Why did Rep. Hillary Scholten vote for the Republican resolution that condemns Socialism?
In one of her first votes as a member of Congress, Rep. Hillary Scholten voted for a Republican resolution named, Denouncing the horrors of socialism.
In fact, Scholten was one of 109 Democrats who voted for the resolution, which means that more Democrats voted for the resolution to condemn socialism than those who voted against it.
Rep. Scholten doesn’t provide us with any reason(s) as to why she voted yes on this resolution, she only refers to it “a non-serious messaging bill from Republicans.”
Granted, the resolution is not a “deliverable”, as Rep. Scholten refers to it, but it is part of a larger ideological battle that should not be minimized.
The resolution is fairly brief and begins with these sentences:
Whereas socialist ideology necessitates a concentration of power that has time and time again collapsed into Communist regimes, totalitarian rule, and brutal dictatorships;
Whereas socialism has repeatedly led to famine and mass murders, and the killing of over 100,000,000 people worldwide;
Whereas many of the greatest crimes in history were committed by socialist ideologues, including Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez, and Nicolás Maduro;
The first sentence makes the claim that socialism necessitates a concentration of wealth. I not really sure how they landed on this statement, but the economic system of Capitalism has clearly led to the concentration of wealth. Here is a brief part of the summary from a 2022 report by Oxfam entitled, Inequality Kills:
A new billionaire has been created every 26 hours since the pandemic began.6 The world’s 10 richest men have doubled their fortunes, while over 160 million people are projected to have been pushed into poverty.7 Meanwhile, an estimated 17 million people have died from COVID-19—a scale of loss not seen since the Second World War.8
These issues are all part of the same, deeper malaise. It is that inequality is tearing our societies apart. It is that violence is rigged into our economic systems. It is that inequality kills.
In the second sentence, which claims that 100 Million people have dies because of socialism. Like most of the Resolution, none of it is sourced to substantiate any of the claims made. Now, I am no apologist for socialism, and millions have suffered under the former Soviet regime, China, North Korea, etc, but we will do well to acknowledge how much suffering has occurred at the hands of Capitalism, particularly in the US.
The US was founded on genocide and slavery, meaning; 1) the killing of at least 1 million Indigenous people in the territory that is now the US, along with taking most of their land; 2) the enslavement of 12.5 million Africans who were sent to the Americas, according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. In terms of number of people who have been killed because of US foreign policy, it is hard to quantify, since it would include out right war the US has been engaged in, US military support for dictatorships and the use of proxy forces, along with sanctions and economic policies that have resulted in millions of deaths. See Ward Churchill’s book, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections on the Consequences of U. S. Imperial Arrogance and Criminality.
Later in the text of the Resolution, it quotes Thomas Jefferson, “To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.” The irony here is that Jefferson, while President, owned 10,000 acres of land and at least 185 people he bought who were enslaved. In fact, Jefferson gave he daughter as a wedding present 25 of the people he had enslaved, like they were just another commodity.
Now, I know that this was just a resolution and maybe Rep. Scholten did not want to provide an opportunity for the GOP to attack her, but for me it sets a problematic tone for how she might vote in the future.
Lastly, it is worth quoting from an article by Liza Featherstone, who is a columnist for the Jacobin magazine, entitled, Democratic Leaders Join House Republican Attack on “Socialism”:
The resolution, which took the obligatory shots at Lenin, Castro and Maduro for taking money from rich people, asserts that the U.S. “was founded on the belief in the sanctity of the individual, to which the collectivistic system of socialism in all of its forms is fundamentally and necessarily opposed.” There was quite a lot of unpaid, collectivized forced labor supporting the “sanctity of the individual” founders, as I recall.
During the Grand Rapids Committee of the Whole meeting yesterday, there was a resolution to recognize the annual César E. Chávez Social Justice March as a City-Sponsored Event, beginning on page 2. Part of the Resolution reads:
The City of Grand Rapids has taken the necessary step of recognizing the César E. Chávez Social Justice March by way of a City Proclamation and now recommends endorsement of the César E. Chávez Social Justice March as a City-Sponsored Event to further unite Grand Rapids with a solid “Si Se Puede Spirit”!
For some, having the City of Grand Rapids sponsor the Cesar E. Chavez Social Justice March will be seen as good news. People might say that having local government support of an event that began in 2000, not only lends credibility to the event, it also means that the City of Grand Rapids will embrace and promote the legacy of Cesar E. Chavez and the United Farm Workers. However, having the City of Grand Rapids be a co-sponsor of this event is not only problematic, it will likely mean that the legacy of the farmworker struggle will become further co-opted.
I personally have attended the Cesar E. Chavez march for justice at least 8 – 10 times over the past 20 years. The City of Grand Rapids has always played a major role in the event, provide police escort and granting the event organizers a permit to march in the street.
As you can see in the photo above, which was included in the Committee of the Whole Agenda Packet, that the people holding the banner have had little or no involvement with migrant worker struggles. I particularly find it offensive to see the Grand Rapids Mayor, the City Manager and 1st Ward Commissioner Jon O’Connor holding banner with the image of a man that believed in direct action, which included disruptions of both commerce and government functions, and a movement that is rarely even represented during the annual march.
The march is usually led by an escort of GRPD vehicles, followed by roughly 25-30 JRROTC students marching in military formation. First, it seemed strange to have so much of a hyper-military presence with JrROTC students and GRPD officers on foot and in cars. Chavez was pretty militant about his commitment to non-violence, so their consistent presence seems rather contradictory and will only continue with the new City resolution.
More importantly, having police presence sends a strong message to people who are undocumented and live in the Grandville Ave area. The ongoing deportations and raids conducted by ICE and other law enforcement officials is a reality that those who are undocumented must face on a daily basis. Having law enforcement officials present at such an event only discourages farmworkers and undocumented migrants from participating, even though they are the ones who have most in common with the legacy of Chavez and and current farmworker struggles.
The annual Cesar E. Chavez march is held during the week, usually late morning. This means that most farmworkers wouldn’t be able to attend, since they would be working. This begs the question about why the voices and lived experiences of migrant workers are not centered at such an event. One year several people from the group Foco Rojo handed out flyers about migrant worker conditions and information about the farmworker movement, in both English and Spanish, only to be told to stop handing out the information by the march organizers. The flyer read:
Migrant workers are some of the most exploited workers in our community. They work long hours, in difficult working conditions, and make very little money. In fact, migrant workers are one of the few jobs where minimum wage laws do not apply.
In 2010, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission published a report, based on testimony from farm workers, that concluded the living and working conditions for farm workers today is as bad, if not worse, than it was 50 years ago.
Migrant farm workers continue to live in poverty and many of them live in fear of harassment and deportation, since many of these workers are undocumented.
To honor the legacy of Cesar Chavez, which is to honor the lives of migrant farm workers, we ask, why are there no campaigns to organize migrant farm workers in West Michigan? We cannot truly honor the legacy of Cesar Chavez by holding symbolic marches while migrant farm workers and their families struggle to survive.
Migrant farm workers are organizing themselves all across the country through organizations such as the United Farm Workers, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. However, no such efforts to organize migrant farm workers is currently taking place in West Michigan, in spite of the fact that this area has one of the highest concentration of migrant farm workers in the country.
Honoring the legacy of Cesar Chavez should not be a day to make us feel good about ourselves, it should be a day where we commit ourselves to standing in solidarity with migrant farm workers. It should be a day where we hear the voices of migrant farm workers, not from politicians and other so-called leaders.
The United Farm Workers movement that Cesar Chavez was part of, was a movement that was committed to union solidarity, to the use of tactics like boycotts, strikes and other forms of direct action to force agribusiness to respect the dignity of migrant farm workers. This is the kind of movement we need today.
The issue of labor solidarity is an important one, especially since Mayor Bliss refused to support the bus driver’s union demands a few year back. In fact, there were GVSU students, who were part of the student movement known as Students Against Sweatshops, which was working with the bus driver’s union in Grand Rapids. Mayor Bliss approved sending GRPD cops to intimidate and threaten the GVSU students because of their support of the bus driver’s union. Because the Mayor was complicit in not supporting the union and approved the GRPD threats against students, the United Farm Workers sent Mayor Bliss a scathing letter, which read:
On behalf of the more than 10,000 members of the United Farm Workers, I am writing to express our deep disappointment in the breathtaking hypocrisy demonstrated by your administration this past week. On Thursday, March 17, you marched under our banner to commemorate the work of an American icon and our founder, Cesar Chavez. The very next day, on Friday, March 18, you dispatched Grand Rapids Police to the homes of student activists to intimidate them for organizing a January sit in to support transit workers represented by Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 836.
You cannot march in the name of Cesar Chavez one day and use police officers to suppress all that he fought for the next. The United Farm Workers stands in solidarity with our ATU brothers and sisters struggling to preserve their retirement security and the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) who, in an inspiring acts of selflessness, have embraced their elders fight as their own.
I also write to call you to a higher purpose than implementing an austerity agenda that may win accolades from the comfortable, but will destroy the lives of the constituents who are counting on you the most. We ask that you adopt the spirit of our heroes – Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. – whose names adorn your city streets and parks by rejecting the tactics who opposed and oppressed them in their lifetimes.
In the end, the Cesar E. Chavez March for Social Justice is primarily performative, since it doesn’t center the ongoing farmworker struggle. Having the City of Grand Rapids as a co-sponsor of the event further cheapens the message and legacy of Cesar Chavez and the ongoing farmworker movement. Chavez and the farmworker movement were all about engaging in tactics that disrupted business as usual, which the City of Grand Rapids clearly opposes. All you have to do is look at how city officials have responded to this demanding justice for Patrick Lyoya and the defunding of the GRPD to see how the city treats those who disrupt business as usual.
Agreement between Grand Action 2.0 and the Convention Arena Authority on the amphitheater is an agreement between those who run Grand Rapids
On Friday, it was reported by at least two local news sources that a formal agreement has been made between Grand Action 2.0 and the Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority (CAA).
The agreement in question has to do with Grand Action 2.0’s push for an outdoor amphitheater in Grand Rapids, which the Convention/Arena Authority will operate once the amphitheater is operational in 2025, according to MLive.
In both the MLive article and a news story on WOODTV8, the primary source cited is Kara Wood, who is the executive director of Grand Action 2.0. However, both news sources failed to mention that Kara Wood used to be the Economic Development Director for the City of Grand Rapids. Woods was hired to be the ED of Grand Action 2.0 last year and has a history of supporting projects that involve the DeVos family, such as Start Garden being on the payroll of the City of Grand Rapids to promote more business development in Grand Rapids. GRIID received this information from Kara Wood when she was working for the City of Grand Rapids in 2016.
Both news stories mention that this is a public/private partnership, which means that lots of public money will be used in the process of developing the amphitheater, without public input, as we have reported on since 2020 in the article here:
How is it that we allow groups like Grand Action 2.0 to get away with the shit they do?
The coverage also mentions that there will be plans to further develop the Market Ave corridor where the amphitheater will be located, which also means that certain developers, businesses and members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure will be the primary beneficiaries. The DeVos family is the primary driver in this project, and they do engage in such projects by making sure that plenty of public dollars will be used for development and construction. After the Market Ave corridor is fully developed, the public will not share in the profits that the DeVos family and other members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure will pocket. This is how neoliberal capitalism works – get the public to pay up front, while the private sector reaps all the profits.
It has been almost a month since Tyre Nichols was brutally beaten by five Memphis cops. Over the past week and a half, since autopsy reports were released and the five cops were arrested (Jan.6), there have been a nationwide outcry against yet another Black person dying at the hands of police in the US.
Mapping Police Violence documented 1,192 civilian deaths at the hands of US police in 2022, which is the highest number since the project began documenting this type of death. The organization also has documented that Black people are 3 times more likely to die at the hands of the police than any other group of people, plus since 2013, in 98.1% of the police killing of civilians, there has been no accountability.
Protests have happened all over the US over the past week, but nothing like what happened after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis cop. The police murder of Tyre Nichols has elicited more conversation around defunding and abolishing police departments, with the analysis that what happened to Tyre Nichols was not an aberration, but an expected outcome based on how policing is conducted in the US.
However, the more dominant news stories involve politicians who sometimes make noble speeches, which are generally filled with empty rhetoric. Take for example recent comments by members of the Michigan Black Caucus, as reported on MLive on February 1st, with the headline, Tyre Nichols’ death demands renewed scrutiny of policing in Michigan, Black lawmakers say.
The Michigan Black Caucus members that spoke at a press conference recently were Sen. Erika Geiss, House Speaker Joe Tate of Detroit, Sen. Sarah Anthony of Lansing, Rep. Donavan McKinney of Detroit, Rep. Stephanie Young of Detroit, and Rep. Amos O’Neal of Saginaw. Many of them used the kind of language we have become accustomed to when cops kill Black people, with words like accountability and training. More importantly, what we have seen time and time again is that politicians, even if they demonstrate righteous anger of the police murder of Black people, it doesn’t result in increased consequences for police departments. In fact, what often happens is an increase in funding for police departments, like what we have seen in Michigan, where under the leadership of Governor Gretchen Whitmer, there has been a $1 Billion investment in policing. Gov. Whitmer said in her 2023 State of the State speech:
Since I’ve been governor, we’ve invested $1 billion in public safety. Let’s continue funding law enforcement with better training, oversight, and access to mental health resources. Police officers, state troopers, and prosecutors have tough, dangerous jobs, and if we work together, we get them what they need to keep our communities safe.
The 2023 Michigan Budget includes the following for policing. After each funding allocation, GRIID provides some commentary to counter these policing funding justifications.
- $9.2 million to support a Trooper Recruit School (general fund) anticipated to graduate 50 new troopers in addition to the 120 troopers that are anticipated to be hired and trained using existing attrition savings. This investment allows the department to increase enlisted strength to nearly 2,200 while continuing to increase the diversity of uniformed personnel. GRIID Comments: More funding to recruit more cops does not translate into safer communities. Over and over again, the public is mislead into believing this major fallacy of more police, safer communities. See the report, Cops Don’t Stop Violence.
- $3.7 million to improve Data Collection during Traffic Stops (general fund) through the development of new tracking and documentation systems including a benchmarking dashboard and increasing data collected during traffic stops to allow for easier review and analysis of traffic stops made by the State Police. These improvements will build upon the recommendations of the recent Michigan State University Traffic Stop Study. GRIID Comments: Last year, the Michigan State Police had conducted a traffic stop study, which concluded there was racial disparity by their department. Despite this, the public will provide more money to tell us what we already know about policing, traffic stops and racial profiling.
- $3 million to expand Training and Professional Development (general fund) to provide training on cultural competency, implicit bias, and decision-making to expand positive interactions between department members, minority groups, and the diverse communities that the department serves. GRIID Comments: There are numerous studies demonstrating that racial sensitivity and cultural competency training for police departments are ineffective. As Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing states, “Diversity and multicultural training is not a new idea, nor is it terribly effective. Most officers have already been through some form of diversity training and tend to describe it as politically motived, feel-good programming divorced from the realities of street policing. Researchers have found no impact on problems like racial disparities in traffic stops or marijuana arrests; both implicit and explicit bias remain, even after targeted and intensive training. This is not necessarily because officers remain committed to their racial biases, though this can be true, 19 but because institutional pressures remain intact.”
- $1.8 million to establish a Victim Services Program (general fund) that will support 14 full-time Victim Advocates across the state. These positions will serve to support victims’ needs early in their interactions with the criminal justice system while also building partnerships with community organizations in support of victim advocacy. GRIID Comments: There should be funding for victims of crime, but it should not go to the Michigan State Police. Funding for crime victims should go through the Department of Social Services.
- $1.1 million to increase the department’s capacity to Prevent, Detect, and Investigate Cybercrimes (general fund). This investment will support statewide investigatory assistance and digital forensic examinations to further the department’s position as a leader in areas of cyber security, computer crimes, and digital evidence. GRIID Comments: Cyber crimes prevention, detection and investigation should also not be done by the Michigan State Police. Such categories are nothing more than justifications for police departments to receive more funding.
- $1 million for Trooper Recruitment (general fund) to broaden the racial, ethnic, and gender makeup of the department to make it more representative of the communities it serves. This investment will support digital marketing campaigns, recruiting events, and improved public relations to assist the department in achieving its recruiting goals for enlisted positions. GRIID Comments: Recruiting and hiring more cops based on gender, race and ethnicity will NOT address the deep seated lack of trust between the police and the public. Do you think it matters that having a Black cop arrest you, beat you or shoot you is any better than a white cop doing the same?
The rhetoric from politicians like the Michigan Black Caucus also rings hollow since they have supported Gov. Whitmer’s $1 Billion in funding for policing. On top of that, at least three of the members of the Michigan Black Caucus have received campaign contributions from police unions, as has been documented by the group, No More Cop Money.
- House Speaker Joe Tate – $1500 from police unions
- Sen. Sarah Anthony – $1250 from police unions
- Sen. Erika Geiss – $1000 from police unions
- Gov. Whitmer & Attorney General Gilchrist – $3000 from police unions
All of the rhetoric in the world about police accountability means nothing if politicians continue to provide massive amounts of funding to police departments and continue to take money from cop unions. Not only is their rhetoric hollow, it is insulting to the public, and especially to the Black families that have had relatives murdered by cops. We need a massive movement and a mass uprising if policing in this country is going to be held accountable, defunded and eventually abolished.
If Michigan Democrats really want to help people, then they need to adopt policies that tax the Rich and Corporations
Just days after the 2022 elections, Michigan Senate Democrats made the following statement, “Since 1984, Republicans have used their control of the Michigan Senate to block things Michigan families need. No more.”
For the first time since the early 1980s, Democrats control the Michigan legislature, with Whitmer as the Governor and a majority in both the House and the Senate. We wrote a three part series in November, asking the question, What kind of change do we really want to see in Michigan. Based on one of the first legislative proposals coming from the Democrats, the change were are likely to see will be marginal.
On Monday, MLive posted a story with the headline, House, Senate Democrats differ on when to give Michigan seniors pension tax relief. The article discusses the the different bills passed recently, by the Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan Senate. The House Bill that was passed was HB 4001 and HB 4002. The Senate bill that was passed is SB 0001.
The differences that were discussed in the MLive article, have to do with when to repeal Michigan’s tax on retirement pensioners while boosting its Earned Income Tax Credit to 30%. The MLive article writes, “The EITC aids low- to moderate-income workers and families get a tax break according to the Internal Revenue Service, though the amount returned is relative to if the filer has children, dependents, is disabled or meets a slew of other criteria.”
Now, these bills are ultimately a good thing, in that they will mean that families and individuals who make moderate to low incomes, will have a little bit more money coming to them because of these tax changes in Michigan. According to a recent article in The Bridge, Whitmer’s tax cut plans would benefit more than 1.2 Michigan families. Some 700,000 households that would be in line to save more than $300 annually under an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), while about 500,000 retirees would save about $1,000 per year in pension taxes. However, these bills do not address the larger tax policy discrepancies, which are how the state taxes corporations/businesses and members of the Capitalist Class. The Bridge article also provides some insight into why we will not likely see tax policies that will target the rich and corporations/businesses in Michigan.
Democratic lawmakers say more aggressive tax code changes — such as taxing the rich at higher rates or expanding corporate taxes — are unlikely given their slim, two-seat majorities in both the House and Senate.
“Because it’s been 40 years since Democrats have had control of Lansing, there are so many sensible and relatively easy and very important changes that we can make that will really help people in Michigan,” said Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor.
“So some of those more difficult, more thorny, more complicated conversations around tax policy are going to be harder to get done because there’s just so much work to do.”
Apparently, Democratic Senator Jeff Irwin doesn’t think that taxing corporations and the rich will really help people in Michigan. Senator Irwin and the Michigan Democratic Party would do well to read a report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) that was released in February of 2019.
The IPS piece notes that a majority of Americans support increased taxation on the rich, primarily because it would benefit everyone else. Here is a summary of the IPS talking points on What States Can Do to Reduce Poverty and Inequality Through Tax Policy.
STATE ESTATE TAXATION – The estate tax is a levy on large fortunes when they are transferred from one generation to the next, with exemption thresholds that shield middle and working-class families. Before the Bush tax cuts passed in 2001, every state in the nation collected revenue from the state estate tax credit, which sent the first 16 percent of federal estate tax revenue to the states. Congress phased out this tax credit gradually until fully repealing it in 2005. Re-instating a progressive state estate tax in states that lost their state estate tax could generate significant revenue while reducing the concentration of wealth in intergenerational wealth dynasties.
TAX ON CORPORATIONS WITH EXTREME GAPS BETWEEN CEO AND WORKER PAY – Such tax penalties are easy to administer because U.S. publicly held corporations began reporting the ratio between their CEO and median worker pay to the SEC in 2018. Lawmakers in seven U.S. states and in the U.S. Congress have introduced legislation similar to the Portland tax: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Washington. These efforts build on the living wage movement by creating an incentive to pull down the top end of the pay scale while sending a message that everyone in a workplace contributes value (not just the CEO).
CARRIED INTEREST TAX – States with significant financial sectors can take action to make up for Washington’s failure to close the “carried interest” loophole, which allows private equity and hedge fund managers to reduce their tax bills by claiming a large share of their earnings as “capital gains” instead of ordinary income. This has allowed many of the wealthiest Americans to pay lower rates than firefighters and teachers. Legislation to close the carried interest loophole has been introduced in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Illinois. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has included a state-level “carried interest fairness fee” in his budget proposal two years in a row.
FINANCIAL TRANSACTION TAX – The notion of instituting a Financial Transaction Tax has gained increased attention at the federal level in recent years, but Congress has failed to take action. This would not be relevant in states that do not have a large trading exchange. The Illinois state legislature is considering a bill that would place fees of $1-$2 per contract on Chicago’s commodities and financial exchanges, with revenue estimated at $10 billion to $12 billion per year.
STATE CAPITAL GAINS TAX – A capital gains tax is a levy on income from investments rather than wages. In the 42 states (including DC) that impose capital gains taxes, rates range from 3.1 percent in Pennsylvania to 13.3 percent in California. States without a capital gains tax should implement one and states that have one should increase the rate to at least 10 percent. Raising or introducing such taxes would mostly impact the wealthy, since the top 1 percent owns half of the nation’s financial wealth and the bottom 50 percent only own 0.5 percent of financial wealth. State capital gains taxes help ensure fairness between those who work paycheck to paycheck and those who pocket dividends.
HIGH-END REAL ESTATE TAXES TO FUND AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND OTHER PRIORITIES – Cities and States should consider taxes on luxury real estate investments, particularly unoccupied, vacant properties. A huge number of new luxury high-rise properties have been purchased, with many vacant and unoccupied, and many purchased by shell corporations, creating a method for the ultra-wealthy to hide their wealth. The impact has been to disrupt local real estate markets and push up existing housing prices for rent or sale higher and higher. States can pass enabling legislation to allow cities and localities to address this problem through taxes on vacant, unoccupied luxury units, and can consider transfer taxes, and laws to require beneficial ownership transparency in real estate transactions. States could also institute graduated real estate transfer taxes, taxing properties transferring over $1 million at progressively higher rates. Think of how much money could be generated for the construction of affordable housing for those who are currently priced out of the market.
LUXURY TAXES – A luxury tax is a duty levied on luxury goods, such as high-end automobiles and expensive yachts. In Connecticut, the sales tax rate jumps from 6.35 percent to 7.75 percent on vehicles costing more than $50,000; jewelry costing more than $5,000; and apparel and footwear costing more than $1,000. The clothing tax also applies to handbags, luggage, umbrellas, wallets, or watches costing more than $1,000. In New Jersey, a tax penalizes both luxury cars and gas guzzlers by imposing a 0.4 percent surcharge on vehicles that have price tags above $45,000 or get less than 19 miles per gallon.
STATE PAYROLL TAX ON HIGH INCOMES – Federal payroll taxes for Social Security have a huge loophole for the wealthy in the form of a cap on the amount of income subject to the tax. It’s currently $128,400 and is adjusted annually for inflation. This means a multi-millionaire and someone earning $128,400 per year pay the same amount in Social Security payroll taxes — not the same rate, the same amount. States can close this loophole by imposing a state level payroll tax on income above the federal cap.
STATE CORPORATE INCOME TAX – With the federal corporate tax rate dropping from 35% to 21%, this is an opportune moment for states to recoup some of these funds by raising or introducing corporate income taxes. Forty-four states levy a corporate income tax, with rates ranging from 3% to 12%. Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and Washington impose gross receipts taxes instead of corporate income taxes, while South Dakota and Wyoming have neither.
The bottom line is, if the Democrats want to put more money into the pockets of regular, everyday Michiganders, then these are the kinds of tax policies they need to adopt if they want to make real changes for Michigan residents and not be afraid to piss off corporations or members of the Capitalist Class.
Remember the message that the lawyers representing Christopher Schurr, the ex-cop who shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head, presented to the news media on January 11th? Schurr’s lawyers presented a 45 page brief laying out several arguments over why his case should be dismissed.
The local news media cited several of those same reasons why Schurr’s case should be dismissed, plus most of the local news outlets included a link to the 45 page brief, as we noted in a post from January 12.
The response from Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker, who brought a second degree murder charge against Schurr, was not even picked up by all of the local news agencies. In fact, there is no evidence that Becker’s office even provided a Media Release, since we could not find any on the Kent County Prosecutor’s site, nor the Kent County Clerk or the County Administrators section of accesskent.com.
WOODTV8, WXMI17 and WWMT did not run a story on Becker’s announcement, just MLive, WZZM 13 and the Associated Press ran the story. As of January 31st, to access the MLive story you needed to be a subscriber.
The WZZM 13 story was short with channel 13 providing this narrative from the Prosecutor’s office:
Becker says in court documents that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding probable cause to bind Schurr over on the second-degree murder charge.
Therefore, he argues, Schurr’s request to quash the bind over should be denied.
Becker believes there is enough evidence for the murder charge as opposed to the lesser count of manslaughter.
The channel 13 piece is so short, they decided to include information about the lawsuit that Patrick Lyoya’s family has filed against the City of grand Rapids.
The Associated Press (AP) story is also brief, with the following narrative based on what the Kent County Prosecutor’s office had shared:
Becker said in court documents filed Tuesday that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding probable cause to bind Schurr over on the charge. Therefore, Schurr’s request to dismiss the charge should be denied, the prosecutor said.
The AP story did state that Kent County Circuit Judge Christina Elmore will hear both sides’ arguments during a motion hearing scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on February 3rd, plus they included the date that the trial will start, which is March 13. The WZZM 13 story did not mention the February 3rd motion hearing date, they only said there was “a hearing next week.”
The Kent County Prosecutor’s office missed a huge opportunity to create a counter narrative, which could have included clear reasons for why this case should go to trial. None of that happens in the local news coverage of Becker’s response to the lawyers representing the ex-cop who shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head.
The message coming from Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker does not inspire and it does not create a counter narrative, which is crucial at this point, especially since the lawyers representing Schurr have hammered home their particular narrative. This battle is not just a legal one, it is about public perception, and right now the Kent County Prosecutor is losing the propaganda war.
Perpetuating structural racism in Kent County: Questioning the process for COVID relief funding and the limits of electoral politics in The Diatribe case
There is no question that structural racism exists in Kent County. BIPOC residents and neighborhoods where BIPOC residents are most concentrated have higher levels of poverty, are disproportionately more food insecure and are more impacted by the current housing crisis than their white counterparts.
Todd Robinson, author of the book, A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, refers to structural racism as managerial racism. No matter what words we use to describe institutional racism in Kent County, the harsh reality is that it permeates every institution, including businesses, social service agencies, non-profits, religious institutions, financial institutions and local government.
A recent article in the Michigan Advance, entitled, ‘Just not The Diatribe’ – How partisan politics intentionally left out a Grand Rapids Black and LGBTQ+-run nonprofit from receiving COVID-19 relief funding, speaks to the issue of structural racism in Kent County, particularly with the Kent County government.
The Michigan Advance article does a good job of investigating an issue that has been public for several months now, mostly because of the work done by The Diatribe to make it public, as is evidenced in this video and this interview with The Diatribe’s Marcel Price, who is the organization’s Chief Inspiration Architect.
What the Michigan Advance article did, which was not part of much of the previous coverage, was to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for access to e-mails and other communication between Kent County Commissioners and Kent County Administrative staff. The communication around the issue of which organization(s) should receive federal COVID-19 relief funding through Kent County is instructive and demonstrates not only a lack of understanding of structural racism, but almost a complete denial of the fact that it even exists in Kent County. This is in part based on who was bank rolling some of the Republican Commissioners featured in the FOIA documents, specifically Commissioner’s Green, Stek and Brieve. Here is a list of their large contributors from our research during the 2022 Election:
Ben Greene (R)
Total raised: $28,858.08
Largest contributors:
- Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce – $3500
- Realtors Political Action Committee of Michigan – $2000
- TGIF Victory Fund – $2000
- JC Huizenga, National Heritage Academies – $1050
- Dan Hibma, Land & Company – $1000
- Terri Land, Land & Company – $1000
- Joel Langlois, Delta Properties – $1000
- Michael Jandernoa, 42 North Partners – $1000
- Susan Jandernoa, homemaker – $1000
- Lee Anne Langlois, Retired – $1000
Stan Stek (R)
Total raised: $24,927
Largest contributors:
- Kent County Republican Committee – $2500
- Miller Canfield PAC – $2000
- GR Chamber of Commerce – $1500
- GRAR Commercial Real Estate PAC – $1500
- Dick DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Betsy DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Pamela DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Dan DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Suzanne DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Doug DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Maria DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Steve Ehmann, RDV Corp – $1050
Emily Post Brieve (R)
Total raised: $23,286
Largest contributors:
- Realtors PAC of Michigan – $3000
- GR Chamber of Commerce PAC – $2000
- Terri Land, Land & Company – $1050
- Dick DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Betsy DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Pamela DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Dan DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Suzanne DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Doug DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Maria DeVos, RDV Corp – $1050
- Steve Ehmann, RDV Corp – $1050
- Michael Jandernoa, 42 North Partners – $1000
- Susan Jandernoa, Retired – $1000
Another important aspect of the Michigan Advance article states, ”On Nov. 17, Republican commissioners started looking for connections between The Diatribe and the Black Lives Matter organization or the defund the police movement, according to texts.”
The article goes on to say. “The defund the police movement aims to reallocate or redirect funding away from the police department to other government agencies funded by the local municipality, like mental health services. It is often misinterpreted by conservatives as an effort to abolish police departments.
In April, Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr, who is white, fatally shot 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya, a Black man, during a traffic stop. For months, residents protested in the streets of downtown Grand Rapids, calling for the police department to change their policies and reform their policing of Black residents. In June, Schurr was charged with one count of second degree murder.
Brieve texted Greene and asked if he found “any defund the police stuff on the Diatribe site/social.”
This is the point where I begin to take issue with some aspects of the Michigan Advance article. While it is clear that Kent County Republican Commissioners – which disproportionately represent more of the rural parts of the county, were wanting to fund projects that would benefit their districts – the partisan take on the issue of defunding the police is simply not accurate.
During the last election cycle, GRIID documented several instances where Democrats running for office were trying to use the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya to their own benefit and presenting themselves as pro-police in their campaign statements.
- On April 11, just one week after Patrick Lyoya was murdered by the GRPD, only one elected official out of 47 had responded to thousands of messages that were sent by one of the coalition groups, Together We Are Safe, that is part of the Defund the GRPD campaign.
- On April 14, we posted an article after State Senator Winnie Brinks released a statement after the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya.
- On April 15, we posted an article after then Kent County Commissioner Phil Skaggs (who was running for State Representative, had released a statement after the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya.
- On April 19, we posted an article after Michigan Governor Whitmer had her picture taken with Patrick Lyoya’s parents and made some remarks.
- On July 5th, we posted an article showing bi-partisan support for more funding for police from State officials, including Rep. David LaGrand. Kent County Commissioner Phil Skaggs was part of LaGrand’s staff last year.
- On August 14, we posted an article entitled, Despite public perception, the Democratic Party is equally committed to supporting and increasing funding for the police.
I include these previous posts to make it clear that the Democratic Party in Kent County, not only hasn’t been in support of the Defund the GRPD movement, they have demonstrated over and over again their commitment to increasing the funding for policing.
The Limits of Electoral Politics
The other main issue I take with has to do with how Kent County officials made decisions on what projects received funding is about the process. Actually, not so much the process that Kent County officials used, but what they didn’t do.
During the process of rating and negotiating which projects would receive COVID relief funding, none of the Democratic Commissioners cited in the Michigan Advance article made any effort to make what they knew publicly. I don’t mean simply making a post on their Facebook page or tweeting about it, I mean making an effort to contact people and organizations in the community to apply the necessary pressure to make it impossible for the Republican commissioners to exclude The Diatribe or any other project that truly serves to Benefit the Black community. I never received notices about what was happening in the process to use federal COVID relief funding.
Taking it a step further, the Democrats could have demanded that the county government use a participatory budgeting model, to allow the community to vote directly on the how these federal dollars would get used, using a ranked voting system of say the top 5 or top 10 choices.
Taking it even further, instead of having Black organizations compete for the same dollars, how about a Black community coalition, which would craft a platform for what the Black community needs and demand that all of it gets funded, whether we are talking about federal, state, county or city funding. Why should we leave how communities receive necessary, quality of life funding, in the hands of partisan politics?
We should be advocating for more Direct Democracy, instead of leaving it in the hands of politicians who are more interested in their image and getting elected, than they are in truly representing the interests of the people, particularly the most marginalized in the county. I for one am tired on how partisan politics is all about blaming and never about radically imagining a better way to engage in transformative politics.
In Part I of our series looking back at the 20th anniversary of the public resistance to the US invasion/occupation of Iraq in 2003, we focused on early organizing efforts to build an anti-war movement before the US war on Iraq even began. In Part II, we will look at the plans to protest President’s Bush’s visit to Grand Rapids the day after his State of the Union address, the protest and the GRPD’s response during that protest. 
With just a few days notice, it was announced that President George W. Bush would be coming to Grand Rapids the day after his State of the Union address in late January of 2003. Bush chose Grand Rapids since he believed that his ultimatum against Iraq would be welcomed in West Michigan. Bush’s father made the same mistake in 1991, choosing to come to Grand Rapids to celebrate July 4th, just a few months after the US bombed Iraq “back to the stone age.”
Organizers had just a few days to begin planning an action to confront Bush when he would be in town. The announcement said he would first be at Spectrum Hospital and then take the motorcade to DeVos Hall. The plan was to line up on both sides of Michigan Street, from just west of Spectrum Hospital, all the way down to the Federal building. The GRPD was told that the demonstration would then move down Michigan Street and turn left onto Monroe. However, organizers had a different plan, which was to turn left on Ottawa, then right on Lyon St and go directly to DeVos Hall.
There were over 100 cops out in force that day in late January, 2003. When the police realized that the demonstrators took a detour, they panicked. Protestors, which numbered over 1,000, began turning right on Lyon Street, near the entrance to the building, when police cruisers jumped the curb and almost ran into the building, in order to block those demonstrating to walk any further. At the same time, dozens of police officers lined up along Lyon St, facing demonstrators, in full riot gear. For nearly 30 minutes there was a shouting match between cops and protestors. Jack Prince, who was teaching at GVSU at the time, and was at the protest, told us what had happened to him that day:
The protest in 2003 had problems from the beginning. All of the phones were shut off in the sociology and psychology department on campus as a means to thwart communication, since they knew there was talk of organizing or even discussing Bush’s visit. This was denied later, obviously. The group I was in was detained on North side of Michigan Ave in attempt to separate us from other protestors by police. After complaints we had to travel down Michigan to a point to cross. We noticed a lot of plain clothes men in suits with earplugs that were directing the local police as to what to do with shades on and dress suits. They would not interact with us and tried to be invisible but they were clearly in authority and control. As we proceeded down Ottawa south they attempted to compact us on sidewalk and when we turned West on Lyon there they had a constricted area where they made their move and began grabbing people. My daughter was grabbed and thrown on top of the hood of a car and was arrested. I became very vocal obviously at that point toward the police, but as there was a crowd forming with more witnesses they didn’t arrest me until I was walking up the steps to the ground level of a second story level by what is now the 5/3 bank building. Again in an area that was blocked from vision. My charge was: instigating a riot. A serious Felony Charge. People at GVSU, meaning the administration higher ups, saw me with a GVSU coat I had on in the news coverage and I was contacted by the Coaching department and they shared their displeasure which led to my departure from the school. After some time and organization with others who were arrested the charges were dropped. The ACLU was helping us and and really were instrumental in the charges being dropped after approximately a month.
What was not known at the time was that the GRPD had created a “Free Speech Zone,” which was something that the Bush administration had begun to use after 9/11. Free Speech Zones were fenced off areas that were designated for protestors, often a significant distance from where those protesting had intended. The same was the case on that day, with the Free Speech Zone create in front of City Hall on Monroe, nearly a block from where Bush would be speaking. Most of the 1,000 people who came out to protest the possible war with Iraq were uncomfortable with being pinned down by the GPRD on Lyon Street, so the majority of them decided to go to the designated “free speech zone.”
When protestors arrived on Monroe, just in front of City Hall, they were greeted by more cops and a few angry construction workers who were supportive of the US going to war against Iraq. There was a smaller group of people who refused to go to the “free speech zone”, choosing instead to demonstrate in the streets further south of where Bush was speaking, shutting down traffic on Division and several other streets.
At the same time the GRPD was engaged in their own PR war, sending out their own press release, which was the origin of many of the lies reported by the local corporate media in their coverage of the Bush protest. The press release describes a “large, unruly crowd” that “block[ed] streets in downtown Grand Rapids,” attempted to “overturn a commercial truck,” and tried to “attack police officers.” The press release outlines the arrests made during the day and the charges faced by the protestors, specifically highlighting the “10 year felony, $10,000 fine” some protestors faced for “inciting a riot.”
Included in the FOIA documents we received months later, it is instructive to read about the GRPD’s “notes” on the Bush protest and how they were prepared to use Chemical agents and shotguns on ant-war protestors. Lastly, in another FOIA document dated February 25, the GRPD’s Internal Affairs division determined that the GRPD’s behavior during the Bush protest was justified because the protestors refused to comply with GRPD commands.
In thinking back about the action to confront President Bush, we didn’t have enough time to plan, but we also didn’t have enough capacity to plan an action that was more confrontational and could have disrupted the President’s motorcade before he gave his speech in front of supporters. However, as the resistance grew against the US threats to bomb and invade Iraq, more people began to step forward who were willing to engage in more direct actions.
In Part III, we will look at the Women in Black actions, the global protest against the war march that took place in Lansing, along with the People’s Alliance for Justice & Change workshops on civil disobedience that were offered to a growing number of people who wanted to do more than just hold signs.
Earlier in the week, MLive reported a story about a project in the Southeast part of Grand Rapids, involving SpringGR and Amplify GR, focusing on what is being called an “Incubator kitchen.”
The story shares that there are a few “food entrepreneurs” who will now be able to use the kitchen space at Kazoo Station to prepare food that they will will sell for their budding food businesses. It’s a nice story, with commentary from the small business owners on how such a space will help them expand their businesses.
Now, I don’t begrudge people who want to start their own businesses, as my family had a business that lasted for three generations. But after reading the MLive article and thinking about the fact that the neighborhood that this “Incubator kitchen” is located in, I wanted to think about this issue through a food justice lens.
There are large parts of the urban core of Grand Rapids that are often referred to as food deserts. However, food deserts is a misrepresentation of what actually exists. More and more people are realizing that when we talk about neighborhoods that are short on functional grocery stores, community gardens and space dedicated to making sure that people have easy access to healthy, local food, we need to understand that these realities are based on policies and decisions that are often driven by capitalism. The term that more and more people are using to describe this dynamic is Food Apartheid.
Food apartheid is a system of segregation that divides those with access to an abundance of nutritious food and those who have been denied that access due to systemic injustices, such as the shift from local grocery stores to chain stores, families that do not make a living wage, structural racism, etc.
The new “Incubator kitchen” is located in a part of Grand Rapids that is experiencing food apartheid, and while the “incubator kitchen” will benefit a few people who have food businesses, it will not address the community’s food insecurity.
A spokesperson for Amplify GR was quoted in the MLive article, stating that the “Incubator kitchen” came out of community conversations that were being had as part of the Amplify GR effort to re-develop the Boston Square neighborhood. Now, GRIID has written a great deal about the Doug & Maria DeVos-created organization, Amplify GR, which you can read at this link. One of the themes were have addressed since AmplifyGR was created in 2017, is the fact that the DeVos family promotes the notion of entrepreneurs, which can benefit some people, but it does not address the massive wealth gap that exists in Grand Rapids, nor the longstanding impact that structural poverty has been imposed on communities like Boston Square Neighborhood.
A question I would ask about this process that need to the decision to create the “Incubator kitchen” would be, “were there other options presented about address food insecurity in that neighborhood, like the idea of a community kitchen.” A community kitchen is fundamentally different that an Incubator kitchen, since a community kitchen is more of a cooperative model designed to address food insecurity, food apartheid and build community. The function of a community kitchen is to have a collective space that is owned by the community, where people can cook meals together, send food home with families, share recipes, and provide skill sharing like how to preserve and prepare food.
Imagine what it would mean to have a community kitchen that took this approach, how often it would be utilized and how many people who have greater access to healthy & nutritious food on a daily basis. In addition, to food sharing and community building, it could provide an opportunity for people to have deeper conversations about the existing food system, a system that does not benefit most people. Here is a link to content that I created over the years when doing Food Justice workshops.
The mLive article says that people who have food businesses can rent the kitchen space for $20 an hour for their food businesses. I have to believe that the space will sit empty for good parts any given week, so why not allow the community to use the space – rent free – as a community kitchen, which could benefit the while community instead of just a handful of business owners?
Meijer family members spread out their wealth to get a lower ranking on the Forbes 400 list
For years, Hank and Doug Meijer would combine their wealth, which made them the wealthiest family in West Michigan.
People might think that the DeVos family is the wealthiest, and they probably are, but the DeVos family has diversified their wealth to such a degree that it is hard to determine what they are worth collectively. Add to their diverse wealth portfolio the fact that they are not big on transparency, and you end up with the Meijer family having the higher ranking on the Forbes 400 list for several years in a row.
However, the Meijer brothers have also decided to separate their wealth, so that Hank, Doug and Mark Meijer want the public to see their wealth as diminished and separated.
In looking at the most recent Forbes 400 list from 2022, we discover that Hank, Doug and Mark Meijer are tied for the 202nd spot on the Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans, each with $5 Billion to their name. This of course means that they are collectively worth $15 Billion, which is a disgusting level of wealth.
I say disgusting because they have made their wealth off of the labor of their employees and people who work in the agricultural sector, along with those who work in the manufacturing sector. Whether we are talking about people who pick the food sold in Meijer stores, those who make the non-food products sold in Meijer stores, those who stock the shelves or work the cash registers at Meijer stores, all of them give their labor to the Meijer family. Plus, all of these people who give their labor so that Meijer can sell products in their stores, the vast majority of them do not make a livable wage. In fact, many of the make the minimum wage or less, especially those that pick the food sold in Meijer stores.
Now, over the past few years, GRIID has been tracking the wealth of the Meijer family, like when we noted that, during the first 18 months of the COVID pandemic, the wealth of Doug & Hank Meijer had grown by $6.7 Billion. We noted that this increased wealth was taking place when so many people were without work and experiencing food insecurity.
Another way that we have looked at the wealth of the Meijer family in recent years is to re-imagine how just the amount of increased wealth they made during the early part of the pandemic could benefit their employees. We noted that if Meijer paid their employees $40 an hour for a 40 hour work week, that would result in a $90,000 annual salary. If Meijer decided to pay their employees such a wage, they would still be worth BILLIONS, meaning their lives would be ridiculously comfortable. The difference is that their employees would now have a less stressful life and be able to have opportunities they didn’t have before.
In another examination of the Meijer family wealth, we wrote in August of 2021:
For the rest of us, we should be marching on the Meijer corporate headquarters at 2929 Walker Ave NW, Grand Rapids, making other demands about wealth redistribution. Imagine what $900 million could do to relieve the harm that thousands of families are currently experiencing in the Greater Grand Rapids area. $900 million would eliminate poverty, homelessness, food insecurity and provide plenty of health care funding. Demanding that the Meijer family give $900 million to be distributed to the thousands of families in this area who are experiencing poverty, systemic racism and other forms of structural violence would still leave Hank & Doug Meijer with $12.6 billion, which I’m sure they could still support their families on.
Those with tremendous wealth won’t willingly give up millions or billions of dollars, we must demand that they turn in over to the rest of us. Of course we are talking about a sustained organizing effort, a revolutionary effort that would involve tremendous risks, but if we really wanted to engage in systemic change, then such action needs to happen. I mean, look at how much money members of the Capitalist Class spend on buying and lobbying politicians to make sure that their grotesque amounts of wealth are not fairly taxed. Imagine how resistant they would be to the public demand a redistribution of their wealth. Remember, it’s not really their wealth to begin with, since they made it off of the exploitation of those who do the real work.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 