“What’s the matter with Michigan?”

Editor’s Note:  The following are excerpts from a talk given by retired autoworker and community activist Claire McClinton of Flint, MI to People’s Tribune supporters in Chicago in June 2014.
Somebody needs to write a book about, “What’s the Matter with Michigan?” Michigan and the emergency manager system is what we call,  “a corporate coup de tat without firing a single shot.” That is what’s going on in Michigan.
Only a few short months after our governor got elected, the emergency manager law was passed. He got elected in November and the following March he signed Public Act 4, the emergency manager law. Shortly after that we launched a campaign to repeal the law and overturn it through a ballot referendum. We won! Within weeks, the state legislature passed and the governor signed a new emergency manager law that is not subject to repeal by the citizens of Michigan.
Now, just a little bit about what the law does. The governor is empowered to send emergency managers to a municipality or a school district in order to help alleviate a financial crisis in that particular place.
But these managers have these powers: They replace your democratically elected, local government. When they come to town the mayor, and your city commissioners step aside. Their power is usurped by the manager.
They have the right to change your collective bargaining agreements. Now, the emergency manager can sign a paper and say “Ok your healthcare is gone,” just by signing an order. They call them orders, we call them edicts.
Emergency managers also have the right to control and sell off public assets the people have built and maintained for years.  Examples are the public park in Benton Harbor; leasing out Belle Isle; taking over the senior centers or the Pontiac Silver Dome. Pontiac had an emergency manager too.  The Pontiac Silver Dome is where the Detroit Lions played in the 70’s. The Silver Dome was considered state of the art and, at the time, was called the eighth wonder of the world. The public helped build the Pontiac Silver Dome and paid $55 million to do so. The emergency manager sold it for $500,000.
Benton Harbor, MI is important in this process because it was one of the first cities to go up under the emergency manager knife. Benton Harbor is home to Whirlpool Corporation. It has a 42% poverty rate and a majority African American population. Benton Harbor was the low hanging fruit that they picked off to get this in motion.
In that sense Reverend Pinkney, the embattled minister charged with vote fraud after leading a campaign against a corporate allied mayor, is the face of the resistance to emergency management.
We have to publicize and shine the light of day on the fascist offensive going on in Michigan. There is nothing to duplicate this model in the country, where you have one individual who can write an order and do all these things.
We love Rev Pinkney. We don’t want to see him go to prison.  But we don’t want to see fascism take hold in this country. That’s why we support Rev. Pinkney.