The Heritage Clinic for Women on East Fulton in Grand Rapids, has been the target of anti-abortionists for years.
Last October, we interviewed someone from the Heritage Clinic on this history of harassment, during their 40 Days of Choice Campaign, which was a campaign to counter the “40 Days of Life” campaign organized by anti-abortionists in West Michigan.
On Wednesday, April 10, there is a protest planned in front of the Heritage Clinic for Women to continue to counter the so-called Pro-Life presence outside the clinic. Here is what the Facebook event page says:
Politicians, republicans, and anti-women groups are trying to turn back the clock on womens’ liberation by using various measures. However, we want to show that women are capable of choosing their own fate and combat the sexism that is built from believing that women are incapable of making their own decisions. We will be holding a counter-protest in favor of a pro-choice approach for women and trans* men and furthering the movement in achieving womens’ liberation.
Support a Woman’s Right to Choose!
Wednesday, April 10
10:00AM
Heritage Clinic for Women
320 E. Fulton, Grand Rapids
This article by Erin O’Sullivan is re-posted from The Price of Oil.
As the Obama Administration continues to ponder a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, TransCanada has been assuring everyone of it’s safety. “Safety of the public and the environment is a top priority for TransCanada” their slick website reads. Any spill is deemed “unlikely”.
Hardly. Last year, there were 364 spills from pipelines that released about 54,000 barrels of oil and refined products. In 2010 in Marshall, Michigan an Enbridge pipeline sent 819,000 gallons of toxic tar sands crude into the town’s creek just 80 river miles from Lake Michigan. Now in Mayflower, Arkansas, 22 homes have been evacuated this week as Exxon prepares to attempt to clean 10,000 barrels of this same dirty tar sands crude from neighborhoods.
The experiences of people of Marshall, Michigan may shed light on what the citizens of Mayflower, Arkansas may now be in for.
On July 26th 2010, at 7:30 a.m., Marshall resident Susan Connolly dropped off her children at daycare. That Michigan morning there was a strong smell in the air, making it hard to breathe. By the time she picked up her children just a few hours later, the symptoms had started.
That night her son vomited. The week following, her daughter had a rash, as did almost all the children at the daycare. The other children also reported cases of vomiting, upset stomach, shortness of breath, lethargy, headaches, rash, irritation with the eyes, sore throat, and cough. Meanwhile, Connolly and her husband experienced migraines, eye irritation, sore throat, nausea, and cough. Just six days later, their dog came in from the yard suffering from continuous vomiting and diarrhea.
They quickly learned that this was all related to a broken Enbridge pipe, spilling bitumen ooze into the water just 6/10ths of a mile from their children’s day care and just two miles from their home. Bitumen is a thick, sticky, black semi-solid form of petroleum. It is transported from Alberta Canada as diluted bitumen (dilbit) on its way to refineries in the U.S.
“I’m a parent and I see the children and the staff of this center who have been affected by this spill,” says Connolly, “Three months after the spill, four parents withdrew six children from the center due to their concern of their short-term health effects of their children. They were concerned about the smell, air quality, and potential long-term effects. An employee who has been with the child care center since it opened, who helped them build it from the ground up, left the center because she has been sick since the day of the spill.”
Their concern is understandable. The EPA established that there were 15 parts per billion of benzene in the atmosphere in the region of the spill, which is roughly three times the standard established as safe for human exposure.
Connolly reports that “the argument made by Enbridge is: you cannot prove that the spill may be the cause. Well, my response as a parent is you can’t prove that it’s not… I’m not anti-pipeline, but I am an advocate for safety. You need to know the health impacts. There will be another spill, it’s not an if, it’s a when.”
Connolly’s story highlights the clear effects of the revolving door of money from politicians and fossil fuel companies keeping the safety standards and oversight low. In 2009 and 2010 fossil fuel companies like Enbridge spent $25.8 million lobbying Congress and in return they received subsidies and tax loopholes worth $20.5 billion. That’s a 5800% return on political investment; about $59 in return for each dollar they spend lobbying.
Connolly sees the influence fossil fuel companies have on Washington, DC firsthand. She asks, “Who do you think [government officials] are looking out for more? Corporations or the people?”
Companies that transport oil are required to pay into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, giving the government a pot of money for immediate spill responses. The Enbridge pipeline in Michigan and the Exxon pipeline in Arkansas, however, are exempt because these pipelines are not considered to be carrying “conventional oil”, despite the fact bitumen spills are more expensive and more dangerous.
In a January 2011 memorandum, the IRS determined that to generate revenues for the oil spill trust fund, Congress only intended to tax conventional crude, and not tar sands or other unconventional oils. This exemption remains to this day, even though the United States moves billions of gallons of tar sands crude through its pipeline system every year. The trust fund is liable for tar sands oil spill cleanups without collecting any revenue from tar sands transport. If the fund goes broke,the American taxpayer foots the cleanup bill.
When Connolly learned that Enbridge is not required to pay into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, she was shocked. “I can’t believe that,” she said, “it’s unconscionable, disgusting. I can’t believe it’s not being brought up… [Companies] get enough tax loopholes; they can pay into the system and should not make taxpayers pay for their cleanup.”
Connolly holds that the government needs to hold companies like Enbridge and Exxon accountable. She believes her government representatives should advocate for companies to pay into the Oil Spill Liability Fund and keep discussing the issue. “They’re making a ton of money and they’re calling the shots, but who do they answer to? We’re asking the government to come and look at the impact, but no one comes out. No one looks; no one sees. They think it’s all cleaned up.”
Connolly has just one piece of advice for politicians and Enbridge CEO Al Monaco: “Come back to Michigan; meet with the residents who have concerns and questions. Don’t come just for PR or to hand out checks. Make the time to talk to those involved in pipeline and cleanup. I’m not trying to bash anyone, but we should all learn from it and be better prepared… a spill like this will happen again.”
And indeed it has.
Associated Press Stylebook Drops ‘Illegal Immigrant’
This article by Jorge Rivas is re-posted from ColorLines.
The Associated Press announced on Tuesday they will no longer recommend journalists use the term illegal immigrant when referring to immigrants in the United States without legal permission.
The announcement comes more than three years after Colorlines.com launched The Drop the I-Word campaign that called on media outlets to stop using the term “illegal immigrant” because it is a racially charged slur that confuses the immigration debate and fuels violence.
“The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term “illegal immigrant” or the use of “illegal” to describe a person. Instead, it tells users that “illegal” should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally,” wrote AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll on the organization’s blog.
“It’s great to see the Associated Press stand up for responsible journalistic standards. The style guide is the last word on journalistic practice so it’s particularly important for the AP to set this standard,” said Rinku Sen, executive director of the Applied Research and publisher of Colorlines.com. “This should put the debate to rest.”
The updated AP Style Guide entry is being added immediately to the AP Stylebook Online and Manual de Estilo Online de la AP, the new Spanish-language Stylebook. It reads as follows:
illegal immigration Entering or residing in a country in violation of civil or criminal law. Except in direct quotes essential to the story, use illegal only to refer to an action, not a person: illegal immigration, but not* illegal immigrant. Acceptable variations include *living in *or *entering a country illegally or* without legal permission.*
Except in direct quotations, do not use the terms illegal alien, an illegal, illegals or undocumented.
Do not describe people as violating immigration laws without attribution.
Specify wherever possible how someone entered the country illegally and from where. Crossed the border? Overstayed a visa? What nationality?
People who were brought into the country as children should not be described as having immigrated illegally. For people granted a temporary right to remain in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, use temporary resident status, with details on the program lower in the story.
The Drop the I-Word campaign argued journalists have professional and ethical standards to uphold and that term illegal is not legally or journalistically accurate and it confuses debate.
Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times’ public editor announced Monday afternoon her organization is also working on revising its usage of the term “illegal immigrant.”
Students vote to Kick Coke off of SUNY Campus
This article is re-posted from the Killer Coke.
“Student activist Cathy Rojas reported that the Student Association of the University of Albany/State University of New York (SUNY) passed a resolution on December 5, 2012 seeking to make the University at Albany and all other SUNY campuses Coca-Cola-free…”
Students at SUNY/Albany not only want Coca-Cola off campus, but are also demanding the removal of Sodexo from their campus over worker exploitation and worker rights issues. It should be noted that Coca-Cola Co. board member Alexis Herman is chair of the Business Advisory Board of Sodexo.
SUNY is composed of 64 campuses with almost a half million students.
Foundation Profile: The Frey Foundation
This foundation profile is part of a series of profile included in the Grand Rapids Non-Profit Industrial Complex Project.
Unlike the other foundations we have profiled up to this point, the Frey Foundation has an online presence, thus providing more transparency, than the foundations of the DeVos family members.
The wealth of the Frey Foundation originated with Edward Frey, who was the former President and Chairman of the Union Bank in Grand Rapids. Frey also functioned as the chairman of the board of Foremost Insurance Company. Like all foundations, the wealth used by the Frey Foundation was generated from the business class, which makes much of its wealth off of the labor of workers.
The Frey Foundation’s mission is as follows:
We invest in change. We work in partnership with organizations, agencies, and other funders, which have a track record of success and a deep commitment to the west Michigan community. Our grantmaking focuses on six interrelated aspects of community life: Arts, Capital Projects, Children, Civic Progress, Environment, and Philanthropy.
In looking at the 990s for the Frey Foundation from 2009 – 2011, one could argue that the Frey Foundation has contributed to organizations that people might identify as progressive, such as Dwelling Place and Legal Aid. There is a substantial investment in environmental efforts in West Michigan and across Michigan, with contributions to Blandford Nature Center, WMEAC, the Nature Conservancy, Friends of Grand Rapids Parks and Trout Unlimited. The Frey Foundation even provided $45,000 to the Greater Grand Rapids Bicycle Coalition in 2012, according to their own site.
At the same time, the Frey Foundation has been a significant amount of money to entities that support business interests and the business class. Between 2009 – 2011, the Frey Foundation contributed $150,000 to the Right Place Inc., $26,000, Michigan Future Inc., $95,000 to the West Michigan Strategic Alliance and $289,000 to Grand Action.
These entities all are primarily made up of people who are part of the Grand Rapids power structure, with Michigan Future Inc. being somewhat of an exception, since it is not based in West Michigan. In fact, a representative of the Frey Foundation sits on three of the four business groups just listed, including Grand Action, Michigan Future Inc. and the West Michigan Strategic Alliance.
These relationships and these entities primarily exist to support existing power dynamics in West Michigan, dynamics which benefits the business class and local elites. While the Frey Foundation provides funding to progressive organizations that do engage in work that has social benefit, none of it challenges power.
This is not to argue that these groups should not take money from the Frey Foundation or any other foundation, but it does raise questions about how much influence these contributions have on organizations and their ability and inability to look at structural or systematic causes of major social problems, such as environmental destruction and contamination. These are questions we will be asking non-profits as part of our Grand Rapids Non-Profit Industrial Complex Project.
Decolonize This!
This video was produced by subMedia. Another fabulous video by subMedia on several current anti-colonial campaigns in Latin America and Canada. This video also includes a great discussion at the end on what colonialism is and what an ally would look like in a decolonizing struggle.
1. Super SME
3. Enbridge Pipeline Fenced off
5. Hearts are stronger than bullets
About 100 people gathered on Friday to protest ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids against immigrants in West Michigan and to kick off a local campaign to mobilize people to prevent raids in the future or to intervene on behalf of people arrested by ICE.
While Mlive has done a piece on the protest, much valuable content was missed, including a basic understanding of why the demonstration took place. Below is our report.
The demonstrators initially gathered at Calder Plaza in downtown Grand Rapids, where Joyce Herdog led the group in prayer. The Dominican sister ask that folks remember that Jesus’ love was universal and that he “made no distinctions”.
The group was diverse and all present were asked to “stand in solidarity” with those facing deportation, arrests, and intimidation by ICE. One organizer made a point to welcome any police or ICE officers that might be present at the march, saying “We’re not afraid of you, and we won’t be intimidated”. Helicopters whirled overhead. The recurring echoes of chopper blades bouncing off nearby buildings served as an ominous reminder of our current surveillance state and the dangers those people designated as “illegal” face.
Protestors participated in a silent march to the ICE office at 517 Ottawa Avenue. Organizers asked folks to “circle up” on the sidewalk outside of the office windows to ensure visibility from inside the office. The group sang together before several people gave testimonies of their experience with ICE and why they decided to participate in the protest.
Two women shared testimonies in Spanish about family members that have been arrested, detained, and deported by ICE officials. Both women talked about the hardship of being separated from the family members who were deported and how difficult it has made their lives.
Local immigration attorney Rick Kessler spoke about how many raids have been taking place in West Michigan and how most of those picked up in ICE raids have been people who committed petty crimes, often over 15 years ago. Kessler said that the ICE budget has expanded and is now larger than many other law enforcement agencies combined. Kessler also made the point that these arrests are political in nature and have little to do with public safety or security.
A representative from Justice for Our Neighbors (JFON) also addressed the crowd, speaking about the services their organization provides and the importance of working for Comprehensive Immigration Reform at the federal level.
There were two organizers with AIR-MOP, a statewide group that is working on Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Both talked about the policies that need to change and the national campaign to make those changes. They also spoke about a large demonstration that will take place on April 10 in Washington, DC, with several bus loads going from Grand Rapids.
The last speakers were with the group that organized the protest and announced the campaign to have a Rapid Response to ICE Raids West Michigan. The Rapid Response to ICE West Michigan is made up of a coalition of people and organizations that are responding to the social, economic and political violence caused by ICE raids in our community. Their goals are to:
1) Co-ordinate and network with organizations and individuals that are already offering social services to families impacted by ICE raids,
2) Offer financial and legal support to individuals and families impacted by ICE raids,
3) Document the frequency of these raids, arrests and detentions,
4) Mobilize people to rapidly respond to ICE raids using a variety of political pressure tactics.
The group has said they will soon be creating a Facebook group and email listserve to help raise awareness and keep people involved.
Last week to sign up for GRIID Spring 2013 Classes
This is the last week to sign up for the Spring 2013 Classes with us here at GRIID.
We are offering two new popular education classes, both of which will last seven weeks.
The Indy Media Production class is being offered as an opportunity for people to learn independent journalism skills, media analysis and independent media production. For people wanting to be part of a growing movement of independent journalists, videographers, documentary makers, podcasters, zine makers or street media, then this class is for you.
This GRIID Class will primarily be project focused, and the group will be asked to work together to create local Indy media. The nature of this media, the form that it takes, the audience it speaks to, and so on, will be determined by the group. We will do a brief intro looking at the state media locally and nationally before beginning on the project.
The Indy Media Production class will take place on Mondays from 6 – 8pm, starting on Monday, April 8 and will last 7 weeks, ending on May 20.
The second class we are offering, Institutional Racism in Grand Rapids, is an investigation into the function of institutional racism in Grand Rapids. We will be reading the recently released book, A City Within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, MI, which covers the period from WWII through the early 1970s. The author of this book, Todd Robinson, names the institutional racism in Grand Rapids as a form of managerial racism.
In addition to using A City Within a City, we will investigate how institutional or managerial racism functions in Grand Rapids today, by looking at the economic, political and social condition of communities of color, as well as how White Supremacy is manifested in power structures.
The Institutional Racism in Grand Rapids class will take place on Wednesdays, from 7 – 9pm, beginning April 10 and will last 7 weeks, ending on May 22nd.
We are asking $20 for each class (does not include the cost of the book), but we will not turn anyone away for lack of funds. To sign up for either class, send an e-mail to jsmith@griid.org. Location for these classes will be provided to those who sign up.
IWW organizers say today’s rally just the beginning of actions in support of unlawfully fired worker at Star Tickets
Earlier today a group of IWW members and supporters came to a rally in solidarity with Deirdre Cunningham, an IWW organizer who was fired last week for organizing fellow workers.
The unlawful termination of Deirdre Cunningham came on the heels of an organizing campaign that resulted in the majority of Star Ticket workers voting in favor of having a union.
This was just the beginning of an effort to challenge Star Tickets owner Jack Krasula and his anti-union tactics. The IWW stated that they planned to continue having rallies, do fundraising for Deirdre and engage in other tactics to pressure the company to reinstate their fellow worker.
People are encouraged to check the IWW Star Tickets Worker Union Facebook page for updates and continue to flood Jack Krasula with phones calls, calling for the reinstatement of Deirdre Cunningham.
Jack Krasula Phone – 248-945-1127
We also had a chance to talk with Deirdre Cunningham on tape, which is followed by IWW organizer Cole Dorsey talking about the union’s reaction to Deirdre’s firing.
Modern Capitalism’s Hall of Hypocrisy
This article by Paul Buchheit is re-posted from Common Dreams.
Capitalist greed is splitting our country in two. But rather than look objectively at their failures, many of those responsible have been hypocritical, portraying themselves as advocates of freedom and prosperity while the greater part of America slides toward poverty.
Some of the candidates:
1. The “Get a Job” Critic
This usually well-connected person criticizes the jobless for being lazy. But in a recent poll that asked if “the government in Washington should see to it that everyone who wants to work can find a job,” 68% of the general public agreed, while only 19% of the wealthy were in agreement.
Apparently they feel the free market will find those jobs. But as they staunchly adhere to their notion, large corporations are holding trillions in cash, transferring millions of jobs overseas, and paying low-level wages to those who have managed to stay employed.
2. The Illusionist
It all started with a “world is flat” reverie, by which every individual in the world is empowered to accomplish great things. Then on to “create your own job” hyperbole, and on a global scale to the capitalist’s belief that “a billion people have been lifted from poverty through free-market competition.”
The message being spread by the people at the top is that everyone benefits, and everyone has opportunities.
The reality is that only the top of the mountain is flat. Or more accurately, the plateau just below the top of the mountain is flat. Perhaps 10% (or somewhere between 5% and 20%) of the U.S. is doing reasonably well, especially with 93% of non-home wealth owned by the richest quintile of Americans. Everyone else has experienced a 35-year decline in income. But hypocrisy bares its contemptuous soul with its hurrahs for the ever-growing stock market. Outside our borders, world inequality has decreased, but largely because of the rapid ascent of China, while INSIDE China inequality has grown at a pace rivaling the United States. There may be a half-billion young Chinese laborers who are technically above poverty level, but GDPs don’t measure the quality of life or asset distribution of 70-hour-per-week factory workers.
3. The Self-Made Man
Wealthy individuals pride themselves on their successes from meager beginnings. Many of this self-congratulatory group grew up as educated white males in the richest nation ever in the most productive time in the history of the world. They rode the technology engine for thirty years, benefiting from federal funding that provided almost half of basic research funds into the 1980s, and half of research in the communications industry as late as 1990. Now, of course, it’s much different. Globalization and automation have eliminated many of the old opportunities. Half of college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. And while it’s always been more of a struggle for the lowest-income people, it’s even worse now, withmore than half of those individuals in the bottom income quintile remaining there 10 years later. Compared to other developed countries, the U.S. ranks near the bottom in economic mobility.
4. The Government Hater
This candidate opposes government intervention of any type, unless it’s for national defense, homeland security, surveillance, prison funding and the drug war, any subsidies to oil and coal and agricultural companies, bailouts and Quantitative Easing, tax expenditures that mainly benefit the rich, and anything to do with women’s bodies.
5. The Revolving Doorman
Here’s another candidate who hates government interference, but will tolerate it if there’s a friend in the regulator’s chair. A friend like Mary Jo White, connected for 36 years to a law firm that would be monitored by her new position as head of the SEC. A report by the Project on Government Oversight stated that “Former employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) routinely help corporations try to influence SEC rulemaking, counter the agency’s investigations of suspected wrongdoing..and win exemptions from federal law.” General Electric has a particularly smooth-spinning revolving door in the back of its corporate offices. After eliminating 37,000 jobs over ten years, CEO Jeffery Immelt was appointed as chairman of President Obama’s Jobs Council. Secretary of Energy nominee Ernest Moniz has served on GE’s advisory board. And Cathy Koch, a lobbyist for the tax-avoiding company, was appointed chief advisor on tax and economic policy.
6. The Entitlement Basher
This person claims that Social Security recipients are ‘takers.’ Here are the facts. According to the Urban Institute the average two-earner couple making average wages throughout their lifetimes will receive less in Social Security benefits than they paid in. Same for single males. Meanwhile, tax expenditures (deductions and exemptions which primarily benefit the very rich) cost us about 8% of the GDP, which is almost exactly the same percentage that goes to Social Security and Medicare.
7. The New American – Love It and then Leave It at Tax Time
Unlimited candidates for the Hypocrisy Hall here, starting with companies like Google and Microsoft that hold onto their foreign cash to avoid taxes, but actually keep the cash in U.S. banks, taking advantage of publicly-funded national security to safeguard the assets they’re not paying taxes on. Then there are pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly and Pfizer who denounce the idea of consumers purchasing cheap prescription drugs from Canada, but then shift patents and profits to offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes. On the individual level, 1,700 Americans renounced their citizenships in 2011. The top Hypocrisy Hall candidate is Eduardo Saverin, who found safe refuge in the U.S. after his family was threatened in Brazil, benefited from American research and technology to take billionsfrom his 4% share in Facebook, and then skipped out on his tax bill. Finally there are CEOs like Doug Oberhelman of Caterpillar, who threatened to leave Illinois unless the highly profitable company received atax break that allowed the company to pay less than 1% of its total net income in state taxes, and then said, “Legislators in Illinois have created an environment that is unfriendly to business and investment.”
8. Realtor for the Slaves
The GEO Group, operator of private prisons, is trying to qualify as a “real estate intensive industry” (REIT). In a company profile GEO refers to itself as having “attractive real estate characteristics.”
What is the nature of GEO’s property? The 13th Amendment says “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” The private prisons have a room ready for the kids on the school-to-prison pipeline.
So Who Makes It to the Hall?
Only those who can aspire to duplicitous extremes, like Monsanto, whose website proclaims “Monsanto is committed to assuring the safety and quality of our products and promoting a culture of integrity through our business conduct,” after their communications director said “Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible.” Now, that is worthy of recognition.
