Another grabbag of local events, including our meetup for Sunday 6/7. In chronological order, more or less:
ANTI-WALMART DEMO Tomorrow, TH 6/4 @ 5:30 PM, 44575 Mound Rd (s of M-59), Sterling Heights, MI 48314
Thanks to gregsullmich for taking the lead on organizing for this event, in connection with the Walmart Annual Stockholders' meeting on the 5th. Here's the latest motivation for the fight against Walmart:
On April 15 of this year, we witnessed a vast outpouring of support for the Fight for [$15/hour]. Support rallies occurred nationwide, and one of the biggest was right here in Detroit, led by our brothers and sisters at D-15/Good Jobs Now.
Unfortunately, these positive developments have led to retaliation by management. On April 13, workers at the Pico Rivera, CA store, and at four other stores, were laid off with five hours notice, due to "plumbing issues" at the stores. Make no mistake: there is no plumbing problem at Walmart. Just an attitude problem. We are challenging this brazen abuse of power in the courts. And in the public square.
On Thursday, the eve of the stockholders meeting, we will show our solidarity with the laid-off workers, and all Walmart workers. Please join us, if you are able, in a brief but pointed support action....
Greg will be on Tony Trupiano's program to discuss this topic at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. (Link:
Radio for the Rest of Us / Night Shift with Tony Trupiano)
To sign up for the demo, please follow this link
Motor City Kossacks Tour the Rivera/Kahlo Exhibit at the DIA Sunday, 6/7, 1:30 PM
I have tickets for these eight participants:
1. 2thanks
2. DoReMI
3. gregsullmich
4. & 5. mideedah and friend
6. new Kossack
7. & 8. peregrine kate and ProvokingMeaning
But I'll bet there are still more available for that date and time, if you
contact the DIA.
We'll be meeting at 1:15 at the exhibit entrance, which IIRC is just upstairs (via the elevator) from the Farnsworth St. entrance to the museum. Looking forward to seeing you all there!
Water Shutoffs to Recommence in Detroit
The Water Wars in Detroit continue without mercy. The Detroit City Council has been asked to investigate an Affordability Plan (as opposed to an Assistance Plan). But the city's attorneys, and more significantly, the attorneys for the Great Lakes Water Authority, say that an affordability plan would be illegal.
Investigative reporter Curt Guyette, now working for the ACLU of Michigan, has just posted this update:
With the city of Detroit poised to shut off water to as many as 25,000 residential customers beginning this week, the philosophical divide remains wide between advocates who want an income-based affordability plan and officials who steadfastly insist that an assistance plan that provides some relief is the only feasible solution.
Here’s the difference: Assistance programs such as the one currently being used in Detroit rely on a pot of money – in this case, primarily charitable contributions – to help as many people as the fund allows try and pay for their water. An affordability plan would set a water rate based on a person’s ability to pay, and wouldn’t exceed a certain percentage of their income.
According to the most recent numbers reported by the DWSD, there are currently 30,766 residential customers on payment plans. About 18,000 of those have not been able to keep current on their payments, making them vulnerable yet again to service termination.
That means that nearly 60 percent of the people on payment plans still can’t afford water.
Currently, the DWSD-sponsored assistance fund has about a $4.5 million allocation. Considering the number of households with delinquent bills and the size of those bills (about $150/month), this fund won't go very far. (30,000 months by my calculation. Or put another way, only about 2500 households/year.) A drop in the bucket, so to speak. But it's no laughing matter at all.
Activist organizations around the city, notably the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, the Sierra Club, and the Detroit People's Platform, among others, continue to protest a policy that will cut many thousands of households from clean water for basic needs. Stay tuned for further developments. (Guyette's Democracy Watch blog is well worth following for all sorts of MI developments; in fact, I'm going to sign up right now.) And, as DoReMI pointed out recently: contributions to the Assistance Plan may be made via the Detroit Water Project.
Please join me after the jump for one more important, albeit ongoing, piece of news.
Enbridge Pipeline 5 under Straits of Mackinac Threatened by Zebra Mussels
Last week, a coalition of environmental groups issued a statement calling for the shutdown of Line 5 carrying crude oil across the lake bed of the Straits of Mackinac, pending thorough review of the pipeline's safety.
The sixty-two-year-old pipeline is operated by Enbridge, the company responsible for the major pipeline rupture that spilled 800,000 gallons of dilbit into the Kalamazoo River and a tributary in 2010.
Ordinary corrosion renders pipelines vulnerable after decades of use; the pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac is past due replacement already. But the risk to the pipeline appears to be exacerbated by the ubiquity now of zebra mussels, an invasive species unknown to the Great Lakes when the pipeline was first installed. From a summary statement:
The invasive species secretes an acidic waste that corrodes exposed steel. The steel pipes are coated with obsolete coal tar enamel that has failed elsewhere, including in 2009 with Enbridge’s Line 2 near Odessa, Saskatchewan, which was constructed the same year as Enbridge’s Line 5 through the Straits.
A break in this pipeline would potentially contaminate Lakes Michigan and Huron, and devastate the economy of the entire region.
To take action, follow this link to the pipeline report.