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Detroit activists challenge ‘jobless recovery’ at auto show
Published Jan 14, 2010 10:02 PM
Members of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions
and Utility Shutoffs joined activists with the Autoworkers Caravan and
advocates for single-payer health care at a demonstration against the
“jobless recovery” outside the North American International Auto
Show in Detroit on Jan. 11. Workers, including many retired and unemployed,
chanted, “A job is a right! We’re gonna fight, fight, fight!”
Media from around the world came out to videotape the protest and interview
participants.
After the rally, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition sponsored a “corporate
devastation tour” of the city. A coalition press release stated:
“Detroit has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 44.8 percent,
stemming from decades of layoffs in the auto industry, predatory lending by the
financial institutions and redlining by the insurance companies and bond-rating
agencies. While the sponsors of the auto show will present one side of the
city, our organization is providing an opportunity for the national and world
communities to witness firsthand the degree of downsizing, deindustrialization
and the consequent unemployment and poverty which have been the result of
decades of corporate policies that have devastated working people and the
poor.”
Two Korean newspaper journalists attended the tour, as well as a reporter from
Voice of America. They viewed closed auto plants, a closed and vandalized
public housing project, foreclosed homes and shuttered businesses. Coalition
organizers continue to press for a moratorium on plant closings, foreclosures,
evictions and utility shutoffs and for a declaration of a state of economic
emergency in Michigan. Activists are demanding a national, federally-funded
public works program to put workers back to work and provide the services
desperately needed in our communities.
— Report and photo by Kris Hamel
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