What is the Michigan manufacturing center caught in a conspiracy theory?
It is a flat, nondescript office building among parking lots and other flat, nondescript office buildings off a busy commercial thoroughfare in Southeast Michigan.
The U.S. Center for Advanced Manufacturing in Troy is also evidence, to some of Michigan’s top Republicans, of a conspiracy.
A partnership between the World Economic Forum and the state to help the manufacturing industry adapt to changing technology, the center has been spotlighted by state Republican chair Kristina Karamo, who speculates it’s the home of a globalist plot.
The center opened last summer as a technology business accelerator called Automation Alley.
Goals include working with American manufacturers to adopt Industry 4.0 – a term that refers to the industry becoming software-driven – and attracting investments to create jobs and opportunities in Michigan.
“Automation Alley teamed up with the World Economic Forum in 2022 to create the U.S. Center for Advanced Manufacturing because, when it comes to manufacturing, the mission of the two organizations is aligned,” said Automation Alley executive director and CEO Tom Kelly in a statement.
Related: Conspiracies and a Holocaust meme mark the dawn of Karamo’s Michigan Republican Party
It’s this partnership that underscores Michigan GOP Chair Kristina Karamo’s unfounded belief that Michigan is “ground zero” for a globalist takeover.
“I have a deep concern with the encroachment of the World Economic Forum,” she recently told MLive.
Karamo ascribes to the “Great Reset” conspiracy, which theorizes the international nonprofit used the COVID-19 pandemic to destroy America and create one world government. To Karamo, the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s January trip to Davos, Switzerland are evidence the forum “is knee-deep” in Michigan politics.
It’s just not the head of the party.
The Michigan House Freedom Caucus criticized the forum for being a “major promoter of globalism.” And Former Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, echoed conspiracy theories in his farewell speech last year saying “little-g gods” intend to “achieve one world governance.”
The Anti-Defamation League, PoltiFact and news outlets have all debunked the Great Reset conspiracy.
Related: Shirkey pushes conspiracies, foreshadows ‘God-like’ entities in final Senate speech
The Geneva-based World Economic Forum, formed in 1971, works with business, political and cultural leaders to tackle global economic issues. It pushes back on the “increase in baseless claims” and fringe conspiracies that have inched into the mainstream.
“A common theme of many of the disinformation narratives is that they advance the idea that the Forum is working to assert control on the world. This is often done to sow doubts and counteract key activities and messages of the Forum,” the organization said in a statement. “In reality, control is the complete opposite of the Forum’s mission and work.”
The World Economic Forum backs a network of 15 centers including the one in Michigan.
The U.S. Center for Advanced Manufacturing planned to employ three full-time staff members plus three Automation Alley staff members when it opened in June. The center also developed a 10-member executive committee that includes state and local leaders.
A $3 million state grant and matched funding from Oakland County of $1 million per year for the next three years will support the center.
“The Forum does not influence our policies or our programs. In fact, our partnership with the Forum helps to raise our profile and opens doors to knowledge and resources that benefit U.S. manufacturers looking for ways to operate more efficiently and effectively in a global economy,” Kelly said.
Michigan partnered with the Forum, according to Kelly, because it’s a “global leader in understanding the socioeconomic impacts” of Industry 4.0.
“Policymakers, business leaders, and citizens need to be aware of these impacts and their potential risks and opportunities to individuals, businesses, and economic ecosystems, regardless of their political affiliation,” Kelly said. “The risk is particularly significant in manufacturing-dependent economies like Michigan, which dominated the second and third industrial revolutions.”
Related: Michigan aims to compete as ‘manufacturing capitol of the United States’ with new center
Manufacturing, a top industry in the United States, has lost 4.6 million jobs in the past 25 years yet accounts for 11% of the U.S. gross domestic product, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. In Michigan, the industry employs more than 605,000 people – 14% of the workforce – and contributes $100 billion to the state economy.
“Because of our partnership with the Forum, we are having conversations with many of the largest manufacturers in America about how to solve big global issues that matter to them,” Kelly said.
The U.S. Center for Advanced Manufacturing is only one facet of Michigan’s strategy for bolstering manufacturing.
Michigan has also been aggressive about landing $16.6 billion in electric vehicle investments with multi-billion-dollar projects from General Motors, Ford Motor Company, LG Energy Solutions, Chinese battery manufacturer Gotion and Detroit startup Our Next Energy.
While in Europe for the World Economic Forum, Whitmer touted 32,5000 manufacturing and mobility jobs that have been created since she took office.
“These investments have cemented our status as the global epicenter of mobility and manufacturing, and as home to the Forum’s only global Advanced Manufacturing Centre, we will build on that leadership, bringing in even more opportunity for workers and bolstering economic opportunity in every region of our state,” she said.
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