An Open Letter to the Grand Rapids Education Association (GREA)

​It is of considerable importance to focus on one tributary of this resistance so vital and indicative of the systemic attack against democracy: the attack against public education. This attack has many facets including book banning, history editing and eradication, privatization proliferation, teacher ridicule and harassment, and a general insidious degradation of our universities and intellectualism itself.
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We live in the geographic Mecca of that attack formulated by Betsy DeVos, the single greatest opponent to public education. Along with her husband, Dick DeVos, who recently founded the Michigan Forward Network to turn our state into a 2026 Republican stronghold, Betsy remains the architect. Since leaving Washington, she has accelerated her onslaught, funding the “Education Freedom” movement and publicly advocating for the complete dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education.

​The conservative penchant against anything public has long found residence in the DeVos family and has festered here in West Michigan. Betsy’s grandfather was against public schools decades ago and her brother has attempted to privatize the military with the formation of the mercenary private army initially called Blackwater.

When Trump appointed DeVos as his Secretary of education, there should have been ubiquitous mass GREA-led teacher protests across Michigan. Now that the family machine is back in our backyard, I implore you, the GREA, to answer the bell.
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II. The Protest Tradition

​Historically, the effectiveness and impact of American protests hinge directly on crowd size and, more importantly, its solidarity and coalition manifestation. This exhaustive list of protests speaks of a democratic right extending back to the Boston Tea Party. To shatter all previous attendance records, in light of momentous past iconic protests such as the four million students who protested after the Kent State shootings, is noteworthy!
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We add the prodigious protests against Nixon’s escalation of the Viet Nam war, which this author was privileged to attend.

This tradition continues through the 2017 Women’s March, the 2020 uprising after the brutal murder of George Floyd, and the March on Washington for Gaza. Like the Million Man March or the 2014 People’s Climate March, these events prove that our voices are most effective when they are raised together.

​III. The Debt & The Political Union
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We have been the benefactors of improved living standards, safety requirements, and adequate pay standards thanks to the former willingness of unified protest with union support. This struggle for the common man extends back to the great New York rent strike and into the memories of my family in Detroit, who fought in the streets with the unions for 40 hour work weeks and pregnancy leave.
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Thanks to Woody Guthrie, we know of the Ludlow Massacre, where strikers’ families were murdered hiding in their tents as the men with the miners’ union fought against greedy mining companies.

Thanks to historian Howard Zinn, we know of the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain, where 10,000 union coal miners fought against company-hired thugs to change horrific work conditions and paltry pay.
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I find it incredible that the ridiculous adage that unions like the GREA shouldn’t be political still exists. It needs to be stressed that the nexus of teachers’ unions and the recent Trump protests have occurred elsewhere in the country. The massive 200k No Kings protest in Minneapolis showed large union involvement, including the National Education Association (NEA), in addition to AFL-CIO, SEIU, and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and encompassed celebrities with tremendous global recognition. This proves that our grievances are most powerful when they are unified.
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The great Civil Rights Movement, which was won primarily on the backs of cannon-sprayed and dog-attacked Black protestors, had great union involvement. The NEA joined with the American Teachers Association (ATA). Their combination was instrumental in bringing integration to the South.

On March 25th, 1911, 146 women burnt to death in a garment factory behind doors locked by a company foreman; after the fire, public outrage took to the streets and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) was formed. They politically forced the city for safety standards and pushed for higher wages, shorter hours, and extra pay for overtime. We need that kind of resolution from the GREA today.

​IV. The Strategy of Solidarity
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One attendee at the Grand Rapids march exclaimed, “I might not be able to change Trump’s world, but I’m sure as hell not going to let it change me!” That kind of individual resolution was demonstrated in Poland, emanating from the shipyards by a single leader in 1980. Against terrible threats and imprisonment, Lech Wałęsa led a small contingent of brave strikers against the teeth of the Soviet Union. He grew his diminutive group into the “Solidarność” (Solidarity) movement, consisting of 10 million union member protestors that freed the entire nation from the iron hand of Russia.
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​Lech Wałęsa and the early organizers realized that the state’s greatest weapon was atomization – keeping people isolated so they felt alone in their dissent. Wałęsa realized that the only chance for victory was solidarity. He preached that when they protested, they needed banners extolling their diverse unity. That kind of broad solidarity would win, he insisted.

We need this today! We need banners that boldly state WE THE TEACHERS OF GRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOLS STAND IN UNISON AGAINST DONALD TRUMP AND THE ATTACK ON PUBLIC EDUCATION! The teacher’s unions need to singularly identify with other labor unions and march shoulder to shoulder!
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The individual issues from various groups are welcome, and the moniker of protests is not limited to a single heading, but all fit under the umbrella of solidarity. The First Amendment right of free speech is being threatened. Its safety is strengthened with exercise. We need to join together in this tenuous hour. Our voices together are a formidable force!