We will not be dismissed or ignored: Day one of the Cosecha Michigan encampment in Lansing

Yesterday, Cosecha Michigan kicked off the first day of a three day encampment at the Lansing State Capitol, in their ongoing commitment to win drivers licenses for the undocumented community in Michigan.

As always, there is a great deal of activity that takes places at the capitol. When we arrived in Lansing there were hundreds of advocates and car crash survivors gathered at the capitol to call for new laws that would help provide care to more than 7,000 crash survivors who lost their benefits after Michigan made changes to its no-fault law in 2019.

Because another rally was taking place, Cosecha held their press conference on the westside of the capitol building. Several members of Cosecha Michigan spoke about their years-long campaign to win drivers licenses. One Cosecha member, Erica, talked about how the Lansing State House and Senate had been controlled by Republicans for the past 40 years, which has meant that the demands from the movement to won drivers licenses were dismissed and ignored. She went on to say that with the Democrats taking control of the State Legislature this year, they continue to see that drivers licenses have not been a priority for lawmakers. She also said that their concerns continue to be ignored and dismissed, which is why they often use the chant, Licenses Yes, Promises No.

The State House was in session yesterday, so the about 20 of the Cosecha Michigan activists went up to the 3rd Floor to engage in a longstanding tactic of disruption, which you can see here in this short video.

One thing that I love about Cosecha actions is that they always explain, in Spanish, what they are doing and where they are during that particular action. During this action they made it clear that this building and these chambers are paid for by their taxes, and that these politicians are always claiming that they work for the people, yet the issues most important to Cosecha are constantly ignored.

The group of activists then went back outside to share some food and talk about the next plan of action for the day. Of course there was lots of community building and laughter, since this group of Cosecha activists have been working together on this issue since 2018.

Rejuvenated by the food and fellowship, Cosecha Michigan activists then went op to the 4th floor to sit in on a Senate Transportation Committee meeting, which began just after 3:30. The meeting had already begun by the time that Cosecha activist had arrived, but there only appeared to be one agenda item, so the meeting did not last long at all. You can watch the video at this link, which shows Cosecha members in the Transportation Committee meeting and as soon as the meeting finished, they began chanting and demanding that the committee hold a public hearing on the proposed legislation, the Drive Safe Bills, which you can learn about at this link.

Once again, a Cosecha activists explained what was happening after the disruption and why winning drivers licenses is so important to the undocumented community. It was stated that having drivers licenses would reduce their fear of being stopped by police and potentially arrested or detained for not having a drivers license. This Cosecha activist then shifted gears to say, “We do the work in Michigan, the hard work like picking the food that everyone eats. Without us the economy in Michigan would collapse and all we are asking is the right to obtain drivers licenses, to be safe and to have the same kind of mobility that other families in Michigan have.” You can watch the Cosecha Michigan activists attending the Transportation Committee meeting and the follow up explanation in the video at this link. https://www.facebook.com/cosechagr/videos/980999182980458 

The Cosecha Michigan activists then went back outside for more food and fellowship, which is really a thing of beauty to see and participate in. I am always amazed and inspired by not only the passion and commitment they display in the fight for justice, but how caring they are with each other and how welcoming they are with people who are new to the movement. 

The next task was to then set up the encampment on the east side of the Capitol building area and see if the security people would enforce their policy of not allowing any encampments on the property, even on the surrounding sidewalks, which they claimed were also the property of the State of Michigan and NOT public space. The cops did come out and made it clear that people would have to move, so the Cosecha activists moved across the street to the City building, to the same space they set up their encampment last year, as shown in this picture here on the right.

For the next few days, you can support Movimiento Cosecha Michigan by coming to their encampment, learning about the Drive Safe Bills and taking action to help get those bills passed, you can donate to their work at planton2023.com and you can follow the encampment progress here https://www.facebook.com/cosechamichigan.