Emergency Town Hall Meeting Sunday, March 2, 3 PM

Defend Detroit City Pensions & Services — Make the Banks Pay

Emergency Town Hall Meeting Sunday, March 2, 3:00 PM

Central United Methodist Church
23 E. Adams, at Woodward, Detroit

The Detroit bankruptcy is entering its final and critical stage. This Emergency Town Hall Meeting will present an analysis of E.M. Orr’s “plan of adjustment,” and develop a plan of action. By mobilizing the people of Detroit we can ensure that city workers’ pensions and desperately needed services for the community are guaranteed.

We demand:

• Cancel the debt to the banks that caused Detroit’s crisis!
• The banks, corporations and the state must be forced to repay Detroit for the destruction they have caused. The hundreds of millions they owe us should go to fund a massive public works program, paying our youth to re- build our neighborhoods.
• Let’s drive out Orr’s consultants. They have gouged the city, charging $95 million in the last year and giving nothing in return. That $95 million could be used to hire 3,000 workers at $30,000 per year to patrol our neighborhoods, fix and drive the buses, get the lights turned on and rebuild, not tear down, housing. THE MONEY BELONGS TO US.

► Judge Rhodes stated that the city would likely prevail if it sued Bank of America and UBS. It’s time to go after the $300 billion the two banks stole from Detroit from 2008-2013 through the interest rate swap swindle.

► Water mains keep breaking, icing and flooding our neighborhoods. Instead of hiring to fix the pipes, Orr threatens to lay off 700 workers. JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley ripped off the water department, charging $500 million in swap termina- tion fees on a $1 billion bond to upgrade DWSD. We demand that $500 million to repair infrastructure, keep workers and lower water bills.

► The state of Michigan should release the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants earmarked for the poorest Detroiters. City workers who ran these programs for years, not suburban agencies, should manage the funds.

► In federal settlements, the banks are being forced to ante up BILLIONS of dollars in restitution for committing mortgage fraud. Detroit, which led the country in foreclosures—caused by racist predatory lending–should get its share of those funds.

► Don’t be lulled by promises of cash for De- troit by Governor Snyder and corporate “charitable trusts.” Along with the banks, Snyder and the corpo- rations caused the city’s crisis by cutting state reve- nue sharing and closing plants. Orr says the pension shortfall is $3.5 Billion — $800 million for the DIA won’t close Orr’s gap.

► These greedy one percenters and their ar- rogant, racist governor — who imposed Emergency Managers on Detroit and other African-American cit- ies — will not save this city. Judge Rhodes rejected a deal, cut by Orr and his law firm Jones Day, to give hundreds of millions in future tax dollars to the banks. This victory was only won through consistent protest.
Now is the time to intensify our mobilization.

For more information contact: Moratorium Now! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs
Phone: 313-680-5508, email:  moratorium@moratorium-mi.org

Co-convened by National Action Network (NAN), Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management (DREM), Stop Theft of Our Pensions Committee; Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, and Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development