The 1911 Furniture Workers Strike, labor militancy and radical imagination after COVID-19
On April 19, it will be the 109th anniversary of the 1911 Grand Rapids Furniture Workers Strike. On that day in 1911, thousands of furniture workers went on strike, with demands for better wages, safer working conditions, an 8 hour work day, and the right to form a union.
The strike lasted for several months before it ended and while the 1911 Grand Rapids Furniture Workers Strike didn’t win every demand, it did demonstrate the power of organized direct action.
However, there are several lessons we can learn from the 1911 strike, lessons that we can build on. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the banality of Capitalism and we need to not allow things to go back to normal. We can’t be happy with just getting rid of Trump, instead we need to develop and employe a radical imagination about what can of a world we really want to live in.
The first lesson we can learn from the 1911 Furniture Workers Strike is the power of solidarity. Not only did thousands of workers go on strike, they took care of each other, provided support and mutual aid to make sure that people’s daily needs were met.
A second lesson was the importance of creating a narrative about what took place during the 1911 strike, particularly from the perspective of the working class. Viva Flaherty, a socialist, created a powerful narrative about what happened during the 1911 strike, which was in stark contrast to the narrative created by one of the furniture barons R.W. Irwin. For a look at the contrasting narratives, go to this link.
A third lesson is that workers during the strike were not afraid to engage in militant tactics. When the furniture barons brought in scab workers, those on strike attempted to prevent them from entering the factories, even by throwing bricks at them. If you look at the 1911 strike monument in downtown Grand Rapids, you can see that the woman in the monument had bricks at her feet, just under her dress. We have to be willing to defend ourselves and our livelihoods and not allow those in power to try to crush us.
A fourth lesson we can take away from the 1911 strike is how the strike exposed the class warfare that the furniture barons engaged in against the workers. This class warfare was not just reflected in the tactics used to break the strike, but it was made apparent by the massive wealth gap between the workers and the furniture barons.
A fifth lesson from the 1911 strike is that those with economic and political power were five steps ahead of the labor movement. The system of power in Grand Rapids changed the political structure of the city, by changing the ward system, in order to consolidate power.
Expanding on the Lessons of the 1911 Grand Rapids Furniture Workers Strike
It is not enough to just learn from history, but to critically engage history and create a new vision for how to move forward. Those in power are certainly thinking about how to do things different once the COVID-19 crisis is over, which means that we must also strategize and radically imagine a different world.
First, we need to reclaim the radicalism of organized labor. The labor movement has such a rich history of fighting back in this country, from the early days of the Knights of Labor, to the Wobblies and the CIO. Hell, even the UAW started as a more radical union and did not shy away from engaging in direct action through the wildcat strikes that forced the auto industry to accept their demands, beginning with the 1936-37 Flint factory occupations. We need to utilize the tactics of strikes, walkouts, workplace occupations, boycotts and even a general strike, which are all actions that give us real power. These kinds of actions are being utilized right now and we cannot stop using them even after the pandemic.
Second, we need to redirect financial resources toward organizing where we are. For decades the labor movement has been pumping millions of dollars into electoral politics instead of organizing in the workplace and building capacity amongst workers to have the skills to do radical politics. Workplace democracy is arguably more important than voting in a system of representative democracy. We need to create thousands of workplace organizers so that anyone of us can take action when it is needed, instead of just waiting for the next election cycle to see change.
Third, we need to stop thinking about elections as the main strategy. Virtually every major struggle we can think of in this country – end of slavery, women’s rights, worker rights, civil rights, environmental justice and LGBTQ rights – did not come about from elections, they came about through direct action and struggle. Elections have to be seen as simply a tactic in the larger strategy and in a radically different way. We know how to turn people out for actions and to vote. Doing so does not require a ton of money, since most election money is spent on electronic advertising.
But before we turn people out to vote, we need to think differently about voting. If we have stronger coalitions of grassroots groups, we can create a collective platform that candidates must endorse before they get our support. This way they can’t get the pro-choice vote without the pro-LGBTQ vote, or the Climate justice vote without an Anti-Racist vote. Think of it this way, we don’t endorse candidates, they endorse/embrace our collective platform. We have to stop giving away our votes without demanding anything. Candidates need fight to get our votes.
Fourth, we need to have a broader, more radical vision beyond the workplace. What we saw during the Sanders campaign from the grassroots was a call for Medicare for All, Housing Justice, Climate Justice, immigrant justice, an end to White Supremacy, an end to state violence and the prison industrial complex, food justice and food sovereignty, an end to homophobia, transphobia, ablism and misogynistic patriarchy. We need to smash the system of Capitalism and build a movement of movements!
Fifth, we need to practice Mutual aid and Solidarity. It is amazing how many people are rising up taking care of each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything we need is already in our community. We know how to do this work and we can continue to practice new ways of taking care of each other outside of what bell hooks calls the white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchy.
Lastly, we need to create new and radical ways of living. This one might be the hardest for us to think about, since most of us don’t know of any other way of organizing society. However, there are lots of examples from neighborhoods to villages and even cities. These forms of cooperative systems of living can be learned from indigenous communities, worker-run collectives, anarchist struggles and even religious communities like the Quakers and other liberation movements.
This is not just a pipe dream, but a real possibility that we need to serious investigate in our struggles for greater justice. These new ways of living with each other also might not be enough, especially considering the urgency we face through climate change. If humanity is to have a future, we have to radically rethink how we are going to both resist the current systems of oppression and how to form new and liberating systems based on justice, cooperation and revolutionary love.
Returning to normal is not an option!
Who is behind the AmplifyGR COVID-19 Relief Fund?
On Monday, the DeVos-funded entity, AmplifyGR, announced that they were now providing some relief funding due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The relief funds will be available only for those who live in the neighborhoods where AmplifyGR operates, namely the Oakdale, Boston Square, Madison Square area in the southeast part of the city.
For those who live in the neighborhoods that AmplifyGR serves, there are also some restrictions. According to what AmplifyGR posted on their Facebook page, those who qualify for COVID-19 relief funds must meet the following qualifications:
- A registered address in the Oakdale/Boston Square, Madison Square or northern Garfield Park neighborhoods
- Recently became unemployed or laid off,
- Had an annual household income $50,000 or less before being laid off
- Worked at a business with 250 employees or less.
The announcement also stated the following:
A generous group of Kent County residents have partnered with a nonprofit called the Family Independence Initiative (FII) to create a fund for families that are experiencing financial hardship because of COVID-19. Amplify GR, is piloting this program with FII to identify families who may need some financial assistance during this time. This is a great opportunity to CONNECT neighbors who are experiencing financial hardship to a cash assistance fund.
Now, we don’t know who the group of generous Kent County residents are that are partnering with the Family Independence Initiative, but based on what the philosophy of the Family Independence Initiative is, we could make some sound conclusions.
The Family Independence Initiative states on their website that they want to “make poverty escapable.” Sounds good, but when you investigate further, the Family Independence Initiative (FII) is all about providing capital to families in poverty so they can create wealth, primarily through entrepreneurism. In other words, the FII works with family experiencing poverty, as long as they want to start businesses. There is nothing on the FII site that discusses the massive wealth gap that exists in the US, labor exploitation, how the tax structure has been created by the wealthy to serve the wealthy, and there is nothing about how structural racism and slavery have resulted in African Americans being screwed by capitalism from the beginning. Since structural racism and White Supremacy are not something the Family Independence Initiative are opposed to, they don’t advocate reparations for African Americans.
However, the COVID-19 Relief Fund that is being offered through AmplifyGR, is different than what the Family Independence Initiative normally does. These new funds, specifically for people affected by the coronavirus, are being distributed through a partnership between Stand Together and the Family Independence Initiative.
Stand Together, which is really the Stand Together Foundation, is an entity created by Charles Koch, of the Koch Brothers. The goal of the Stand Together Foundation is to, “break the cycle of poverty by supporting the creative solutions of individuals and communities around the country. Our goal is to help effective, high-performing social entrepreneurs maximize impact—to help them help more—by bringing a business-like approach to the social sector.” Sound familiar?
The Stand Together Foundation and the Family Independence Initiative are partnering together to provide direct cash assistance to families during COVID-19, using the tag line “GiveTogetherNow#.
Now, I am all in favor of people receiving any kind of relief because of the COVID-19 crisis, but it is instructive to me that all the entities involved – AmplifyGR, the Family Independence Initiative and the Stand Together Foundation – are organizations that are funded by some of the most conservative families in the country – the Koch family and the DeVos family. More importantly, both the Koch and DeVos families have been shoving public policy down the throats of people in this country, public policy that has been anti-labor, anti-government regulation, anti-public education, anti-poor and racist as hell. Therefore, it is important that we recognize and come to terms with who is actually behind this COVID-19 relief fund and what their broader agenda might be.
Last Friday, Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, announced that the Department of Education has awarded $65 million to create and expand Public Charter Schools.
In a Press Release, DeVos claimed that hundreds of thousands of kids were on a charter school wait list and that these charter schools would serve, “families living in economically distressed communities.”
This claim, made by many Charter Schools advocates, that they will serve students in economically distressed communities, is a rather deceptive way of framing the issue. Charter Schools were created across the country by people like Betsy & Dick DeVos as a way to bring organized religion into schools, to re-direct public funding for private educational systems, and to undermine public teacher unions.
The Department of Education’s press release, doesn’t mention anything about how the federal agency will monitor and account for the effectiveness of the $65 million that are being allocated to the 13 Charter Schools systems across the country. This should be an urgent matter for taxpayers, especially since Charter Schools across the country have a fairly poor track record when it comes to federal funding.
According to the 2019 report, Still Asleep at the Wheel: How the Federal Charter School Programs Results in a Pileup of Fraud and Waste, there has been over $1 billion in federal funding for Charter Schools that either never opened or have since closed. The report’s Executive Summary states:
It is impossible to document total waste for the entire 25 year program because the Department never required the states to report the names of funded schools until 2006. However, we have now documented $502,468,123 (28 percent of the total database amount) that was awarded to schools from grants that were active between SY 2006-07 and SY 2013-14 that never opened or that have closed. Applying that percentage to the total expenditures ($4.1 billion) of the CSP programs designed to create new schools, approximately $1.17 billion in federal funding has likely been spent on charters that either never opened, or that opened and have since shut down.
In addition, of the 13 Charter School programs that are recipients of this latest round of Department of Education’s Charter School Program (CSP), some of them have ties to the DeVos network, while others have been charged with misuse of funds.
For instance, IDEA Public Schools, which is based in Texas, will be receiving $8.1 million from the federal government. According to an article from Education Week, the IDEA charter school network, a recipient of federal charter grants, has spent money on pro basketball tickets and said they were planning to lease a private jet.
A second example, Achievement First, Inc., which will receive $3.5 million, has had issues around racism. According to a recent article in Forbes:
Achievement First, Inc of Connecticut was in the news a year ago when events at one school forced management to take a hard look at its handling of racism, discipline and leadership. AF hired independent investigators, made personnel changes, and by fall of 2019 expressed a commitment to a culture change.
A third example is Mater Academy, Inc, which will be receiving $19.2 million, has come under a great deal of scrutiny, much like many of the private and charter schools in Florida, where Mater Academy, Inc. is based. According to a 2019 Washington Post article, Mater Academy Inc, was being audited. The Office of Inspector General, writes the Post reporter:
OIG’s audit of the two Mater charter schools identified related party transactions between the for-profit Academica and a real estate company that leased both buildings and security services to the schools.
One last example is Responsive Education Solutions, which will receive $14 million of public money for their charter schools. Responsive Education Solutions runs Charter Schools in several states and these schools are run through a partnership with the ultra-conservative Michigan school, Hillsdale College.
Even though $65 million is a small amount of money in the larger scheme of things, those who are concerned about accountability and the larger war on public education, this new announcement from Betsy DeVos should be of great concern to us all.
To join the fight for public education in Grand Rapids, go to Grand Rapids for Education Justice.
Michigan lawmakers are frustrated with extended stay-at-home order, think the economy is more important than people dying from COVID-19
On Friday, MLive ran a headline that read, With Michigan’s coronavirus stay-at-home order extended, frustration builds over what’s been deemed non-essential.
As is often the case, this headline is a bit misleading, especially since it does not identify who are the ones that are frustrated about the extended stay-at-home order. Of course, many people are frustrated and for a whole range of reasons. However, this article only cites state officials, both elected and appointed, and one business spokesperson.
Governor Whitmer is cited, defending the extended stay-at-home order, along with Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun. The primary people cited who are expressing concern and opposition to the extended stay-at-home order are House Speaker Lee Chatfield and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, both Republicans. Their complaints both have to do with how the extended stay-at-home order will hurt businesses. Rep. Chatfield said the extended stay-at-home order, “puts fear ahead of public safety” and Sen. Shirkey said, it will unnecessarily hurt regions of our state and sectors of our economy that can operate, safely.
Senator Shirkey, also said in a statement he released on April 9:
We believe business owners will act responsibly and take care within their establishments to clean and disinfect their equipment, protect their workers and customers, and meet strict health and safety standards. We believe parents will protect their children, clergy will make worship services safe for their congregants, and neighbors will look out for their communities.
Ok, so I get the point that in the regions of the state that are not having many COVID-19 cases, there are businesses that want to open back up. However, I really think that the extended stay-at-home order is in the best interest of all of us. First, we still do not know how many people will be affected and how many will die all across the state, since we have not yet flattened the curve. What will happen if those communities that currently do not have high numbers of COVID-19 cases, all of a sudden see an increase? The stay-at-home order is in place to protect the greater good, until everyone is safe from pandemic.
Second, when Sen. Shirkey says that that businesses will be responsible when protecting their workers, we should all be highly skeptical. The Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been weakened in recent decades, meaning there is limited accountability with health and safety standards for businesses. Third, we do not have nearly enough testing, which means that people who are positive for the coronavirus might not even know they are infected.
Fourth, Chatfield and Shirkey, both have a history of relying heavily on campaign funding from corporations, the Chamber of Commerce and members of the business class, like the DeVos family John Kennedy.
Fifth, when looking at all of the pronouncements from Senator Shirkey and Rep. Chatfield, since the beginning of March, there is not one statement from either of them that expresses “frustration” or rage and sadness of any kind of emotion having to do with the number of deaths that have happened in Michigan from COVID-19. There is not even an acknowledgement that a disproportionately high number of African Americans are dying from COVID-19, especially on the east side of state.
Neither of these two Republicans have bothered to make any public denouncements of the anti-Asian racism that has increased due to the current pandemic and neither of these two lawmakers have made public pronouncements thanking the front line workers – health care workers, migrant farm workers and those in the food service industry. I could not find anywhere on these two politician’s websites and indication that they have nothing but the greatest of admiration for “essential workers” during this pandemic or any kind of workers. Not surprising, both Shirkey and Chatfield DO NOT support organized labor nor the right of workers to organize for workplace democracy.
Within a system of capitalism, the profit motive is always more important than the well being of workers. Senator Shirkey and Rep. Chatfield are just defending capitalism when they express their frustration over the extended stay-at-home order. And like most politicians, regardless of which party they belong to, defending the system of capitalism is a priority.
This week marks the anniversary of the 1911 Grand Rapids Furniture Workers Strike. In an upcoming post, we’ll look at ways in which organized labor can be re-imagined in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the US Government passed the Stimulus Bill a few weeks ago, a piece of legislation that was primarily a corporate bailout bill, there is one group of people who will not be receiving any relief money, even though they are some of the most vulnerable in the country.
I’m talking about undocumented immigrants. In fact, even if undocumented immigrants have had children born in the US since they have been here, their children are also not eligible for any of the COVID-19 relief money.
For all the talk about “essential workers,” one would think that that includes people who pick our food, who wash dishes in restaurants, who manicure our lawns, who change the linen in hotels or work in construction. Again, I am talking about undocumented workers, workers who are absolutely essential to the US, but who do not qualify for any financial support from the federal government.
However, within the past week, two major cities in the US, have announced that they will step up to support the essential undocumented workers and their families, even if the federal government won’t. On Friday, April 3rd, the Mayor of Minneapolis announced that the city would create a $5 million relief fund, regardless of one’s immigration or documentation status.
Then on Tuesday, April 7, the Mayor of Chicago, “signed an executive order to ensure that refugee and immigrant communities have equal access to benefits and services provided by the city, including COVID-19 disaster relief.”
Both of these examples are leading demonstrating to the country that even if the federal or state governments do not want to provide support to some of the most vulnerable communities, that cities can chose to act and support the undocumented community.
The question for those of us who live in West Michigan is, will Grand Rapids step up and do the same. I known that several people in the community have sent messages to the Grand Rapids City Commissioners, the Mayor and the City Manager, asking whether or not the City would step up and follow the examples of Minneapolis and Chicago.
I also sent a message to the six city commissioners and the Mayor last Saturday, April 4. As of this writing, I have only received 3 responses. Someone from Mayor Bliss’s office wrote a word of thanks and will make sure that the Mayor is aware of my feedback.
First Ward Commissioner Kurt Reppart responded by saying:
I have been looking into how Minneapolis structured their fund and if it doesn’t come up this afternoon in our update on the City’s response and plans as we navigate Covid-19 I will be sure to follow up with the City Manager to ensure that whatever supportive solutions we propose are accessible to our undocumented neighbors.
Lastly, newly elected Second Ward Commissioner Milina Ysasi responded yesterday, specifically about whether or not it was on the City Agenda at Tuesday’s Commission meeting. She responded by saying:
We did discuss briefly when we talked about our budget and overall funding and how not to duplicate efforts and ensure those who do not have access are able to recover from this global pandemic. I anticipate ongoing conversations at our standing meeting next week which includes public comment.
As with most issues, governments are most likely to take action because of pressure from the community. It would be great if people could contact the Mayor, the Commissioners and the City Manager before Tuesday, to let them know that undocumented families need the support of the city right now.
Please send them a message and share this Action Alert with others:
Mayor Bliss mayor@grcity.us
John O’Connor joconnor@grcity.us
Kurt Reppart kreppart@grcity.us
Joe Jones jdjones@grcity.us
Milinda Ysasi mysasi@grcity.us
Senita Lenear slenear@grcity.us
Nathaniel Moody nmoody@grcity.us
Mark Washington manager@grcity.us
If you get a response, please send it to me jsmith@griid.org and/or post it on social media. Please take a few minutes to write Grand Rapids City officials in support of the undocumented community and as a show of solidarity.
For some weeks now, there has been a growing concern about the safety of those in jail, prisons and detention centers. Human Rights groups, advocates, Prison Abolition’s and those in jail have been pleading with local, state and national authorities to empty the jails.
In the last week, there have been reports that the COVID-19 virus is now infecting those in jails, prisons and detention centers. This reality has led to an increase in urgent calls to free prisoners before the virus kills those incarcerated.
Scott Roberts, with Color of Change, stated recently in a Press Release:
“With the United States now at the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, leaders like Kym Worthy must do everything in their power to protect those most vulnerable to this pandemic. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, and inadequate health care in jails and prisons put incarcerated individuals at a disproportionately high risk of infection. And because these facilities restrict access to soap and hand sanitizer, imprisoned individuals cannot take even basic steps to protect themselves. As Wayne County works to stop a viral outbreak, it must not leave these individuals behind.”
The group Color of Change, along with several other organizations, delivered a letter to Wayne County Prosecutor, especially since the Detroit area has already been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the most powerful statements we have come across, is a statement from a group of prisoners being incarcerated at the North Lake Correctional Facility, a prison run by the GEO Group. This following statement was released yesterday, by the group No Detention Centers in Michigan.
On Sunday, April 5th, approximately ten people incarcerated at the North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan launched a hunger strike in response to unsafe conditions and the mistreatment they have experienced inside the Special Housing Unit, or SHU. Their concerns include inadequate food and lack of access to medical attention. North Lake is a private immigrant-only prison operated by the GEO Group through a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
“The main thing is the food,” said one incarcerated person, who stated that their diet had not been meeting the protein requirements of the federal prison system. In addition, he described a lack of proper medical care and treatment after an assault last month. Prison staff have repeatedly exacerbated violence inside the facility.
The majority of those currently on strike inside the SHU are Black men who have expressed serious fears for their safety, describing an inhumane and chaotic environment in which they have suffered racial repression, including administrative segregation within the SHU for over a month after a conflict in which they had not been involved.
“We’re tired of the mistreatment and lack of protection,” one person told No Detention Centers in Michigan last month. “Incidents have occurred and will occur in the future; it’s inevitable.”
“Prison experiences are all unpleasant but this is next-level for so many reasons,” another person wrote. “I have been to six prior institutions, and I have yet to witness a facility like this one. To subject anybody to these living conditions is offensive, racist, and unfair. Are foreign citizens any less human than U.S. citizens?”
Although members of No Detention Centers in Michigan are not currently aware of any suspected cases of COVID-19 inside this facility, the hunger strike comes at a time of grave new dangers facing incarcerated populations worldwide, who are unable to practice social distancing or other steps needed to prevent the spread of the virus and maintain public health.
“The experiences we’ve been hearing about inside North Lake are a reminder that prisons aren’t safe for anyone,” said Jonas Higbee, a member of No Detention Centers in Michigan. “At a moment when COVID-19 is spreading rapidly throughout the Federal Bureau of Prisons as well as Michigan’s state prisons and jails, this is also clear evidence that the GEO Group is not able to protect the people in their custody during a crisis. GEO already has a long history of neglect and abuse, and when people are telling us that they’ve been fearing for their lives even before the COVID-19 emergency, it’s an indication that a quarantine inside a prison is not the answer to a pandemic. As we’ve been starting to see around the country, starting with the most medically vulnerable, the federal government needs to find a way to release people immediately.”
To be part of the work of Prison Abolition in Michigan, we urge you to contact No Detention Centers in Michigan. You can follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NoDetentionMI/
A People’s History of Grand Rapids
What follows is a draft of an introduction to a book I am currently working on, A People’s History of Grand Rapids. The images used here were made by GVSU students in Brett Colley’s printmaking class.
It was Thursday, June 28, 2018 at 8:30am. Over 200 people packed the Kent County Commission chambers to address the commission and demand that they end their contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The room was filled with tension, as members of the Kent County Sheriff’s Department scrambled to get more officers to come in case things would get out of hand. You could also see from the look on the faces of several Kent County Commissioners that they didn’t really know what to do at that moment.
The commission went through their agenda fairly quickly, which was followed by public comment. Once the Chairman of the commission had verbalized that they would be opening up public comment, people began to stand and get in line near the podium. The first speaker was Rev. Justo Gonzalez, pastor of Rios de Agua church in Wyoming, Michigan, which had just two months before this day, had declared his church to be a sanctuary for undocumented and under-documented immigrants.
Someone else, who was not with the group protesting the ICE contract started to go to the podium, but Karla, one of the volunteer organizers with Movimiento Cosecha GR, stopped him and said, “We are all here to speak about ending the ICE contract, so please take a seat and let us talk.”
The irony of what happened is that the person who wanted to speak about something completely unrelated to ending the county’s contract with ICE, was a member of the Grand Rapids power structure, John Kennedy. To make matters even more interesting, Karla, who independently cleaned homes for a living, was the person who cleaned John Kennedy’s home and Kennedy did not even recognize her.
Shorty after this little bit of drama, everybody stood up and started chanting, “End the Contract” and “ICE out of Kent County.” Within the next 60 seconds, the Chairman got up and left the room, along with most of the other 18 commissioners. At the same time, about a dozen people, some holding a large banner, got up in the area where the commissioner sat and took over the space and continuing to chant.
After a few more minutes of raucous chanting, people began lining up at the podium to speak their truth and demand an end to the contract with ICE, despite the fact that most commissioners had left. Most of those who spoke were from the affected immigrant community, talking about how they lived in constant fear of being arrested, detained and deported. Some spoke in English and others spoke in Spanish. There was also a Latinx professor at one of the local universities who provided a short history lesson on US immigration policy, with an emphasis on how people from Latin American have been coming into the US in large numbers for several decades because of the US-back counterinsurgency wars in Central America, along with trade policies that benefited corporations and displaced local communities.
After an hour of listening to people’s testimonies and demands to end the contract with ICE, the protest continued outside, where the crowd then marched to one of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices that was a mere block away from the county building. Once people arrived at the ICE office, several people who had been planning to do civil disobedience that day, linked arms and stood in front of the ICE office, blocking the entrance to the building.
Members of the Grand Rapids Police Department had arrived by this time, but didn’t do anything to prevent people from blocking the entrance of the ICE office. Undeterred by what was happening, the protest then moved back towards downtown, along Ottawa street and once they arrived at Michigan street, the seven who had planned to do civil disobedience, sat down in the intersection of Ottawa and Michigan.
Within minutes, all seven of those who participated in the direct action, were arrested and placed in GRPD cruisers and taken to the Kent County Jail, the very same jail that had the contract with ICE since 2012.
This was just the beginning of the a campaign to End the Contract, a campaign that was being organized by the immigrant-led movement, Movimiento Cosecha GR, and an ally group called GR Rapid Response to ICE.
This story is just one of the many examples of social movements that have emerged to challenge systems of power and oppression in the Grand Rapids area, since the days in the early part of the 19th Century when settler colonialists began to displace indigenous people and taken their land.
Part of the work I have been doing since I founded the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID), has been to teach popular education classes, including one on the history of US social movements. I have used as a primary text, Howard Zinn’s classic book, A People’s History of the United States. When Zinn died in 2010, someone who I worked with one day suggested to me, “you should do a people’s history of Grand Rapids.” I didn’t even have to give it a second thought, so I responded by saying, “that is an amazing idea.”
A People’s History of Grand Rapids
Since that fateful day in 2010, I have been editing an online site called, the Grand Rapids People’s History Project. I have been doing research and reading all of the other books that have been written about the second largest city in Michigan, Grand Rapids. In 2011, we were asked by the LGBT Resource Center at Grand Valley State University to produce a documentary on the history of the LGBTQ community in Grand Rapids, a documentary that ended up being 1 hour and 42 minutes long, featuring 75 interviews and lots of archival material that people shared with us for the film.
A People’s History of Grand Rapids follows a similar model that Zinn’s book does. This book provides a chronological history that presents history through the perspectives and experiences of people and movements that have been marginalized in this community. Like Zinn’s book, I try to provide proper context for what was happening at the time these individuals or movements were organizing since the early part of the 19th century, including a critique of the systems of power and oppression they were dealing with.
In Howard Zinn’s semi-autobiographical book, You Can’t Be Neutral on A Moving Train, he talks about how he came to write A People’s History of the United States. Zinn talked about the time he spent teaching at Spelman College in the 1960s in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. The radical historian also talked about how he encouraged his students to not just study history, but also the importance of being part of history.
Zinn himself was part of the movement to end the war in Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, along with many other powerful social movements right up until his death in 2010. I, myself, have been actively a part of numerous social movements since the early 1980s, when I moved to Grand Rapids. I do not write about this history in Grand Rapids, as someone standing on the sidelines, but as someone who has taken an active role in movements like the Central American Solidarity Movement, the Sanctuary Movement, the Anti-Nuclear Movement, the anti-war movement, the anti-globalization movement and the immigrant justice movement, just to name a few.
I write this history about social movements in Grand Rapids, to both celebrate and to lift up the people and movements that make A People’s History of Grand Rapids. I also write this history with a critique of those in power who have oppressed and exploited people, the very same systems of power for whom individuals and social movements have been fighting against over the past two centuries.
Therefore, A People’s History of Grand Rapids, is not complete history of Grand Rapids. This book seeks to inform and elucidate the rich history of social movements in Grand Rapids, a history that too many of us are unfamiliar with. This history is in sharp contrast to the official history that we are taught, a history which is celebrated and canonized by the very structures that have contributed to the oppression and exploitation of so many in the geographical area we call West Michigan.
I also write A People’s History of Grand Rapids in order to communicate with those who are exploring or new to social movements. I want to communicate that Grand Rapids does have a rich history of social movements, movements that too many people are either unaware of or movements that we do not talk about in our current struggles for collective liberation. It is vital that we all recognize that there have been so many powerful social movements in the past, movements which our current efforts are built upon. We all need to know, as Angela Davis has taught us, that the Abolitionist Movement influenced the early Suffrage Movement and the radical Labor Movement, just as the Black Freedom Movement, often referred to as the Civil Rights Movement, influenced the American Indian Movement, or how the anti-Vietnam War Movement influenced the early LGBTQ Movement and how the Environmental Justice Movement has influenced the Climate Justice Movement.
Lastly, A People’s History of Grand Rapids is about what the Zapatistas name as, La Guerra en contra de el Ovido, the War Against Forgetting. The systems of power and oppression in Grand Rapids don’t want us to know this history and will do whatever they can to suppress it or co-opt it. These same systems of power and oppression in Grand Rapids also ant us to forget this history. They don’t want us to know that Grand Rapids was built on Settler Colonialism, they don’t want us to know that all the wealth in this city was created by laborers, they don’t want us to know that Grand Rapids practices a very sophisticated version of Managerial Racism and they don’t want us to know that social movements and direct action have always been the most effective means of fighting oppression.
There is a popular phrase that people use in Grand Rapids, called West Michigan Nice. West Michigan Nice is a sarcastic reference to the fact that while people and institutions might appear to be polite. In reality, they often look down upon you with contempt or treat you in a very paternalistic fashion, whether you are an African American, Indigenous, part of the LGBTQ community, a Muslim, an immigrant or a member of the working class community. In additional to the paternalism that is often displayed within the various manifestations of West Michigan Nice, what these systems of power and oppression offer those most marginalized are charity or the notion that whatever problems we are experiencing, is the result of our own flaws or faults.
A People’s History of Grand Rapids seeks to be a counter to this narrative and to provide people with a sense of hope and conviction that it is possible to organize for radical change and for collective liberation in a city that has been dominated by White Supremacy and the primacy of entrepreneurial capitalism.
For years we have been writing about the positions of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. Over the years we have pointed out that the Acton Institute believes that Capitalism and Christianity are perfect bedfellows. In fact, Acton’s defense of Capitalism is central to their work.
In addition to their role as apologists for Capitalism, the Acton Institute has repeatedly taken the position that labor unions are bad, that government should not regulate commerce, that education should be privatized and that the poor are poor, because they provide an opportunity for the rich to practice charity. Amidst Acton’s contempt for those experiencing poverty, the organization promotes xenophobia, racism and Islamophobia. The Grand Rapids-based Think Tank also promotes homophobia and has downplayed the urgency of Climate Change, even taking Exxon-Mobil money to push the far right notion that humans have not caused global warming.
During the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Acton Institute has continued to push their free market mantra, with little interest in the actual harm that is being done to people, particularly those most vulnerable to contracting the virus.
In the two video messages from Fr. Robert Sirico since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, his message has been reflective of his ideology. In his first video address (March 20) since the pandemic began, the Acton Institute’s founder about how important it is for the government to stop any and all intervention once the crisis was over. In his second video address (March 25), Fr. Sirico again talks about how the government needs to get over their “regulatory mentality” and that if government wants to do something good, maybe they should offer a tax holiday to businesses. What is instructive about both of these video messages is that they do not reflect deep concern for the well-being of people who are the most vulnerable to contracting the virus. The Acton Institute founder is not talking about concrete ways to provide substantial relief for millions of working class people or how poverty disproportionate affects communities of color. Fr. Siroco is not advocating for a rent freeze or a mortgage freeze or any other ways that the profit motive should take a back seat to the well being of humanity.
When you think that the smugness of the Acton Institute couldn’t get any worse, they demonstrate that they will stop at nothing to defend the Capitalist Class. On April 3rd, Acton Institute contributor, Jordon Ballor, wrote an opinion piece for the Detroit News entitled, Gov. Whitmer, allow Michigan golf courses to open.
The opinion piece by Ballor begins by stating:
The status of golf courses under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s coronavirus executive order was clarified by the government this week to exclude their operation.
While the original order left the status of courses ambiguous, the Golf Association of Michigan reports on an update that explicitly states golf courses cannot remain open during the governor’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order. This directive is a mistake and the governor ought to grant an exception for golf courses.
Ballor then argues that one golf course was allowing their greens to be open for people to walk about, where people could leave a donation in a drop box, with the funds going to a local charity. Ballor then goes on to argue that in Ohio, the golf courses are open, so why can’t they remain open in Michigan.
However, the most ridiculous argument that Ballor uses, is to reference St. Thomas Aquinas. “When some laws are unduly strict, says Thomas, the tendency for people is to rebel against all strictures. Thus a rebellious people, being unable to bear such precepts, would break out into yet greater evils.”
When I think of laws as being unduly strict, I think of laws like those that grant law enforcement agencies the ability to spy on the public or those laws that make it difficult to have any accountability for police when they shoot people of color or engage in any number of repression tactics that are allowed under the law. I also think about how ICE can arrest, detain and deport people because they are undocumented, all of which is currently legal. And what about when corporations, particularly those engaged in extraction of fossil fuels, can continue to exploit Indigenous land/people’s, with no real oversight, no accountability and no consequences for causing climate change? Are these not strict laws that go to far, thus causing people to rebel? Not only have the laws I just cited cause people to rebel, they have led to organized mass movements, such as Black Lives Matter, the Immigrant Justice movement, plus Standing Rock and Idol No More.
These are the laws that most people rebel against, not those that put limitations during a pandemic, resulting in the closure of fucking golf courses.
Ballor concludes his argument by saying:
A free people ought to respect and obey the appropriate and necessary measures to fight an outbreak like the coronavirus, but also will rightly question and even be inclined to subvert or ignore excessive and unnuanced restrictions.
Opening Michigan’s golf courses, with appropriate measures in place, is one small but important way for the government to fulfill its duties to protect and promote human welfare, including liberty, in a time of crisis.
It seems clear that the Acton Institute contributor, Jordan Ballor is equating human welfare and liberty with the opening up of Michigan’s golf courses. Not only is such a notion absurd, it demonstrates that the Acton Institute and its followers are only interested in the lives of those who are the primary beneficiaries of free market capitalism. The sentiment conveyed in Ballor’s article, also demonstrates a complete lack of empathy for those most affected by the consequences of Capitalism and those who will disproportionately die from the COVID-19 pandemic, communities of color, the poor, the homeless, migrant workers and service industry workers. The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, once again, demonstrates that their notion of religion and liberty are reserved for the privileged few.
It has been clear since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that the US government has decided to not really meet the needs of the public, particularly those most vulnerable to contracting the virus.
The so-called stimulus bill, while providing some mild relief for millions of Americans, was mostly a massive bailout for Wall Street, corporate America and the investor class. The current crisis has further exposed the fallacies of capitalism and the priorities of the federal government. There is not a lack of funding to make sure that everyone is safe, has access to health care, food and other basic needs during this crisis. The issue then, is about priorities, particularly how the Capitalist class is prioritized at the expense of everyone else.
In Grand Rapids, there are thousands of people who are out of work, don’t have enough food and are faced with housing costs they cannot meet. There are hundreds who are homeless, and thousands who are faced with potentially high health care costs if they get tested for COVID-19. There are literally thousands of people who are worried about whether or not they can afford to be tested, thus increasing the likelihood that many will not get tested out of fear they will go into massive debt over health care costs. This is very, very frightening. People should not have to worry about the costs of testing for the virus and they should not have to worry about have equal access to health care resources should they test positive.
However, the hospitals in Grand Rapids are already acknowledging that they may not have adequate resources to handle the potential numbers of infected. This reality also exposes the failure of the for-profit health care system, which puts profits above the well being of people. Here again, it is not a matter of money, but of priorities.
For instance, if we look at the wealth of the two richest families in Grand Rapids, the DeVos and Meijer families, which according to the 2017 Forbes 400 list, was a combined wealth of $12.6 Billion. Doug & Hank Meijer were worth $7.2 Billion in 2018 and Richard DeVos was worth $5.4 Billion in 2018, the same year he died. Now, this doesn’t include the wealth of the other DeVos family members, which would easily put the total over $15 Billion between these two families.
What the combined wealth of the Meijer and DeVos family could translate into, is that NO ONE in Grand Rapids would have to worry about not working during the COVID-19 crisis, EVERYONE would have access to testing, proper health care, food, housing and any other basic needs. The JW Marriott just announced that they were closing, which means there are hundreds of empty bed that could be used by individuals and families who are facing a housing crisis right now. The wealth of the Meijer and DeVos families could translate into our ability in Kent County to truly flatten the curve and minimize the number of deaths from COVID-19.
Unfortunately, we know that the Meijer and DeVos families will not give up significant amounts of their combined $15 Billion in order to save lives in Kent County. These two families have demonstrated for decades that they are more interested in maintaining and expanding their wealth than they are in the well being of all residents of Kent County.
People reading this might be saying, “well, it’s their money, they can do what they want with it.” First, this completely ignores the fact that these two families made their wealth off the labor of others. Secondly, and more to the current crisis, the Meijer and DeVos families do not have the right to maintain their disgusting amounts of wealth, while hundreds or thousands in Grand Rapids die from the COVID-19 virus. Their failure to act in the midst of this pandemic would be their real legacy.
As an alternative, if you are willing to contribute a few dollars to provide some relief to people who are currently struggling to survive in Grand Rapids, please consider donating to the Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network.
At a Press conference on Friday, US Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, had this to say about Trump and the COVID-19 response:
Let me start by saying thank you, Mr. President, for your clear-eyed leadership during these challenging times for our country and for the world. The bold actions you have taken are making a significant difference.
Look, it is not really important whether or not DeVos actually believes that Trump is providing “clear-eyed leadership,” but what is important is that the Secretary of Education is perpetuating a narrative that the Trump administration is doing all that it needs to do in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. The commercial news media is also guilty of perpetuating the same narrative.
However, beyond Betsy DeVos’ complicity in the administration’s oppressive response to the COVID-19 crisis, it is important that we recognize how the US Secretary of Education is using this crisis to push for more Neo-Liberal Education policies.
Like most bureaucrats, DeVos uses lots of vague and lofty language in her comments from last Friday, such as providing learning opportunities and making sure that the most disadvantaged students are getting their education needs met.
However, the devil is always in the details. In her comments, Betsy DeVos said that the US Department of Education would be providing micro-grants to students and teachers. DeVos states:
One area is providing direct financial support to students, families, and teachers. We will propose Congress provide microgrants to help students continue to learn. These would be focused toward the most disadvantaged students in states or communities where their school system has simply shut down. I’ve always believed education funding should be tied to students, not systems, and that necessity has never been more evident.
We will also support microgrants to teachers, to help them pivot to supporting all of their students in a different environment than they’ve been used to. We know they are dealing with an unprecedented situation. It’s been truly inspiring to hear story after story of teachers rising to the occasion and meeting the unique needs of their students.
Unfortunately, Betsy DeVos does not provide any information about how to access these micro-grants and there is nothing on the US Department of Education’s website about these micro-grants. Now, if recent history has taught us anything, then we should be very concerned about what these micro-grants and how they will be used. Much like the Freedom Education Scholarships, which is just another way to redirect public funding for private and charter schools, we should be concerned about the micro-grants that Secretary DeVos is proposing.
The online education news source, Chalkbeat, reported that an Education Department spokesperson said later Friday that the proposed grants could be used for tuition and fees for an online program at a public or private school. The Chalkbeat report then said:
The idea — especially the grants for students that could pay tuition — is a glimpse at how DeVos will use the upheaval to advance her ideas about education. A proponent of private-school vouchers and school choice, DeVos has long downplayed the role of the federal government and scoffed at those who see school buildings or school districts as education’s key organizing principle.
We know that after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Maria, that the Department of Education leveraged its power to push for the privatization of public education. The current COVID-19 crisis provides yet another opportunity to push the larger Neo-Liberal Education model and undermine public education.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 