Women hit utility shutoffs, foreclosures
By
Phebe Eckfeldt
Boston
Published Jul 10, 2008 9:33 PM
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.”
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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