Thousands in Detroit protest GE

Youth chant, ‘We are the 99%!’ WW photo: Abayomi Azikiwe

The 99% Spring, one of many offshoots of the Occupy Wall Street movement, issued a call in February for thousands of activists to come to Detroit for April 25. The target was General Electric, whose annual shareholders meeting was scheduled to open that day at the Renaissance Center, General Motors’ world headquarters.

Thousands came to the protest from the Detroit area and from across the Midwest, with a few traveling from Boston and other faraway cities. The largest number of protesters was brought in by the Service Employees International Union and the SEIU-affiliated Good Jobs Now coalition. A few dozen were able to enter the meeting, using shareholder proxies provided by the union, and succeeded in disrupting the speech of GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt before being escorted outside.

Organizers labeled GE “the poster child for corporate tax dodging,” charging that “not only did GE pay nothing in taxes, they received a tax refund totaling $4.7 billion over three years.” Moreover, GE has cut tens of thousands of jobs in the same three-year period. The company’s financial arm, GE Money Bank, is even being investigated by the FBI and the Department of Justice for fraudulent practices involving subprime mortgages.

CEO Immelt, a Republican, is, nevertheless, a chief economic advisor to President Barack Obama. This may be why some unions sent only token delegations to the protest or maintained a low profile.

The multinational group outside the Renaissance Center maintained a noisy presence for hours. Large delegations of African-American youth from Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania led the crowd in chanting the popular “We are the 99%!” and “This is what democracy looks like!” Before dispersing, the crowd took to the streets, occupying all six lanes of Jefferson Avenue — a major thoroughfare in downtown Detroit — and was able to march several blocks.