On Monday, July 1st, former Republican State Legislator and now the policy advisor for the West Michigan Policy Forum (WMPF), was on Michigan Radio talking about, “a way to ensure teachers’ retirement promises are funded; and how securing this repayment could also provide funding for roads.”
Bolger said on Michigan Radio, “The West Michigan Policy Forum proposes borrowing $10 billion through a pension obligation bond and putting that money into the underfunded Michigan Public Schools Employees Retirement System.”
Chase Bolger also begins his comments by talking about the Teacher Pension Fund in Michigan as “unfunded liabilities” of the State of Michigan and that the WMPF believes that teachers deserve that money. This interview on NPR leaves out one major component in the discussion on the Teacher Pension Funds.
First, in 2016, the West Michigan Policy Forum was backing legislation that would remove the decades-long contractual agreement between the State of Michigan and the teacher union to remove the state as the primary source to pay teacher pensions and transfer that responsibility to the market. That legislation was adopted, which means the traditional pensions have been eliminated in terms of how they get paid and are replaced with 401k-type plans leaving the teacher pensions in the hands of the speculative capital market. At the time, the Michigan Education Association stated that, “This is a nation-wide attack, led by Enron billionaire Tom Arnold, whose Arnold Foundation is flooding right wing think tanks across the nation with funding to do this work. The Enron meltdown cost public pension funds $1.5 billion in losses.”
Second, the West Michigan Policy Forum has not been shy about their efforts to undermine unions, such as the 2016 legislation to attack the teacher unions and more recently, their push to undermine public sector unions, by calling health care benefits and pensions of government employees “unfunded mandates” as well.
Therefore, what Chase Bolger and the West Michigan Policy Forum is now proposing, is to take money from the Teacher Pension Fund (money that was previously guaranteed by the State and now is placed in the speculative capital market) and place that in the speculative capital market in order to make money to pay for the roads. Not only does the West Michigan Policy Forum see the speculative capital markets as the financial savior of us all, they are ultimately interested in pushing Neo-Liberal economic austerity measures in order to weaken the public sector.
What do we mean by Neoliberal Economic policies or austerity measures? Here is a solid explanation of these kinds of policies by Elizabeth Martinez and Arnoldo Garcia:
1. THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating “free” enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers’ rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say “an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone.” It’s like Reagan’s “supply-side” and “trickle-down” economics — but somehow the wealth didn’t trickle down very much.
2. CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and health care. REDUCING THE SAFETY-NET FOR THE POOR, and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply — again in the name of reducing government’s role. Of course, they don’t oppose government subsidies and tax benefits for business.
3. DEREGULATION. Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminish profits, including protecting the environment and safety on the job.
4. PRIVATIZATION. Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, toll highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed, privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs.
5. ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF “THE PUBLIC GOOD” or “COMMUNITY” and replacing it with “individual responsibility.” Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves — then blaming them, if they fail, as “lazy.”
Lastly, another aspect of Neoliberal economic policies it that they limit our imagination about how to actually deal with economic problems. Neoliberalism says that the market can solve all our problems, when in fact this is a false solution. The reality is that the State of Michigan is not without insufficient funds, rather it is compromised by how to generate and distribute funds.
If the wealthiest sectors and corporations were adequately taxed, that would generate a massive amount of funds for the state. Another issue is how much money leaves the state of Michigan to pay for US militarism. According to the National Priorities Project, in 2018, Michiganders were paying $18.63 billion dollars to support the US military. Imagine if part or all of that money stayed in the state and was used for the roads, education, environmental clean up, clean energy or affordable housing? The National Priorities Project provides clear trade offs for what the tax money from Michigan that goes to the military could be used for. If we practiced radical imagination we wouldn’t be subjected to the awful neoliberal economic policies being proposed by the West Michigan Policy Forum.
Amash and the threat to the Two Party System
On July 4, 3rd Congressional Representative Justin Amash announced that he was leaving the Republican Party. This announcement has received a great deal of local and national media attention.
Much of the coverage about Amash’s decision to leave the Republican Party refers to his opinion piece from the Washington Post, but most of the coverage is speculative and doesn’t raise larger questions about the two-party political system that dominates US electoral politics.
WZZM 13 ran an interview with Amash on July 5th, an interview that did step outside the normal partisan boundaries, an interview that is worth watching.
In this interview, Amash talks about his decision to leave the Republican Party, his response to the Trump administration and partisan politics. Party politics was one of the questions he responded to, by saying:
What frightens me is people turn into zombies. They go to Washington and they will be telling me stuff privately that is very different from what they say publicly. And I believe you have both parties now falling in line with their respective leadership teams almost 100 percent of the time because they are scared of their leadership teams and they scared of what will happen back home with their primaries and from people at town halls or social media. And that is a very dangerous place for our country to be in. I don’t think we want a system where people just follow one person, follow the leader of their party on everything.
In some ways I agree with this statement from Amash, since the goal of both the Republicans and the Democrats is to have power, not to do what the public really wants them to do.
However, after having written numerous articles about Rep. Amash over the years, I haven’t seen much indication that he operates outside of the systems of power that control electoral politics.
For instance, we all know that from the beginning of when he first ran for the 3rd Congressional seat, Amash has relied a great deal on the financing of the DeVos family and other sectors of financial power, such as Club for Growth. All one has to do is to look at OpenSecrets.org and you can see where his campaign money has come from since 2009.
If one looked at Amash’s voting record, one can see that he doesn’t always vote with the GOP. This is partly because Amash prides himself on being a libertarian and a constitutionalist, but it also has to do with the fact that the 3rd Congressional seat has been a fairly safe seat for Republicans for several decades.
In the interview with Amash, he doesn’t really challenge the two-party system, rather he says that people just need to be more engaged and more educated about the political process. In the end, Amash believes that representative democracy works and that is what he wants to demonstrate as a political independent.
These sentiments by Amash are, in my opinion, naive, since they don’t take into account just how corrupt the political system is. Here is a short assessment of democracy in the US from the late historian Howard Zinn.
This brief assessment from Howard Zinn, is explored in great detail by the political scholar Sheldon Wolin, in his book, Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism. Wolin states:
The United States has become the showcase of how democracy can be managed without appearing to be suppressed. This has come about, not through a Leader’s imposing his will or the state’s forcibly eliminating opposition, but through certain developments, notably in the economy, that promoted integration, rationalization, concentrated wealth, and a faith that virtually any problem – from health care to political crisis, even faith itself – could be managed, that it, subjected to control, predictability, and cost-effectiveness in the delivery of a product.
Wolin goes on to talk about the function of elections within this managed democracy, saying:
If the main purpose of elections is to serve up pliant legislators for lobbyists to shape, such a system deserves to be called “misrepresentative or clientry government.” It is, at one and the same time, a powerful contributing factor to the depoliticization of the citizenry, as well as reason for characterizing the system as one of antidemocracy.
One addition observation from Wolin, is worth citing.
Unlike the Nazis, who may accurately be described as control freaks obsessed by the need to rule everything, American rulers prefer to manage the population as would a corporate CEO, manipulatively, alternately soothing and dismissive, relying on the powerful resources of mass communications and the techniques of the advertising and public opinion industries.
The last point by Wolin, echoes the analysis of Alex Carey, author of the book, Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty. Carey makes the following observation about the 20th Century:
The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.
Carey’s point is spot on, as it relates to the United States, even before Citizens United. It is important to recognize that powerful class interests have always dictated the US political system, whether it was the capitalist class directly running for office or having proxies (candidates) run for office in order to represent their interests.
If Amash thinks that by simply leaving the GOP that he will now have a greater opportunity to change the political system, then he is delusional. Granted, the US political system needs to be radically altered. In fact, one could argue that what needs to change is an entirely new system of governance, one that is based upon self-governance and direct democracy.
As long as we submit to being governed, especially by representatives, the state will shift back and forth as needed between majority rule and tyranny – two expressions of the same basic principle.
We need to develop better forms of governance, forms that are rooted in cooperation, autonomy and radical self-determination. Developing such radical forms of direct democracy are urgently needed. In a globalized world, democracy is simply the operating system of the gated community promising equality and self-determination while legitimizing repression and xenophobia.
(Graphic used is from artist Melanie Cervantes)
July 4th will be upon us in a few days and people will no doubt be gearing up to have a cook out, bring their families to a parade or watch the fireworks.
As the US gets ready to celebrate Independence Day, with all of its patriotic fervor, we have to come to terms with this country’s history, particularly for communities that have rarely ever been treated as equals.
For me, one of the best critiques that centers around the 4th of July, is a speech that was given by the abolitionist Frederick Douglass in 1852, entitled, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
In that speech, Douglass examines and exposes the hypocrisy of American independence, specifically through an abolitionist lens. Douglass identifies crimes and names names in his scathing critique of how the US brutalized black people, while at the same time making massive profits off of them.
Douglass’ most indicting comments during the speech were:
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
If we are to seriously take Douglass’s words to heart, it should not move us to shame, but to action. Let’s make no mistake about it, Douglass’s words are not just about the past, but the present, which is why the current momentum centered around reparations for black people is so vitally important.
However, on top of the horrendous history of how the US has treated black people, today we can see another massive injustice, specifically in how undocumented immigrants are being treated. What we have seen, particularly since September 11, 2001, is a systematic demonization and criminalization of immigrants, particularly immigrants of color.
With the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and its underling, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), we see a major shit if the treatment of immigrants, particularly undocumented immigrants. The Bush administration deported an estimated 2 million immigrants between 2001 – 2009. The Obama administration then escalated that process and deported roughly 3 million during the 8 years of his administration.
With the Trump administration, the criminalization of immigrants has reach an all time high, both in terms of policy and how this administration has foster a white supremacist, xenophobic climate that has millions of Americans supporting the rounding up, detention and deportation of the 11 million undocumented people living in the US.
So, what is to the undocumented immigrant, the fourth of July?
It means that millions of undocumented immigrants live in constant fear of what might happen to them and their families.
It means that the number of ICE agents has increased during the past two years, in order to target more and more of the 11 million undocumented immigrants.
It means that ICE works closely with local and state law enforcement agencies to terrorize immigrant communities and to justify this treatment on the claim that “they are obligated to cooperate with federal agencies.”
It means that the private prison/detention industry has expanded all across the US, making massive profits from detaining and holding immigrants for ICE.
It means that the conditions of immigrants, both adults and children, who are being held in detention facilities is atrocious.
It means that people picked up by ICE have to come up with a minimum of $5,000 and up to $30,000 to be able to post bond.
It means that those seeking asylum, particularly those that are coming at the US/Mexican border, are abused, tear gassed and detained primarily because they are fleeing political and economic violence.
It means that the system of capitalism is happy, since it generates billions for private corporations to detain, monitor and brutalize immigrants through a wide range of services they provide in cooperation with ICE and Border Patrol.
It means that the US will not acknowledge how their foreign policy is displacing people throughout the world, particularly in Mexico and Central America. Decades of US military intervention and trade policy is one of the main causes of people fleeing their homelands and coming to the US. Thus, the US causes their flight and then punishes them for trying to make a better living.
It means that the US political establishment only sees value in immigrants because of their labor, but in no way wants to provide them with dignity, respect and permanent protection.
It means that undocumented immigrants cannot rely on political parties to end the terror and harm directed at them.
It means that those of us who have citizenship privilege should not celebrate the 4th of July, not until all people are truly free. It means those of us with privilege must practice radical hospitality and solidarity with the undocumented community. Only then can we celebrate anything that remotely looks like freedom.
Last week, MLive ran a story about recently proposed legislation in both the Michigan House and the Michigan Senate, which has to do with immigration policy and immigration status.
Some of the proposed bills in the Michigan House are HB 4083 and 4090 and in the Michigan Senate SB 382 and 383. “These bills will increase the state’s ability to assist federal officials and penalize those who purposefully prevent law enforcement from doing their jobs,” according to Senator Aric Nesbitt. In another news source, Nesbitt said:
“Local governments with sanctuary policies protect criminal illegal aliens instead of their own residents,” he said. “This dangerous lawlessness must be stopped.”
Nesbitt, represents the 26th Senate District and has relied heavily on corporate donations during his political career. The other sponsor of the Senate bills is Sen. Tom Barrett from the 24th Senate District. Barrett has relied more on the various Republican campaign committee, but he has also been the recipient of a good chunk of DeVos money ($30,000).
The House Bills, HB 4083 and 4090 are similar to what the Senate Republicans are pushing, but these bills would:
create two new acts called, respectively, the Local Government Sanctuary Policy Prohibition Act and the County Sanctuary Policy Prohibition Act. The new acts would prohibit local laws that prevent local officials from cooperating with federal authorities regarding an individual’s immigration status.
These two bills were introduced by Rep. Pamela Hornberger and Rep. Beau Matthew LaFave. Hornberger’s number one campaign funder since she was first elected in 2016, is the DeVos family. LaFave has relied more on Republican campaign committees and PAC money.
Some Democratic State Legislators have also introduced legislation that provides somewhat of a counter to the proposed Republican bills, specifically HB 4724, which was introduced by Rep. Abdullah Hammoud.
The bill package “sets the tone for the kind of state we want to be,” Hammoud said in a statement. “Michigan should be a state that welcomes and promotes our diversity…By establishing a welcoming environment for all, we can attract talent from across the nation and globe to make Michigan their home.”
This is an interesting statement since it does not focus on the safety of the immigrant community, nor does it acknowledge the tremendous harm being done to the undocumented immigrant community by ICE arrests, detention and deportations.
While I find it encouraging that these bills as limiting local law enforcement’s role in cooperating with ICE agents, it is too early to tell what this will actually mean or if it even stands a chance of passing in the Republican controlled legislature.
More importantly, what is missing from this MLive article is the fact that communities all across the state are resisting ICE violence. The fact is that this “debate” about current immigration policy has been led by organized immigrant communities throughout the state, along with groups of allies who have partnered with immigrant communities and immigrant-led organizations.
For example, last Friday, Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE released a statement on the one year anniversary of their End the Contract campaign. This statement includes a summary of all of the Abolish ICE work they have done in the past 12 months. (see below)
This summary of all the work these two groups have done in Kent County not only makes them the experts on what the immigrant and undocumented communities really want, but it makes it clear that they are not waiting around for politicians to propose legislation, which may or may not keep them safe from state violence. It is instructive that MLive uses a photo of the most recent May 1st march organized by Movimiento Cosecha GR, but then never cites them or the impressive work they have been doing on the ground to oppose ICE violence.
A Year of Resisting ICE in Kent County
June 28th marks the one-year anniversary of the #EndTheContract Campaign, launched by Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE to end the contract between ICE and the Kent County Sheriff’s Department.
As the country once again erupts in outrage over the inhumane treatment of our immigrant neighbors, at the border and in our local communities, we want to note the successes and achievements of this campaign.
On June 28th, 2018, more than 200 people packed the Kent County Commission meeting and let the community know that ICE had maintained a contract with the Kent County Sheriff’s Department since 2012. Storming the floor of the Commission chambers, the #EndTheContract campaign took over the meeting and turned it into a forum where immigrant voices were centered as they talked about the fear of constantly living with the threat of ICE arrests, detention, and deportation.
In the past 12 months, our collective efforts have made it possible for tens of thousands to know about the lived experiences of the immigrant and undocumented community as they live under the terror of the ICE within Kent County.
• At 12 different County Commission meetings, we offered numerous testimonies on ICE violence in this community and provided a list of demands, from ending the contract and ending any cooperation with ICE to supporting the Drivers Licenses for All Campaign.
• We collected over 2,000 signatures on our petition to #EndTheContract.
• We held a People’s Commission where the people themselves voted to End the Contract, since the County Commission wouldn’t.
• We rallied at both the Kent County Jail and at the home of a Kent County Commissioner.
• During the course of these actions, we generated dozens of news stories, both local and national, about the campaign to #EndTheContract with ICE.
• We organized several actions that exposed and confronted ICE at numerous office locations in our community.
• We participated in the national #NoBusinessWithICE day in October.
• We worked with the ACLU and MIRC to expose the unjust practices of ICE in Kent County and to let County officials know that they did NOT have to comply with ICE.
• With the ACLU and MIRC, we helped expose the GRPD’s involvement with ICE, which also received national news coverage.
• Due to our constant pressure, in January of 2019 the Kent County Sheriff’s Department changed their policy on ICE Holds.
In addition, since this date last year:
• We attended numerous City Commission meetings with a list of demands and even shut down one meeting because of the blatant collusion between ICE and the GRPD.
• We partnered with two community-based African American organizations to work in solidarity with these groups to expose police violence against Black and brown communities.
• We held a dozen press conferences.
• We did several banner drops.
• Along with other community groups, we were able to pressure the Civilian Appeals Board to reverse the decision by the Grand Rapids Police Department’s investigation of Captain VanderKooi, the ICE liaison who called ICE on a U.S. citizen.
• We provided funding to several families who needed to bond out family members held by ICE.
• We raised over $24,000 to provide support to immigrant families who have been impacted by ICE violence.
• We held numerous GR Rapid Response to ICE trainings in order to build capacity.
Of course, this list does not include all the meetings, support roles, planning, and volunteer organizing hours that many people invested to support this movement in Kent County to #AbolishICE. We are deeply grateful for everyone who contributed to this movement.
Believing that movements like this that center the leadership of the affected community are the most effective way to success, we know that the work and the struggle must continue!
Betsy DeVos encourages Community College graduates to be selfless and then talked a lot about God
On Tuesday, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos gave a commencement address for graduates from Tulsa Community College’s Second Chance program. The Second Chance program is a collaboration between Tulsa Community College and several jails/prisons in Oklahoma and was created in 2007.
The Second Chance program has received pell grants from the Department of Education beginning with the Obama administration and now the Trump administration wants to make it permanent.
Betsy DeVos’s comments during the commencement were not particularly enlightening and she said nothing about the fact that the US has more people in jail/prison that any other country on the planet. In fact, DeVos had no critique of the Prison Industrial Complex, instead she chose to focus on what the individual student who participated in the program could achieve. A lack of an systems analysis has been the norm for the current Secretary of Education, since she believes that everyone has the ability to make it on their own.
There were a few comments from DeVos’ commencement address that are worth discussing. First, she says:
And you’ll contribute to an economy—the strongest it’s been in years! There are about 8 million unfilled jobs today. Small businesses are opening at record numbers. Wages are growing and unemployment is shrinking—for everyone. Our economy is expanding faster than anyone predicted.
Remember, these are students who were taking classes in jail/prison, so getting hired is not an easy thing for people with a criminal record. In addition, DeVos does not back up her claims about the economy being strong and wages going up. This is because it just isn’t true. Wages have only grown in a significant way for the 1% and the .01%, according to the site Inequality.org.
Secondly, DeVos talks a great deal about God in the later part of the commencement speech, saying things like people are born in the likeness of God or that whatever talents people have are God given. To make matters worse, she then cites convicted criminal turned evangelical christian, Charles Colson as an example of someone who was “redeemed.”
Using Charles Colson as an example of redemption is instructive, especially since Colson embraced the same kind of far right christian values that Betsy DeVos has. While alive, Charles Colson spoke out against gay marriage, against women’s reproductive rights, he endorsed US wars abroad and he was a frequent speaker for the pro-patriarchy group, The Promise Keepers. Thus, using Colson as an example of “redemption” was just another way of for DeVos to inject conservative religious values into her speech.
Lastly, near the end of her speech, the Secretary of Education encouraged the students to be “selfless.” Now, where I come from, the idea of being selfless means that you give of yourself for others and don’t do things to put yourself first. How is it that Betsy DeVos, who is from a millionaire family and married into a billionaire family, who owns jets, yachts and numerous homes, how can she encourage selflessness, when clearly she is part of the billionaire class?
The Immigration Crisis, Whiteness and the Power of Direct Action and Movement Building
“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.” Assata Shakur
Since President Trump announced that his administration would begin to round up and deport thousands of immigrants, communities all across the US have been taking action in preparation for the newest wave of ICE repression.
There are groups providing lots of Know Your Rights documents to distribute in the community, there are reports of some places announcing that they will offer sanctuary to individuals and families in the immigrant community, and there are numerous groups doing Rapid Response to ICE work letting people know that if they see ICE in their neighborhoods or at their workplace to call designated numbers to mobilize people in response. These are all useful and important tactics for people to engage in.
There has also been a great deal of social media responses that make you want to scratch your head and at times force us to painfully acknowledge that there are lots of white folks who either don’t get it or who are stuck in the same knee-jerk responses that have done very little for the immigrant and undocumented communities in the past.
When I say “social media responses that make you want to scratch your head,” I mean things like people pointing out that the Right to Lifers don’t seem to care about the plight of immigrant children in US detention camps. It is true that most Right to Lifers don’t care about immigrant children, but such a statement does nothing to move us to act in solidarity with immigrant children and families. What such a statement about Right to Life ends up doing, is usually just making us feel superior or staying in the Liberals are good, Conservatives are evil camp.
Another knee-jerk response to the current immigration crisis is to want to find a quick fix solution. These kinds of responses are common place because they are predicated upon the idea that there must be an easy solution that allows me (White people) to not have to risk anything or continue to allow me to engage in White Savior Politics. Is there a petition to sign or is there a group I can send money to so they can make the problem go away and I can feel special because I did something? So, what do these kind responses mean and how can we potentially bring those people into the immigrant justice movement?
First, we have to stop engaging in White Savior Politics and do some serious self-examination around White Privilege and White Supremacy. Second, sending petitions and calling members of Congress will NOT put an end to ICE/border patrol violence against the immigrant and undocumented communities. Those in power do not care, regardless of regardless of party affiliation, plus they are too politically compromised to take action that would have the results that are needed. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is part of the Department of Homeland Security, which was created just after 9/11 with near unanimous Congressional support. There is a great deal of money to be made from how the Department of Homeland Security functions and very few politicians who want to take that on.
Third, there is no easy solution and no quick fix to the immigration crisis, which is really a crisis created by the systems of power in the US, both electoral and private. Therefore, we need to build powerful social movements to challenge and dismantle the existing systems of oppression that are being utilized to criminalize immigrants. In fact, there are groups and movements all over the country right now that are focused on immigrant justice. Groups like Mijente and Movimiento Cosecha are both immigrant led movements and those are the kinds of movements that those of us who are not part of the immigrant/undocumented community should look to for leadership. Also, it is important to note that building a powerful movement for immigrant justice will not be created overnight and will need to develop over time if it is to be effective. There may be revolutionary moments or openings that allow us to make major changes in a short period of time, but those moments are rare and the changes that come are often not lasting.
In order to build powerful movements there are numerous things that need to happen and since people like lists, I will provide yet another list of things that people can do in the Grand Rapids area to Abolish ICE and to be part of the immigrant justice movement.
- The immigrant justice movement must be led by those who are most impacted by ICE violence, thus this movement should be immigrant led.
- Educate yourself on the history of US immigration policy. A good place to start is by reading American Intolerance: Our Dark History of Demonizing Immigrants, by Robert Bartholomew and Anja Reumschuessel.
- We need to recognize that quite often US foreign policy is the root cause of so many people fleeing to the US. US military and trade policy has caused tremendous harm around the world and that harm has displaced people. Therefore, if we want to get to the root of the problem, we need radically alter US foreign policy.
- Familiarize yourself with the recent Immigrant Rights Movement in Grand Rapids, which we have been documenting in Part I and Part II.
- Support and get involved in the work of Movimiento Cosecha GR – donate money, attend general meetings, attend a Cosecha Ally Training and follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cosechagr/.
- Get involved in the work of GR Rapid Response to ICE. Attend one of their regular trainings. Donate to the mutual aid fund, which directs money to individuals and families affected by ICE. Join their Abolish ICE campaign. Follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RapidResponseGR/.
- Share the GR Rapid Response to ICE, “If you see ICE in your community or if ICE comes to your home” information. See graphic below.
- Learn about and participate in the Direct Actions in Grand Rapids, actions that are often organized by Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE. Direct Actions means that we take collective action to change our circumstances, without handing our power to a middle person, like politicians, bosses or cops.
- Bring friends, co-workers, members of your faith community or neighbors to an action organized by Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE.
- Ask your faith community to be a sanctuary for members of the undocumented immigrant community. Providing sanctuary is a great way to practice solidarity and it is a form of direct action that says that we will not allow ICE to do harm to our fellow community members. Right now we only have 1 declared sanctuary in the greater Grand Rapids area.
- Get trained in crowd safety, so that you can actively support the immigrant community when they engage in public actions. Contact Movimiento Cosecha GR for the dates of the next crowd safety training.
- Get your friends together or ask them online to donate money to Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE.
- Offer your skills/abilities to the immigrant justice movement – art work, transportation, media skills, translation skills, time, money, food and child care.
The US has been waging war against Iran since the 1950’s, but you wouldn’t know that by consuming US news
The most recent saber rattling by the Trump administration against the nation of Iran is nothing new. However, the way that the US news media and media pundits frame the issue, is that Iran simply hates America.
The reality is that Iran has good reason to hate the US, considering the fact that the US has been waging war against Iran since the CIA coup against the Iranian government in 1953. The President of Iran had nationalized the oil industry, which pissed off the British, so the British asked the US to help them overthrow the government of Mohammad Mossadegh.
This CIA coup is well documented in Stephen Kinzer’s book, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. Another good source on the topic, is the 23 minute video produced by the Real News Network.
After the CIA overthrew Mossadegh, they helped to install the Shah of Iran. From the Eisenhower administration through the Carter administration, US presidents supported the Shah who brutalized the Iranian people, using his own death squads known as the Savak. The US government was well aware of the brutality of the Iranian government, but they didn’t care, because the Iranian government, under the leadership of the Shah was an excellent ally of the US in the Middle East.
In 1979, the Iranian people rose up against the Shah, with their own revolution. The US new media again painted the Iranians as evil people during the “hostage crisis,” yet provided little context to the US/Iranian history.
The Reagan campaign used the hostage crisis in Iran to help it win the 1980 election in the US, even though US policy makers had known more about what was happening than what the US public was led to believe, as is revealed in the declassified documents from that period.
The Reagan administration then used the growing tension between the Iranian government and the Iraqi government to further destabilize the region. Although the US provided military aid to both Iran and Iraq during the 10 year war, the bulk of the US military aid went to Iraq. Iraq used chemical weapons against the Kurds in Iran, even though the US never made the use of those Weapons of Mass Destruction an issue like it would in 2003.
The US always wants to paint Iran as a terrorist country, yet the US has military bases completely surrounding Iran. This topic is explored in Dan Kovalik’s book, The Plot to Attack Iran: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Iran. This ongoing vilification of Iran is well documented by the group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a group which acts as a watchdog of the largest US news sources. In their most recent critique of US news coverage of US/Iranian relations, they make it clear how the US media tends to present the US State Department view of what is happening. For more on US media bias when reporting on Iran, check out FAIR’s Iran coverage archives.
Lastly, while Liberals are upset about the Bolton/Trump threats of war against Iran, one can not deny that the US position on Iran hasn’t changed much since the 1953 coup by the CIA. This 65-year relationship with Iran has been bi-partisan, no matter who occupies the White House. I am all in favor of opposing US imperial wars, but we can’t just be against war when a Republican sits in the White House.
Over the past few months we have been posting articles about the various DeVos Family Foundations, including the Richard & Helen DeVos, Dick & Betsy DeVos and the foundation run by the main financial advisor to the DeVos family, Jerry Tubergen.
Today, we want to examine the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation, since we recently obtained their 2017 foundation 990 financials. We will specifically be looking at 2015 – 2017, what is similar to the other DeVos foundations and what is different or unique about the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation.
Capitalism, Conservative Politics and Christianity
Based on the 2015 – 2017 990 documents for the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation, there are clear and consistent funding choices that are aligned with other DeVos family foundations.
The Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation has provided significant funding to several entities that promote a neoliberal brand of capitalism, such as the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which received $1 million during the three years we looked at. However, the Mackinac Center doesn’t just promote neoliberal capitalism, they also craft public policy that is used by lawmakers and wealthy political donors like Doug & Maria DeVos, that push their ideological interests.
At the national level, the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation contributed $4.5 million to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), which does what the Mackinac Center does in Michigan, only AEI crafts and influences public policy in Washington, DC.
Other entities that the Doug & Maria Foundation substantially support at the national level are the National Constitution Center ($6 million), Wake Forest University ($13 million) and the Purdue Research Foundation ($10 million).
The National Constitution Center promotes and celebrates a more conservative view of US history, which is why Doug DeVos is Chairman of the Executive Committee for the Board of Trustees.
Wake Forest University embraces and promotes conservative politics, particularly with education policy. The Wake Forest Review wrote a story in early 2017, which ardently defending the Trump administration’s choice for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. The article was headlined, Betsy DeVos is a Hope for School Choice. The article cites several neoliberal education organizations and claims that Betsy DeVos is committed to making sure that low-income students have access to quality education. Such a claim is erroneous and is not supported with actual data.
The Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) receives so much money from the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation because one of the areas of concentration of the PRF is competition and entrepreneurship. According to the PRF site, Near the University’s main campus is PRF’s flagship incubator, Purdue Research Park (PRP), which is the largest university-affiliated business incubation complex in the country. https://prf.org/about/areas-concentration.html This is exactly the kind of projects that the DeVos family loves to support, since they believe that everyone should be an entrepreneur.
Different & Unique
What makes the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation somewhat different and unique from the other DeVos foundations, are their creation/funding of the group Amplify GR and the role that the foundation plays in the Grand Rapids Public Schools.
We have written numerous stories about Amplify GR, but what makes this DeVos-funded project so unique is that it seeks to fulfill what LINC could not for the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation.
Someone from LINC told me in 2017, that the substantial funding they were receiving from the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation was not fulfilling the goals of the DeVos agenda fast enough. Creating Amplify GR was a way to directly influence an area of the city that combined the core goals of the DeVos family, such as creating more businesses, promoting entrepreneurism and pushing a neoliberal educational model. Now, Amplify GR does provide some basic services that are beneficial to residents in southeast part of Grand Rapids, but they do it in such a way as to avoid having to deal with the history of systemic racism or exploitation that has plagued the area for decades. In addition, the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation fund other social services in the southeast part of GR, which helps to downplay the role that the DeVos Family political funding has played in creating poverty and undermining civil rights.
In addition, the DeVos family and Amplify GR has partnered with ICCF by funding the purchase of 177 homes throughout the city, homes that were previously gobbled up by investment companies during the economic crash of 2007 – 2008. We wrote about that purchase of 177 homes in late 2017 and asked how much money the DeVos family gave ICCF for those purchases. ICCF never responded to our request, but now that we have the 990s of several of the DeVos family foundations, we know that at least four of the family foundations each contributed $1,250,000 to ICCF, totaling $5 million. Providing $5 million to the largest affordable housing organization in Grand Rapids raises all kinds of questions, but it also means that it buys a great deal of silence, since ICCF would never dare to question or publicly oppose the racist and oppressive political machinations of the DeVos family, like the campaign contributions to an outwardly racist Senator from Mississippi.
A second unique endeavor of the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation has been the direct and indirect funding they have provided to the Grand Rapids Public Schools. People would expect the DeVos family to fund Christian Schools, which they do, at both the K-12 and college levels, but funding public education might seem contrary to the casual observer. However, their funding of public schools is very strategic and calculating.
According to their 990s between 2015 – 2017, the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation provided $1,328,513 directly to the Grand Rapids Public Schools. However, there are several other major contributions to education-related entities within Grand Rapids, that are either directly connected to the GRPS or collaborates with the GRPS. These organizations are (followed by the contribution amount from the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation):
Grand Rapids Student Advancement Foundation $1,122,800
Believe 2 Become $3,534,050
First Steps Kent $410,000
K-Connect $600,000
Kent Services Network $107,000
Leading Educators Inc. $2,145,000
Now, not only has the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation contributed nearly $10 million to the GRPS and programs that work with the GRPS, the DeVos family also has direct involvement in the decision making of the entities listed above.
- Maria DeVos sit on the Board of Directors of the Grand Rapids Student Advancement Foundation.
- Believe 2 Become was created by the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation.
- Doug DeVos sits on the Commission of First Steps Kent.
- The Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation is part of the pre-natal to 3rd grade working group and the Equity & Inclusion working group of K-Connect. In addition, a member of the DeVos Family Foundation is on the Board of Trustees.
- Along with several other major conservative foundations, the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation was able to get the group Leading Educators Inc. to make Grand Rapids one of their regions of influence. In fact, this is what Leading Educators Inc. says about Grand Rapids:
Thanks to a generous grant from the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation, Leading Educators expanded to Greater Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the first cohort of principals and teacher leaders began training in the summer of 2017. Our approach is the backbone of an ambitious strategy to significantly increase academic achievement among economically-disadvantaged young people who attend the nearly 120 district, charter, and religious schools in the Greater Grand Rapids urban area.
For anyone concerned about the future of public education in the Grand Rapids area, they need to pay attention to the deeply entrenched role that the Doug & Maria Foundation and the DeVos family in general, plays in promoting a neoliberal education model, which ultimately undermines the traditional values of public education.
Last week, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, announced that the US Treasury Department released final regulations on charitable contributions and state and local tax credits.
In a statement that DeVos released, she said:
“America’s families need more education freedom, not less. This week’s actions demonstrate that this Administration continues to listen to students and taxpayers. One of the most important aspects of the final rules and additional guidance will be to ensure taxpayers who choose to donate to state tax-credit scholarships are not penalized.
We are deeply grateful to the families, donors, non-profits, and state and federal policymakers who raised their voices about the benefits of education freedom and who articulated the unintended consequences of the proposed rule during the public comment process. The final rules and additional guidance announced this week are fair to students and taxpayers alike.”
As we reported on in March, what DeVos is conveying in this statement is that the new regulations by the US Treasury Department are paving the way for the Education Freedom Scholarships, which will ultimately allow more public money to be directed to private and charter schools. The Freedom Scholarship Programs are similar to the kinds of tax credit scholarship programs that are already used in 18 states to provide students with the opportunity to attend schools other than their nearest public school. These programs allow people and corporations to donate to a designated scholarship granting organization (SGO) and be reimbursed in the form of a tax credit. With the DeVos plan, states would designate the eligible SGOs, but the federal government would fund the tax credit reimbursement, up to $5 billion total.
According to the US Treasury Department, which released a statement about these new regulations on June 11:
The regulations provide exceptions for dollar-for-dollar state tax deductions and for tax credits of no more than 15 percent of the amount transferred. Thus, a taxpayer who receives a state tax deduction of $1,000 for a contribution of $1,000 is not required to reduce the federal income tax deduction to take into account the state tax deduction; and a taxpayer who makes a $1,000 contribution is not required to reduce the $1,000 federal income tax deduction if the state or local tax credit received or expected to be received is no more than $150. The final regulations are effective August 11, 2019, but apply to contributions made after August 27, 2018.
So, it appears that the US Treasury Department is working hand in hand with the Department of Education to facilitate a massive transfer of public dollars into the private and charter school system.
These are the kinds of policies that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), along with the State Policy Network have been working on for the past two decades. You can see from the graphic below that the State Policy Network has a radical agenda to undermine numerous issues at the state level and now they have a federal government that is even more zealous about pushing these kinds of policies like defunding and privatizing public education.
Lastly, it should be noted that these kinds of policies are connected to what is happening at the Grand Rapids Public Schools, as we noted in yesterday’s post.
GRPS Superintendent Neal is ready to step down, but not before pushing questionable policies
Yesterday, MLive posted a story on the 2019-2020 budget for the Grand Rapids Public Schools that was approved on Monday at the School Board meeting.
The MLive article mostly focuses on the decline in GRPS enrollment, thus a reduced budget. However, there are several other questions that should be raised about the budget, such as, why the GRPS Foundation has a line for allowances to 23 Charter Schools, funding disparities between different schools and several line items that are vague and unspecified.
I spoke with someone after the public hearing for the school budget, and was told about a few other issues that were disconcerting. First, was the issue of what happened at a recent school board meeting where the Interim GRPS Supervisor, Ron Gorman, was operating on the assumption that he would be able to bring in his own administrative staff. Theresa Weatherall Neal, who was the Superintendent until last Monday’s meeting, stepped in and said that she was picking the administrative staff for Gorman, which was almost the same as the personnel that Neal has had.
A second issue that should raise red flags for people who care about public education is the issue of the Grand Rapids Promise. Grand Rapids is now in line to become a Promise Zone and will have to follow the guidelines of the Michigan Promise Zones. The Michigan Legislature appoints people to the Michigan Promise Zones Authority and Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, has appointed J.C. Huizenga to the Authority. Huizenga is founder and chairman of the board of National Heritage Academies Inc., a for-profit charter school management company. Huizenga, besides being the head of a for-profit Charter School company, is also an influential member of the Grand Rapids Power Structure and a close associate of Betsy DeVos.
At a meeting on June 10, Teresa Weatherall Neal proposed an 9 – member panel that would be in charge of the Grand Rapids Promise, which are listed here:
• Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, who has led the city since 2016 and been a city commissioner since 2006. She is also is an adjunct professor at Grand Valley State University’s School of Social Work.
• Ron Gorman, assistant superintendent of Pre-K-12 Institutional Support for Grand Rapids, who will become the interim superintendent when Neal retires effective July 1.
• City Manager Mark Washington, who joined the city Oct. 1, 2018. He has worked in local government about 23 years, most recently as assistant city manager in Austin, TX.
• Kristian Grant, president of the Grand Rapids Board of Education, who was elected to a four-year term in 2016. She is a district parent and founder of Mini Mogul Academy, a curriculum for students focused on business and entrepreneurship.
• Kate Pew Wolters is president of the Kate and Richard Wolters Foundation, a member of the Board of Directors of Steelcase Inc., and chair of the Steelcase Foundation. Steelcase, the leading furniture manufacturer, was founded by her grandfather, Walter Idema. She has been a Grand Valley State University Board of Trustee member since 2004.
• Omar Cuevas a longtime district parent and vice president of Sales and Marketing for the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce.
• David Faber is superintendent of the Catholic schools in the Diocese of Grand Rapids – 26 elementary schools and five high schools.
• Diana Sieger is president of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. She has been responsible for the foundation’s leadership, management, strategic planning and development for more than 30 years. The foundation awards more than $1 million annually in higher education scholarship to hundreds of students.
• Tom DeJonge is superintendent of Grand Rapids Christian Schools, a private, faith-based school system that enrolls more than 2,300 students in preschool through 12th Grade on five campuses throughout the city.
At Monday’s school budget hearing, one parent of the school district asked a question about the Grand Rapids Promise, “why would it include those who attend private schools, where is the money coming from and who would benefit from this funding. This program should be specifically for GRPS students and not for the private school students.”
This question is an important one, and looking at who Neal wants to make the decisions about the Grand Rapids Promise, it seems clear what her goals are. There are the heads of two private/religious schools on the list, at least three who come from the private sector, with other business friendly entities.
When the Kalamazoo Promise was first adopted, it was specifically for Public School students, yet the Grand Rapids Promise will include private and charter school students as potential beneficiaries of the funding.
If I didn’t know any better, it would seem that the Grand Rapids Promise will be used as another tool in the Neo-liberal Education Reform movement to further weaken public schools and provide greater leverage to those who are in Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s camp, like Huizenga and Teresa Weatherall Neal.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 