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Committee Against Utility Shutoffs

About the Committee

In early May, workers and young people voted to establish the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs (CAUS) to take forward the work initiated by the Citizens Inquiry into the Dexter Avenue Fire: Utility Shutoffs and the Social Crisis in Detroit. The Citizens Inquiry was launched by the Socialist Equality Party after a series of deadly house fires in Detroit that were the result of the shutoff of gas and electrical service by the local utility monopoly, DTE Energy.

Nearly a dozen people have been killed in utility-related fires since the beginning of the year, including two disabled brothers and their friend in a January 5 fire on Dexter Avenue, and three children, ages 3-5, in a March 2 fire on Bangor Street.

On April 13, the commissioners of the inquiry issued their findings, indicting the energy giant and the government for these and other fatal house fires. They insisted that the company’s top executives and government regulators be held accountable.

CAUS, which meets every two weeks in Detroit, is planning an aggressive campaign to reach the working class in the coming weeks and months. Sylvia Young, the 32-year-old single mother who lost three children in the Bangor Street fire, urged workers and youth to join the committee and take up this fight.

Join the Committee

The Committee Against Utility Shutoffs has been formed on the basis of the findings and recommendations of the Citizens Inquiry into the Dexter Avenue Fire. To join, please fill out the form below.

  • The AP spying scandal and the crisis of American democracy

    From World Socialist Web Site - May 17

    The Obama administration’s secret seizure of the phone records of Associated Press reporters is the latest attack on core democratic rights in the United States.

    Last week, the Justice Department acknowledged that it had obtained a subpoena in February of this year to require telecommunications companies to turn over two months of phone records on some 20 lines used by the AP. The subpoena was part of an investigation into an alleged leak of classified information that had occurred the year before.

    It is likely that many more media outlets have been similarly targeted, and the administration has refused to respond to requests that it reveal what other records were seized. Anyone who speaks to the media about any matter has to assume that their phone numbers and contact information have been or could be made available to the government by secret court order.

    There could hardly be a clearer violation of the First Amendment guarantee of the freedom of the press.

  • Benghazi and the deepening crisis of the Obama administration

    From World Socialist Web Site - May 16

    The controversy over last year’s Al Qaeda assault on US diplomatic and CIA facilities in Benghazi, Libya has been revived amid a deepening political crisis of the Obama administration.

    Even as the debate between the Obama White House and its Republican opponents becomes more heated, however, the real issues underlying the September 11, 2012 attack, which claimed the lives of the US ambassador, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans, remain hidden.

    Some Republicans have gone so far as to suggest that administration’s handling of the Benghazi affair could become grounds for impeachment of the Democratic president. There is a sense that Obama, also embroiled in controversies over state spying on the media and IRS harassment of groups politically opposed to the administration, is in serious trouble as a result of anti-democratic and militarist policies pursued behind the backs of the American people.

    As always, the presentation of these developments by the American media is dishonest and deliberately misleading.

  • Detroit’s emergency manager throws down the gauntlet

    From World Socialist Web Site - May 15

    With the release of his Financial and Operating Plan on Monday, Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, has thrown down the gauntlet to the working class. Employing the threat of bankruptcy as leverage, Orr is calling for a savage attack on a population already plagued by unemployment, declining wages and poverty.

    Detroit is on the front lines of a national and international strategy of the corporate and financial elite, in which increasingly dictatorial methods are being employed to force through deeply unpopular measures.

    Behind the anodyne phrases about “streamlining the city’s operations” and “restructuring the city’s long-term liabilities” lies a slash and burn policy. Health insurance for 28,500 active and retired city workers will be cut or eliminated outright. Further cuts in wages will be unilaterally imposed. Any profitable city assets or services are to be sold off.

  • The criminalization of political dissent in America

    From World Socialist Web Site - May 14

    In a series of prosecutions, precedents are being established for the criminalization of political dissent in America.

    Last week, Massachusetts high school student Cameron D’Ambrosio was arrested and charged under “terrorism” laws merely for posting lyrics on Facebook that make reference to the Boston Marathon bombings. He faces 20 years in prison. A string of similar “terror” prosecutions around the country take aim at the First Amendment protection of free speech and political expression.

    The authorities have already branded select participants in Occupy Wall Street and anti-NATO protests as “terrorists.” Last year, heavily-armed “domestic terrorism” commandos raided Occupy Wall Street protesters’ homes in Washington and Oregon, using battering rams and stun grenades. The commandos were authorized to seize all “anti-government or anarchist literature or material.”

  • Capitalism and the crisis facing young people

    From World Socialist Web Site - May 13

    Perhaps more than any other section of society, young people around the world have been made to bear the brunt of the capitalist crisis. In the five years since the 2008 crash, youth unemployment has reached Depression-era levels, young workers’ wages have plummeted, and education opportunities have collapsed.

    As with the attack on the working class as a whole, youth all over the world have been hit, including in the advanced capitalist countries.

    Throughout Europe, youth unemployment is at epidemic levels. Last Thursday, Greece’s statistics service said that the unemployment rate in February for people aged between 15 and 24 reached a staggering 64.2 percent—affecting nearly two thirds of the entire population of youth and young workers. This is up from 54.1 percent in March 2012.

    The cause is not hard to discover: the brutal austerity measures and economic collapse imposed on the country by the European banks, in alliance with the Greek ruling class. Other countries that have received “bailouts” face a similar situation. In March of this year, youth unemployment hit 55.9 percent in Spain and 38.4 percent in Italy.

  • The political fraud of the Pakistani elections

    From World Socialist Web Site - May 11

    Celebrations of today’s Pakistani elections to the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies are a political fraud, intended to lend a veneer of “democracy” to a neocolonial regime that is presiding over a society in a state of economic and political collapse.

    The elections take place as Pakistan sinks deeper into financial crisis and civil war, driven by the government’s support for the Obama administration’s escalation of the Afghan war into Pakistan. Since the beginning of April, over 100 people have been killed, including several election candidates, by forces allied with the Afghan Taliban who are resisting the US-led occupation of Afghanistan.

    The election will be overseen by hundreds of thousands of security personnel, including tens of thousands of army troops. In Punjab province alone, 300,000 security personnel, including 30,000 army troops, have been deployed.

  • Detroit’s emergency manager prepares anti-working class financial plan

    From World Socialist Web Site - May 10

    Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr will submit his report on the city’s finances Monday, laying the groundwork for an escalated assault on the working class. Orr said on Thursday that the city’s financial situation is worse than expected in an effort to prepare the population for even greater cuts.

    According to a report on CBS local affiliate WWJ, Orr’s report will “paint a bleak picture of the city’s finances, including over $15 billion in long-term debt and an accumulated operating deficit of $325 million.”

    Orr declared the city will need to borrow approximately $157 million in short-term debt this year and record it as revenue in order to stay afloat.

    Orr also again threatened to drive the city into bankruptcy. He told WWJ, “If I can accomplish what I need to accomplish without bankruptcy, I’d be elated. I can’t guarantee that in the least.” He then went on to state that, “to a large degree that's going to be dependent on the position of a lot of other stakeholders that they have in this. Some of them might prefer a court order to make them do the things they need to do.”

  • The 15,000 Dow

    From World Socialist Web Site - May 9

    On Tuesday, Wall Street celebrated a new milestone. The Dow Jones Industrial Average crashed through the 15,000 plateau, setting yet another record in a dizzying climb that has seen the benchmark index rise by almost 15 percent since the beginning of the year.

    It took just two months after recovering all of its losses from the financial crash of September 2008 for the Dow to breach the 15,000 barrier. It rose 1,000 points from the 14,000 level in just 66 days.

    The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index also hit a new record Tuesday, having gained 199 points since January. The Nasdaq Composite index closed at its highest point since November of 2000. The manic rise in US stocks is part of a global phenomenon. The FTSE All-World equity index on Tuesday rose to its highest level since June 2008.

  • Global corporations and the Bangladesh building collapse

    From World Socialist Web Site - May 8

    Two weeks after the Rana Plaza building collapse, global retail giants that source their garments in Bangladesh such as Walmart, Primark, Benetton and others are engaged in a cynical public relations exercise to distance themselves from the tragedy and preserve their image and their profits.

    As of yesterday, the official death toll had reached 705, with hundreds more injured, making the collapse the worst industrial disaster in country’s history and one of the worst ever in the world. Rana Plaza is typical of the thousands of shoddily built, unsafe sweatshops in Bangladesh employing workers at $38 a month to churn out orders for some of the world’s largest corporations.

  • Seniors face eviction in Detroit gentrification plan

    From World Socialist Web Site - May 8

    Retired workers living in a rent-subsidized senior housing building are facing eviction in downtown Detroit. New owners who recently took over their apartment building have given the elderly residents on fixed income a year to clear out so they can raise rents to “market rates.”

    The evictions at the 127-unit, 12-story residential building on Griswold—which follows a similar action against more than 300 residents at the Henry Street apartments in nearby Cass Corridor—is part of the plans by real estate developers and the city’s emergency manager to gentrify the downtown and Midtown areas.

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Fires burn throughout Detroit

From sep - September 8

Dozens of houses burned down in Detroit Tuesday as fires blazed through all parts of the city, overwhelming the local fire department.

Firefighters were brought in from the surrounding cities of Harper Woods, Warren, Dearborn, Grosse Pointe and Highland Park, the first time the city called in outside firefighters since the 1967 riots.

Residents and firemen said that the majority of the fires were caused by downed electrical wiring. According to residents, DTE, the city’s main electrical company, failed to respond in a timely manner to complaints about the failure of the electrical infrastructure.

A total of 85 structures caught fire after heavy winds downed over 700 power lines, according to statements by Detroit Fire Commissioner James Mack and DTE officials.

The largest fire, which destroyed at least a dozen houses, took place on Robinwood Street on the city’s East Side. The blaze was apparently set off when a power line or transformer, which had been shooting sparks for days, ignited and set fire to a garage.

Michigan governor signs law witch-hunting workers for “energy theft”

From sep - July 22

The Committee Against Utility Shutoffs (CAUS) condemns legislation signed into law by Michigan’s Democratic governor, Jennifer Granholm, Tuesday, sanctioning a crackdown on poor residents in Detroit and other cities for alleged “energy theft.”

The five-bill law is chiefly sponsored by Democratic state senators in Detroit, but it is overwhelmingly supported by both parties in the state legislature. The legislation is designed to cover up the responsibility of the real criminals—utility giants DTE Energy and Consumers Energy—for the deadly house fires and other tragedies that result each year from the termination of gas and electrical service to hundreds of thousands of working class families in Michigan.

It is designed to sanction the actions of DTE that led to the deaths of two wheelchair-bound brothers (Marvin and Tyrone Allen) and their housemate in a January 5 fire on Dexter Avenue and another deadly fire March 2 on Bangor Street. In both cases, the company cancelled service to the homes, allegedly because they had illegal connections.

The Committee to Oppose Utility Shutoffs has been formed on the basis of the findings and recommendations of the Citizens Inquiry into the Dexter Avenue Fire. To join the committee, click here.

Citizens Inquiry into the Dexter Avenue Fire holds first hearing

From sep - March 21

At the initial public hearing of the Citizens Inquiry into the Dexter Avenue Fire, held Saturday at Wayne State University in Detroit, Inquiry commissioners heard testimony from residents, experts, and researchers about utility shutoffs and house fires in Detroit, the practices and political influence of energy giant DTE, and the broader social crisis in the city.

The testimony revealed nightmarish conditions in Detroit overseen by a political establishment dominated by corporate interests. A number of residents spoke of the abusive and arbitrary character of DTE’s policies, and several spoke of relatives injured or killed as a result of utility shutoffs. Experts and investigators detailed the lack of assistance to those in need of help, the influence wielded by DTE over politics in Michigan, the profits of DTE and its investors, and the origins of the social crisis in the city.

Citizens Inquiry into the Dexter Avenue Fire: Utility Shutoffs and the Social Crisis in Detroit

The Socialist Equality Party is calling on workers, young people and all those concerned about the worsening social conditions in Detroit to participate in a fact-finding inquiry into the January 5 house fire on Dexter Avenue that killed two disabled men and another Detroit resident. The inquiry will be held on March 20, from 1-5 pm, at Wayne State University in Detroit (see below for full details). Contact us today to become involved!

The Dexter Avenue Fire Inquiry - Post-hearing Interviews