Progressives in the Park in Grand Rapids is really just business as usual in the park

This Saturday at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids, the Kent County Democratic Party is hosting what they are calling Progressives in the Park.

The event happens from 1 – 3pm at Riverside Park and you can find more details here. Besides the Facebook link, the local Democrats are also using video to invite people, such as this video that features Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand and Phil Skaggs who is running for State Senate, District 29.

This video essentially is about promoting Democratic Party candidates, along with, as LaGrand says, “every organization in West Michigan that we could get our hands on doing good, progressive work.”

It is very instructive that Skaggs and LaGrand are the ones promoting this event, considering how awful they have been on critical issues, particularly issues that impact BIPOC people.

While Skaggs was a Kent County Commissioner he refused to publicly support the Cosecha/GR Rapid Response to ICE campaign to end the contract that Kent County had with ICE. In fact, while we were showing up to county commission meetings, often disrupting them, Skaggs referred to those acts of resistance as “Bolshevik cosplay.” Skaggs also actively acted those involved in the campaign and engaged in repeated gaslighting of immigrant justice activists. Even more insulting was after ICE ended their contract with Kent County in 2019, Skaggs was one of several Democratic County Commissioners taking credit for the contract ended. This is pure fantasy, and I highly recommend you read my article, A People’s History of the End the Contract Campaign in Kent County.

During LaGrand’s brief time as Mayor of Grand Rapids he has also taken a very antagonistic position against Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE, which began a campaign in January to get the city to adopt sanctuary policies.

LaGrand has consistently over the past 9 months has said that the GRPD’s policy on immigration is adequate and demonstrates that they will not cooperate with ICE. As someone who has followed these matters closely for years, the policy that the City Manager was referring to, is known as the Foreign National’s Policy. This policy clear states:

The policy allows officers to provide assistance to federal immigration authorities when there is an emergency that poses an immediate danger to public safety or federal agents. 

Immigrant Justice organizers even held a protest outside of LaGrand’s home even knocking on the door, but the Mayor refused to come out and talk. Then in late July, over 50 people spoke in favor of the sanctuary policies at a City Commission meeting, which also included some street theater and chanting. LaGrand’s response was to instruct the GRPD cops who were present to arrest people.

A month later, while speaking on a public access TV show, Mayor LaGrand talked shit about Movimiento Cosecha and said that the sanctuary policy demands were “silly and bizarre.” Then, just last week, LaGrand did not show up to a forum organized by Cosecha to talk about how ICE is terrorizing immigrants in Grand Rapids.

Electoral Politics is the graveyard of social movements

There is always an endless effort on the part of Democrats, of all stripes, to tell those who are doing the hard work of resistance and building news community systems for collective liberation, that we should drop what we are doing and help their candidates get elected.

This call to get Democrats elected, even if they claim to be progressive, is a constant. However, was have to ask ourselves how this benefits the movement work many of us are engaged in? It rarely ever does. Just recently, after the 2022 elections, the Democrats had total control of politics in Michigan. So, what did we get? There were a few overturn policies like the Right to Work policy that Republicans put in place when Snyder was Governor, but overall there were not real policies change that made systemic changes. Line 5 still exists, the Democrats still voted for increased police funding, maintaining the Prison Industrial Complex, massive subsidies to developers, plus they refused to adopt the policies that renters have been demanding.

Additionally, immigrant justice activists were told that if they supported Democrats in the 2022 Election, they would pass the Drive Safe bills, which would give undocumented immigrants the chance to obtain a driver’s license. The Democrats failed the immigrant community and even during the lame duck session could not get enough votes from their own party to win what they promised to immigrants.

This has been a historical pattern by the Democratic Party, where they promise policy changes but don’t deliver. I would highly recommend that people read Lance Selfa’s book, The Democrats: A Critical History, which methodically demonstrates how the Democrats betray popular movements. In addition, check out Sheldon Wolin’s, Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism, along with From Democracy to Freedom: The Difference Between Government and Self-Determination.

Look, I am not going to tell people to not vote, unlike Democrats who will shame people for not voting for them. People should make up their owns minds about who to vote for or whether to vote at all. What I am saying is that if you think that we can vote ourselves out of this mess, then you are not learning from the history of US social movements and are buying into the narrative that the US used to be some sort of haven for freedom and democracy. Sweet Jesus, the country was founded on genocide and slavery.

The Progressives in the Park event will be just one more con job by the Democrats to convince us to not only vote for them, but to spend more time getting their candidates elected than do the work of organized resistance and creating new ways of practicing collective liberation. #AbolishICE #FreePalestine #Justice4Patrick #BurntheRich