peoplessummit.org/

PEOPLE’S SUMMIT
JUNE 14-17, DETROIT, MICH.
Grand Circus Park, Woodward Avenue at E. Adams, downtown Detroit

FOUR DAYS OF ACTIVE RESISTANCE, POLITICAL DISCUSSION AND STRATEGIZING FOR A “PEOPLE’S STIMULUS PLAN” AND AN “ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS” FOR WORKING PEOPLE AND THE POOR

TENT CITY TO COUNTER NATIONAL BIG-BUSINESS GATHERING AT FORD FIELD

On June 15-17, 2009, the National Business Summit, sponsored by the Detroit Economic Club, will take place at the Marriott Hotel in the Ren Center, the same building that is the world headquarters of GM. Millionaire capitalists like the heads of Conoco-Phillips, Dow Chemical, General Motors, Chrysler, Humana Inc., Ascension Health, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, BNSF Railway Co., and PVS Chemicals, and well as the presidents of the National Council on Competitiveness and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, will gather at this summit. President Barack Obama and cabinet members have been invited.

These wealthy businessmen will put their greedy heads together to discuss “innovation and policy ideas in technol­ogy, energy, environment and manufactur­ing.” In other words, they will be strategizing on how to further increase their profits at the expense of the ever-shrinking middle class, the vast working class and the growing millions living in utter poverty.

The National Business Summit will be held in a city with record-high unemployment and poverty rates, lay-offs, budget cuts, school closings, utility cost hikes and shut-offs and massive home foreclosures. With a registration fee of $1,495, it is unlikely that any victims of foreclosures and evictions, let alone laid-off workers, will be able to attend the National Business Summit. No one at this event will be speaking in the interests of those most affected by the economic collapse.

The People’s Summit will be a dynamic event. During the People’s Summit, organizers will implement a moratorium on foreclosure evictions by going into the neighborhoods and supporting homeowners who are willing to confront the bailiffs. If there is a strike, demonstration or sit in, the People’s Summit will join it. The People’s Summit will confront the big-business CEOs and politicians gathering next door. Join us!

RAISE YOUR VOICES TO DEMAND:

-Bailout the people!
-Jobs, healthcare, housing and education for all
-Moratorium on foreclosures, evictions and utility shutoffs – housing is a right
-Stop budget cuts and restore social services funding
-Stop tuition hikes and school closings
-Moratorium on layoffs, plant closings, pension thefts and union
busting – A job at a living wage is a right
-End racism, sexism and anti-LGBT attacks
-Stop attacks on immigrants -Bailout youth and students
-No more police brutality
-U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan
-Money for jobs and human needs, not war

Initiated by the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
5920 Second Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202 ~ www.moratorium-mi.org ~
Phone 313-887-4344 ~
Email moratorium (at) moratorium-mi.org

Call today to endorse, volunteer, reserve your tent space and/or make a donation.

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The People's Summit and Tent City,
June 14-17 in Detroit to Counter the National Economic (Corporate CEO)
Summit taking place at the Ren Center in Detroit

Dear Autoworker Caravan and Autoworker Supporters,

On behalf of the Autoworker Caravan I attended an organizing meeting April 12 for a "People's Summit" scheduled for mid-June in Detroit to coincide with a major corporate confab taking place at the Ren Center, site of GM world headquarters.

The next meeting is this Friday, May 22 at 6 p.m. - Michigan Center for High Technology (aka MCHT) near Masonic Temple, 2727 Second Ave. (on TEMPLE between 2nd and 3rd) Detroit , MI (Wheelchair entrance is on Second south of Temple. Call 961-3390 from the ramp just south of stairs. For people who can negotiate stairs, enter through the door off the parking lot on the SE corner of Temple and 3rd. - one block west of Masonic Temple.)

The corporate event describes itself as a gathering to "define America's future in a global economy." The likes of John Engler, head of the National Association of Manufacturers, American Axle's CEO Dick Dauch, Nardelli and Mulally of Chrysler and Ford, etc. will pontificate about the future that the global capitalists have in store for us. If you are able and willing to pay the registration fee of $1,495 you too can have a voice. The International Union UAW is one of the "Change Agent" sponsors, although no union representatives appear on the speakers' list. More information can be found here:
www.nationalsummit.org/

The coalition for a "People's Summit" is organizing a counter event to give organized expression for the people who have been at the receiving end and left out of the corporate vision of America's future - the thousands of neighbors who've lost their homes through
foreclosures, workers who have lost their jobs, families which have no access to adequate health care, families and communities which stand to lose everything in the face of bankruptcies of corporations which apparently are not too big to fail, the victims of deportations and wanton police brutality, the young people who face prison-like conditions in the schools, the people who are tired of war after war,
etc., etc..

The focus of this organizing effort will be a tent city erected for the occasion at Grand Circus Park in downtown Detroit. Many activities and events are planned to enable the people to articulate a different future and to have their voices heard. More can be found here: peoplessummit.org">peoplessummit.org/

The organizers are seeking to expand the coalition, broaden the agenda, bring in new activists, and add to their organizational co-sponsors. The Autoworker Caravan should participate on all fronts.

One idea that we may want to consider is to organize a tour of all the shuttered workplaces dotting our metro region to bring to light the waste laid to our communities by the profiteers gathering at the Ren Center.

Feedback is welcomed, and participation invited. The next planning meeting is Friday, May 22 from 6-8 p.m. at the Michigan Center for High Technology, 2727 Second Avenue, Detroit.

In solidarity,

Frank Hammer

www.autoworkercaravan.org

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