On May 28, Reverend Edward Pinkney and the Benton Harbor Community Water Council hosted “Occupy the PGA,” protesting the corporate takeover of the predominantly Black impoverished Rust Belt city on the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Through use of a corporate backed law, the Emergency Manager Act, the Whirlpool Corporation was “legally” able to steal the public assets from the residents of Benton Harbor to build a signature PGA golf course and resort for the rich, by removing many of the town’s poor. Pinkney was one of the first to warn Michigan communities of the Emergency Manager (dictatorship) law that has allowed corporate shills to kick out elected officials in financially strapped cities in order to swoop in and privatize their public assets. Today he is a leader in the fight to get toxic chemicals, including lead, out of the water.
Below are excerpts from speakers at the “Occupy the PGA” protest:
Reverend Pinkney: We have to make sure we’re standing up, doing what’s right for everybody. This is not a Rev. Pinkney event. This is for you…everything is about the future of our children. That’s our foundation. We can’t go nowhere without our children. We can no longer sit around and say everything is all right…we have to learn to work together. When we fight, we win.
Bishop Jefferson : [I”m here from Flint] because it’s important for us to stand together…to show a united front. See, they didn’t care about us being sick…hungry…about our status, our jobs. We ain’t stopping until we come out with victory for all! We ain’t scared…God bless you, my friends.
Claire McClinton: I’m proud to stand here today with the residents of Benton Harbor. You’ve been there for us in the poisoned, occupied city of Flint…yet today we remain poisoned. The water crisis is not over.
I appreciate the speech concerning the corporate and financial beneficiaries of disasters. That’s how capitalism works. ‘Don’t let a disaster go unexploited’ is this system’s motto…we know the Emergency Manager Law was designed to come into predominantly minority cities to steal and privatize public assets. The cities taken over were not only majority ‘minority’ with double digit poverty rates but [taken because they wanted] the assets!
We’re at the end of a fraudulent settlement in Flint… [now it’s] about those with vision that can see into the future…we’ve got to reorganize this society on the basis of humanity…one of the things we’ve learned the hard way is to know who our friends are and who is our enemy.
We don’t have a favorite candidate. All we have is the interests of the people…We want you to hear our plan. We’re telling YOU…we want water affordability in Flint…We want an end to shut-offs…We want to know your plan to guarantee we don’t get set up again for corporate takeover of our city. We want you to…fight like hell to get rid of the “dictatorship law” that drove us into this toxic disaster that both Flint and Benton Harbor are facing today. So that’s our plan…our vision on the road to reorganizing society on the basis of humanity. Thank you all.
Cathy Talbott is a former telephone operator, a job lost to automation. She was a homeless mother of two and fights for welfare rights. A former co-host of a weekly community radio program out of Carbondale, IL, “Occupy the Airwaves,” Cathy is the Environmental Desk for the People’s Tribune.
