Women hit utility shutoffs, foreclosures

The NSTAR Electric Co. was the focus of an angry picket line July 3 initiated by the Women’s Fightback Network and the youth group Fight Imperialism, Stand Together.

Passing cars honked their approval of protest message. WW photo: Liz Green

This greedy corporation, with assets of $7.8 billion, sent 100,000 Massachusetts residents electric and gas utility shutoff notices at the beginning of May. NSTAR earned $59.2 million in the first quarter of 2008 but was shutting off people owing as little as $100.

Women from WFN and FIST and their supporters from the International Action Center demonstrated outside the gates of the NSTAR plant. It’s on a busy thoroughfare across from a big shopping mall frequented by workers and low-income people from the mainly Black and Latin@ community of Dorchester.

Hearing chants of “Shut off the war, not our lights; affordable food, fuel, housing is a right,” people leaned out of their cars and buses to read the banner and placards. One placard read, “Honk to stop utility shutoffs” and another, “Foreclose the war, not our homes.” There was an almost continuous response of blaring horns, waves and thumbs-up in this heavily foreclosed neighborhood. People took flyers through car windows and one bus driver grabbed a bunch and handed them out to the passengers.

It’s no wonder the response was so strong. Shutoffs are predicted to increase by at least 20 percent this summer, leaving thousands without lights, refrigeration, fans or air conditioning. (Boston Herald, June 29)

Action for Boston Community Development spokesperson Susan Kooperstein said, “The numbers are pretty staggering. We’re talking about thousands of households that are facing shutoffs. When you combine that with the increase of food costs, health care and all the other basic necessities, it’s a downward spiral.”

WFN made clear its solidarity with NSTAR workers and their struggle for good working conditions and a decent contract next year. The group also targeted Big Oil and the Pentagon in a flyer handed out to the community: “Why should the utility and oil companies make huge profits while workers struggle to get work, keep a roof over their heads, feed their families and keep the lights on at home? ... Last week, Congress gave the Pentagon $162 billion more for the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The current cost of the war is now over $650 billion. ... It is time for us to come together to demand money for food, fuel and community needs, not for a war which profits greedy corporations, politicians, military contractors and Big Oil.”

In a press release, WFN charged, “We do not have to stand by while the oil companies drive up rates by deliberately withholding oil production and closing refineries. They get billions in windfall profits. We get price hikes that are especially hard for women and communities of color.” The group demanded the governor “declare a state of emergency and implement a moratorium on shutoffs immediately” and that utility prices be rolled back substantially.

After picketing for an hour and a half, the demonstrators marched across the street to the Stop and Shop where WFN kicked off a petition campaign to the governor, collecting signatures from many shoppers who were eager to sign and to talk.

The petition reads: “In light of over 100,000 utility shutoff notices in Massachusetts in May, skyrocketing food and fuel prices, record foreclosures and layoffs, we the undersigned demand that Gov. Deval Patrick use his executive powers under the Massachusetts Constitution to declare an economic state of emergency in Massachusetts and that he implement an emergency executive order to stop utility shutoffs, roll back food and fuel prices by 50 percent and freeze them, and stop foreclosures.”