Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of March 10
It has become clear that the Israeli government will continue their assault on Gaza and the West Bank. The retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, has escalated, therefore, GRIID will be providing weekly links to information and analysis that we think can better inform us of what is happening, along with the role that the US government is playing. We will also provide information on local events and actions that people can get involved in. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
Demeaning airdrops over Gaza are humanitarian aid theater
Biden Admin Quietly Approves 100+ Arms Sales to Israel While Claiming Concern for Civilians in Gaza
DESPERATE TO ESCAPE GAZA CARNAGE, PALESTINIANS ARE FORCED TO PAY EXORBITANT FEES TO ENTER EGYPT
LEAKED U.S. CABLE: ISRAELI INVASION OF RAFAH WOULD HAVE “CATASTROPHIC HUMANITARIAN CONSEQUENCES”
History will record that Israel committed a holocaust
WOLF BLITZER CUT HIS TEETH DOING JOURNALISM FOR AIPAC-LINKED PROPAGANDA OUTLETS
Analysis & History
‘Israeli Violence Is Legitimized and Palestinian Counter-Violence Is Delegitimized’
A New Surge of Settler Outposts is Terrorizing Palestinians Off Their Land
How The ‘Fight Against Antisemitism’ Became A Shield For Israel’s Genocide
Local Events and Actions
For upcoming events/action also check the FB page for Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids. https://www.facebook.com/PalestineSolidarityGR
Graphic used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/#visuals
The weather has been all over the map for some time now, but particularly this winter – if you can call it that – in West Michigan. 2023 was the warmest year in recorded history, as was the most recent months of December, January and February.
Over the past few weeks we have had some temperatures in the 70’s, and while having sunshine and warm in the later months of winter and often welcomed, we can no longer deny that the human manufactured Climate Crisis is the culprit. Of course it would be easy to blame the climate deniers – GOP politicians, think tanks, and far right pundits, but we are facing a Climate Crisis because the political and economic systems are both failing us miserably. Here are a few examples of the lack of Climate Justice within the Biden Administration:
- As the Center for Biological Diversity noted in January, the Biden Administration is on pace to approve more oil and gas drilling permits than what former President Donald Trump did in the previous 4 years.
- The Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) provides some of the best critiques of the COP28 conference that took place last year. The IEN writes, “The outcomes of the UNFCCC 28th Conference of Parties has left Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities across the world sitting in disappointment as world leaders put forward watered-down climate commitments and text that continue to compromise our future.”
- The Biden Administration approved the largest US military budget in history at $886 Billion, with over an additional $100 Billion in military aid to Ukraine, Israel and for so-called Border Security. US military spending and climate change are well documented in a recent report entitled, Climate Collateral: How military spending accelerates climate breakdown, published by the Transnational Institute.
- The Biden Administration has decided that invest billions into electric vehicles instead of a robust mass transit system in the US. Such a decision does not provide a long term solution and only perpetuates extractivist practices of removing precious metals from other countries to power electric vehicles.
Then there is the role of the commercial news media, which is also complicit in not making Climate Change a front and center issue. For example, WZZM 13 ran a story a few days ago talking about Michigan businesses can apply for federal relief funding because on the warmer winter weather, specifically businesses that rely on tourism. While the channel 13 story talks about the warmer winter weather, nowhere in the story are the words Climate Change mentioned.
A second example of local news coverage about the warmer winter was from MLive on March 5th, with the headline, We had a 2-week winter in Grand Rapids, Muskegon, West Michigan. The MLive article had some very nice graphics showing how few days of winter temperatures we actually had over the past several months, but refused to bring up the issue of Climate Change and the causes of such a warm winter.
Liberals and Democrats love to mock climate deniers, but many of these same people continue to vote for and defend politicians that ultimately do nothing to stop the planet from warming or burning. What we need is a Climate Justice movement that is also an anti-war movement and an anti-Capitalist movement that understand the systemic root causes of the current climate crisis.
Lastly, it is important that we come to terms with the fact that the Climate Crisis impacts BIPOC at a higher level that white/Europeans. However, one of the most important players in the Climate Justice movement are Indigenous people.
Throughout the history of the struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty, right relationship to the land (rather than property) and its people has been central. Multiple direct actions and campaigns led by Indigenous people to fight pipelines from Standing Rock to Line 5 have been effective in reducing the impact of climate change. According to a report put out by the Indigenous Environmental Network in 2021, Indigenous-led resistance campaigns against pipelines in the US and Canada have reduced greenhouse gas pollution by at least 25% annually since these campaigns began. We need to learn from and follow the examples of concrete ways to reduce Climate Change, especially if we care about leaving behind a planet for future generations.
It is quite understandable that the immediate work we can do in Grand Rapids is to demand a permanent ceasefire in the Israeli assault on Palestine, plus a push to end US military aid to Israel.
However, we should not and cannot be content with making those two outcomes the end goal. In 2005, the Palestinians began their Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, as a means of ending Israeli Apartheid and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.
For the entire month of March, the international BDS campaign has designated this month as Israeli Apartheid Week. Yes, I know it’s a month, but they historically have organized doing education and actions for one week to draw attention to Israeli Apartheid. Considering that more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since early October, which it the largest amount of Palestinians that Israel has killed in such a short period of time, they BDS campaign expanded Israeli Apartheid week to a month. They also recognize that the level of international solidarity has been incredible. Here is part of what the BDS campaign wrote for Israeli Apartheid Week:
While Palestinians remain steadfast in the face of this genocide and persist with our liberation struggle, we take hope and strength from global solidarity expressed in mass demonstrations from Jakarta to Washington, Cape Town to London, and Rabat to Baghdad; trade union actions to stop arms shipments to Israel in Belgium, Italy, Greece, Turkey and elsewhere; hundreds of creative civil disobedience actions (sit-ins, peaceful occupations, walk-outs, strikes, etc.) worldwide; fast-growing grassroots BDS campaigns and calls for military embargo; strong declarations of solidarity by racial, Indigenous, climate, gender and social justice movements; high-profile statements by prominent artists, writers, academics, international experts in genocide, as well as by progressive Jewish groups, human rights and civil rights organizations; and a million local, grassroots solidarity actions and creative initiatives worldwide.
Now, the BDS campaign consists of three areas that we can all take part in – the Academic Boycott, the Cultural Boycott and the Economic Boycott and Divestment. Divestment is a tactic that Calvin University faculty and staff are using, which we wrote about earlier this week.
The BDS campaign also focuses on targeted boycotts instead of un-targeted. Un-targeted boycotts are usually longer list of companies to boycott, as opposed to choosing few targets that can often have a larger impact. The targets that the BDS campaign has focused on are companies like Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard (HP), Chevron, RE/MAX, ect. In the graphic above you can see some of the targeted boycott campaigns, some of which are for institutions to divest from. If you are part of a faith community, a university, a corporation or even a labor union, you could chose to divest from companies that are profiting off of the Israeli occupation and Israeli Apartheid. However, there are other boycotts, such as consumer boycotts or pressure targets that people can organize campaigns against directly, both by not purchasing products, but also by doing larger public awareness campaigns or direct actions against companies complicit in the Israeli occupation and Israeli genocide.
The possibilities are endless and the BDS campaign website has an amazing amount of resources;
- An Intro into BDS.
- Israel’s new far-right government – an analysis.
- Israeli Settler Colonialism and Apartheid
- Regular posts and updates about success stories.
- Creating Apartheid Free Zones
- The importance of a Military Embargo.
It is imperative that we support the BDS campaign because it is a Palestinian movement, but also because this work addresses the long term and root causes of Israel’s occupation and Apartheid system of government. STOP GENOCIDE, DISMANTLE APARTHEID!
Interview with Calvin Professor on faculty divestment campaign targeting Israel and War Profiteers
Yesterday, GRIID made a post about the important action that Calvin University faculty and staff have taken, by crating a letter calling on their university to divest from Israel and Gaza war profiteers.
As a follow up to that story I conducted an interview with one of those professors who signed the letter, Elisha Marr. Included below are the questions that I asked, with the video containing the full interview.
GRIID – What motivated you and other Calvin faculty to craft a letter calling for Divestment from Israel and the companies profiting from their genocidal campaign?
GRIID – The letter itself has three main components, the Situation in Gaza, the International Condemnation and your Request and Call to Action. Can you talk a bit about what you are requesting specifically and why?
GRIID – The letter has been signed by 36 faculty and 5 staff, as of March 1st, have any new people signed on since then and will you invite Calvin students to sign on to the letter, or do you think it would be better if they did a separate campaign?
GRIID – What would you say to people who work inside of institutions that could follow your example in calling for divestment?
For more information on the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanction campaign go https://bdsmovement.net/.
The Matrix of Policing in Grand Rapids receives another $6.45 million for the GVSU Police Academy
Ever since the massive uprising in 2020, the public has been struggling to understand the function of policing in the US. As a response to the police repression of the millions of people taking the streets after the police murder of George Floyd, the Movement for Black Lives put out a call to Defund the Police.
There was push back on the idea of defunding policing in the US and in Grand Rapids, mostly coming from white people, elected officials and members of the Capitalist Class.
In the process of trying to understand the complexities of policing in Grand Rapids, I first wrote a piece in early 2022, entitled, The Matrix of Policing in Grand Rapids. In that article, and a subsequent post in June of 2022, I provided some analysis of all of the pieces of the policing matrix in Grand Rapids.
In those two GRIID posted I not only identified the GRPD itself, but all of the entities included in the graphic here above.
A year after the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya, I attempted to write a piece about the curriculum that was being used to train new recruits for the GRPD, especially since the lawyers defending the cop who shot and killed Patrick Lyoya claimed that he was merely following his training. However, when I contacted the Police Academy, they blocked me from sending any future inquiries about what training new recruits were receiving, which I then wrote about.
Now, the Matrix of policing in Grand Rapids is expanding, with last week’s announcement that the GVSU Police Academy will be spending $6.45 million to relocate the Police Academy.
According to an article on MLive:
The GVSU Board of Trustees recently approved a proposal to renovate Grand Valley’s Meijer Campus in Holland to make room for the GVSU Police Academy, which is currently housed on the Allendale campus.
Grand Valley leaders say the move will create more space for the Police Academy to “continue to meet the growing need for law enforcement officers (in) the region,” according to the agenda packet from the board’s Friday, Feb. 23 meeting.
In addition, the MLive article states:
The academy goes beyond the mandatory minimum training requirement of 594 hours set by the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards, requiring recruits to spend an additional 42 hours focusing on community policing which includes de-escalation and implicit bias training, according to the board packet.
Now, despite using buzzwords like community policing, de-escalation and implicit bias training, those components of the Police Academy curriculum have not translated into reducing the amount of harm that the GRPD inflicts on BIPOC communities, the unhoused and people involved in various social movements in Grand Rapids. Whenever there is a protest, no matter what the issue, those of us in the streets have seen nothing but increased surveillance, harassment and repression as standard practices of the GRPD.
Some quick examples come to mind, such as how the GRPD threatened to arrest people marching in the streets in the Cosecha-led May Day 2023 action, even though the Palestine Solidarity GR protests often take over the streets in downtown without consequences. Another example is a recent protest in the southeast part of GR, which included going to Rep. Scholten’s home. At this protests there were at least 10 GRPD cruisers, along with a white, unmarked cruiser, which just happened to be the Chief of Police. The GRPD stopped and ticketed the driver of a car that was following the march, for safety purposes to reduce the possibility of motorists driving into protesters.
Besides these examples, for GVSU to spend an additional $6.45 million on the Police Academy sends the message that they are ramping up their efforts to recruit more people into the GRPD and to further criminalize marginalized populations and repressive tactics against dissident groups. In the end, the GVSU funding will only further solidify the Matrix of policing in Grand Rapids.
Faculty and Staff at Calvin University call for divestment from the State of Israel and Gaza War Profiteers in recent letter
Last month I wrote about a presentation I did at Calvin University on my book, A People’s History of Grand Rapids. I hit on several themes in the presentation, but spent most of my time talking about the student and faculty movements at Calvin, specifically about the anti-Vietnam War and the South African Anti-Apartheid movement.
About a week after my presentation, I was told by one of the faculty members who had invited me to speak on campus, that they and other faculty members were crafting a letter to demand that Calvin University divest from businesses profiting off of Israeli Apartheid and weapons manufacturers who are making profits from the current Israeli assault on Gaza.
Earlier today, a former Calvin professor shared with me a link to the actual letter that has been signed so far by 36 faculty and 5 staff members from Calvin University. Here is a link to the letter and I am including the entirety of the letter in this post. This letter is an excellent example of how institutions and take action to not be complicit in Israeli Apartheid and Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians. Other campuses in West Michigan should do the same, along with labor associations, faith communities and local governments. What Calvin faculty and staff are doing is a model for action that we can all follow and demand that the institutions that represent us to the same! #CeasefireNOW #EndIsraeliApartheid
Faculty Letter Calling for Calvin University to Divest from the State of Israel and Gaza War Profiteers
Yesterday (Thursday, 29 February 2024), a group of faculty members from Calvin University submitted the following letter to the university’s Interim President and Board of Trustees, calling for the institution to divest from any financial or programmatic links that benefit from the State of Israel’s military actions in Gaza. I was one of the co-writers of the letter and am proud to stand by the statements herein:
Dear Interim President Elzinga and Members of the Board of Trustees,
We are a group of Calvin University faculty who are deeply concerned about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the Palestinian territories. We are writing to urge you to take a moral and couragous stand by divesting from any financial investments and activities that benefit from the State of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
As Reformed Christians, we believe that God calls us to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with him. We also believe that God loves all people and commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. We cannot remain silent or indifferent when our fellow image-bearers in Palestine are suffering from oppression, violence, and injustice.
The Situation in Gaza
The conditions in Gaza are dire and desperate. Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out a horrendous attack that left well over a thousand innocents dead in Israel, the State of Israel responded with a siege and bombing campaign that is itself a catastrophe and that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. Here are some of the shocking facts and figures that illustrate the magnitude of the crisis:
- As of February 22, 2024, over 29,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza with over 69,000 injured. Of these deaths, approximately 70% have been women and children. On December 25, 2023, the New York Times reported that a “conservative reading of the casualty figures reported from Gaza shows that the pace of death during Israel’s campaign has few precedents in this century.” At the time, the death rates were reported to be 1 out of 200 Gazans but that death rate has increased to 1 in 100 Gazans. It is estimated that 250 Palestinians are being killed per day.
- The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) estimates that over 75% of Gazans (1.7 million people) are internally displaced, many of whom have experienced multiple displacements since October of 2023. Rafah, which was the last safe city in the south of Gaza, is now under Israeli military assault despite dire warnings of a humanitarian tragedy if a military assault were to occur. Gazans have nowhere to find safety from Israel’s military assault.
- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis of Gaza in December of 2023 found that the entire population of Gaza is living with crisis or higher levels of hunger. One in four households—more than half a million people—face catastrophic conditions. Before October 7th, acute malnutrition in Gaza was almost non-existent. Today food insecurity is the norm.
- The Gazan health infrastructure has been systematically destroyed with only 12 of 36 hospitals running with marginal inpatient capacity. The OCHA estimates that over 370 attacks on the healthcare facilities have occurred in Gaza. The results have been devastating and catastrophic for Gazans.
International Condemnation
With few notable exceptions, the international community’s response to the State of Israel’s military actions in Gaza has been critical and condemnatory. Many countries, organizations, and individuals have called for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian access, and respect for international law and human rights. Some have also advocated for sanctions, boycotts, or divestment from Israel. Here are just a few of these responses:
- The Republic of South Africa has initiated proceedings against the State of Israel in the International Court of Justice, charging that “Israel, since 7 October 2023 in particular, has failed to prevent genocide and has failed to prosecute the direct and public incitement to genocide,” and that “Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.” This case is currently before the court.
- The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam have all warned that starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is being used in Gaza. Starving civilians is illegal under International Humanitarian Law and in direct breach of UNSC Resolution 2417.
- Amnesty International and the International Court of Justice have observed that Israel’s blocking of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza breach the obligations of an occupying country under International Humanitarian Law, constituting war crimes.
- Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), an ecumenical coalition of more than 30 Church communions and organizations of which the Christian Reformed Church is a member, submitted a joint letter to US President Joe Biden on February 13, urging him to “immediately call for a comprehensive permanent ceasefire, an end to the occupation, and lasting peace,” further adding that “We call on all parties to abide by the Geneva Conventions and customary international law and for the collective punishment imposed upon the civilians in Gaza to be brought to an immediate end.”
- The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), of which the Christian Reformed Church is also a member, has issued a call for “our member churches to stand in solidarity with all those who are suffering the ravages of war and call on the international community to work for justice in the region so that there can be a real and long-lasting possibility for peace.”
Our Request and Call to Action
We, the undersigned Calvin University faculty, believe that as a Christian institution that values justice, compassion, and stewardship, Calvin University has a moral responsibility to respond to the crisis in Gaza and to stand in solidarity with the oppressed and suffering people of Palestine. We believe that one of the ways that Calvin University can do so is by divesting from any financial investments and activities that benefit from the State of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
- We, therefore, call upon the Board of Trustees not to allow Calvin University to support or invest in corporations or other entities that directly profit from the ongoing Israeli military operations that are laying Gazan life and society to waste.
- We propose that the Board of Trustees adopt a policy of selective divestment from companies that are involved in the production or supply of weapons, equipment, or services that are used by Israel to maintain the occupation, the blockade, or the war in Gaza.
- We also propose that the Board of Trustees require that the University refrain from entering into any academic or institutional partnerships or agreements with Israeli universities or organizations that are complicit in or supportive of the violation of Palestinian rights.
We understand that the issue of Israel and Palestine is complex and controversial, and we acknowledge that there are legitimate security concerns and historical grievances on both sides. States have every right to maintain the safety of their citizens, but when military operations are utilized as part of those rights, the state must adhere to international humanitarian law and the constraints of a just war. The State of Israel’s response to the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas on Israeli citizens in October of 2023 has flagrantly violated such international humanitarian law, as well as the constraints of a just war.
We believe that divestment is a peaceful and nonviolent way of expressing our disapproval of the State of Israel’s actions, and of exerting economic and political pressure on the State of Israel to end its illegal and immoral policies and practices. We also believe that divestment is a way of showing our support and solidarity with the Palestinian people. We are inspired by the precedent set in October of 1985, when Calvin College divested from companies tied directly to South Africa in opposition to apartheid, and by the example of other universities and institutions that have divested from the State of Israel or from companies that support the State of Israel’s occupation and oppression of Palestine.
The undersigned have varied opinions on what the ultimate solution for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict should look like, but we stand united against the atrocities occurring in Gaza today and so call for divestment.
In recent days, Rep. Hillary Scholten has continued to demonstrate that her allegiances are primarily to state violence, based on comments she has made on her Facebook page.
The first example of demonstrating her commitment to state violence, or what scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore names as the carceral state was a post that Rep. Scholten made, which stated:
“Law enforcement officers work hard to keep us safe. It’s great to see funding from The United States Department of Justice made available for resources to help our officers feel their best so they can protect our communities.”
What Rep Scholten was referring to in her post is that there are $9.8 million available for local police departments to apply for funding for cops who need mental health access. Put in proper context, the mental health access that most cops need is based on the dealing with the harm they perpetrate in our communities. According to the site Mapping violence, in 2023, police across the US killed 1,352 people, which is the largest number of people that cops have killed in one year since Mapping Violence began tracking this information in 2013.
Additionally, when Rep. Scholten states that, “Law enforcement officers work hard to keep us safe,” she not only provides no concrete evidence of such a claim, but it contradicts the previous data I just cited. Such a claim also contradicts the lived experience that many of us have – especially BIPOC communities – with the real function of policing, which is to protect systems of power and oppression. See my example from Friday’s GRIID post about the GRPD.
The second example of how Rep. Scholten defends the state violence was from another recent Facebook page post which stated:
“Thank you, President Joe Biden, for delivering this critical aid to civilians in Gaza. As we continue our steadfast work to bring the hostages home and end the fighting for good, we need to be doing everything possible to support innocent civilians in harm’s way.”
This Facebook post was celebrating the recent announcement from the Biden Administration about airdrops that the US would conduct contain so-called humanitarian aid. Such an announcement simply reeks of hypocrisy, for several reasons.
First, the US recently decided to end funding of UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency that has a long history of providing humanitarian aid to places like Gaza. The US argument for ending any financial support for UNRWA was their claim that staff members of UNRWA were working in collaboration with Hamas during the October 7 attack. Such a claim has been exposed as a fabrication by the Israeli military. In a February article from Truthout, the headline read, Report Finds “No Evidence” in Key Dossier to Support Israel’s UNRWA Allegations.” In that article it states:
U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 obtained a copy of the six-page document in which Israeli officials alleged that a dozen of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees’s (UNRWA) 30,000 employees were involved in the October 7 attack led by Hamas. The allegations made in the document, originating from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), have spurred 16 countries so far to suspend funding to the UNRWA, even as humanitarian groups warn that this will only further Israel’s genocide.
Second, and more importantly, the US can claim no humanitarian role in the current Israeli genocide agains the Palestinians. The US has provided more military funding to Israel than any other country for decades, plus the US has provided many of the weapons that the Israeli have used to destroy Gaza and in the upcoming campaign in Rafah. In addition, the Biden Administration has not only unconditionally supported Israel during their genocidal campaign, the Biden Administration has voted down three separate calls from the UN General Assembly to demand an immediate ceasefire. In other words, the US cain’t claim they are delivering critical aid – Rep. Scholten’s words – when they have provided the weapons to bomb Gaza, blocked an international vote for a ceasefire and have defending Israel’s genocidal campaign from the get go. You can’t bomb the shit out of Gaza and then claim to want to help them at the same time. People around the world and in the 3rd Congressional District just aren’t buying that crap Rep. Scholten!
Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of March 3
It has become clear that the Israeli government will continue their assault on Gaza and the West Bank. The retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, has escalated, therefore, GRIID will be providing weekly links to information and analysis that we think can better inform us of what is happening, along with the role that the US government is playing. We will also provide information on local events and actions that people can get involved in. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
Rafah Attack Escalates “Most Transparent Genocide of All Time,” Scholar Says
Shielding US Public From Israeli Reports of Friendly Fire on October 7
IDF Kills Nearly 100 Gazans in 24 Hours as Biden Claims Cease-Fire Deal ‘Close’
Every child in Gaza faces starvation
Netanyahu’s Last Battle Promises No Victory, Just Slaughter in Rafah
Analysis & History
Europe, Israel and the USA: The Triangle of Guilt
DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI ON THE STRUGGLE FOR PALESTINE’S FUTURE AMID GAZA GENOCIDE
Israel’s Cruelty by Design, an Interview with Joshua Frank
The story behind the New York Times October 7 expose
In Gaza Now, It’s Worse Than Ethnic Cleansing
Local Events and Actions
For upcoming events/action also check the FB page for Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids https://www.facebook.com/PalestineSolidarityGR
Graphic used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/#visuals
GRPD recruitment video is easily exposed as hypocrisy
For years GRIID has been monitoring the Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD), providing critique of the local commercial news media reporting, an analysis of GRPD policies, along with my reporting on how the GRPD treats local social movements in this city.
On Tuesday, February 27th, the GRPD posted a very short recruitment video on their Facebook page, featuring their bicycle patrol riding on the downtown campus of GVSU, as shown in the image on the left above. There is a short narrative in the video, which states:
We are more than just officers; we are guardians constantly looking out for the Grand Rapids community. Join us in our mission to create a safer and stronger city for everyone. Click the link in our bio to learn how you can be a part of it.
The narrative that accompanies the video by the GRPD is both absurd and dishonest. Just 5 days before the GRPD posted the video with bike cops, it was documented during a protest on Thursday, February 22nd, that the GRPD bicycle cops used force to push protesters back from an intersection that Vice President Kamala Harris was exiting from.
The GRPD bicycle cops arrived to the protest early on, but rode past the protest into a GRCC parking garage. They emerged from the parking garage, once they got orders from the Secret Service to make sure that people protesting US complicity in Israeli’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians would not be near the intersection.
Those protesting against the Biden Administrations support for Israel had been legally protesting the entire time, standing on the sidewalk on the southwest corner of Fountain St and Ransom Ave. The GRPD bike cops picked up their bicycles, holding them in front of themselves, and used their bicycles to push those protesting further down the sidewalk where they had been non-violently protesting.
This incident demonstrated that the GRPD are not interested in keeping people safe in Grand Rapids, but they are guardians of those in power.
Who profited from ArtPrize 2023?
On Monday, WZZM 13 ran a story about the economic impact of ArtPrize for West Michigan in 2023.
The story is based up a study conducted by Grand Valley State University, specifically the Seidman School of Business. The channel 13 story doesn’t ask questions of the study, only a summary of the findings.
The 38-page report from GVSU states that the economic impact of ArtPrize in West Michigan for 2023 was $$54.7 million. Early on in the report it states:
This report focuses on the economic impact (direct, indirect, and induced) ArtPrize provides to the Grand Rapids area. The economic contribution is the amount of economic activity that ArtPrize generates within a defined region. For the purpose of this report, the local region is defined as Kent County.
However, it you look at the amount of direct spending that took place, the total was $40,252,700. The report breaks down the direct spending in five categories – with dollar amounts for each category:
- Meals – $16,735,760
- Retail – $3,971,684
- Lodging – $12,419,695
- Transportation – $5,257,680
- Art Spending – $1,867,881
While some of this information is useful and instructive, the report provides no breakdown of who the primary beneficiaries were of the $40,252,700 in direct spending. One question to be asked about this is, why did the GVSU report researchers and writers not talk about who benefited economically from the millions that were spent during the 2023 ArtPrize.
Of course the largest sector that benefited from ArtPrize 2023 was the restaurant industry, which would also include food trucks, with $16,735,760. This means that $16,735,760 was made by the owners of restaurants and food trucks. The employees do the bulk of the work, but it is reasonable that employees – those that wait tables, cooks, dishwashers, those who bus tables, people who do food prep, and those who work as bartenders – were not likely to have made more money during ArtPrize, except wait staff who work for tips. It is also reasonable to think that the wages of restaurant workers did not go up during ArtPrize, even if they were busier during the weeks that ArtPrize was operational in 2023. Who were the primary beneficiaries in this category? Restaurant and Food Truck owners.
The second largest sector in terms of direct spending during ArtPrize was Lodging, which would include hotels, motels, Airbnb and other more informal spaces being rented. With hotels and motels, it is also reasonable to think that the bulk of the $12,419,695 went to the owners. The employees of hotels and motels – people who work the front desk, people who take your luggage to your room, valets, those who clean the rooms, clean the linen and towels, those who do maintenance, and those who work in security – it is reasonable to think that these people did not get an increase in wages during ArtPrize 2023. Who were the primary beneficiaries in this category? Hotel and Motel owners. In addition, it is important to note that the DeVos family owns the following Hotels in downtown Grand Rapids: Hotel by Marriott, Amway Grand Plaza, Courtyard by Marriott, the Hyatt Place Grand Rapids, and the JW Marriott Grand Rapids.
The third largest sector in terms of direct spending during ArtPrize was Transportation, logging in at $5,257,680. Now transportation is vague, but based on the surveys that were conducted, 89% of people traveled by car/personal vehicle to the 2023 ArtPrize. In this sense, the primary beneficiaries of the $5,257,680 of direct spending for transportation were gas stations and auto insurance companies, which means those who own these systems got the majority of the $5,257,680. The GVSU study also doesn’t include parking costs in transportation, but since the paid parking is either owned by the City of Grand Rapids or private parking companies like Ellis Parking, the owners of parking also were winners.
The fourth largest sector in terms of direct spending during ArtPrize was Retail, which logged in at $3,971,684 of direct spending. This means that people who were attending ArtPrize 2023, spent $3,971,684 at retail stores in the downtown and nearby neighborhoods of Grand Rapids. Like other sectors there are employees that work in the retail business, but it is reasonable to assume that the owners of retail got the bulk of the $3,971,684.
The last sector in terms of direct spending during ArtPrize was Art Spending, logging in at $1,867,881 of direct spending. Again, the report does not provide details about where the art was bought, whether it was from the Art Museum, various galleries in the city or directly from artists. However, I do think it is reasonable to say that the majority of the $1,867,881 in direct spending for art went to the artists themselves.
In summary, while it is true that the total economic impact from ArtPrize was $$54.7 million, with $40,252,700 in direct spending, the primary beneficiaries of these millions were business owners – hotels, restaurants, retail stores and parking lot owners. In other words, it seems to me that the primary beneficiaries of ArtPrize 2023 were primarily those who are already economically well off, while most working class people did not benefit from the money spent. It seems that words of Sam Cummings, a member of the GR Power Structure, were true when he said them in 2010: “Our long-term goal is really to import capital – intellectual capital, and ultimately real capital. And this (ArtPrize) is certainly an extraordinary tool.”
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 