The vicious, cowardly attack on democracy in Benton Harbor that Whirlpool Corporation and the corporate power structure is determined to crush anyone who stands in its way. It is part of a process under way across America in various forms. After the once stable working class community of Benton Harbor was devastated by automation, globalization, and NAFTA; the community began resisting. Let's confront the corporations that are destroying this country. Let's stop the NAFTA. Let's confront the NAFTA. -Rev. PinkneyWhen Texas businessman and 1992-1996 presidential candidate H. Ross Perot predicted NAFTA would produce a "giant sucking sound" of lost jobs the media pundits laughed at him, making him sound like a fool. But history proves his words were true.Now Clinton returns posing as a savior of the working class, when their treasured NAFTA ripped away ten-thousand jobs annually, undermined unions and transferred vast wealth to Wall Street.Former president Bill Clinton hustled the street dealer, sold crack, selling dreams that turned to dust. Their strategy of talk labor while pleasing capital, was even seen in the destructive NAFTA pact, which decimated manufacturing jobs in the U.S. by the millions.The struggle that has taken place in recent years in Benton Harbor is a case in point and one that holds a number of lessons for the American people. The fight in Benton Harbor is a war over whether Americans will have prosperity and democracy, or live in poverty, under the heel of open corporate rule.As the economic crisis continues to grip America and threatens to get deeper, people in working class communities across the country are beginning to stand up and demand that the government serve the people's interest, not those of the corporations. The people have come under fire from the corporations and the government. This is especially true in the city of Benton Harbor, Michigan.The labor-replacing electronic technology is permanently eliminating jobs and destroying the foundation of the capitalist system. The people's needs can only be met by building a cooperative society where the socially necessary means of production are owned by society, not by the corporations.An economic system that doesn't feed, clothe, and house its people must be and will be overturned and replaced with a system that meets the needs of the people.
black autonomy network community organization
working for economic and social justice in Benton Harbor, MI