'Detroit becomes largest US city to file for bankruptcy in historic 'low point'

[Popular Front of Judea]

This may not come as a shock but is still notable. I predict the Detroit bankruptcy to be the template for future municipal bankruptcies. What the Chapter 11 bankruptcy has been to American business, Chapter 9 is going to be to municipal government. Goodbye to those hard earned pension plans and collective bargaining agreements.

Neoliberalism marches on.

Detroit becomes largest US city to file for bankruptcy in historic 'low point' | The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/18/detroit-formally-files-bankruptcy/print)

[RadioRaheem84]

What would be the leftist solution here? Honestly, the city is broke so you couldn't buy the factories from the top brass, do you expropriate? What could workers do with total collective power?

[Popular Front of Judea]

Chrysler's North Jefferson plant is the last one open in Detroit proper. GM has one that straddles Detroit and Hamtramck.

What does it mean to be working class when there is no work? The only power that the ex-workers of Detroit have is over the assets that are essential to the region outside of Detroit such as its water department and the bridge to Canada.


What would be the leftist solution here? Honestly, the city is broke so you couldn't buy the factories from the top brass, do you expropriate? What could workers do with total collective power?

[RadioRaheem84]

You mean in operation now? What about the ones closed down from the past?

I am thinking of a situation similar to the recovered factories movement in Argentina.

What could workers do with total power to revive Detroit?

[Popular Front of Judea]

Nothing that occurred in Argentina is applicable here. You do realize that there is an industry that is dedicated just to the gutting of factories now?

The book being discussed here is a good read:

“Punching Out”: The last days of a Detroit auto plant (http://www.salon.com/2011/02/01/punching_out_paul_clemens/)


You mean in operation now? What about the ones closed down from the past?

I am thinking of a situation similar to the recovered factories movement in Argentina.

What could workers do with total power to revive Detroit?

[RadioRaheem84]

No I didn't know that. I've heard of the leverage buyout industry that sliced factories up during the 80s but that's it. I figured that what happened in Argentina was still applicable because does it matter who owns them.

Regardless I'm asking what can workers do if they had the power? What's the leftist solution to a situation like this?

[cyu]

What does it mean to be working class when there is no work?

"Work" isn't something that is handed down from politicians or capitalists. "Jobs" are not something you beg for on your hands and knees like a slave.

Work only exists because there are things that still need to be done in order to keep everyone alive. If nothing more needed to be done, then there would be no more need for work.

The only reason pro-capitalists go on and on about "creating jobs" and "bringing jobs to a region" is that their rhetoric rests on one assumption: that the ruling class has the right to decide what happens to the means of production.

If you need food, take land and grow it. If you need cars, take mines and factories, and produce them. "Work" and "jobs" are only abstract things when you let pro-capitalists pretend to be your saviors. Real work exists when you are doing stuff to ensure the well-being of the working class - if you need to take over whatever raw materials and equipment to accomplish producing goods for the people on the street, so be it.

[RebelDog]

If the municipal HQ was on Wall Street this wouldn't be a problem.

[RadioRaheem84]

"Work" isn't something that is handed down from politicians or capitalists. "Jobs" are not something you beg for on your hands and knees like a slave.

Work only exists because there are things that still need to be done in order to keep everyone alive. If nothing more needed to be done, then there would be no more need for work.

The only reason pro-capitalists go on and on about "creating jobs" and "bringing jobs to a region" is that their rhetoric rests on one assumption: that the ruling class has the right to decide what happens to the means of production.

If you need food, take land and grow it. If you need cars, take mines and factories, and produce them. "Work" and "jobs" are only abstract things when you let pro-capitalists pretend to be your saviors. Real work exists when you are doing stuff to ensure the well-being of the working class - if you need to take over whatever raw materials and equipment to accomplish producing goods for the people on the street, so be it.

This makes sense and I wonder what the OP meant by insisting that there are leverage buyout Wall St. firms that chop them up and own them. I mean what does that have to do with workers expropriating them? Does it matter who owns them?

So in the case of Argentina the factories were still owned by the owners, but in this case they're owned by wall st? So is there a difference?

[Ele'ill]

slightly off topic and a bit outdated but still relevant http://www.businessinsider.com/abandoned-houses-detroit-2011-2#-1

http://www.businessinsider.com/cheap-detroit-homes-2011-6?op=1

[Popular Front of Judea]

If you re-read my post you will see that I said that the factories are literally gutted. If you read the book I cited you will see that once a factory shuts down it is stripped quickly. Once machine tools such as presses leave -- for Brazil, China etc. -- all is left is essentially a shed.

The larger question is why do you want to reopen the auto plants? Do we really want to continue to build private automobiles cars in an already glutted market? Is this the best use of our resources? Do we want to continue to build them despite their impact on the environment?


This makes sense and I wonder what the OP meant by insisting that there are leverage buyout Wall St. firms that chop them up and own them. I mean what does that have to do with workers expropriating them? Does it matter who owns them?

So in the case of Argentina the factories were still owned by the owners, but in this case they're owned by wall st? So is there a difference?

[Popular Front of Judea]

Yeah that was 2011. Needless to say there is no budget for that project now -- if it actually made sense, which I seriously doubt. If anything there needs to be a -- federal? -- public works program to accelerate the demolition of abandoned houses in Detroit. Detroit is far too spread out to efficiently serve its present population.


slightly off topic and a bit outdated but still relevant http://www.businessinsider.com/abandoned-houses-detroit-2011-2#-1

http://www.businessinsider.com/cheap-detroit-homes-2011-6?op=1

[Martin Blank]

Here's the update: An Ingham County judge has blocked the filing of bankruptcy for Detroit. The state's Attorney General responded by stating his intention to take his appeal to the state Supreme Court. (Michigan's capital, Lansing, is in Ingham County, which is why it has jurisdiction.)

The Judge's Ruling: http://www.freep.com/article/20130719/NEWS06/307190075/detroit-bankruptcy-ingham-county-rosemarie-aquilina-pension

The AG's Declaration: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/07/19/203696417/michigan-ag-appeals-court-order-blocking-detroit-bankruptcy

P.S.: Technically, Jefferson North is not the only auto plant left in Detroit. Chrysler also has the Mack Avenue engine plant, which is across the street from Jeff North.

[Popular Front of Judea]

So can I assume that for you the phrase "working class'' embraces more than the historic industrial working class? Where does automation enter in your vision? How about a right to food, shelter, medical care irregardless of employment?


"Work" isn't something that is handed down from politicians or capitalists. "Jobs" are not something you beg for on your hands and knees like a slave.

Work only exists because there are things that still need to be done in order to keep everyone alive. If nothing more needed to be done, then there would be no more need for work.

The only reason pro-capitalists go on and on about "creating jobs" and "bringing jobs to a region" is that their rhetoric rests on one assumption: that the ruling class has the right to decide what happens to the means of production.

If you need food, take land and grow it. If you need cars, take mines and factories, and produce them. "Work" and "jobs" are only abstract things when you let pro-capitalists pretend to be your saviors. Real work exists when you are doing stuff to ensure the well-being of the working class - if you need to take over whatever raw materials and equipment to accomplish producing goods for the people on the street, so be it.

[RadioRaheem84]

So can I assume that for you the phrase "working class'' embraces more than the historic industrial working class? Where does automation enter in your vision? How about a right to food, shelter, medical care irregardless of employment?

What does automaton have to do with his point?

[RadioRaheem84]

If you re-read my post you will see that I said that the factories are literally gutted. If you read the book I cited you will see that once a factory shuts down it is stripped quickly. Once machine tools such as presses leave -- for Brazil, China etc. -- all is left is essentially a shed.

The larger question is why do you want to reopen the auto plants? Do we really want to continue to build private automobiles cars in an already glutted market? Is this the best use of our resources? Do we want to continue to build them despite their impact on the environment?

Yes I see that's a problem. The Argentine situation wouldn't work. The closest thing I can see to a solution would be to demand/occupy the empty factories and demand the government to purchase the lots and equipment to get a factory started in order to build something else?

Really at this point in wondering what could save Detroit?

[Red Commissar]

I can't really see a radical solution working on Detroit, at least in a sense that would focus on it and it alone. There would have to be a rethinking of what constitutes a city, as opposed to Detroit having grown up around an industry which has since significantly changed. Detroit still runs itself as a city of a million plus people when its population has largely shrunken since the factories began closing up. I've seen some attempts to experiment in urban agriculture by citizens (even prompting some attempts to learn from the Cuban experience), moves to claim back foreclosed homes and abandoned property to help the homeless, and numerous attempts to create something that serves the local economy. The problem is in all these attempts it's very hard, as we can expect, to make an island in a sea of a capitalism. Most people are trying to fix this in the ways they know, and are for obvious reasons not willing to try untested methods that are unfamiliar or risky to them.

Even if one is dabbling in reformism is that the city's finances were taken over by the state government through an Emergency Financial Manager who is appointed by and answers to the Governor. This would mean any "legal" actions by a local government would be overruled by Michigan's government anyways.

It should be stressed that Republicans control the state government and there's been a major reaction from the more affluent, white residents against Detroit, which is largely poor and black. In a sense they see this as revenge for when Detroit elected its first black mayor, Coleman Young, who conservatives seem to blame frequently for Detroit's woes and point out his alleged (and especially Kwame Kilpatrick's) corruption and machine politics, or even "race war" for the demographic shift.

Of course what afflicted Detroit was more than just taxes or services (which I would argue also was hurt by essentially an economic siege by opponents of the city government), but its place in the international economy. There's really not much one can do in this instance if their major industry was taken away, and you have an accelerator effect in reverse as many other, sometimes seemingly unrelated industries, also choose to leave. Still, under the current local government they were already doing much of the same things the EFM forced on them later, albeit on a less "severe" scale.

I really can't think of anything people of Detroit could do without causing a fierce response from the pricks in Lansing. It would have to be a solution that involves all the cities, not just Detroit alone.

I think this is a sad instance- in the previous periods of activism, there was a big push from marginalized sectors of society to launch movements to get mayors or councilmen and women elected from their communities, and when they finally managed to achieve this feat, it coincided with a decline in power for city governments as state governments began to become more assertive.

[cyu]

http://web.archive.org/web/20010417014827/http://infoshop.org/rants/yu1.html

You have just overthrown the government, your far left party has just won a landslide election, or your vast coalition of civic, labor, and religious institutions have simply decided to come together and ignore the existing government. Capitalists are fleeing your country in their private jets. Investors have pulled out all their money. Foreign banks run by capitalists suddenly decide they are no longer willing to make any loans to your "rogue" nation. The former dictator has packed up all his suitcases full of gold, jewels, and cash from your national treasury, and is now nowhere to be found.

Now what?

Economic collapse? Mass unemployment? Depression and starvation? No, of course not.

Wealth is not to be found in currency, in the so-called "precious" metals, in paintings by long-dead painters. None of those are needed to survive. Wealth is found in food, in warmth, in health care, and in the things necessary to produce them. All the land is still yours. All the labor is still yours. Even factory equipment remains, despite the flight of "capital" - that is, the loss of things that represent wealth, but are not wealth themselves. In fact, very little has been lost and virtually all of the productive capacity of your nation remains. All that has changed is the accounting.

Your nation may still have in its treasury the remnants of the capitalist financial structure - gold, other precious metals, paper money from nations around the world. Spend it - as soon as possible. Buy commodities - those things you need to survive and buy any equipment you need to produce the goods you need. That is the real wealth to people who actually have to do the work.

What happens in the rest of the world as the people of your nation are suddenly flooding it with various currencies and "precious" metals, while snapping up real goods? The supply of those currencies and "precious" metals go up, while the supply of real goods go down. These goods become more and more expensive, while "money" becomes more and more worthless. Thus, there is all the more reason to exchange your money as soon as possible for real goods you will need.

When all the old money has been spent, you are free to live, work, and produce the things you need. Self-reliance is the only secure form of wealth. Trade with other nations can still be conducted, but do not hold on to their money - money is mere promise of future wealth, promises that can be broken whether from malice or from inability to fulfill them. Exchange any money for real wealth as soon as you can.

People can probably be trusted when times are easy and when prosperity reigns, but when times are tough, promises are much easier to break than the laws of survival. This is what makes self-reliance of an economy important. This is why local industry and agriculture should be protected. Productively ability is the real source of wealth of the nation.

However, natural disasters also occur. While the world as a whole may be fairly stable, the area around you is much more prone to random fluctuations of climate and geology. Thus self-reliance is not the entirety of a secure economy, but merely the supporting structure. The secondary source of security is prosperity in other geographical locations. The more prosperous others are, the more likely they will come to your aid in times of trouble. The more they have to thank you for their prosperity, the more likely they will come to your aid. Again, merely being creditors to their debt is not enough. Nations are sovereign, whether anarchist or authoritarian. They can break their promises - they can ignore any legalistic claims to debt. It is the general goodwill that can be fostered between two nations or people that will be your salvation in case your own self-reliance fails.

In the end, captial flight isn't really capital flight. Real capital - the people, natural resources, and equipment needed to produce real goods - cannot be packed up in a bag when the capitalist skips town. They will require a lot of labor if they truly want to escape with real capital. What remains when the capitalists are gone are merely the people who are doing the work, and the means to do it.

[Popular Front of Judea]

Stirring copypasta rant there. So what does this have to do with an industrial town that has experienced steady disinvestment and population loss over a 50 year period?


http://web.archive.org/web/20010417014827/http://infoshop.org/rants/yu1.html

You have just overthrown the government, your far left party has just won a landslide election, or your vast coalition of civic, labor, and religious institutions have simply decided to come together and ignore the existing government. Capitalists are fleeing your country in their private jets. Investors have pulled out all their money. Foreign banks run by capitalists suddenly decide they are no longer willing to make any loans to your "rogue" nation. The former dictator has packed up all his suitcases full of gold, jewels, and cash from your national treasury, and is now nowhere to be found.

...

In the end, captial flight isn't really capital flight. Real capital - the people, natural resources, and equipment needed to produce real goods - cannot be packed up in a bag when the capitalist skips town. They will require a lot of labor if they truly want to escape with real capital. What remains when the capitalists are gone are merely the people who are doing the work, and the means to do it.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I can't really see a radical solution working on Detroit, at least in a sense that would focus on it and it alone. There would have to be a rethinking of what constitutes a city, as opposed to Detroit having grown up around an industry which has since significantly changed. Detroit still runs itself as a city of a million plus people when its population has largely shrunken since the factories began closing up. I've seen some attempts to experiment in urban agriculture by citizens (even prompting some attempts to learn from the Cuban experience), moves to claim back foreclosed homes and abandoned property to help the homeless, and numerous attempts to create something that serves the local economy. The problem is in all these attempts it's very hard, as we can expect, to make an island in a sea of a capitalism. Most people are trying to fix this in the ways they know, and are for obvious reasons not willing to try untested methods that are unfamiliar or risky to them.

Even if one is dabbling in reformism is that the city's finances were taken over by the state government through an Emergency Financial Manager who is appointed by and answers to the Governor. This would mean any "legal" actions by a local government would be overruled by Michigan's government anyways.

It should be stressed that Republicans control the state government and there's been a major reaction from the more affluent, white residents against Detroit, which is largely poor and black. In a sense they see this as revenge for when Detroit elected its first black mayor, Coleman Young, who conservatives seem to blame frequently for Detroit's woes and point out his alleged (and especially Kwame Kilpatrick's) corruption and machine politics, or even "race war" for the demographic shift.

Of course what afflicted Detroit was more than just taxes or services (which I would argue also was hurt by essentially an economic siege by opponents of the city government), but its place in the international economy. There's really not much one can do in this instance if their major industry was taken away, and you have an accelerator effect in reverse as many other, sometimes seemingly unrelated industries, also choose to leave. Still, under the current local government they were already doing much of the same things the EFM forced on them later, albeit on a less "severe" scale.

I really can't think of anything people of Detroit could do without causing a fierce response from the pricks in Lansing. It would have to be a solution that involves all the cities, not just Detroit alone.

I think this is a sad instance- in the previous periods of activism, there was a big push from marginalized sectors of society to launch movements to get mayors or councilmen and women elected from their communities, and when they finally managed to achieve this feat, it coincided with a decline in power for city governments as state governments began to become more assertive.

This is a very interesting post and I think I pretty much agree with what you are saying here. I don't know enough about Detroit to say what I would want to see happen there - or even what I think might be possible in the short or medium term as far as class struggle.

But this sort of political situation was faced before in so-called "chocolate" industrial cities towards the end of the Keynsian era. The black populations that had migrated to those cities for jobs, soon found a post-war situation where industry began leaving the urban centers and re-locating the the suburbs (it seems like the auto-industry did exactly that) while there was a counter-vailing force of black organization in cities (with some left-labor and white leftist forces) that had begun to gain both mainstream political leverage as well as grassroots popular organizing that could range from liberal to radical. The mainstream leaders were able to breakthrough and found themselves in the same situation their white predecessors had been in with no new industry revenue to fuel the city.

So in this context, even reformists who got a popular hearing and gained some mainstream leverage would be foreced into this bankrupsy-austerity position. For regular workers, the uncertaintly and vunerability of such poverty also means that even if they have a job, it would be hard to convince people (in the current class climate) to go out on a limb and flex some point of production musscle for even modest aims let alone something bigger - though it's always possible.

So I think - at least in the short-term - a popular anti-austerity resistance within the city-area that embeded in working class aspirations might be possible. With a crisis like this, probably housing, public transportation, city services, which will be (and probably already have been cut to the bone) under attack and have a big impact on employed and unemployed workers. It could be partially defensive (don't cut this further, this is your crisis, get the money from the companies that still do finance and whatnot out of Detroit) but could also incorporate forclosure battles, rent absolution battles, etc.

Government bankrupsy is like the Trokia in Europe - it's an austerity attack made to seem like some kind of objective situation which politicians are helpless against - but really there are always priorities of who and what gets cut and in that space people can organize and make it costly in other ways for the city to keep pushing. I think you're right that the answer for Detroit exists outside the city limits because of the way the economy has developed. But a rent-fight in Detroit, a push back against municiple cuts which taps into a sort of working-class/populist anger, could also gain support from regional forces and if it develops enough could begin to also help encourage resistance in the places where industry has gone.

Reclaiming abandoned buildings, machine-shops, or even just abandoned land, are definately on the table. There are some issues with urban farming IMO. While community-based grassroots efforts could help create an organizing focal point, could gain support in a BPP "survival program" sort of way, there are also pro-market organizations (I think funded by Gates actually) who are trying to promote large urban farming in Detroit (but as a way to basically create a huge preservation park to preserve land-prices). But any reform-effort always has the possibility of loosing any militant edge or being taken over by consious reformists. My main sort of knee-jerk disfavor of these efforts is basically just that I think if people have the options of scraping by and doing their own farming, or relocating to Atlanta or other places in the South/Southwest where industry has relocated, they will probably just migrate, so I think we have to build resistance that can offer more than crafty-subsistance (which many people do as a default in neoliberalism anyway).

But at any rate, struggle in situations like this might not be able to see worker's power really flexed because workers have been scattered and jobs have disappeared, but it can still aid the overall class struggle by putting working class issues on the table and fighting for them out of necissity. In the US Depression, these were the initial types of struggles: the hoovervilles, poor people marches, the bonus army, anti-eviction actions, etc. It wasn't until years later that struggle moved into the workplaces in a major way, but I doubt that would have happened as it did if the earlier struggles had not happened.

[cyu]

At some point even mainstream organizations like NPR are going to recognize that with the two-faced rhetoric coming out of the current regime regarding things like pervasive corruption in the defense department, even the establishment can't rely on the establishment any more...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/07/26/205164682/citing-dignity-greek-workers-take-over-factory