Wisconsin solidarity rally at the Michigan Capitol Building on February 26, 2011. (Peace Education Center, Creative Commons)

Michigan is training its SWAT team of Emergency Financial Managers (EFMs). Handpicked by Governor Snyder himself, the EFMs, after taking crash courses with titles such as “Dealing with the Unionized Workforce,” will be fully prepared to take action: removing elected school board members from office, closing schools, invalidating union contracts, suspending collective bargaining rights, selling public property, privatizing much-needed government services, removing elected local officials from office, and, finally, dissolving elected local governments altogether.

Wake up America. This is the kind of overreaching government power that protestors in Wisconsin and Ohio attempted to fight. This is a blatant violation of our constitutional democracy.

First, who gave the government the right to remove elected school board officials and replace them with EFMs with questionable education qualifications? Replacing teachers and elected officials with a financial mogul or closing schools altogether would seem to have little benefit for the youth of America. The government has no right to assume power over education unless it is to fund those who know how to educate. This is the enemy of education.

Second, the Wagner Act, part of the National Labor Relations Act passed and signed by President Roosevelt in 1935, officially legalized unions: “Employees shall have the right of self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities, for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” This law has not been overturned. Workers have a right to organize, and to bargain for wages. EFMs will have the power to steal those rights away. When a city is under control of the EFMs the financial wellbeing of the residents might not be a consideration since the state will assume control of the city’s budget for state purposes that are as yet unrevealed.

Third, the takeover of parks and government services force much-needed, previously subsidized services under the merciless control of private industry. Benton Harbor’s much-loved lakefront park, bequeathed to the townspeople in perpetuity, will be developed into a luxury housing and golf resort for executives to the exclusion of local residents who can ill-afford the homes or club fees.

Fourth, and most importantly, how dare one governor extend state power to take over the local government. Replacing locally elected officials with one man appointed by the governor, not chosen by the people, a person who has little or no knowledge of the needs of the community is the antithesis of democracy.

Stealing power away from the people was never the goal of any democratic system. Governor Snyder, you are not representing the will of the people; you are subservient to private interests to the detriment of the people. Wake up Michigan – you are on your way to living in an autocracy. Wake up America – we need to halt this assault on our constitutional rights.

Support the many protestors already demonstrating in the city, and Michigan Citizens United, a political group actively working to recall Governor Snyder.  

Reach Staff Columnist Cara Palmer here or follow her on Twitter.