What is today's protest At City-County about?

[guito13]

I see a group in front of the city-county building? Whats on today's agenda? [[Pay me more, we dont need other peoples help because we are doing a great job on our own, dont pull over and arrest people who break the law, etc.)

[Wesley Mouch]

No gentrification, please. We like our neighborhood crappy and with low property values. Do not under any circumstances bring productivity, jobs, and success to our neighborhoods.

[SaintMe]

Hard to tell what they were chanting most of the time, but when they stormed the Westin I could definitely make out "No more Orr." And someone was holding a sign about stopping foreclosures, but there were many more I couldn't make out. Also there is a man in front of the Federal Building who has set up a sound system and is singing Christian and patriotic songs for all of our corner of downtown to hear. I wish it was Friday already.

[Danny]

Protesting against Orr's Detroit bankruptcy precedings or gentrification projects will not solve their woes.

[aoife]

It is an anti-emergency manager protest. Among other things, they want the banks to pay for the bankruptcy, not pensioners. Other people down there might have other agendas -- it is May Day, so it is the traditional time of year to get out in the street and air the grievances.

[Danny]

It is an anti-emergency manager protest. Among other things, they want the banks to pay for the bankruptcy, not pensioners. Other people down there might have other agendas -- it is May Day, so it is the traditional time of year to get out in the street and air the grievances.

Banks pay for Detroit's financial mess! They got to be kidding. Detroit mayors and its city council borrow up to 18 billion dollars to pay their bills. [[their luxury bills) The creditors want their money back one way or another. So keep on protesting, Detroiters and keep on whining. It won't do any good to solver this matter.

[dtowncitylover]

air the grievances.

I gotta a lot of problems with you people!

[noise]

It is very easy to dismiss protesters when the aristocracy is so fantastic, right?

[corktownyuppie]

For the better part of a century, protests and marches were an effective way to get things you wanted. We have now reached the limits of its effectiveness. But they won't believe it until they've tried it a few more times and get nothing more for their efforts.

[EastsideAl]

For the better part of a century, protests and marches were an effective way to get things you wanted. We have now reached the limits of its effectiveness. But they won't believe it until they've tried it a few more times and get nothing more for their efforts.

Yes, it seems the era of protective limited appeasement and co-optation is over. Now we need actual revolution.

[Jimaz]

I find it amusing when protesters protest protesting.

[MEB]

"We are marching to demand the end of the parasitic and systematic robbery of the city and its people. We demand an end to paying the loan sharks of Wall Street who destroyed the city and who are now demanding retirees’ pensions in the City’s bankruptcy. We demand an end to mass incarceration which makes a young person of color more likely to be in prison than to be living above the poverty line. We are demanding Kevyn Orr hire young people to begin the process of revitalizing the city. We need people to repair the roads, to repair homes, to rebuild the schools and medical facilities. The resources exist, the money is there, and there are people who need the work!

WE DEMAND:
• Removal of the racist, anti-democratic, anti-worker, pro-bank Emergency Managers from Michigan cities and schools.
• Defeat of the "Plan of Adjustment" that destroys pensions and loots city assets.
• Banks pay for destroying Detroit neighborhoods and jobs.
• Full support for Public Education and termination of the failed Education Achievement Authority. No to charter schools.
• NO tax giveaways to Illitch, Gilbert, and their ilk.
• Stop gentrification and the removal of poor and working people from Detroit.
• Restore and increase state revenue sharing.
• Jobs for all. With 60% Detroit youth unemployment -- Hire youth to rebuild the neighborhoods.
• Money for People not for War. Stop U.S. intervention in Ukraine, Syria, and Venezuela.
• Moratorium on all Bank and Tax foreclosures, evictions, and utility shutoffs for people. Housing and water are Human Rights!
• Public control of public spaces -- the "commons".
• No giveaway of public assets, including the Detroit Institute of Arts [[DIA), to corporations and private foundations.
• End to attacks on women's reproductive rights.
• Increase in the minimum wage to $15/hr and an end to falling wages and unequal two-tier pay schemes -- $7.45 is not enough.
• Stop the attacks on the LGBTQ community. Uphold marriage equality.
• Stop the attacks on communities and people of color.
• System change NOT climate change -- No to tar sands, fracking, pet coke.
• Stop deportations and attacks on immigrants and undocumented workers.
• Stop police brutality. No to racial profiling.
• Repeal "Right-to-Work".
• Overturn Public Act 436 and restore democracy."

[sumas]

"We are marching to demand the end of the parasitic and systematic robbery of the city and its people. We demand an end to paying the loan sharks of Wall Street who destroyed the city and who are now demanding retirees’ pensions in the City’s bankruptcy. We demand an end to mass incarceration which makes a young person of color more likely to be in prison than to be living above the poverty line. We are demanding Kevyn Orr hire young people to begin the process of revitalizing the city. We need people to repair the roads, to repair homes, to rebuild the schools and medical facilities. The resources exist, the money is there, and there are people who need the work!

WE DEMAND:
• Removal of the racist, anti-democratic, anti-worker, pro-bank Emergency Managers from Michigan cities and schools.
• Defeat of the "Plan of Adjustment" that destroys pensions and loots city assets.
• Banks pay for destroying Detroit neighborhoods and jobs.
• Full support for Public Education and termination of the failed Education Achievement Authority. No to charter schools.
• NO tax giveaways to Illitch, Gilbert, and their ilk.
• Stop gentrification and the removal of poor and working people from Detroit.
• Restore and increase state revenue sharing.
• Jobs for all. With 60% Detroit youth unemployment -- Hire youth to rebuild the neighborhoods.
• Money for People not for War. Stop U.S. intervention in Ukraine, Syria, and Venezuela.
• Moratorium on all Bank and Tax foreclosures, evictions, and utility shutoffs for people. Housing and water are Human Rights!
• Public control of public spaces -- the "commons".
• No giveaway of public assets, including the Detroit Institute of Arts [[DIA), to corporations and private foundations.
• End to attacks on women's reproductive rights.
• Increase in the minimum wage to $15/hr and an end to falling wages and unequal two-tier pay schemes -- $7.45 is not enough.
• Stop the attacks on the LGBTQ community. Uphold marriage equality.
• Stop the attacks on communities and people of color.
• System change NOT climate change -- No to tar sands, fracking, pet coke.
• Stop deportations and attacks on immigrants and undocumented workers.
• Stop police brutality. No to racial profiling.
• Repeal "Right-to-Work".
• Overturn Public Act 436 and restore democracy."

I can easily agree with 90% of what you wrote

[guito13]

I can easily agree with 90% of what you wrote

You agree that housing is a right? So who pays for the lazy people who think they deserve to have a home and utilities without having to pay for them?

[noise]

You agree that housing is a right? So who pays for the lazy people who think they deserve to have a home and utilities without having to pay for them?

Some believe a community or civilization has real meaning.

But then, reading your misguided first reply here, I'm not sure you'd ever understand common sense or greater good.

[Hypestyles]

if organized labor still had an expansive, major presence in the city/region/state, events like this would have more cachet. OL has dwindled drastically nationwide since, say the 1950s, and particularly in Michigan. Most people either don't care or feel powerless to help if they do.

[Smirnoff]

"We are marching to demand the end of the parasitic and systematic robbery of the city and its people. We demand an end to paying the loan sharks of Wall Street who destroyed the city and who are now demanding retirees’ pensions in the City’s bankruptcy. We demand an end to mass incarceration which makes a young person of color more likely to be in prison than to be living above the poverty line. We are demanding Kevyn Orr hire young people to begin the process of revitalizing the city. We need people to repair the roads, to repair homes, to rebuild the schools and medical facilities. The resources exist, the money is there, and there are people who need the work!

WE DEMAND:
• Removal of the racist, anti-democratic, anti-worker, pro-bank Emergency Managers from Michigan cities and schools.
• Defeat of the "Plan of Adjustment" that destroys pensions and loots city assets.
• Banks pay for destroying Detroit neighborhoods and jobs.
• Full support for Public Education and termination of the failed Education Achievement Authority. No to charter schools.
• NO tax giveaways to Illitch, Gilbert, and their ilk.
• Stop gentrification and the removal of poor and working people from Detroit.
• Restore and increase state revenue sharing.
• Jobs for all. With 60% Detroit youth unemployment -- Hire youth to rebuild the neighborhoods.
• Money for People not for War. Stop U.S. intervention in Ukraine, Syria, and Venezuela.
• Moratorium on all Bank and Tax foreclosures, evictions, and utility shutoffs for people. Housing and water are Human Rights!
• Public control of public spaces -- the "commons".
• No giveaway of public assets, including the Detroit Institute of Arts [[DIA), to corporations and private foundations.
• End to attacks on women's reproductive rights.
• Increase in the minimum wage to $15/hr and an end to falling wages and unequal two-tier pay schemes -- $7.45 is not enough.
• Stop the attacks on the LGBTQ community. Uphold marriage equality.
• Stop the attacks on communities and people of color.
• System change NOT climate change -- No to tar sands, fracking, pet coke.
• Stop deportations and attacks on immigrants and undocumented workers.
• Stop police brutality. No to racial profiling.
• Repeal "Right-to-Work".
• Overturn Public Act 436 and restore democracy."

You Go Girl!

[Wheels]

• Increase in the minimum wage to $15/hr and an end to falling wages and unequal two-tier pay schemes -- $7.45 is not enough.

[ABetterDetroit]

• Increase in the minimum wage to $15/hr and an end to falling wages and unequal two-tier pay schemes -- $7.45 is not enough.

Cmon $7.45 is a joke wage for anyone who can keep a job.
How ironic that the same right wing nut jobs that constantly bitch about the cost of providing for the poor are just as determined to not let the less skilled but willing to work no way out of poverty. Try a little math out for change, how much does it cost of your tax dollars to raise 1 child in poverty? What are that kids chances compared to kids not raised in poverty? What is the cost of that? [[prisons, more kids raised in poverty, etc.) Whats a citizen that pays taxes worth vs. one that just consumes taxes? 3 bucks a hour more for folks that can stay employed isn't going to hurt the economy only help it.

[Wesley Mouch]

WE DEMAND:
• Removal of the racist, anti-democratic, anti-worker, pro-bank Emergency Managers from Michigan cities and schools.

We are reaching the end of race as an issue. Now, black men like Orr can be decried as racist. Bravo.

• Defeat of the "Plan of Adjustment" that destroys pensions and loots city assets.
• Banks pay for destroying Detroit neighborhoods and jobs.

I'm with you here. If the city residents want to let the ship sink, I am all in favor. Let the system collapse completely. Marx predicted the collapse of capitalism. The collapse of Detroit would be an odd place to start -- but these are modern time.

• Full support for Public Education and termination of the failed Education Achievement Authority. No to charter schools.

Yes! Children in Detroit deserve no choice in their education. Give them back the DPS with no competition. They deserve it.

• Stop gentrification and the removal of poor and working people from Detroit.

Yes! Detroit's poor should be sentenced to a life in Detroit. They've got it good. Let's not take it away from them. Let's ban any money coming into Detroit to buy homes. Why should we let paradise be sold.

[Honky Tonk]

We are reaching the end of race as an issue. Now, black men like Orr can be decried as racist. Bravo.

I'm with you here. If the city residents want to let the ship sink, I am all in favor. Let the system collapse completely. Marx predicted the collapse of capitalism. The collapse of Detroit would be an odd place to start -- buth these are modern time.

Yes! Children in Detroit deserve no choice in their education. Give them back the DPS with no competition. They deserve it.

Yes! Detroit's poor should be sentenced to a life in Detroit. They've got it good. Let's not take it away from them. Let's ban any money coming into Detroit to buy homes. Why should we let paradise be sold.

Bravo..........

[MEB]

Today is May Day, International Worker's Day. It is a yearly protest and takes place all over the world.

[gvidas]

I wonder if public protesting has, in fact, gone as far as being counterproductive. It's easy to ignore, as this thread shows. It's not a clear way to communicate, also illustrated here. Occasionally, with great persistence, you can bring an issue to the forefront of discussion for a little while. But, most of the time, you're taking a bunch of people who're busy and stressed out and overworked, dragging them to one centralized location, and preaching to the choir. Everyone involved feels like they "did something," satisfying any obligation to act that they may have felt; the precious amount of time they were able to contribute is used up. By participating in an ineffective yet public display, pent-up emotion dissipates like a short to ground.

[Dan Wesson]

I used to be a leftist radical during my early years in Detroit and especially when I was attending Wayne States School of Labor.

It was great.

Then one day I learned an unvarnished truth. Workers hold the short end of the stick in this country. That truth? Workers do not own the means of production.

I seen the light a while back and I'll be damned if it ain't turned out so!!

[MEB]

Protests are only a very small portion of social justice work. Alone, they do little however, I have participated in demonstrations at banks in Detroit that have been incredibly effective in issues of foreclosure. Did Fannie Mae change their foreclosure policies? No. Were a few homes saved? Yes. How do we measure effectiveness?

It is easy to claim protests are ineffective and our leaders, I'm sure, are happy with complacent behavior protesting on facebook and message boards. I guess some people on this forum missed the whole Arab Spring thingie. Protests need critical mass and if all the "pent up emotions" of Detroiters were present today I imagine there would be more attention to the anger.