Why we can’t go back to the way things were in Grand Rapids: Part V – Demand Housing Justice
In April, we posted an article arguing that in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we could not return to normal. In early May, we posted Part II in this series, focusing on the Food System and then in late May, we wrote Part III, which focuses on labor and a new economy. In Part IV, our focus was on Climate Justice, with an emphasis on White Supremacy. In today’s post we want to look at housing and why we can’t go back to normal.
One common theme in each of these posts was that the pandemic exposed the serious flaws in Capitalism and how millions in the US are clearly considered expendable by the systems of power and oppression.
In addition, it is important to acknowledge that you cannot achieve housing justice without economic justice, racial justice and gender justice. In fact, you cannot achieve housing justice within the current political climate which rewards “the market”, but doesn’t care about the well being of people.
Right now, all across the US and in Gran Rapids, thousands of families are facing the possibility of eviction. The COVID 19 pandemic has caused thousands of people in Grand Rapids to lose their jobs, plus many families are taking care of children, since many school districts have gone to online instruction. Parents are home with their children, some working and some not working. Despite the difficulty that is compounded by the pandemic, landlords and property management companies are wanting to make profits. As was said earlier, the pandemic has exposed the brutality of the market, the brutality of capitalism, and why we can’t go back to the way things were before.
What we are proposing in this article is nothing new, since it has been practiced in many communities and societies throughout the world, as it relates to housing justice.
We have to move away from this idea that housing should be dictated by the market. Housing, like other basic needs, should not be left up to the market, but should be something that everyone has access to. Housing is not only a right for individuals and families, but it should be something that is shared and is available to all. Like food, health care, education and other basic necessities, housing should not be a commodity, instead housing should be practiced as a necessary component of what it means to be human. The fact that thousands are homeless or are experiencing housing insecurity in the Grand Rapids area is criminal.
Another important point is that the history of housing in Grand Rapids begins with the theft of land from indigenous people by those practicing Settler Colonialism. In fact, throughout the history of this community, housing has always been intertwined with White Supremacy, classism, displacement and gentrification, as we have documented in our post entitled Housing Justice through a Historic and Intersectional Lens: Looking back, imagining forward and fighting right now.
However, until we can move as a society away from market-based housing to housing justice, there are things that people can do to that will get us to housing justice.
- We need to stop allowing public money, in the form of tax breaks or subsidies, to go to housing developers. Literally millions of dollars are given to developers in the form of tax breaks or subsidies in Grand Rapids on an annual basis. If housing, as we are constantly reminded, is driven by the market, then make developers foot the bill for new housing on their own. We don’t give home owners or renters the same benefits or incentives as we do for companies that construct housing.
- Redirect the public money that currently goes to developers and provide that public money to people who are facing housing insecurity. The City should set aside the amount of money that currently goes to developers – tax breaks, subsidies – and make it available for people who are struggling to pay their rent or maintain their mortgage. In addition, this pool of funds should not only be given to people who are facing housing insecurity, but this pool of public money should be allocated based on the collective decisions made by people who have previously benefitted from this fund……meaning those who make the decisions of how the public money gets used should be made up of people who are or have recently been housing insecure.
- There are currently lots of property in the Grand Rapids area, both residential and commercial, that people could occupy. Yes, I am advocating that people engage in squatting. Squatting is a long standing tradition in many countries and societies and the basic premise of squatting is that people are using buildings that are not occupied by other humans. See the book, The Autonomous City: A History of Urban Squatting, by Alex Vasudevan.
- We should promote more cooperative housing. There are a few cooperative housing ventures in Grand Rapids, but this way of living could be expanded. Cooperative housing can reduce housing costs for individuals and families, so that they are not spending a significant percent of their income on housing. In addition, cooperative housing promotes cooperation and can lead to people cooperating in other areas of life, like food, child care, transportation, education and work cooperatives.
People is Grand Rapids should seriously investigate and pursue the practice of Community Land Trusts. Community Land Trusts operate on the idea that people go in collectively to access land, homes and work spaces that are collectively owned and/or have written into the trusts that this land/property can never be gentrified, bought out by developers or used for unjust or unsustainable purposes. Community Land Trusts can include just 2 plots of land, a city block or larger. For more information on Community Land Trusts go to https://www.localhousingsolutions.org/act/housing-policy-library/community-land-trusts-overview/community-land-trusts/- One last strategy that people can employe is the creation of Tenant Unions. Tenant unions are a way for people to demonstrate their collective power by fighting for housing justice against exploitative landlords and property management companies. Tenant unions can fight for rent control, fight against unsafe housing conditions, fight against discriminatory and abusive property owners, plus they provide an opportunity to build community through mutual aid with other tenants. Earlier this year, a tenant union was formed in the greater Grand Rapids area, called the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union/Unión de inquilinos del área de Grand Rapids. In fact, this tenant union is hosting an in person meeting this Saturday, September 12 in Gran Rapids. For details, go to this link.
If we are serious about fighting displacement, gentrification and market-based housing companies, then these are some of the tactics/strategies that we can employe in the struggle for housing justice.
When the Labor Movement was more radical in Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is not unlike most of the US in many aspects of our history. The same can definitely be said about the labor movement.
Like much of the rest of the country, when the labor movement was more independent and autonomous from political parties, they tended to be more radical, meaning they fought for working people and their families.
The 8 hour work day struggle is generally connect to the 1886 Haymarket Uprising in Chicago, and rightly so (more on this later). However, the fight for 8 hours came decades before 1886, even in Grand Rapids.
An effort to organize for an 8 hour work day in Grand Rapids was actually adopted for city workers in 1867, but it was repealed the very next year. (The Story of Grand Rapids: A Narrative of Grand Rapids, Michigan, by Z.Z. Lydens)
Labor organizers were fighting to win a shortened work day as early as 1881. According to a story in the Grand Rapids Daily Eagle in 1881, workers were attempting to fight for a 10 hour work day. These efforts were eventually fought in a highly organized manner from the capitalist class, with the creation of the Grand Rapids Furniture Manufacturers Association, the first of its kind, in 1881.
However, the struggle for the 8 hour work day continued, despite the efforts of the furniture barons and Dutch immigrants embracing a protestant work ethic.
In 1886, there was threat of a major strike in Grand Rapids, according to the New York Times:
The threatened strike at Grand Rapids is finally averted, and to-day is given up to a holiday there. The employers accept eight hours as a day’s work with a corresponding reduction in wages on all workmen above $1 per day. On this basis an advance of 5 per cent is made, with the promise of as much more in two months. No question is raised over the employers’ announcement that they will run their factories in their own way, employing and discharging whom they please. These matters are expected to adjust themselves.
In addition to the threat of a strike by workers in 1886, Grand Rapids hosted an 8 hour a day/May Day parade in the downtown, only four years after the first May Day parade was held in New York City.
Local labor historian MichaelJohnston’s thesis, Non-Union Grand Rapids: 150 Years of the Big Lie, sheds some light on the organizing for an 8 hour work day that preceded the May 1886 parade.
“The Furniture WorkersProtective Association, under the skillful leadership of Charles Johnston, began agitating for an eight hour day at nine hours pay in March and succeeded in reducing the workday to eight hours a day for several weeks before and then after May 1, 1886. This May Day affair would be the largest labor action in the city prior to the great 1911 furniture strike and one of national significance.”
Johnston notes that all throughout March and leading up to June of 1886, there were efforts to organize walkouts at several Grand Rapids factories, to picket and even use the threat of violence in numerous instances. However, some union presidents advocated against such practices and Johnston cities this as maybe the first instance of where the term “Company Union” was given to the more mainstream unions in Grand Rapids.
However, not all unions adopted such complacent policies and there were plenty of recent immigrants to Grand Rapids who were much more open to socialist and anarchist approaches to organizing in the later part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. This was in part due to the city’s proximity to Chicago, which was in many ways the center of radical labor organizing.
Chicago not only was the place of the famous Haymarket Uprising, it was home to numerous militant socialist and anarchist groups that had been organizing amongst workers throughout the city and traveled throughout the Midwest, to places like Grand Rapids. Several of the people who were charged with “inciting violence” at the Haymarket Uprising, like August Spies and Albert Parsons, wrote and spoke frequently throughout the Midwest. August Spies even came to Grand Rapids on more than one occasion to share his views on radical organizing and anarchist politics. For a more detailed discussion of the Chicago/Grand Rapids connection we highly recommend the well researched zine entitled, Mob Work: Anarchists in Grand Rapids Vol. 1, published by Sprout Distro.
Both cable and horse car workers went on strike May 10, 1891, for higher wages and union contracts. The company began hiring scab workers immediately. As the week progressed, workers tried to keep cars from running, first by inducing others not to take their jobs, but later also by blocking the cars. As the strike continued, there were other actions taken by striking workers, including marches and attempts to shut down roads, like what happened on South Division one night, where workers placed a large iron bar across the tracks to prevent it from moving.
Probably the most famous labor strike in Grand Rapids history is the 1911 furniture workers strike. Over 6,000 workers went on strike in April of 1911 against poor wages, long hours and exploitative working conditions. The furniture barons responded by bringing in scab workers from out of town and to engage in a strategy of attrition, by wearing down the workers and holding out against their demands.
The strike lasted for several months and the workers did not win what they set out to accomplish with the strike, but the historic strike had a significant impact on relations between the working class and the capitalist class for decades to come. For more on the 1911 furniture workers strike see Part I and Part II from the Grand Rapids People’s History Project.
When social movements engage in direct action, it usually has a larger impact, often providing people with inspiration and examples of how they do not have to follow official channels to get what they want. The 1930s saw a revival of radical labor organizing in the aftermath of the Great Depression. Labor Unions became more militant again and used the power of strikes, along with what was known as a wildcat strike, where workers would occupy their place of employment so as to prevent companies from using scab labor. One of the most famous examples of a wildcat strike took place in Flint in 1936-37.
The labor radicalism seen in Flint had a direct impact in Grand Rapids. In the Spring of 1937 the UAW called for strikes at the Robert Irwin Co., the Macey Co., and Irwin Seating, which involved roughly 1,000 workers over a five week period. In September of that same year more strikes would break out at the Furniture Shops of America, John Widdicomb, Grand Rapids Chair and other furniture factories. In each of these instances the union got a closed shop contract, a check-off procedure and wages increases.
After a failed attempt to organize a union at the Kelvinator plant, the UAW tried again in 1937 and won their first contract, which included the recognition of the union and wage increases. Known as Local 206, this UAW organizing effort became a model for many of the other labor organizing efforts across the city.
In some cases workers defied an anti-picketing injunction that the local courts imposed and many workers went to jail for brief periods in order to win labor contracts and build worker power from the ground up. In the photo included here, you see striking workers being booked at the Kent County Jail in June of 1937.
Each of these examples of labor organizing in Grand Rapids continued to build upon the growing push for workers to join unions. After the UAW and the CIO began organizing in Grand Rapids, union membership grew significantly. However, union leadership at the national level cut a deal with business leaders and the Roosevelt administration and agreed to not strike while the US was involved in World War II.
Then in November 1945, the UAW called its first major strike against GM since the company was unionized in 1937. Nearly a quarter of a million men walked out. In Grand Rapids, this same dynamic began where workers who had years of frustrations during the no-strike pledge of WWII began to challenge the capitalist class by engaging in walk outs and strikes.
In 1946, workers at the UAW Local 730 at the GM plant in Wyoming, Michigan were part of the national UAW strike that lasted for 113 days. (see photos above and below, sourced from The Story of the UAW Region 1-D) The UAW striking workers were fighting for better wages, pensions and improved working conditions, all of which were denied them during the no-strike pledge during WWII.
The business community began applying more pressure on the federal government in order to deal with the “pesky union.” There were two major factors that hurt organized labor after WWII, the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which made it illegal for workers to strike and the McCarthy anti-communist purges, which purged most of the radical elements of the labor movement.
Since then, the US labor movement has declined, with less than 10% of the labor force as part of a union throughout the US. The same thing has been true in Grand Rapids, where union membership has decline for decades, while union contributions to the Democratic Party have increased.
There are examples of labor organizing in more recent decades that reflect a more radical element of the labor movement, but overall the labor movement has become an empty shell of its former self, despite the fact that workplace organizing is still one of the most effective ways to bring about significant change and to demonstrate people power.
We were recently able to access the 2018 990 documents from the various DeVos family foundations, through GuideStar.org. These foundations include, the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation, the Dick & Betsy DeVos Foundation, the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation, the Dan & Pamela DeVos Foundation and the CDV5 Foundation.
We have been tracking the DeVos family foundations for years, since it provides useful information on how the family strategically uses their money to influence the world around us. It is important to recognize that when people generally think of philanthropy, they think of money going from those with tremendous wealth to non-profits who provide needed services in the community. While there is some truth to this, what we will demonstrate in this series of articles, is that the DeVos family uses their foundation money to primarily wage ideological and class warfare.
In Part I of this series, we looked at how the DeVos family foundation funded and influenced educational institutions in West Michigan and across the US. In Part II, we looked at how the DeVos family foundations funded far right Christian organizations, and in today’s post we want to take a look at how these same foundation have funded Think Tanks and other groups that influence public policy, along with organizations that practice far right and Neoliberal policies. In Part III, we looked how the DeVos foundations are funding far right think tanks and other public policy influencing organizations. In Part IV, we looked at how much the DeVos foundations have contributed to organizations which they have created themselves during the 2018 fiscal year alone.
In today’s post, we will look at which non-profits in Grand Rapids received funding from the DeVos foundations in 2018, and how that prevents them from challenging power and oppression in this community.
It is important to point out that the following non-profits provide services to individuals and families that have been marginalized in this community. A great deal of the marginalization is rooted in poverty, where families struggle to feed, house and provided the basic necessities required to have a full life.
What is interesting about this dynamic with non-profits who provides basic social services, is that the DeVos family has spent millions of dollars over several decades to fund think tanks that create policies that do serious harm to families, and fund candidates who pass legislation that enacts the harmful policies that the think tanks created. Therefore, the DeVos family funds public policy that harms families and then contributes to non-profits who provide social services to families who have been harmed by the very policies the DeVos family has financed. The main difference in this process is that the non-profits that the DeVos family funds generally do not challenge the public policies that the DeVos money has financed in the first place. In other words, there is no systemic analysis or efforts on the part of these non-profits to dismantle the root causes of the issues they are dealing with – housing, refugees, disabilities and hunger.
To be clear, these organization provide charity work, but little justice work. More often than not, these organization are a buffer between people who are marginalized and the systems of power and oppression that caused the very marginalization people are facing.
Inner City Christian Federation (ICCF) – $1,757,500 – ICCF using language in the mission statement, such as Housing Justice, and they do build homes for families who are experiencing poverty. However, there is no real commitment to ending poverty or commitment to a living wages or to challenging the systems of capitalism and White Supremacy, which are at the root of housing injustice, displacement and gentrification. ICCF is also working with AmplifyGR, the DeVos-created entity, which bought up millions of dollars of property to develop before even telling residents what they were up to. In a neighborhood where I lived for 27 years, ICCF also bought up land and displaced families, despite previously committing to not displacing families in the Wealthy/Jefferson area of Grand Rapids.
Hope Network – $857,500 – Hope Network claims to be advocates for those who have serious injuries and need long-term therapy or permanent assistance from accidents that have caused significant disabilities. Hope Network does practice some form of disability rights, but they do not promote disability justice, plus they do not pay most of their staff a living wage.
Bethany Christian Services – $815,000 – Bethany Christian Services serves vulnerable kids in the US, refugees, immigrants and they do international adoption. However, Bethany does not challenge systemic or structural racism, they do not question the economic system of capitalism and they do not question US foreign policy, which contributes significantly to the creation of refugees and immigrants around the world.
Kids Food Basket – $607,500 – Kids Food Basket provides food to school age children in West Michigan. However, despite KFB’s claim that they want to end hunger, no where in their mission or work do they have a plan to dismantle poverty or to challenge the system of capitalism, particularly in the food system.
Next Step of West Michigan – $365,000 – Next Step of West Michigan does construction and property maintenance work, hiring men and women coming out of rehab or prison. This non-profit does not question or challenge capitalism or the Prison Industrial Complex.
Guiding Light Mission Inc. – $241,000 – The Guiding Light Mission provides temporary , emergency housing for people who are experiencing homelessness. They do not challenge the market-driven housing system or advocate for housing justice or an end to the root causes of homelessness.
Mel Trotter Ministries – $126,000 – Mel Trotter Ministries, like Guiding Light Mission, provides temporary/emergency housing for people who are experiencing homelessness, but they do not challenge the market-driven housing system or advocate for housing justice or an end to the root causes of homelessness.
The DeVos family foundations contribute to each of these local non-profits, and many more, precisely because these non-profits do not challenge systems of power and oppression. Whether or not there is any clear mandate from the DeVos family foundations about not challenging systems of power and oppression, the fact remains that these groups do not challenge systems of power and oppression, thus the DeVos family foundation money is ultimately hush money.
I received a misleading political ad in the mail today, saying a State Representative voted to defund the police
One of the things I hate about election cycles are the constant barrage of political ads, most of which are filled with half-truths, misinformation or outright lies.
The irony of political ads is that most of the campaign money, money that candidates or Political Action Committee (PACs) will raise during an election cycle, is used for the production and distribution of political ads. This ultimately results in the public being more confused and misinformed about candidates, but it also means that media companies will make a shit ton of money.
I received a misleading attack in my mailbox today, a mailer that was attacking State Representative Rachel Hood. Here is the front side of the ad, which has a picture of Rep. Hood, the image of a burning car, with the text that reads: Rachel Hood is too dangerous for Grand Rapids. Rachel Hood voted to defund local police departments.
On the mailing address side of this political ad, it also includes a picture of Rep. Hood, a picture of what appears to be an image from the May 30th uprising in downtown Grand Rapids and another picture of graffiti which says, More Dead Cops, accompanied by the letter A, which is associated with anarchism. On this side of the ad, the organization putting out the political message encourages people to called Rep. Hood, because she voted NO on HR 277, and with this addition text – Rachel Hood sided with Grand Rapids rioters as they destroyed property, looted small businesses, and attacked police officers when she voted to defund local police department.
First, it is important to look at what HR 277 actually says and doesn’t say. HR 277 was introduced by Rep. Ryan Berman from the 39th House District (Wixom). Berman’s resolution is brief (2 pages) and it is primarily an attack against the movement to Defund Police Departments, with lots of language that supports the police, referring to police departments as “a cornerstone of a safe and prosperous society.”
Next, it is important to point out that while Rep. Hood voted against HR 277, it passed 72 – 29. It is equally important to point out that voting NO on HR 277 doesn’t mean that those who voted against this legislation are in favor of defunding. In fact, HR 277 is primarily a symbolic statement and has little to no legal bearing, since local municipalities get to decide on whether or not they have a police department and how much to fund them.
Third, I have not come across any statement or positions that Rep. Hood has taken to suggest that she supports the defunding of police departments. The only thing on her re-election website that says anything about policing is on the section of the page that is headlined “values” and says, “Reshape criminal justice & policing.”
Lastly, the misinforming mailer was sent from a PO Box address in Lansing and was paid for by MI Vision. I could find not reference to MI Vision, which suggests that it is a dark money group, since the political ad I received doesn’t tell me how to vote, which means that they avoid Michigan’s state-level campaign finance disclosure requirements.
Ultimately, this political ad is hoping to tap into people’s fears about the May 30th riot in Grand Rapids and the possibility of defunding the GRPD. Suggesting that Rep. Hood supports the defunding of the GRPD, although false, might be enough to get people to vote against her.
Editor’s note: I called Rep Hood about the mailer, but only was able to leave a message. As of this writing no one from that office has responded.
DeVos family contributions to GOP super PACs
Over the past several weeks, we have been writing about how the DeVos family foundations compliment their political contributions, which furthers their ideological and class war on the American people.
Just recently, the Center for Media & Democracy posted an article entitled, Conservative Plutocrats Pour Enormous Sums of Money into GOP Super PACs. The article lists the top 15 individuals/families that have contributed to GOP PACs, with the DeVos family being #15, with a total of $3.5 million in contributions this election cycle. Of course, there are several months to go before the election, which means that the DeVos family is likely to throw even more money into the coffers of GOP PACs.
The article lists four super PACs that the DeVos family has contributed to: the Senate Leadership Fund ($1.2 million), America First Action ($1 million), Better Future MI Fund ($700,000), and the Congressional Leadership Fund ($600,000). This is the only information provided in the article, so lets take a look at these four super PACs and see who are the recipients of their money, and thus the DeVos money.
Senate Leadership Fund – according to OpenSecrets.org, the Senate Leadership Fund has raised over $129 million in the current election cycle, with most of that money going to producing media, buying broadcast time and administrative costs. In other words, here the DeVos money is funding the GOP attack ads that are flooding radio and TV stations across the country.
America First Action – according to OpenSecrets.org, America First Action has been using the $39 million they have raised so far to also pay for GOP media, specifically attack ads across the country.
Better Future MI Fund – here the DeVos funds are being used for media buys in Michigan, to both support the candidacy of John James and to attack Michigan Senator Gary Peters.
Congressional Leadership Fund – according to OpenSecrets.org, the Congressional Leadership Fund is also spending the bulk of the $64 million they have raised in this election cycle to purchase media spots around the country as well.
Even though the DeVos contributions to these GOP PACs are not going directly to candidates, they do benefit the candidates to the degree that most of this PAC money is being used to attack GOP candidate opponents, but more importantly, it engages in the ideological and class warfare that the DeVos family has engaged in since the founding of the Amway Corporation sixty years ago.
Oppositional Politics is not enough: Imagining Another World is Possible in Grand Rapids
Four years ago lots of people couldn’t have imagined that Donald Trump was just a few months away from being elected President of the United States.
Within days of the elections, people all across the country took to the streets to protest the election of Trump and to signal the need for a resistance movement that would have the capacity and vision to respond to what was to come.
In Grand Rapids, we wrote about how the Democratic Party was scrambling to respond to the fact that they had lost power. An event was organized in Grand Rapids entitled, Surviving the Trump Apocalypse, an event was focused exclusively how an electoral strategy. At the time, March of 2017, we wrote:
The opposition to the new president is refreshing in some ways, but this is a pattern amongst liberal and progressive circles. Liberals and progressives tend to get activated when their party is not in power.
We are seeing this same dynamic in West Michigan with lots of marches and increased attendance at public meetings held by local members of Congress. Again, seeing people become more engaged is refreshing, but to what end? What does all this activism mean and what will it do to dismantled systems of power?
Now, don’t get me wrong, it makes complete sense for people to vote Trump out of office in November. However, this kind of action is not really what makes up a resistance movement. Resistance movements do oppose systems of power and oppression, but they do more than oppose something. Resistance movements are not just oppositional, they are deeply committed to direct action and doing the work to practice new forms of collective liberation.
Unlike the electoral strategy that was being developed in early 2017 in Grand Rapids, a whole different set of strategies were being organized, strategies that were built upon previous resistance movements, and strategies that were not content to just getting back to a pre-Trump period. These strategies recognized that no matter which party holds electoral power, systemic oppression was still the norm. These strategies and movements also were rooted in the radical notion that another world is possible.
In early 2017, we saw the beginnings of organized efforts to respond to the Trump administration’s call for building a wall along the US/Mexican border, an increase in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and a plan to target the 11 million undocumented people living in the US. An immigrant-led movement, Movimiento Cosecha, had been organizing for several years in the US, but in 2017, the movement came to Grand Rapids.
Around the same time that Movimiento Cosecha was organizing in Grand Rapids, another effort was being formed, called GR Rapid Response to ICE. Both of these efforts came to define the kinds of organizing that were being developed in Grand Rapids, organizing that was based on direct action, political autonomy and Mutual Aid – meaning, everything we need is already in our community.
These two groups would end up working together on a regular basis, but new work was being imagined as well. We saw indigenous-led efforts to shut down Line 5 in Michigan, more radical Climate Justice movements, ongoing organizing around reproductive rights in Grand Rapids, a push to reclaim some of the radical roots of the LGBTQ movement – primarily led by queer organizers, loosely affiliated efforts to fight gentrification and people responding to the push to infiltrate public education known as Grand Rapids for Education Justice.
Then the pandemic hit. What was instructive about many of the groups working on collective liberation is that they continued to respond to the COVID 19 crisis is a similar way to how they were responding to the Capitalist class’s push to privatize everything. The Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network was created to provide direct relief to families who were struggling to survive during the early months of the pandemic. In addition, the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union was created and began working with other communities in Michigan to address the housing crisis and to push back against the possibility of evictions.
Then George Floyd was lynched by a cop in Minneapolis. This murder of another Black person not only revived Black Lives Matter work across the country, it led to a much deeper push to challenge White Supremacy in all its manifestations. In Grand Rapids, the May 30th uprising was a wake up call for lots of people. It was a wake up call for many because it said that movements were tired of making nice and tired of the same old promises of reform from systems of power. One substantial effort that came out of the May 30th uprising was the call to Defund the GRPD.
All of these organizing efforts that have developed in Grand Rapids since the beginning of the Trump administration – Movimiento Cosecha GR, GR Rapid Response to ICE, opposition to Line 5, the Sunrise Movement, anti-gentrification efforts, Grand Rapids for Education Justice, queer organizing, the Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network, the Grand Rapids Area tenant Union and Defund the GRPD – all share some common elements. These organizing efforts and movements believe in:
Direct Action – taking collective action to change our circumstances, without handing our power to a middle person – elected officials, NGOs or political parties.
Horizontal organizing – organizing that is not hierarchical, that tries to build capacity for new “leadership” and believes that all roles in organizing should be shared.
Practices prefigurative politics – which means you want to practice the kinds of equity and relational organizing that doesn’t perpetuate racism, homophobia, ablism, plus it means you want to practice what you preach. If you are organizing against homelessness, you need to practice radical hospitality and offer safe places for people to stay.
Mutual Aid – providing material, financial or emotional support to people who have a need, without perpetuating White Saviorism, policing of people or any other patronizing ways that non-profits often practice.
Abolitionist vision – to get to the root cause of systemic problems and abolish systems of power and oppression, as opposed to trying to “reform” them.
Radical Imagination – imagining that another world is possible, that we don’t have to settle for what systems of power and oppression give us.
All of these common aspects of organizing also DO NOT put their hopes in representative democracy, in the idea that someone else represents us. One of the reasons why those of us who are part of these insurgent, autonomous movements are often turned off by electoral politics is because of what overarching narratives that comes with electoral politics, such as:
- Stop organizing in order to get the right people elected.
- We’ll worry about those issues after the election.
- If you get our people elected, then we can work together to push them to adopt your agenda.
- This is the most important election of our lifetime.
- If you don’t vote for our person, then you are just as bad as those who voted for Trump, Reagan, Bush, etc.
What is interesting about all of this is that many of those who are involved in doing the on the ground organizing and direct action, often do participate in elections. However, many of the same people who would like to vote shame us, rarely are in the streets, participating in direct action or doing the behind the scenes organizing work that is so vital to our future. I have lived long enough to see that political parties are ultimately interested in one thing, being in power. If they aren’t in power, then they are spending ridiculous amounts of money to try to get back in positions of power and if they are already in power, they want to maintain that power at all costs.
This is not the kind of work or struggle that I want to be part of. I do not simply want to get rid of Trump, especially since the world was pretty shitty before Trump. I don;t want to just be part of oppositional politics, I want to aspire to imagining another world, and then doing the necessary work to be part of the creation of such a world. Another World IS Possible!
Education Secretary DeVos says pandemic is a good thing to push the school policies she wants
On Friday, during an interview on SiriusXM Business Radio show, Wharton’s Business Daily, US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos stated that “it’s a good thing that the coronavirus pandemic will force the nation’s schools to make changes that should have happened many years ago.”
The interview, which only lasted for 1 minute and 50 seconds, can be heard at this link. In those brief comments, DeVos referred to recently introduced legislation, known as the School Choice Now Act, which essentially would provide, according to the Washington Post:
“one-time” emergency federal funding for state-approved scholarship-granting organizations to provide families with “direct educational assistance.” This assistance would help them pay for things like private school tuition and home schooling expenses. This emergency funding would constitute 10 percent of emergency education aid for state education departments and local school districts.
In addition, the bill would create permanent tax credits of up to $5 billion annually for scholarship-granting organizations in states for similar purposes. The section of the bill dealing with these tax credits states that nothing in it “shall be construed to permit, allow, encourage, or authorize any Federal control over any aspect of any private, religious, or home education provider.
Like the Secretary of Education’s friends, who are part of the Capitalist Class and are using the pandemic to redirect public funding to the 1%, DeVos wants to use the pandemic as an opportunity to push through policy that will achieve what she has been attempting to do since the early 1990s, when she and her husband, Dick DeVos, tried to get a School Voucher ballot initiative passed in Michigan.
None of this should come as a surprise, since the Capitalist Class loves Disaster Capitalism, which is the use of a crisis to further their own interests.
We encourage people to stay informed about what Education Secretary DeVos is up, which we try to monitor on an ongoing basis through our Betsy DeVos Watch section.
How best to police the GRPD: Not with incremental reformism, no autonomy and no community control
Last Tuesday, the recently created Office of Oversight and Public Accountability (OPA) presented their strategic plan to the Grand Rapids City Commission. The OPA presented their plan during the City Commission’s Meeting of the Whole, which takes place in the morning.
The OPA’s Strategic Plan is 23 pages long and consists of lots of platitudes about equity and accountability, but is low on content that would actually translate into holding the GRPD accountable. Over half of the document is made up of introductions, overviews, mission statements and principles, before one gets to a real strategic plan.
Starting on page 12, one can read components of the Strategic Plan, beginning with the theme of Change and followed by Accountability, Restorative Justice, Engagement and Empowerment.
Before we provide a deconstruction of the Strategic Plan, we think it is important to point out a major flaw in the work and approach of the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability. The OPA is not an independent entity and they make it very clear that they are working collaboratively with the GRPD to achieve the goals they have laid forth. How to they expect to practice accountability if they are not a separate, independent entity? How does the OPA plan to implement real accountability when they are partnering with/collaborating with the very entity they are tasked to hold accountable? The GRPD has their own Internal Affairs, which is supposed to be an accountability mechanism, yet it is simply cops policing cops. How is the OPA going to be any different, especially since they answer to the same City officials?
In the section entitled Change, the first objective is to embed equity into all public safety operations, which is a more benign way of referring to policing. Here, some of the strategies are to 1) Evaluate the racial equity impacts of all public policies and initiatives, and 2) work with other City departments to ensure that a racial equity lens is applied to budgetary requests. It is the policy of the GRPD to disproportionately patrol Black and latinx neighborhoods, so how does racial equity factor in here? Also, on budgetary matters, when the GRPD requests weaponry, how exactly does a racial equity lens work when deciding which firearms, pepper spray or other dispersal weapons the department decides to purchase?
In the 2nd objective, under the Change section, referred to as “innovation and collaboration”, they include ride-alongs with the GRPD, plus reviews and reports on all lethal force used. These are innovative and collaborative practices???
The 3rd objective, under the Change section, is named as creating a path to healthy relationships between police and community. Here they suggest more diversity in hiring, having the OPA respond to all GRPD shootings and work with the GRPD to reimagine policing. All research shows that having a diversity of cops does not lead to greater trust within communities. What does it even mean for the OPA respond to all GRPD shootings and what exactly does reimagining the GRPD even look like? It’s as if they consulted with Richard Florida to write this stuff.
The next section is called Accountability, which also has 3 main objectives. Under the first objective, some of the strategies are to “publish standard operating procedures”, plus to make sure that the OPA has unfettered access to all public safety records. Shouldn’t the OPA automatically have access to all matters of policing? Isn’t that they very reason for their existence? Also, shouldn’t the public have access to this information, especially if the GRPD wants to practice transparency and accountability?
The second objective under the Accountability section has to do with the internal complaint process. Some strategies here are to monitor and review every internal affairs investigation, review changes to Union contracts, and to ensure the findings of the internal affairs are shared publicly. This is one of the few times were the OPA states they will share information publicly, but unfortunately they do not say how this information will be shared with the public. The public should not have to request or hunt down such information online, instead it should be extremely visible and user friendly.
The third objective under the Accountability section are centered around the Civilian Appeals Board (CAB). Some of the strategies are to evaluate conflicts of interest, adjust the time and location of the Civilian Appeals Board meetings to increase community participation, and ensure that the finding of the CAB are reported publicly. Again, more clarity is needed on how this information will be accessible to the public.
Under the section entitled Restorative Justice, there are also 3 objectives. The first objective has tremendous potential, which includes:
- Partner with the City Attorney’s Office to address historical systemic inequities and to create alternatives that can be utilized in addition to traditional prosecution
- Evaluate and recommend the decriminalization of crimes or changes to policies, ordinances, and laws that disparately impact communities of color
- Implement programming that assists formerly incarcerated individuals with re-establishing themselves as productive members of society
- Implement expungement programs and other strategies that increase the ability of community members to obtain employment and housing after obtaining a criminal conviction
In this section, the OPA needs to reach out to the community to solicit ways to achieve these strategies, which should include an evaluation and oppositional approach to mass incarceration, plus an abolitionist approach to Restorative Justice, which would not only benefit those most impacted by mass incarceration, but demonstrate that the way Grand Rapids does policing and the size of the GRPD budget are NOT necessary.
The second objective under Restorative Justice includes, “facilitating discussion regarding understand the racist origins of the historic tension between public safety and race.” This could be an important conversation, but depending on how it is facilitated, by whom, and who would be involved. Too often when cops are present, people don’t feel safe speaking the truth. This discussion should be held throughout the year and they should center community voices.
The third objective in this section is primarily about more data collection on when people are stopped by the GRPD, in traffic or otherwise. We all know what these studies have produced in the past, with damning evidence, but no real outcomes or consequences for the GRPD.
The fourth and final section of the OPA document is entitled Engagement and Empowerment. Under objective one we find, “Create pathways to to elevate community voice in all policing operations” and ways to engage historically marginalized populations to be engaged with the GRPD. I find it hard to believe that this will be taken seriously, since there is very little trust between marginalized communities and the cops, plus what does it even mean to elevate community voices in policing? Frankly, little of this can be taken seriously, not unless the community has real control over policing.
In the second objective with Engagement and Empowerment, there are strategies like a civil rights youth academy for middle schoolers with stakeholders and hosting a Law Day to introduce middle schoolers to policing. Middle school age children should not have to interact with cops and a civil rights academy should also not include police, but could be effective if it was run like the Freedom Schools were during the Civil Rights era.
The third objective in this section all centers around the idea of making all people feel safe at all times. If the city is serious about this, then the GRPD needs to stop targeting people in Black and latinx neighborhoods and stop over-policing people subjected to poverty. The City also needs to actually defund the GRPD and redirect funds to Black residents and allow them to determine how this money would be used. These action would actually help build trust between residents and the City, by moving in the direction of defunding and paying reparations for those who have been affected by policing.
Again, this document from the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability might be seen as an important step forward, but as we note throughout our assessment, the plan has no real teeth to many of the strategies, too much incremental reformism and no autonomy for a community watchdog group to truly function.
West Michigan Far Right Watch for August 22 – 28
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.
Last Saturday, there was a Solidarity Action in Grand Rapids, where those in support of Black Lives were confronted by a QAnon group claiming to care about the lives of children who are being tafficked. We did an interview with an organizer who talked about their encounter with members of this far right group, along with threats from the GRPD.
The Acton Institute made our list for the second week, with another article from their Executive Editor, the Rev. Ben Johnson, talking about 5 insights from the first night of the Republican National Convention. The 5 insights are reflective of the ideological positions of the Acton Institute, which included:
- Christianity and socialism are incompatible.
- Medical innovation saves lives; socialized medicine kills.
- Teachers unions put their members’ interests above children.
- The American Dream is alive and well for the black community.
- The American Dream is indispensable for the rest of the world.
Clearly, the Acton Institute has an extremely different view of the world, but these 5 insights are completely in line with their mission.
Lastly, Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack posted a screen shot of a message from an officer in the Grand Rapids Police Department, a message you can see here on the right.
The Grand Rapids Police Department also posted the following on their Facebook page, dated August 25:
On Sunday, August 23, a social media post attributed to one of our police officers was forwarded to our Police Department and Office of Oversight and Public Accountability. This matter is now under investigation. As such, no further comment can be made regarding this matter at this time.
As of this writing, there is still no word on what action, if any, the GRPD has taken on this cops social media posting. What is instructive, are the comments that accompanied the GRPD social media post, which reflects how deeply entrenched White Supremacy is in West Michigan.
Black athletes go on strike, forcing white fans to deal with policing and White Supremacy, again!
“Black athletes should take all this fame the white man gave to us because we fought for his entertainment, and we can turn it around. Instead of beating up each other, we will use our fame for freedom.”
The statement above is from former Heavyweight boxer Muhammed Ali in the late 1960s, after the boxing commission had stripped him of his boxing crown.
Yesterday, we witnessed once again how athletes, especially Black athletes, are using the status, their high profiles, their fame, in the cause of freedom. The Milwaukee Bucks professional basketball team decided that they could not play their schedule playoff game against the Orlando Magic, just days after the police shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back in Kenosha Wisconsin.
Instead of playing basketball, the Milwaukee Bucks players read a statement to the news media:
“The past four months have shed a light on the ongoing racial injustices facing our African American communities. Citizens around the country have used their voices and platforms to speak out against these wrongdoings.
Over the last few days in our home state of Wisconsin, we’ve seen the horrendous video of Jacob Blake being shot in the back seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, and the additional shooting of protestors. Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball.
When we take the court and represent Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we are expected to play at a high level, give maximum effort and hold each other accountable. We hold ourselves to that standard, and in this moment, we are demanding the same from our lawmakers and law enforcement.
We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake and demand the officers be held accountable. For this to occur, it is imperative for the Wisconsin State Legislature to reconvene after months of inaction and take up meaningful measures to address issues of police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform. We encourage all citizens to educate themselves, take peaceful and responsible action, and remember to vote on Nov. 3.”
This action by the Bucks players led to the cancellation of the other two NBA playoff games last night, with player from other teams stating that they were also refusing to play basketball as long as police continue to murder Black people.
This demonstration of solidarity was then taken up by the WNBA, the Women’s National Basketball Association, who also refused to play in the games that were scheduled for Wednesday, August 26th. The WNBA players also released a statement that read:
“We stand in solidarity with our brothers in the NBA and will continue this conversation with our brothers and sisters across all leagues and look to take collective action. What we have seen over the last few months, and most recently with the brutal police shooting of Jacob Blake, is overwhelming. And while we hurt for Jacob and his community, we also have an opportunity to keep the focus on the issues and demand change. These moments are why it’s important for our fans to stay focused, hear our voices, know our hearts and connect the dots from what we say to what we do.”
The ripple effects of solidarity didn’t end there. Several Major League Baseball games were cancelled, because Black players took a stand against the police shooting of Jacob Blake. According to a reporter with ESPN, “Mookie Betts, Dave Roberts, Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen are standing side by side in San Francisco addressing the media. Betts said he wasn’t going to play regardless. Once that was the case, Kershaw said, the team rallied around him.”
In addition, while the NFL is not yet playing games, teams are in the midst of practicing, in preparation for the regular season to start. Yesterday, the New York Giants delayed their scheduled practice, because the players wanted to have a frank conversation about the police murder of Jacob Blake. On Tuesday, the Detroit Lions football team decided to cancelled their practice as a protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
It seems that athletes across the country are using their fame, as Ali once said, to not only protest yet another police murder of a Black person, but by refusing to play, they are going on strike. Professional athletes are employees of the team owners, thus their collective refusal to play, which will financially hurt the owners, is essentially a strike.
These actions and statements by professional athletes is forcing more and more of America to have to come to terms with White Supremacy, and not just the White Supremacist practices of the police, but the White Supremacy of lawmakers, businesses and other sectors of society that continue to ignore the demands from the Movement for Black Lives.
Such actions by professional athletes is nothing new. In fact, Black athletes have been making demands for decades, whether we are talking about Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier to the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which went public with their platform during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. The 1968 protest was made famous when John Carlos and Tommy Smith raised their fists during the awards ceremony. Carlos and Smith were part of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which was organized by Dr. Harry Edwards. Their demands during the 1968 Olympics were:
- South Africa, a country under white minority rule, was uninvited to the summer games.
- Muhammad Ali’s world heavyweight boxing title was restored. It had been stripped because of his refusal to take part in the military draft in the United States.
- American Avery Brundage stepped down as president of the International Olympic Committee
- More black coaches were hired, especially for Olympics teams.
- The New York Athletic Club was boycotted for its membership policy prohibiting Puerto Rican, black and Jewish members.
These kinds of demands were wide ranging and international in scope, just as the Movement for Black Lives have been.
However, a major issue is not just what Black athletes are doing to protest, but what response will there be from white people. According to Dave Zirin’s powerful book, A People’s History of Sports in the United States, when Jack Johnson (a Black boxer) beat Jim Jeffries ( a white boxer) in 1910, there were race riots across the US, with white people attacking Black neighborhoods.
Jackie Robinson received death threats when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s, as did Hank Aaron when he was getting ready to surpass the career home run record that had been previously held by Babe Ruth, in 1974. We saw the white vitriol on display when Colin Kaepernick chose to kneel before an NFL game, in protest of the police murdering of Black people. And we see how white people have been responding to the most recent uprising that began shortly after a cop in Minneapolis murdered George Floyd.
We should never doubt the courage and conviction of Black people who have been fighting for centuries against a system of White Supremacy. Where there are serious doubts, is whether or not white people will fight alongside Black people and work to dismantle the system of White Supremacy that permeates all of our institutions. As the old labor song goes, Which side are you on my people, which side are you on! It is past time for White people to get on the side of freedom.
Update: As of this writing, early Thursday morning, it is being reported by several sources that during the NBA players meeting, the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angels Lakers will strike for the rest of the season and until there is significant change. LeBron James, with the LA Lakers said that the two LA teams will remain on strike until NBA owners take action!
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 