Detroit activist confronts guv

“What would you do if you were me?” Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm asked the audience at a Detroit-area town hall meeting March 6. “How would you fix the economy?”

Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice organizer Jerry Goldberg immediately stood up and answered: “Why don’t you use your emergency powers that exist under Michigan law—specifically MCL 10.31, 10. 85, and 30.401—to declare a state of economic disaster and take emergency measures to halt foreclosures, evictions and utility shutoffs, to impose a moratorium, a halt on utility shutoffs, evictions and foreclosures?”

Goldberg stressed that “the biggest impact is on the poor and working people of Michigan who are facing record foreclosures, 50-percent poverty in Detroit, 47,000 households losing their water in Detroit alone.”

He concluded: “Such a moratorium existed during the last depression. It was declared constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court and Michigan Supreme Court.”

Granholm failed to give a real answer, as she likewise ignored other direct questions from the audience.

Participants approached Goldberg after the broadcast for more information on the campaign for a moratorium. Goldberg’s remarks were replayed on WWJ Radio and Channel 7 News, and covered in both Detroit newspapers.

Goldberg told Workers World: “Besides platitudes about ‘Michigan’s promising future’ and ‘moving Michigan forward’ by imposing a 2-percent sales tax on things like haircuts and movies and giving more tax breaks to big business, the governor has not put forward a single idea to help relieve the suffering of the workers and oppressed in Michigan caused by the downturn in auto and the mass dismantling of the auto work force and the UAW.

“Granholm kept repeating how there is no money in the state budget, but in fact working families in Michigan have paid $10 billion for the Iraq war so far. It doesn’t cost anything to declare an emergency and put a moratorium on utility shutoffs and foreclosures.

“MECAWI has a workable program for ending the economic devastation in Michigan for workers and the poor. A moratorium on layoffs and foreclosures will give relief to the people and allow a breathing space for workers to get involved in the anti-war struggle, to get that money back for our state.”

For more information on this mass struggle, contact: [email protected].