West Michigan Far Right Watch: A Thanksgiving message from the Acton Institute and what legislation the GR Chamber is concerned about during Michigan’s Lame Duck session

In today’s West Michigan Far Right Watch there are two examples I want to look at, both of which involve organizations that have consistently embraced far right principles and practices.

When I use the term Far Right, I mean any group that engages in structural or systemic harm, harm that is disproportionately directed at the most vulnerable communities in West Michigan – BIPOC communities, immigrants, working class families, LGBTQ+ communities, dissidents, etc.

The first group I want to look at is the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, a group that GRIID has written about a great deal in recent years.

In the GR Chamber’s news section of their website, posted on November 19th of this year, they use the heading, Lame Duck Bills Inch Forward. As we all know, the Michigan State Legislator is now in its Lame Duck period, which began after the November 5th election. After the beginning of 2025, the Democrats will no longer have control of the state legislation, but they could pass numerous bills right now if they chose to.

The Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce lists six bills on their website, two of which they support, while the other 7 bills they oppose. The only bill they support are the Earned Sick Time and Tipped Credit bills, known as House Bill 6057) and House Bill 6056). The GR Chamber of Commerce supports these two House Bills because they would amend earlier versions which were more worker friendly and put more pressure on businesses. The GR Chamber of Commerce always supports the business class, so naturally they would endorse these two bills.

Here are the 7 bills they oppose, followed by a brief description: 

• Senate Bill 1079 – this bill has to do with worker compensation. 
• Senate Bill 1022 – this bill will amend the Michigan Consumer Protection Act (MCPA) and remove the regulatory compliance exemption for businesses. The GR Chamber of Commerce hates when businesses are regulated. 
• Senate Bill 740 and Senate Bill 740 – these bills would allow for an apprentice to journey/master plumber or electrical licensee regardless of how long they are on the job. 
• Senate Bill 660 – this bill authorizes local governments to adopt a stormwater management utility fee similar to municipal water and sewage bills. It’s essentially a rain tax on impermeable properties targeting businesses and property owners for rainwater runoff. 
• Senate Bills 963-965 & House Bill 5594 – these bills will modify the Youth Employment Standards Act and increase penalties for businesses that violate the Act. I guess the GR Chamber opposes regulations that will impose penalties on businesses that exploit youth workers.

The second example of Far Right thinking comes to us from the Acton Institute, specifically an article that appeared the day before Thanksgiving entitled, How Trade Saved the Pilgrims, and the U.S.

The Acton Institute believes that Capitalism is the most humane economic system in history, thus the Acton writer in this post goes out of the way to convince the readers that the white European settlers engaged in trade with Indigenous people, which helped both parties and was the foundation of creating the United State of America.

At one point in the revisionist history post, the Acton writer states: 

“The mutually beneficial trade had a greater impact beyond avoiding conflict with the Wampanoags. It convinced others back home that trade could make North American colonies economically viable. This led to the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony which, British author Nick Bunker explained, sought to expand this “business model” on a larger scale, beginning with the founding of New Boston in 1630. The more trade-friendly colony soon had three-times as many members as the older Plymouth colony.”

It is instructive that all scholarly sources cited in this article are not only affirming the claim that trade between Pilgrims and Indigenous people was good, but all of those sources cited are non-Indigenous people. However, the most egregious omission in the Acton Institute article is the complete failure to acknowledge the genocide that had begun at the hands of the Pilgrims against the several of the Indigenous nations in what is now the New England states. 

Regarding the Thanksgiving story, Native author/activist Nick Estes in his book, Our History is the Future:

Thanksgiving is the quintessential origin story a settler nation tells itself: “peace” was achieved between Natives and settlers at Plymouth, Massachusetts, where Mayflower pilgrims established a colony in 1620, over roast turkey and yams. To consummate the wanton slaughter of some 700 Pequots, in 1637 the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, William Bradford, proclaimed that Thanksgiving Day be celebrated “in honor of the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won.” Peace on stolen land is borne of genocide.

Another important source on what happened between the Pilgrims and the Indigenous nations in the Northeast part of what is now the US, is from Indigenous scholar Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, in her book, “All The Real Indians Died Off”, And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans. 

You can see why I chose these 2 examples for this edition of West Michigan Far Right Watch, since one of them opposes even the mildest legislative reforms that would benefit working class families, and the other example that completely omits the genocidal acts committed by the Pilgrims, all to justify the beginning of trade policy and capitalism in the 17th Century.