- Politicians in Detroit approved a $5.6 million contract to
- Homrich Inc. in order to shut down public access to water.
- Why not pay the water bills instead, you fascist morons!?
- Canada To The Rescue!
- Canada To The Rescue? Will Imported Water Embarrass City Of Detroit
- Into Stopping Shutoffs?
- July 23, 2014 9:51 PM
- http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/07/23/canada-to-the-rescue-will-water-imported-from-canadian-citizens-embarrass-city-of-detroit-into-stopping-water-shutoffs/
- To protest thousands of residential service shutoffs by Detroit�s water
- department, a group from Windsor is planning to bring about 250 gallons
- of water across the border.
- The Windsor chapter of the Council of Canadians says the water will
- be carried in a convoy Thursday through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel to
- a rally outside Detroit City Hall around 4 p.m.
- Organizer Randy Emerson says it�s a symbolic move, but one he hopes
- can pay dividends.
- �We decided that we should bring water over to them and that way kind
- of embarrass the city and the state,� he said, �so that maybe they
- would stop shutting off the water for these people because water is
- a right.�
- Emerson says at least a dozen vehicles will bring fifty, five-gallon
- jugs of water.
- �The fact that the Canadians have to come over to help out Americans,�
- he noted, �that should embarrass the federal government, or the state
- government or the city of Detroit to either help out or stop these
- water shutoffs.�
- His only fear is that they�ll have trouble getting through customs.
- But as Emerson says, it�s only water.
- ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
- Homrich Inc Shutting Off Water Lines to American Civilians
- https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/07/10-5
- Detroit residents on Thursday launched a direct action to halt
- the city's mass shut-off of water to thousands of households,
- physically blocking a private corporation from turning off the tap.
- Carrying a banner that read "Stop the Water Shut-offs," ten city
- residents nonviolently obstructed the entrance to Homrich Inc. � the
- private company that was handed a $5.6 million deal from the city
- to shut off water services to residences that are behind on their
- bills, according to the protest organizers. They were surrounded
- during the civil disobedience by a crowd of over 40 supporters
- chanting "If the water don't flow, the trucks don't go."
- The protesters held the entrance for more than an hour and a half
- before all ten were arrested, Bill Wylie-Kellermann, a Detroit
- pastor who was among the arrestees, told Common Dreams. "We feel
- that it's really time to intensify and escalate the resistance
- to the water shutoffs and emergency management," Wylie-Kellermann
- declared.
- The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) announced in June
- that it is escalating its disconnections of water services to
- residences that have fallen behind on their bills to 3,000 a month.
- In a city devastated by unemployment and foreclosure crises,
- nearly half of all residents are unable to pay, and the city's
- continual increase in water rates is not helping. Thousands of
- people have already had their water turned off, including many
- who were disconnected long before this June escalation, and tens
- of thousands more are next.
- Concerned organizations say that the shut-offs have so far unleashed
- a human rights crisis that devastates low-income communities of color.
- UN experts agree: in response to a complaint from a coalition of
- organizations, a UN panel condemned the city last month for violating
- the "human right to water," with the UN expert on the right to
- adequate housing warning the shut-offs "may be discriminatory"
- against African Americans.
- Sarah Coffey of the People's Water Board and Water Rights Hotline
- put it succinctly to in an interview with Common Dreams: "The only
- reason they are getting away with this is because this is a majority
- black city."
- According to Coffey, the disconnections are likely part of a plan,
- driven by emergency manager Kevyn Orr, to get rid of bad debt in order
- to privatize the DWSD. Orr's rush to declare bankruptcy for the city,
- impose austerity, and gut public services including schools�all
- backed by republican Governor Rick Snyder�has left many residents
- convinced the water shut-offs are just one more step in a plan to
- displace Detroit communities and gentrify the city.
- Coffey said that the Thursday morning protest was met with a "spirit
- of solidarity" from supporters yet violence from the police, who
- injured two of the arrestees, who hail from organizations including
- the People's Water Board, Michigan Welfare Rights, Detroiters Resisting
- Emergency Management, and the Detroit Water Brigade. All of those
- arrested have since been released.
- This is not the first protest of its kind in Detroit. Wylie-Kellermann
- credited Charity Hicks, long-time Detroit organizer for food, water,
- and racial justice, for 'sparking' the protest and said the action was
- "in her honor." Hicks, who passed away this week, was arrested this
- spring for resisting the shut-off of her home's water.
- Wylie-Kellermann said he is hopeful mass protests will grow from here,
- including a July 18 rally expected by organizers to draw thousands of
- people from across the state and country. "We are hoping this is really
- just the first step in a series of nonviolent direct actions that
- intensify and broaden the resistance," he said.
- According to Coffey, the outcome of the struggle for the "human right
- to water" has broad implications because "Wall Street is using Detroit
- to create a blueprint for future cities." Coffey added, "The issue of
- whether water should be a commodity or part of the commons raises the
- question of what kind of future we want."
Copyright © 2007-2011, n3t-t3z Team
Posted by Canada To The Re on July Thu 24th 7:52 PM - Never Expires
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