The $1.6 million will be used to build a new manufacturing facility to expand their vitamin production capacity. The MEDC said that the Ada-based corporation chose to build the new facility in Ada, despite looking at other locations around the country. No doubt the $1.6 million in corporate welfare was a major incentive to expand in Ada.

So, the company that is based on a pyramid scheme and rabidly embraces a free market ideology, is once again the beneficiary of public funds so they can expand. The DeVos funded Mackinac Center for Public Policy is constantly beating the drum of government deregulation, privatization of public services and the current austerity measures being implemented by Gov. Snyder. While Amway doesn’t want tax money to support public services and public employees, they don’t hesitate to hold their hand out to get public money for their private gain.

The MEDC announcement includes comments from Amway executives as well as comments from Birgit Klohs, President and CEO, The Right Place, Inc. Klohs states, “Amway’s investment is very encouraging to The Right Place, and to the region as well, as this announcement demonstrates that manufacturing remains strong and growing in West Michigan.”

Of course The Right Place would salute more corporate welfare going to a West Michigan company, since that is one of its major functions, to assist the business community to become more profitable. Not surprising, the Chairman of the Board for The Right Place is Doug DeVos, the President of Amway.

Earlier this week we had an opportunity to sit down and talk with long time UAW activist Greg Shotwell.

The occasion for the interview was the release of Shotwell’s new book published by Haymarket books, Autoworkers Under the Gun: A Shop-floor view of the end of the American Dream.

We talked about his years with the UAW, his involvement with the Soldiers of Solidarity, the importance of writing from a shop floor perspective and the state of unions in the US today.

In addition, Shotwell addressed the potential of workplace democracy and the problem of big labor’s attachment to the Democratic Party.

During our interview Jason talked about how he got involved in human rights work in Nicaragua, the mission of the foundation, the reality for sugar cane workers in that Central American country, the abuses in the agro-industrial sector and the international policies that create such injustices for working people around the world.

Jason talked about how the push for bio-fuels in the US and Europe has led to countless human rights abuses in countries like Nicaragua. La Isla Foundation not only does educational programs, they support and assist in organizing workers and they expose the industrial agricultural system that has helped to create the human rights crisis in that country.

La Isla Foundation Benefit Show

Tuesday, January 31^st

7:30PM

Pyramid Scheme in downtown Grand Rapids

All ages are welcome and a minimum donation of $10 is requested at the door.

For more information check out https://www.facebook.com/events/178099492289277/

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to talk with Yves Engler, co-author of the new book Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the road to economic, social and ecological decay.

The author is on a book tour via bus throughout the US and stopped off in Grand Rapids on Sunday to be part of a discussion at The Bloom Collective and the Green Party of West Michigan.

Yves spoke with us about numerous aspects of the book: the association of cars with freedom, cars & advertising, the political power of the auto industry, the health & ecological consequences of auto dependency and numerous examples of how communities are challenging the role of cars in society.

We had a chance today to sit down with Anand Gopal and talk about what he has seen in Afghanistan during the past three years he has lived there working as a reporter and writer.

Anand is in Grand Rapids today for a lecture he is giving at Calvin College. (7pm tonight) In this interview we discussed the history of US involvement, the current US occupation, the reality of Afghan women, opium production and the Karzai government.

Today, we interviewed Stephanie Sandberg, Calvin College Professor and playwright of the important work Seven Passages: The Stories of Gay Christians.

Stephanie’s new play entitled lines: the lived experience of Race was the subject of our interview. We discussed her motives for exploring the issue of racism in Grand Rapids, what she learned from the process, how racism manifests itself in today’s Grand Rapids and her hopes for this new work to contribute to the necessary dialogue that needs to take place for racial equality to truly exist in this community.

For information on the dates & times for the public performances, check out Actors Theater.

Yesterday, the BlueGreen Alliance bus Tour stopped off in West Michigan on a 17 state road trip promoting clean energy and green jobs. The Press Conference was held in the parking lot of the Teamsters Local 406, where local people heard from several labor activists from around the country who were on the tour.

The main focus of those who spoke yesterday was to get Michigan residents to pressure Senator’s Stabenow and Levin to pass the Senate version of the Clean Energy Bill. Representatives from the construction workers union, the SEIU, and the steelworkers union spoke about the importance of creating green jobs and getting the Senate to pass this bill.

Several of these workers have been laid off in the past year and they stressed that if the Senate were to pas this bill it would not only help protect the environment, it would create needed jobs. According to the Press release sent out by the BlueGreen Alliance, the passage of the Senate bill would create up to as many as 42,000 green jobs in Michigan alone.

However, there has been much criticism, particularly from some in the environmental community that the House bill that has passed and the Senate version that is still to be decided still allows for too much pollution and might even weaken existing environmental protections.

In May, Friends of the Earth released a statement that read in part, “The bill described in these summaries would scrap crucial tools for solving the climate crisis while locking in billions in polluter payouts. It would be a step backward in the fight against climate disruption-great for polluters, but bad for people and the planet.” Last month in the Guardian it was reported that the Senate bill would not cap the amount of carbon emissions and that large polluters will not be held accountable.

Mark Mullholand, a worker from Ohio felt that the legislation would at least open the door to making some improvements and that it was better than doing nothing. After the press conference I interviewed Mark who has been on the tour from the very beginning.

It is worth noting that no local environmental groups were present at this event and the only other news media that attended was the Grand Valley Labor News and Fox 17, which didn’t send a reporter.

Here is a short video with footage of the latest Beehive Collective work called the True Cost of Coal. Another great example of the power of art to inspire and inform us about acts of injustice and acts of resistance around the world.

To view the interview just click here.