Mass struggle launched to defeat state takeover of Detroit

Workers and community activists in Detroit are engaged in a critical struggle to stop the takeover of this majority African-American city by a state-appointed “emergency manager.”

Michigan State Treasurer Andy Dillon began a “review” of Detroit city finances during the first full week of December. Dillon, a former leader of the Democratic Party legislators in Lansing, Mich., is now working on behalf of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.

The financial review process is the first stage in the possible appointment of an emergency manager with broad powers to remove elected officials, cancel labor union contracts and seize municipal pension funds and public assets. Other cities in Michigan, such as Flint, Benton Harbor, Ecorse and Pontiac, have already been taken over through the implementation of Public Act 4.

Public Act 4 is often referred to as the “dictator law” since it wipes out any semblance of bourgeois democracy for cities and school districts where an emergency manager is appointed by the governor.

Detroit has the largest proportion of African Americans of any other city with a population in excess of 100,000. This is why people have stated that Public Act 4 has racist intent and ramifications.

Although Gov. Snyder says that his aim is not to run Detroit but to assist the city in getting its finances in order, objectively the forcing of a consent agreement and the imposition of an emergency manager would be a direct assault on the right to self-determination of the African-American people in Detroit.

There is no evidence that the placing of a local state-appointed czar will have any impact on improving the finances or services of a city or school system. The school system in Detroit was taken over by the state in 1999, when the district had a surplus of $3 billion; when the people were allowed once again to vote for their school board, the system was essentially bankrupt.

In March 2009, under Public Act 72, the predecessor of the current law passed earlier this year, an emergency financial manager was imposed on the Detroit school district. The district’s deficit increased, student enrollment declined, teachers and educational workers were laid off and fired, and salaries were lowered.

Although the majority of people in Detroit, including the city government, oppose the imposition of an emergency manager, the corporate-driven state administration is determined to continue with the process. But people are organizing to fight back.

Broad-based alliance needed to fight takeover

A petition drive is in the works to place a referendum on the November 2012 ballot for a yes or no vote on the legitimacy of the emergency manager law. Reports in the media say petitioners are likely to succeed in garnering the necessary signatures. In response to this political situation, Republican legislators are discussing the drafting of yet another law to render the likely referendum invalid.

In addition to the petition drive, a lawsuit has been filed by the Sugar Law Center challenging the legality of Public Act 4 under the Michigan Constitution. There are 28 plaintiffs from around Michigan who are requesting that the law be rendered unconstitutional.

However, in all likelihood the law will not be defeated solely through the courts and the ballot box. Therefore, calls for mass meetings, rallies and demonstrations have recently gone out.

On Jan. 2, a citywide town hall meeting and rally to oppose the emergency manager threat has been set for 5 p.m. at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church located at 2080 W. Grand Blvd. in Detroit. The event will include elected officials’ reports, an update on the referendum effort, testimony from residents, and discussion of the civil rights and constitutional violations represented by an emergency manager takeover.

The rally was called when representatives of organizations met on Dec. 9 at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (city hall), including the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions & Utility Shutoffs, We the People, the Sugar Law Center and other community groups. The participants felt that thousands of people need to be brought into the struggle to save the city from seizure by the state and its corporate allies.

Moratorium NOW! recently held two public meetings focusing on the need to build a mass struggle in opposition to the potential of a consent agreement and a state takeover. The coalition has focused on the role of the banks in the destruction of Detroit and is calling for a moratorium on the payment of debt service to the banks. This idea is gaining broader exposure through weekly meetings and local African-American owned media.

Ministers associated with the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the National Action Network have called a demonstration for Jan. 16 at the Superior Township home of Gov. Snyder. Rev. Charles Williams of the historic King Solomon Baptist Church stated, “We’ve been fighting the dictator bill since its passing, all the time knowing it was meant for a unilateral opportunity to take over Detroit just like it did in Benton Harbor.” (Detroit Free Press, Dec. 12)