Detroit activists challenge ‘jobless recovery’ at auto show

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.