[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [socialistdiscussion] Detroit water shutoffs

Tue Jul 29 08:51:08 EDT 2014

I will be interviewing a Woman from Detroit, who has been a community 
fightback activist against the " Shock Doctrine " tactics being used 
against the Working people of Detroit, on the " World Labor Hour " radio 
program this Saturday Aug. 2nd at 11:30 AM Central Time at www.weft.org.
If any of you would like to submit some questions for her, please e-mail 
me at : davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net

David Johnson
Champaign, IL

There has been little if anything on this list about the current very 
real and very ominous situation in Detroit, where the Detroit Water and 
Sewage Department shut off water to 45,000 homes in May and is 
threatening far worse. This extends and deepens an assault which has 
included, among other things, a state takeover and near-complete 
privatization of education; shutting down or sharply cutting back 
essential public services; cuts to city workers' pensions -- including 
to those already being received by retirees. The unemployment rate in 
Detroit is now about 50%, and the poverty rate is about 50% as well. 
[For context: 50 years ago, Detroit had the highest median income and 
the highest overall workers' living standards of all U.S. cities.]

For the past few years, as they systematically run through and exhaust 
the various austerity measures that will siphon still more into private 
coffers at the expense of Detroit's workers and unemployed, Detroit 
privatizers and financiers have increasingly looked to privatizing 
Detroit's water department. And so, the Detroit-area media now claims 
that receiving an adequate amount of water isn't a human right.

The American Postal Workers Union, at its national convention, has 
passed a resolution against these water shutoffs. The resolution 
contains some decent descriptive information on the water shutoffs, as 
well as language condemning it. That's a start, I guess. But it doesn't 
really connect the water shutoffs with the vicious austerity attacks 
across the board in Michigan, orchestrated by capital and coordinated by 
the state. Worse, there's no attempt to organize -- or even to call on 
labor to take the lead in organizing -- a campaign of escalating action 
against this naked act of war.

Here's the resolution as passed by the APWU convention.

Jack

--------------------------------------

*Resolution on Detroit Water Shutoffs*

**

*Whereas, *the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department shut off the water 
in 45,000 homes in May, and is continuing to shut off people’s water, and

*Whereas, *the DWSD has threatened to cut off water to as many as 
150,000 Detroit residents, and

*Whereas, *the United Nations has condemned these actions as an affront 
to human rights, and

*Whereas, *Corporate entities that are way behind on their water bills 
have not faced water shutoffs while poor and working families have been 
hard hit, and

*Whereas, *the water rate for Detroit residents is double the national 
average, and

*Whereas, *Families whose water was turned off have had their children 
taken away as they are deemed to be “unfit parents,” and

*Whereas, *a private contractor is being paid 5.6 million dollars by a 
supposedly bankrupt city to turn off poor people’s water, and

*Whereas, *The 5.6 million dollars paid to this contractor would pay for 
a whole lot of poor people’s water bills, and

*Whereas, *these actions are truly inhumane, and

*Whereas, *the labor movement stands for fairness and justice throughout 
our society, and,

*Whereas, *the APWU seeks a grand alliance with the labor movement and 
the community, therefore be it

**

*Resolved, *that the American Postal Workers Union joins progressive 
organizations in calling for a moratorium on water shutoffs and the 
restoration of water service in Detroit, and be it further

*Resolved, *that copies of this resolution be sent to the AFL-CIO as 
well as to Detroit’s Mayor, Emergency Manager, and Michigan’s Governor.

__._,_.___
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Posted by: Jack Gerson <jackrgerson at gmail.com>
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