Date: Thursday, April 21, 2011,
Rev. Jesse Jackson will lead a rally at the Michigan state Capitol in Lansing at 11 a.m. Thursday. (AP)
The emergency takeover of the government of Benton Harbor, Michigan, like the suspension of collective bargaining rights for employees in Wisconsin, are all part of a greater scheme to reverse years of civil and states rights law, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Wednesday.
Jackson, who will lead a rally at the state Capitol in Lansing at 11 a.m. Thursday with the Michigan Black Legislative Caucus, said it was time to organize residents to take back their government through mass demonstrations and legal action.
Last month, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed a new law expanding the powers of emergency managers appointed by the Treasury Department to take over distressed schools and communities.
The first town affected by the law was Benton Harbor, a predominantly black city in southwest Michigan. On Friday, Joseph Harris, the state-appointed emergency financial manager, suspended the decision-making powers of Benton Harbor officials.
According to The Detroit News, the order limits Benton Harbor officials to calling meetings to order, adjourning them and approving minutes of meetings.
Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney called the move “sad news for democracy in Michigan.”
Jackson told BlackAmericaWeb.com that the law likely would be used for a broader mission, which would target collective bargaining rights for public employees, dilute voter strength – particularly for black Americans and other people of color – and limit states’ rights.
“It’s not just Benton Harbor. (Snyder has) approved 40 other emergency mandatory measures so it’s like a takeover of government that denies their workers’ rights. It’s replacing democracy with a czar in the name of fiscal emergency,” Jackson said.
Benton Harbor has long been an economically depressed community, where the median income hovers around $10,000 a year, compared to its more affluent neighbor St. Joseph, a mostly white community with a median income average of $33,000.
Jackson pointed out that while the U.S. is involved in wars on three fronts, all supposedly seeking to preserve or promote democracy, there is serious movement within the U.S. to diminish the democratic process.
“It’s wrong there, and it’s wrong here. They are attacking teachers unions, attacking collective bargaining, attacking the rights of (voter) access,” Jackson said, adding that the argument that this is an effort to deal with fiscal crises affecting struggling communities is nothing more than a cover-up for a more sinister agenda.
“This is a states’ rights agenda,” Jackson said. “It’s the ‘60s all over again, when the federal government had to intervene to protect us. We won these battles, but now the right wing is engaging in a radical backlash.”
He said urban centers with organized labor, including Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit and Memphis, could well face similar challenges.
There have been reports that Wisconsin is considering its own emergency financial manager law.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow wrote in her Tuesday blog that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he's no way about to repeat what Michigan has done, with a bill that imposes what critics call financial martial law. Instead, it appears that a business group in Milwaukee is pushing for stress tests for municipalities.
Jackson said it was critical to inform the black community about the insidious nature of such legal maneuvers to appeal to legislators to pay closer attention to bills that could wrest away local autonomy and organize public demonstrations against such action.
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