Another Detroit is possible!
We support all the efforts of the city unions and workers, as well as Detroit school teachers and workers to protect their jobs and their wages and our schools. It is not possible for the people of Detroit to go forward on the backs of city workers. No to privatization, no wage cuts, no layoffs! Fill all vacant positions. Return previously privatized services to city employees and their unions.
We also support all efforts to turn on utilities so people have heat and water; open up unoccupied or “abandoned” housing so that thousands of homeless people can have a roof over their heads. Provide food for the hungry and open up hospitals to the sick, injured and neglected for quality treatment.
With over 25% of the population at or below the poverty line, the budget shortfall is not acceptable. We demand a full moratorium on debt payment. We should echo what the millions fighting in the Global South say to US-controlled banks (like the World Bank): we don’t owe you, you owe us! We demand that the nearly $1billion for the banks be used to feed, house and protect Detroit citizens, not line bankers’ pockets in the Grosse Pointes.
There are non-partisan elections for city council, mayor and the school board this year.
The only candidates who deserve support will clearly say: don’t make the people pay! Anyone who accepts causing more pain and suffering for Detroit’s unionized workers or Detroit’s residents should not receive a single vote from a single thinking person.
We urge unions do put forward candidates opposed to layoffs, privatization, and wage cuts. As long as the candidate represents the unions and is backed by the unions and is clearly opposed to these cuts, they should be supported as candidates may point in the direction of a solution -- support for city workers, for example, or against layoffs, without a clear alternative. These people should be supported in solidarity with the workers’ struggle, as a step forward.
The mayor and the city council are pawns, not major players; they should be opposed for refusing to take up any struggle against Bush and for the city and its people, not particularly for their corruption, gaudy life styles, or irresponsible conduct.
Candidates should build on the powerful anti-Bush sentiment in Detroit. Focus fire on Bush, his war, his banker buddies, not a clueless mayor presiding over an empty bank account.
Join with millions around the world who believe that Another World is Possible. Another Detroit is possible too. Truth. q