you are the best
You rock harder than all the rest
I love the way you educate and protest
We’re so proud to be your guest
We stand strong white & black
And I’ve got something for your stack
We’re ready for a non-violent attack
‘Cause the straw just broke the camel’s back
As for solutions just wait & see
We’ll decide with direct democracy
What the path to tomorrow will be
When the planet will be free
Maureen Taylor of the Welfare Rights Organization (www.mwro.org) really revved the crowd this way: “Something the matter with this America, when you hear that the poor have too much money, and the rich ain’t got enough,” she said.
Representatives of This Hood Of Ours.org and Occupy the Hood demonstrated their support in the rally, asking for a boycott of Black Friday as a protest against economic inequality.
At about 4 pm, the rally began the march to the Municipal Center, through the Rosa Parks Transit Center and on Michigan to Griswald, blocking half the street with the march. At 4:18 pm, a police car arrived to protect the marchers from traffic. At 4:22 the marchers arrived at the Coleman A.Young Municipal Center and began to circle most of the building from the sidewalk. During the encirclement, the marchers chanted “Bing says cut back, we say fight back.”
At 4:40 pm, workers from the different unions began to arrive, eventually totaling at least an additional 100 protesters. Occupy Detroit and the unions then joined forces and unified protest chants.
Joe Valenti, Vice President of Teamsters Local 214, gave an example to an Occupy Detroit media work group member of why he was there representing his union. He said that a Federal Judge had recently made the Detroit Water Board into a separate entity, with which the workers would now have to negotiate an entirely new contract. The Judge did this, he said, because of the failure of the Water Board to comply with the Clean Water Act. But, Valenti pointed out, nothing in the worker contracts has anything to do with water quality. He said he had asked the Water Board to come up with any contract provision that was effecting water quality, and they couldn’t do it and offered nothing back. Now the contracts of all the workers, from several unions, are at risk. “We have been victimized by the Water Board’s failure, which we had nothing to do with,” he said
The protest in front of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center continued until about 5:30 pm. During the march and action there was widespread and vigorous support from pedestrians and motorists, some of whom also joined the action.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, November 11, 2011
CONTACT: Lee Gaddies,313-585-8440,lee337@comcast.net
Todd Brady,313-961-8310, ext. 516