GRIID end of the year in Review: Part IV – Documenting the work of Social Movements in 2024

In Part I of the GRIID Year in Review, I wrote about the media watchdog work I do and how the local news reported on critical issues in Grand Rapids for 2024. Part II of the GRIID Year in Review focused on monitoring the Far Right in West Michigan.In Part III, I provided an overview of GRIID’s monitoring of the Grand Rapids Power Structure. Today, I want to look at my reporting on Social Movements in Grand Rapids for 2024. 

I have been tracking the work of Grand Rapids-based social movements since the 1980s, which led to the creation of the https://grpeopleshistory.org/ and my book, A People’s History of Grand Rapids. I also write about local social movements because I believe that more than any other factor, social movements are what creates lasting changes and creates more possibility for collective liberation. For anyone who closely studies history, social movements, uprisings and revolutions are what causes real social transformation, not elections and not the status quo.

Palestine Solidarity

There were numerous social movements that were active in 2024. One of those movements was organizing around the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine and the genocidal campaign being waged by Israel. In early January there were some creative banner drops in the downtown area of Grand Rapids. A week later there was an action at a local military contractor, which is also owned by an Israeli company. Then in late January, activist held an action outside of the residence of the Grand Rapids Catholic Bishop, demanding that he call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

In late February, Vice President Kamala Harris came to Grand Rapids, so organizers showed up to confront her and the Biden Administration’s unconditional support for Israel. In March, I wrote about Calvin University’s faculty that was calling for the school to divest from companies operating in Israel. The very next day I did an interview with one of those professors. 

In May, organizers with Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids disrupted a Kent County Democrats annual fundraiser, since the Democratic Party has not called for a ceasefire in Gaza, nor an end to US military sales to Israel. In October, Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids organized an action at a Zeeland-based corporation, which also makes parts for bombs that the Israeli military is dropping on Palestinian civilians.

Comrades Collective

Policing in BIPOC communities continued to be a focus of resistance in 2024. The Comrades Collective organized two events for the 2nd anniversary of Patrick Lyoya’s murder by the GRPD. First, there was a candlelight vigil held in front of the Kent County Court House in early April, which was followed by a march a few days later. In both actions the family of Patrick Lyoya participated.

The march that was held on April 6th saw a significant amount of GRPD presence and harassment. Even though the march was non-violent, the GRPD arrested the safety car driver and impounded their car. In addition, weeks after the action, two BIPOC activists were contacted by the GRPD and told that they were being charged with bogus offenses. GRIID interviewed both of the activist charged, the first on May 6th and the second on May 20th. 

Later in April, the Michigan State Police repeatedly ran over a Black man in Kentwood, prompting swift outrage. The Comrades Collective offered crowd safety at several demonstrations, plus they released their own statement on the police murder of Samuel Dajon Sterling. Then in May, because of all of the GRPD repression against movement groups in Grand Rapids, I wrote about piece about the criminalization of dissent. Lastly, after some 14 months after the Comrades Collective submitted a FOIA request regarding GRPD surveillance of those seeking justice for Patrick Lyoya, I wrote a summary of the FOIA documents and posted all of them on the GRIID site. 

Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union

The housing crisis has been front and center in the minds of many people, but rarely do those in power talk about the skyrocketing rental costs, how exploitation by landlords is the norm, nor the daily realities of what it means to be a tenant. GRIID documented numerous actions that the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union (GRATU) organized in 2024 beginning with the assembly they held in April, with nearly 100 people in attendance. A few weeks after the tenant assembly, GRATU organized an action at the home of a landlord, because the landlord was threatening eviction. 

In May, GRATU members went to Lansing to be part of a statewide protest at an annual gathering of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. A few weeks later, I wrote about how GRATU members supported a tenant who was evicted, thus demonstrating tenant solidarity. 

In September GRATU supported another tenant who was being threatened by their landlord, with another action at the home of the landlord. In October GRATU signed on to a letter being sent to Gov. Whitmer with demands to pass 9 specifics bills that would greatly benefit tenants living in Michigan. 

GRATU took the lead in organizing a campaign to deny the $565 million tax incentives that the DeVos/Van Andel development project was seeking. GRATU went back to Lansing for a protest at the State Capitol, where they gave the State Legislature a 30 day notice to pass tenant rights legislation. Finally, just before the Thanksgiving holiday, GRATU members and Movimiento Cosecha members organized a protest outside of the home of Democratic State Senator Winnie Brinks. 

Movimiento Cosecha 

Movimiento Cosecha has been organizing for immigrant justice since 2017 and GRIID has been documenting their work the entire time. In 2024, Movimiento Cosecha was still working to win driver’s licenses for those that are undocumented. For their annual May Day action they went to Lansing and did a disruptive action outside of the State House Chambers. In October, Cosecha members went to a Livingston County Commission meeting to call out the commissioners, which had passed a resultion just weeks before, a resolution which gave the Sheriff’s Department the freedom to detain anyone who was undocumented. 

Because of the 2024 elections, where both the Democrats and the Republicans fought to see who could have a more repressive immigration policy, Cosecha took the opportunity to talk about how both parties have not benefited their communities. After Trump was re-elected, where he promised to engage in mass deportations, Cosecha began holding larger community meetings to get people signed up to do anti-deportation work. 

Movimiento went back to Lansing because there was still an opportunity to win driver’s licenses for the undocumented community. Their action was to engage in a hunger strike in the State Capitol building and pressure State Legislators to pass the Drive SAFE bills during the lame duck session. Unfortunately, on the last possible day for the State House to vote on the bills, they didn’t even have a quorum to vote. 

There were numerous other groups involved in movement work, such as a GRPS student union demanding better pay for teachers, a newly created group called the Grand Rapids Pullover Prevention, plus many of the autonomous organizations in Grand Rapids held a press conference to collectively make a statement that regardless of who gets elected, their work would still be necessary. 

Of course, much of the behind the scenes work that social movements doesn’t gain the same amount of attention, but it is clear to me that whatever real and lasting changes that will occur, it will be because of the work of grassroots, community-based movements that are committed to system change.