GR Free School: Not another brick in the wall
GR Free School at RRFM
Sunday August 1
Wealthy Street & Fuller Avenue SE, Grand Rapids
1–1:30 p.m. Yoga workshop. Basics of yoga and stress management.
2–3 p.m. Sling-making/primitive tools workshop. Learn how to make useful and fun primitive tools, specifically slings!
Free from tuition. Free from authority. Free to participate. That’s how the folks from the new GR Free School describe the new project they are launching in Grand Rapids this Sunday at the Really Really Free Market. Free schools operate outside the market economy. So, kicking off GR Free School at the Really Really Free Market makes perfect sense.
G.R. Free School is dedicated to community-based education free from tuition and authority where anyone can teach or attend classes. “We believe that everyone has something to teach and everyone has something to learn. Where state/private education exists to prepare people for a life of obeying orders, being productive workers and not resisting authority figures, a free school consists of people freely participating in creating, sharing, and learning together collectively as equals.”
GR Free School is offering these classes throughout August:
- Tuesday, August 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th: Special Topics: Feminism discussion: 2 pm – 3 pm. At Cherry Park: 725 Cherry St. SE. A series of facilitated discussions on feminism today, in the past, and towards the future.
- Saturday, August 7th: Know Your Rights Against Police workshop: 1 pm – 3 pm. At The Bloom Collective in Steepletown Center, 671 Davis St NW, room 7. The first in a series of “know your rights” classes, this workshop will give you the knowledge you need when dealing with police at home, on the streets, in a vehicle, and more.
- Sunday, August 8th, 22nd: Yoga class: 3 pm – 4pm. At Cherry Park: 725 Cherry St. SE. A bimonthly beginner level yoga class for breathing and stress management.
- Wednesday, August 11th, 18th, 25th: French language course: 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm. At Cherry Park: 725 Cherry St. SE. An ongoing French course taught by two skilled speakers of French. Continues every Wednesday at the same time. Will continue into September.
A free school is a collectively organized, community-based organization of people who freely participate in creating, sharing, and learning together as equals in a safe place. Anyone can teach a class, and anyone can attend one. While today’s government sanctioned schools and universities focus on turning out law abiding citizens who will dedicate their lives to “successful careers,” free schools foster self-reliance, critical consciousness and a learning community free of hierarchy and its school-chums: patriarchy, racism and sexism.
The first anarchist free schools were organized in the late 19th century in Spain in reaction to the church controlled schools of that day. Today, many free schools operate throughout North America. California’s Free Skool Santa Cruz lists 20 of them on its Web site, which also states, “More than an opportunity to learn, we see Free Skool as a direct challenge to dominant institutions and hierarchical relationships. Part of creating a new world is resistance to the old one, to the relentless commodification of everything, including learning and the way we relate to each other.”
Organizers from the GR Free School released this statement:
“Our society’s mainstream education system is meant to breed ignorance and obedience. By forcing young people to spend copious amounts of time learning useless facts, the idea of learning or education becomes unattractive to them. By structuring the classes in an authoritarian fashion where the student has no say in what they’re learning and must obey the teacher, they become jaded to the presence of authority, which will dominate their relations in their workplaces, in their homes, on their streets and for the rest of their lives. This created complacency is what allows some people to exploit and dominate everyone else, to become rich and powerful.
Fighting back means taking back the means through which we live together. It means freeing our authoritarian education, and replacing it with autonomous and collective models. We think education should simply be people sharing skills and information that is relevant to our lives with our peers. That’s what GR Free School is all about.”
For information, visit the GR Free School website.
Grand Rapids People’s History Project
For years now GRIID has been facilitating a class on the History of US Social Movements, using the important text of radical historian Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States.
With Zinn’s recent death we decided to work on a project that applies Zinn’s work on a local level. The Grand Rapids People’s History Project seeks to recover and reclaim the history of people who have been forgotten, ignored or suppressed from “official history.”
We begin our project with an interview with former historian for the City of Grand Rapids Gordon Olson. We spoke with Gordon about the early immigrant communities to Grand Rapids, the 1911 furniture workers strike and the broader idea of history from below.
We have decided to look at labor history first and have begun interviews and research. We will likely look at the abolitionist movement and civil rights in Grand Rapids, the Suffragette and feminist movements, anti-war and LGBT movements as well.
The Grand Rapids People’s History Project is taking a process-oriented approach that will be posting as much information online as possible and an eventual DVD and screening of each of the major themes. We welcome people who want to do research, help with production and writing for this project. If you have ideas or an interest in working on this project you can contact us here at GRIID.
(A special thanks to Gordon Olson for his time and to Rick Beerhorst who allowed us to use his music for the introduction.)
Michigan’s Oil Disaster: Another symptom of Capitalism
It has been several days now since the Enbridge owned & operated pipeline began spewing oil into the Kalamazoo River in southwest Michigan. The EPA now estimates that nearly 1 million gallons of oil have already contaminated the river and ecosystems that the river runs through.
As to be expected there is a tremendous amount of local news coverage, due in part to the onslaught of coverage of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. MLive has 32 stories posted since the oil disaster began just days ago and features a link to the archived stories on the main page for MLive/Grand Rapids.
After wading through the 32 stories it was clear that the bulk of the coverage on MLive was about the “leak,” political responses from Michigan, the “clean up,” and reactions from those who live on or near the river where the oil has been detected. There was one story from the Detroit Free Press with a promising headline that read, “Michigan oil spill, could this have been prevented?”
The article began by stating that the company that owns and operates the pipeline had received several notices about potential problems. “In one report, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration raised concerns in January about Enbridge discontinuing the use of monitoring systems for corrosion inside Line 6B, saying its plans for ensuring pipe safety while a new monitoring system was brought on line didn’t meet standards.” However, the reporter did not continue any further investigation into the company’s history and whether or not they have failed to comply with regulations at other locations in North America.
An Associated Press story does provide some of this information in a story that was published on July 29, which clearly shows that Enbridge has a history of regulatory violations.
“Houston-based Enbridge Energy Co. spilled almost 19,000 gallons of crude oil onto Wisconsin’s Nemadji River in 2003. Another 189,000 gallons of oil spilled at the company’s terminal two miles from Lake Superior, though most was contained.
In 2007, two spills released about 200,000 gallons of crude in northern Wisconsin as Enbridge was expanding a 320-mile pipeline. The company also was accused of violating Wisconsin permits designed to protect water quality during work in and around wetlands, rivers and streams, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said. The violations came during construction of a 321-mile, $2 billion oil pipeline across that state. Enbridge agreed to pay $1.1 million in 2009.”
Unfortunately, this kind of information has not appeared in the Grand Rapids Press or the numerous articles sourced on MLive specific to the recent oil spill into the Kalamazoo River. What one would have seen in the Grand Rapids Press on Thursday, July 29 was a full-page ad by Enbridge, with a statement from their CEO Pat Daniel. The thousand dollar (estimated cost for the ad) statement was similar to what the BP CEO said, which amounted to nothing more than a weak apology and assurances that the company has the well being of the people who live near the oil spill as their “top priority.”
Lets be clear at this point, Enbridge Energy Partners is a company that owns and operates oil and natural gas pipelines in the US and Canada. Their “top priority” is to make as much money as possible. Enbridge does not make the public or the environment, but their shareholders the “top priority” and this means to increase their market shares no matter what.
It is important for us to see companies like Enbridge and BP as nothing more than particular corporations that operate within a capitalist model, which is based upon growth. If growth drives the economic system then oil spills, environmental degradation and global warming should be seen for what they are – symptoms of a destructive system. For example, Enbridge is one of the partner companies in a $778 million “carbon capturing” project in Canada known as Project Pioneer. This project will include injecting carbon underground, despite widespread belief that carbon sequestration is highly problematic.
Sure, one can argue that if there was better regulation it might have prevented this particular oil spill into the Kalamazoo River, but since the system demands growth there will always be environmental disaster. You cannot sustain healthy eco-systems when oil, gas, coal and other polluting energy sources are extracted from the land.
Besides the lack of investigative journalism on the Enbridge oil disaster there is also no real discussion about the need to reduce our collective levels of energy consumption. Several environmental organizations such as Clean Water Action and the Michigan Environmental Council have responded to this disaster with calls for a shift to renewable energy. While a shift to renewable energy sources is critical, none of these environmental groups are calling for a reduction in energy consumption (individual consumption not included).
The problem with looking at a reduction in energy consumption means that society would have to make serious changes, since the economy is built around growth. However, if we are serious about wanting to prevent more oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico or the Kalamazoo River then we need to question an economic system that is based on exponential growth.
LaDuke to speak at Protect the Earth gathering
This post was provided by Stand for the Land.
Third Annual Protect the Earth
Great Lakes Community Gathering and Annual Walk to Eagle Rock
July 30, 31, August 1
Featuring guest speakes including Winona LaDuke, annual walk to Eagle Rock, workshops, film showings and live entertainment including Joanne Shenandoah. Organized by Oshkinawe-Ogichidaag Akiing “New Warriors for the Earth” (NWE). Visit Standfortheland.com for more information.
The third annual Protect the Earth Gathering will be held from July 30 through August 1st on the Pow-wow grounds and at the Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College in Baraga, Michigan. This year’s events will also include an annual walk from the Yellow Dog River to Eagle Rock on the Yellow Dog Plains.
According to head organizer Jessica Koski (Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Member), “This event will bring together some of the most prominent environmental and indigenous rights leaders from across the region including Winona LaDuke; Al Gedicks; Lee Sprague, clean energy campaign manager for Michigan Sierra Club; and, Stuart Kirsch, and more.
A focused session on mining in the U.P. will present expert perspectives on metallic sulfide mining, treaty rights and Anishinaabe cultural concerns, international movements, and lessons from Wisconsin’s Native-Environmental alliance and grassroots efforts to stop the Crandon Mine.”
Winona LaDuke will be the keynote speaker Friday night and Saturday. LaDuke is from the White Earth reservation in Minnesota. She is a mother, author, former Green Party vice presidential candidate, Harvard graduate and activist. Winona is a founding director of both the White Earth Land Recovery Program and Honor the Earth.
Grammy Award winning artist Joanne Shenandoah, an Iroquois singer, composer, actress and acoustic guitarist is the featured musical guest. A Protect the Earth Concert will also include local up-and-coming musician “E”, Wisconsin folksinger Skip Jones, and Ojibwe folksinger Bobbie Bullet.
“Protect the Earth is an opportunity to learn about issues facing the Great Lakes region, including climate change, biomass burning, petro-chemical plants and mining. It is a time to gather with old and new friends, Native and non-Native, to make our public voice loud and clear on some of the critical issues affecting our communities.
“I hope it leaves people informed, inspired and empowered to make a difference.” said NWE member Kalvin Hartwig (Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa).
Protect the Earth gatherings started in 1986, when the U.S Department of Energy was considering northern Wisconsin as the site for a nuclear waste dump. Jim Schlender, of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission organized a rally in opposition of the proposal, and the first rally was held at the Mole Lake Reservation in Wisconsin. The rally brought awareness to the DOE’s proposal, but also helped bring together people from all walks of life to work toward a common goal. From that day forward Protect the Earth became an important tradition in Wisconsin and played a very important role in the battle to protect the land and water from metallic sulfide mining.
In 2008, the Protect the Earth was handed over to citizen leaders in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. New Warriors for the Earth (NWE) will carry on the tradition this year in 2010. NWE is a new Native and non-Native environmental organization dedicated to educating and empowering our communities to take action to protect Aki, Mother Earth. Its mission is to raise awareness about mining and other social-ecological injustices facing the Upper Great Lakes region and Mother Earth.
So, we welcome you to please join us again this year for the 3rd Annual Protect the Earth in Michigan’s beautiful UP. We have a wonderful fun-filled, action-packed weekend planned; including workshops and presentations, music, a film screening, food, prayer and a walk to Eagle Rock (don’t forget to bring your wild blueberry buckets!).”
A schedule, directions and lodging information can be found at standfortheland.com.
Vigil promotes justice for immigrants
Yesterday in Grand Rapids about 100 people came together to offer up written and verbal prayers for those in the immigrant community faced with separation from family, harassment and other forms of repression that confront them.
People representing the Christian Reformed Church, local Methodists, other Protestants, Catholics and members of the Jewish community shared prayers in both English and Spanish, prayers that called for dignity, respect and open arms for immigrants in West Michigan.
Kim deLong said, “Because families are the cornerstone of a healthy society, we pray for reforms in our family-based immigration system that reduce the time families must wait to be reunited.” This was one of many prayers that focused on the desire to keep immigrant families together.
Other speakers focused on the realities of migrant labor. Liz Balck, an immigration attorney said, “We pray for those who endure long days, hot sun, little water, and homesickness in order to put food on American tables. We pray for immigrants who travel across borders to fill jobs we rely on, and yet are shunned from participation in our culture and lifestyles.”
Some speakers focused on immigration policy and elected officials. “We pray that our leaders would examine solutions to address the root causes of migration, such as vast economic disparities between rich and poor nations. We pray for economic justice throughout the world. We do not believe that our lifestyle must be lived at the expense of the suffering of people in other countries. We do not accept that there are no better solutions than the policies we have today,” said Peter Vander Meulen, with the Office of Social Justice for the Christian Reformed Church.
Before he offered up a prayer, Vander Meulen said he was fielding phone calls all day, some of which were critical of the CRCs role as advocates for immigrants. “People asked me what we were doing getting involved in the immigration problem and I told them why aren’t you involved in trying to fix a system that is unjust and keep families apart?”
In addition to the verbal prayers that were offered, people were invited to write statements, prayers and desires on pieces of paper with images of feet. The pieces of paper where then attached to a long piece of material, which will eventually be sent to Michigan lawmakers as a way of telling them to not support a proposed bill on immigrant that would be similar to the one adopted by Arizona.
Afterwards, we had an opportunity to speak with Kate Kooyman, with the CRC Office of Social Justice and one of the organizers of the vigil.
Hoekstra votes for more Afghan war funding
Late Tuesday, the US House of Representatives voted 308 – 114 in favor of President Obama’s war surge in Afghanistan. This means the President got the additional $33.5 billion to go towards the additional 30,000 US troops now deployed in Afghanistan.
Twelve Republicans and 102 Democrats voted against the war-funding bill. Amongst those who opposed sending billions more for a failed war in Afghanistan was West Michigan Congressman Vern Ehlers, although since Ehlers has announced his retirement this vote doesn’t seem to have much significance.
Voting for additional war funding was 2nd Congressional District Representative Pete Hoekstra. Hoekstra, a GOP candidate for Governor in Michigan, is also now a leading member in the Tea Party Caucus. Joining Hoekstra in voting for the President’s war funding bill were 148 Democrats and 160 Republicans.
According to an Associated Press article the President urged passage of the war-funding bill, saying in a Rose Garden statement that it was needed “to ensure that our troops have the resources they need and that we’re able to do what’s necessary for our national security.” Like Bush before him, President Obama doesn’t clarify how a nearly 9-year occupation of Afghanistan is necessary for national security.
(This video interview is re-posted from Common Dreams.)
The Pentagon’s hunting for the sources behind the biggest leak in U.S. military history. The whistle-blowing website Wikileaks published some ninety thousand classified documents exposing cover-ups over the war in Afghanistan. Phyllis Bennis from the Washington Institute for Policy Studies provides her perspective on the latest Pentagon scandal and its consequences.
Immigration Rights Alert for Grand Rapids
Since the Grand Rapids Press posted a story about today’s planned prayer vigil in support of immigrant rights, there have been a large number of comments left on Mlive.
Most of the comments are critical of the planned vigil for this afternoon at Ah Nab Awen Park (5:30pm). However, there are also several comments from those who favor the new Arizona law to come today and protest the prayer vigil.
We encourage as many people who are able to come to stand in solidarity with people who are vulnerable to these laws and the racialized hatred that comes with it. Those of us who are privileged need to be willing to stand with people who are the targets of this hateful anti-immigration sentiment that exists in West Michigan.
Whether or not you are a person of faith, it is important for people to come today to send a message to people who think that immigrants threaten their way of life. More importantly, join us today to send a message to those at risk of racial profiling, police harassment, detention and deportation that we will not stand for these kinds of policies. Come stand in solidarity with all immigrants!
5:30 – 6:30pm
Ah nab Awen Park
What does it mean when candidates shift to the right?
Yesterday, the Grand Rapid Press published a story about how several Republican candidates for Governor in Michigan were moving to the right just before the August 3rd Primary. The print version of the Press was headlined, “Candidates sharpen focus,” with a subheading of “A week before primary, GOP governor hopefuls appeal to party base.”
The MLive version of the story had a much different headline, which read, “Several Republican candidates for governor move to the right in primary campaign, but not Snyder.” Interesting that there is such a clear difference in what is emphasized and how the different headlines frame the story.
Beyond the headlines the article provides readers with two example of this “move to the right” or “appeal to the party base.” The first example involves an endorsement from Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio of gubernatorial candidate Mike Bouchard. The Press reporter refers to Arpaio as “the Republican sheriff who has gained national attention for setting up “Tent City” outside of his county jail, and has been featured as a strong proponent of the new Arizona immigration law set to take effect this week.”
Using the terms “Tent City” and “a strong proponent of the new Arizona immigration law” hardly reflect the realities of the tactics and policies that Sheriff Arpaio uses to enforce his brand of the law. The Phoenix New Times refers to the lawman’s policies as a “Reign of Terror” and the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium has a long list of documented human rights violations and abuses under Sheriff Arpaio.
Besides being under investigation by the US Justice Department and the FBI, the conditions in Arpaio’s jail are unconstitutional, he threatens lawyers who challenge him, has roughly 2,700 lawsuits against him, conducts “crime suppression sweeps” in Latino communities and in 2009 forced a mother to give birth while handcuffed to her jail bed. Unfortunately these realities are not conveyed in the Press article about Arpaio’s endorsement of Bouchard.
The other example of candidates moving to the right is the announcement that Pete Hoekstra is now part of the newly formed Tea Party Caucus. However, the Press article does not explore the significance of this announcement, both at the local and national level, especially considering the Tea Party’s far right leanings on race, immigration, war and the economy.
Instead, our local daily monopoly paper decided it was more important to quote “political analyst” Craig Ruff from Public Sector Consultants who speculates why candidates move to the left or right before primaries. Once again, the Press fails to adequately explore the implication of far right policies and politicians for those living in West Michigan.
In this week’s Media Bites we look at one of the new ads for Axe body spray. Like previous Axe commercials this one also equates the use of their product by men as a way of making them more desirable to women. The absurdity of this ad is accentuated by the punch line, which says, “women get bored easy.” In addition, the commercial continues the main advertising mantra, which says that we are happier and more human when we consume products.
