Grand Rapids Cosecha Movement to host a regional organizing assembly July 14 – July 16

The Grand Rapids Cosecha Movement is one of the more exciting and dynamic movements to in recent years, centering around the struggle of immigrants.

The Cosecha Movement is born out of the failure of electoral politics to move towards a just immigration policy. This new movement does not put faith in either political party and no longer seeks to lobby for comprehensive immigration reform.

Instead, the Cosecha Movement is demanding respect, dignity and permanent protection for all immigrants and they are working to achieve these goals by organizing the immigrant community and using direct action has the primary strategy. This movement also practices a relational form of organizing that centers the people in the movement, rather than making it an issue focused movement. In addition, they are working towards a national strike as the main tactic of achieving their goals.

The Cosecha Movement recognizes that the immigrant community has a great deal of power, both political and economic power. The labor they provide, the money they spend and larger impact that undocumented immigrants have on the US is why the Cosecha Movement is calling for a strike.

We have been documenting this movement in Grand Rapids since their first action, which took place with a march on South Division back on February 16. Since that first action, Cosecha GR attempted to march on the highway and block traffic near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in downtown Grand Rapids on February 28. 

Cosecha GR organized another action near the ICE office on April 19, where they were able to block an off-ramp coming from 196. This action by Cosecha GR resulted in 3 people being arrested for blocking traffic with a simply message that if the government continues to disrupt the lives and families in the undocumented community, then we will disrupt business as usual for everyone else.

On May 1st, the Cosecha GR movement got several thousand people to not go to work, to not spend money and to participate in a march going north on Division that shut down that road for over an hour.

The most recent action took place on June 4, where Cosecha GR members disrupted sales at the Walmart on 54th street.

We recently put together a compilation video of these actions over the past 6 months to demonstrate how many people have participated and what an impact they have had in the community.

Cosecha GR to host regional assembly

From July 14 – 16, Cosecha GR is hosting an organizing assembly that anyone is invited to. The assembly will consist of discussion on the principles and methodology of the Cosecha Movement, organizing in circles, participating in direct action and how we can all make commitments in moving forward with this movement.

There is information about the assembly on their Facebook event page. Cosecha GR is inviting people to join this movement, whether you are an immigrant or an ally in the struggle.

Cosecha GR is also looking for volunteers to assist with housing for people coming from out of town, food and child care. In addition, Cosecha GR is asking people to help them spread the word about this assembly and to invite others to attend. We need each other to be successful in this struggle. You can contact the Cosecha GR movement by going to their Facebook page.