Protesters to General Electric: Pay Your Fair Share!

An estimated crowd of 2,000 protesters march against General Electric in Detroit.

Groups from Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Toledo and Michigan showed up in force to protest General Electric at their annual shareholder meeting Wednesday April 25th, 2012. Protesters are angry that the nation’s largest conglomerate pays no tax and in fact received tax credits last year. Activists assembled in Hart Plaza and marched to the Winter Garden entrance of the Renaissance Center along the Detroit River, where a line of officers on foot and horses forced them away and onto the sidewalk across the street. The march continued to the front Jefferson entrance where they rallied and later, as the group made its way back to Hart Plaza, spilled out onto the westbound lane of Jefferson Avenue. Back at Hart Plaza protesters rallied and later, some boarded buses to return to their hometowns.

Laura Dewey of Grosse Pointe Woods stands in Detroit’s Hart Plaza as groups gather to march to the Renaissance Center where General Electric is holding its annual stockholder meeting. “I believe our country is turning into a Plutocracy and we need to take our country back,” she says.

General Electric shareholders (left to right) William Rideout and Homer Jamison yell to a waiting crowd of protesters as they are lead out of the Renaissance Center in Detroit. The two were members of a larger group of shareholders who protested inside GE’s annual shareholder meeting.

Mounted police use their horses to push protesters back away from the Winter Garden entrance to the Renaissance center where General Electric was holding its annual shareholder meeting inside.

Protesters hold signs outside the Renaissance Center in Detroit where they were speaking out against General Electric.

A Renaissance Center security police officer chains the Winter Garden entrance doors as protesters rally across the street.

The protest spilled out onto Jefferson Avenue later, as the group headed back towards Hart Plaza where the march began.

Protesters gather around the Joe Louis monument in Detroit during the march.

Angie Howard traveled from Pittsburg with the One Pittsburgh group to take part in the march and rally against General Electric at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 at 3:29 pm. It is filed under Detroit Stories, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.