The Trump administration has proven to be more volatile than anyone could have imagined. From on-again-off-again tariffs, to a frontal assault of state institutions, to antagonizing U.S. allies, the new president’s actions at the federal level have caused havoc. Overlooked, however, is how this presidency has impacted local politics. In particular, Trump’s actions have reverberated in Detroit, Michigan, where an upcoming election shows that politics have shifted to the right.
Detroit: The Heart of U.S. Industry, Left in Neglect
For a place like Detroit — or for any major city — it is actually hard to understand the political dynamics of local politics without putting it into a national context. In fact, not having a national context can lead to political isolation of activists who fall prey to the propaganda of their “local” capitalists. At its heyday, Detroit was a city of 2 million people and the center of U.S. industry. The auto factories didn’t just give birth to auto, but to modern industry and the mass production line model.
Detroiters have routinely been told that our city’s financial woes are wrapped up in the fact that we have grown ”too small.” But the truth is that even with the loss of population, industry, and capital investment, Detroit is still the 26th largest city in the country, and it has the 14th largest metropolitan area in the country. The way Detroit has been talked about since the 1990s — and during the city’s 2014 bankruptcy — is as if it was an empty, barren city that had no choice but to “downsize” the social services that residents relied on.
In fact, the word “downsize” was actually used in 2010 to describe the plan for the city. Some neighborhoods were simply going to be abandoned and no longer serviced, and those who lived in these neighborhoods would have to be relocated. Now, the problem with this plan is that no one dared trust the city to actually relocate people properly and guarantee that this “strategic” shifting of resources would occur in a way that met people’s actual needs. As a majority Black city, we are historically used to empty promises. As Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, “America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.”
Going back to the idea of “downsizing” the city, the capitalists in Michigan (whose most prominent billionaires include Roger Penske, Dan Gilbert, the Ford Family, and the Illich Family) rebranded their policy to “rightsizing” and began implementing their “strategic” restructuring of Detroit, with the “great white hope” Mike Duggan leading the charge as mayor. This strategy is laid out in a redevelopment plan launched in 2016 called the Strategic Neighborhood Fund, which outlines plans for just 10 areas in Detroit, making clear that the vision for the rest of the city is to let it rot, at least for now.
When you think about it, this plan is similar to the policy of South African apartheid: the central city, where the white people lived, was well maintained, while Black South Africans were relegated to surrounding shanty towns. Outside of the Strategic Neighborhood Fund areas, many neighborhoods continue to be underfunded and look as neglected as they did 20 years ago.
Detroit’s Role in a New Stage for U.S. Imperialism
Detroit’s plan for redevelopment fits into the U.S. plan of restructuring the economy in order to beat U.S. imperialism’s 21st century global competitors. The U.S. has learned that it cannot continue to be a global power by simply relying on foreign production, especially in countries like China, which has developed itself into a strong capitalist economy with global influence and strong economic interests to unseat the U.S. as the world’s only superpower. That meant that in order to stay competitive with China, corporate interests had to be free of the debt they owed to pensioners; free of the taxes they had to pay to sustain social services, affordable housing, and schools in Detroit; and free of the power of unions in order to better exploit the working class. Remember that the assault on Detroit coincided with an assault on labor, since the same governor who oversaw the bankruptcy of Detroit also signed legislation that made Michigan a right-to-work state.
That is why General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford — “the Big Three” automakers — are reinvesting and expanding plants in Detroit, and why smaller plants that produce parts for these companies, like Flex-N-Gate or Dakkota Integrated Systems, have recently opened up factories in the city. Even Jeff Bezos built an Amazon fulfillment center at the old state fairgrounds.
All of these companies received tax breaks for moving into Detroit. And attacking the city’s working class and social services means even bigger tax breaks. A weaker labor movement means a working class that is easily exploitable. The Big Three still don’t provide pension to anyone hired after 2007, which allows them to continue having a two-tier system for workers, which eliminates one of the union’s historic gains. And Bezos continues to operate an anti-union shop in the place that gave birth to the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.
As Detroit Goes, So Goes the Nation
In a way, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) “sledge-hammer approach” towards federal institutions and its goal of increasing executive power is similar to the aggressive austerity measures implemented by the Emergency Manager, a figure appointed by the state in 2013 who pushed Detroit into federal bankruptcy. The Emergency Manager was given executive power of the city’s finances, and used that power to open up labor contracts and restructure city departments. The executive power of the mayor was empowered through this process, and public sector unions were decimated.
While there was massive resistance to the bankruptcy, it was misled and stunted by the union bureaucracy and Democratic Party. In fact, the Democratic leaders of Detroit eventually endorsed the bankruptcy, and so did the union bureaucracy. In this way, the Democratic Party and union bureaucracy in Detroit are doing the same thing with Trump.
Trump’s policies, while being unpopular among whole swaths of the country’s population, also enjoy a certain amount of popularity due to his populist politics. He was able to make headway with Black and Latino voters, working-class male voters, and youth. He was even able to make headway in Arab and Muslim communities. Nevertheless, his claim of having a mandate is unsupported by evidence, as shown by the closeness of the election. Still, he has already been able to shift politics in a more right-wing direction.
This shift has affected local elections in important ways. The current frontrunner in the mayoral race, Mary Sheffield, is supposed to be the “people’s” candidate, yet she hasn’t challenged the grand plan of Detroit. In fact, she has vowed to continue it. The only thing she offers Detroiters is a few more crumbs off the capitalists’ table. She is not fighting to upend the legacy of Duggan, but continue it with a friendlier and melanated face. Her major opponents — one of whom is a former Chief of Police who ran an embarrassing campaign for governor as a Republican — seek to make no changes to the Duggan administration’s plans, and are even ardent supporters of what the Duggan administration has done.
The candidates who represent a more grassroots view and are more critical of the Duggan administration, like Joel Haasshiim, aren’t raising a more direct criticism of capitalism, or even the Democratic Party’s role in the assault on Detroit. For example, Chantel Watkins, who is running for city council in District 5, says that she is “committed to help building a budget with public and private ownership to expand transit in Detroit.” So, even the progressive candidates are relying on the private sector to resolve the city’s problems, even though this sector is precisely what has caused the issues in Detroit. Nothing is gained from us being partners with them.
How We Got Here
Detroit has a rich history of labor organizing and civil rights. It is home to a working class that fought against privatization for decades. So why is the working class and the Left so weak here, and without representation in these elections?
There are many answers to this question, but one sticks out: the co-optive role of the Democrats. The Democratic Party was able to present itself as willing to represent the interests of labor and civil rights. As these powerful movements forced historic concessions from the government and the capitalists, the Democrats sought to use these concessions to gain legitimacy among the working class and oppressed.
The Democrats then used this legitimacy to convince people that capitalism could work, and that to work for labor and civil rights, it would be best to work inside the system and stop challenging it from the streets or from our workplaces. The Democrats convinced the oppressed that in order to “beat” Trump, they had to support candidates who built careers on putting people like them in prison, that we had to be “reasonable” about what we demanded, and actually be cautious in what we say or how loud we are, because it could cost the Democrats votes.
To drive this message home, the Democrats have relied on their relationship with bureaucrats in the labor movement and non-profit organizations that service or organize oppressed communities. These bureaucrats make sure we are fighting the “right” way and not going overboard in our fight against the capitalists.
Strengthening the Left in Detroit
Since 2020, we have seen a new generation of activists mobilize to fight against the egregious injustices capitalism inflicts on the working class and the oppressed. From Black Lives Matter to the UAW Stand Up Strike to the movement in solidarity with Palestine, we have experienced important episodes of class struggle. New political groupings and activities have been organized in Detroit. Still, the Left has not been able to connect and fortify the city’s working class, who in many ways are still recovering from the effects of the federal bankruptcy.
While class struggle across the country is relatively low, there has been an overall stirring of mass dissatisfaction with Trump, and a growing hatred of the billionaires who have seen their profits soar to obscene levels since the pandemic. In this context, the Left is presented with a real challenge and opportunity to expand our forces and impact the political situation if we dare to be bold, creative, and strategic.
Left Voice wants to contribute to strengthening the Left in Detroit by providing tools and building spaces dedicated to drawing lessons from experiences in struggle (past and present), and developing a set of strategies and goals that can avoid important pitfalls of the past. We also want our website, social media, and podcasts to help promote and coordinate organizing taking place in Detroit and link local struggles across the globe. It is for this reason that we are a national publication that is part of an international news network that has publications in 13 countries and in seven different languages.
So far, we have covered important struggles in the Detroit area and intervened in important political debates, arguing the need for class independence and self-organization. For the upcoming elections in Detroit, we want to keep highlighting these struggles. We even aim to host public meetings — like the one we had a few weeks ago — to discuss and debate ways to organize to make sure the real issues facing Detroiters aren’t dismissed or left behind.
We want to invite those fighting for immigrant rights, for housing justice and tenants rights, for water accessibility and affordability, against police brutality, against the genocide in Gaza and all atrocities committed by U.S. imperialism to collaborate with us. Let’s make sure the majority Black and Brown working-class Detroiters’ voices are heard!