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.”
Don’t buy into the GR Chamber of Commerce housing plan, come to the Tenant Assembly to build collective power instead
Recently, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce hosted a forum to address the issue of the housing shortage.
It’s no surprise that the GR Chamber of commerce only invited developers, business leaders and local politicians to such an event, since their goal is to build more houses in order to attract more talent to the area.
According to the GR Chamber’s website, the purpose of the forum was as follows:
The event focused on challenges and solutions regarding construction costs, regulatory barriers, and zoning reforms for workforce housing. Speakers emphasized collaboration, financial support, and smart zoning changes. The audience was encouraged to engage with planning commissions, stay informed on policy changes, and streamline processes to address housing affordability.
Even more instructive was the solutions they were offering, which I would identify as false solutions or solutions that will primarily benefit developers and other entities that see housing through a profit-making lens. Where you see comments in italics, this is my response to their false solutions.
- Stabilization in Construction Costs: Despite initial pandemic-related increases, there’s now a stabilization and even softening in some areas, particularly in wood products. This stability boosts builder confidence. This only benefits the developers, not those who seek to purchase or rent housing.
- Collaboration for Budget-friendly Designs: Emphasizing collaboration between builders, designers, and buyers can help align designs with budget constraints, potentially lowering costs. Again, they only seek to reduce costs for themselves, but not for the public.
- Financial Support for Workforce Housing: Successful funding strategies involving local community foundations, government grants, and tax increment financing (TIF) were highlighted as crucial for workforce housing projects. A more effective strategy here would be to pay people a living wage. Not only would a living wage be sustainable, it doesn’t provide those with economic power to pat themselves on the back for their so-called philanthropic contributions.
- Regulatory Barriers Highlighted: Regulatory hurdles, including lengthy approval processes and infrastructure costs, were identified as significant barriers to affordable housing development. In other words make it easier for developers and investors to make money from housing.
- Zoning Reforms for Increased Housing: Efforts to overhaul zoning regulations were discussed as a means to facilitate more housing options and address community needs effectively. The zoning reforms that the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce are endorsing is primarily driven by the desire to make more profits. De-regulation is a standard tactic of the rich and powerful, plus it gives them more freedom to take advantage of people.
- Importance of Public Engagement: Encouragement for community members to engage with planning commissions and advocate for supportive policies to streamline the development process. Since the Planning Commission meets during the day, when most working class people are at work, it increases the chance that those in the professional class will show up and control the narrative during public comment.
- Need for Support for Emerging Developers: Recognition of the importance of supporting smaller developers to ensure a diverse range of housing options and address affordability issues. Anything to assist new developers, with no interest in supporting tenants.
- Emphasis on Supply and Demand Dynamics: Highlighting the importance of addressing housing supply shortages to alleviate pressure on housing costs across all income levels. Standard Capitalist mantra!
- Recognition of Inspection Process Challenges: Acknowledgment of challenges in the inspection process and the need to align housing needs with regulatory requirements effectively. More de-regulation rhetoric.
- Call for Consistency in Policies: Frustration expressed over inconsistencies in policies across different communities, emphasizing the need for standardized and supportive regulations. In other words, more standardized and supportive regulations that benefit developers and speeds up the process of profit making from housing.
There are alternatives to these false solutions. On Saturday, April 13th, from 10am to 3pm, the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union will be hosting a Tenant Assembly at the Linc Up community space.
The Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union has made it clear in their event description, that landlords, property management companies and cops will not be allowed to participate. This will be a safe space for tenants to gather, to learn and to build collective power to fight landlords and property management companies who seek to exploit their tenants and who are motivated by profits.
The Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union promotes housing justice and is working with the statewide The Rent is Too Damn High Coalition, which has four main goals to promote housing justice – Rent Control, Social Housing, Housing First and a Renter’s Bill of Rights. You can find more details at this link.
The Tenant Assembly is free for participants, plus food and child care are included. There will also be Spanish translation for those that want it and there will be actionable steps for people to take before they leave on April 13.
Here is a link to the Facebook event for the Tenant Assembly, in both English and Spanish. https://www.facebook.com/events/408957648170468/?ref=newsfeed
Here is how you can register, in both English and Spanish. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQhYKlT72qcXc6K-QmwXFnnewb3gMW0i-1erBAT32mxu3gWQ/viewform
Once the DeVos family bought the Big Boy property downtown, we should have known then, where the soccer stadium would go
When the most powerful family in West Michigan wants something, they usually get it. On September 1st of 2022, MiBiz – now Crain’s Grand Rapids – first reported that Grand Action 2.0 began their push to get a soccer stadium in Grand Rapids.
In that same article, it was also mentioned that one of the DeVos family entities – DP Fox Ventures LLC – had acquired 407 Pearl St. NW, the site of the Big Boy restaurant on Pearl St. In addition, the article states that the acquisition of the Bog Boy property was on July 28th, a little more than a month before the Grand Action announcement.
The only Grand Action 2.0 person cited in the September 1 article was Kara Wood. Before joining Grand Action 2.0, Kara Wood worked for the City of Grand Rapids. I first found out that Kara Wood worked for the City of Grand Rapids, when she sent me a copy of a contractual agreement between the City and the DeVos-run entity known as Start Garden. Wood was named as the Executive Director of Grand Action 2.0 in May of 2022, just a few months before the DeVos acquisition of the Big Boy property, followed by the announcement of the proposed soccer stadium.
Interestingly enough, in the article from September of 2022, Wood stated, “Grand Action 2.0 has “multiple” sites under consideration for a soccer stadium. “We are in such early stages, it would be extremely premature to assume that would be the location at this point” for a soccer stadium, Wood said. Of course they intended to use the land connected to the Big Boy property acquisition, which is exactly why the DeVos family purchased that land. It is true that I despise everything about the DeVos family, but they are not stupid. Everything that the most powerful family in West Michigan does is strategic, it has a purpose, even if that purpose is to make massive profits at the public’s expense.
I say all of this as context for the most recent Grand Action 2.0 announcement, as reported in Crain’s Grand Rapids, with the headline, Developer files construction plans for Grand Rapids soccer stadium. The Crain’s article states, “Grand Action 2.0 has filed formal construction plans with the city of Grand Rapids for an 8,500-seat soccer stadium, marking at least a $108 million investment on the city’s west side.” Therefore, what I stated in an article GRIID posted on September 8, 2022, is now a fact regarding the location of the soccer stadium.
Other useful pieces from the most recent Crain’s Grand Rapids post about the soccer stadium:
- The Soccer Stadium project is also applying for grants from EGLE for utilities on site. EGLE is a state-run program, which means Grand Action 2.0 will be applying to use public funds for utilities for the soccer stadium.
- The Crain’s article talks about community engagement, which I addressed in a recent post, pointing out that those with all the power don’t really host community engagement sessions, they host meetings where they hold all the power and dictate the agenda.
- Ever since Grand Action 2.0 went public with this proposal, they have consistently stated that the soccer stadium would be 8,500 seats. In the new announcement, they are now saying that the design would allow them to “expand to a total of 11,000 seats in the future.”
- The soccer stadium would allow for a “Tier II professional team,” but fails to mention who would own it. Based on their track record of sports team ownership in Grand Rapids, it is likely that Dan DeVos would own it. Dan DeVos also happens to be the person who bought the Big Boy property, then donated it to the DDA.
- The article mentions that events like ArtPrize could be hosted at the soccer stadium. Anything to bring in tourists who will spend money at the DeVos hotels.
- Once the project is finalized, it would be owned by the Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority (CAA). The CAA Chairman, Richaed Winn, is the President of AHC Hospitality, which is the name of a hotel chain owned by the DeVos family.
- The Crain’s piece states, that the soccer stadium will employ 260 people. However, the number doesn’t say permanent jobs – between construction and staff to run the stadium – nor does it say these jobs will be full time or if they will pay a living wage or not.
- There is also part of the article that addresses how people will get to the stadium, but doesn’t address serious parking issues or the traffic congestion that the soccer stadium is likely to create.
What this issue essentially comes down to is people with economic and political power making decisions that the public has little to no say in. However, these same members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure will work the system to make sure that their pet projects receive as much public funding as possible, while they reap the largest in economic benefits. After all, how do you think rich people got rich – if they didn’t inherit their wealth, they exploited workers, manipulated the system in their favor, or they did both.
Rep. Hillary Scholten can’t claim to honor Dr. King’s legacy, while she supports policies that directly contradict that same legacy
On Saturday, the Grand Rapids Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity organized a silent march in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Grand Rapids, according to MLive.
The silent march was a rescheduled event from January, but organizers said that it was an opportunity to show unity. One of the speakers for the event was 3rd Congressional Representative Hillary Scholten. Scholten posted on her Facebook page the following comments:
As we honor Dr. King’s legacy, we reflect on how far we’ve come & how far we still need to go to create the society he dreamed of. It was an honor to participate in the MLK Silent March alongside so many powerful leaders & advocates.
Like virtually all politicians, Scholten uses words like legacy and Dr. King’s “dream.” These are warm and fuzzy words, but they are meaningless unless they are attached to actions and context, which Rep. Scholten fails to address. Rep Scholten mentions Dr. King’s legacy, but never names what honoring his legacy would look like.
This is a perfect example of what I mean by the bastardization of Dr. King’s message. Scholten makes it seem as if after everything the civil rights leader endured – the persecution, the beatings, the arrests, the constant death threats, government surveillance, jailing and his eventual assassination, that Dr. King was committed to some vague notion of what he dreamed about. Therefore, what I would like to do is a simple comparison to what Dr. King was all about in words and in actions, then compare that to what Rep. Scholten is all about in words and actions, by looking at major themes that both addressed.
Militarism
Dr. King was fundamentally opposed to militarism and violence. In his famous 1967 speech at Riverside Church, he came out against the US war in Vietnam, stating: “As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems… But they asked, and rightly so, ‘what about Vietnam?’ They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.”
Rep. Scholten is deeply committed to militarism. Since she was elected to office in 2022, she has voted for Department of Defense Budget, with the last budget being the largest in US history at $886 Billion. Rep. Scholten has unconditionally supported the US sending billions to Ukraine since the Russia invasion, and has unconditionally supported the US role in perpetuating the Israeli occupation of Palestine, along with the current genocidal campaign against Gaza and the West Bank. On the issue of Rep. Scholten’s unconditional support for Israel, which GRIID has documented throughly with over a dozen article since last July, she has repeatedly noted that “as a Christian” she is obligated to support Israel, which mean supporting Israel diplomatically, with $3.8 Billion in US Military Aid annually and her support for the additional $14.1 Billion the Biden Administration wants to send now!
Capitalism
Dr. King’s view of Capitalism evolved during his lifetime, especially after he shifted his emphasis from the South to the North, moving to Chicago. While working on a housing campaign in Chicago, Dr. King stated:
“You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry. Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism.”
In addition, it is important to note that Dr. King always discussed economic priorities and structural poverty. In his Beyond Vietnam Speech, Dr. King stated the following two points:
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
“On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
Rep. Hillary Scholten is fundamentally committed to defending the system of Capitalism, by supporting the massive tax breaks for the billionaire class, by supporting corporate welfare/subsidies, and by not fighting to pass a livable wage law in the US. Sure, Rep. Scholten has provided moderate support to some of the more mainstream unions, but that support has been primarily rhetorical and she has no problem accepting campaign contributions from rich people and private corporations that exploit the working class.
Policing in the US
Dr. King was often the subject of arrests, based on the number of marches, sit-ins and other protests he engaged in over the years, from the Montgomery Bus boycotts of the late the 1950s through his support of the Memphis Sanitation workers strike. Dr. King was arrested dozens of time for deliberately violating laws that protected and propped up systems of oppression. During his 1963 March on Washington Speech, King said, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” While sitting in a jail in Alabama, Dr. King also made an astute observation about the function of policing, stating, “ It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather “nonviolently” in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation.”
Rep. Scholten, while only being in Congress for a little more than a year, has been a defender of policing in the US, even after the massive national uprising against policing in the summer of 2020. Rep. Scholten, as a candidate and as a member of Congress has not supported any defunding of policing in the US and has consistently supported the need for policing.
According to the site Mapping Police Violence, in 2023, the police in the US killed 1,352 people, with a disproportionately high number of African Americans. Rep. Scholten has been silent on the matter of cops killing US civilians, with a disproportionately high number of African Americans who have been killed by police.
How to work for change?
From the Montgomery bus boycotts right up to his assassination, Dr. King put most of his emphasis on how to make change by active participation in social movements. Dr. King historically centered his work within what is often called the Civil Rights Movement or the Black Freedom Struggle, but he also was part of the economic justice and the anti-war movements as well. Dr. King engaged in marches, sit-ins, boycotts, worker strikes, civil disobedience and numerous ways of disrupting business as usual, even shutting down highways.
For Rep. Scholten, as a politician, she has primarily focused on encouraging people to vote and to make campaign contributions. (See data from Rep. Scholten’s 2022 campaign contributions.)
As you can see, just from the examples I have provided here, there are virtually no similarities between Rep. Hillary Scholten and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We should put all politicians to the test and make comparisons to what they say and do, with what Dr. King did and said, especially since politicians like Rep. Scholten like to talk about honoring the legacy of Dr. King, but their actions are actually an insult to that legacy.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 