West Michigan Far Right Watch for the week of February 14 – 21: Corporate Welfare, eulogizing Rush Limbaugh and Patriot hypocrisy
Welcome to the next installment of West Michigan Far Right Watch, where we keep tabs on the far right in this area and provide a summary of what they are up to and what kind of messages they are promoting in this community. As a matter of clarification, when we say the Far Right, we mean those in the streets who fight to defend White Supremacy, those who promote far right ideology, and those with political and economic power.
We have 3 examples for this installment. The first installment for the West Michigan Far Right Watch comes to us from the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce. The State of Michigan has awarded the business sector in Michigan $39 million in public funds for their Going Pro Talent Fund. This Going Pro Talent Fund is designed to redirect public funds to employers to train their workforce to “meet real-time demand.” Why are public funds being used as a form of corporate welfare? This money, which could go directly to provide relief to families across the state, is instead assisting the private sector to make more money. Why are Capitalist even relying on government assistance? I always thought that Capitalists hated big government, especially if it means that government intervenes in the “free market.” This use of public money for private benefit, which the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce celebrates, is exactly why the Chamber is included in this week’s West Michigan Far Right Watch.
Our second example for this week is the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. The Acton Institute is regularly part of the West Michigan Far Right Watch and this week they are once again deserving of making this list.
The Acton Institute has 3 recent posts on their website that are worth drawing attention to. The first is their condemnation of the proposed $15 an hour federal minimum wage. The far right Think Tank makes the claim that increasing the minimum wage, “is only likely to prolong pandemic pain for America’s most vulnerable businesses and workers.” Such a claim is one of the long-standing arguments from the Capitalist Class and those who defend this class, even though it is patently false. When exactly has the Acton Institute been concerned about the well being of workers?
The Acton Institute also posted a condemnation against environmental groups that are wanting to criminalize the actions of various industrial sectors that are major contributors to pollution and climate change, such as the oil industry, fracking, cattle ranching, commercial fishing, mining and agribusiness. The Acton Institute post even goes so far as to defend the Albert Tar Sands industry for being environmentally responsible. This defense of those who destroy and disregard the environment is nothing new for the Acton Institute, especially since the Acton Institute has received at least $315,000 from ExxonMobil to deny climate change.
The third reason why the Acton Institute made our far right list this week, was their eulogizing of the hate mongering White Supremacist Rush Limbaugh. The Acton Institute particularly shared Rush Limbaugh’s hatred of Socialism.
Our last example for this week in West Michigan Far Right Watch is the American Patriot Council. In a recent blog post, the American Patriot Council denounced Andrew Cuomo for COVID deaths of nursing home residents. While we think that Cuomo deserves to be scrutinized for this issue, it is a bit hypocritical for the American Patriot Council to call out politicians for such actions, when they have consistently called the COVID crisis a hoax and refuse to wear masks in support of public health. This was the American Patriot Council’s motive for organizing anti-lock down protests in Lansing and Grand Rapids last year. Their blog post on this topic is even more absurd by promoting the candidacy of Ryan Kelley for Governor, especially considering the blog post was written by either Kelley or AMC co-founder Jason Howland.
Over the next 8 weeks, we will be posting a summary of the class we are facilitating on US Social Movements. These posts will include a summary of the discussion, the questions we presented to frame each social movement that is discussed, a timeline and additional books that are relevant to each movement.
In the 4th week of the class on US social movements, we looked at the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, by reading chapter 18 from Zinn’s book, entitled, The Impossible Victory: Vietnam! The first part of the chapter was devoted to US policy towards Vietnam and in South East Asia after WWII. The US had sided with the French in maintaining their colony in Vietnam, which included providing weapons, then military advisors and eventually US soldiers to fight against the Vietcong. Some people in the class accurately identified what US policy towards Vietnam was, an imperialist policy.
The second part of chapter 18 from Zinn’s book talked about the ways in which people opposed the war and how it became a powerful movement in just a few years. Some of the earliest forms of resistance were from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, encouraging other Black students to not enlist in the military and to resist the draft. People also identified the large marches that took place during both the Johnson and Nixon administrations, along with boycotts, civil disobedience and the powerful GI resistance movement to the war. Some of the participants had watched the film Sir, No, Sir, which provides a deep look into the various ways that US soldiers resisted participating in the killing of the Vietnamese people.
Like we have done in pervious posts, we used our 8 framing questions for discussion during the 4th class and a timeline for this movement.
- What are the systems of power and oppression that existed during the period of history being discussed, and more importantly, what were the systems of power and oppression that the social movement was confronting, challenging or seeking to dismantle? Ending US imperialism was the primary system of power, but it was also combined with Capitalism, Colonialism and White Supremacy.
- What else was happening in the country or around the world that may have influenced how both the systems of power/oppression and the social movement responded? The group talked about the growing international anti-colonial movement, the broader pattern of US imperialism in other countries and how the Civil Rights/Black freedom Struggle had influenced the Anti-Vietnam War Movement.
- In what way(s) did the social movement organize itself. Centralized, decentralized, autonomous, etc. Participants recognized that most organizing was decentralized, with numerous groups and communities all across the US, that were involved in a variety of anti-war organizing efforts.
- What were the goal(s), strategies and tactics of the social movement? The main goal was to end the war, although some groups sought to end US militarism and US imperialism. Some strategies employed were economic, others were the use of Direct Action, plus the always necessary media and education strategy. Tactics utilized were draft resistance, the burning of draft cards, draft resisters going to Canada, churches offering sanctuary to draft resisters, GI newspapers, soldiers going AWOL, marches, sit ins, teach-ins, campus organizing, speeches, poetry, music and getting high profile people involved in the anti-war effort.
- How did the system of power/oppression push back against the demands and gains made by the social movement? Some of the most common forms of push back from systems of power were to marginalize anti-war organizers, character assassination, arresting people, giving heavy fines and longer jail sentences, police violence against protesters, expelling students from campus and tying people up in long/expensive court battles.
- Were their intersectional aspects of the struggle the social movement was engaged in? As was mentioned earlier, there was the Civil Rights/Black Freedom Struggle’s influence on the anti-war movement, but there was also influence from the growing feminist movement, the gay liberation movement and the broader peace/countercultural movement as well.
- How did the social movement impact other existing or future social movements? The Anti-Vietnam War Movement certainly impacted those involved in the Civil Rights Movement, with people like Dr. King who eventually became a major critic of the war, as well as influencing other movements, like the gay liberation movement to be more militant in its approach.
- How was the social movement compromised or co-opted, and by which external forces were they compromised or co-opted? Like most movements, partisan politics sought to co-opt people with so-called “peace candidates.” There were also attempts to co-opt the movement with the idea of dropping out of society, which was advocated by White, economically privileged people, along with an emphasis on personal peace, that often did not encourage resistance to war.
Here are some addition resources to further explore the Anti-Vietnam War Movement:
Vietnam: the last war the US lost, by Joe Allen
A People’s History of the Vietnam War, by Jonathan Neale
The Phoenix Program, by Douglas Valentine
The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism, by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman
Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, by Howard Zinn
Waiting for an Army to Die: The Tragedy of Agent Orange, by Fred Wilcox
Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions since WWII, by William Blum
The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, by Alfred McCoy
Cambodia: 1975 – 1982, by Michael Vickery
The Pentagon Papers, published by the New York Times
Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and U.S. Political Culture, by Noam Chomsky
The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam, by Jerry Lembcke
Winter Soldiers: An Oral History of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, by Richard Stacewicz
American Insurgents: A Brief History of American Anti-Imperialism, by Richard Seymour
Desertion and The American Soldier: 1776 – 2006, by Robert Fantina
Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism, by L.A. Kauffman
Films
Winter Soldier
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
The Camden 28
Investigation of a Flame
Sir, No, Sir
Another DeVos investment venture: More for the Capitalist Class, to hell with everyone else
On Sunday, the business-centered publication MiBiz, posted a story about a new Capital Investment Fund that is being spearheaded by Doug & Maria DeVos.
According to MiBiz, “The DeVoses’ Continuum Ventures LLC has partnered with Grand Rapids-based Auxo Investment Partners to manage the new Michigan Opportunity Fund.” For those unfamiliar with Continuum Ventures LLC, it is the investment company for Doug & Maria DeVos, their children and their children’s spouses.
The focus of the DeVos investment company, Continuum Ventures LLC, is reflected on their website, with these three areas of focus:
- Business: Focused on business ownership and investments that drive mutual benefit and value to our customers, employees, communities and shareholders.
- Community: Committed to helping people realize their potential and building vibrant communities for a better tomorrow.
- Civic Engagement: Engaged champion and advocate for good public policy that breaks down barriers that inhibit success and advancement of people.
It is worth deconstructing these three areas. When the DeVos family says Business and Community, they really mean the business community. Their commitment to wealth accumulation has been demonstrated for decades, initially though the Amway Corporation, then RDV Corporation, the Windquest Group, DP Fox Ventures and CWD Real Estate Investment, just to name a few. The DeVos family didn’t amass billions over the years because they care about community the amassed their wealth by exploring workers, using their Amway pyramid scheme and by buying political candidates to further their interests. When the DeVos family says Civic Engagement, they really mean buying politicians who will implement public policy that benefits their interests and the other members of the Capitalist Class. During the last election cycle, the DeVos family contributed millions to the GOP, including substantial contributions to the re-election of Donald Trump. See more details in our publication A DeVos Family Reader at this link. https://griid.org/reports/
In the MiBiz article, Doug DeVos is quoted as saying he wants to support businesses financially and by connecting them to other community partners, which means to other people who are part of the Capitalist Class and the Grand Rapids Area Power Structure.
Two groups that DeVos cites in the article are the West Michigan Policy Forum, where he serves on the board of directors, and the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. GRIID has been monitoring both of the groups for more than a decade and these two groups have demonstrated over the over how they are committed to wealth accumulation for the Capitalist Class while promoting public policy that disproportionately harms workers, the Black Community and other communities of color.
One of the initial investors in the Michigan Opportunity Fund is Roger Penske, the 83-year-old chairman of Bloomfield Township-based Penske Corp. According to OpenSecrets.org, Roger Penske has also contributed millions to the Republican Party, which is a clear indicator to where his allegiances are……with the Capitalist Class. Don’t be fooled by this new DeVos investment fund and their claims to care about community. Looking at their track record should tell us who they consider community and who they don’t really consider at all.
That’s 1 down and lots to go in the West Michigan Radio Market: On the Death of Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh is Dead, and that is a good thing, because it means that there is one less radio show in West Michigan that does not promote hate, White Supremacy, misogyny, ablism and transphobia from a cop apologist that defended the brutal economic system of Capitalism.
Groups like Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting had monitored Rush Limbaugh’s show content for years, especially after the radio conglomerate Clear Channel syndicated his show so that people all across the country would be subjected to his vile on a daily basis.
In 2012, GRIID began a campaign to get Rush Limbaugh off of WOOD Radio here in Grand Rapids. This campaign included the targeting of advertisers on WOOD Radio, and it included a regular Dump Rush protest outside of the offices of Clear Channel on Monroe Center. It is interesting to note, that while we were doing this campaign, the WOOD Radio station manager would say that their station was just trying to provide a wide range of perspectives. There was no range of perspectives, since it was all far right hate speech!
WOOD Radio has been broadcasting Rush Limbaugh and other far right shock jocks for more than a decade, which means that the hate-filled content has infected this community. West Michigan has a long history of White Supremacy and WOOD Radio has contributed to fostering White Supremacist values, values that have long term consequences to justify poverty, housing discrimination, inadequate health care and educational opportunities to Black, Indigenous and other communities of Color in West Michigan.
I said one down in the headline, because in this radio market there are also numerous other far right proponents of White Supremacy radio programs that air in this market on a daily basis. WOOD Radio alone airs Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, Dave Ramsey and other lesser-known proponents of hate speech and White Supremacy. Like any forms of hate speech and platforms for White Supremacy, they can be fought and shut down.
Rush Limbaugh was one of the court jesters of the US Empire and I will not mourn his death, instead I will celebrate the fact that there is one less amplified voice for hate and White Supremacy.
AmplifyGR project for 1601 Madison SE still has yet to name the business involved in this project, even though they are asking for public funds
In early December, MLive reported that AmplifyGR and it’s development partner Rockford Construction would be asking the City of Grand Rapids to provide $2.2 million of public money for a demolition of a vacant building at 1601 Madison SE, which sits on a 10 acre lot.
In that same MLive article, it was reported that a new business would be building at that 1601 Madison SE location, but that the business had not yet been named. The MLive article also quoted the Director of AmplifyGR as saying, “We’re hoping that by the end of the year we can be a little bit more public with that. So hopefully it’s a matter of weeks and not months.”
AmplifyGR has also presented information about the proposed project for 1601 Madison SE, to the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority and the Fiscal Committee. Today, on Wednesday February the 17th, they will present the same information to the Southtown Corridor Improvement Authority, as can be see on pages 20 – 44 of the Southtown Corridor Improvement Authority agenda packet.
In this most recent presentation by AmplifyGR and Rockford Construction, they still have yet to name the future business that will be located at 1601 Madison SE, despite the fact that the Director of AmplifyGR stated over tow months ago that it might be just a matter of weeks before they go public with that information.
Since the AmplifyGR/Rockford Construction project will be using public money, the public most definitely has a right to know which business will be occupying 1601 Madison SE. The Southtown Corridor Improvement Authority presentation for this Wednesday, still does not include any information as the the name of the business that will occupy 1601 Madison SE. The only new information included in the Southtown Corridor Improvement Authority agenda packet for February 17, can be seen on page 24. Here, shown above, you can see that the applicant for the project is Kurt Hassberger, representing 1601 Madison LLC and that Rockford Construction will be the General Contractor for the project.
In looking up 1601 Madison LLC, it was an entity that was registered in 2015. The Agent is listed as Kurt Hassberger and the address for 1601 Madison LLC is listed as 601 FIRST ST, GRAND RAPIDS MI 49504. The thing is, 601 First St NW is the address for Rockford Construction. Now, when we first reported on the DeVos-created AmplifyGR entity, we noted that all of the properties that Rockford Construction had purchased in the Cottage Grove Industrial Area, were properties that were owned by various LLCs owned by Rockford Construction, shown here on the right.
We then noted in a June 26th, 2017 article, that Rockford Construction spent $1,888,500 on the 1601 Madison SE property, which is less than the cost of the $2.2 million they are asking for from the Brownfield Development Authority.
Again, where public funding is involved, people should be demanding complete transparency, as in the case with the AmplifyGR/Rockford Construction project at 1601 Madison SE.
When the Grand Rapids news media doesn’t hold those in power accountable: A WOOD TV 8 fluff piece on the City Manager
Last Thursday, under the banner of Black History Month, WOOD TV 8 ran a story about Grand Rapids City Manager and emphasized hat he is the first Black City Manager in Grand Rapids.
Had the story centered on why Washington was the first Black City Manager, then the story would have ultimately led to channel 8 having to come to terms with structural racism in Grand Rapids.
However, the WOOD TV 8 story didn’t take that approach, instead it was content with looking at the person of Mark Washington, rather than the policies he has implemented since becoming the City’s Manager in 2018.
Now, I’m not saying that the person history of Grand Rapids City officials is irrelevant, but the problem with journalism focusing on personalities instead of policies, often removes them from any responsibility to hold those who have government power accountable.
MLive took a similar approach in 2018, when they provided a summary of the 8 years that Greg Sundstrom had been the City Manager. In that article we wrote about the former City Manager, we referred to the MLive article as a pff piece about the person who has the most political power in Grand Rapids. The same can be said about the story that channel 8 aired last Thursday…….it was a puff piece that did not provide any serious assessment of the policies and practices that the Grand Rapids City government has adopted since Mark Washington became the City Manager.
Journalism’s primary function should always be about the business of holding those in power accountable – those with political and economic power. This is not what the channel 8 story set out to do, even though there were openings for that to happen.
For instance, about half way through the WOOD TV 8, it states:
First, the pandemic struck, exposing racial disparities in its effects. Then in May, George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police. On May 30, outrage over his death spilled over onto the streets of Grand Rapids when a riot broke out.
Then the channel 8 story quotes Washington saying:
“We wrestle with the issue of making sure the department is appropriately funded and there’s this contingency that continues to want to see reduced resources in policing, reallocated to other parts of the organization or the community.”
Here, WOOD TV 8 missed the opportunity to either have another source on the issues related to the May 30th rebellion or those calling for Defunding the GRPD. Channel 8 also failed to acknowledge that it was Mark Washington and the Grand Rapids City Attorney, which undermined the community pressure to defund the police department. Several City Commissioners were in the process of proposing some fundings cuts, but Washington and the City Attorney stepped in to make sure that didn’t happen, as we reported in early July of last year. Just a few weeks after that, the City Manager again made an announcement (along with Chief Payne), about the new GRPD Strategic Plan and some bureaucratic side-stepping to completely avoid having to address the community call for defunding the GRPD.
This is the kind of stories that the dominant news media in this market need to pursue, not fluff pieces under the guise of honoring Black History Month. People who are in local government, whose wages are paid by the public should be held accountable to the public, but that will be difficult to do if the dominant news sources in this city do not provide an ongoing assessment and analysis of what Grand Rapids City officials are doing.
Interview with the Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network
It has been eleven months since the Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network set out to do amazing things in this community. We interviewed them in March of 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, without really knowing what would happen.
Nearly a year later, and the Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network is not only going strong, it has expanded, built more capacity and brought in more volunteers to practice Mutual Aid for the countless number of individuals and families that have been deeply impacted by the COVID crisis.
We were able to do another interview, with two of the volunteer organizers, Amy and Julie. The video is 47 minutes long and below are the questions that we asked them. If you want to get involved and/or contribute, you can go to https://www.facebook.com/GRAMutAid. To donated click here tinyurl.com/GGRMutualAid.
- Can you talk a bit about how the Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network got started?
- How is the work organized and what are the values that make up the work of Mutual Aid?
- As volunteer organizers, what impact has this work had on the both of you?
- Since March of 2020, you have raised over $145,000. Can you talk about how the funds get distributed and who makes the decisions?
- What makes GRAMAN different than the work of a non-profit or social service agency?
- GRAMAN often shares information from groups like Defund the GRPD or the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union. Is challenging systems of power and oppression also part of what GRAMAN is all about?
- GRAMAN often says things like, All we need is right here in our community. Can you talk about what this means and why it is a core value of the work?
Over the next 8 weeks, we will be posting a summary of the class we are facilitating on US Social Movements. These posts will include a summary of the discussion, the questions we presented to frame each social movement that is discussed, a timeline and additional books that are relevant to each movement.
In the 3rd week of the class on US social movements, we looked at the 19th Century US Labor Movement, by reading chapter chapter 11 from Zinn’s book, entitled, Robber Barons and Rebels.
The chapter begins by framing the massive wealth gap that existed in the US, particularly after the Civil War. Zinn discusses how the Capitalist Class amassed wealth, through fraud, through exploitation of workers and by collaborating with politicians to pass laws that would benefit their interests. One example, was the legal system’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment to give corporations personhood, even though it was originally written to provide equal protection under the law for Black people after chattel slavery was abolished.
The rest of the chapter primarily addresses what organized labor was doing to confront the Robber Barons and the evolving system of Capitalism in the US.
Like we have done in pervious posts, we used our 8 framing questions for discussion during the 3rd class.
- What are the systems of power and oppression that existed during the period of history being discussed, and more importantly, what were the systems of power and oppression that the social movement was confronting, challenging or seeking to dismantle? People clearly identified the system of Capitalism as being the primarily system of oppression against workers, but they also talked about human rights and made clear that many of the unions excluded Black people from joining unions, which was a reflection of how deeply embedded White Supremacy was in the US Labor movement.
- What else was happening in the country or around the world that may have influenced how both the systems of power/oppression and the social movement responded? The group discussed how the US push to further Settler Colonial expansion was taking place, the construction of the railroads, immigration policy, specifically towards the Chinese and how US imperialist expansion in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines impacted working class people.
- In what way(s) did the social movement organize itself. Centralized, decentralized, autonomous, etc. Unions tended to be more centralized in their style of organizing, particularly with craft unions, although there were groups like the IWW who were more autonomous in their organizing approach, where anyone who wasn’t a boss or part of the Capitalist Class could join.
- What were the goal(s), strategies and tactics of the social movement? Unions inherently want to create more democracy in the work place, around wages, working conditions, etc. Only a few unions had the goal to dismantle Capitalism, specifically the IWW or unions that had a more socialist or anarchist critique. The tactics that were used involved strikes, boycott, the creation of worker centered media, attempts to create a worker-centered political party, plus the creation of cooperatives and co-op structures. The group also talked about how unions did not have a problem with the use of force and that the US Labor Movement had a fairly bloody history, particularly because of the types of repression that the Capitalist Class used. The group also talked a bit about the Haymarket Uprising and how it impacted worker organizing, particularly away from business unionism to a socialist or anarchist critique of Capitalism.
- How did the system of power/oppression push back against the demands and gains made by the social movement? The Capitalist Class always tried to undermine or suppress union organizing, sometimes by hiring armed thugs like the Pinkertons or getting politicians to bring in the military to suppress worker uprisings. Industrialists also tried to break strikes by using scab labor, thus pitting workers against each other. It was also mentioned that the Capitalist Class was able to utilize the dominant newspapers to defend the Capitalist Class, especially since most larger newspapers were owned by members of that class.
- Were their intersectional aspects of the struggle the social movement was engaged in? As was mentioned earlier, there were only a few unions who had a more intersectional approach to labor organizing, like the IWW. Too many unions, like the American Federal of Labor were business unions, which were very accommodating to the Capitalist Class.
- How did the social movement impact other existing or future social movements? The US Labor Movement did demonstrate the potential power that organized workers can have, particularly those that had a more socialist or anarchist orientation. We discussed how an organizer like Eugene Debs had evolved during his lifetime, away from craft unionism to a strong critique of Capitalism.
- How was the social movement compromised or co-opted, and by which external forces were they compromised or co-opted? Here we discussed how the worker-centered political parties were often co-opted by the Democrats, how business unions were inherently coopted by the Capitalist Class and how the exclusion of Black people and women in most of the unions at that time worked in favor of those in power.
Here are some addition resources to further explore the US Labor Movement:
100 Years of Labor in the USA, by Daniel Guerin
The History of the Standard Oil Company, by Ida M. Tarbell
The Taming of the American Crowd: From the Stamp Riots to Shopping Sprees, by Al Sandine
From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend: A Short, Illustrated History of Labor in the US, by Priscilla Mural & A.B. Chitty
Taking Care of Business: Samuel Gompers, George Meany, Lane Kirkland and the Tragedy of American Labor, by Paul Buhle
The Fall of the House of Labor, by David Montgomery
Class War USA: Dispatches from Workers Struggles in American History, by Brandon Weber
For All People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America, by John Curl
Strike! How the Furniture Workers Strike of 1911 Changed Grand Rapids, by Jeffrey Kleiman
Capitalism: A Structural Genocide, by Garry Leech
The 1937 Woolworth’s Sit-Down: Women Strikers Occupy Chain Store, Win Big, by Dana Frank
Wobblies! A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World, edited by Paul Buhle & Nicole Schulman
Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built America, by Premilla Nadasen
Selling Free Enterprise: The Business Assault on Labor and Liberalism 1945 – 1960, by Elizabeth Fones-Wolf
Defending Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Old South, by Paul Finkelman
A History of America in Ten Strikes, by Eric Loomis
A History of the Labor Movement in the US, by Philip Foner
Haymarket Scrapbook, Edited by Franklin Rosemont & David Roediger
The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class, by David Roediger
Corporations Are Not People, by Jeffrey Clements
The Rich Don’t Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph Over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class 1900 – 1970, by Sam Pizzigati
The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth, by Steve Fraser
A People’s History of Poverty in America, by Stephen Pimpare
All Labor Has Dignity: Martin Luther King Jr., edited by Michael Honey
Strike! By Jeremy Bretcher
Unelected Downtown Development Authority gives more public money to downtown businesses for outdoor dining in the middle of the winter and amidst the pandemic
On Wednesday, WOOD TV8 reported that the Downtown Development Authority, allocated an additional $250,000 to winterize outdoor dinning in downtown Grand Rapids.
The funding for this project has already reached $625,000, since it was started in October of 2020. The money for the Winter Ready Grants comes directly from the City of Grand Rapids, which has set aside $1 million in economic relief, all of which is reflected in the DDA agenda for the February 10th meeting.
The WOOD TV8 story also includes a list of downtown restaurants that have benefited from this program.
Now, in one sense it may appear that the Downtown Development Authority’s (DDA) decision to provide these funds to restaurants who have been impacted from the COVID crisis, since we know that the restaurant sector has been hit hard with statewide orders making it either illegal to serve food indoors or to limit the amount of patrons in these establishments.
But here is the thing, the DDA is using public money from the City of Grand Rapids, taxpayer money, yet the public has no say in how this money is being allocated. On top of the fact that the public has no say in how public money is being used, there are also issues like the hundreds who have no housing, thousands of families that are facing eviction, thousands of families who are struggling to afford food, utilities and employment, also in the midst of this pandemic.
So, there are really two issues at stake here. First, there is the issue of the public being virtually excluded from making decisions about how this COVID relief money is being used. Would the public, if given the opportunity to really have a say in these matters.- which would probably require the city to adopt a Participatory Budgeting process – would the public decide that outdoor dinning in the middle of the winter be a priority or the housing, food and utility needs of thousands of families be the priority?
The other important issue, which is rarely discussed in the news media, is the fact that the group of people making these decision in regards to downtown Grand Rapids, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), is a body of unelected people who are appointed by the City, with most of those on the DDA Board representing systems of power. Here is a list of who is currently on the DDA Board, which entities they represent (as listed on the DDA site) and which other entities they are involved in that impact their decision making in this role.
- Mayor Rosalynn Bliss
- Richard Winn – Amway Hotel Corporation, also sits on the board of the Convention Arena Authority
- Luis Avila – Varnum Law Firm
- Kayem Dunn – Professional Consultant
- Jermale Eddie – Owner of Malamiah Juice Bar
- Greg McNeilly – Winquest Group (DeVos), also is the President of the DeVos created Michigan Freedom Fund
- Jim Talen – former Kent County Commissioner
- Diana Sieger – Grand Rapids Community Foundation
- Jen Schottke – ABC Western Michigan (business), also is on the Board of the Grand Rapids Public Schools and has received sizable campaign support from the GR Chamber of Commerce and the Secchia family since 2016.
As long as unelected boards are allowed to exist in this city, it just perpetuates less accountability over how public money is spent.
The latest posting from the American Patriot Council, further demonstrates both their loyalty to Donald Trump and their penchant for distorting the truth.
On February 9th, the American Patriot Council post a short piece entitled, FBI Plays Pickle with Truth about Mostly Peaceful Protests At the Capitol.
Despite their misapplied use of a baseball term, the American Patriot Council article is primarily a full on attempt to defend by Donald Trump and those who stormed the US Capitol building on January 6th. Early on in the article it states:
A few bad actors assaulted police, broke windows, and entered the building before police opened the barrier, letting hundreds more inside. The problem for the FBI, is that they have already alleged that some of the protesters planned an “insurrection” in advance. The FBI has vowed to take a hard stance against anyone involved on the 6th. This new, hard line against protestors has already raised questions because they have largely done nothing as terror groups like Antifa and BLM have been rioting steadily since last May. Now, even more questions arise as many ask: if Trump incited the few bad actors on January 6, how did protesters plan it in advance?
Such claims are worth deconstructing. The American Patriot Council writer uses the same phrase – a few bad apples – that has been presented by systems of power and police apologists, whenever police murder Black people. The next sentence demonstrates how morally bankrupt the phrase – a few bad apples – really is, since the American Patriot Council writer then writes, assaulted police, broke windows, and entered the building before police opened the barrier, letting hundreds more inside. Some of the protesters did indeed assault cops and destroyed property, but the writer fails to acknowledge that the protestors also forced their way into the building, thus “letting hundreds more inside.” If the hundreds more were able to enter the US Capitol because other protesters assaulted cops, which included hitting them and knocking them down, then those who entered are also complicit with these assaults by the fact they only enter because of the assaults.
The other major point of misinformation in the American Patriot Council post is the following:
This new, hard line against protestors has already raised questions because they have largely done nothing as terror groups like Antifa and BLM have been rioting steadily since last May.
White Supremacists and White Nationalists have long been known to be the most threatening to people in the US, particularly towards Black, Indigenous and other communities of color. Hell, even the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have identified these groups as representing domestic terrorism. However, the FBI nor the DHS should be considered credible sources on this matter, since both of the groups have a history of targeting Black, Indigenous and other communities of color. More recently, the FBI has targeted, what they refer to as “Black extremist groups”, and historically Black militants and moderates have been tracked by the US government, from Marcus Garvey to Dr. King. In addition, the FBI created a program named COINTELPRO, which was used to monitor, harass, infiltrate and even assassinated Black Freedom Struggle leaders in the 1960s and 70s. (See The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States, by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall.) The Department of Homeland Security, which was created after 9/11, has done a great deal to monitor, suppress and persecute Black, Indigenous and Arab Americans, a practice which was codified after the Patriot Act was adopted in October of 2001.
The American Patriot Council then goes on to say that law enforcement groups have, “done nothing as terror groups like Antifa and BLM have been rioting steadily since last May.” First of all this is patently false. Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies have engaged in significant repression of Black Lives Matter and antifa groups since last May. Even in Grand Rapids, the level of harassment and intimidation against those who have been protesting since the May 30th rebellion is significant, as we have documented.
In communities like Portland, the level of state repression against groups has been significant, which even included federal agents in unmarked vehicles attacking and arresting people involved in the anti-White Supremacy and anti-police brutality protests. Not only are these claims false, we have noted in previous posts that the American Patriot Council has gone out of their way to denounce Black Lives Matter groups, even referring to them as fascists in a video they posted in November.
The rest of the very short and not very well written post from the American Patriot Council consists of; 1) the use of ridiculous language like “radicals in Congress”, which is just code for anyone who didn’t agree with Trump; and 2) a weak argument that Trump was not communicating with those who attacked the US Capitol prior to the January 6th action and that he did not incite them to attack the US Capitol. If people are looking for a connection to the far right and the Trump administration, which have been in communication during the entire four years that Trump was President, then I would suggest you read the newly published book by Brendan O’Connor, Blood Red Lines: How Nativism Fuels the Right.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 